Madcap

Turn your crank... to Frank!

It's jarring to see how much money is going to ICE instead of education, healthcare, public transportation, international aid, green energy infrastructure, and the arts, but I guess that's the point.

Every transphobe sucks, without exception.

As often, quoting for @jaybatzner.bsky.social

A Twitter thread by David Rees from 2017/05/17, part one: "RE: #ComeyFiring, I think the GOP will now go along with anything Trump does. I mean literally anything. It’s TIME FOR SOME SHAME THEORY! I believed GOP was going along with DJT because they thought he could get them their precious policy outcomes: tax cuts, etc. -- and, that if DJT’s malfeasance ever decreased their chances of enacting those policies, they would jettison him. I now think this political calculus has been replaced by a deeper, darker, calculus: a psychological survival strategy. GOP will agree to anything - I mean anything - because they can no longer afford a moral reckoning with what who and what they’ve enabled. Once you've gone so far that checking in with yourself would shatter your belief in your own humanity/decency, there are no limits."

A Twitter thread by David Rees from 2017/05/17, part two: "At this point, there are probably GOPers who wish Trump would suspend the constitution outright. Really just GO FOR IT, so that we leave this liminal, sorta-not-quite-authoritarian space with its semi-sorta-functional institutions behind, and enter a new American era, where their collusion/treason(?) can't be judged by old norms. If you've ever had an affair, or drug issues, etc, you probably know the feeling. The bender/lost weekend/flirtation with hitting bottom. At some point, your shame at your behavior, at the norms you’ve violated, leads you to double down, go ALL IN, obliterate your old self. I used to be a bully in middle school, so I know this amazing, complex feeling of exhilaration and revulsion, the poison rush of living your worst self, resenting *the part of you that knows better.* Not enough to ignore it; you must destroy it."

A Twitter thread by David Rees from 2017/05/17, part three: "Congress had to enter DJT’s orbit in order to pass their sacred tax cuts/repeal the hated ACA. They thought they could contain him. But DJT poisons everyone he touches. The price for working with him is pretty hefty: your humanity and dignity (h/t @joshtpm). Healthy people (and banks!) learned to avoid DJT decades ago. He surrounds himself with damaged goods: Stone, Flynn, other freaks/losers. We are watching that community of damaged psyches expand to include an entire political party. GOP pols must avoid a moral reckoning at all costs. But not just a public reckoning -- a private one. Can’t admit to moral suicide. If #TrumpTrain stopped, GOP would have to answer for putting up with PussyGate, deranged tweets, lies, damaged institutions, all the Russia stuff, etc. etc. The list is overwhelming, unprecedented, debilitating. That reckoning absolutely cannot happen."

A Twitter thread by David Rees from 2017/05/17, part four: "Trump, an experienced abuser, knows this on some lizard-brain level. He has captured the GOP. His transgressions will increase. “Comey was irresponsible about HRC” is deliberately absurd; a power move by Trump to see if GOP will agree to any reality he proposes. Answer: YES. #winning Back to the bender analogy. We’re in the middle of a crazy bender. What would bottoming out look like, when GOP says: ENOUGH? My theory: As of yesterday’s preposterous justification for Comey firing, there is no bottom. The GOP will never call Trump out. In fact, GOP pols must now encourage further transgressions, to destroy the current context in which feeling shame re: DJT is appropriate. Maybe I’m wrong! But my prediction is GOP would agree with DJT if/when he says he’s canceling the 2018 midterms. THE END"

Your point reminds me of a very astute Twitter thread about shame, by David Rees (of Get Your War On fame), from early in Trump's first term. It's hard to find now, so I'm going to post the whole thing here.

The best guest host for the Muppets would be Werner Herzog

I tell myself: "I'm the owner of the company. But more importantly, I'm also the head of Scriveners Local 23, and I have some demands." So what that means is that I have a four day work week. I work monday-tuesday and then Thursday-Friday. Fuck the boss if they don't like it. I have a workplace wellness program that means I can take breaks for yoga, meditation, exercise, and naps. I have unlimited paid personal days thanks to my project oriented work structure--I get to decide what's the best balance between production and restoration. Fuck the boss if they don't like it. I have five days each quarter for vacation. attending a convention, conference, expo, bookstore event tour, or a writing workshop *is not a vacation.* that's business-related travel. taking a day or two for a weekend jaunt *is not a vacation.* that's unlimited paid personal days. Five working days. Each Quarter. Vacation. and since I always have Wednesdays off, it doesn't count. I know there's a piece of your brain saying "I have to hustle, I have to hustle" I know My brain does that too And without the union boss in my head, I'll just work until I drop. That's what I did for years. And then I burnt out so bad that this is the first time I have actually made real, noticeable progress(1.) similar to my pre-burnout rates in years. Because the union boss went on strike, and the boss' bottom line was *destroyed.* If I have to crunch now, the union boss enforces recovery time. that's all overtime. but since I don't get paid a wage, I get all that back in time. The boss never wants to see a strike like that again. There is power in a union, even if it's only the union in your head. (1.) only it's not similar. it's half the "speed" of pre-burnout. It's probably my actual true real speed and not my sweatshop labour hustle culture speed. FUCK THE BOSS IF THEY DON'T LIKE IT.

some people were asking what this meant. i actually said it on tumblr but here it is

1. It was not an accident.
2. It was not a staffer.
3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia.
4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares.
5. His base agrees with him.
6. He will do it again.
7. No one in power will hold him accountable.

Jeff Bezos Gutted the Newsroom. He Kept the Megaphone. Bezos didn’t abandon the Washington Post. He just decided which part of it he wanted.

Today's newsletter is my take on Bezos' gutting of the Washington Post and what I think his goal is with all of this: www.readtpa.com/p/jeff-bezos...

just idly remembering when i was assembling my dissertation for final submission in 2017 i was chided by one lovely professor at a conference, who felt my use of the phrase "the return of fascism" to describe the present moment was "alarmist"

We Should Have Finished Reconstruction: A Brief History of American Politics, 1865-2026

A digital illustration of Skeletor as depicted in the 80s He-Man cartoon. For those unfamiliar he is a a blue man with a fantasy bodybuilder physique. He wears a cross-body harness with some little bones at the center and a matching purple hood that frames hood face which is somehow just a yellow skull. Here he is seen yelling up to the sky and shaking his little blue fists at the heavens. Cutting him off at mid-abs is some gleaming 3D lettering in the style of the Masters of the Universe logo that reads ‘Maybe it will happen today’.

Notable Sandwiches #137: Po' Boy Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I trip merrily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, a...

Bennie & Clovis Martin, inventors of the po' boy sandwich, to striking workers:
"We are with you till h--l freezes, and when it does, we will furnish blankets to keep you warm."

Let's bring this energy to 2026:
buttondown.com/theswordandt...

You're so right. Girl Groups, Motown, Brill Building, Wrecking Crew... THAT'S the era classic rock rescued us from? I mean, come the fuck on!!!

Ooh, just saw “without Asimov there would be no science fiction,” and no, you stale crouton, you waterlogged saltine, without Mary Shelley—harassed by her husband and Lord Byron—there would be no science fiction.

You’re confusing fandom for canon.

Some small dumb thing just happened and I reflexively said out loud:

"Alas AND alack? In this economy?"

That phrase says everything you need to know about me.

I love this whole thread, but reposting specifically because I am a Bombadil stan:

I understand the necessity of parental rights, but when did we decide that anyone under eighteen doesn't get to have rights? When I was seven, I think I had the right not to die of measles. When I was twelve, I think I had the right not to be permanently disabled by polio.

All they have is violence

Sunny days

She was a great writer and thinker; I had the privilege of corresponding with her a bit. My sincere condolences to those who knew and loved her.

I get you, it’s just that the priority is pretty much everyone else.

"The Echo Sonata For Two Unfriendly Groups Of Instruments" by P.D.Q. Bach

[Challenge was: favorite song with title of 6+ words]

Have lived among cows; can confirm

I'm not saying ONE SPEECH is SOLELY responsible for 3 HBCUs, an anti-racist town, defeating a federal detention policy or creating one of our greatest poets

All I'm saying is:

If all this happened literally the FIRST TIME white people listened to Black people...

Maybe we should try it again

One thing this article discusses - which gets left out of too much analysis - is the need to be *against* something. Lefties like me understand that you need shared goals to build a coalition. We shy away from accepting that you also kinda need a common enemy.

If you've written a sentence before - especially if your job/role/purpose is to Teach Things To People - you need to read John Warner.

Spent even more time looking through the most thoughtful integrations of AI into writing instruction that I can find, & despite the clear care and intention being applied to these projects, I do not see advancements in writing pedagogy. I see novelty injected into the production of written artifacts

Coincidentally, these were ALSO the exact rules at the YMCA summer camp in Wisconsin years, years, back, for rifle class, which required Special Parent Permission Slips.

if you're not on a first name basis, texting each other happy holidays and pictures of kids and pets type basis, there is a maximum level you should really care about another poster, or their posts

this particular line is maybe the best statement of purpose i have seen for those of us who want a more militant opposition to this administration