toastykitten

Ai Weiwei on "What I Wish I Had Known About Germany Earlier" - this was commissioned by Zeit Magazine, but when he turned it in, they canceled its publication. Hyperallergic published it instead: 

At the heart of bureaucracy lies a collective endorsement of power’s legitimacy, and therefore, individuals surrender their moral judgment — or perhaps never developed one. They abandon challenge. They relinquish dispute.

When conversation becomes avoidance, when topics must not be mentioned, we are already living under the quiet logic of authoritarianism.

Miles Bruner - On My Last Day as an Accomplice of the Republican Party - tldr; he stuck his head in the sand until he couldn't figure out what to do without a paycheck from Republicans, and then the reality hit home with the Dobbs situation when his wife got pregnant, but he still stuck it out because he needed a job for his family. 

ICE's recruits are "athletically allergic" - President Donald Trump’s plan to double the size of the ICE workforce has met a foe more powerful than any activist group. It is decimating new recruits at the agency’s training academy in Georgia. It is the ICE personal-fitness test.
More than a third have failed so far, four officials told me, impeding the agency’s plan to hire, train, and deploy 10,000 deportation officers by January. To pass, recruits must do 15 push-ups and 32 sit-ups, and run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes.

Playing dumb: on the price of our integrity - Apparently Jia Tolentino is now doing a "collab" with Airbnb, right after participating in a one-day fast for Gaza...and Airbnb is on the BDS target list. Additionally she just wrote a pretty intense review of Elizabeth Gilbert's latest messy memoir, that had some pointed criticism - On social media, many of the most chaotic and emotionally lawless people you’ve ever known are posting on a regular basis about having at long last achieved inner peace. Many among us, after observing this cringe-inducing side effect of regular self-narration at mass scale, have given up altogether on sincere ideas of personal epiphany. But even those who might seek to subvert that tone, or invoke it ironically, are negotiating the same conventions.

Anyway, from the article about Jia Tolentino's shilling for Airbnb - There could be a long read on this, but on a basic level, there is a growing temptation for journalists – thanks to social media and really, originally, thanks to Twitter – to see themselves as celebrities, and to enjoy what spoils come with lucrative brand deals and fan adoration (do you have readers or do you have stans?). It might not surprise you that the type of personalised, parasocial event Tolentino is running with AirBnb is already common amongst BookTokers and literary adjacent influencers, and Tolentino (though not seriously) could be telling herself that online figures do this all the time. There are risks when we outsource our beliefs – about ourselves, each other, the world – to those who are easily seduced by this bait; whose words we treat as gospel when they are actually very fallible, if not plainly shifty.

Chris Kluwe calling MAGA a Nazi movement. He's on Bluesky and is refusing to talk to NYT unless it's with Jamelle Bouie.




Foot traffic fell in Walmart and Target, rose in Costco as both stores rolled back their DEI initiatives.

The Tesla Takedown is just beginning.

Ohio Rep House Rep says Trump's executive orders are getting out of control.

The SuperBowl happened less than 2 weeks ago, but it already feels like a lifetime: 

There’s some terrible things going on still, but I just wanted to share some things that are good, because sometimes we need that to keep going.

One of the neighbor’s kids, age about 10, I think, came over today and learned what it sounds like when a cat purrs. He said “It sounds like a motor.” It was kind of fun watching him observe this.

I am starting swim lessons again. Hopefully this time I get over my fear of the water for real.  

An mRNA vaccine could be used to treat a type of brain cancer. 

A 13 year old boy was completely cured of DIPG, the same pediatric brain cancer that killed my neighbor’s son, after completing a study on the effectiveness of different cancer drugs. The other patients in the study are also living longer than expected. 

Modi did not sweep elections in India as expected. 

University workers are making the connection between free speech and labor. 

I just listened to a Good Food interview with Franco-Palestinian chef Fadi Karan, and immediately ordered his new cookbook Bethlehem. It’s gorgeous. I also came across his series on YouTube, which he filmed during the COVID pandemic, called “Teta’s Kitchen” where he visits various Palestinian grandmothers and talks to them about their cooking. It’s really beautiful. I also ordered the 3rd edition of The Gaza Kitchen, which contains more seafood dishes, and a couple other dishes not found elsewhere. 

I’ve been delighted by this food series Did You Eat Yet? That was created by someone born and raised in Oakland, and his latest video is on the emerging food scene in Castro Valley. 

I feel like cryptocurrencies are basically MLM for men.

About Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, et al, the more convinced I am that they are all the same kind of idiot as Donald Trump except no one bothers to contradict their stupidity because they have money and they are smart enough in other areas where it's not glaringly obvious in the parts where they fail.