I cut hair and sometimes make music. Retired music journalist. He/they Toronto https://on.soundcloud.com/z1Wx4
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You guys, so many Romance girlies are reading "On Tyranny" that they've broken the Goodreads recommendations algorithm. 10/10; no notes. #romancelandia
John Lee Hooker with a diagram of the evolution of the Blues.
Hey, anyone who feels so inclined, knock it off with bullshit like this; it really helps nothing. It's important to be outraged by outrages even if the outrage isn't particularly new; doing so isn't naive, and cynicism isn't helpful.
This is it. Overwhelming anti-intellectualism. Everywhere, all the time
My latest, on how concepts like the populist hype and reactionary centrism can help us understand how our media and political system normalises dangerous far right talking points and policies shado-mag.com/articles/opi...
“52% of all autocratization episodes become U-Turns, which increases to 73% when focusing on the last 30 years. The vast majority of U-Turns (90%) lead to restored or even improved levels of democracy” V-Dem data
OMG. Tom Homan was reportedly under FBI investigation for taking $50,000 in cash allegedly in exchange for a commitment to steer government contracts to a specific company. The entire thing was recorded, as it was an FBI sting operation. The Trump admin dropped the investigation entirely.
As usual with this issue, Harris is calling for a compromise that already exists. Every sporting body has standards for how long athletes must be on hormones before they can compete as women. The problem isn’t that we’re ignoring ‘reasonable concerns,’ the problem is that republicans are lying.
It grieves me beyond words to share the sad news that, after some months of suffering from glioblastoma, #JDTwitch of @optimo-espacio.bsky.social has passed. His #Optimo partner JD Wilkes has posted this message on their Instagram account.
Complaining about a cyclists/pedestrians dark clothes that you saw them wearing is poetry.
Our premier is always grifting www.thetrillium.ca/news/politic...
There are so many areas where Canada could go on the offensive and strengthen our economy and society by taking advantage of US self-immolation. This is one. Poaching all of US academia/R&D is another. But they all require an activist, high-capacity state, not an austerity-obsessed government.
This guy could be good for the NDP!
timeline cleanse on this friday. mud wizard taunting stuck cops during a climate protest in germany
HELLO CLEVELAND!! (yes, this COULD have been a lot worse) With alt text:
Hakeem Jeffries voted for Charlie Kirk Day but still isn’t sure if he’ll endorse Zohran Mamdani. This is why the approval rating of the Democratic Party is lower than Trump’s or the GOP.
Credit where due; Sargent has tended to be quite the doom merchant in the second term but this is clear eyed about "deep institutional resistance" and Trumpian weakness. It's important. Of course his replies are like "OH OKAY SO EVERYTHING'S JUST FINE, HUH???"
I hope some newspapers use a crop where you can easily read the sign.
I don’t mind cutting kids’ hair, but my god at there some shitty parents. Put down your phone and pay attention to your children, don’t bully your own kids, and please do not try to make a cappuccino for yourself on our machine without even asking.
Here nor there, weeksa ago we were wondering when did the US have the population Canada does now (41 million). Answer: around 1872. I don't know why I keep thinking about that, but it somehow put things in some (a?) perspective. The US had fought independence & civil wars by that point.
This is funniest possible headline for a song literally called "Song for Bob Dylan"
They just tear-gassed us. They tried to run us over in a van holding a peaceful protester. They shot us with pepper balls. They dragged another protester into the facility.
This has been Toronto’s motto for over 100 years now.
This is the biggest attack on free speech since the McCarthy era but it also has significantly less popular consensus behind it than the second Red Scare. It's being done on behalf of a minority faction led by the most unpopular president in modern history. Organizing against this can win.
Pretty clear illustration of "you may as well stand up for what you believe in, they're coming for you anyway."
My partner refused to believe this wasn’t an anti-Trump prank until we watched the video
this is the kind of thing that makes you feel something needs to be done about the notwithstanding clause
"Mr. Hitler was big on me. He kept writing and inviting me to come to Germany, and if the war hadn't started when it did, I would have gone. I would have taken a gun out of my purse and shot him, because I am the only person who would not have been searched." -Greta Garbo #BOTD Garbo as Mata Hari
If you're an account with like 30,000 followers and an obvious right-wing agitprop account with one follower posts agitprop in your replies, please just block them and don't spread the disinformation with a QT dunk
"grate a pear" is the new "go fuck yourself, nerd"
Brendan Carr should talk to this dude bsky.app/profile/fran...
great news! you're not actually seeing karl rove, john yoo, and david frum criticize the administration's lawlessness more stridently than dem leadership. you, reader, were infected with rabies by a brown bat 36 hours ago and this is all just the virus working its way through your nervous system
it’s very funny to make a distinction between cancel culture and what this is, which is clear government supression of speech. cancel culture isn’t anti first amendment, but this specifically is! which is worse!
I keep getting these Chinese spam voicemails and my phone (service?) somehow interprets it as English and tries to provide a transcription. This one from this morning is almost lyrical in quality:
people will tell you they don't understand gender fluidity then look right at a ship called the Edmund Fitzgerald and call it "her" without missing a beat
A producer told me once she has to warn young crewmembers to avoid being alone with Aykroyd. "Not because he's a creep, he's a gentleman. But if you let him strike up a conversation the next thing we know all the PAs will be huddled in his dressing room learning how humans evolved from dolphins."
This one's maybe a little on the ling side, but trust me, it's worth it. I've cried reading it multiple times. (1/3)
Crucial to distinguish between a) the Right claiming the Kirk murder is akin to the 1933 Reichstag fire (and demanding drastic state repression in response) and b) an actual comparison between the situation in the United States today and Germany in early 1933. A few thoughts on both:
But being raised in a gun-worshipping culture of violence is certainly a big part of why they would see this as a better course of action than going to a protest.
Of course that’s a factor, but it doesn’t explain why hardcore leftists aren’t the ones picking up the guns. And Mangione made a gun, so in his case it wasn’t even about lax gun control laws.
They feel trapped by the system, but lack the vocabulary and context to do anything but lash out with violence. I suspect this dynamic may not be particularly new.
There are a bunch of different reasons why guys like this wouldn’t see activism as a real option: identity, access, lack of faith in its effectiveness, disinterest in the larger political goals and framing. But they suddenly feel oppressed, either by the healthcare system or by bigotry.
Maybe the reason normie apolitical bros are becoming assassins is directly linked to them being apolitical normies? Someone like me is more likely to respond to injustice by going to protests and becoming involved in activism. These dudes don’t see activism as a real option, but violence is.
truly one of the most unintentionally funny things i've ever seen someone post online about themself
“The study found that about 7% of US adults have been present at the scene of a mass shooting in their lifetime, and more than 2% have been injured during one.”
So it’s basically fine if it encourages adults to commit suicide?
if you have a billion dollars you should be legally designated a dragon and any human can adventure against you
The below story reveals Munsch has chosen medically assisted suicide. Here, in 2021, is him talking about the pending end of his life as he loses the ability to take part in life. "The stories will be the last thing to go" www.cbc.ca/radio/thenex...
Getting rid of the time change is the treat, in case that wasn’t clear
I feel like I deserve this, as a treat
I feel like I’m trapped in some global gaslighting experiment.
The standing ovation in Parliament today to honour Charlie Kirk was one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever seen from that building, and I gotta tell you, that list is long
A couple of folks I respect said this is speaking with far too much certainty on this, and I will admit I was very heated when I posted it, so I’ll retract it, and I’m sorry for breaking my general “don’t post angry” rule. Admittedly, almost every shooter has an incoherent ideology at best.
one of the most important technological revolutions in modern history and you're likely not hearing anything about it because it's making the oligarchs who control our information environment poorer instead of richer
seems like a good time to update this particular thread bsky.app/profile/carl...
The media doesn't want you to know that like 92% of Americans died last year from illegal drugs. But we're not going to let them conceal the truth any longer.
Cimbalom on this beautiful evening. 🫶
this is an object lesson in why praising Dems when they do the right thing - and not just castigating them for doing the wrong thing - is good politics for those of us who want them to fight Van Hollen raised his profile by doing the right thing and the lesson he learned was keep fighting
Image descriptions: The famous Cosmo image of a naked Burt Reynolds reclining on a bearskin rug, reinterpreted in Tlingit #formline style on a traditional leaf-bladed canoe paddle. The head of the bearskin Burt's reclining on, fills the point of the paddle blade. This is just too delightful
Massive anti hate crowd in the pits. Small Canada first group is on the run.
Especially since it’s going to accidentally flag a bunch of people on the far-far-right who’ve hated Kirk for years for not being extreme enough. I predict a lot more MAGA vs MAGA violence.
look at the careers they’ve taken from us
I was listening to an old Casey Kasem American Top 40 (I find this soothing these days) from 1985 where he told the story of Wendy Carlos, who scored The Shining and Tron, and her journey to becoming trans. Casey got all the pronouns right and it was presented as a slice of life, feel good story
A friend of mine was on Charlie Kirk's "watch list" of Black professors. She received so many death and rape threats that her university offered her a security detail for the walk to class. This is Kirk's legacy. You would never know it from reading all of these legacy newspaper op-eds about him.
Well the anti racist Christie Pits was the best counterprotest I've been to in a while. First of all, there were like 7.5 lonely nazis to 500 counter protestors, amd secondly, the Toronto police actually arrested one of the far right agitators halfway through.
Christie Pits, Toronto. Best sign of the day.
"On the last episode of his show before he was killed," Kirk told "his audience, falsely, that “one in 22 Black men will be a murderer in their lifetime” and that “by age of 23, half of all Black males have been arrested and not enough of them have been arrested.”
thank u pinterest
batman doesn't realize people can die from blunt force head trauma
Back in late 2017, I was tentatively working on a story for The Atlantic about Comicsgate and the ways publishers weren’t adapting to their tactic of shrieking swarm attacks to get people fired. Which led to — and you will never believe this — a shrieking swarm attack that got me fired
Patient: my baby has a cough Victorian doctor: I have an elixir containing opium, cocaine, cannabis, and ether. Fix it right up Patient: also I have had diarrhea lately Victorian doctor: you're not gonna believe this
I love the people saying someone didn’t deserve to get shot because it implies that some people do indeed deserve to be shot.
honey, what's wrong, you've hardly touched your festive fall gendered butt wipes
in the 23rd century historians are going to need have their Routledge Handbook of 21st-Century Internet Memes, their Cambridge Companion to 4Chan, and their Oxford Guidebook to Computer Gaming Culture handy to make sense of the rise of American fascism and the fall of the United States
I don't carry a gun because there's never been a situation where I thought "damn that would have gone way better if I had shot someone lmao"
Seems obvious to me that they aren’t specifying women, because otherwise they would be excluding pregnant trans men and non-binary people. I am confused by how you think this helps the far right.
Lowering the flags on 9/11 at the Guantanamo Bay McDonald's for Charlie Kirk is the most dril tweet thing that's ever happened
“awful people don’t deserve to be killed, but they don’t deserve to be praised, either” is apparently a thought too complex for the pundit mind
Interesting report on the local gadfly who was arrested and then released after Charlie Kirk was shot. "He holds the distinction of being the first person thrown out by security at the swanky City Creek Center mall..."
after everything they’ve done to us they should be thanking god on their knees fasting that the verb in our big catchphrase rn is ‘tax’
Certainly looks like we scared the President away from Chicago. Fighting like hell works.
#Renewables provided north of 80% of new demand in China last year, according to new research by Ember. In the first half of this year, renewables met all new demand for power in China🇨🇳 and as a result? Fossil fuel use fell 2% from the same time in 2024. 🌞🔌🔋
- you clean up that banksy? - sure did, your honour, leaving a perfect, permanent outline, imbuing the work with real fuckin gravitas while making its point better than the artist did himself just like you asked
“Normal” sex is fine. But I should avoid crazy acrobatic sex for another week or two. Also not allowed to do weightlifting, but I had no intention of taking up that hobby anytime soon
Giving out razor blades and drugs because it’s cheaper than candy.
hate posting about jk rowling but she has devolved into posting a very obviously ai generated video to smear trans people, i think she’s genuinely unwell
My neighbor is a musician. Their favorite song is Been Caught Stealing by Jane's Addiction but so far they only do the dog part.
I am glad to see CBC covering the controversy around the Vancouver Park Board hosting a Harry Potter themed event this winter, but man oh man is the beginning of this paragraph saying the absolute least possible www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Downsides: although they keep telling me I am very young (because most of their patients are much older than me), most of the doctors and technicians look younger than my stepdaughters, which makes me feel old again. Also do not like being upsold on surgery that should be covered better by OHIP
If I were to describe the surgery itself, it was kind of like watching an old abstract art film while mildly stoned. Very quick, no pain. Looking forward to getting the other eye done in October, so that I feel less lopsided. I like that all the doctors and staff keep telling me that I am so young
Got one of my cataracts operated on last week, and now one eye feels like high definition digital video and the other is 1970s film stock. Had to ask the eye doctor today if sex counts as “strenuous physical activity”, which was mildly embarrassing. Surgery was much less unpleasant than I feared.
This is also a valid hypothesis, but I find the image of Doug with a chainsaw going on a rampage more funny, so I am favouring that explanation
Have we considered the possibility that Doug Ford is the one who is stealing and/or destroying all these speed cameras? I mean, the guy once boasted to the press about evading the cops who were tailing his brother and him. He clearly does not care about the law (not to mention his drug dealing days)
We get a barrage of US tourism ads now saying "Canadians, come visit" as if the only reason we aren't going is that we haven't considered they might have restaurants in Philadelphia or hiking trails in New York state. Surreal.
#TheXFiles was first broadcast on this day in 1993
Man whose father and uncle famously died to shooters before home video game consoles were a staple: man, how come there weren't shootings when I was a kid?
In Ontario, criminal vigilantism works and will influence gov't policy. Keep that in mind.
We don't need to accept traffic deaths as inevitable. They're not.