Agreed. Every U.S. citizen should read it!
...and you have shut yourself into a room to read Kafka for the first time, your parents and your little sister should stop knocking on the door because you are turning into something else, something they will never understand.
from the essay Literature Without Literature by Christian Lorentzen
Early in Trump’s first term, we began cataloguing the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We have continued this chore during his second term. Here is what he and his admin did in January 2026.
NJ lawmakers introduce the FUCK ICE Act.
The bill "permits civil action for violations of US Constitution related to immigration enforcement."
👀The federal judges in West Virginia, where ICE has been pulling over and detaining people on the freeway, are literally screaming about ICE's tactics.
"It is an assault on the constitutional order," Judge Goodwin says. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoS3...
When I walked out into the snowy night afterward I did not know what planet I was on. Thank god for music #jonsi
I want to laugh at it but sadly it’s true.
I'm going to use this quote for Ink Society, the local writing group I facilitate.
New from me: It is not just that the US is experiencing democratic backsliding. Authoritarianism has emerged more quickly than in other benchmark countries.
This graph from John Burn-Murdoch sums it up. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/autocracy-...
We've updated our running catalogue of Trump 2.0's cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes. The total now stands at 637 since he returned to office.
A year and a day ago:
My 3-yr-old grandson Asher put a pea in his nose this morning at pre-school. His brother Rand, a Kindergartener, about the same time, licked a steel flagpole at school. We live in the U.P. of MI so the teachers had to use some water to free him. Both are fine and, hopefully, a little wiser.
...and again to work, finish the hand, the grasping hand atop the box of nothing, entropic box filled with everything we become, even the dust of the body's leavings swept away by time's disinterested breath;...
Kathe Koja in Skin
I love baking too. Is that Cuban Bread?
Hundreds of thousands of people, dead because of a decision made by the world's richest man
No it’s important to listen to this. Because then you understand that many of them will do ANYTHING to keep power. Remember Musk got involved in the 2024 election after saying to Tucker “if she wins” I am definitely going to prison.
So we need to move knowing that nothing is off the table for them.
"You don’t need to be 'paid' to become a professional writer. I suggest you adopt a Cartesian view of writing and recognize that through the act of writing, you become a writer. Your parents will not let you starve."
Well, the opening of this opinion made me cry
We’re going to win y’all
Good one.
Create something. Put it in your house or put it in the world. Put it in the garage, if you choose. The act of creation itself has meaning, apart from appreciation or celebration
Trump is up to 364 cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes.
www.mcsweeneys.net/columns/lest...
Michael Peach Author Signing
Saturday Aug 16th, 2025
11:00 AM to 1 PM CST at the Lion's Mouth Bookstore
Stop in to meet regional author Michael Peach & get signed copy of his books: The Adventures of Argyle Sock, Please, Do Not Tap on the Glass, and The Death of Tintagiles Death.
Below are links to an interview I did with BAM, the editor of 42 Stories (squared). A massive, fascinating anthology that has my piece The Sad, Grievous Death of Edgar Allen Poe.
Vlog: youtu.be/PS07aV4FSAs
Blog: bamwrites.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-li...
Short: drive.google.com/file/d/12_jJ...
When Quixote fought the windmill, who won?
from Dark Factory by Kathe Koja
Credit to @mcsweeneys.net for this, sad, regrettable and unfortunate (and maybe triggering) as it is.
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/jun...
I remember an academic friend, who liked nothing, telling me I shouldn't be so ready to praise, but should look for the flaws in any work. I decided this was literary sadism in the service of highmindedness.
William Kennedy in Riding the Yellow Trolley Car
I will be at the Negaunee Public Library author signing event on Tues 7/8/25 from 4-6 p.m. EST. Hope to see you there!
It's good to have the chronology when discussing with people who simply do not pay attention and shrug it all off.
