Giselle

A good plot-twist *recontextualises* everything behind it. It should feel like everything was pointing to an inevitablility, not to a "SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER!" for its own sake.

This is (part of) why the Red Wedding worked in the Game of Thrones Live Series, but everything after fell apart

Particular variations of twists I really like:

- when a work fucks with me so that it makes it likely I'll guess a twist, then has me gaslighting myself into doubting this guess, only for it to be true

- when I guess it -moments before the reveal- -- this is always astoundingly paced if so

Halle Berry is the funniest and most correct person on the planet. Doing hater shit, HONEST SHIT, just before Hair Gel If It Became Human shows up is 🤌🤌

correct, if you can get Actual Leftists through the primary the electorate has never been less concerned with “this person’s views are out of bounds of Acceptable Discourse (as defined by media dipshits)”

use the anger to put good people in charge and hope they can avoid becoming The Bums in turn

if we have proven one thing it is that the median voter does not put all that much thought into who they are replacing the bum with when they throw the bum out

the important point is: there is a bum, and he needs to go

I have read eight billion articles about What It All Means and here is my takeaway about why Trump won in 2024 and Republicans are losing everywhere now: people really did not like Joe Biden and now they really do not like Donald Trump

you can try to dive into the why, but that’s the core of it

How to quit Spotify This Black Friday, here's a guide to finding the best Spotify alternative

Spotify is garbage on every count: Its treatment of artists, its ICE advertising, the CEO's investment in military AI, its leading role in the commodification and AI slopification of music, its terrible audio quality—you name it.

So I quit, and put together a complete guide to getting off Spotify:

Pete Hegseth Should Be Charged With Murder No matter how you look at the strikes on alleged “drug boats”—as acts of war or attacks on civilians—Hegseth has committed a crime and should be prosecuted.

If we're not at war, Pete Hegseth is a murderer. If we are at war, Pete Hegseth is still a murderer. He's a murderer. And you don't need to go to The Hague to hold him accountable because there are perfectly good, American laws AGAINST MURDER.
My latest in @thenation.com

‘Abbott Elementary’ star Quinta Brunson launches fund to provide free field trips to thousands of Philly students “Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson is teaming up with the School District of Philadelphia to create a fund to provide free school trips to students.

‘Abbott Elementary’ star Quinta Brunson launches fund to provide free field trips to thousands of Philly students

Hey everyone! A very good friend of mine and a fellow game dev was laid off and is in dire financial straits.

If you have the means to throw a couple dollars their way, it would be a huge help

www.gofundme.com/f/q9d99-supp...

Hey everyone! A very good friend of mine and a fellow game dev was laid off and is in dire financial straits.

If you have the means to throw a couple dollars their way, it would be a huge help

www.gofundme.com/f/q9d99-supp...

Donate to Support a Trans Couple In Crisis, organized by Xan Farley Choosing the wrong career shouldn't cost you and your loved ones everything. The insta… Xan Farley needs your support for Support a Trans Couple In Crisis

hey all, my friend @lithish.com has been abruptly laid off recently and is in need of money. it would mean a lot if y’all were to chip in.

gofund.me/ded9c6617
#mutualaid

Actually, the likelihood is 100%. In US jurisprudence, accused people are innocent until proven guilty. Hegseth's victims were not proven guilty; they were not even tried. Therefore they were ALL, to the last man, legally innocent. Hegseth ordered the murders of several dozen innocent men.

I look forward to the customary 50 day wait for Speaker Johnson to swear in new members

For additional context here, these are the relative turnout levels of each of the congressional special elections we've had this year

This race got super nationalized - relative turnout ended up being huge

But to me, that makes this the most encouraging special for Ds so far

"If Democrats see the same shift in Congress next year as they saw in TN-07 Tuesday night, they’d win a landslide victory of 258 seats in the U.S. House."

The 25 Elections to Watch This December - Bolts On the heels of their sweeping wins in November, Democrats have opportunities to gain further ground in December runoffs and special elections. They’re hoping for upsets in conservative territory, from... Read More

Mary Robichaux, a former Democratic lawmaker, has won the mayor's office tonight in Roswell, Georgia, ousting a Republican incumbent.

This was one of a dozen elections that Bolts was tracking tonight in our guide that's now updated with results.

The margin matters, here, and can very much be built on, in the next year.

one thing that receives almost no attention is that the only reason he ran for president again is because he had to to avoid prosecution for a litany of crimes, the whole plan was: 1). Take shelter in SCOTUS-granted immunity. 2). Loot.

Wednesday, 499.99 poke dollars: spheal doesn't care Thursday, 499.99 poke dollars: spheal doesn't care Black friday, was 699.99 poke dollars now 499.99 poke dollars: spheal is very happy and excited to buy the hypothetical item at the "discounted" price what do you think he is buying

What a great headline

screenshot of a tumblr post from user “wildmansters” The thing that really boils my potatoes about Al in general is that I have been a creative professional for over a decade now and the devil has ALWAYS been in the details. Big and small, I've had single-person businesses rip me to shreds over how their colors turned out on newsprint, and have worked with huge companies with THICK brand guidelines with every detail of their brand identity laid out and enforced with an iron fist. But I guess all of that stuff doesn't matter anymore? Who gives a fuck if this Al generated baby has six fingers, that mom-and-pop shop is still going to use it. That rug from Temu says Happy Thanksgivirg? Oh well haha it's just a silly funny thing now (nevermind that you never would have given a B-grade item from a craft show the same consideration). I don't actually care that the Al Coca-cola ad has a truck that changes size every scene, but I can't help but think about how, if it had been some poor underpaid artist, they would have been laughed out of the building. I don't really know how to put it in a succint way but it just feels all the more obvious how much more grace and flexibility has always been possible but never offered.

i know WHY this is but that just makes it even more of a kick in the pants lmao

5000 is such a psychological barrier, breaking it is gonna rule.

thanks to everyone who has subbed so far, I hope you're enjoying it all, but also if you haven't, a reminder that we're running a $1 sale at the moment!

4,800 - We can pay somebody to write a regular column for the site. 4,900 - Where we're at now! 5,000 - Most of us can do this full-time, with the caveat that budgets and business structures are complicated, and we're still figuring out all the costs that go into receiving livable pay from a business. A year from now, we'll probably know if we estimated this one correctly or not (lol). 5,200 - We can bring on people to help us with more specialized tasks (a dedicated businessperson, someone to focus on our social media accounts and promotion, etc). 5,500 - More merch drops! 5,800 - We can bring on another regular contributor to keep Isaiah company. (We decided to allocate funds for this one a little earlier than planned to bring on Nicole, an excellent decision on our parts if we do say so ourselves.) 6,000 - A second party, and we can cover Luke’s travel costs (unless he decides he never wants to set foot in America again, which would be totally understandable). 6,300 - We can travel to and cover events more regularly. 6,500 - We can hire another full-time staff member!

Exciting news! Thanks to our sale, we've rocketed all the way up to over 4,900 paying subscribers. This means we can cross another goal, a regular columnist, off our list. We plan to sort out the exact specifics in our own time, but for now, who do you think would be a good fit?

If you don't know who your City Council representative is, you can use this website to find out www.mygovnyc.org

Call them and tell them you do NOT want them to support Julie Menin for speaker.

Menin is a DINO.

Call your council member and tell them to vote for Crystal Hudson!

> @samsteindc.bsky.social