Ian Lekus 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Also, props to the drink raccoon for holding his own (if not his liquor) in this ranking.

An invaluable read…

Student describes ‘horror show’ ICE deportation to Honduras at Thanksgiving Any Lucia López Belloza, 19, was detained at Boston airport while on the way to see family in Austin for a surprise trip

“She wasn’t told why she was detained...She was shackled like she was some type of hardened criminal, and then deported to Honduras with no opportunity to have a court hearing or even talk to an attorney...If that isn’t unconstitutional, I don’t know what is." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

An eco obscenity: Norman Foster’s steroidal new skyscraper is an affront to the New York skyline It contains enough steel to go round the world twice – and even has a fake breeze to flutter the stars-and-stripes flag in its lobby. If this $4bn colossus is just the first of a new breed of bulky su...

Epic: “New Yorkers can now gaze in wonder and horror as the tower’s summit transforms ... Sometimes, the throbbing diamond shape adds an inescapable Eye of Sauron vibe. At other moments, it appears to shift into a pulsating yonic void.
Vajazzled steeple aside...”

Just read it all...

The great escape: seal flees killer whales by jumping on to photographer’s boat Charvet Drucker captures dramatic video and photos of seal being hunted by orcas in Salish Sea, north-west of Seattle A wildlife photographer on a whale-watching trip in waters off Seattle captured dramatic video and photos of a pod of killer whales hunting a seal that survived only by clambering on to the stern of her boat. Charvet Drucker was on a rented 20ft (6 metre) boat near her home on an island in the Salish Sea about 40 miles north-west of Seattle when she spotted a pod of at least eight killer whales, also known as orcas. Continue reading...

The great escape: seal flees killer whales by jumping on to photographer’s boat

Thank you. I could have been more precise about wanting Commanders fans to be happy or rooting for the fans… we’re all in this together.

Yes, I do live here and am one of those locals.

The first time I’ve ever considered rooting for the Commanders…

Supreme Court won’t hear challenge to landmark gay marriage ruling The announcement indicates there is not an appetite among the high court’s conservative majority to revisit one of the court’s most significant decisions in recent years.

One piece of decent news www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Klingons, cooking Passover breakfast

"Today is a good day to make matzoh brei!"

the president has destroyed the east wing of the white house without so much as a word of input from anyone else to build a royal ballroom paid for with bribes

“Once my colleague pulled out his camera, the agent put away the gun," Huynh told the Sun-Times Tuesday night. "[But] if they can do this in broad daylight to an elected official, and point a gun at someone, imagine what’s happening behind closed doors.”

This one really hits me deep in my heart. I spent litterally years of my life taking the subway into and out of China town to get to my job at Church and White.
That community is pure hard work, family, service and just going about your business.
This fucking hurts.
Man, leave these people alone.

On top of everything the fuck else, a crucial task of the insurgent wing of the Democratic Party right now is to make it the anti-Nazi party in US politics.

Indigenous Artists Infiltrate the Met With a Guerrilla A.R. Project | Artnet News Amplifier's unsanctioned augmented reality project brings contemporary Indigenous art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Art Wing.

Indigenous Artists Infiltrate the Met With a Guerrilla A.R. Project

Not a small thing that Trump is destroying our alliances in the Western Hemisphere because of a wildly illegal and reckless “launch missiles at small boats” strategy that will do nothing meaningful to stop drugs from coming into our country because the drugs come by land.

Instead of seeing the Trump dropping poop AI video by old standards—"how dare he, if any Dem..."—see it in fight-against-authoritarianism terms:
They want everyone non-MAGA too scared to object, they fantasize about shooting protestors, and all they've got is a juvenile AI video to fake the feeling.

That was a gorgeous goal.

The NYT has well-discussed flaws.

But one that is not much discussed is how bad and slow and lame its domestic mass protest coverage is, always. Fly in the foreign reporters and have them cover as they would elsewhere ffs.

Dear Secretary McMahon, Ms. Mailman, and Mr. Haley, I appreciated the opportunity to speak with you yesterday. I welcome further engagement around how we can (a) enhance the long-standing partnership between the federal government and this country's leading research universities and (b) ensure that higher education stays focused on academic excellence. As I shared on the call, I do not believe that the involvement of the government through a compact--whether it is a Republican- or Democratic-led White House- is the right way to focus America's leading colleges and universities on their teaching and research mission. Our universities have a responsibility to set our own academic and institutional policies, guided by our mission and values, our commitment to free expression, and our obligations under the law. Staying true to this responsibility is what will help American higher education build bipartisan public trust and continue to uphold its place as the envy of the world. We remain open to other ways to work with the federal government to enhance higher education. Best, Sian Leah Beilock President

Dartmouth is OUT! Thank goodness... a friend at U of A and I have been playing "Who will be the last of the 9 standing?" and it's not gonna be us!

Most athletes have chosen to ‘shut up and dribble’ over Gaza | Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek Silva Why have so few athletes spoken about Gaza? Fear of backlash, lost sponsors and being branded antisemitic all help explain the silence

Ever wonder why so few athletes in North America have spoken about Israel's genocide in Gaza?

We did too... so we asked some to find out.

Answers include "fear of losing sponsorships," "the McCarthyist response from government,” and “Zionists gaslighting and doxxing people."

A bear in a bear costume (with a spiffy bow tie) holds a sign reading “Hate will not make us great”

Apex predator says the only ICE I want to see is polar ice

Faculty at Texas university fear entire liberal arts departments will be slashed University of Texas at Austin faculty fear changes from new taskforce that could restructure humanities programs

The evisceration of American higher education continues to accelerate.

JD Vance: Trump is America’s Hitler
MAGA: Let’s make you VP!🥳

Young Republicans: H*tler was great, gas them all, rape is epic
MAGA: Boys will be boys!🤷

Americans: Charlie Kirk was not a good person
MAGA: Such vileness has never before been uttered in this land. This means war!🤬

For this week’s Substack, I take on Janet Mills entering the Maine Senate primary & the Democratic Party’s fear of trans rights. open.substack.com/pub/ianlekus...

ANTIFA Pumpkin Carving Contest Winner - 2025

Pulitzer Prize winning historian Benjamin Nathans of the University of Pennsylvania provides a defining piece of iconic imagery in making the case for universities to stand together and repudiate the subservience the Regime is seeking to impose.

Howdy!