Giant Bomb has been helping me keep my sanity through these past few months

Hope y'all are doing alright

For as much bullshit as I’ve said and written on the Internet, I still think a lot about running and helping my community.

I also think about Lord Farquad too much too.

2/ I became a chronicler of Trump, then later a biographer of his, then later a bestselling biographer, over a period of years—2015 to 2018, the latter the year a Trump biography of mine became a NYT bestseller for the first time. But my chronicling of him as a journalist at HuffPost began in 2015.

💥🇭🇺 Police have given up guarding Budapest’s Liberty Bridge as anti-government protesters shut down traffic on four major bridges, rallying against Viktor Orbán’s new law curbing freedom of assembly and banning the Pride march.

They vow to escalate with a 24-hour shutdown next week.

The Commerce Secretary of the US is telling people to go out and buy stock in a specific company on national television.

A reminder for these times.

If you worked for 18F and got fired, Group together to start a consulting company.

It’s just a matter of time before DOGE needs you to fix the mess they inevitably create.

They will have to hire your company as a contractor to fix it. But on your terms.

I’m happy to invest and/or help

Tyranny requires your fear, your silence, and your compliance.

Democracy requires your courage.

Captures it perfectly.

(image by dayliedoodle: www.instagram.com/dayliedoodle...)

10 minutes ago Jonah Bromwich The lead prosecutor on the Adams investigation has resigned from the federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan rather than agree to file a motion seeking to dismiss the corruption case against the mayor. In his resignation letter, Hagan Scotten wrote that any federal prosecutor "would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials." He added: "If no lawyer within earshot of the president is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me."

Not exaggerating when I say that the path back is going to be built on people in positions of influence regaining their sense of self-respect.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

Zooey and I are both sick with the flu so instead we are staying inside and painting minis for Valentine’s Day.

I painted a succubus because it’s thematic :)

Zooey is working on a black dragon and kobolds.

Wisdom

(hyping myself up in the mirror) disheveled women are hot disheveled women are hot disheveled wo

Gutting the CDC right as we’re on the cusp of major outbreaks of transmissible diseases is a very bad idea.

Trans authors existed before Magnus Hirschfeld's famous Berlin clinic and the start of medical gender transition. One example is Irene Clyde, the alter ego of English lawyer, Thomas Baty. In 1911 Clyde, together with several women from the London Society for Women's Suffrage, founded the Aëthnic Union, an organisation dedicated to freeing society from the constraints of gender. The Union published a radical feminist journal called Urania. Clyde was one of the editors. Before that, Clyde had published a novel. Beatrice the Sixteenth tells of a time traveller, Mary Hatherley, who discovers a lost world called Ameria which has a post- gender society. The language spoken in Ameria has no grammatical genders, though the title of the novel refers to the Queen of Ameria. While the book was undoubtedly revolutionary in its time, like Thomas More's original novel, it presents a utopia in which slavery is legal.

@cherylmorgan.bsky.social holy shit i need to read this immediately

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 13, 2025 CONTACT Gillian Branstetter, gbranstetter@aclu.org Tom Warnke, twarnke@lambdalegal.org BALTIMORE – In a victory for transgender youth, their families, and their medical providers, a federal district court today issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of a Trump administration executive order attempting to shut down access nationwide to gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under 19. The decision by Judge Brendan Hurson was issued from the bench with a written order to come soon. The nationwide restraining order prohibits federal agencies from conditioning or withholding federal funding based on the fact that a healthcare entity or health professional provides gender-affirming medical care to a patient under nineteen. “Good and decent parents of transgender kids should never be in the frightening position of having their child’s prescribed, medically necessary care canceled at the whim and threat of a politician. But that’s exactly what President Trump’s executive order did to PFLAG families with trans youth and young adults nationwide,” said Brian K. Bond (he/him), Chief Executive Officer of PFLAG National. “Today’s decision rights a grievous wrong to our nation's families and children, and PFLAG families will be vigilant to ensure our transgender loved ones receive the healthcare they need—as this legal ruling demands.” “Forcing providers to withhold medically-necessary, evidence-based care not only threatens patient health and well-being, but also undermines the integrity of our healthcare system in its entirety,” said Alex Sheldon (they/them), GLMA executive director. “Today's intervention by the court underscores the cruelty and recklessness that is embedded in this order and affirms our commitment to resist the administration’s extremist agenda that targets trans and non-binary young people and privileges political ideology over medical expertise. We are hopeful that…

In the first week after the order was signed, some hospitals across the country — in Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, Colorado, and Virginia at least — abruptly halted medical care for transgender people under age 19, canceling appointments and turning away patients, including some who had been receiving this care for most of their life. This prompted protests of support for transgender youth and in opposition to the order nationwide. On Feb. 4, a lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Maryland, and law firms Jenner & Block and Hogan Lovells on behalf of transgender young adults and adolescents and their families whose health care has been disrupted by President Trump’s order. Also joining the case as plaintiffs are PFLAG National, the nation’s largest organization supporting LGBTQ+ people and their families, with over 550,000 members and supporters and nearly 350 chapters across the country; and GLMA, the country’s largest organization of LGBTQ and allied health professionals. "Across the country, this unlawful order from the president has sown fear among transgender youth and confusion among their providers,” said Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “But today’s decision should restore both their access to healthcare and protections under the Constitution. Providers who’ve suspended healthcare for their transgender patients should be left with no doubt that they can lift those suspensions and continue to provide healthcare and act in their best medical judgment without risking their funding or worse. “The president’s orders sought to take away from transgender young people the very care that they, their families, and their medical providers all agree is best for them – medical care that is evidence-based and well-established. But these decisions are for patients, their families, and their doctors to make, not for politicians or Washington bureaucrats,” said Omar Gonzale…

Incredible news!

The Trump administration's under 19 trans care ban has been BLOCKED in federal court via a bench temporary restraining order.

The administration CANNOT withhold funds from hospitals providing trans youth care.

ACLU statement here:

Operation ICE Ride-Along isn’t going as planned. 🔥

Fox News tagged along with ICE, hoping for an exclusive look at “dangerous criminals.” Instead, they got a whole lot of nothing. No threats, no big arrests—just a community that wasn’t having it. The narrative is falling apart.

Suspension Bridge xkcd.com/3048

Comms Advice for Democratic Lawmakers You didn't ask, but I'm offering it anyway.

"We know you’re out of power. We understand you’re in the minority. We hear that, loud and clear. What we’re not hearing is your anger. We’re not hearing your outrage. We’re wondering whether or not you actually hear us."

charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/comms-advi...

I'm so old, I remember when Obama signing ONE executive order was tyranny

Canadians booing the U.S. national anthem isn’t something I ever thought I’d see, but this is what happens when you let a psychopath criminal with isolationist and protectionist policies back into the White House.

really weird how Trump fired everyone at the Airline Safety Committee and the Elon forced the head of the FAA to quit, and then planes started falling out of the sky. it's almost as if actions had consequences

The United States is under attack. Elon Musk—who has been elected to nothing and is a deeply troubled person—is literally destroying our government from the inside and doing so without authority or consent of the governed. Working on a report on this right now. It’s an emergency.

Oh wait, you were actually SERIOUS about those tariffs?

🧪
If I were Canadian PM I would immediately:

1. Create a new $15B science fund

2. Offer any credentialed US scientist funding for lab startup and replacement of NIH grants if they move to Canada

3. Immediate permanent residency

4. Citizenship after 2 years

Overnight a science superpower