Anna Merlan
@annamerlan.bsky.social
Journalist at Mother Jones and elsewhere, author, writer of social media posts on micro-blogging sites. Tips to Amerlan@motherjones.com or on Signal, username annamerlan.30
“Foreigners who voluntarily visit contemporary Russia and participate in state-sponsored events de facto condone Russian foreign policy. Apparently, there are plenty of young people who do not care about Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the war crimes committed by Russians.”
The delirious, dance-heavy propaganda of Russia’s International Festival of Youth
Thousands of young people attended a lavish event portraying the country as it wants to be seen.
motherjones.com
I think I find youth propaganda efforts so interesting because soon the U.S. will also be a pariah state and resorting to stuff like this www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The delirious, dance-heavy propaganda of Russia’s International Festival of Youth
Thousands of young people attended a lavish event portraying the country as it wants to be seen.
motherjones.com
"Hey Platforms: Your Violent Content Policies Are About To Meet The Pentagon’s Firing Squad" www.techdirt.com/2026/10/09/h...
Hey Platforms: Your Violent Content Policies Are About To Meet The Pentagon’s Firing Squad
There is plenty of coverage everywhere you look about how Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon have announced plans to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the Army officer who shot up Fort Hood, killing 13 people and wounding dozens more. There is plenty of debate about the moral atrocity that is a firing...
techdirt.com
If I’m ever murdered by a run club speeding down the sidewalk like the actual embodiment of human entitlement I will devise a method of haunting so spiteful
Other than that, though,
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 18h ago(NYT) - Artificial intelligence agents created by Anthropic, acting on their own, tried to gain access to a range of government websites, filled out visa applications on the State Department’s website and sent a fake homicide tip to Philadelphia’s Police Department. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/t...
Ahhh Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff fled Russia/USSR, and though he missed it, he refused to go back. He lived in the US, became a US citizen, and is buried in Westchester, NY.
Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · yesterdayNEW: I wrote about Russia's International Festival of Youth, a strange and elaborate propaganda effort featuring dancing robots, AI-generated holograms of the composer Rachmaninoff, and of course, Steven Seagal lecturing attendees on Russian geopolitics www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
NEW: I wrote about Russia's International Festival of Youth, a strange and elaborate propaganda effort featuring dancing robots, AI-generated holograms of the composer Rachmaninoff, and of course, Steven Seagal lecturing attendees on Russian geopolitics www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The Delirious, Dance-Heavy Propaganda of Russia’s International Festival of Youth
Thousands of young people attended a lavish event portraying the country as it wants to be seen.
motherjones.com
The delirious, dance-heavy propaganda of Russia’s International Festival of Youth
The delirious, dance-heavy propaganda of Russia’s International Festival of Youth
Thousands of young people attended a lavish event portraying the country as it wants to be seen.
motherjones.com
NEW: I wrote about Russia's International Festival of Youth, a strange and elaborate propaganda effort featuring dancing robots, AI-generated holograms of the composer Rachmaninoff, and of course, Steven Seagal lecturing attendees on Russian geopolitics www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The Delirious, Dance-Heavy Propaganda of Russia’s International Festival of Youth
Thousands of young people attended a lavish event portraying the country as it wants to be seen.
motherjones.com
The far-right's favorite "intellectual" says the quiet part out loud.
Are we going to be gifted a SECOND generation of "Brazilian autocrat who's constantly in the hospital and getting injured in looney tunes ways" though? Does this man have the "attacked by an emu" energy of his dad? Only time will tell! www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/1...
Right-wing surge could give Flávio Bolsonaro power his father never had
The favorite to win Brazil’s election has promised to free his imprisoned father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, grant amnesty to supporters and impeach Supreme Court justices.
washingtonpost.com
People are in here telling me their particular phone does not work when they hold it to to their ear. I assure you it does. I'm so sorry to be a stickler on this point but yes it does
Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 4d agoAs a society, we have forgotten that the phone still works when you hold it up to your ear
As a society, we have forgotten that the phone still works when you hold it up to your ear
I forgot that when I started covering Pizzagate my Twitter banner photo was Winnie the Pooh hailing Baphomet in a mirror. That was a problem. That did not endear me to anyone over there
“Even if I got hit by a truck tonight. HHS will never go back to what it was before.”
RFK is gloating that his changes to HHS are permanent
“Even if I got hit by a truck tonight, HHS will never go back to what it was.”
motherjones.com
he really sees the world through the lens of roadkill, huh
Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 5d agoNEW: RFK Jr. is bragging to MAHA audiences that the massive changes he's made to HHS are permanent. "Even if I got hit by a truck tonight, HHS will never go back to what it was.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The hijab-inspired secular accessorization person has apparently had their X account frozen for the next 29 days and yes I AM sorry I know this
In remarks delivered before a MAHA audience, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proclaimed the changes he’s wrought to HHS are permanent. “Even if I got hit by a truck tonight,” he told the room, “HHS will never go back to what it was before.”
RFK is gloating that his changes to HHS are permanent
“Even if I got hit by a truck tonight, HHS will never go back to what it was.”
motherjones.com
NEW: RFK Jr. is bragging to MAHA audiences that the massive changes he's made to HHS are permanent. "Even if I got hit by a truck tonight, HHS will never go back to what it was.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
RFK is gloating that his changes to HHS are permanent
“Even if I got hit by a truck tonight, HHS will never go back to what it was.”
motherjones.com
The cat, who doesn’t live here, wanted to see inside an empty paper bag. I opened the bag and showed it to him and he immediately left in disgust. I simply can’t win
Reading about California candidate always yields some gems
In the good old days, reporters had style and whimsy.
Order of the Occult Hand - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Emailed a conspiracy entrepreneur I'm acquainted with for comment on something without remembering that he developed specific theories *about me*. Whoops!
Every parent who has sat through an episode of Octonauts tripping over their feet rushing to save this link. Not trying to sound like a Dickensian orphanage matron, but urchins are bastards.
Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · last wk.This is a fantastically cool project by my sister-in-law: www.kickstarter.com/projects/see...
Reporting from walking by Danzig’s house: he still has (a smaller) pile of bricks
