Cheryl A. Ossola

The world could be such a nice place if we allowed it. It's all so goddamn unnecessary. There's no need for any of it. It's so beautiful here. It should be so cool to be alive

Pritzker’s invoice to White House:

(via @nbcnews.com) @govpritzker.illinois.gov

Just started Emotionally Weird by Kate Atkinson. But I have to give a shoutout to a recent read, The Last Confessions of Sylvia P by Lee Kravetz, which goes onto my list of favorites.

Bad Bunny’s closing messages during his Super Bowl performance:

“The only thing more powerful than hate is love”
“Together, we are America”

women’s rights and workers’ rights, the power of speaking up and taking action. About family. About love. For me, it’s a sliver of light, now shared with you.

Sometimes the dark curtain blanketing this world swings open, as it did for me yesterday. I’m elated to announce that Cynren Press has acquired my second novel, How Long a Shadow, a story about Italian immigrants in America ca. 1900, about ambition and hope, determination and change, . . .

Why Literature Needs a Punk Rock Mindset The Washington Post shutting down its books coverage is a reminder that we have to do it ourselves

“Screw the platforms. Ignore the stuff that you think sucks. Find books and art you love. Share them. Review them. Recommend them to friends. Make your own art. Share it. Hope it finds people who love it. What else can we do?” — @thelincoln.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/counterc...

Masked thugs on the streets.
Measles outbreaks across the nation.
Blatant government corruption.
Coverup of group of elite sex offenders.
Ruling party trying to rig elections.
Leader building grandiose monuments to himself.
Collapse of remnants of nonpartisan civil service.

Third world America.

“[… E]verything was beautiful in this world, everything except for what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher goals of being and our human dignity.” —Anton Chekhov, “The Lady With the Little Dog”

This is the grim, depressing reality Donald Trump has made of American life.

Instead of waking up on a Saturday, relaxing and spending time with your loved ones, you now have to watch American towns being ravaged and their citizens being murdered by violent secret police. All because of one man.

What a tremendous relief to wake up to good news! Thank you, California, NY, NJ, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Mississippi! Hey, I could get used to this.

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.

Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.

They are not the same.

my god, what a paragraph

(from tonight's @hcrichardson.bsky.social)

57,001!

More messaging like this please

Did you know that your healthcare premiums are about to double because the GOP is intentionally sabotaging the Affordable Care Act and pretending that Democrats are trying to give undocumented immigrants free insurance?

You may have heard my arguments against the Electoral College before. Here’s a new one the Founders never anticipated:

If the President is elected by popular vote, he probably wouldn’t selectively punish entire states for voting against him.

I can’t believe I’m watching interviews of city mayors talking about how they are coordinating with other mayors to discuss how to protect their residents FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

I know we are “used to it” but it is absolutely insane

🙏 💚

Swear her in.

YouTube video by Jimmy Kimmel Live Jimmy Kimmel is Back!

Jimmy Kimmel's Monologue now has 14.3 MILLION VIEWS on YouTube.

It would be a shame for you to share it

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1tj...

What Epstein records have not been made public?

See ya, Disney!

I think I must be post-vintage.

1) pic of Melissa and Mark Hortman 2) pic of Melissa Hortman and dog Gilbert

Remembering MN house speaker Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark and their beloved dog Gilbert. Murdered in June at their home by a rightwing Trump-voting evangelist, who also shot another MN lawmaker and his wife at THEIR home, 9 and 8 times, respectively (miraculously, they survived).

A fascinating premise for a novel, and so timely 74 years after its publication—the bias and 2nd- or 3rd-hand storytelling given as fact in history books, the persistent belief in such stories despite documented events that prove them wrong, the unjustified ruin or glorification of those targeted.

The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with one of his own states.

This is completely unhinged.

September 3, 2025 [Please note that this post talks about sexual assault in the last four paragraphs.]

September 3, 2025

"Stay tuned for more details" -- Epstein survivor announces that survivors are creating their own list of Epstein-related abusers