melissa

Your Cheat Sheet to the 2025 General Elections - Bolts Four contests have come to largely define the 2025 elections: the elections to lead New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City, plus California’s redistricting measure. But there’s so much else... Read M...

NEW: November general elections are around the corner, so it’s time to launch my cheat sheet of what’s on the ballot this fall!

I guide you thru the *185* elections I'm watching, & why: lawmakers, governors, judges, DAs, mayors, school boards, & dozens of ballot measures.

Explore, share, save:

Please join me in congratulating Woman on her appointment

hey that's a good idea

The IMLS's Freedom Trucks Project Is Propaganda in Support of Historical Erasure: Book Censorship News, September 12, 2025 This week, the IMLS announced their Freedom Trucks initiative. It is blatant propaganda.

This week, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced their lates project, Freedom Trucks.

It is a tremendous work of propaganda.

A deep dive into the project, what it really aims to do, and the curious timing and appearance of the press release.

bookriot.com/imls-freedom...

That eternal question, what’s up with women in philosophy 🤷🏻‍♀️

Whether or not you support political violence won’t change where we’ve come to, nor where we’ve been for some time in this country. I am quite taken aback by how many people only invoke the term ‘political violence’ when it happens to a person with power. It’s political violence the other way too.

The APA board of officers has endorsed the @acls1919.bsky.social joint statement on the White House review of Smithsonian Institution museums. www.apaonline.org/news/708483/...

Shop With A Cop (little kids holiday shopping with cops, precious); Cops & Robbers(!) Donut Run 5k; Cop on a Rooftop??

I learned a new word today! ⚡️

Early Closure of House Leaves IMLS Future Hanging; What This Means & What You Can Do The abrupt early recess in the House of Representatives means the future of IMLS funding remains a question mark. Use this time to act.

The early closure of the House of Representatives leaves the future of the only agency dedicated to public libraries in question. What this means and what you can do right now: bookriot.com/imls-funding...

The Trump Administration Is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food Federal workers warned for months that the high-energy biscuits would go to waste.

“...since Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency disbanded USAID and the State Department subsumed the agency, no money or aid items can move without the approval of the new heads of American foreign assistance, several current and former USAID employees told me."

This. The narratives or arguments that separate out “criminal” from “innocent” immigrants (this includes when media and politicians emphasize stories of “perfect victims”) are bad—it implies that some people are actually deserving of criminalization and deportation, of cruelty and violence.

Here's a gift link to the piece about how the world's richest man decided to kill the world's poorest children. wapo.st/3GjK8qn

i shan't be listening to the takes of centrists who believe in nothing

schadenfreudescrolling

Melissa Hortman, who was assassinated last night, was the Speaker of the Minnesota House in the 2023-2024 session, when Democrats ran the state government.

That means she had a leading role in shepherding the many landmark reforms that Dems adopted in that period—an important legacy. Brief 🧵.

not the main issue here but i'd really appreciate it if democratic politicians spoke out in support of big-city life and culture with the same energy and reverence that all politicians have for small towns

los angeles is "real america" and so are all the other big cities the president hates

Starting Blue Prince whilst struggling through a migraine & trying to take notes was one of my dumber ideas. I’ve made everything worse

Scientists at Loughborough University create 'world's smallest violin' The violin is smaller than a human hair and has "laid the groundwork" for future research.

Well this couldn’t have come at a better time www.bbc.com/news/article...

Disappeared In America A mother and her three children were seized by ICE in a pre-dawn raid near Trump’s border czar Tom Homan’s home, despite deep roots in their community. After ten days in a Texas detention center and a...

Across the country, immigrants are being ripped away from their families and communities without warning, charges, or a day in court.

Today @usimmhub.bsky.social‬ launched a nationwide campaign to share the stories of the #DisappearedInAmerica:

disappearedinamerica.com

Is there no late night show writer who can resist the Combs-trial-related rape jokes? Lazy, cruel, unfunny.

lol I just got momentarily hysterical thinking about the fact that the New York Times got its managing director for communications to confirm on a Saturday that it is standing by its reporting that young women in China have tiny hands and this is why Apple has its factories there

Brian Eno Calls On Microsoft To Cease Partnership With Israel, Will Donate Windows ‘95 Chime Fee To Victims In Gaza Art-music master Brian Eno is the composer of what might be one of the most-heard pieces of music in history, even if much of the world doesn’t necessarily process it as a piece of music. Eno made the...

Brian Eno calls on Microsoft to cease its partnership with Israel and pledges to donate the original fee for his Windows '95 chime to victims of Israel's genocide in Gaza

These Colleges Are Shuttering Their Women’s and LGBTQ+ Centers Here’s what to know.

All 31 closures thus far have occurred in states with majority-Republican legislatures.

Anti-Transgender Disinformation in the Age of Algorithmic Search Summaries Recently Google introduced a feature in its search engine that algorithmically creates summaries of one's search results. Though it could be viewed as a useful tool, researcher Anna Beers argues this ...

Hey all, here's a post at @ssrc.org about how anti-trans talking points are getting wrapped into Google's AI search results.

AI search not only cites anti-trans disinfo, but sanitizes it, making practices like conversion therapy sound legitimate and safe.

Hospital tells family brain-dead Georgia woman must carry fetus to birth because of abortion ban A hospital is using a breathing tube and other measures to keep a brain-dead Georgia woman's body functioning because she is pregnant.

This story reminds me of how Hugh Hefner bought the burial plot next to Marilyn Monroe’s: for women, not even death offers an escape from being sexually and reproductively used. apnews.com/article/preg...

Do your moms also still take pictures of the pope on tv 🥹

For every doll you deny me I will push another jet off an aircraft carrier

just so we’re all clear: the reason they keep using dolls as their example is because they’re trying to frame caring about material stuff as feminine and thus inherently shameful