Wizard of the Howling Wastes

An action can be used tactically as a distraction while also becoming a primary concern in its own right. In other words, Trump can deploy the military to distract from his Epstein problem, thereby creating a new chief problem for non-fascists. These aren't mutually exclusive!

This worth reading?

I think it’s cool that my city gets to be 1970s Belfast because an intern got his shit rocked by a teenage girl

You sign up with the DEA, imagining you're going to be involved in some amazing Sicario-style midnight raids on a cartel, and then President Clown Makeup has you out patrolling a park getting side eye sneers from lone women joggers.

I’m really struggling to think of another instance like this, in which seemingly every major publication that writes about or reviews books is going out of its way to give people space to shit all over a book that maybe 100 people are ever going to read.

@DHSgov on X: Hunt Cartels. Save America. [Save America in Nazi font]

Nazi propaganda poster Ein kampf um Deutschland (A fight for Germany)

Yet again, DHS is mirroring literal Nazi propaganda. In Nazi font, DHS says, "Save America." The actual Nazi poster on the right translates as, "A fight for Germany."

Just putting this here for no particular reason.

Very soon I will place the U.S. government on the same list as Russian propaganda media and neither listen nor comment on anything they communicate.

I mean RFK jr's skin looks like a ruined leather handbag abandoned in the Mojave, maybe that's a sign not to listen to that fuckin' dehydrated alligator

This is one of these trends I don't want to look up. I'll just leave it a mystery. My own little mystery. A harmless ignorance to add to my menagerie. Next to that skibidy thing, that feud between the people, whatever Blue Bloods is, magnets.

Like, do I agree with socialist revolutionaries on policy? In some cases, yeah, but in most, probably not. (Even though I drift further left each day.) The point is I recognize that when the fascists come with guns, centrist won't be the ones to put their bodies between the fascists and my family.

Keir Starmer @Keir_Starmer • Aug 7 .. . I said that if you enter this country on a small boat, you will face detention and return. I meant it. [video: migrant detainees with faces blurred being escorted out of the UK]

As far as I can tell, Keir Starmer thinks "Labour" means "the UK can must shall and will become the country we are as seen in 'Children of Men'".

Grok responding to someone on Twitter: “The timeline between the UAE's $2B investment in Trump family crypto (May 1, 2025) and Trump's lifting of AI chip export restrictions (May 15) raises serious conflict-of-interest concerns, backed by diverse sources including Reuters and senators' inquiries. If proven corrupt, legal action is justified—stay tuned for investigations.”

Grok is woke again i.e. thinks Trump should be in prison.

Once you start doing even a little digging you find this to be more or less true for every philosopher. If not their mother, then wives, girlfriends, maids. Women working tirelessly behind the scenes to feed the "great man" and make sure he wipes his ass occasionally. I'm not kidding.

I mean I know why. Police procedurals are a dime a dozen. If you slap a known name on it you can pull in some eyeballs and if the show is competently done it can maybe have a sustainable audience base. Plus dweebs on the internet will complain about it and give them free advertising. 😶

An image of William Shatner. With text announcing a reboot of his old show TJ Hooker.

Why, IN GODS NAME, would you reboot TJ Hooker. It's most notable for starting Heather Locklear's career and being the other thing William Shatner did. Is there something groundbreaking about it that I'm missing? Is there a fan base clamouring for it?

I honestly hoped it was TekWar.

I got a flu booster today and it made me reflect on the sense of national accomplishment I felt when I drove to a public facility, waited in my car until my number was called on an app, and got my first covid jab. It's fucked the right gets to erase what a moment of technological liberation that was

Discworld QOTD, from Maskerade

“Nanny Ogg was basically a law-abiding person when she had no reason to break the law, and therefore had that kind of person’s attitude to law-enforcement officers, which was one of deep and permanent distrust.”

I always enjoy reading the TripAdvisor London Forum because I'm fascinated to see what foreign tourists expect, what they ask about and what surprises them. I thought this post from someone from Texas was a really lovely and cheering comment about riding the tube late at night

Google's New Ad Shows a Slopper Meeting the Love of His Life by Surrendering His Brain to the AI's Instructions You, too, can meet the love of your life if you simply use Google's AI Mode search to do literally everything.

Google wants you to set your brain to "AI Mode."

one of the great tragedies of our age is how many people are willing to view AI as magic because they don't understand how it functions but unwilling to exhibit any humility at all towards more important things they understand even less (like the climate or medicine)

Decided to rewatch Ridley’s Scott’s Napoleon and holy fucking shit I forgot how bad it was

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey is a fucking masterpiece and I will fight you about it

Our world has become unmoored and we are heading into an uncertain storm. You can't submit a request for the maelstrom to tone it down. Offering up passengers as a sacrifice to the maw will not keep us from capsizing. Lash yourself to the wheel and show that you can chart a course through.

5/5

Narratives are how you win elections. Policies are important, but if you lack a coherent and engaging narrative they don't matter.

You govern with policy. You win with narrative.

4/5

To win against Cons, reactionaries, and fascists you need an opposing NARRATIVE. The narrative needs to be bold and engaging. It needs to grab people and offer something different. It can't just be a more stable status quo. Because everyone can see that the status quo isn't working.

3/5

Their campaigns seem terrified of being aggressive. The NDP seem content to timidly point out the rampant incompetence, graft, and reactionary policies of the SaskParty. And then politely request to run the government every four years. Be ANGRY. We are past decorum.

2/5

The @saskndp.bsky.social made some gains in the last election. They pitched themselves as less distasteful Neoliberals. Even with the ground gained the NDP returned to their comfort zone. His Majesty's Loyal Opposition.

#skpoli

1/5

Watching historically Left wing/ centre-left parties trying to pitch themselves as less lunatic conservatives is so disheartening. It's both cowardly and won't serve them. Labour won because the Conservatives were wildly unpopular. A ham sandwich could have beaten the Tories.

"We should play a game," said Gilt. "I have a rather nice board myself. I play the troll side, for preference." "Ruthless, initially outnumbered, inevitably defeated in the hands of the careless player?" said Vetinari. "Indeed. Just as the dwarfs rely on guile, feint, and swift changes of position. A man can learn all of an opponent's weaknesses on that board," said Gilt. "Really?" said Vetinari, raising his eyebrows. "Should he not be trying to learn his own?"

Should he not be trying to learn his own?