NEW: Haley Stevens retires, citing a desire to spend more time with Israel in her dreams

I'm angry at people who've been able to artistically express the futility of human existence better than me, which is in itself an apropos act of meta-futility

It's funny to look back at the rhetoric of our previous wars, now that the total bullshit nature of it is so obvious. Here's Laura Bush in 2004 saying "I want the women of Iraq to know how much American women stand with them." I bet Laura's still standing with them today.

I'm angry at people who've been able to artistically express the futility of human existence better than me, which is in itself an apropos act of meta-futility

One of the kindest, most generous people I've ever met — someone who made my life better in concrete ways — also told me that Michael Jackson was a freemason who they assassinated because he was trying to leave the organization

At the height of the Covid pandemic I was living across the street from a New York City hospital. It was impossible to sleep because there were ambulances arriving all night long. Fuck RFK Jr. and his vile lies. bsky.app/profile/luck...

Dr. Lucky Tran@luckytran.com · 3d ago

I worked for New York’s largest medical center at the start of the pandemic. There were morgue trucks on the streets. They set up emergency medical tents in Central Park. Healthcare worker colleagues died. It is horrific that RFK Jr is on national TV lying that ICUs were empty.

I worked for New York’s largest medical center at the start of the pandemic. There were morgue trucks on the streets. They set up emergency medical tents in Central Park. Healthcare worker colleagues died. It is horrific that RFK Jr is on national TV lying that ICUs were empty.

Last year the NYT reported on how SEAL Team Six stormed into North Korea, accidentally murdered a bunch of fishermen, punctured their lungs so their bodies would sink & then stormed out. Trump is now trying to force one reporter to reveal his sources: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/u...

Justice Dept. Subpoenas Times Freelancer in Effort to Identify Sources (Gift Article)

A previously undisclosed subpoena, involving reporting on a failed SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea, reflects the government’s expanding campaign to investigate leaks of secrets.

nytimes.com

In 1984, George Orwell writes about how "All rulers in all ages have tried to impose a false view of the world upon their followers," but these lies & delusion eventually run aground on war, where "Physical facts could not be ignored." Anyway, just thinking about this now for no reason.

One good thing about getting older is you understand how people stood by and let all of history's catastrophes just sort of happen

In an imaginary world in which there was a genuine left, it would focus on this pressure point — shipping of arms — in the international death machine bsky.app/profile/sara...

Sarah Lazare@sarahlazare.bsky.social · 5d ago

Dockworkers unions in six countries are calling for a big escalation on Oct 30 to protest war and militarization. They're urging strikes, protests, refusal to handle arms, demanding an end to US-Israeli war on Iran, genocide of Palestinians. They're urging dockworkers around the world to take part.

Dockworkers unions in six countries are calling for a big escalation on Oct 30 to protest war and militarization. They're urging strikes, protests, refusal to handle arms, demanding an end to US-Israeli war on Iran, genocide of Palestinians. They're urging dockworkers around the world to take part.

Dockworkers Unions in Six Countries Announce Day of Strikes and Protests Against War and Genocide - Workday Magazine

This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and In These Times. Dockworkers unions in France, Greece, Basque Country, Turkey, Morocco, and Italy are calling an international day of action ...

workdaymagazine.org

♫ birds do it / bees do it / even educated fleas do it / let's do it / let's die thanks to pesticides' contamination of the food chain ♫

Recall that Trump told oil executives in an April 2024 speech at Mar-a-Lago that they should give him $1 billion because if he was elected president again he was going to make them so much money

siri, how do I monetize having tons of dumb opinions

caffeine, alcohol, nicotine: the three drugs that cause revolutions

In every country at almost every time, the most dangerous enemy of regular people is the elites running their country. It's amazing how easily everyone's persuaded that their enemy is people across the world who'll never do anything to them.

This is true if by "they" you mean quadrillions of SARS-CoV-2 viruses. I'm still mad at them

"If there is a question to ask, then, it is this: Why does Musk get a pass? Why do politicians, journalists and commentators treat his far-right racist radicalism as a sideshow rather than the core of his political, ideological and industrial project..." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...

Opinion | Elon Musk Is a Menace to Society (Gift Article)

Why does the owner of X get a pass for what he says and does there?

nytimes.com

"Judeo-Christian" is a funny example of propaganda. It barely appeared in the English language until the establishment of the tight US-Israel alliance after the 1967 War. If the US ever ditches Israel, you can be sure "Judeo-Christian" will wither away.

I don't know how you look at everything Trump's been doing to mess with the election and think anything other than that he's trying to rig it. But whether he will succeed is a different matter, as Bob Kuttner reports. prospect.org/2026/07/28/t...

Yes, Trump Will Attempt a Coup - The American Prospect

If we are vigilant, he won’t pull it off.

prospect.org

say what you will about AI, always-on voice recording and auto dictation has been a game changer for my workflows. Save post and close app. Yeah Footlong meatball sub on white. No veggies. Don't toast it. Ranch and barbecue sauce. Yeah, ranch and bargecue sauce. More. More. Little more please

Founding Father John Jay famously believed "those who own the country ought to govern it." That perspective has never actually gone out of style at the top of society.

This is a funny & worthy successor to Woodrow Wilson's fretting after World War I about rumors that a "negress" had been inspired by Bolshevism to ask for more than the usual amount of money to do the laundry for a friend of a friend of his

Farewell to Lindsey Graham. I like to imagine he was using the royal we here and turned out to be right on the money:

still waiting to hear what this was all about

In other circumstances it would be joyful to see SpaceX's share price plummet like this. But given the company sold $75 billion in stock at $135/share in its IPO, at $111/share they've pocketed $13 billion in value & the further it falls the more the company's made.

I realize it's "politically incorrect" to say this and I risk getting canceled, but I oppose contagious cancer www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/s...

Deep in This Lake, a Contagious Cancer Is Spreading (Gift Article)

Transmissible tumors have been reported in a handful of animal species, but never before among fish. Is it possible in humans?

nytimes.com

Some personal news: All shall love me and despair