moumousas.bsky.social

No, seriously.

It's actually poetic in its own way.

This is just the way I greet everyone for New Year's now:

Listening to lots of music from the high school-to-college time period here, and wow. Look what we lived through.

Also, it’s clean.

There has been zero learning curve or culture shock for me in Singapore because it’s literally just Queens with different English.

I did most of my reporting while still in New York, but did much of the writing while on the road. My home comes with me wherever I go.

I wrote this piece on how, even in sanctuary cities, lawmaking and enforcement deliver immigrants into ICE’s hands.
My hometown of Flushing, the place that raised me, plays the part of a landing port for newcomers. It is a cosmopolitan unto itself. Every issue we face is a microcosm faced elsewhere.

Hello everyone. I'm alive and in Singapore, been traveling around a lot these past few months and generally feeling like a Cdrama protagonist sent on a million side quests.

There are a lot of heroes in western Wisconsin, but they are struggling with the challenges this article capably captures

are we still on about em dashes and ai. imo human writers should just use the em dashes even harder. we should be out here pummeling out those em dashes like we're emily dickinson

"New York Jianghu" in Taipei Demi Guo here.

We've launched New York Jianghu's Substack. Check out our first piece - bringing kung fu back to its source.

substack.com/@newyorkjian...

America's fate was sealed when it decided to steal people and then trick people from other lands to do its labor.

THIS THIS THIS 👇

An Onion front page with the headline: Congress, Now More Than Ever, Our Nation Needs Your Cowardice Who will stand up for our democracy? This question, fraught in even the most peaceful times, has only grown more pressing as our country approaches its 250th anniversary. Each passing day brings growing assaults on essential liberties like freedom of speech and due process. Meanwhile, our delicately assembled legal system faces a constant barrage of threats. Even as this issue reaches publication, the U.S. military has been deployed against peaceful protesters. We teeter on the brink of collapse into an authoritarian state. That is why, today, The Onion calls upon our lawmakers to sit back and do absolutely nothing. Members of Congress, now more than ever, our nation desperately needs your cowardice. Our republic is a birthright, an exceedingly rare treasure passed down from generation to generation of Americans. It was gained through hard years of bloody resistance and can too easily be lost. Our Founding Fathers, in their abundant wisdom, understood that all it would take was men and women of little courage sitting in the corridors of power and taking zero action as this precious inheritance was stripped away—and that is where we have finally arrived. Now is not the time for bravery or valor! This is the time for protecting your own hide and lining your pocket. Now is not the time for listening to your idiotic constituents drone on about what’s happening to their precious democracy. This is the time for getting down on all fours and grov- eling. Now is not the time to say, “Enough is enough,” and have the tough conversations about resisting the ongoing assaults on American liberty. This is the time to let the wave of apathy and indifference roll over you as you think about getting a really nice renovation to your house in Kalorama. But what can I, one coward, do alone? you might ask.

Donald Trump just unilaterally bombed Iran. A masked gang is terrorizing our streets. America has rapidly devolved into an authoritarian state.

That's why, today, The Onion has purchased a full page ad in today's New York Times with a simple plea to Congress:

Sit back and do absolutely nothing.

Reminder that if you've published an article online, save it. Save a file of it, upload it onto the Wayback Machine.

The journalism industry is seeing a new wave of layoffs or acquisition by a conglomerate every other week now. You don't know what'll happen to your work. Back it all up.

I feel this in my soul every time someone says I should write a memoir. I've lived an interesting life, but I want to share my stories because I want to, not because I'm mining for views.

I was born in the US, but many of my friends weren't. At every turn in life, whatever I had to do - like applying to colleges - was ten times more difficult and expensive for them.

The Anti-Immigration Majority Is a Mirage Americans gradually bought the Republican sales pitch on immigration. Then they saw what it looks like in practice.

"In my experience, most native-born people have no clue what a complicated, expensive, nonsensical, and above all slow process it is. It still takes years, thousands of dollars, a gigantic pile of paperwork, and a lot of luck for regular people who do it all right." prospect.org/politics/202...

I think a lot abt how marginalized people are expected to be perfect just to be treated w/ basic dignity, just to access legal protection. But democracy can’t mean rights for the respectable few. It has to mean fair and just treatment even for those seen as least deserving. That’s the real test.

And when my friend asked me how I'd earned the respect of someone who doesn't give that kind of help so easily, I shrugged. I truly don't know what he saw in me.

The only reason I was able to get this far in making my documentary is because when I first started developing it, a kung fu master in Chinatown -- whom I'd only met a couple of times -- connected me with my co-producer. My co-producer told me that that's because I'd earned the master's respect.

I keep asking and wondering why all these people would go out of their way to help me, someone who can't give them much in return. The answer is usually some form of, I see promise in you.

A couple of years ago, while working on a major media campaign, I was wet behind the ears and asked for help from someone who had successfully run a similar campaign. I had just expected some tips and resources. Instead, they willingly sat down with my for two hours to go over my notes and plans.

I was told today by someone in my professional circles, who never even met me in person, that I was smarter than many others around us. Which explained why they'd jumped to help me, connecting me with resources and explaining how to manage my finances better.

This is a weird self-praise, but I think since I have a low sense of self worth, I need to start focusing on good things.
The first:
All the people who invested in me, who saw promise in me.

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Tawazun Culture shock and scarcity in my own hometown

I'm from the part of NYC that's 50% immigrants. That means I get culture shock in the very neighborhoods I grew up in. I wrote about after helping out with some events during Ramadan:

substack.com/home/post/p-...

My friend rec'd your book last year because I'm also an AsAm journalist raised by a narcissist (from Queens, so I'm like your East Coast twin). Needless to say, I talked to my therapist and got a formal diagnosis. It doesn't change anything, but it's easier to find reading material for myself now.

Picture of a Labrador retriever puppy

I have a dire wolf too. Don’t say she’s not. I say she is. And I know genetics too. Dire wolf.

I am releasing the embargo on this news today at 5 pm.

Honestly, I'm crying a bit just thinking about it. That friend group was so kind, and I'm glad that I tried to ignore the demons in my mind and persisted in spending time with them.