steven_mps

just in case it wasn't already abundantly clear the united states government is hell-bent on speed-running christofascism

Wrote about Wisconsin via song & via video game before, turning my lens twds tv + film this time.

Also extending my streak of hammering in at least one Tone piece per year that heaps well-deserved praise on Joe Pera Talks With You, one of the most meaningful shows of this century's first quarter.

some people have turnstile, i have the armed

Home Depot and Lowe's Share Data From Hundreds of AI Cameras With Cops Home improvement stores are finding ways to share data from their Flock license plate reader cameras with law enforcement, according to public records.

“What we're learning is that two of the country's most popular home improvement stores are contributing to the massive surveillance dragnet coordinated by Flock Safety,” EFF’s @maassive.bsky.social told @404media.bsky.social.

a boost for the night crowd; some fun things brewing

Niall Ferguson, who 60 Minutes was holding up as a champion of campus speech a few months back, also a signatory on a Manhattan Institute manifesto to allow Trump to take over higher education.
www.theunpopulist.net/p/a-manhatta...

👀

Amending this to include any iteration of The Stanley Parable, which remains one of the funniest and most thoughtful meditations on agency and limitation that I've ever come across

not quite as compelled by that one as others have been, but can certainly recognize its strengths (the fish cannery sequence, especially, is one that has stuck with me).

definitely on the wishlist

I have a small list of narrative-first, gameplay-second titles that I hold as the benchmarks for any games that go that route.

As follows:

Kentucky Route Zero
Night In The Woods
Disco Elysium
Firewatch
Oxenfree

& 1000xRESIST, an astonishing work that deserves as many players as possible. Buy it.

wild how many active elected officials could accurately be labeled domestic terrorists if people actually thought about it for more than 5 seconds

this includes, especially, representatives like randall fine who are breaching constitutional law in order to carry out a form of authoritarian fascism

BOSTON PEOPLE ALERT. So it looks like Great Scott is finally ready for its comeback but it needs a final push. So, here we go, we just need people to make the case for why it is vital that a place like Great Scott exists: greatscottboston.com/email-the-ci...

the reason R's couldn't abide CPB is bc it provides funding to PBS, which imparts an instructive empathy that's antithetical to R goals, & NPR, which highlights the importance of fact-checking + prioritizes interrogating data & context, in a way that inevitably outs those R goals

simple + shameful

Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it's shutting down The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funnels federal money to public media stations, says it's winding down operations after President Trump signed a law rescinding all funding.

Everyday is an attack on Americans. I'm just feeling this one because CPB (NPR + PBS) has always been about public good & public service... to inspire people to create, question and celebrate.

Those in power want that silenced.

www.npr.org/2025/08/01/n...

hey, so maybe the hyper-rapid inflation of the doomed-to-burst AI bubble (that's already costing more jobs than it's creating) + the brutal dissolution of an essential apparatus for critical reporting arriving at around the same time is... not good

just a thought!

Chicago rock act Options makes subtle shifts to go into Beast Mode - Chicago Reader Ever since local indie-rock project Options debuted with 2014’s What You Want, main man Seth Engel has continued to release short-and-sweet songs that are equal parts hooky and glum.

I wrote about Options for the Reader

four decades of dems appealing to bipartisanship later:

NYC Mass Shooting Was Nearly Impossible to Prevent, Experts Say

Holy shit, they did it. They wrote the headline.

He’s been fairly spineless on Palestine & just released a generative AI video (to shoehorn in Elvis) while sheepishly explaining how his stance on AI has softened.

It’s mostly just a string of various disappointments that have piled up & seem set to continue piling up.

i wanna see the venn diagram of VBNMWism & NIMBYism

The damage that is being done will not be reverted through the pendulum swing of simple party politics.

They have destroyed the administrative state.

They have created a secret police. With camps.

They have placed apparatchiks in lifetime positions.

There’s a brand of political thinker (call them “normie optimists”) that reflexively treats this all as ephemeral.

“Just wait for the midterms. Focus on the right messaging and win those swing districts.”

I just want to stare at them and say “Emil Bove has been confirmed to a lifetime judgeship.”

Angus King Says He Voted to Confirm This Anti-Choice Trump Nominee Because Josh Hawley Asked Nicely The first member of the Senate Democratic Caucus to back a Trump nominee does so for the most embarrassing reason imaginable.

Maybe Senator King should have simply asked Senator Hawley not to vote for Bove. ballsandstrikes.org/nominations/...

Speaking of great performers:

Lucy Dacus put on one of the best “big headliner” shows I’ve seen in ages at the Riverside on Sunday.

Her latest album is not my fav, but the songs translate well to a live setting.

If you get a chance to see her on this run, make the effort.

Wouldn’t be all that upset if Nick Cave decided to wind it down. Would be glad to have him spare us more brutally passive idiocy.

Incredible body of work as an artist; got to see him tour Push The Sky Away and Grinderman 2. Incredible shows, both. An all-time performer.

But I’m good, he can go.

F.C.C. Approves Skydance’s $8 Billion Merger With Paramount

Just a few days after Paramount officially paid off Trump to the tune of $16 million to "settle" his absurd and unconstitutional lawsuit, the FCC approves Paramount's merger.

They aren't even trying to hide the corruption.

truly repulsive "we're tech lackeys who don't actually understand or care how journalism flourishes" fare from gannett, as ever

warmest of bsky welcomes to truly one of the best dudes, @raymondmcandrew.bsky.social -- give him a follow

can never have enough great people here

If you’re feeling uneasy, it’s probably because we now know we live in a country built on the blackmail of a dead pedophile who is Too Big to Fail, so Congress has to go home for a couple of months to figure out how talk about it without defenestrating the president and collapsing the economy.