Chat is it decadent to be working out to feel better in my body as opposed to working out to get better at fighting people and carrying heavy things Like I feel great these days but I’m no better for an apocalypse compound than I was six weeks ago (useless)

We don’t talk enough about Ray Bradbury beyond Fahrenheit 451 so consider this a Ray Bradbury Appreciation Day post

Adam Rawnsley@arawnsley.bsky.social · yesterday

Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.

This is what I mean when quote post stuff w/ “belief: still today’s issue.” The vast majority of true things you are going to know about reality you are going to know by believing the testimony of someone else. Consequently, “critical thinking” almost always means “evaluating credibility.”

Julian Sanchez@normative.bsky.social · 2d ago

Millions of people have an absolutely insane concept of “critical thinking” that means “making a fully independent judgment on complex questions you are, if you’re at all honest with yourself, comically incompetent to evaluate & demand years of specialized training.”

On Friday I literally had to flee my own apartment in order to finish a draft. I got 75 minutes in the library and then had to schlep a handful of blocks to a bookstore that was holding a poetry reading. Still FAR superior working environment to Kitten Zone.

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist@nameshiv.bsky.social · 3d ago

in my next contract I am going to have them put a clause that I cannot deliver on deadlines unless they agree to board this !@#$ cat who is literally standing on my keyboard deleting my sentences because he wants attention and not book progress

I’m shutting down replies AND QTs on this bc a gajillion people telling me I’m wrong is NOT going to make me reconsider; I will hear out a sustained case from someone I trust, but those people know how to reach me: Dylan. Feh. I love Guthrie. I love Springsteen. That’s a direct genealogical line.

lil miss big boy@lighter.bsky.social · 5d ago

Post your hottest music take. Mine is New Order is better than Joy Division.

OH FOR THE LOVE OF PETE

Sheryl Weikal says Prosecute ICE@leftistlawyer.com · 5d ago

A GOP Congressman, Griffith Morgan (Virginia), has introduced a bill to strip people in Guam, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and every other US non-state territory of their birthright citizenship. www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

I remember seeing someone (very reasonably) complaining here a few days ago that there seems to be next to no visible thinking on left and center about how to join the dots on administration and democracy. This is the beginnings of an answer to that complaint donmoynihan.substack.com/p/rebuilding...

Rebuilding Democracy Requires Rebalancing Power

What does a power-shifting agenda look like?

donmoynihan.substack.com

Okay. If I’m 15 percent of the way through A Confederacy of Dunces, and more than 15 percent of the way to permanently damaging my eyes from rolling them so frequently, should I give up? Or does it get more pleasant or insightful?

“‘Should I keep paying my mortgage?’ Haitian families confront impossible choices around #TPS. As Haitian TPS nears an end, families are asking who will care for their children, whether to sell their homes and whether they can survive what comes next.” haitiantimes.com/2026/07/27/h...

'Should I keep paying my mortgage?' Haitian families confront impossible choices around TPS

Many Haitian TPS holders are beginning to grapple with the potential domino effects of TPS ending, including financial, family and mental health impact due to job loss and potential detention or depor...

haitiantimes.com

The postmodernists were right but mostly it wasn’t Foucault it was Baudrillard, part eleventy-six

Shipwreck@shipwreck75.bsky.social · 2w ago

FFS 🤦‍♂️ The Pentagon removed the names of 4 servicemembers who died in Jordan from their official list of casualties. They explain that this is because "their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a cease-fire in the war in April." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/u...

There aren’t nearly enough people with my first name for me not to be stricken with ABSOLUTE MORTAL TERROR seeing a post going around that starts “Fucking hell, Dara”

NEW via @alejacorazonhm.bsky.social: Leaders in the Assemblies of God — DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin’s own denomination — say pastors with religious visas were detained and “pressured” with separation from their children if they didn’t sign voluntary departure papers religionnews.com/2026/07/24/p...

Detained pastor couple had religious worker visas, Assemblies of God leaders say

(RNS) — Pastor Nepthali Zozaya Saucedo, 36, said he and his wife, who came to the U.S. legally, were repeatedly pressured to sign voluntary departure papers but that they had refused.

religionnews.com

I have looked over my Saturday and have concluded that genuinely my most pressing obligation is to read some of these library books before my loans expire.

Beginning to become convinced this (re Catch-22) is right, with the caveat that I’m not sure any novel that isn’t on some level about race should be in the conversation.

Slartibartfast@slarti-bartfast.bsky.social · 2w ago

If there is such a thing as the Great American Novel, I would say that's it.

DC it’s still nice out, go for a walk, smile at your neighbors

wow, who would have thought: www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

Substance found in Salgado's van was not drugs, DA Sean Teare's office says

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said she had confirmation that a substance found in Lorenzo Salgado's van was an electrolyte mix.

houstonchronicle.com

"The short answer: No one who can stop agents from getting people killed wants to. When the federal government won’t hold its own employees accountable, there’s little anybody else can do to fill the gap." — @daralind.bsky.social for @documentedny.bsky.social documentedny.com/2026/07/24/i...

The Throughline: Why So Many ICE Traffic Stops Are Turning Deadly

Recent deaths during ICE traffic stops are raising questions about the legal limits of pulling someone over.

documentedny.com

I did not need to change any habits to avoid iceberg lettuce but CILANTRO IS ANOTHER THING ENTIRELY

paris martineau@paris.nyc · 2w ago

New: State health officials say parsley and cilantro appear to be linked to surging cyclospora cases in North Carolina The disclosure comes as the FDA says it’s investigating a new outbreak linked to an unidentified source. Unclear if the two are related www.consumerreports.org/health/food-...

If it’s an obscure, never-used-until-now, recently weaponized provision in law, you can BET it’s from 1996!

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 2w ago

One relic of the Clinton-era crackdown on migrants is 8 USC 1623, which reads as follows. There are serious preemption challenges to the statute and some states have deliberately worded their laws to get around it, but the DOJ is emboldened by a recent victory at the 5th Circuit.

How many points in the Gregorian calendar could generate the sentence “This book takes as its ostensible subject (year X), thoroughly filtered through the society of (year X+10), and could not have come out and caught fire any earlier than it did in (year X+20)”? The mid-20c really was magic.

If you read Catch-22 before you moved out of your parents’ home and you haven’t read it since, my goodness do you owe it to yourself. It’s so much funnier and it hurts so much more.

not just armchair strategists. The combined metaphorical firepower I have seen in rooms debating the word choice that unlocks the Konami Code!!

Ariel Edwards-Levy@aedwardslevy.bsky.social · 2w ago

tech obsessives armchair strategists 🤝 if we only find the secret Correct Messaging, the populace will be powerless to resist agreeing with our aims

Personally my idea of supporting DC’s small businesses, local economy, and underserved residents is LETTING US GOVERN OURSELVES, but ymmv. Guarantee you DC small biz has an easier time getting the ear of City Council than Congress. Members of Congress don’t treat us as constituents, only subjects.

Martin Austermuhle@maustermuhle.bsky.social · 2w ago

In a statement, DoorDash tells me that the council passed the "arbitrary" new fee without holding any hearings. "We have always supported home rule for D.C.," says the company. "But will continue to defend D.C.'s small businesses, local economy, and underserved residents."

This might not be anything — I know approximately nothing about pro wrestling, to be clear!! — but maybe people who do could weigh in: is it meaningful that “heel turn” has kind of made it into common parlance but “face turn” has not? Would it lend anything to convos about coalitions or repentance?

I am reliably informed that people who know more than I do are more freaked out about this than I am.

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2w ago

The ChatGPT maker said the ‘agent’ escaped a testing environment, gained internet access, stole login credentials and hacked into the start-up Hugging Face by itself, in one of the first public examples of a cyber attack by an AI system acting outside human control. www.ft.com/content/9db7...?

My latest, @ms.now, on ICE agent Brouillette, the murder of Durán Guerrero in Maine, and the breakdown in vetting at ICE. In any context, bad vetting is bad. But for ICE, it is likely DISTINCTLY bad, bc recruiting challenges means it is likely attracting those unqualified for regular police jobs.

Opinion | The latest ICE shooting exposes its agents’ scandalous lack of training

John Pfaff: The killing of Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine highlights the outrageous lack of vetting and proper training for ICE agents.

ms.now

The Trump admin's latest strategy to mass generate removal orders is diabolical: - Take a huge group of people with hearings scheduled in late 2026, 2027, or 2028. - Send them a physical letter rescheduling all of their cases to next week. - Those who inevitably miss court get ordered deported.

Deportation Orders Soar in NYC as Trump 'Mega Master' Hearings Accelerate

A new report finds removal orders for people who missed hearings more than doubled in New York City in June, as a new tactic of hastily scheduled court dates rolled out.

thecityreporter.nyc

“If the Muppets can play this halftime show, the Muppets can play any halftime show. And if they can play any halftime show, then they can play the Super Bowl halftime show. There are no holes in this logic.” type-click-type.ghost.io/muppets-supe...

The Three-Part Case For Letting The Muppets Play The Super Bowl Halftime Show

Put Statler and Waldorf in one of the luxury boxes, too.

type-click-type.ghost.io

Nate Schenkkan@nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 2w ago

I don't know @anjalikdayal.bsky.social but this is I think for you

I just saw a meme that said “get in losers, we’re reclaiming the emdash”. People. PEOPLE. Where are your STANDARDS? It CLEARLY should be “get in, losers — we’re reclaiming the em dash.”

I don’t remember if I’ve evangelized this recipe yet this summer, but in addition to being delicious and a good way to use up a few summer squash it is just a crystal-clear tutorial on making a proper risotto. cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017...

Lemon Risotto with Summer Squash (Published 2015)

cooking.nytimes.com