Cynthia Ragona

Nice work Rhode Island and @conormcdonough.com for the footage!

Wishing I could have been there. Great perspective on this image!

Winner of mRNA Nobel Prize says ACIP member’s claim that Covid vaccines persist is “absolutely impossible” In a Q&A with STAT, Nobel winner Drew Weissman addressed concerns raised about Covid shots at a recent meeting of federal vaccine advisers.

www.statnews.com/2025/09/20/d...

Shocked by Epstein’s birthday book? That culture was everywhere before feminism | Rebecca Solnit Feminism exposed the ubiquity of child abuse, rape, sexual harassment and domestic violence – and helped fight that culture

I wrote a thing. As someone who survived the 1970s and kept the receipts.

Firing and demoralizing feminized jobs as enemies of the state while brazenly bribing men with violent jobs that almost instantly puts them into the middle of middle class is very basic gendered warfare. Fulfilling the manosphere’s promise.

What is the Freedom to Read Act recently signed into law in R.I.? - The Boston Globe “In Rhode Island, we see censorship for what it is: a way to limit what we can learn about the world – and about each other," said Governor Dan McKee.

What is the Freedom to Read Act recently signed into law in R.I.?

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/13/m...

The newspaper that told the truth about Watergate and the Pentagon Papers will now “communicate with optimism about this country” in its time of rising fascism

Gov. McKee signs Freedom to Read Act into law • Rhode Island Current Rhode Island joined at least eight other blue states that have taken steps against school library censorship after Gov. Dan McKee signed the Freedom to Read Act into law Wednesday.

Proud of my state and all those who worked to get the Freedom to Read bill made law. rhodeislandcurrent.com/briefs/gov-m... Gov. McKee signs Freedom to Read Act into law • Rhode Island Current

The result will be chaos for this Nation’s public schools. Requiring schools to provide advance notice and the chance to opt out of every lesson plan or story time that might implicate a parent’s religious beliefs will impose impossible administrative burdens on schools. The harm will not be borne by educators alone: Children will suffer too. Classroom disruptions and absences may well inflict long-lasting harm on students’ learning and development. Worse yet, the majority closes its eyes to the inevitable chilling effects of its ruling. Many school districts, and particularly the most resource strapped, cannot afford to engage in costly litigation over opt-out rights or to divert resources to tracking and managing student absences. Schools may instead censor their curricula, stripping material that risks generating religious objections. The Court’s ruling, in effect, thus hands a subset of parents the right to veto curricular choices long left to locally elected school boards. Because I cannot countenance the Court’s contortion of our precedent and the untold harms that will follow, I dissent.

Sotomayor, in dissent, correctly says that today's decision in Mahmoud will lead public schools to simply censor books featuring LGBTQ characters and themes, creating "chaos" and stigmatizing children with LGBTQ families. This decision will lead to book bans.
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Although Alito frames the remedy here as "notice and opt-out," the reality is that school districts cannot manage such a sweeping opt-out system. They are far more likely to simply pull books with LGBTQ characters off classroom shelves altogether rather than face a ruinous, high-profile lawsuit.

OLC Raises Alarm Over State Budget Cuts and Provision Segregating Materials The Ohio Library Council (OLC), representing Ohio’s 251 public library systems, is sounding the alarm over provisions in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026-2027 state budget (House Bill 96) that threaten both ...

Call to Action for Ohio! A provision in House Bill 96 requires libraries to segregate materials related to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, guaranteeing they are not visible to anyone under 18. Demand the Governor veto it.

It feels so good to see a W.

Right-Wing "See You at the Library" Event Back in 2025; Partners with US Department of Education The now-annual event promoting "Pro-God," "Pro-America" books and beliefs will take place August 16. Here's what it is and how to prepare your library.

Brave Books's right-wing "See You at the Library" event is back–coming to public libraries August 16–and this year, they claim they're partnering with the Department of Education.

Everything you need to know to prepare: bookriot.com/see-you-at-t...

I settle for having one window open to the Denali puppy cam at all times.

R.I. House passes ‘Freedom to Read Act’ aimed at library ‘censorship’ - The Boston Globe Representative Morales said the bill is needed because R.I. has had 25 attempts to censor books, but Representative Roberts said it would help ‘promote perversion.’

After a contentious debate, the Rhode Island House of Representatives passed the “Freedom to Read Act,” aiming to combat “censorship” of library materials and to protect librarians.

Excellent book! Have recommended it within the last month, although I read it years ago.

In Trump’s America, wealthy criminals are pardoned, poor innocents are arrested While ICE patrols court houses for law-abiding immigrants, Trump's friends get a free pass.

My latest — I wrote about Trump pardoning reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley’s tax and bank fraud convictions after their daughter praised him at the RNC vs. 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes da Silva’s wrongful ICE detainment, and how justice has merely become a presidential transaction.

Read here:

Trump and his crew are nuts It’s time to stop rationalizing the craziness

open.substack.com/pub/contrari... important to acknowledge these people are fucking nuts

Some good news in the news.

Opinion | George Saunders: Shame on the White House

"In the real world, the world of cause and effect, when we tear down the best among us and provide bogus reasons for why we did it, reality will eventually come for us."

Monday's lesson: Don't mess with librarians. Ultimately, though, the question with Trump's effort to take over the Library of Congress could come down to whether Congress says, "Don't mess with Congress."

NEW: Monday's lesson: Don't mess with librarians.

Ultimately, though, Trump's effort to take over the Library of Congress could come down to whether Congress says, "Don't mess with Congress."

This morning, at Law Dork:

Beyond disappointing. Our state's only landfill is nearing capacity. When it's full, we all will pay handsomely to ship our garbage out of state. Even if you don't care about the environment (which you should), the cost should drive food waste diversion as a priority. #foodwaste #EPA #compost

This Is How You Interview a Government Official Michel Martin's relentless questioning of Troy Edgar revealed there may be no evidence behind the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil.

More of this, please.

This Is How You Interview a Government Official www.readtpa.com/p/this-is-ho...

Well, I’m a lawyer, so let me give it a shot.

What an amazing lineup! Don’t miss the opportunity to see so many fantastic authors reading and discussing their work.

A handwritten note saying "This is not somewhere else but here, our country moving closer to its own trust and dread, its own ways of making people disappear. From What Kind of Times Are These by Adrienne Rich"

Great Poetry Reading Day seems as good a reason as any to remind everyone that when we lose the freedom to books, we lose the freedom to so much more.

Support RI's Freedom to Read Act! #FreedomToRead #PassRIFreedomToReadIn2025 @aabbri.bsky.social @davidmoralesri.bsky.social

Something Good in the World: Let’s Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day This Weekend I was going to write something else for today’s column, something complain-y but righteous that would allow me to get some stuff off my chest and maybe even get some rage clicks. Shit is bad. But I…

I needed to write about something that’s giving me hope, so I wrote about Independent Bookstore Day which is this Saturday. lithub.com/something-go...

👇🏽🎯

‘Something playful’: celebrating the art of endpapers in children’s books New exhibition in Amherst, Massachusetts, looks at the unsung art that exists on the pages that bookend much-loved kids books

It's always good to see some coverage of the world of #kidlit in the "mainstream media."

As you may know, there's an exhibit at the Eric Carle about endpapers, called "Open + Shut."

And the Guardian has covered it.

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Saying there is no due process for those you allege have broken the law is exactly a “cart before the horse” problem.