[The Apollo 11 plaque] reads: "We came in peace for all Mankind." As the United States was dropping 7 ½ megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, we congratulated ourselves on our humanity. We would harm no one on a lifeless rock. - Carl Sagan
When the Vietnamese people shot down American warplanes and captured the pilots, this is what they had to say about it:
FFer Read of the Day: "When the Oracle Speaks" by @chubertwrites.bsky.social on @escapepod.org
Part 1: escapepod.org/2025/08/07/e...
Part 2: escapepod.org/2025/08/14/e...
We have been told many times that there won’t be boots on the ground. Many (almost all) of the pro war accounts here have given breezy assurances that there won’t be boots on the ground. If we do end up with boots on the ground, prepare yourself for the most shameless gaslighting campaign we’ve ever witnessed, as all of the same voices insist that no such assurances were ever given, and in fact we always knew there would be boots on the ground and were never told anything different.
fell for it again
“Aircraft should always be vehicles of peace, never of war! No one should fear that threats of death and destruction will come from the sky,” the pope said, “After the tragic experiences of the twentieth century, aerial bombardment should have been banished forever!”
This repeats yet another pattern from the Iraq War. When the Iraqis did not behave as the Americans wanted — without the deference and gratitude that a foreign military occupier felt it was due — they became targets.
Oh my fucking God this guy really said, in the year 2026, that we are going to "UNLEASH CHANG" against Iran.
Can someone please help the American conservative movement remember what irony means? THE DUDE LOST THE WAR
www.state.gov/releases/off...
I don't care if Congress authorizes War on Iran. NO WAR ON IRAN. I want people to fucking reclaim their morality.
According to an organizer, “all signatories are full-time employees, and nearly 30% are Google Cloud workers.”
I wrote about my time in Minneapolis last week, about what is involved in creating bottom-up, decentralized networks of care.
margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/our-neighb...
Alt National Park Service: ICE agent identified that murdered Alex Pretti.
Alt National Park Service: We will not share it here, but the truth always comes out.
Completely insane. AltNPS claimed to know the name of Alex Pretti's killer, refused to say it because "the truth always comes out," and then just deleted the post.
A man was executed on the street in my hometown, and AltNPS is using that as an excuse to vaguepost for attention.
NEW: Another declaration you have to read! Alex Pretti was shot near the apartment of a doctor, who saw the shooting occur and rushed to provide emergency aid as he lay dying on the street.
They describe what they saw: "The victim had at least three bullet holes in his back."
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.
"Please get the truth out about our son."
There's a prison revolt at a concentration camp in Texas in solidarity with Minneapolis:
I know the immediate future gonna be pretty crazy because I see more and more people reposting the Steven Universe comic.
Strength to & solidarity with everyone participating in the general strike today. My thoughts are with everyone fighting on behalf of their neighbours, in Minnesota & everywhere.
www.standwithminnesota.com
Sitting down to write and opening up my favorite word processor. I crack my fingers. It's time to unleash Chang.
Some stories report that this sword belonged to Chiang Kai-Shek and there's no way that's right, it's a fucking prop sword with UNLEASH CHIANG written on it in ENGLISH
The spector of US-backed dictators (with complicated, rocky relationships with their American patrons) of the past haunts a present where we are trying to install even more dictators around the world, but in a way fucking stupider way than I could've ever imagined
I can't think back on a time when Ive ever been prouder to be a Republican, Marco,' Bush said before recounting the tale of "Chang." "Chang is a mystical warrior. Chang is somebody who believes in conservative principles, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism, believes in moral values that underpin a free society. I rely on Chang with great regularity in my public life. He has been by my side, and sometimes I let him down. But Chang, this mystical warrior, has never let me down." Then Bush presented Rubio a golden sword, and solemnly explained its significance. "I'm going to bestow to vou the sword of a great conservative warrior." Only ... a closer look at the sword and its display stand Rubio kept in his Florida Speaker's suite showed that the inscription read "C-H-I-A-N-G," not, "C-H-A-N-G." Specifically: "Unleash Chiang."
"Unleash Chiang," as in the rallying cry of John Birchers in the 1950s, who urged the United States to arm Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Nationalist leader of Taiwan, so he could retake Red China from Mao. "Unleash Chiang,' which later morphed into sports trash talk in the Bush family, like when George H.W. would warn from the baseline that he was about to "unleash Chiang" with his next serve, Some journalists covering Rubio's ceremony didn't recognize the allusion and wrote it up straight. It's unclear even in a 2012 interview whether Rubio himself understood the story's origins. And so it was that the Sword of Chiang became allegory taken a little too literally-which is to say: not terribly different from the broader Bush-as-Rubio's-mentor meme itself
After you became the first Cuban-American speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, in 2006, your mentor, Jeb Bush, presented you with a sword. What was that about? Chang is a mythical conservative warrior. From time to time, if there's a big issue going on, youd see Jeb say, "I'm going to unleash Chang." He gave me the sword of Chang. From which mythology does this conservative warrior hail? I think it's a Jeb Bush creation.
Today I learned that neocon devil Marco Rubio, of current "let's regime change Venezuela" and "let's bomb Iran" fame, has deeply confused Chiang Kai-Shek, a very real person, with CHANG, a mystical warrior of the Bush family's invention, and everything is so stupid I want to cry
Woman Killed by Ice Agent Seemed At Fault, NY republican says
Newspaper Headline Writer Seems Like a Callous Boot Licker, Evan Says
For people outside of the Twin Cities, the closest thing I can compare it to is 2020.
Every institution you need for daily life is unsafe. There are a lot of people who need to shelter in place to protect themselves. But instead of a virus, the threat is the government.
Update — Here is what the new apparent CBS News segment "Whiskey Fridays with Tony Dokoupil" may look like:
If you are not a fascist or fascist-adjacent, you will be completely confused that they thought leaking the video would be exculpatory.