Will Valenti

Here is the Newsweek magazine article that led to the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," marked up to show key passages that Lightfoot borrowed. Short thread at quoted post. Thanks to @bikeguy.bsky.social for reminding me about this. #EdmundFitzgerald50

Even a nice healthy, "ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!" would go a long way. Don't let his lies go unanswered for one second.

If you're a reporter and you're in the room and you don't call out the President loudly to his face when he says, "They've made a big deal out of this because we've had two perfect months..." you're a traitor to democracy and have no integrity.

More of this!

I think it's important to carve out some time each day to weep for our country, and for the values children are learning, and for the planet they will inherit.

I'm sorry for raining on this parade, but the "transgender mice" talking point is bullshit, but not because someone mistook "transgenic" for "transgender."

The blog post that kicked it off (from a partisan bullshit website) listed a number of papers testing the effects of sex hormones on animals.

YouTube video by Erin In The Morning Rep Zephyr’s speech flips 13 Republicans, trans bills die in Montana

Incredible.

They're fighting really hard to try and cut everything the people actually need, including Medicare and Medicaid, in order to "balance the budget" while giving billionaires a tax cut. Here's an idea: balance the budget by getting the wealthy to pay their taxes.

Look at that shot of the all-white, all-male Joint Chiefs of Staff. What a meritocratic bunch they all surely are...

From the people who brought you "Everything's a conspiracy theory when you don't know how anything works," it's Unitary Executive Government by the Dumbest Person Alive! I'm going to throw up.

"The days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over."

Camera cuts to Elon

We're literally being governed by idiots.

The State of Our Union is Embarrassing

Trump didn't even win a simple majority of the popular vote, once so the vote totals were finalized.

People are still trying to claim that Trump won in a popular vote "landslide" and has a "mandate." I'm going to need everyone to push back against that narrative everywhere they hear it, especially from your Republican member of Congress.

It's weird because most federal departments and agencies are actually understaffed and the employees are overworked. Layoffs so you can give billionaires a bigger tax cut is downright stupid.

Imagine spending decades of your life parroting right wing media talking points about "immigrants taking away jobs from hardworking Americans," and voting thrice for Trump, only to have your own job taken away by a low-skilled immigrant named Elon Musk.

Humanity is so beautiful sometimes

The people yearn. They yearn for light rail and other mass transit options. Tech bros keep trying to reinvent individualistic versions of trains and buses. Just give the people what they want.

…
The job should have gone to any random dude whose dad also golfs with my dad! You know— meritocracy!"

"How dare there be a four star admiral who's a woman! She clearly didn't have to face adversity at every turn to get where she is! That experience seems like it wouldn't be invaluable for leadership in a high stress job! …

To the unelected tech bros who have been put in charge of auditing the Federal Government, and their solution to everything so far has been, "Uhhhh, have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again?": Here are four letters to help you realize what you actually ought to be doing: RTFM

We desperately need an updated version of "Don't Be a Sucker (1943)."

By the way, you know who exhibits basically none of the values of small-c citizenship? I'll give you three guesses.

Decades of right-wing media propaganda has poisoned the brains of millions of people against the immigrant community. Outright lies about so-called "migrant crime" dominate the narrative. But there are no lies so powerful they cannot be destroyed by the truth.

99% of undocumented immigrants are our friends, neighbors, and family members. But instead, look where we are. Criminalizing people merely for living their lives within our borders. Ending birthright citizenship? Deporting American citizens who were born here? Trumpismo has lost the plot.

Mass-deportation is going to create a humanitarian crisis entirely contrived by the Trump Administration. There are better options to enhance the safety and prosperity of the United States. Welcoming immigrants with open arms is where it all starts.

We need to be documenting the undocumented rather than mass-deportation. It would be a tremendous economic boom if we could offer big-C United States Citizenship to people who have been living in the US for decades and demonstrating the values of small-c citizenship (civic virtue).

Diversity ✅
Equity ✅
Inclusion ✅
Access ✅
Belonging ✅

Imagine rebuilding a society in the ashes of the former United States that cherishes these values.