Miriam 🌻

Disability Visibility anthology Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century (Vintage Books, 2020) Click here for more about the anthology adapted for young people.     Order paperback, e-bo…

the world is a bit smaller tonight with the death of Alice Wong. if you aren't familiar with who she was please pick up any of her books.

40 years ago we’d have congressional hearings falsely accusing metal bands of putting backwards messages in their songs that told kids to kill themselves & now we have a planet-killing chatbot that’s all like “bet you won’t commit suicide chickenshit bitch” & the government is like here’s $5 billion

Gaza’s UNRWA schools are classrooms by day, displacement shelters at night Around 300,000 UNRWA pupils have been deprived of a formal education since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Around 300,000 UNRWA pupils have been deprived of a formal education since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023.

The entire right-wing propaganda machine came after Zohran Mamdani.

The president and his allies came after him.

Democratic leaders, by and large, did not have his back until the last minute.

He still won, turning out historic numbers and inspiring young voters.

His politics can win anywhere.

This government consistently acts in a manner suggesting it KNOWS what it is doing is either the wrong thing to do or wildly unpopular, which is why it schedules press releases in the hope that their latest travesty will fly under the radar.

The sad thing is that it largely works. #nzpol

Mamdani: "New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant."

Good things are possible and we don’t have to settle.

Zohran, Tish James and Brad Lander lead a procession of hundreds walking across the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn.

Tish James, Brad Lander, Tony Simone and Rita Joseph wait for the march on the bridge.

Zohran at a packed press conference outside city hall, Tish James and others raising their hands in the air.

Early this morning, our city still plunged into darkness, I set off to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.

As the sun came up, we were joined by canvassers, labor leaders, elected officials, and working people — a movement to bring a new day to our city.

Tomorrow, we win it together.

I'm reading the new Social Sciences curriculum content and I wasn't prepared for how sad I would feel. We spent thousands of hours working with the previous iteration and the NZ history content and all that enthusiasm and excitement was just killed for something so bad.

Professor Robert MacCulloch, the Matthew S. Abel chair of macroeconomics at Auckland University, said the policy was "half-baked" and questioned whether Labour would raise anything at all, saying it could hurt people with lower incomes. "It's a trivial amount of money. It's not going to change a whole lot of anything," he said. "You could get with this a very rich person with a $20m house on Paritai Drive... which is not subject to any tax at all providing you're living in it, and someone who's worth a few hundred thousand with their own house and a rental property worth $100,000, they pay this tax."

The Auckland University chair of macroeconomics, who hasn't left his office since 1975, thinks there are are people "worth a few hundred thousand" who are landlords and that houses are worth $100k.

Square of tartan with vertical and horizontal thin stripes in red and grey on black

A new Scottish tartan memorializing the (mainly) female victims of the Witchcraft Act has been officially registered, created by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi, founders of the Witches of Scotland campaign #WomensArt
via Smithsonian Magazine

Reminder that the people who founded Alpha Schools have zero training or expertise in education--they do not care about anything but profit.
And Im horrified that parents, and policymakers would think experimenting on young children with gAI like this is acceptable.

To all those “Let them go without food for a month, maybe they’ll get a job” people: Most SNAP recipients have jobs. Exploitative jobs that keep them living just below the poverty line. — Should they starve to death? And then what?

Walz: "They are paying contractors to pay down the East Wing but they're not putting money into the food bank. So if there's a sense of frustration in America, it's very real ... when the White House press secretary said their top priority is the ballroom, we could not disagree more."

Two measles cases at Wellington colleges prompts stay home order The cases were confirmed over the long weekend.

This is not great. Check your vaccination status and if in doubt, get a booster.

The whole of year 11 at Wellington College has been advised to stay home.

This Labour Day, Aotearoa, try to live up to the dignified and respectable example of those worthy workers who first banded together in 1840 and politely requested to work only an 8-hour day.

Then threw anyone who crossed the line into the harbour

Mayor Johnson is cooking

🌧️🌬️❄️Significant storm to impact much of New Zealand on Labour Day.

As an active low pressure system moves across Aotearoa New Zealand from the Tasman Sea during Labour Day and Tuesday.

🟡🟠Warnings, Watches in force.

Details here
bit.ly/AllWarnings

Merkley: "What we've seen is that democracies no longer die bc men w/guns go in and take it over. Instead, it's electeds who erode the separation of power. If you have a rubber-stamp Congress & courts that deliver more power to the executive, suddenly you have an authoritarian state. It's here now."

New Zealand ‘mega strike’: 100,000 public sector workers demand better conditions Teachers, nurses and public service staff among those walking off job and pressing for more government investment in health and education

Thank you to everyone who came out to support our public service workers today ✊ #nzpol

Tighter rules may be needed to stem flow of public submissions, says MP 'Coordinated, largely online campaigns' make it harder for politicians to consider good-faith submissions on laws

This guy.
There’s only one group acting in bad faith here and it’s not the many many people who want to express their outrage about the coalition’s legislation.
This is a profoundly undemocratic thing even to consider.
#nzpol

Known Lethal U.S. Attacks on Civilian Vessels in the Caribbean Total reported killed: 34 people Notification Date Number Reported Killed Approximate Location Notification URL September 2, 2025 11 “in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility” (later revealed as between Sucre, Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago) View September 15, 2025 3 “in International Waters… in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility”; Colombian president claimed it was a fishing boat in Colombian waters View September 19, 2025 3 “in international waters… in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility” near the Dominican Republic View October 3, 2025 4 “in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela” View October 14, 2025 6 “in International Waters… just off the Coast of Venezuela” View October 16, 2025 2; 2 reported survivors “in the Caribbean” View October 17, 2025 3 “in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility” View October 21, 2025 2 “in the Eastern Pacific” View

34 people killed in 50 days. Their guilt or innocence unknown, for an alleged crime that doesn't carry a death sentence. That's a lot of death.

adamisacson.com/boat-strikes/

I don't need more money. I would like more money. The new English curriculum for Years 9 and 10 was released last Sunday. I now have about two months to totally rewrite two years worth of courses, come up with work, assessments, and also find tens of thousands of magical dollars for new resources, so that we can implement them at the start of next year. (That time-estimate assumes I'll work through about half of my holidays, as I usually do. I could work through the rest. You know, like politicians don't.) I'm paid okay - I'm not paid enough for that.

I know the argument that money is thin on the ground, and we can't be greedy but let's do the stats: This government gave $300 million worth of tax breaks to the tobacco industry. This government has given $2.9 billion (with a "B") of tax breaks to landlords. This government has committed $4 billion to build some more roads in Wellington. This government spent $140 million to not buy some ferries. No, you read that wrong - they didn't buy ferries. They _didn't_ buy ferries. They spent $140 million to not-buy them. There is no $140 million, _and_ no ferries. This government has committed $10 million to 215 students because those students go to schools that David Seymour likes.

If there was no money, I'd get that. But there is money. What there aren't any of is teachers. And nurses. And firefighters.

Taken from a teacher friend. The money is there, the government is choosing to use it for roads, landlords, tobacco companies, etc.
There is money. What there aren't any of is teachers. And nurses. And fire fighters.
#NZMegaStrike

Also worth noting that our worst paid nurses in New Zealand, the ones whose pay equity claims were thrown in the trash by this government aren't able to join the strike today. But remember that primary health care, aged care and Māori health service nurses stand in solidarity with the strike.

You found $$$ for roads, tobacco industry, landlords, cancelling ferries, piddly tax cuts.

You cut a bunch of so-called 'back room' jobs that supported doctors, nurses, & teachers to do their work.

You froze hiring & refused to employ nurses

You outsourced curriculum development to AI and Aus.

Just read “there are no unskilled workers in the hospital” & damn. I support both the right of tomorrow’s striking workers to strike for better conditions, & the conditions they’re asking for.

There’s also no unskilled workers in schools.

‘A perfect coincidence’: rare red lightning captured in New Zealand skies Photographers capture extremely unusual phenomenon – also known as red sprites – against backdrop of the Milky Way A trio of photographers in New Zealand have captured images of “red sprites”, or red lightning, one of the rarest light phenomena in the world, in which luminous crimson flashes appear in the sky. New Zealand photographer Tom Rae and Spanish photographers Dan Zafra and José Cantabrana set out to shoot the Milky Way over the Ōmārama Clay cliffs in the South Island on 11 October, when they chanced upon the extraordinary event. Continue reading...

‘A perfect coincidence’: rare red lightning captured in New Zealand skies

You'd think that they'd understand that NZ's famous Two Degrees Of Separation means everyone in the country knows someone who works in health, education, etc etc

I'm eyeing the timing of the big protests on Thursday and hoping people are going to be okay. #nzpol

I know it's been scheduled WAY in advance, is there a point where it's worth rescheduling for safety/numbers?

I'll trust what they go with, but oof.