Shawn Westfall

The thing about this new generation of Republican fascists is they don't actually *mind* being called fascists, and in fact enjoy cosplaying as fascists in the streets of my city #DCTakeover

For all that right-wing denigration of “participation trophies,” residue of culture wars from decades past, they’re awfully silent on Trump’s entitled and pathetic slavering after a Nobel Prize simply because Barack Obama has one and he doesn’t

Silly question, Washington Post: Fascism.

There's no need to click on legacy media headlines like "What Trump's DC Takeover Means" or "Why Is Trump Deploying Troops to DC?" or "Trump Takes Over DC: What To Expect?"

The answer is, and always has been, fascism.

Literally what I was thinking of as well

You guys know Philip K. Dick essentially called all of this, right? *gestures at everything*

I move to Portland, Trump deploys the National Guard.

I move back to DC, Trump deploys the National Guard.

Maybe it's me? Because I'm starting to think I should randomly walk up to MAGAts and ask, in my best Tom Waits voice, "YOU EVER WONDER HOW I GOT THESE SCARS!?!?!?

"To dissolve art back into the artist’s experience is like scraping the paint off a canvas in order to see what the 'real' canvas looked like before it assumed its painted disguise" -- Northrop Frye

The hill I'll die on: the most criminally underrated performance in cinematic history is this one, and it's not even close. Not even a Best Supporting actor nom? You bastages. You fargin' iceholes #JohnnyDangerously #RomanMoroni

Stephen Colbert is going SCORCHED EARTH right now. To RFK Jr: “Fuck you, you roid-addled nepo carnie! Fuck you, you roadkill-munching Luddite human slim jim!”

Watchdog Group Downgrades U.S. From Democracy To Whatever Political System Lobsters Have WASHINGTON—Describing the shift as a troubling indicator for the health of the nation’s system of governance, watchdog group Freedom House published a report Wednesday downgrading the United States fr...

theonion.com/watchdog-gro...

Washington Post: “Is fascism bad? The answer may surprise you”

Teen Vogue: “Here are three fun tips you can use this summer to disable an armored personnel carrier”

NYC Mass Shooting Was Nearly Impossible to Prevent, Experts Say

Holy shit, they did it. They wrote the headline.

Tom Lehrer, Musical Satirist With a Dark Streak, Dies at 97

Tom Lehrer may be the best light verse poet America has produced, up there with XJ Kennedy and Dorothy Parker. From "Wernher von Braun":

"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?/That’s not my department,’ says Wernher von Braun.”

So long, Mr. Lehrer
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/a...

"In a world that never repeats itself with exactitude, all believing is betting" -- Louis Menand, "The Metaphysical Club"

"The cruel seek forgiveness for their sins in asking those they wronged for a favor" -- Tennessee Williams

Holy crap! Awful. I'm sorry, man!

I'm only three episodes in to Apple TV's #HelloTomorrow but man am I ever *in*. How to describe it? The best I can do: it's as if "Glengarry Glen Ross" were somehow set inside "Pleasantville" but accompanied by a darker, more menacing PhilDickian sensibility. Highly recommend.

Your fireworks: safely launched and monitored by trained demolitions experts and first responders in whatever municipality you live near on July 4th

My fireworks: shot off by Molly-ridden dirty hippies on Burn Night @ Burning Man as a 70-foot effigy is gas-bombed into oblivion

We are not the same

Michael Madsen has left us. TIL from his obituary that he trained at Steppenwolf in Chicago. The colossal amount of theater and film talent that theater has produced, and he was one of their best. So long, MM.

"Harvard did not have a full-time tenured woman in the English department until 1981 (Marjorie Garber). It did not tenure a woman from within the English department until 2003 (Leah Price)" -- Louis Menand, "The Free World"

Went to the 9:30 Club’s anniversary exhibit last night at The Atlantic. Great stuff, but it made me melancholic for past eras, times, people. Like That Guy At The 9:30 Club. Miss you, Josh.

Any one of your 10-best ballots for the NYTimes "100 Best Movies of the 21st Century" that doesn't contain "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is invalid

“The cult of beauty, then, is reactionary*: it is continually setting up barriers to the conquest of experience by art, and limits the variety of expression in art wherever it can” — Northrop Frye

*by “reactionary,” Frye of course means “fascist”

Legendary Wrecking Crew bassist Carol Kaye's declining to be inducted into the the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is the most bass player decision to ever bass

"...the lust for sadistic power on the part of the ruling class is strong enough to last indefinitely, which is precisely the assumption one has to make about devils in order to accept the orthodox picture of hell" -- Northrop Frye

"He kissed the plump mellow yellow smellow melons of her rump, on each plump melonous hemisphere, in their mellow yellow furrow, with obscure prolonged provocative melonsmellonous osculation" -- James Joyce, "Ulysses"

EnJoyce, everyoneofus! It's #Bloomsday, the OneHundred&TwentyFirst, FactSoSeem!

*puts on "The Warmth of The Sun," begins sobbing*

So long, Brian...

Kevin McDonald: Stories from The Kids in the Hall - PoPville Join Kids in the Hall legend Kevin McDonald for a one-night-only comedy event! In the first half, Kevin shares hilarious, behind-the-scenes stories from his time with the iconic sketch troupe. Then, i...

If you're in DC on Saturday & want to avoid the spectacle of Trump turning Constitution Ave into Red Square circa '78, I and a number of other talented DC improvisors will at the @dcartscenter joining Kevin on stage to cap off a fun night of storytelling and improv

www.popville.com/events/kevin...