James Enge

If I remember right, this mostly occurs in THE HOBBIT, and might be part of the book being children's literature. English-speaking kids would be more likely to know _goblin_ than _orc_ (cf. Macdonald's THE PRINCESS & THE GOBLIN). I think Sam says it, too, but I took that as a callback to THE HOBBIT.

🧵 1/ We’re devastated about the layoffs at The Washington Post, which are gutting D.C. reporting. These journalists are an incalculable loss for our city. The 51st’s mission has always felt urgent, but now we know it needs to kick into high gear.

Introducing Total Crap, the First Magazine Written Entirely by AI Amid doomsaying pronouncements that the publishing industry is dead, we are proud to bring the written word into the future with revolutionary tech...

"Investors must act fast; this is the most exciting get-rich-quick opportunity since Bitcoin started accepting Bitcoin in transactions for Bitcoin."

ICE agents can't make warrantless arrests in Oregon unless there's a risk of escape, US judge rules A judge says U.S. immigration agents in Oregon must stop arresting people without warrants unless they are likely to escape. U.S.

BREAKING: A federal judge blocks immigration agents from arresting people in Oregon without warrants unless there's a risk of escape.

Good News! 28 states have publicly rejected Kennedy’s vaccine schedule.

They choose to follow evidence-based guidance from experts like the American Academy of Pediatrics or the American Academy of Family Physicians.

🧪 www.kff.org/state-health...

Via @unbiasedscipod.bsky.social

Democracy dies in oligarchy.

New Mexico Senate approves bill to ban ICE detention centers The New Mexico Legislature approved the Immigration Safety Act. House bill 9 bars the state from allowing ICE detention centers.

This is another effort that has taken a HUGE amount of local activism, led by community folks who care.

It CAN be done. Get involved where you live and push back.

www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/i...

By entering the competition and in consideration for Hearst publishing your entry, you assign to Hearst the entire worldwide copyright in your entry for all uses in all print and non-print media formats, including but not limited to all rights to use your entry in any and all electronic and digital formats, and in any future medium hereafter developed for the full period of copyright therein, and all renewals and extensions thereof, any rental and lending rights and retransmission rights and all rights of a like nature wherever subsisting.

Venerable magazine Harper's Bazaar is running its short story contest again, with the winner receiving "the chance" of publication in the magazine. Just one catch: per the wording of the guidelines, _just by entering_ you transfer copyright ownership of your story to Harper's parent, Hearst. 1/3

Author photograph of Milton Davis.

⚔️WELCOME BACK MILTON DAVIS!⚔️
@miltonmvmedia.bsky.social will have a brand new story in one of this year's issues. See cool art, crowdfund exclusives, and other exciting details here: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

AL, Logical! A Young Adult Graphic Novel It's like a math circle, but in a haunted multi-dimensional mansion where a brave artist finds a restless ghost of a mathematician.

Yay! The kickstarter for our mathy graphic novel AL, Logical is live! www.kickstarter.com/projects/nat... We appreciate any views, retweets, and support for this YA story of curiosity, perseverance, and problem solving.

FBI’s Search of Georgia Election Center Is “Dangerous,” Experts Warn The search warrant, which sought 2020 election ballots, tabulator tapes, digital data and voter rolls from Fulton County, marked what experts described as a significant escalation in President Donald ...

“This is not legitimate. This is Donald Trump’s obsession with losing the 2020 election,” a Democratic Fulton County commissioner said. “We’ve assembled a team to fight back against this.”

STOP ICE TODAY Take action to protect your community from ICE.

I gathered a few resources you can use & take action with to protect your communities from ICE:

stopicetoday.com

Between Jeff Bezos' evisceration of The Washington Post, Bill Gates' appearance in the Epstein Files, and, you know, every single thing Elon Musk has done, at least we'll see the end of the Myth of the Benevolent Billionaires.

”Provocative” is like “intellectual.” If other people use it to describe you, maybe you are. If you use it to describe yourself, you’re more likely just an asshole.

The Trump DOJ Has Utterly Collapsed and It Ain’t Pretty The Destruction: DOJ Edition One of the intended consequences of President Trump’s...

A tip of the interhat to David Kurtz who provided the link and the clue in the Morning Memo post at @talkingpointsmemo.com .

talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Striking from new Quinnipiac poll:

*Voters prefer path to legalization over deportations for most undocs by 59-34. Among independents it's 61-33

*Majority says Trump on immigration is making America less safe

Again, there's broad rejection of the whole project, not just ICE tactics (see below)

On February 4, 1945, the “Big Three” Allied leaders met for the Yalta Conference to discuss postwar order in Europe, the terms for Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the formation of the United Nations.

History Teaches . . . Why did mainstream institutions fall so easily to Trumpism? How do we understand our "Strange Defeat" ?

This Substack post by Felicia Kornbluh is an important read and now I think I’m going to have read Bloch’s STRANGE DEFEAT—and maybe reread Shirer’s COLLAPSE OF THE THIRD REPUBLIC.
feliciakornbluh.substack.com/p/history-te...

Afrofuturism| MVmedia, LLC MVmedia, LLC publishes the best in Afrofuturism, Black Scifi, and the Black Fantastic!

For Black History month, I'm going to shout out my first publisher, MV Media (run by the amazing @miltonmvmedia.bsky.social ) who believed in me when I boldly said I was writing the Black Game of Thrones. Check out the website and get yourself some Black Speculative goodness.
www.mvmediaatl.com

This is action EVERY city in the country can take. If your hotels cooperate with ICE, goodbye liquor revenue.

A common-sense reform would be to abolish ICE. We managed to get along for 226 years without it roaming our streets, maiming, poisoning, kidnapping, and killing our people.

This is a _mainstream_ opinion. But Schumer is so committed to the religion of centrism that he can’t find the actual center.

A final characteristic of the paranoid style is related to the quality of its pedantry. One of the impressive things about paranoid literature is the contrast between its fantasied conclusions and the almost touching concern with factuality it invariably shows. It produces heroic strivings for evidence to prove that the unbelievable is the only thing that can be believed. Of course, there are highbrow, lowbrow, and middlebrow paranoids, as there are likely to be in any political tendency. But respectable paranoid literature not only starts from certain moral commitments that can indeed be justified but also carefully and all but obsessively accumulates “evidence.”

I keep coming back to Hofstadter for good reason. The paranoid style is a pretty succinct and accurate description of how we got here. harpers.org/archive/1964...

see description in post

Something I found while looking for something else: Baklovich’s “On the Wall”, showing a shut-out lover in Roman(ish) clothing scraping some grafitti on the outer wall of a house in Pompeii. (Higher resolution available at Wikimedia.)

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ba...

Bird with vase head

Augur of Emptiness

Judge Smacks Down Kristi Noem in Epic Ruling Ruling Preserves TPS for Haitians The top line here is that U.S....

Madame Zombie Roadkill

Judge Smacks Down Kristi Noem in Epic Ruling talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

B&W illustration of a monk holding a book in one hand while brandishing a torch at a hideous, multi-bodies monstrosity looming over them. The scene takes place in a library, framed like an arched window in a church, printed itself on the front cover of a book. This art is by @roqueromero.bsky.social

Black white, and violet art by @roqueromero.bsky.social showing a mysterious entity with arms crossed above its waist, wave lines emanating out from it in all directions.

Black and white art by @roqueromero.bsky.social showing a lonely space princess in a huge, ornate gown, stars and swords in the backdrop.

Black and white art by @roqueromero.bsky.social showing a horrible creature with a large, circular mouth for a face, four sets of hands, and taloned feet trying to force its way in through medieval church windows.

WELCOME ROQUE ROMERO!
@roqueromero.bsky.social will have new illustrations in this year's issues. Go here to see more cool art, gaze upon mighty crowdfund exclusives, and sign up to be alerted on launch day 👉 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

Non est quod credas irascentium verbis, quorum strepitus magni, minaces sunt; intra mens pavidissima.

--Seneca, DE IRA

"There's no reason to trust the words of furious people. Their shouts, their threats are big; inside, their mind is quivering with fear."

Predicting that this week we’ll hear more conciliatory words from the Administration regarding Minnesota (since they’re starting to realize that ICE has become politically toxic) but everyone outside of Minnesota needs to know that nothing on the ground has changed.

The Fight Is Upon Us: What The Right to Vote Looks Like on Trump’s Terrain of Violence Both the calendar and the events in Minneapolis have brought the midterm...

talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-f...

SHE’S READY FOR THE OLYMPICS BUT ARE THE OLYMPICS READY FOR HER