Racheline Maltese

Your regular reminder that normal, mainstream, pro-democracy political parties do not make restricting suffrage the central pillar of their policy platform

I love that local media has an entire beat comprised of “I found a weird bird. It’s not supposed to be here.”

Pretty sure this is about conflating homeownership with being a landlord. Because I have never heard anyone in NYC malign home ownership. Ever ever ever. (I own a home that I live in)

The school bldg had been part of the mil compound until about 15 years ago—FIFTEEN YEARS—but was completely walled off by 2016. Same was true for a health clinic that was also hit by the US attack.

US was either targeting with ancient intel, or didn’t care about all-but-certain collateral damage.

Video appears to show U.S. cruise missile striking Iranian school compound The seven-second video was released by Iranian state media and directly contradicts statements made by President Trump, who said Iran was responsible for the strike.

The Iranian girls’ school was hit by a US tomahawk cruise missile. NPR has confirmed the footage.

Jeez. Also our hideous numbers are partially because I’m in my 50s and she’s in her 40s. If you’re younger than us, brace yourselves.

(I am incredulous because the government just used to want me dead for being queer. But for real every axis on which our government is deeply adversarial to my perfectly normal life is an axis on which I have personal freedom)

I stepped down from a platinum plan to a silver plan cause I couldn’t afford 50k per year for my wife and I. I’m still looking at over 30k this year for us. It’s not sustainable and is more than 50% of my after tax earnings.

Haha oh no. I have encountered probably the most wack and hateful conservatives I’ve encountered in romance spaces. And I’ve encountered a lot of wack and hateful conservatives in all sorts of spaces.

And if I ever move out of the US it will be because it is impossible to age safely here.

I pay more for health insurance per year than I pay for my housing. More than I pay for food. More than I pay for electricity. I pay more for health insurance per year than I earned annually at jobs in my first decade of work.

If you're scared of protesting or a general strike because you could lose your job, healthcare, and housing, or even go to jail, now you understand why the US has no universal healthcare or housing and no guaranteed parental leave, but DOES have the largest prison and police system on planet Earth.

I am self-employed. Obamacare is how I get insured. My rates doubled this year. DOUBLED. Does our government believe that only people who work for corporations should be allowed to live?

Basically, take the amount of money you think your favorite author gets, halve it, and then halve it again, and you have a number that's probably a lot closer to their actual earnings from writing.

"But I don't think they make that much!"

Halve that. Halve it again.

Watchmen issue #1

Discussion of Watchmen is dominated by the thoughts and feelings of male writers, so @shelfdust.bsky.social paid 12 female and non-binary writers to talk about each issue of the serial instead: shelfdust.com/tag/we-watch...

Hasbro’s CEO on J.K. Rowling. We just published our new Decoder interview with Chris Cocks, the head of Hasbro. I asked him directly about how he thinks about author J.K. Rowling’s politics and what it’s done to the Harry Potter f...

cannot stress enough that "separate the art from the artist" was meant for private individuals reconciling the art they love with its flawed creators and not meant for the ceo of a company driving a dump truck of money up to a bigot's front porch

www.theverge.com/podcast/8914...

I’m not a big curling guy, but I get the significance of this, and WOW it’s mind-blowing. Some are calling it the best shot in curling history! #TeamCanada at the #ParalympicGames.

Starlog folder icon

Folks, if you ever wanted to have the full, 374-issue run of STARLOG magazine... then boy, do I have a Dropbox full of PDFs for you:

www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/16d04...

I’m still working my way through this season of Bridgerton but it’s so fundamentally conservative, it’s driving me mad

If he has a trans godson & still agrees w/Nazis that trans ppl shouldn’t be allowed to play sports or transition before age 26, considers them “not normal” & chalks up their struggle for rights to “pronouns” then that makes him even worse cause he should fucking know better but pulls that bs anyway.

NO NO NO YOU DON’T

GUYS LET ME PLEASE SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF FREE TAX USA

federal is free, state is $16, handles even my chaotic freelancer taxes just fine, same step-by-step “designed for normies” kind of interface as TurboTax but NOT EVIL

tell everyone you know

www.freetaxusa.com

Nature Report, Killed by Trump, Is Released Independently

Trump canceled a major scientific report on the health of the natural world. The scientists are finishing it anyway. Yay scientists! www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/c...

I’d be excited to answer. Not to be exonerated but to possibly have new friends to commiserate with about the fucking Nazi infestation in our federal government.

Reposting with alt text.

This is horrific and grotesque, but it is always important to point out: as long as running concentration camps in the United States is a legal, profitable business model, companies will fiercely bid against one another for contracts.

I finally read the full Slate article. I conclude this is more evidence that a person who doesn't read romance should not write a Serious Article About Romance, even if that person interviews very smart people like @jenreadsromance.bsky.social, because the condescension drips on through.

Being on the A train in a figure skating dress and full competition makeup is definitely my new most awkward

March 8, 2026 - Tehran at sunrise today. But the sun is hidden behind a sky filled with smoke. After a night of intensive strikes on oil facilities, thick black clouds now hang over the city, turning morning into something that feels like night.

Oh I haven’t watched any of junior worlds yet so I will def check that out

New skating fans - Alyssa Liu withdrawing from Worlds means you’re going to get to see Sarah Everhardt’s bonkers Poor Things program. I put her in the same “weird girls of figure skating” (positive!) category with Lara Naki Gutmann and you are in for a treat