Simini Blocker

I'm back on my bullshit~

The bullshit: trying to convince kidlit imprints that five years to illustrate a 200-page graphic novel is a fully reasonable and actually excellent time frame considering publishers neither offer artists health insurance nor pay enough for artists to live on.

The CSIS report declares, “Radicals will argue that peaceful politics will inevitably fail and that only violence will make a difference,” but I have no idea who these radicals are because in my 40 years around direct action organizing, I’ve only encountered theoretical enthusiasm for violence from the sidelines and the occasional young hothead (almost always white and male) in movements whose vast majority and leadership are committed to nonviolence. I do know someone who was part of a violent group in the early ’70s and then became wanted fugitive; he’s since become an ardent advocate of nonviolence. What too often gets described as left-wing violence at protests is property destruction, which can be dangerous and intimidating and is usually opposed by protest organizers, but should be regarded as distinct from harming human life. For example, at the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, the Black Bloc, a small cadre among the 50,000 protesters smashed a lot of shop windows quite spectacularly. But there are no reports of activists harming human beings. Police, on the other hand, used tear gas; pepper spray; rubber, plastic, and wooden bullets; concussion grenades; and armored vehicles against protesters bystanders resulting in many injuries. Nonetheless, for years afterward, mainstream media outlets portrayed this event as an occasion of shocking activist violence.

Wrote a thing. www.thenation.com/article/acti...

Every part of this sentence describes an abomination before God. People are going to hell for this.

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

The federal govt wants to rescind the Roadless Rule, which would open 45 million acres of public land for private interests - disrupting wildlife habitat, destroying carbon sinks, and imperiling outdoor recreation in the places we love

TODAY is the last day for public comment - file yours now!!

the kimmel thing is bad but as long as they arent rounding people up indiscriminately based on race, building concentration camps and talking about eradicating those they deem sexual deviants, i think we’ll be ok

Was reminded I needed to cancel by Hulu subscription by *waves hands* and hmm the cancel button is not working.

Fucking finally. Fight back against the bullshit framing that tries to make Dems responsible for everything.

The GOP is *choosing* to create this kind of societal environment. They could stop it at any time. They have agency as well.

They’re not fucking children (except when, well, you know)

Just realized I've been thinking Charlie Kirk and Kirk Cameron were the same person this whole time.

Fuck RFK jr and fuck this administration

I know, I know, but: The president of the US saying, literally, "we're going in" in reference to sending the military to an American city for no reason beyond terrorizing the local population should be the most immediately impeachable shit imaginable

Surely this makes techbro claims of 'training' their generative AIs on illegally obtained copyright work inaccurate to the point of lying. 'Training' implies retention of knowledge/skill. If genAIs retain nothing and search copyright work afresh for every query, that's ongoing use and exploitation

A photo of District of Columbia National Guard members arriving at Union Station in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 15, 2025, overlaid with the headline, "Price Tag for Trump’s D.C. Military Surge: At Least $1 Million a Day" and the DEK, "An analysis conducted for The Intercept found that the militarization of D.C. could end up costing hundreds of millions."

“The daily cost of the D.C. troop deployment is more than four times what it would cost to operate affordable housing for D.C.’s entire unhoused population.” interc.pt/45PvcJf

For those who asked. The link tree for the Sameer Project is here: linktr.ee/thesameerpro...

A photograph of the Cave of Hands

Another photograph of the Cave of Hands, featuring warm terra cotta and cream and brown stenciled hand prints on a rock wall

Thinking about the Cave of Hands, some of the art dating back to 7,300BC, where 25% of the hand prints are thought to be that of children. Imagining those people gently holding their child up to the cave walls, and using their tiny little hands as a stencil. Art = love = the human soul

People are absolutely going to Hell with a capital H for what they've done to this man and everyone else who's been sent to these concentration camps.

Remember: your job is not to change their minds. That's no one person's job. By joining a wave of calls, you're doing your part to help. That's the beauty of collective action.

“You are an abolitionist, ain’t you?” “As to that, I cannot so readily answer. If by abolitionist you mean a zealot, I am none; but if you mean a man, who, being a man, feels for all men, slaves included, and by any lawful act, opposed to nobody’s interest, and therefore, rousing nobody’s enmity, would willingly abolish suffering (supposing it, in its degree, to exist) from among mankind, irrespective of color, then am I what you say.” “Picked and prudent sentiments. You are the moderate man, the invaluable understrapper of the wicked man. You, the moderate man, may be used for wrong, but are useless for right.”

Herman Melville on moderates, all the way back in 1857:

ICE *already* can't meet their detainment numbers without rounding up children, veterans, people born in the U.S., people with no criminal records, people at immigration hearings, plus academics and visitors with valid visas.

So who do they plan to detain with >10x the budget?

The answer is: you.

Seems like Trump’s most powerful advisor being a white nationalist should inspire greater alarm than the possible mayor of new york being pro palestinian rights

It is bizarre the way people with guns, bulletproof vests, riot shields, tanks, and other military gear act like rocks are an equal threat. It’s madness! If you are scared of rocks and think the punishment for having them thrown at you should be death, you shouldn’t be in law enforcement!

They can’t police trans people’s bodies without policing cis people’s bodies, and they can’t police immigrants without policing citizens.

Discovered both versions of the queer Love Island type show from the UK are both on hulu. Just binged the "I Kissed a Girl" season. Pure delight. Women!!

kind of just endlessly sad and grieving that there are so few voices in the public sphere making the basic principled argument that immigration is an affirmative good in every way and the best way for this country to serve humanity is to welcome people who want or need to leave their homes

Imagine putting on all this tactical gear and latching onto a military assault vehicle so you can storm a minimall on Sepulveda and apprehend a line cook at family restaurant.

Text reading: I had to come down to Los Angeles for Work and ended up trying to help with the raid last night. As a Bernie usefully. Waited by the entrance for detainees We were repeatedly denied access of any kind, and eventually LAPD force removed attorneys ice. Also tear gassed a baby under age two. Today they told us to come back at eight to see the clients, but they ever refused entry to us as well as politicians, including Jimmy, Gomez, and right now. They’re releasing some kind of gas, so the Attorneys can’t breathe

Text reading: Post it so everyone knows. When we were trying to chant their rights ice honked so no one could hear.

Here are some texts I got from an immigration lawyer friend of mine. Shared with permission. Some of the bleakest shit I’ve ever heard.

Toxic to the rule of law, and yet another example of ICE/CBP deliberately *not* looking for all those supposed criminals, drug traffickers, terrorists, etc.

They're going for literally the least dangerous, most law-abiding people they can find, the ones following every rule. The easiest targets.

If you have any relationship to TX-- you're from there, you have family there, you know people there-- now's the time to get on the ringer and rally against this truly disastrous bill.

It's a death wish for school libraries statewide.

I give through the Zakat Foundation, who I learned about from Sami Zayn. Giving can feel so futile in a world governed by evil men, but that makes it more imperative to do what we can.

Fourteen Thousand.

The long campaign to dehumanize Palestinians is, fundamentally, about this. To provide cover for the annihilation of a people and their culture, from the youngest to the oldest, to shrugs from the most powerful nations in the world.