Mary Shurtz
@punkichu.bsky.social
Cranky millennial progressive woman. Things aren't going great.
This is the short story I read as a kid that taught me the power of the short story format. Happy "There Will Come Soft Rains" to all that celebrate
Aaron Meyers@aaronmeyers.bsky.social · yesterday"Today is August 4, 2026" There Will Come Soft Rains By: Ray Bradbury
This is an incredibly well-articulated against LLMs that doesn't use a single trope against AI, just lays it out within the author'a area of expertise, which is far more persuasive.
berserk du soleil@aetataureate.bsky.social · 4d agoHank Green should not use LLMs in his work. Working scientists have specific use cases for LLMs, but science communicators like Hank and I do not. They add more vulnerability than value in our field. I laid out some history and background to walk you through the reasons why.
Such a powerful reflection on a topic I am so passionate about www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o...
Opinion | Trump's Smithsonian Attacks Are Attacks on America’s Future (Gift Article)
This is how we decide who we are and who we want to be.
nytimes.com
Things I and friends have done to calm an angry abusive man from further escalating and killing us or our children: -Smiled -Kept normal schedules in order not to trigger a fight -Appeased with kind acts (cooking, cleaning, favors) -Forced friendly tones and words
The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 3d agoRep. Max Miller: "My former wife has claimed that during a custody exchange at my home that day, I assaulted her…If I had assaulted her, would she have offered to cook me dinner six days later?"
It is so frustrating to watch them actively rip out the load bearing walls, foundations, and keystones while loudly proclaiming that the house is collapsing and they are the only ones who can save it.
Casablanca Humphrey Bogart
ALT: Casablanca Humphrey Bogart
static.klipy.com
derek guy@dieworkwear.bsky.social · 7d agoDespite all the accusations of crimes and cover-ups, the Trump admin has never actually prosecuted or jailed anyone. The supposed stolen 2020 election, Jan 6 deep state, Dr Fauci, etc. All of its is just theater for the base, revving them up. In the end, will undermine faith in gov and institutions.
You may find it irritating that I get hung up on narrow hypotheticals or whatever but they’re an effective way of showing the MAGAfication of our own discourse, where uncontroversial and heavily-researched conclusions have started consistently losing out to “shut up about numbers, you rich dork.”
The choice of still says such volumes of what this page editor thinks of Platner's top strategist 🧑🍳😘
Real America is sick of movies with no trans people in them, ignore them at your peril Hollyweird
DiscussingFilm@discussingfilm.net · 2w ago‘THE ODYSSEY’ is now tracking to pass $1 billion worldwide in its box office run. It is expected to become Christopher Nolan's highest grossing film ever.
Ian Bremmer remains the most embarrasing graduate of Tulane poli-sci. "Effects don't have causes" man if you want Musk's money that nadly just say it.
My room temp and correct take on tipping is that if you make a comfortable living you tip servers always and you tip them well because who the fuck do you think you are
The fact that VP JD Vance and Richard Grenell went to Romania—on behalf of the Trump Administration— to advocate for Andrew and Tristan Tate, who by all accounts, were rapists running a coercive sex ring, then permitted them to come to Florida, should be a crazy, crazy scandal.
With all due respect, I'm not sure someone who only spent a few years as an assistant professor of environmental studies at Bates College before leaving academia to work for the Contrarian Hot Takes Industry *really* has his finger on the pulse of what's currently going on in the Humanities.
Brendan Nyhan@brendannyhan.bsky.social · 3w agoAll can be true: 1. Universities have been targeted by a decades-long bad faith campaign 2. Status quo is vastly more normal than craziest stuff on Fox/social media, esp. outside elite schools 3. Parts of academia are in rough shape Despite 1 & 2, we can and should address 3.
For reals, after a childhood of watching 10 Commandments on Easter weekend everything is clicking together like crazy
Just like COVID revealed that the zombie movie trope of the person who gets bit and hides it from everyone turned out to be more of a real kind of person than you might've guessed, the golden idol worshippers in sword and sandal Bible epics also turn out to be pretty on the nose.
Abraham Lincoln to Joshua F. Speed, 24 Aug 1855
Graham Platner's collapse is an indictment of what Twitter has done to people's brains, and a major W for this platform and the general idea of "not spending time in Elon Musk's sandbox" slate.com/technology/2...
Graham Platner Was the Perfect Twitter Candidate
Social media transformed his campaign into a political mirage.
slate.com
Alex Kirshner@alexkirshner.com · 3w agoBluesky I have a special treat coming for you in a few minutes. You're going to come up for it like a dolphin jumping to catch some food at Sea World
It is amazing how much of the dramatic politics of the past 2 years, in many countries, have been caused by populations and leaders mistaking the temporary anomalies of the post-pandemic restarting of the world economy -- a burst of inflation, an immigration-reopening spike -- for permanent features
Absolutely sickening. ICE must be abolished.
Adam Keiper@adamkeiper.com · 4w ago"ICE’s response after this shooting has been the same as its response to each ICE-related killing during Trump 2.0: to claim its personnel acted responsibly, and not to wait for an investigation before casting blame on the dead."👇
Our media will of course learn no lessons from this, but the initial ICE narrative about the two murders it committed here in Minneapolis was 100% false, slanderously depicting the victims as aggressors attempting to kill federal agents. Literally zero reason to believe ICE here. Zilch. None.
Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · 4w agoICE says agent shot and killed Houston driver, FBI investigating
Honestly didn't know Gore could go this hard. Between this and the booing at Davos ... I think he has more sauce than I had gauged before.
@darren32359.bsky.social · 4w ago
Reminder: we are war crime-ing Cuba right now because Trump and Rubio want to collapse their government. Not a major part of the media discourse but it should be.
The Associated Press@apnews.com · 4w agoAn island-wide blackout hit Cuba as fuel reserves dwindle and its electric grid continues to crumble.
I work with kids like this, they’re just kids! Normal children! They want to play games and learn math and talk to their friends. The idea that this video is supposed to be scary or shocking because they’re wearing something that white kids don’t usually wear is beyond comprehension to me
::reads the Declaration of Independence:: Wow this shit goes hard. I want to live in that country.
Hi hello I was going to do a full thread on the Great American State Fair later but it seems I'm starting early: why in the fuck are PragerU, Patriot Academy, and other far right groups the ENTIRETY of the Department of Education booth
Not true. In their list of grievances, the Founding Fathers complained that King George III was blocking colonial laws that would promote immigration and make it easier for foreign settlers to become citizens.
Happy Fourth and happy 250th. I find myself re-reading FDR’s third inaugural address often these days. www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/th...
James Forten heard the 1st public reading of the Declaration of Independence in 1776; he participated in the American Revolution & fought for its ideals long after the war. A skilled entrepreneur & ardent abolitionist, his wife & daughters founded the 1st interracial antislavery society for women.
This was the patriotic message I needed for this Fourth
derek guy@dieworkwear.bsky.social · last mo.Justice Brown Jackson's argument for birthright citizenship is very moving. I recommend reading it in full. An excerpt with alt-text below. “The Reconstruction Amendments were an anticaste, antisubordination reset for the Nation, not a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery.” — KBJ
![Still, most freed Blacks resisted the pressure to self-deport. Instead, many started organizing toward the creation of the kind of Nation the colonizationists opposed—one that guaranteed liberty and justice for all. In the decades leading up to the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, Black Americans organized and gathered at more than 600 local and national conventions across the country. There, delegates erected the political and intellectual scaffolding for the Fourteenth Amendment and, later, for the Black Civil Rights Movement more generally.
Critically for present purposes, these visionaries already understood themselves to be American citizens. “The refrains ‘we are Americans’ and ‘we are citizens’ echoed in conferences throughout the North.” Moreover, “[b]irthright figured importantly” as “delegates frequently characterized their status as that of native-born citizens.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ks3gpa6ftoyaq7hmf6c4qx4c/bafkreieuwdbxpjo22e7fg26a65dobwofwaytq6ilqp4cy7bcicw5fsk63a)
This isn't hard, anyone can do it, you just have to want to
Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · last mo.The correct statement for Dems to give is this: It is a relief that the Court reaffirmed the foundational principle that anyone born in America is unquestionably American. But the close split on this simple constitutional question reveals a body corrupted beyond repair by authoritarian bullying.
I am stunned that the constitutional question was so close. I thought it would be 6–3 or 7–2. It is profoundly disturbing that four justices would allow either the president or Congress to rewrite the plain text of the 14th Amendment. This is obviously a good outcome, but the margin is alarming.