Love & Lasers

If you had been told the loud noises were not loud & the scratchy shirts were not scratchy, your whole life, you too would be a bit stubborn is all I'm saying.

many of the prominent transphobes (& some MPs) went to bat for this one after she received a police visit in 2022. they wrote articles defending her and sent her supportive messages. they won't bother speaking up now, though

"Women" were on the forbidden word list. The Women's Health Initiative helped us understand Hormone Replacement Therapy. We had this study because NIH had frequently *left women out* of their studies.

I once overheard someone getting annoyed with his friend on the train and instead of saying “you’re getting on my tits” or “you’re pissing me off,” he said “you’re burning my crumpets” (and I will not rest until this becomes a common expression)

Said this yesterday in a reply, but: The thing is he isn't some unprecedented master interviewer. He just does his research and calls them on bullshit. And I think it speaks to the state of journalism that his subjects are universally unprepared for that

🔥🔥🔥 I’m 80 years old. I decided to call #SocialSecurity

“If you are calling about a disability application due to staffing reductions, our average processing time for disability applications is 200 to 230 days.

The estimated hold time is greater than 120 minutes”

A gorgeous portrait of the White House entirely aflame, the smoke billowing and the flames lighting up the night sky. It sparks deep patriotic ferver. This is what democracy looks like. Also there's a white button with blue text below the portrait. The text reads "Learn more" and if clicked it takes you to the menu of a local brewhouse.

If you're wondering about the vibe in Canada right now, I just got served this ad for a brewhouse that is just a portrait of the White House being burned down. No text, just a bigass picture of the White House burning and a link directly to their menu lolol

NEW: The Department of Justice says it will no longer fight to protect the right of pregnant people to emergency abortion care.

While a judge has temporarily blocked Idaho’s ban on such care, patients’ lives could still be at risk because of the Trump administration's actions.

Take transphobia. While a pervasive cultural force, Rs have been repeatedly punished electorally for going all in. The VALUE of transphobia to Trump’s coalition is the CROSSOVER appeal to TERFs and other liberals who made transphobia their whole personality. It gives them “feminist” cover and cred.

Breaking News: You can put turmeric and ginger on popcorn and it's delicious. That is all

A good point and something to seriously consider for any Americans attending protests.
In these days of Social Media Is King, optics matter more than ever before.
Think how many people this would help radicalise to the pro-democracy side.

An orange cat and gray tabby sit on a cushion in a windowsill. Their heads are touching. Above them, a pride flag hangs in the window

Kitty Pride

I miss being a goofy little weirdo on social media. Just posting memes and goofs like god's silliest little cowboy. Now it feels like assessing threat levels- aye, we at big red or just dark orange today?

I personally will continue to use "Gulf of Mexico" because our president is a wrathful felonious nincompoop with the intellect of paramecium and I do not consent to his cartographic buffoonery

Watchdog ousted after reporting that Trump administration is letting $489M in food aid rot President Donald Trump's administration has fired yet another independent watchdog — this time immediately after that watchdog reported on the fallout of Trump's push to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Internal Development, or USAID. According to John…

Watchdog ousted after reporting that Trump administration is letting $489M in food aid rot: President Donald Trump's administration has fired yet another independent watchdog — this time immediately after that watchdog reported on the fallout of Trump's push to dismantle the U.S. Agency for…

If you’re a federal employee, now would be a superb time to not be a Just Following Orders guy

Dystopian speculative fiction is the new cozy fiction because at least in stories there's a dedicated resistance to join. So hopeful, much cozy.

Louisiana coerced unhoused people into an unheated warehouse – and paid $17.5m for it Dozens of New Orleanians were bused to a site with insufficient heating and blankets days before the city is to host the Super Bowl

In preparation for today’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, state police forced over 100 homeless men and women onto buses under threat of arrest, dumping them in an unheated warehouse. Tents destroyed, belongings lost. Press are barred from the warehouse.

The price tag for this cruelty? $17.5 million

Tweet from Scott Jennings, saying "um, yes, that's really a problem," with a quoted image saying "The problem with left-leaning media is they're intrinsically more strict with their propaganda to only using verifiable sources so it's really hard to poke holes in their ideology and arguments in comparison to a lot of low quality right-wing content. That makes attacking their points with fact checkers not very effective unless the fact checkers use misinformation tactics as well. In essence, people on the right have to work harder and more creatively to push their agendas as statistics and studies frustratingly aren't usually on our side."

This is why they're attacking science and education: if you can only win with disinformation, data become a threat.

It was totally their time to shine.

We're proud of you too!

This is why gender affirming care IS health care. It saves lives. I fear this with my son, and my heart breaks for this girl and her family.

Oooh- good catch! Just added him

Of course! Let me know if you find anyone particularly good. I definitely recommend Erin in the Morning for actual trans rights news.

I'm looking into finding others- just a matter of finding good quality people to follow for specific subjects.

So it's kind of like a grown up version of the old circles of blogs. Many substacks require paid subscriptions, but a lot of people have free substacks as well. New publications from people you subscribe to come via email. So far, I subscribe to Erin in the Morning and Popular Information.

They're just... not reporting any of it. It's ridiculously unethical.

I've kinda been done with traditional media since it's rare to find anything important or actionable. NPR is better than most but not by much. Are you on Substack? I've started following independent journalists there instead.

Please hire me to be your town sorcerer. I can wave at bluebirds. I can glue googly eyes to seed pods and discarded soda cans. I can add previously unknown magic words to dictionaries in little free libraries. I can stand on the roof and send messages to the moon using paper airplanes.

Really wish the articles about executive orders being blocked would mention more than just trans inmates. It's not just people in prison (who, sadly, the average american does not care about). He's declaring our existence illegal.