Ron Oakes (He/Him)

Trump Posts Video Portraying Obamas as Apes

This is not a dog whistle; this is being openly racist.

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/u...

Hotels have an anti-cat bias Cat owners who attempt to take their pets on vacation often encounter canceled rentals and “pet-friendly” policies that are anything but.

I have encountered this myself, even though I have mostly traveled with pets while moving between cities for relocation:

In 2008, we had to leave Sam with my brother because the host hotel for Denvention 3 wouldn't let him stay with us, but would let us keep Rocket with us.

wapo.st/4t9jOCM

Federal Agents Arrest Don Lemon Over Minnesota Church Protest

The current administration is 100% attempting to suppress the media with this move, in addition to protecting one, very specific form of Christianity which, FWIW, does not match what Jesus taught according to the bible:

Gift Article from the NYT

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...

South Koreans Swept Up in Immigration Raid at Hyundai E.V. Plant in Georgia

Am I being cynical to wonder if the Hyundai battery plant was targeted because it was for vehicles that don't burn God's Holy Petroleum?

NYT Gift Article www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/u...

The group behind Project 2025 wants a ‘Manhattan Project’ for more babies A draft position paper from the Heritage Foundation proposes massive revisions to U.S. economic policy to encourage heterosexual married couples to have more children.

Not a surprise, but this proposal from the Heritage Foundation is heteronormative and racist 🐂💩

(Wapo Gift) wapo.st/4p44mG3

Florida Says It Plans to End All Vaccine Mandates

Parents, leave the state of Florida NOW. They want to kill your children, even if they are not LGBTQIA+

Explore this gift article from The New York Times.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...

President Trump’s War on “Woke AI” Is a Civil Liberties Nightmare A new executive order called “Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government,” released alongside the AI Action Plan, seeks to strong-arm AI companies into modifying their models to conform with the Tru...

The EFF confirms what I suspected about DearLeader's AI orders: He wants the government to have even worse LMM biases:

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

From Book Bans to Internet Bans: Wyoming Lets Parents Control the Whole State’s Access to The Internet If you've read about the sudden appearance of age verification across the internet in the UK and thought it would never happen in the U.S., take note: many politicians want the same or even more stric...

Wyoming is putting bounties on websites that parents (read ultra-conservative) parents find "obscene"

From the EFF:

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Border Patrol arrested firefighters as they were battling a wildfire

BrainWorm wants to make me healthy by making the lying liar in my head louder, which will do the opposite.

But he’s bought into the same lie as the not a Church of Scientology, that they are evil.

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

FEMA employees put on leave after criticizing Trump administration in open letter About 180 current and former FEMA staffers sent a letter on Monday to members of Congress and other officials protesting the agency’s leadership and direction.

Well, apparently, if you work for the federal government, you don't have the right to criticize the federal government:
(Gift Article)
wapo.st/45C4h4U

That isn't too different than how I ended up chairing my second Conjecture (San Diego): I had an idea for a theme. That was the 4th (out of 6) time I chaired an SF convention.

So I took over GMing for a bit and the adventure hook is that somebody taught all the parrots in this region the verbal component to magic missile.

F.D.A. Approves Covid Shots With New Restrictions

BrainWorm's HHS/FDA will create a COVID epidemic because of their AntiVax DNA.

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/h...

DOGE Put Critical Social Security Data at Risk, Whistle-Blower Says

Key quote: “I have determined the business need is higher than the security risk associated with this implementation..."

Social Security is *NOT* a business.

NYT Gift: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/u...

Inside the $7M project to save Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic masterpiece Inside the three-year, $7 million project to keep water out of the 1930s home designed by the legendary architect and built atop a waterfall.

It takes a lot of work... It needs to be done:

wapo.st/4oRuxjd

Trump Says He Wants to Get Rid of Mail-In Ballots

Direct article link, not a gift: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/u...

Trump Says He Wants to Get Rid of Mail-In Ballots

Dear Leader wants our next election to be total chaos he can exploit:

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

(NY Times gift article, which may go to breaking news)

Bread and Butter and Hope It’s not just Mamdani

The path for Democratics to take back our country is through progressive ideas, not aping the fear-based talking points of the MAGAits:

open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

Since wolves’ return, Yellowstone’s aspens are recovering, study finds The researchers found a 152-fold increase in sapling and young-tree density.

Apex predators appear to be important to the entire ecosystem. Man managed livestock herbivores are not.

Let the wolves live and find other ways to keep your cows and sheep safe.

(Gift Article)

wapo.st/4oe7Fdv

Live Updates: After a Weak Jobs Report, Trump Says He’s Firing That Agency’s Commissioner

Don't make DearLeader look bad if you want to keep your job.

You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07...

🤬DearLeader and his sycophants in Congress:

cpb.org/pressroom/Co...

Smithsonian removes Trump from impeachment exhibit in American history museum A temporary placard, on display since 2021, described the president's historic impeachments. Officials said the exhibit was restored to an earlier version following a review of legacy content.

It is historically inaccurate to play down or exclude two presidential impeachments in an exhibit that covers the other two and the near-impeachment. Yet another example of DearLeader being a dictator with a fragile ego.

wapo.st/3HhfyxU

DOGE builds AI tool to cut 50 percent of federal regulations The U.S. DOGE Service is using a new AI tool to eliminate federal regulations, aiming to cut 50 percent of rules by the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

This is pretty scary. First of all, many or most regulations are written in blood, not that the greedy uberwealthy like to believe that. Second, letting badly trained LMMs that probably have worse biases than the humans who control them decide what to cut makes it worse. (WAPO Gift)

wapo.st/3U2q3bs

Three critical stories that are getting buried by Epsteingate We have little or no chance of rectifying the most serious wrongs if we’re captivated by the most exciting.

DearLeader may want his pedophilia and relationship with a sex trafficker to go away. But it is distracting folks from other horrors, most of which he is also complicit in, if not the cause of:

open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

American Convicted of Murder Is Freed by Trump From Venezuela Prison

DearLeader is sending non-criminals to be tortured in El Salvador, and then exchanging them for *ACTUAL MURDERERS* 🤬🤬🤬

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/w...

E.P.A. Is Said to Draft a Plan to End Its Ability to Fight Climate Change

DearLeader and Co. are trying to destroy the world because they are in bed with big petroleum and the people who believe that we should power the world with God's Holy Petroleum

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/c...

Trump Administration Live Updates: Supreme Court Clears Way for Dismantling of Education Department

The Supreme Court is allowing DearLeader and the wrasslin' executive to dismantle the Dept. of Education. Well, I guess folks like me who needed an IEP to get through school are now hosed. And folks with even greater needs are even worse off:

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07...

Hundreds form human chain to help Melbourne’s oldest bookshop relocate after more than a century Literature lovers braved wintry weather to pass thousands of books from Hill of Content’s original Bourke Street premises to its new home

Book Lovers Unite (literally): www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...