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One Painting Got Me Through Winter (Gift Article) Piet Mondrian pioneered abstract painting. But he kept painting flowers — flowers that our critic Jason Farago can’t stop thinking about. What makes them so magnetic?

I appreciate this article for showing such understanding of art as connection and as being so very human.

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

My puppy enjoyed listening to this!

Fighting for a world with more howls 🐺

Your moment of endangered beauty 🐺

#SaveRedWolves

My current policy involves never hearing his voice. The last time I heard it was when I saw a video when Musk and child were in the Oval Office with him. That was the first time I ever heard Elon Musk speak. Before that it was months of Trumpsilence. I do keep up with reading news but not video.

A bunch of dems have jumped in to play out Trump's empire building fantasy of annexing Canada. This is a fantasy of non-consensual involvements with the neighbors for political gain. Weird that the neighbors don't like it.

Canada, Greenland, Denmark, Panama, and Gaza could not immediately be reached for comment

Stop indulging in sharing Trump's fantasies of non-consensual activities with the neighbors. There should be no pros and cons discussions! If I were Canadian I'd be offended yall discussing my country like a potential gamepiece for your use. Icky.

Let's hold the boundaries that guard humanity around the world.

Probably want to sell the national forests. At least sell the trees and anything else that those workers normally would help defend and protect.

"For a democracy to remain functional, political elites—elected officials, judges, political appointees, and bureaucrats—must behave as though (a) they are being watched and (b) if they betray the public trust, they will face negative consequences."

This is a test. He's testing our boundaries. Trying everything and just seeing what he gets away with.

Put very simply, every human is either ruled by a devotion to love or ruled by their devotion to power. The second type are the predators. This is why we must have laws and boundaries to survive.

Less than one third.

and I guarantee his real support among us right now remains lower than one third of Americans no matter how polling gets played

Let's keep our checks and balances lest all future elections be arranged to be fake ones, yall.

A normal human president after four or eight years in the trenches takes the responsibility too seriously for it to be an issue. Traditionally there's some support and respect even if coolness. Nobody involved has any interest in causing difficulties and there are MANY simple reasons to consult

I guess he think threatening other people's kids is just fine.

Except when you're employed in the federal government it's literally your JOB to look out for everyone's kids.

It's as if they think it's a video game--a game of pretend where none of the losses are real and a lot of the characters are 2D and in the "background", such as USAID workers

Susan F. Wood, Who Resigned From the F.D.A. Over Plan B, Dies at 66 (Gift Article) She left the agency because of its delay in approving the morning-after pill for over-the-counter use. Her resignation drew national media attention.

I appreciated this story about Susan F. Wood, which mentions she confronted the politics that were keeping Plan B off the market.

Grateful for another quiet hero.

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/u...

The people who voted for Trump because they thought he’d pull the U.S. back from foreign entanglements and overseas adventurism are really among the prime suckers of our era.

Coercion and violence being even more expensive doesn't seem important rn

It really is remarkable how the GOP is shaping itself around how much tech billionaires see their own employees as ungrateful brats.

www.salon.com/2025/01/17/t...

I see more criticism here of Democrats in Congress than I do condemnation of Republicans.

And yet it is the GOP who are enabling Trump.

It tells me a lot when I see you regularly bash our side but say nothing, ever, about the other.

Reflect on your choices. You may be helping the fascists.

This is so good.

Our veterans deserve the best our tax dollars can provide, not whatever this is.

USAID needed an alternative place on Bluesky after being shut down

I feel like “touch the stove” describes two things: accelerationism (e.g., let Trump crash the economy so people stop supporting him), and a meaningfully distinct thing I don’t know a term for, where people take a protection for granted and learn the hard way why it’s there (e.g. finreg, vaccines)

New on @MSNBC: The Trump admin has blocked access to secure communications for hundreds of USAID employees abroad — including many who work in dangerous war zones — according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter. @NBCNews

*a Republican staffer signs up for Bluesky*

"If Democrats don't publish every last detail of their plans to fight back against Republicans, they're feckless and useless!"

*Sits back and watches the online left does their work for them*

Siyuan (Steven) Wang @StevenWang My Chinese American colleagues in Texas public universities such as the whole U Texas including MD Anderson are now required to report family visit trip to China ahead of trip, and provide a post-travel briefing detailing the trip. Land of the free (your experience may differ). 1:20 PM • 1/31/25 • 708K Views Q811 Siyuan (Steven) Wang @SStevenWang • 1d From a colleague: "We started last December at UT (U Texas). I had a personal trip and told my department. Then per EO (executive order), I also wrote a daily report what I did and who I met. (Day 1, grocery shopping with mom. Day 2, shopping with brother ...)."

Sharply increased surveillance of Chinese Americans (not just Chinese nationals in the US) appears to have begun.

They've always been the ones keeping the govt functioning. Lots of devotion we hardly think about.