Librarian, scientist (seabirds for LIFE), dancer, community theater performer
910 followers 3,760 following 1,824 posts
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The next elected president (we don’t count Vance, who’s going to get an accidental term) is going to be an influencer. Take your pick, America. You can have Ms. Rachel (D) or Mr. Beast (R). Either will be absolutely bizarre for different reasons, but those are our options in the post-Trump world.
The right-wing fascist ascendancy is a global phenomenon, and hopping across borders does not mean you can actually hide from it. You may find a slightly better local maximum for your particular needs, but this is a global problem and it requires a global, solidaric solution.
Watching episode 1 of Put A Fucking MASK On GodDAMNit: Earth. Fun so far!
want to point out that trans people have existed for centuries and basic human rights for us only barely eked in over last few years, so "fast" sure is a wild take.
People desperately need to read up on what these diseases did to people, especially children, before widespread vaccinations were available, because I fear we're going to learn those lessons in the most tragic way possible.
A reminder that "But what if people on YOUR side are on the Epstein list?" is a bullshit argument, EVERYONE who was raping children needs to get into the bin right now, that's the deal here and it ain't exactly complicated
“The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences. California, Oregon, and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk,” the governors said in a joint prepared statement.
Look at these good ideas lying around!
Your occasional reminder that the positive effects of UBI have been tested and validated hundreds of times more often than the murderous Musk robotaxis or LLM’s we’re rushing to put into our schools and streets.
Just… endlessly, distressingly evergreen.
Current state of UK political discourse.
Not gonna lie, it’s a little worrying that he thinks asking a common sense thing like asking to fill in a financial question mark would cause a negative reaction??? Unless of course his own hair care is un budgeted. Although that worry could be to attract clicks and engagement.
Fully support the plan, but I worry that “I’m not wealthy yet” indicates he’s involved in some NFT scam or something. But then, the financial planning is a lot of points in his favor, so maybe I’m being overly critical.
This is the best thing I've read on the phenomenon. Telling that these trend stories are almost always told from the POV of the parents. www.issendai.com/psychology/e...
Pritzker: "I refuse to pretend that any of this is normal ... I refuse to fall into the pundit trap that demands we sacrifice vital constitutional rights if it's being done in the fake guise of fighting crime."
The rise of manga literally SAVED the US comics industry. Have you ever bought a graphic novel from a book store? US publishers translating and importing manga made that possible. Every book publisher that’s been using (English language) GNs to keep themselves afloat owes a debt to Japanese comics.
It’s not just that the President of the United States posted a video of eleven people being murdered in international waters it’s that the President of the United States ordered the murder of eleven people in international waters so he could post a video of it.
about 10 years ago or so I said on Twitter that if you really love movies you should try to own everything you can physically and I got yelled at about it for like three days straight because people were very very normal about it
for the love of fucking christ get your pets vaccinated, rabies may be one of the shittiest ways of dying you can possibly imagine
Apparently we’re now making rabies great again. Having lived for a decade where contracting rabies was an actual daily concern, I can tell you it’s a terrifying disease from which, once symptomatic, there is no cure. Seeing lots of screenshots, so tracked down the actual story link:
I'm totally okay with the America he envisions disappearing. I was, in fact, supposed to be gone already. That was very much the point of 1861-1877, and I'm not thrilled that we very much did not actually get the job done then.
your kid is autistic because YOU are autistic. your kid is *ALIVE* because of vaccines
SERIOUSLY. There are so many corporate and political forces acting against it. We are going to have to fight for every inch of progress, and championing wasteful, inefficient technology is not going to get us closer to that goal.
Every single convention organizer, publisher, art director, project manager, etc. who's even once entertained the thought of using genAI imagery or LLM generated text at any stage should be paying *full* attention to how popular DragonCon is becoming for enforcing their "no genAI" policies.
In my long tradition of watching things way after everyone else, I finally watched Rebel Ridge. What a fabulous actor, what a timely and tense story.
the way the cult is going to dissolve 18 seconds after JD Vance opens his mouth. I, for one, love he’s one of the youngest VPs ever, because he will actually live long enough to see his entire legacy reviled by, like, three whole generations of humanity.
i met anubis in the realm of the underworld, big strong guy by the way, had a dog’s head, i’m not so sure about that. and he said to me, mr president, you’ve got the heaviest soul we’ve ever weighed down here. can you believe it? they’ve never seen a soul that heavy in all of duat
Honestly, Im cool with never being hired by Marvel. Fuck this shit and fuck him for saying it.
How many higher-ups did the writers have to tie up to get that headline out, you think?
A few Holocaust museums have holograms of survivors made by recording hundreds of hours of interviews with them. Visitors can ask the hologram questions and I believe an AI program will match the question with a segment of the pre-recorded interviews. This is not like that.
I'm probably never going to be hired by Marvel again due to pointing this out, but anything produced by AI is stolen work. It is utilizing existing art without credit or payment. Google is scraping the hard work of creative professionals and remixing it.
This is how you handle someone who tries to sell AI slop at a con: remove them, and then clown on them relentlessly
Does it count if I chose never to use Substack? If so, I chose Buttondown when I launched mine-- on political hope and building just futures now. buttondown.com/LinaSrivastava
A great thread of options for newsletters:
Hi did you move your newsletter away from substack? drop it in the replies so people can find you and subscribe! I am big on rewarding good choices
To gauge how it’s “working,” one would have to be clear on what the actual work is, which is not helping to educate children but rather to imbed these systems in a way that they cannot be removed, establish them as a source of truth, and destabilize labor.
I refuse to listen to the podcast, but yeah, it’s all bullshit.
A reply from one of my college friends when I posted an anti-AI thing. Drives me bananas when people try to justify it with “welp, it’s not going away!” 🙃
Americans Astronomers watching watching US politics Betelgeuse 🤝 “It could happen at any time”
I think this is important because we’re seeing history rewritten in real time. I watched our local school board meetings at the time and parents were concerned about reopening in Fall 2020 —the push to keep schools closed was not some government overreach.
President Trump says he want to enter heaven. As a Catholic priest, I take that seriously. www.americamagazine.org/faithinfocus...
This ‘blue states closed schools too long’ narrative is becoming increasingly entrenched in the Polite Center but it’s arguable at best. Republican states had far more deaths during COVID and their students have roughly comparable learning loss.
I love the smell of consequences in the morning. Thank you, @dragoncon.org
Discworld QOTD, from Men at Arms
Labor Day is the perfect day to write thank you notes to your vet, vet techs, and vet office receptionists! Also follow and support @ufw.bsky.social, the agricultural workers who feed all of us!
Hey guys, quick poll: Like and repost this if you think Gen AI sucks and should be destroyed. Comment “I’m a dipshit that hates my planet” if you think Gen AI is good.
If you’ve ever compared unvaccinated kids to vaccinated kids, you’ve seen the former are more likely to die.
![Genocide justification is the claim that a genocide is morally excusable/defensible, necessary, and/or sanctioned by law.[1] Genocide justification differs from genocide denial, which is an attempt to reject the occurrence of genocide. Perpetrators often claim that genocide victims presented a serious threat, justifying their actions by stating it was legitimate self-defense of a nation or state. According to modern international criminal law, there can be no excuse for genocide.[2][3] Genocide is often camouflaged as military activity against combatants, and the distinction between denial and justification is often blurred.[4]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:j76trmiofvaxxpvx2vnb2vwf/bafkreia4twc2qbwkmn3ozstknikbeo5xx56elnzdkycdjkzfkwehmvk4jq@jpeg "Click to view full size")
RFK is once again actually talking about autism instead of vaccination, and affirming his desire to torture and murder autistic people. Let's see if neurotypicals are able to notice this.
“Ok, so I can’t make jewelry, but I’m great at disarming an alarm system and smashing glass cases”
📌 Substack has a Nazi problem, and if you are not a Nazi, you need to find a escape hatch in a hurry. It may not be easy, it may also cost you in the short term, but leaving will tell your audience that you are NOT a Nazi. Staying says the opposite.
If you are, like me, generally opposed to how Large Language Models are being positioned and used (and not regulated currently) one very simple thing you could do is to stop using the term “AI” to describe them. When you do, you’re buying into the linguistic and conceptual framework of your enemies.
Rappers would have their whole careers ended for stealing lines or biting someone’s style once upon a time.
John Oliver fact-checks Kennedy. PSA- everything coming out of the HHS needs to be fact-checked. Anyone can spout numbers. Here he goes again, as usual. MAHA math ain't mathin'. 🧪 www.youtube.com/shorts/JPzXG...
WE HAVE THREE YEARS TO PICK A CANDIDATE THAT DOESN’T SUCK. This is the time for people to be loud about what they want and don’t want in one. Start thinning the herd before the real money gets spent.
The entire fascist plot relies on us being terrified and sad. This is why they’re constantly trying to scare everyone with theatrics. They want you to see him as unstoppable and not as a 79-year-old with severe health problems who will die soon.
I would give so many things for a decent, ubiquitous train system in the US.
I don't get how people don't realize that a technology that replaces junior and entry level positions in a field destroys that field. There's no skipping steps. You have to be a junior before you can be a senior, and if you don't have senior people, you don't have a field.
This is scary as hell, but for news coverage? This is a GIFT. "You can be banned for *buying* Game of Thrones." Send emails to journalists and news sites and communities you're a part of and talk about the dangers here. People are going to care about this a lot more when it's not just creators.
Okay. I just came back to this and you aren’t calling these efforts resegregation yet, you absolutely should be
the thing that was terrifying to them about FDR wasn't so much the policies themselves (which were, of course, far short of socialism or communism) but that they were incredibly popular and lead to electoral dominance until FDR's death (and even somewhat after)
A Maine ballot measure in November would place a barrage of news restrictions on mail voting. In 2024, 61 percent of Mainers over 65 who voted did so by mail.
Ok but hear me out, what if we taxed the fuck out of really rich people
As our neighbors vanish daily, this serves as a meaningful way to honor them and highlight the extent of this issue throughout the city’s
Liberals getting excited about Gavin Newsome feels like a person who keeps settling for shitty boyfriends. Like girl, you can do better for yourself - stop thinking you can’t do better. There is a guy out there for you. Look, your bestie New York City found a great guy and she’s had so many bad exs.
Why do you appreciate unions? I’ll start: Weekends off Paid vacations Work breaks Sick leave Paid holidays No child labor Safer working conditions Health care and retirement benefits
Ewan, my darling, stfu
"She did not die defending the Constitution. She died trying to overturn it. She was not protecting lives at a gate in Iraq; she was forcing her way through windows in the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power." New from @markhertling.bsky.social:
Good night 🌙 and….
Not sure whose fault it is primarily that most people don't seem to know that the president is basically a manager whose job is to carry out the will of Congress, and not The Country's Boss
Do they have editorial meetings where they plan out how to pretend Trump has more power than he actually has in an attempt to manifest that into being, or do they just do it by instinct, misleading readers because they’ve fully internalized the idea that distorting reality is how to be “unbiased”?
the extent to which even established authors with a great deal of respect and institutional protection have remained totally silent on Palestine has really turned my stomach
You'd think journalists would brag about something like, "We stood with Palestine early, when it was wildly unpopular, because we knew it was right." But nope! In 2025 you earn kudos by bragging about how nice you were to each other while you abandoned any pretense of having moral values.
I’ve spent two weeks thinking carefully about this, and I’m going to do my best to explain the theory of change for RFK’s removal, as I see it. That includes where impeachment fits, what to ask from House vs Senate, etc.
All I know is when he dies, anyone tries “don’t speak ill of the dead” is getting punted into the sun. I’m gonna speak so ill of that dead it’ll make Satan blush.
Broken record territory rapidly approaching, but once again: Homelessness is not a societal inevitability. It's a policy failure. This is a solvable issue with a known solution, even under capitalism, because that solution is less expensive than the current responses. We just don't want to do it.
🚨 “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, once regarded as the nation’s premier agency against illness, is now damaged beyond repair, according to one of its most prominent departing leaders. “We may be past the point of no return,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis warned”
FYI, Carina/Harlequin authors, they didn't register my copyrights. Make sure they registered yours.
Don’t forget its other function of being the false veneer of plausible deniability when companies do shady shit. It is the most obvious and harmful grift of our times.
Here is my main opinion on AI, in every capacity: What is the point of technology? Is it to make our lives better and easier, or is it to make a very small percentage of people richer? The latter is what AI is doing. The people actually doing the coding are making themselves redundant.
The Mesa Gateway Airport is operating a secret detention facility. The facility is meant to hold people for 12-hours. Records show one man was held for 42-days. This is on top of the Avelo deportation flights operating out of Mesa Gateway. Boycott this place into the fucking ground.
I know you're tired of hearing it I am tired of saying it But please, if you care AT ALL about queer or adult content, make the calls. Keep the pressure up
Southern middle of North Carolina; English; meow
Can't imagine what our ancestors -- who saw children go through agony of measles, diphtheria, pertussis and many other diseases -- would think about people who could spare their kids that danger, and choose not to.
only so many words you can put in a headline but the whole response is loud and proud support for the trans community and worth reading
One guy helped a bunch of people stranded on a roof by hiding the black people inside so the helicopter only saw the white people. Helicopters had been passing them by for hours. But when he did that, a helicopter came 15 minutes later.
Join your local mutual aid group. Don’t have one? Start one!
Hey, hey! Ho, ho! The national guard has got to go! Hey hey! Ho ho! These federal troops have got to go! Let’s get loud DC! #FreeDC
Y’all, that was SUPERB, if devastating. Every single actor, *muah.* How am I gonna a) wait for season 3 to release, and b) wait for episodes week-to-week???? #InterviewWithTheVampire @iwtvwriters.bsky.social
This kind of pressure on libraries - especially in schools - is being exerted around the world, including in the UK. Support your local libraries and let them know how grateful you are when they include a properly diverse range of reading material.
yo this guy is cooking
In one of the debates in New York mayor's race, Mamdani (and Lander) both praised Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. She has been one of the most passionate voices defending cities and urban life as Trump trashes them. And she's stayed popular in way Brandon Johnson has not. newrepublic.com/article/1997...
It's Friday! Your assignment this weekend: Hang out in a bookstore or library. Spend time with the books. Chat with the booksellers & librarians. Enjoy the community. This is activism. Your presence energizes these spaces & these spaces need energy. Have a great weekend!
Every school and university who has spent extortionate amounts of money on LLM technology should be asked what kind of risk assessments they made and why they decided to enthusiastically adopt the technology despite this huge risk to their students.
White River National Forest former supervisor says he retired after having to fire 16 employees After leaving his longtime role at the country’s most visited national forest, Scott Fitzwilliams says he is witnessing a “deliberate dismantling” of public lands.
I think Americans have this idea that other authoritarian states aren’t also absurd and fragile and incompetent displays of power, but that’s a feature not a bug.
It seems the reason he has this unethical arrangement is because he doesn’t want to vest his stock options yet. He could’ve have just maybe stayed at Tesla instead of serving in a role he was grossly unqualified for (Yes I know the qualities they wanted was loyalty and willingness to destroy)
If you’re new to the fight, please don’t be afraid to get involved! A lot of the ppl fighting since Day 1 need reinforcements or backup