sekharn

James Gunn’s American Project He is few critics’ idea of a respectable auteur, but his work is more consistently progressive than any other comic-book material today.

I wrote a piece on the work of writer and director James Gunn, who is engaged in a pretty incredible ongoing enterprise that despises bigotry and authoritarianism and reaffirms patriotism for progressives. www.vulture.com/article/jame...

The Union Army ended the widespread practice of child sacrifice in America

this is blood libel gutter racism of the kind that you only encounter if you or your staff are spending a lot of time in online spaces that are avowedly white supremacist

“Tell your children who the cowards were.”

Between WaPo bemoaning freeloading children, Utah’s planned internment camps for the unhoused, and Texas scaling up deportation infrastructure, the vibes feel very “all this excess population, what are we to do with it?”

a man in a blue tank top is saying `` well i never '' while holding his chest . ALT: a man in a blue tank top is saying `` well i never '' while holding his chest .

American Right: WE HATE TRANS, GAYS, MUSLIMS, BLACKS, PROGRESSIVES, POORS, MEXICANS, DEMOCRATS, WHALES, THE ENVIRONMENT, LAWYERS, UNIVERSITIES, AND EVERYTHING ON TV

American Right-Wing Jews: Whooo! Yeah! You tell them!

American Right: BUT ESPECIALLY JEWS!

American Right-Wing Jews:

Americans *love* paying more for health insurance. We can’t get enough!

Some weeks I just write a check to United HealthCare even when I don’t have a bill due, just as a li’l love note to my buds.

Local Paper Opines on Mayor's Race The Wall Street Journal's incredible Zohran obsession.

Holy shit. @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social has rounded up the @wsj.com's op-eds ranting against Mamdani. I laughed after the first screen, but then scrolled & realized there was more. And more. And more. And more. Honestly this warrants psychological analysis. This kind of obsession is not healthy.

Michael B Jordan in Black Panther

Michael B Jordan in Fruitvale Station

Michael B Jordan and Michael B Jordan in Sinners

Michael B Jordan in Creed

Every once in a while I remember Michael B. Jordan hasn't even been NOMINATED for an Oscar yet. It's ridiculous. He's one of the best actors and biggest stars of his generation.

Imagine being someone who speeds a lot, knowing it can and does kill people… kids, parents, anyone.

Imagine hating a public policy (speed cameras) that’s proven to make those people safer— safer from YOU— because your law breaking costs u money, so you rant that it’s a “cash cow.”

So, is that you?

For this reason, the Gates memo presupposes a false dichotomy regarding climate outcomes: The choice we are faced with is not between "good for us" & "the end of the world," but instead how much harm we are willing to tolerate, and endure, in the years to come. [8/n]

In fact, the preponderance of scientific evidence in recent years points increasingly toward each increment of warming being MORE consequential, and harmful to both human systems and societies and ecosystems, than previously believed--not less. [7/n]

I wanted to offer some thoughts on the Gates climate memo that has been circulating this week. While I can't directly speak for others, I can say that my own response is one of dismay & deep frustration (and that this view is shared by many climate/Earth scientists). [1/n]

He's been front-and-center in the Epstein story for years but the hammer is just coming down now. I suspect the British government knows more about his activities than the public does and is acting accordingly.

Same probably applies to Trump, but unlike the UK, the US government is covering it up.

Perfect.

A lot of people have somehow decided that this is a conversation about trans people not wanting to vote for an anti-trans bigot like Gavin Newsom and it absolutely is not.

He doesn't deserve their votes and they'd be right to hold them back. But I wouldn't expect that to change his mind.

When I explain that boycotting an election over an issue has never once forced a politician to embrace that issue, I'm not "scolding people to vote." I'm explaining reality.

Feel free to sit on your ass! Just don't pretend that your lazy apathy is somehow going to advance your agenda.

Adam Silver said WNBA players shouldn’t ask for revenue share because W revenue is much lower than the NBAs. But the NBA's financial condition heading into the 1983 CBA when players got rev share was similar/worse than where the WNBA is now. Going to discuss on today’s pod:

this post is factually incorrect. the imminent SNAP disaster is not due to the government shutdown. it is the result of trump illegally withholding contingency funds appropriated by congress. it is not a matter of interpretation.

also
foreign country buys $1 million in soybeans, they get soybeans
foreign country spends $1 million on American college tuition, those students live here, spend money here, their research benefits American institutions, they leave with a positive view of America, etc.

it's hugely valuable for us!

Thing is on any list of proof someone is a Nazi 'has a Nazi tattoo on his body' has previously been the gold standard.

I feel like a chump coming to the (social media) defense of a political candidate, but I do really like Zohran, and it's pretty scary how his political emergence has been met with screeching bigotry by Andrew Cuomo and so many other people who ware supposedly on the left of the political spectrum.

I really like how Zohran Mamdani has run a campaign that is so focused on making New York City a safe (including from the fascism of our current federal government) and affordable place for all its residents, and I am really appalled by how racist so much of the opposition to his candidacy has been.

For Gates, this means being more openly hostile towards climate regulations and restrictions, and being more brazen about "ranking" priorities in such a way as to allow him and related companies to operate unrestricted

Not new at all for him: but the changed context means he can be more direct

The life and death of Microsoft’s Moonshot Microsoft finally dropped its ‘climate moonshot’, overwhelmed by the anxiety of generating as much AI slop as it possibly can, no matter how much that helps the fossil fuel industry.

from my post on msft

ketanjoshi.co/2025/05/31/t...

a chart showing microsoft missing its targets

There is probably plenty going on inside Bill Gates' head, but I reckon one of the most parsimonious explanations of why he's sagely pronouncing that climate groups need to stop worrying about short-term emissions targets can be found in the sustainability reports of the company he founded.

I would read the hell out of a deeply reported piece on how the media/political elite addiction to Twitter is shaping their views, which in turn shape the views of millions of people. It's a total reality-warper.

I left after the nazi letter in early 2024. And they don't make it easy to leave. I spent that summer watching my growth totally flatline and thought Garbage Day was basically over. I don't think that anymore. I left Substack with around 65k readers. We're now basically at 100k.