Normally I just appreciatively read @jamellebouie.net 's columns-sharable video content just isn't my bag. But this is a very, very, very trenchant piece of commentary that captures a lot of how I increasingly understand the disjunction between the commentary environment and on-the-ground politics.
The pundits have completely lost the plot
YouTube video by Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie
youtube.com
Today in @thenation.com: a harrowing piece written from inside the Dilley ICE detention center by Maryam Tahmasebi, a green card holder who's been locked up along with her husband and son for months despite none of them committing any crime. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
One Woman’s Message From the Hell of ICE Detention
My husband, son, and I have been locked up for months—despite being permanent residents with no criminal record. It is an unendurable, unending nightmare.
thenation.com
"The events of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” occur today: August 4, 2026. Like so many dates in science fiction, this one probably seemed far away when it was chosen, but once it was finally upon us, it passed like all days." www.rogerebert.com/mzs/silhouet...
Silhouettes and Warnings: On Reading Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" On the Exact Day When It's Set
The events of Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" occur today: August 4, 2026.
rogerebert.com
Charles Schulz drew a new Peanuts comic every single day for almost 50 years. That is 17,897 individual comic strips. I'm sure, somewhere in that vast archive, you can find an ACTUAL DRAWING that fits whatever you want to say and easily edit in your own speech bubbles instead of using "AI" slop.
I like paper maps & directions b/c I care to know where I am relative to where I’ve come from & HOW I got there & how I‘ll leave. This has me recalling my 80s teenhood, how girls were told it was good to know how to drive stick so we could exit any situation via whatever car we could get keys to.
Rebecca Solnit@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · last mo.I had replied to the below: Paper maps are great. Never run out of juice, let you see the close-up detail and the big picture at the same time (because they're three feet wide, unlike your phone), and the more you use them the more you learn your way around without them, unlike obeying a machine.
What is UP with this specific creepy (Canva? GenAI?) "design" "trend" or "vibe?" Just a template? I feel like I'm seeing it everywhere -- in print and online -- these are just a few examples. Why does it seem creepy to me? (I guess that's a question for ME to answer...)
They gave US zinester Elizabeth Soto *50 fucking years* in prison for publishing a zine that supports an anti-fascism stance. Prosecutors also used her feminism themed zine, and an anti-AI zine as evidence against her. This is unprecedented.
I worked on revising poems while the house was getting worked on. Both are taking a little longer than planned. Rot repair all around. You really never know the full extent of what you're going to find under there until you pull the boards off.
love this Carrie inspired poem today from Hannah Wyatt ! "and what she would have done if they hadn’t all laughed at her, or if her amber hair hadn’t been perfectly swept past her temples..." https://www.havehashad.com/0u9cl
Sometimes I think about Carrie, from Carrie (1976) by Hannah Wyatt
and what she would have done if they hadn’t all laughed at her, or if her amber hair hadn’t been perfectly swept past her temples, her breasts not so tucked in satin (and really, wasn’t her petal-pink…
havehashad.com
"Sexual Orientation • Heterosexual • Homosexual • Okay, so it’s 1999 and The Mummy is in theaters and everyone is falling in love with men and women and eyeliner as thick as the lid of a sarcophagus..." today from Frances Klein! https://www.havehashad.com/lk1uf
I have to say, removing a usurper king's name from a building really is a great way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding.
These Erin Dorney Scrabble Poems are so great and inventive and fun. "These visual poems were conceptualized by hand on a Scrabble board using a standard bag of 100 tiles." and they come with a couple of bonus HAD poems! https://www.havehashad.com/ft5su
"The AFT has also partnered with OpenAI and Anthropic to train teachers on AI. Weingarten told NBC News that despite their collaboration, she views many of the big technology companies as “playing a really negative role in terms of trying to push more tech into schools.”
Tyler Kingkade@tktk.bsky.social · 3mo agoNEW: Randi Weingarten, the head of AFT, the second largest teachers union, is calling for screen time limits and a ban on student-facing AI in elementary schools She told me her thinking evolved in the past few months www.nbcnews.com/news/educati...
Last night, ICE purposefully targeted medic, pacifist & veteran Adam Marshall, an organizer with Eyes on ICE, while he was trying to help protestors at Delaney Hall who had been gassed three times. They slammed him to the ground and ripped off his gas mask. He was arrested and dumped 10 miles away.
"Today’s poem ... was built to last," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1521. Read "You Try to Fix It" by @surlyacres.bsky.social, originally published in RHINO: bit.ly/4fBIJdU Episodes of The Slowdown are published every weekday in your preferred podcast app!
The first of the yellowtails on the first of the lilacs. Both small and new.
Folks should be aware this has been retracted: RETRACTED ARTICLE: The effect of ChatGPT on students’ learning performance, learning perception, and higher-order thinking: insights from a meta-analysis - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications www.nature.com/articles/s41...
“The LMS strips agency from students and teachers and staff alike, forcing them into the template of what the software engineers have coded, into the template of what the LMS companies have decided pedagogy looks like,” writes Audrey Watters.
That Damned LMS Dependency
For the second time in less than a year, a major disruption to the learning management system Canvas has prompted cries (and headlines) that “we can’t do school!” In the fall of 2025, an Amazon Web S...
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com
I think I've reached a tipping point with my pinning of e-mails. I shouldn't have to scroll down SO FAR to reach the end of the "pinned" emails. My metaphorical corkboard has too many papers "tacked" to it. I broke the metaphor. Now I'm just stacking. Piling. I don't deserve cute thumbtack icons.
We're at war to reopen a strait that was open until we went to war Masterful gambit, sir!
Been a minute since I had a villanelle out there. Here's a one, in the latest South 85 Journal. Thanks to the folks at the Converse University Low Residency MFA program and Editor Leslie Pietrzyk for putting together a great issue. www.south85journal.com/both-things/
They shot Alex Pretti ten times while he was face down in the street.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4mo agoLeavitt: "Nobody is recent years has faced more bullets and violence than President Trump. This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators -- yes -- by elected members of the Democrat Party, and even some in the media."
Exploring the human dimensions of space exploration: the (In)hospitable Space Conference approaches! Details on keynote speakers + conference excursion were recently updated, and our registration deadline is April 24. Will you join us from May 25-27? www.cmu.edu/dietrich/eng...
(In)hospitable Space Conference - Department of English - Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences - Carnegie Mellon University
An interdisciplinary conference cooperatively organized by representatives from Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of English and partner organizations.
cmu.edu
4/29/26 at 7pm ET on Zoom we’re launching this fabulous issue into the stratosphere with 1-minute readings by Issue 12 contributors. Register here: washcoll.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
This photo should be on the front page of every single newspaper in America today.
It's not hyperbole in the least to say Musk purchased a six-month shadow presidency for $280 million and used the power of that shadow presidency to 1. Steal the government’s data, 2. Permanently damage the state’s ability to regulate his businesses, and 3, kill non-white people.
David Roberts@volts.wtf · 4mo agoStill feel like "Musk and his crew of incels destroyed a bunch of stuff they didn't understand and thereby hastened the deaths of millions of children" did not get the public attention it warranted.
Fisherman. We're blowing up fishing boats.
Scott Horton@robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 4mo agoA group of Ecuadorian fishermen survived a US drone strike, were detained at gunpoint, phones wiped, ship blown up, disappeared to El Salvador, then released without charge. “They knew we were fishermen. Even the Salvadorian authorities said things had been handled very badly.”
“Take a moment to think before you dive in. That’s the best advice for Google Photos users, as the company confirms its latest update can scan all your photos to “use actual images of you and your loved ones” in AI image generation.” www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...
Google Starts Scanning All Your Photos As New Update Goes Live
Google wants its AI to see all the photos of "you and your loved ones." Billions of users must now decide.
forbes.com
