DCPetterson

Trump order gives political appointees vast powers over research grants Researchers are alarmed that the move might upend a long-standing tradition of peer-review for grants.

For the remainder of the Trump Reich, federal research grants will not be made on the basis of reality or scientific value, or the value to society or health or safety.

They will be made only by considering conformance to Trump's personal or political whim.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Trump gauges Europe's reaction to Putin's ceasefire offer The White House has held multiple calls in recent days with Ukraine and its European allies to discuss the plan, a White House official said.

In the movie, the part of Donald Trump will be played by Neville Chamberlin.

www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

I was wrong. RFK Jr isn't playing Dr. Mengele in the movie.

Josef Mengele is playing RFK Jr in real life.

No, I haven't read that. Sounds fascinating!

I don't waste my time talking to idiots or reading their bullshit.

Thanks for letting me know. Fixed now.

I've figured it out. Brain Worm guy and the entire Trump Reich are set on committing genocide without the expense of inconvenience of having to build gas chambers.

(In the movie, this moron monster plays Dr. Mengele.)

Congress, Now More Than Ever, Our Nation Needs Your Cowardice Share This Editorial

The Onion took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to publish its Letter to Congress.

Read it in full.

"Congress, Now More Than Ever, Our Nation Needs Your Cowardice"

theonion.com/letter-to-co...

Hotline helps immigrants move hearings online to avoid arrest at court A group of students, alumni and volunteers from the University of Southern California are banding together to help people with upcoming immigration-related court hearings. Olu Orange, assistant pro…

And it's legit. Here's some reporting on it.

2/2

ktla.com/news/local-n...

Pass this on to absolutely everyone, absolutely everywhere.

1/2

Trump signs travel ban on nationals from 12 countries, restrictions on 7 more President Trump signed a proclamation to ban travel from certain countries, citing national security risks. It's set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday.

Trump issued a travel ban today from 12 countries.

No reason other than because he's a fucking asshole, and wants to disrupt the world just to show he's a mindless bully.

www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-s...

I'm touching on every topic I've ever written about.

I'll finish this draft sometime this summer. Then comes editing, polishing, and finding a publisher.

It's is the best thing I've ever written. It'll be my magnum opus.

I hope some of you will get to see it.

#AmWriting

9/9

Same characters and situations, same plot(s), but magnified. Bigger. Deadlier. More vital.

I also now know a lot more about character development, fixing plot holes, building tension, deepening and widening the stakes. And the things I want to say are clearer to me now.

8/9

And the world has changed--except it hasn't. The issues I faced in the 1960s and early 70s are still amongst us, but magnified. Bigger. Deadlier. More vital.

The rewrite I'm doing is more than a mere director's cut. It's a complete reboot.

7/9

Writers often suffer from recency bias. We almost always think the last thing we've written is the best thing we ever wrote (except when insecurity sets in and we think it's the worst thing anyone's ever written).

I'm a much better writer now than I was in my teens and twenties.

6/9

After finishing the first draft of this story, I put it away for almost five decades.

I'm now at the other end of my life. I likely have as many years before me as I'd had behind me when I started it.

I decided to rewrite it, to say the things I'd always meant to say.

5/9

That was almost fifty years ago, in the height of the Nixon era, the sexual revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, the drug culture, the depths of the Time of Vietnam War

Boys my age expected to graduate from High School and be fed into a meat grinder where we would die.

4/9

I started writing my first full-fledged novel in the sixth grade, and finished a draft in my early 20s. It sucked, because I was young an inexperienced, and didn't really know what I was doing, tackling something I didn't have the skills or experience to write.

3/9

("magnum opus" is a fancy Latin term for "best shit ever")

The novel I'm working on combines all the topics I've ever written about, and says--in full or in brief, in detail or in hints--everything I've ever wanted to say.

It's a rewrite of a very old work.

2/9

I'm a writer. I write. I've been writing since I learned how. Much of what I write is sci-fi or fantasy, but I've also written about history, religion, physics, politics (you might already know that) and some weird stuff.

I'm now writing my magnum opus.

1/9

Get them away from our high office. ☎️ your reps, every day. They have to report the # of calls and topic. Sometimes I call 4 times a day to my rep.

US Defense Secretary Hegseth to slash senior-most ranks of military U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday ordered a 20% reduction in the number of four-star officers, deepening ongoing cuts at the Pentagon that have shaken the Department of Defense at the start of President Donald Trump's second term in office.

There's a reason the senior ranks of the American military are being purged. I bet you can guess.

The point is to put the military under the direct control of Trump and his cute little goonlettes. Without buffers to contest the autocracy.

www.reuters.com/world/us/pen...

I had no idea, until we got this dog, that pitties were so smart, affectionate, gentle and kind.

She is also really aggressively affectionate. She is the most loving, caring and sweetest dog I've ever had in my home. And she never lets you forget it.

(About a week ago, she scared away a mountain lion, to protect my wife. There's a story there...)

I can't call him anything else.

( am constantly in awe of what you do.

It's good to see you, too!

Ouir cruel, mean, vicious pit bull made this pillow fort on our new loveseat.

Seriously, she arranged the pillows before laying on them and falling asleep.

Biggest lesson already from 2025:

The reason gun humpers love guns is =not= for the purpose of opposing a tyrannical government.

But we already knew that, right?