Joshua Love

As birthrates tumble, some progressives say the left needs to offer ideas and solutions The US and other countries face aging, shrinking populations. Conservatives have shaped debate over the issue. Some liberals say it's time for progressives to weigh in.

leftist plan to increase the birthrate:

- universal health care
- free child care
- better paid family leave
- better workforce protections so they can't lay you off while you're pregnant and be like "no it was for something else i swear"

ok i did it

www.npr.org/2026/01/12/n...

I keep thinking about this particular messaging in this particular moment: "whether Democrats like it or not." - lack of consent, using force to impose your will on people, etc...

This makes my nipples hard.

This glib statement is all the more risible when you recall how many law enforcement officers used their vehicles as weapons against protesters in 2020... and how many Republican-dominated states *sought to legalize killing protesters with vehicles* as a reaction to the demonstrations

This is excellent coverage: it gives readers context beyond the specific incident, showing a pattern of excessive force, and also documents that DHS keeps using the same and increasingly debunked explanations. Much better than both sidesing the shooting.

The amazing notion conservatives have, that racist kidnapping thugs should never feel unsafe for a single moment while they are kidnapping, and if they do decide they feel unsafe they are authorized to murder any of us.

this was also consensus opinion for center-right types after george floyd’s murder five years ago. the state media apparatus will be working overtime the next few weeks to reprogram them

At least we have enough money to abduct gardners and children doe

Screenshot of an Associated Press article headline. Text reads: "New details of Jeffrey Epstein's death and the frantic aftermath revealed in records obtained by AP BY MICHAEL R. SISAK AND MICHAEL BALSAMO Published 12:30 AM EST, June 2, 2023"

Excerpt from an Associated Press article. Text reads: "Nearly four years later, the AP has obtained more than 4,000 pages of documents related to Epstein's death from the federal Bureau of Prisons under the Freedom of Information Act. They include a detailed psychological reconstruction of the events leading to Epstein's suicide, as well as his health history, internal agency reports, emails, memos and other records."

Excerpt from an Associated Press article. Text reads: "The documents also provide a fresh window into Epstein's behavior during his 36 days in jail, including his previously unreported attempt to connect by mail with another high-profile pedophile: Larry Nassar, the U.S. gymnastics team doctor convicted of sexually abusing scores of athletes. Epstein's letter to Nassar was found returned to sender in the jail's mail room weeks after Epstein's death. "It appeared he mailed it out and it was returned back to him," the investigator who found the letter told a prison official by email. "I am not sure if I should open it or should we hand it over to anyone?" The letter itself was not included among the documents turned over to the AP."

Found the Associated Press article where the existence of this letter was first disclosed two years ago, in response to a FOIA request

It's definitely real

apnews.com/article/jeff...

It also makes sense as "a thing inmate pedos do" -- being pen pals, whining that they're unfairly being held accountable, etc

It's definitely real IMO

bsky.app/profile/ashi...

🤢🤮

The Speaker of the House shut the chamber down for two months to block the release of the Epstein Files and the president is huddled in the Situation Room of the White House to formulate a plan to keep them from being released, and I don't know why you crazy libs think there's some kind of cover up.

am I reading correctly that a New York Times reporter complained to Epstein that people think he had scoops about donald trump being a pedophile, Epstein responds by giving him a scoop about donald trump being a pedophile, and then the New York Times reporter said nothing about it for a decade?

yeah it's a good thing Landon didn't publish any of this shit. the Times might have had to bump an article about trans people.

bsky.app/profile/arid...

Landon Thomas Jr of the New York Times got told by Jeffrey Epstein that Trump walked into a glass door bc he was so busy staring at girls in Epstein's house and didn't print it. wild that the Times didn't consider that newsworthy.

One thing is clear, the campaign to threaten and sue networks over their coverage definitely worked

Burt Meyer, Chicago toymaker behind classics like Mouse Trap, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, has died at 99

Burt Meyer, a Chicago toy designer behind classics like Lite-Brite, Mouse Trap, and Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, died Oct. 30 at 99, leaving a joyful, generations-spanning legacy.

My dad sent me this

From The (LGBTQ) Center on Colfax:

Saturday morning, an individual threw a large rock and attempted to shatter three of our front windows. The incident triggered our alarm system, and the person fled before police arrived. Security footage captured video and images of the attack. It was purposeful.

The great success of the 2022 crypto winter was that it wasn't integrated with the banking system, and therefore couldn't cascade across the economy. Nobody thanked Gary Gensler for that recession-preventing move, and nobody will apologize to him when this goes badly.

Okay I’m just going to admit it. I thought the east wing was part of the main building that you always see in pictures of the White House.

There was one in my neighborhood frequently parked in front of a strip club, and I always wondered who it belonged to: club owner, bouncer, dancer, bartender, very frequent patron, or guy in the bathroom handing out mints?

I have oddly noticed them more in Northern Colorado than SF, but maybe it’s because I’m driving here and I was just a passenger or pedestrian in SF. On the plus side, a lot less cybertrucks per capita here.

STEREOGUM: People my age, we talk about how we were lucky that we didn’t have social media growing up, and there’s no record of all the dumb shit we said and did. You didn’t have social media, but everything you said and did in those years is on record, and you’ve got to live with it now. That’s tough. VIOLENT J: And the amount of gay Juggalos out there is really surprising. I think about them doing their research and getting the old records, getting excited about it, and getting their hearts broke or something, you know? I tell my daughter, “For the rest of your life, when your friends ask why your dad said that, say it’s because your dad was a fool. Don’t defend me. Say I was a fool then, but I’m not now.” There’s no excuse. I was going with the flow, and that’s the very thing we preach against — being a sheep. And that’s what I was doing. https://www.stereogum.com/2083804/icp-interview-juggalos/interviews/weve-got-a-file-on-you/

Reminder that Violent J of Insane Clown Posse has the correct response to a lot of the shitty things he said in the early days.

Staring into the abyss as Senate Democrats continue to act like there’s such a thing as normal business

Dems, I bet of you, STOP VOTING FOR TRUMP JUDGES JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

Just stop it with the cute turn signals and wacky headlights that let us all know we’re in the future. It’s just a simulation of what the future was supposed to look like based on silly movies from decades past, and it’s letting form supersede function. Stop it! Bad! Technicality no down boo over!