Forgot to post the Flamecon hall yesterday! I wish I’d grabbed more stuff to be honest. The day just felt short to me this time and I didn’t get to spend the amount of time I wanted pursuing each vendor, but thankfully they’re all listed on the website so I’m gonna check them out online!

Had another great time at @flamecon.bsky.social this year! So many great cosplayers, and I got to meet @megaminyc.bsky.social !

I really can't put this more clearly. If you watch the new Harry Potter series, you are directly funding the genocide of trans people, because that's what Rowling gleefully spends HP revenue on. There's no "death of the author" here, no "there's lots of awful creators." You are funding genocide.

Julia Serano@juliaserano.bsky.social · 6mo ago

if Anita Bryant was still alive and promoting Florida orange juice, you couldn't pay me enough to drink it. how is Harry Potter any different? here is a timeline of JK Rowling's transphobia: web.archive.org/web/20241225... & here is where her HP money is going: www.advocate.com/news/jk-rowl...

I’d be willing to rethink my stance on AI if it wasn’t actively killing our planet, leading to measurable cognitive decline and psychosis, being used to generate revenge porn, plagiarizing the work of millions of writers and artists, threatening to end thousands of jobs, and actually worked.

Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I understand why people are exhausted by AI hype, and why those of us squarely in the corner of "human dignity uber alles" see AI doomerism as self-serving hype, but I *really* think people on the left broadly need to start thinking seriously about the possibiltiy of the hype being...true.

Now that's what I call BUSINESS.

Today I discovered that people have been uploading old stock photo CD-ROMs to the Internet Archive and now I'm obsessed with the mid-'90s business-core aesthetic.

"Rolling Stone, WIRED, Teen Vogue, and your favorite tech blog leading the charge against fascism while your parents' Very Serious Papers of Record dig their own graves" sounds like cringe Millennial fan fiction from the Livejournal of someone whose parents banned them from using Limewire, and yet,

Rob Sheridan@rob-sheridan.com · 2y ago

I've been a fan of Mike/Techdirt for years - he championed a lot of the adaptive stuff we were doing with NIN in the 2000s against the grain of the industry (embracing torrents, Creative Commons, pay-what-you-want albums, etc). Great to see Techdirt firmly meeting the moment. Hopefully more follow.

Now, I’m not from the US, so I don’t know how much of this is even possible, but I’d say it’d be a major failing if any of these 10 Democrats haven’t already been primaried and replaced by someone with a backbone by the midterms in 2026, or at the very least the election in 2028.

Peggy Sue 💙@rockermom.bsky.social · 2y ago

The 10 Democrats who voted to censure Green are Reps. Ami Bera, D-Calif.; Ed Case, D-Hawaii; Jim Costa, D-Calif.; Laura Gillen, D-N.Y.; Jim Himes, D-Conn.; Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.; Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.; and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.

Newsom throwing trans people under the bus while hosting a noted antisemite who defends Nazi salutes, among other disgusting things, is a low point for mainstream Democrats and hopefully the end of this guy's presidential ambitions.

jamelle@jamellebouie.net · 2y ago

the thing about chasing what you think is public opinion is that if and when things turn you will have made a bunch of statements and taken a bunch of stances that you’ll have to disavow. probably a better strategy just to say what you actually believe and stand by it. anyway, this guy sucks.

The next time someone calls a reporter "biased" or an activist — especially someone who is a woman, a person of color, LGBTQ+, an immigrant, and/or disabled — ask them to articulate the difference between bias and expertise: longreads.com/2018/03/29/i...

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Maybe we weren’t meant to wake up and read 20 terrible things immediately.

Meanwhile, they're banning drag shows, scrubbing pronouns from emails, criminalizing consensual adult content, and trying to erase trans people from public life, all in the name of "protecting women and children." This is what fascists do and what they have always done.

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2y ago

The embrace and protection of Andrew Tate at the highest level of US government tells you everything you need to know about this rotten administration. They worship at the altar of abusing women and girls. Their version of morality supports sex trafficking under the guise of camming

Freedom is when the boss tells you what to write and think. bsky.app/profile/maxt...

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 2y ago

New: Jeff Bezos emailed staff at the Washington Post this morning announcing that the Post opinion pages going forward were largely going to focus on defending personal liberties and free markets. Current opinion section editor David Shipley is out.

Please look up the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 to understand that the CDC not selecting strains for next year’s vaccines sets the stage for a public health calamity that will, without doubt and at bare minimum, catastrophically and directly impact people you know. This is a five alarm fire.

This is huge and monstrous. The nasal vaccines are our only hope of getting back to a world where you don't have to fear getting covid indoors. I would like to stop masking some day, and they're going to make it impossible.

Eric Topol@erictopol.bsky.social · 2y ago

The large clinical trial of a new Covid vaccine pill (not shot) was halted by RFK Jr www.aol.com/multimillion... The Covid nasal vaccines may be next up to be axed.

Goddamned woke … farmers?

Nancy Levine Stearns@nancylevinestearns.bsky.social · 2y ago

💥 BREAKING: At John Deere's annual shareholders meeting today, shareholders overwhelmingly rejected an anti-DEI proposal brought by the same group that targeted Costco and Apple. An anti-DEI proposal from the NCPPR received less than 1 percent of votes. Deere shareholders: DEI is in. Bigots are out

LibreOffice is a free, awesome alternative if you are on a Mac or PC (Windows/OS/Linux) and if you’re on iOS or Android then there’s a port called Collabora Office which is also great—I switched a month ago and haven’t looked back

Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com · 2y ago

A version of Microsoft Word with banner ads and surprise video pop-ups that doesn't let you *save files to your computer*. Just the thought of this is painful www.theverge.com/news/618278/...

i really hope my measles vaccine is still doing its thing

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 2y ago

Nearly 100 people across Texas and New Mexico have contracted measles, state officials say, escalating anxiety over the spread of a potentially life-threatening illness that was declared eliminated in the United States more than two decades ago.

If the point of having a society *isn't* to care for each other, to ease suffering and realize each life's potential, literally what is the point? To hoard wealth? To build empires on other people's throats? Life is brief, nothing lasts. Wealth and empires are pointless violence

CYBERBULLY YOUR POLITICIANS LIKE YOU BULLIED SEGA FOR UGLY SONIC

Bisexual Kaiju@bisexualkaiju.myatproto.social · 2y ago

Update: The White House is already backing down on this. Keep calling your reps. Keep pressuring them. Along with your reps, the white house phone number is (202) 456-1111. Use 5calls.org to get all your reps in one place along with a guide. www.nysun.com/article/whit...

I was at a punk show in 83 where a skinhead jumped up on stage and gave a Nazi salute. The bass player hit him with his bass, knocking him into the crowd and 150 people collectively hauled his ass out of the venue and threw him in the mud. This was the right and only appropriate response.

Merien ten Houten@merien.com · 2y ago

If you are at an event where someone on stage gives a Hitler salute and that person is not dragged off by security and kicked out, you are at a Nazi rally.

You gotta practice living in the moment. Because a huge thing that will help these guys untimely win is all of us being an anxious wreck all the time.

when the crowd cheers for the Nazi salute, what you have is a crowd full of Nazis

With alt text

Anne@annejustanne.bsky.social · 2y ago

Think about it 🤔

Ah shit it turns out the problem with conservatism is that conservatives are all evil

This is some serious shit not getting NEARLY enough hate from the supposedly sane half of the country!

altScalesOfJustice@altscalesofjustice.altgov.info · 2y ago

Under Trump’s new EO, Trump personally controls “authoritative interpretations of law” for DOJ, NOT the AG or lawyers. Trump also took direct control of all regulatory actions of formerly independent agencies such as the SEC and the FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...