WRITERS: Q: Does anyone use ellipsus.com for their writing - not specifically Substack posts, although you could definitely do things with that in this product, as well as notes. I’ve been using it for a while now, and it’s really a pretty cool little package. 1/3

Ellipsus | Collaborative writing software

Write, edit, and collaborate on any device. Ellipsus is a principled alternative to Google Docs—built for writers, by writers. Sign up for free.

ellipsus.com

Chaperoning a preschool trip to the aquarium and one of the other dads who is vaguely familiar with what I do comes up to me and goes “man I sure hope we get some Nuremberg-style trials at the end of all this”

It’s wild we’re all pretending he’s not clearly sundowning. This is what death’s door looks like, people!

April Wolfe@aprilwolfe.bsky.social · 5d ago

I'm not even being facetious. It seems like these meetings are the only way to keep him engaged and functioning. The man is seriously unwell, and much of the media pretends this is not the case while he superglues more Hobby Lobby gold to the Oval Office walls.

I’m terrified of the direction the party seems to be moving: to be as anti-DSA candidates as it’s possible to be. Newsom seems likes he wants to position himself as the “reasonable center” who won’t “Mamdani the whole country up” á la Clinton in ‘92

Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social · 5d ago

This fucking guy.

This is the wrong framing here. 1st term, Trump was surrounded by fairly normal, conservative republicans who severely moderated his basest instincts. Now he is surrounded by sycophants and has completely captured the party, which frees him to embrace rank racism and nationalism.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 5d ago

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com President Trump’s “willingness to operate on his own gut and on what he thinks is reality, I would say, is much sharper this term,” Maggie Haberman says on “The Ezra Klein Show.”

Mm-hm, mm-hm, a classic left-wing candidate with a well known Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest which he only got covered (not removed) after he started his campaign for Senate AND we found out about it. Classic lefty stuff. If you got fooled by that tool, that’s on you.

Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · 5d ago

Guys, Platner was the left-wing candidate in Maine. The weird attempt to retcon this away is really irritating.

I don’t, yet, except my Tolkien shelves, which are arranged by Age for Legendarium works, title for other Tolkien works, and author and title for scholarly works.

Immigrant Punk@porcupunk.eurosky.social · last wk.

Enough of the horrors and doom scrolling. Let's talk about something fun. How do you arrange your books?

BIG DEAL on voting rights this morning: Governor Spanberger just restored the voting rights of some 60,000+ Virginians. Her move reverses Youngkin's abrupt decision in 2023 to end automatic voting rights restoration, which brought Virginia back to a system of default lifetime disenfranchisement.

Virginia Governor Restores Voting Rights for Thousands With Past Felony Convictions - Bolts

This is the only state that, absent action by the governor, bans people convicted of any felony from voting for life. Virginians have an opportunity to end that system for good in November.

boltsmag.org

next up: Common

Rich Raho@richraho.bsky.social · 5d ago

Pope Leo received singer and songwriter Patti Smith in private audience this morning. The Pope and Smith are both Chicago natives. She was accompanied by @antoniospadaro.bsky.social, undersecretary for the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education.

100% as always. This could be a real breaking point for the Democratic Party. The established Dems have picked a side (collaborationism) and are desperate to expel the left wing to shore up and concentrate their power.

Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · 6d ago

i think el-sayed winning the michigan senate primary will permanently break the brains that were being held together by string since mamdani

For a brief moment, there was Congressional and governmental support to ensure that children didn't face deportation alone. Then the Trump administration moved to gut the programs, and tens of thousands of kids who have lawyers now may lose them, while hundreds of thousands more go without counsel.

America's Voice@americasvoice.bsky.social · 6d ago

"Nonprofits representing more than 24,000 unaccompanied migrant kids said they’re at risk of shuttering their programs once a federal government contract ends Friday... Immigration judges issued removal orders for more than 18,000 kids in June, a 73% increase from January"

Love to find a perfect description of the current media crisis in a book from...2004

With highly-pathogenic avian influenza now in NZ, we're taking steps to protect #kakapo and #takahe by vaccinating against the disease, following a successful trial. We're aiming for ~90 kākāpō and 100 takahē in an initial phase to protect the most valuable birds/sites. #conservation #birds

97 downloads so far :-) scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftol...

Film you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.

Matrix Neo: Keanu Reeves' Bullet-Time Dodge

Alt: Neo doing the bullet dodge in The Matrix

static.klipy.com

Ken Meyerson@portablerockart.bsky.social · 7d ago

Film you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.

Policy advocacy by the deed: if someone stood up a platform that specialized in generating photorealistic AI videos of Donald Trump getting the living shit beat out of him, it would break the Internet on day 1, and an AI regulatory bill would be on the floor of Congress day 2.

Apes of the State and AJJ are, and I mean this, fucking awesome. The. Best. This cannot be overstated.

Evan Greer@evangreer.bsky.social · last wk.

So many awesome artists have signed our pledge to boycott venues that use AI surveillance in the last week! Don't see your fave band? Send this to them! Recent signers: AJJ Apes of the State Dame Fai Laci Judy Chicago Jolie Holland Juan Alderete Pedro the Lion SOJI Veronica Swift Xiu Xiu +++

No. Seriously, no. As a fandom, we’ve let a lot of seriously weird, fundamental “errors” and deviations from this show, but now… This is really, really, deeply bad. And if you think I’m talking about balrogs talking, honey, that’s the part I’m *for*

Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof@evanbernick.bsky.social · last wk.

”wouldn’t it be cool if—“ “agreed, let’s do it” “Um, guys? This doesn’t—“ “Too late” www.ign.com/articles/sau...

Angling for a nomination, I see… He’ll have to get in line behind Bove, of course, but if Stephen Miller is legitimately mad enough about the birthright citizenship case, and seeing how close, expanding the Court to 11 to include *both* those monsters…?

Lawrence Hurley@lawrencehurley.bsky.social · last wk.

Ho, pre-Trump, wrote an article embracing the broad, long-accepted reading of the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause. Now: "So the Supreme Court should have upheld the President's birthright citizenship order in full based on his invasion declaration."

On this 72nd anniversary of the publication of The Fellowship of the Ring, a reminder that there's still lots of active work on and contributions to be make to our Tolkien Books Database: books.digitaltolkien.com

You don’t want hands free driving, you want trains. You want trains you want trains you want TRAINS

“Don’t worry! In the way that Republicans became a worse party by embracing nativism, racism, and fascism we pledge to never become a better party by embracing the fundamental concept of human dignity!”

Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com · last wk.

Uhhh www.axios.com/newsletters/...

Speaking to Nick Fuentes in any capacity in public (seriously, even to yell at him that he’s bad!) should be immediately disqualifying. So should speaking to him in private. Don’t talk to Nick Fuentes; he is a Nazi.

Mr. Beat@iammrbeat.bsky.social · last wk.

You lose my respect if you platform fascists. There is no "middle ground" between fascism and representative democracy. That's literally the biggest lesson of World War Two. It's naive to think that platforming fascists "exposes" them. It only legitimizes them to certain folks.

Good job, Civilization: you just medical-advancemented so hard you looped back around to going to the barber to get your teeth pulled. Any hospital that uses this should be immediately charged with recess endangerment.

Tales From The Future@talesftf.bsky.social · last wk.

After a decade of fake FSD promises: Musk is claiming that “Optimus will beat top surgeons in 3 years”. Can’t stop, won’t stop. $TSLA $TSLAQ “Elon Musk calls medical school 'pointless,' says robots will beat any surgeon in 3 years — telling students to walk away” finance.yahoo.com/sectors/heal...

It's been nine years since the last release of pyuca (because it did everything I needed) but now I've done a big modernization, currently in a PR if anyone wants to check it out before I release it as 2.0 github.com/jtauber/pyuca

GitHub - jtauber/pyuca: a Python implementation of the Unicode Collation Algorithm

a Python implementation of the Unicode Collation Algorithm - jtauber/pyuca

github.com

Because he’s exceptionally cute, extremely endearing and charming, and a pretty good actor? Doesn’t feel like this needs a whole article to get to the bottom of…

The Economist@economist.com · last wk.

Tom Holland is starring in two summer blockbusters this year. His films have grossed almost $12bn to date: more than those of any other actor aged 30 or under. Why? bit.ly/4yJ6M1L Photo: Supplied by LMK

Iran seeing that we are in a desperate position, not having enough munitions to carry on attacking them, is definitively Iran winning the war and our losing it.

Aron Lund@aronlund.bsky.social · last wk.

Following the U.S. decision to halt attacks on Iran, after “Trump’s advisers told him they were running out of targets and expressed worries about depleting the U.S. arsenal,” Iran tells @reuters.com it will reciprocate. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

Without saying your age, what is your favorite movie from the year you turned 18?

Helm'S Deep King Theodin

Alt: King Theoden standing at the wall of Helm’s Deep preparing for the attack, saying, “So it begins”

static.klipy.com

Danielle Gembala@ddmgembala.bsky.social · last wk.

Without saying your age, what is your favorite movie from the year you turned 18

Gilbert Gottfried We might as well have some fun with it…

Nanoraptor@nanoraptor.danamania.com · 2w ago

You suddenly get a narrator describing your life and there’s no way to turn it off - everyone can hear it. While shopping, at work, at home, with friends - the voice narrating your every move goes on. Who do you hope is the voice of this narrator?