Congratulations! I just assigned Light From Other Stars for my fall novel-generation workshop. If you have any interest in zooming in to talk with them, they’d be thrilled.

I mean, we all expected that right?

No other reason to have those documents

Sup chat this is Slouching Towards Bethlehem with your boy The Rough Beast, and it looks like today’s stream could be a big one, as some of you might’ve already seen there are rumors going around social media that the hour has come round at last, so we’re gonna get right into it

🎵 If they ask you to pay money it's a scam 👏👏
🎵 If they ask you to pay money it's a scam 👏👏
🎵 that is not your favorite author or a stunning book club offer
🎵 They are asking you for money=it's a scam 👏👏

Every day my taxes go to pay for armed goons harassing my neighbors and I spend money out of my pocket for an endless series of GoFundMes to help out people in need and honestly I think this is a deeply fucked way of doing things

The owner of Amazon killed the Washington Post books section.

Classified Whistleblower Complaint About Tulsi Gabbard Stalls Within Her Agency Congress hasn’t seen the complaint, which was filed eight months ago with the U.S. intelligence community watchdog’s office.

Exclusive: A U.S. official has alleged wrongdoing by U.S. spy chief Tulsi Gabbard in a complaint that is so highly classified it has sparked months of wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to people familiar with the matter.

They ‘Had Done Everything Right.’ ICE Detained Them Anyway.

We profiled refugees who:

Arrived in the country legally.

Applied for green cards.

Were arrested by ICE and detained.

One refugee who was arrested found out they got their green card after being released.

This is an unprecedented operation.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/u...

Also, may I say that I don’t agree with people saying ICE and CBP need “more training.” They’re doing exactly what this administration has trained them to—impose a reign of fear in blue cities. They don’t need more training. They need to be ripped up root and branch.

Fantastic piece, Paul. The first time I’ve read this one.

It is in no way “law enforcement” to beat up an American 10th grader and steal and sell his possessions.

He didn't shoot her in the head at point blank range because he felt like he was in danger. He shot her in the head at point blank range because he was furious that she wasn't afraid of him. He shot her in the head at point blank range because he felt emasculated.

There Is No Mary Problem in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ George’s vision of his wife without him is essential to the film, but critics continue to miss its true—and profound—meaning.

This is an almost shockingly wise essay. I'm glad I've finally read it.

One of the many reasons AI can't produce good writing is it can't hate its own writing. It can't think to itself "Maybe I'm illiterate" during the writing process. And that's essential

I miss physical journals. Getting @pshares.bsky.social as an email in my inbox feels like another thing on my to-do list, whereas getting a print mag in the mail always felt like a gift,

I know why. The expense is enormous. But that doesn’t change the equation.

Private Universe by Crowded House

I might actually be able to afford to move back!

Dick Cheney, Powerful Vice President and Washington Insider, Dies at 84

This NYT Obit of VP Cheney mentions something that seems impossible in retrospect: That he and GWB were re-elected *after* it was proved there were no WMDs in Iraq.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/u...

ProPublica is hiring a reporter to join our amazing investigative unit with The Texas Tribune. APPLY HERE ➡️ propub.li/4qvyjzw

“We should replace Bad Bunny with Lee Greenwood” is an also a perfect summation of the “deal” they’ve offered universities.

This South Side Weekly report on the Chicago building raid is well worth reading. Most striking to me are the indications of collusion between federal authorities and the building owner and management to effect a mass eviction at the blighted property. southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

Hello, We Used to Know Each Other and Now I’m a Toxic Presence on Your Social Media Feeds Hello, I’m someone you used to know. Pretty well, in fact. We had some good conversations. We saw eye to eye on all the important things. We laughe...

"Did something happen in the intervening years that made me swerve into delusion and assholery? Could what happened to me happen to you? You’re not going to get any satisfaction with that line of inquiry. Even if you asked me directly, I couldn’t tell you."

TikTok will be co-owned by China and Trump allies, Paramount was sold to a pro-Trump billionaire who's also set to buy Warner Bros, X is owned by an apartheid-bred fascist, WaPo and Meta are owned by Trump-cowering billionaires, and Murdoch owns the Fox empire. Here's why media has a liberal bias.

I’ll have to read that.

I know, the problem with fictional utopias is that they’re boring if they work well. So it’s always a dystopia at some point.

I love when she gets salty about people thinking she was creating a blueprint for an actual utopia, when she was creating a thought-experiment and putting it through a stress test. I do miss her. Love that you are also a fan.

I just did a talk on The Dispossessed at a local community college. “A utopia with flies in it,” according to LeGuin herself.

As I’m slogging through a POV change in my novel, I decide to do a little experiment. I ask Claude to change the POV from first to third in one graph.

It turns every instance of “I” into “they,” including words inside quotation marks.

In case anyone’s thinking the machines are the answer.

What a great idea for a class! StoryStudio is great and you should definitely sign up for this.

it’s fascinating. majorities of americans oppose the military occupation of cities. a substantial number of those are fucking furious about it, but rather than lean into this anger and attack trump’s perception of strength, these “strategists” want democrats to avoid the confrontation entirely.