David Cantwell

RFK Jr. cuts $500 million in mRNA vaccine contracts, dealing major blow to promising area of research The cuts add to mounting evidence that Kennedy is pursuing an aggressive anti-vaccine agenda.

We need a word for someone who is beyond perverse, sadistic, sociopathic. Blocking mRNA vaccine research means that you or someone you love will die of something you could have avoided or survived. He is intentionally killing people.

I believe one of the new mRNA vaccines was expected to treat colon cancer, and another had the potential to keep pancreatic cancer from recurring. That’s what they’re taking away.

They LITERALLY want dead women to have to carry fetuses to term but live babies to die of preventable illnesses. That’s a GOAL of theirs, not a side effect.

Culling the most vulnerable is one goal of this fascist takeover

Lee Ann Womack Returns to the Roots She Never (Really) Left - No Depression On The Way I’m Livin’, her first album in six years, Lee Ann Womack comes upon the devil, shares a bottle with him (the first taste is free), then crashes to her knees in despair. A few songs later, s...

for a much more in depth look at LAW and i hope you dance check out the legendary @cantkill.bsky.social's definitive profile (in which lee ann says the song became "a bit of an albatross") nodepression.org/lee-ann-woma...

We think of the White House as a big mansion, but the point is it's not a palace. It's a house. It's modest, one of the smallest residences for a head of state. The east and west wings are deliberately minimal and unobtrusive. It's not Versailles or Buckingham. It symbolizes civic republicanism.

Turn It Up - 8/4/2025 Earworms, obsessions, recommendations

We say goodbye to legends of metal and swamp pop, welcome the returns of Talibah Safiya and Chappel Roan, cheer for the Pauls Carrack and Weller singing Merle Haggard. At No Fences Review. W/ @charleshughes2.bsky.social

Trump Went to War With the Ivies. Community Colleges Are Being Hit.

the trump administration is selling its war on higher education as a strike against the elites who have disadvantaged ordinary americans. in actuality, the administration is destroying advanced education for *everyone* in pursuit of its effort to deskill the american public

A fun reminder that a loss of 60,000 jobs in and around academia is ~50% more than all coal mining jobs in the entire country.

I don't think enough good things can be said about the people who worked hard to build the political pressure for his and everyone else's release, including senator van hollen. otoh there is no bottom to my contempt for the people who were urging the opposite course of action

Same. Except back in the before Library Owl Times, we watched old movies on local tv or added segments to our "books"worm in the library's summer reading contest. But ditto for wizardly literacy. (Oh flashback! I remember finishing The Hobbit, then hopping on my bike to buy LOTR at the 5 & Dime!)

there’s a real seething rage from many liberals when you suggest that it’s possible to demand more of political leaders, or hold them accountable

the republican party hates public goods and wants to force feed you and your family slop produced by its billionaire allies

Brittany Howard Never Set Out to Be a Star — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER Even with a new album in the works, the frontwoman of the Alabama Shakes isn’t banking on a comeback. She just wants to keep making great music — and save her energy for what matters.

Thanks to @jewlyhight.bsky.social for this fantastic profile of Brittany Howard in the new Bitter Southerner. And extra thanks for finding space to let me to say a few things about one of my favorite artists of the last 15 years and counting. Check it out!

media is dying do not give scm your clicks

Poll shows decline in belief that Blacks and Asians face racial discrimination Meanwhile, about three in 10 people said DEI increased discrimination against white people.

the idea that “DEI” is to blame for racist assumptions about the ability of nonwhite people and not actual racism is such a perfect example of racecraft www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...

The Best Country Albums of 1995, Part 2 David with more than five dozen notable big-tent country albums from 30 years ago

Here's Part 2 of my Best Country Albums of 1995 project, thinking big tent country, at No Fences Review. 60+ releases to go w/ my fave 15 shared in part 1, linked in comments. (W/ @charleshughes2.bsky.social )

60 years ago today, LBJ signed the Medicare and Medicaid Act of 1965 in Independence, Missouri in the presence of Harry Truman.

Herr Goebbels Angered By Anti-Nazi Wit Comedians Banned For Humorous Remarks on Leaders --The Montreal Star, 4 Feb 1939

1939

when RFK says he wants to “end chronic disease,” what people hear is “he wants to cure us” but what he means is “i want to cull the weak”

Patty Griffin: A Love Letter in 16 Songs Charles on a few songs by an artist we love

New Patty Griffin out today and at No Fences Review, @charleshughes2.bsky.social runs down his favorite Griffin cuts from across her career

Great review of a fantastic new bio!

Yes. I think some people literally think the Civil Rights Act passed and then everyone realized racism was bad and stopped being racist.
And then everthing was fine until people started bringing it up again.

Blood Harmony: A Conversation with Barry Mazor David talks to the author of a new biography of The Everly Brothers

Today's the official pub date for Barry Mazor's new Everlys bio, Blood Harmony. Couple weeks back I chatted with him about the book for No Fences Review. Check it out!

"...six-figure deployment contract,' you POS

The unitary executive can set the curriculum at Harvard, order the owners to change the names of professional sports teams, throw his enemies in prison, close a Cabinet-level Department, but he is powerless to ask the sycophants he put in place in the FBI and DOJ to release the Epstein files.

The Best Country Albums of 1995 David with a big tent look at the year in country music, thirty years ago

Best Country Albums of 1995! (Resharing for those who may have missed it over the weekend. At No Fences Review, where I've previously done the same for 1964, 1973, 1985, 1993 and 1994--and w/ 1965 and '75 on the way. Please share and subscribe!)

My first double feature at the movie theater I just inherited… SUNRISE and THE AWFUL TRUTH

Affordable housing, nutritious food, clean water, time off, the internet, breathable air, universal healthcare, quick and clean mass transit, and living wages are not luxuries. They're the baseline of human rights.