Trump is running an interesting experiment in how many self-identified Christian Americans have actual religious commitments and how many are just into it because it provides a means for the socially defensible expression of bigotry bsky.app/profile/bria...

The United States is destroying itself | Rebecca Solnit The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment

"At some point if the ship doesn’t turn around, maybe it will start taking on water or listing badly or hit an iceberg, or perhaps the iceberg has been there all along and is named Donald Trump."

when I say "average right-wing Catholic" again imagine I'm talking about a Reagan compared to a Trump

they love immigrants! immigrants are their base! so many US Catholic parishes are fueled by big immigrant families and run by immigrant priests, many coming from socially conservative countries

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE TAGGING ME IN ON THE VATICAN / PENTAGON BEEF HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY SHIT

and it is still infinity times better to be the kind of person who loves monarch butterflies, and the mosaic tilework on an ancient mosque, and kids whose names you'll never know running around a field kicking a soccer ball, than the kind who views them with indifference, but it is also painful

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV declares the Iran War is “unjust” and “is not resolving anything.”

After suggesting Trump is committing war crimes by targeting civilian infrastructure, he called on Americans to contact Congress to help end the war.

Millions of American voters wanted to be villains. They came to believe it’s the key to success, while goodness is weak, woke, loser stuff, done only to signal.

Offered the option of unvarnished villainy, they enthusiastically took it. Seeing others suffer more made them feel big.

And here we are.

So pro-life means jailing women who miscarry but shrugging when the deranged president says “a whole civilization will die tonight.” Do I have that right?

Bonus Episode from In This Family: Ka Vang on War in Southeast Asia, ICE in Minnesota, and Mental Health Echoes | Maximum Fun A conversation about what gets handed down across the world, across the world, and across generations.

I've been trying to write about the (ongoing!) ICE presence in Minnesota but my scope is limited by being a white guy amid all this. My daily life around ICE is very different from people of color.
That's why we put this interview in the Depresh Mode feed today: maximumfun.org/episodes/dep...

I read something (I can't remember where) that being a woman in your 40s is just getting back to being the girl you were in your teens and 20s, except this time, you love her. I haven't been able to stop thinking about that since.

my editor told me that people were calling Trump’s foreign policy the Jolene doctrine bc he’s taking things “just because he can” and I said it was unfair to Jolene to name a doctrine after a motivation a third party projected on her and he got annoyed and said I should “go tweet that”

From the Star Tribune: “The damage to Harper's body was so severe, we were not allowed to see her, hold her, or be with her body ever again," [her mother] said. "And then, months later, as the pews were removed from that church, more of her remains were found. We had to cremate our daughter a second time. Imagine receiving that phone call. And then tell me, what is this gun for? Hunting? There are other tools. Home defense? There are other tools. What is this one for?"

Absolutely gutting story on Annunciation parents pouring their souls into enlightening legislators, knowing they’d the GOP brick wall. But the piece contains one of the most horrifying paragraphs an American parent could read; it will stay with me: www.startribune.com/in-living-ro... (gift)

CHIMING IN FROM OUT OF FRAME: also hundreds of children were killed

But I also think Trump doesn't care; in one way he's on his revenge tour against a nation that spurned him in 2020, and in another way he's on his way out and is pleased to leave a trail of wreckage behind.

I sometimes worry that too many people think being a good critic means being a self-righteous dick about every little thing and I think far too many miss the point that you can't critique anything if you don't know how to love something.

Optimist: The cup is half full

Pessimist: The cup is half empty

Editor: AU: Is the cup in the process of being filled or emptied? If filled, is there an expectation that it should or will be fuller? Also, three paragraphs ago you mention a mug. Is this meant to be the same item?

I love to click links and open new tabs.
Unfortunately, I love it more than actually reading the tab and way WAY more than closing unused ones.

This sounds like an ad, but it's about murder.

Since July, more than a dozen pregnant children have been moved to a single facility in the small town of San Benito, along the south Texas border. The children kept in Texas are as young as 13, and about half are pregnant because of rape, according to a joint investigation by the Texas Newsroom and the California Newsroom. In Texas, abortion is banned in nearly all circumstances, including rape and incest.

the phrase “more than a dozen pregnant children” ringing in my ears www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

when he's worked up in a big tizzy like this, trying to be an informed american citizen with an awareness of the geopolitical landscape is just an effort to digitally concuss yourself

men love to be like ‘if i saw some guy doing that shit to my girl i’d kill him.’ no you wouldn’t lol. you can’t even politely ask your buddy to stop calling women fat bitches or whatever

We bombed Iran?! | I need to pay that bill | Kansas antitrans ID law!! | Don’t forget Hugo noms | do we still have Venezuela’s president? | *an email re: book promotion* | I can’t pay this bill | cutting funds to MN?? | I need to check on my friends | timeline fights about doomerism | taxes | REPEAT

I think if I'd gotten away with attempting a coup, suffered no consequences for it, then won an election four years later, got away with executing citizens in the streets and foreigners in boats, and successfully abducted a head of state, I too might think I could just bomb my way to regime change

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

A great example of what I meant when I said that companies are focusing on AI rather than on actually making their products work! Adobe was my go-to example as well, even though my original tweet was spawned by interacting with Meta.

What Trump Sells Is Impunity Trump stands out in the GOP not for his racism, but his vision of emancipatory irresponsibility.

“It was his very lifestyle that offered something worth aspiring to. Not a vision for society, but a vision for the individual: to say, do, and be whatever you want without consequence—not in spite of cruelty or selfishness, but because of those things.” www.liberalcurrents.com/what-trump-s...

It totally does! And we can have wait times here, too, all while letting some people go bankrupt over it, or worse. I don’t think any system is perfect, but many people here (myself included) see the benefits of your system!

They are ignoring features and upgrades that we actually ask for in favor of the shiny thing. Tell me why Adobe still can’t move a gradient swatch from one program to another?? 🙄

They think you have crazy long wait times. And maybe less quality care? I don’t know. But I’ve heard the wait times thing quite a bit, even though our wait times are often not ideal!