Erica Watson
@rickirobin.bsky.social
Writer, reader, knitter, sometimes organizer. Student of climate & shifting seasons. Contentedly discontent. Ghosts of Distant Trees, Porphyry Press 2025 Denali National Park, AK. Part of my heart lives in the desert. she/her ericarobinwatson.com
I'd like a fuller understanding of what's known/speculated abt the AK Dem "backroom deals"/pressure campaigns ppl here talk abt. Like, I believe it's real, but I find that when i talk to offline folks, I can't present any receipts, & i'm like "ppl are saying..." Articles/expertise/docs welcome.
I know that ranting about usps is very 2019 but I have been trying to get my niblings’ bday presents to them in CO on time for 6 years & turns out that not even $77 postage can get a package to leave Alaska in a reasonable amount of time. I tried EVERYTHING with this one.
Ranked choice voting in a state where the pols are afraid to embrace its benefits & possibilities and instead reduce our choices like we are still in a traditional binary system means disappointment and disengagement for voters who want something new and different from party politics-as-usual. 😞
Land defenders are asking for you to join them. Folks on the ground in Lochiel, AZ / La Noria, MX have halted construction at the site of a 200 year old Cottonwood tree, yet construction resumed this morning just a few hundred yards from the last standing Cottonwood tree.
It’s a video: setting up my table at the Sandhill Crane Festival book fair this morning. I took no other photos but I had a very nice time
Alex Samaras (he/him)@bioalex.bsky.social · 2w agoNo cheating, share the last photo of the sky in your camera roll. Cloudy skies near Nenana, #Alaska today as I was cycling down the Parks Highway.
I’ve been on so many social media platforms & found joy & frustrations in all of them but sometimes I log into goodreads & am reminded that maybe it’s not good for us to know the mediocre reading habits of some random hookup from 20 years ago
Fairbanks folks, I’ll be hanging out at the Sandhill Crane Festival book fair Sunday - come say hi!
“for some future reader in some future almost- free almost-democracy while our nation bends to men who want & want & take & take, who banish ghosts because they know they’d never survive ghosts like ours.” -Mai-Linh Hong #sealeychallenge
So I didn’t vote JKT, but something that feels v relevant going fwd is that it absolutely doesn’t fly to try to tell a bunch of real ppl who have had good convos & exchanges w him in recent mos that his campaign is all outside AI $. Multiple things are true. He’s has a good ground game. That’s real
But then I had to bike back real quick to check something and brought my dog and he may have peed on the sign
This is the 1st time our precinct has a scanner, rather than hand-counting ballots. It's also my 1st election as a normal poll worker after being chair for 13 yrs. It's weird to just...be done with my shift now, & not gathering to count at 8. I was ready to share the chair role, but I miss counting
Erica Watson@rickirobin.bsky.social · 2w agoPhew, what a journey
“But I can’t help but be cynical about the requirement to campaign as a Real Alaskan, knowing that it’s rooted in the idea of the frontier.” 💯 www.northernjournal.com/alaska-polit...
Alaska politicians sport beards and bear-hunting bona fides to claim authenticity. But those tropes originated Outside.
The ‘Real Alaskan’ is cheap repackaging of what one historian describes as hunter-heroes, Kaitlin Jade Armstrong writes in an opinion piece.
northernjournal.com
Omg, this tiny scarf start I’m making at the request of my nibling is the most difficult thing I’ve knit in YEARS. Giving myself an aneurysm tonight. Thanks kid 😭 (It’s Stephen West’s icelandscape scarflet. The kid is high fashion so I can’t f it up. But I am) #knitsky
That one wistful walrus... Starstangen, Prins Karls Forland, Svalbard, July 27, 2026
“Every empire promises a revolution against itself. The children are tasked with designing the future, growing walls of hydroponic greens, rebranding old protest anthems. Every empire denies the iceberg it crashes into, hires a chorus, funds the arts.” #sealeychallenge 🔥
Devastating news for Arctic environmental monitoring today: NOAA pulls support for the Arctic Report Card, effective immediately. #Arctic #Climate
Zack Colman@zcolman.bsky.social · 3w agoSCOOP: Trump is ending federal support for NOAA's Arctic Report Card, a major annual update shedding light on the effect climate change has on the Arctic. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026...
Senate seat O has 3 candidates so the primary is just an expensive poll, but House 30 has 5 candidates and I think all 4 Rs have vocal and measurable support. Alexander is pushing the PFD theft, Holmes has the libertarian curmudgeon angle, and Massie is starring in Sullivan's anti-fentanyl ads.
What can Mat-su folks tell me abt the Dems on the primary ballot for #akleg (Senate O (Bauer), & House 30 (Loomis))? It makes no sense to be part of this district & candidates don't tend to know we are (except for when mccabe blames my neighborhood for ruining AK lol)& i've heard nothing from them
“AI Overview offers the seductive promise that the messy, effortful, contestable business of finding things out—comparing sources, noticing bias, tolerating ambiguity, occasionally being wrong and having to revise your view—can be replaced by a single, confident, algorithmically fluent paragraph.”
What Was the Internet?
As AI overtakes the web, five writers reflect on how far it’s fallen and what comes next.
bostonreview.net
A supporter of Rep. Nick Begich III gets in the face—which is putting what he’s doing lightly—of local Democratic state candidate Peter Bauer after a closed-door rally with Speaker Mike Johnson. #akelect
Thanks to those who've reached out about RAISED BY FERNS author Maya Jewell Zeller's safety. She lives in an area endangered by the Spokane Complex fires; they were evacuated on Sat. under imminent threat and taken in by poet Laura Read. So far their home is intact, unlike those of so many others.
My Native middle-grade horror book—which melds environmental protection and ocean horror—is out now!!!! The Sinking House is good for ages 8-12. Read its Kirkus review here: www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...
Ongoing crisis in Northwest Arctic Borough. Outstanding reporting from Desiree Hagen at KOTZ, Kotzebue: "Ambler, a Northwest Arctic community of about 270 people, has been without water or sewer for more than five months." #Alaska #AlaskaSky @napaaqtuk.bsky.social www.kotz.org/kotz-local-n...
Ambler has gone 5 months without water and sewer. Fixes could take months.
According to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, about 85 percent of Ambler's main water lines are cracked, unable to hold pressure, and require replacement.
kotz.org
slow day at the yarn store, I’ll do this 📚
Sir Almaviva@ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 4w agoOk, I'll do this. 1 like, 1 answer.
I've read most of the books on @tressiemcphd.bsky.social's proposed reading list and plan to read the rest. These are excellent recommendations. In fact, @gilduran.com (author of The Nerd Reich) will be a guest on Movement Memos soon.
Opinion | Want to Fight Back Against Big Tech? Start Here. (Gift Article)
A.I. is a political theory. And it is gobbling up our democracy.
nytimes.com