#Kento #Rowen #RoninWarriors

Alright, you can watch the show now. Did I mention that I'm a cop? #CowboyWho

According to new polling data, nearly 80 percent of Americans support extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of this year—and are at the center of a funding dispute that led to a shutdown of the federal government this week.

The poll, conducted by KFF and released Friday, found that 78 percent of Americans want the tax credits extended, including 92 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of Republicans—and even a majority (57 percent) of Republicans who identify as Donald Trump-aligned MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters.

A separate analysis published by KFF earlier this week found that if the credits are not extended, monthly premiums for ACA Marketplace plans would more than double on average. Specifically, the current average premium of $888 would jump to $1,904 in 2026, a 114 percent increase.

Read full article

Comments

What? #CowboyWho

Andrew Liszewski, The Verge:

Lumafield has released the results of a new study of lithium-ion batteries that “reveals an enormous gap in quality between brand-name batteries and low-cost cells” that are readily available through online stores including Amazon and Temu. The company used its computed tomography (CT) scanners, capable of peering inside objects in 3D using X-rays, to analyze over 1,000 lithium-ion batteries. It found dangerous manufacturing defects in low-cost and counterfeit batteries that could potentially lead to fires and explosions.

My gut feeling has long been that cheap battery packs and cheap products with integrated batteries (like all the junk Temu sells) are dangerous. This analysis basically proves it. (I’d have linked directly to Lumafield’s report, but it’s only available by submitting your name and email address, so Liszewski’s summary at The Verge is a better quick read.)

I do not have divine intellect.

Watch as a swarm of AI agents attempt to build a city and a website. They do a pretty good job, but are quite sloppy. This is using anthropics new Claude Code update, which includes the new model claude 4.5 sonnet and the ability to spin up sub-agents for sub-tasks.

~SLOP CITY~
Website: https://main.d1sr54os1yasco.amplifyapp.com/index.html
Code: https://github.com/MaxRobinsonTheGreat/slopcity

~SUPPORT~
Scrimba: https://scrimba.com/?via=EmergentGarden
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/emergentgarden
Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/emergentgarden
Twitter: https://twitter.com/max_romana
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/emergentgarden.bsky.social

~OTHER LINKS~
r/place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5O3UgLG2Jw
Anthropic multi-agent blogpost: https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/multi-agent-research-system
King Terry the Terrible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYQEfLaR4Pg

My Music Guy: https://youtube.com/@acolyte-compositions?si=2P97LlROhNgQYOa-
"Equatorial Complex"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

~TIMESTAMPS~
(0:00) Slop Swarms
(2:22) Slop City Image
(6:36) Slop City Website

Today's links

• Blue Bonds: State debt is generative.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: Why copyright wars matter; Car accidents aren't accidents.
• Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

---

Blue Bonds (permalink)

The US economy is on the brink. Trump's illegal clawbacks of federal spending (waved through by a supine Congress), combined with his illegal tariffs and his government shutdown have sucked billions out of the economy, which was already much-weakened by proliferating crypto scams and AI stock swindles.

Every day sees more irreparable harm done. People who are pushed out of the workforce stand a good chance of never rejoining it, becoming "discouraged workers" (the economist's term for a worker who can no longer find employment thanks to bosses' prejudice against hiring people who don't already have a job). The businesses those people used to patronize are next in line for the mortuary.

Farms are failing at rates not seen in generations, even as Trump sends billions to prop up the Argentinian madman Javier Milei, whose Trumpalike policies have wrecked the Argentine economy. Milei repaid the US for its bailout by sending soybeans to China to replace the US crops that China blocked in response to Trump's trade war:

https://www.farmprogress.com/commentary/china-thrives-without-u-s-soybeans

Long-running scientific experiments that might represent the cure for the cancer you'll contract next year, or a way to improve solar output and save you from the wildfires and floods that have your town's name on them, or a vaccine for the next pandemic, have had the plug pulled and may never restart. Research groups at universities are falling apart, their grants illegally canceled, the teams scattered to the four winds, never to reform.

Families, illegally deprived of food assistance, are having to choose between rent and groceries. Parents skip medication to feed their kids. Kids go hungry. All of this has permanent effects – on learning, on health, and on growth. Literally: my grandfather, a refugee who suffered from malnutrition in his boyhood, was a head shorter than his Canadian-born children.

Solar and wind projects are being shut down just as they near completion, squandering billions in public money – and a renewable future. Trump has stolen billions intended for Chicago public transit:

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/03/trump-targets-chicago-transit-money-shutdown-00592722

What is to be done? What can be done?

Many Americans have pinned their hopes on federalism, the devolution of power to the states. When I became a US citizen, the hardest question on the exam was untangling the tortured syntax of the 10th Amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

In a nutshell: the states have total power over their affairs, except where the Constitution says otherwise.

Lawsuits by state attorneys general have thus far done little to stanch the bleeding. Lawsuits are slow, and they rely on judges upholding the law, a task the Supreme Court has abandoned with sadistic glee.

The people need money, not legal briefs.

The editorial collective of Money on the Left offers a way to get money into the peoples' hands, right now, to allow us the material security we need if we are to organize to overthrow fascism and rekindle American Democracy. Their solution is "Blue Bonds," billed as "A Fiscal Strategy for Overcoming Trump 2.0":

https://moneyontheleft.org/2025/05/09/blue-bonds-a-fiscal-strategy-for-overcoming-trump-2-0/

What's a Blue Bond? It's a municipal or state bond, issued to replace the funds that Trump has illegally impounded. Blue states and cities can issue these bonds and use them to fund all the research, subsidies, programs and projects that Trump is trying to murder:

Dollars for housing and rental assistance, infrastructure and construction projects, rural energy and development, public health programs, veterans’ services, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, arts and culture: all public money previously authorized by congressional procedures should be reinstated in compliance with the Constitution.

Blue Bonds wouldn't just be backed by the states and cities that issue them, either. The Fed can swap them, one-for-one, with T-bills, the federal Treasury bonds that are considered "risk-free debt."

Blue Bonds don't have to be bonds, either; states can issue lots of different kinds of debt instruments, like "Tax Anticipation Notes" (TANs) and "Revenue Anticipation Notes" (RANs). These have different maturities and interest rates, and can be combined to hedge against liquidity traps.

These are legal. As the authors write, "Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act permits the Central Bank to purchase debt in any amount 'in unusual and exigent circumstances,' such as during financial crises." Trump destroying the US economy is unquestionably "a crisis." The Fed used Special Purpose Vehicles to bail out the economy during other recent crises, including the 2008 crash and covid. The difference here is that this is a people's bailout, going to fund the programs that people – not bankers or investors – rely on.

This is within the Fed's means. Thanks to those earlier bailouts, the Fed holds $7T worth of assets, and has "repeatedly emphasized [that] it can continue to do so without limit":

https://www.c-span.org/clip/house-committee/user-clip-greenspan-there-is-nothing-to-prevent-the-government-from-creating-as-much-money-as-it-wants/5028493

But – as the authors point out – this isn't just about bridging state and local financing through the Trump years. This is a fundamental restructuring of public spending, a way out of neoliberalism's violent allergy to the fiscal spending that expands the economy and lifts up the population. It's been nearly a century since the New Deal and Americans are still basking in its benefits (where they survive). It is time to renew those benefits:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/03/we-dont-care-we-dont-have-to/#were-the-phone-company

Austerity can't get us out of a collapsing economy. It is precisely when the private sector withers that the state must step in, providing the income that people need to do the purchasing that makes the private sector possible. After all, money ultimately comes from the government (try making your US dollars and see how far you get). It's only through government spending (and government authorized lending through banks) that money enters our economy. When governments stop spending, money – the economy's lubricant – dries up, and the economy grinds to a halt.

Public debt issuance isn't "borrowing" in the sense that you or I might borrow. Governments are not households or businesses. Governments aren't money users, they are money creators. Governments don't need to "borrow" to create money any more than Starbucks needs to "borrow" to create gift cards redeemable for future mochalattafrappacheenaspressae.

Private debt is a drag on the debtor. State debt is generative. It creates the roads, the hospitals, the schools, the educated and healthy populace, needed for the private sector.

To issue Blue Bonds, states – which cannot be forced into bankruptcy – must repeal their disastrous "balanced budget" rules and rules requiring supermajorities to raise taxes. From Money on the Left: "public deficits are healthy, so long as they support communities and take care of our planet. What is debt but a promise to bring about a desired outcome in the future?"

Trump has destroyed investor confidence in the US economy. The only paths to returns today are flushing your money into the crypto casino or backing giga-mergers that only go through if the companies involved throw sufficient bribes at the tip jar on the Resolute Desk. Blue Bonds are a safe place for institutional investors seeking a safe haven from kleptocratic chaos.

As the authors say, this is "the true Abundance agenda" – not the "diet Reaganism" of deregulation and sacrifices to the market gods being peddled by the corporate wing of the Democratic Party. A true Abundance agenda "builds robust public systems, including newly chartered public banks, that put people over profits."

Blue Bonds are the good version of Trump's beloved shitcoins. Rather than wildcat money created by and for speculators, Blue Bonds are a source of public prosperity, backed by a present or future Fed under democratic control, accountable to the people. Trump and his fascist pals are all-in on creating as many forms of "money" as there are memes on the internet. Here, at last, is a form of novel money creation that builds a human, shared future.

---

Hey look at this (permalink)

• FCC Reconsiders Ban on Big Four TV Networks Being Owned by One Company https://gizmodo.com/fcc-reconsiders-ban-on-big-four-tv-networks-being-owned-by-one-company-2000665921

• Open Printer https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer

• Bankification Nation https://www.levernews.com/bankification-nation/

• Apple removes apps that allow anonymous reporting of ICE agent sightings https://www.startribune.com/apple-takes-down-app-that-allows-people-to-track-and-anonymously-report-sightings-of-ice-agents/601485533

• What Europe’s New Gig Work Law Means for Unions and Technology https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/what-europes-new-gig-work-law-means-unions-and-technology

---

Object permanence (permalink)

#20yrsago Ebook DRM that encourages identity theft gets a huge makeover https://web.archive.org/web/20051011041018/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004026.php

#15yrsago Security company ad tricks people into thinking their houses were burgled https://copyranter.blogspot.com/2010/10/adt-shows-you-how-easy-it-is-to-break.html

#15yrsago Firefighters watch as house burns to the ground: owner had not paid annual firefighting fees https://web.archive.org/web/20101003021723/https://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/firefighters-watch-as-home-burns-to-the-ground-104052668.html

#15yrsago Sky Marshals to lose their cushy first-class seats? https://web.archive.org/web/20160521034617/https://www.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703431604575521832473932878-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwOTEyNDkyWj.html

#15yrsago Michael Swanwick writes a story about autumn on fallen leaves https://www.flickr.com/photos/54366973@N04/5035946705/in/photostream/

#15yrsago Why the copyright wars matter: a reply to Helienne Lindvall https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/oct/05/free-online-content-cory-doctorow?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

#15yrsago William Gibson nails my philosophy in life https://memex.craphound.com/2010/10/04/william-gibson-nails-my-philosophy-in-life/

#10yrsago Car accidents aren’t accidents https://www.wired.com/2015/10/stop-calling-daughters-death-car-accident/

#5yrsago Why I love the Haunted Mansion https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/04/build-back-better/#grim-grinning-ghosts

#5yrsago Normal isn't enough https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/04/build-back-better/#post-pandemic

---

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Boston: Enshittification with Randall Munroe (Brattle Theater), Oct 7
  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-at-the-brattle-theatre-tickets-1591235180259?aff=oddtdtcreator

• DC: Enshittification with Rohit Chopra (Politics and Prose), Oct 8
  https://politics-prose.com/cory-doctorow-10825

• NYC: Enshittification with Lina Khan (Brooklyn Public Library), Oct 9
  https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/cory-doctorow-discusses-central-library-dweck-20251009-0700pm

• New Orleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12
  http://www.contraflowscifi.org/

• New Orleans: Enshittification at Octavia Books, Oct 12
  https://www.octaviabooks.com/event/enshittification-cory-doctorow

• Chicago: How Platforms Die with Rick Perlstein (University Club), Oct 14
  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-platforms-die-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-1747916117159

• Los Angeles: Enshittification with David Dayen (Diesel), Oct 16
  https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2025-10-16/cory-doctorow-enshittification

• San Francisco: Enshittification at Public Works with Jenny Odell (The Booksmith), Oct 20
  https://app.gopassage.com/events/doctorow25

• PDX: Enshittification at Powell's, Oct 21
  https://www.powells.com/events/cory-doctorow-10-21-25

• Seattle: Enshittification and the Rot Economy, with Ed Zitron (Clarion West), Oct 22
  https://www.clarionwest.org/event/2025-deep-dives-cory-doctorow/

• Vancouver: Enshittification with David Moscrop (Vancouver Writers Festival), Oct 23
  https://www.showpass.com/2025-festival-39/

• Montreal: Montreal Attention Forum keynote, Oct 24
  https://www.attentionconferences.com/conferences/2025-forum

• Montreal: Enshittification at Librarie Drawn and Quarterly, Oct 24
  https://mtl.drawnandquarterly.com/events/3757420251024

• Ottawa: Enshittification (Ottawa Writers Festival), Oct 25
  https://writersfestival.org/events/fall-2025/enshittification

• Toronto: Enshittification with Dan Werb (Type Books), Oct 27
  https://www.instagram.com/p/DO81_1VDngu/?img_index=1

• Barcelona: Conferencia EUROPEA 4D (Virtual), Oct 28
  https://4d.cat/es/conferencia/

• Miami: Enshittification at Books & Books, Nov 5
  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-1504647263469

• Miami: Cloudfest, Nov 6
  https://www.cloudfest.com/usa/

• Burbank: Burbank Book Festival, Nov 8
  https://www.burbankbookfestival.com/

• Lisbon: A post-American, enshittification-resistant internet, with Rabble (Web Summit), Nov 12
  https://websummit.com/sessions/lis25/92f47bc9-ca60-4997-bef3-006735b1f9c5/a-post-american-enshittification-resistant-internet/

• Cardiff: Hay Festival After Hours, Nov 13
  https://www.hayfestival.com/c-203-hay-festival-after-hours.aspx

---

Recent appearances (permalink)

• Enshittification (The.Ink)
  https://the.ink/p/watch-cory-doctorow-on-why-everything

• Why Everything Is Getting Worse (Majority Report)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQW6UxY144Q

---

Latest books (permalink)

• "Picks and Shovels": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).

• "The Bezzle": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org).

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

---

Upcoming books (permalink)

• "Canny Valley": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025

• "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

• "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2026

• "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

• "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2026

• "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026

---

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

• "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE AND SUBMITTED.

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

---

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

---

How to get Pluralistic:

Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

Pluralistic.net

Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

https://pluralistic.net/plura-list

Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic

Medium (no ads, paywalled):

https://doctorow.medium.com/

Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising):

https://twitter.com/doctorow

Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising):

https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic

"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

READ CAREFULLY: By reading this, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

ISSN: 3066-764X

“A flower blossoms for its own joy.”
― Oscar Wilde 

Because our world is rife with animus, political violence, and innumerable deeds of intolerance and hate, one can feel weighed down by the sheer stupidity of human action.

It was while in one such malaise over our agitated civic situation that I was happily jolted into pleasure by encountering recent paintings by Raychael Stine. Hers is an art of unabashed joy that is as sophisticated as it is playfully infectious. Wild smushes of paint abut softly rendered gradations that loosely describe human forms, dog parts, and botanicals — not dissimilar to a kaleidoscope’s fractal flowering. While walking the gallery, I was lured into each artwork on display, but found myself fixated on Time Passages (the universe she is beautiful beautiful beautiful) (2025).

This complicated vortex of a painting is a spirited puzzle of alternate spaces, differently scaled shapes, and jocular references. Childlike hearts encircle fragments of striated greens that make up both the contours of a walking dog and a window to beyond. Amid the central green dog are floating flowers, painted as if they were cut collages from a 1960s hippie shower curtain, and two smaller profiles of dog heads are filled with glowing stars and striped paint. One also spies rainbow bits hovering, or triangulating, as cast light is projected through a prism. A small tear falls below the main dog head, rendered as a trompe l’oeil droplet floating on the surface. 

Stine seems to relish the making of her cosmic canine paintings as locales to display the variety of possible paint applications available, and also as emblems meant to illustrate the underlying beauty within the matrix of life. These densely layered paintings seem like what might emerge within the mind of Carl Sagan if he were walking his dog while waxing lyrical about the terrestrial and the celestial.

Perhaps the main source of Stine’s strength as an artist is the incredible dexterity in her paint application; it makes viewing her exuberant paintings a welcome indulgence. She adroitly slows our examination by layering thick impasto and then speeds our looking with myriad fuzzy lines flowing down the canvas like waterfalls. 

While the colors in this particular painting are mostly night shades set in deep tones, the top of the painting reads like the bending of bright light along the stratosphere before an astronaut enters orbit. That’s how Stine balances it all; she depicts the stuff of our lives like our companion dogs or our delight in beautiful flowers and then cracks our vision open into the eternity of materials that make up the firmament above and within.

 

Raychael Stine’s Falls and Springs and Stardust Things is on view through October 25, 2025, at Cris Worley Fine Arts in Dallas.

The post One Work, Short Take: Raychael Stine at Cris Worley Fine Arts appeared first on Glasstire.

This week on Cave Dwellers…

Can’t get enough of that Sugar Crisp.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – The government of Israel reports that it has intercepted a flotilla of boats, containing among others Greta Thunberg, which was in fact en route for a long-scheduled sleepover party. “We are very optimistic about this wholly enjoyable sleepover which will not violate any of the Geneva Conventions,” stated Prime Minister Benjamin […]

The post Israel reports they have found “missing” Greta Thunberg safe and invited her for fun, mandatory sleepover appeared first on The Beaverton.

#Kento #RoninWarriors

A note for a common argument in the comments: yes Walmart is selling "the wrong ones..." but that's the problem! Average folks who stop by the automotive section because they have a tail light out might see "LED" as an upgrade, and unless they've gone down the enthusiast rabbit holes you or I might have, they won't have a reason to suspect Walmart (or other retailers) would be selling a *downgrade* (let alone a not-street-legal downgrade) and might very well pop them into their car.

Exactly like the previous owner of the Cube did.

Well howdy-do Cowboy Slim! And howdy to all the little partners at home! Ooo-weee we sure are excited because of course as you know little partners at home, we don't often get extra special guest down at the corral. And well, this ones not quite a cowboy, but still he's pretty good! #CowboyWho

“This and That” is an occasional series of paired observations. See past “This and That” posts here. – Ed.

Today: Ladders to the sky

*************

The post This and That: Ladders to the Sky appeared first on Glasstire.

mst3kgifs:

He’s an artist with a fist.

OTTAWA – The ongoing Canada Post strike has impacted the ability of grandmothers across the nation to send you “a few dollars” on your birthday, which has been discovered to be a crucial cornerstone of the Canadian economy. Amidst the US trade war, rising unemployment, and skyrocketing cost of living, leading economists say the mail […]

The post Economy stalls as Canada Post strike prevents grandmothers from mailing birthday money appeared first on The Beaverton.

President Trump had another successful week of what is already the greatest presidency of all time, and yet, the woke leftist mob continues to deliberately foment violence by labeling our administration as “fascist.” Donald Trump deserves nothing but praise, and I, Stephen Miller, will not stand idly by while the radical left tries to sow chaos by painting President Trump as some sort of self-obsessed, jingoistic nationalist.

Calling the president, or any member of this administration, a fascist is tantamount to inciting violence. We are not fascists, and if you call us fascists, we will throw you in jail.

I have been quick to condemn the Democrats’ pathetic attempts to put a target on our backs. Every time you call someone a fascist, you are signing their death warrant.

Predictably, as soon as I said that, the cancel-culture-loving, terminally online leftist lunatics dug up numerous instances in the past where I called Democrats fascists as proof that I’m a hypocrite. But they’re ignoring the obvious difference, which is that, every time I said it, I was joking. I’m famous for my sense of humor. Ask anyone at the White House. When people think of Stephen Miller, they think “Guy with a great sense of humor."

That said, there is nothing funny about calling me or Donald Trump a fascist, and if you do, we will ship you to Guantanamo.

Nobody in the history of this country has experienced more discrimination or been subjected to more abuse than MAGA Republicans. Just look at the endless barrage of harassment our administration has endured from California Governor Gavin Newsom. His tweets are hateful, crass, and unbefitting of a man of his stature. His press office calls the tweets a “parody,” but Donald Trump sounds nothing like that, and he never stoops to such lows.

If the governor doesn’t get his act together, we’ll toss him in a federal supermax faster than he can say “Newsom ’28.”

The left keeps trying to twist President Trump’s actions to prove he’s a fascist. That’s why, when he and Peter Hegseth gathered America’s military leaders for a totally routine briefing/press-op, they tried to paint it as some sort of drum-beating display of strength.

Unlike Trump and Hegseth, fascist leaders are fanatically militaristic. And there is nothing fanatical about throwing a military parade, renaming the “Department of Defense” the “Department of War,” or purging non-MAGA generals. The latter two are simply common sense, and a giant military parade is just a fun, wholesome way to celebrate the birthday of America’s commander in chief.

Claim otherwise, and we’ll be forced to send the National Guard to your city until you wise up.

Sadly, the Democratic Party is no longer interested in governing and has become hell-bent on destroying America, which is why Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, and the other domestic extremists in Congress have ground the government to a halt. No doubt Chuck Schumer and the head of Antifa (whose name escapes me at the moment) were in cahoots to shut down the government so that they can turn America’s national parks into training grounds for leftist guerrillas. Just because I can’t name the head of Antifa (or any other prominent member of Antifa) off the top of my head doesn’t mean they aren’t a highly coordinated terrorist organization.

In fact, calling us fascists is classic Antifa behavior, and we’ll need to keep you at a CIA black site until we can make sure you’re not plotting any attacks.

Fascist regimes have classic, telltale traits, like vilifying immigrants, adopting patriotic symbolism of their nation’s glorious past, embracing a narrow definition of masculinity and family values, and striving for economic and diplomatic self-sufficiency. But just because we also do all of those things does not make us fascists. That the unhinged left insists otherwise is proof that we’re really the victims in all of this. Which is why we must apprehend and silence our critics in self-defense.

Yes, we may be more hardcore than the most hardcore gangbangers, but we are also innocent lambs who are being slandered by enemies of the state. If you can’t see how both of those are true, you deserve to rot in a cell.

And it’s not just calling us fascists—any defamatory language, like saying we’re “bigots,” or “scumbags,” or “walking sacks of bile who decided to make their self-loathing everyone else’s problem” should earn you a life sentence. Republicans don’t engage in that sort of behavior, and the only way to restore our country to order is to punish those who do.

So, stop claiming that we want to deny you freedom of expression; otherwise, we’ll have no choice but to take that freedom away.

John Oliver on Last Week Tonight, uh, last week, regarding Disney’s initial (but brief) caving to Trump’s demands that they suspend or even fire Jimmy Kimmel for his having the temerity to mock the mad king for being a sociopathic ghoul sliding into the depths of dementia:

Look, at some point you’re going to have to draw a line. So I’d argue, why not draw it right here? And when they come to you with stupid, ridiculous demands, picking fights that you know you could win in court, instead of rolling over, why not stand up and use four key words they don’t tend to teach you in business school? Not, “OK, you’re the boss.” Not, “Whatever you say goes.” But instead, the only phrase that can genuinely make a weak bully go away. And that is, “Fuck you. Make me.”

“Fuck you, make me” is, to me, the founding principle of this nation. That was our message to King George III, a tyrant descending into madness (who even suffered from swollen legs and feet, which rings yet another bell with our current wannabe mad king). And it needs to be our response to Trump.

FUCK YOU, BRIAN!

FUCK YOU, BRIAN! Also, please tell your neighbor to the right (your left) that I apologize for smashing their window.

If Brian receives this: FUCK YOU!

If Brian’s Neighbor receives this: I need you to know that I’m standing directly across from Brian’s window. I’m even using my nondominant hand to aim before I release, so I shouldn’t be missing. That being said, I take full responsibility.

Rather than attempting to fix my throwing mechanics in real time at the cost of your window (which unfortunately I can’t cover), I’ll move to stand across from Brian’s other neighbor’s window before throwing the next brick. It should still veer right, thus going to Brian. See attached diagram.

Sorry about this. It won’t happen again.

FUCK YOU, BRIAN!

I literally don’t know how the hell I hit your window from this angle, Brian’s Neighbor. Do bricks abide by a different law of physics? I think I’m getting the yips. I’m going to close my eyes for the next one and see what happens.

FUCK YOU, BRIAN!

I missed what happened because my eyes were closed. However, based on the sound of glass shattering and the now-expanded hole in your window, I can guess. If one more brick goes to you, Brian’s Neighbor, there’s a greater force at work here.

There’s a greater force at work here. Did the greater force also compel Brian to dump me while I ate a singular pierogi with a toothpick? He ruined Costco for me. But perhaps it was all so I could connect with you, BN. I’m going to throw this one backwards!

That confirms it. We’re cosmically linked. Maybe I’m meant to warn you about your neighbor, Brian. Avoid him at all costs. He can’t be trusted, which I should’ve known from the start. His Hinge dating intentions were “long-term relationship, open to short.”

But he charmed me—he always called baristas by their names, he kept his Adderall in 35 mm film canisters, and he had so many baseball caps that looked vintage but were actually brand new. His entire closet was filled with deliberately beat-up baseball caps. Where’d he keep his shoes? His jackets? His seasonal hats? He was so deep. I was desperately compelled, and I

I ran out of space on the last brick. As I was saying, I became obsessed. I could’ve just asked—I should’ve asked—but too much time had passed. I slept over just to sneak out of bed and scavenge the place for his outerwear. It was as though they had no storage, but simply waited in the ether to materialize on his body when he approached the front door. It haunted me.

Finally, months later, I stumbled upon the truth: a secret room, tucked behind a panel in his closet. It had his shoes, his jacket, and a shrine to Maroon 5. The most shocking part was the logistics. One sec… new brick.

Was it a pre-existing secret room? How’d he find wax sculptures of the non-Levine members? Did his landlord know? But I didn’t want to ask; Brian was always sensitive about his renter’s agreement.

Still, he sensed I knew, but continued to insist that his favorite artist was Blood Orange. His shame corroded our relationship. He also had an emotional affair with an AI chatbot, but it was mainly the Maroon 5 thing.

Hey, how old are you? Not to read too much into it, but I’m feeling a vibe here. Me throwing bricks into your apartment, you not calling the cops on me… No one has, actually. This is lowkey a really sketchy area.

Maybe you could introduce yourself? Stick your head out of the window. I mean, there’s already a hole. I’m in a fragile yet incredibly self-possessed state, if that appeals to you.

Okay, so I’m hearing sirens. Did I give you that idea? What kind of person can’t independently conclude to call the cops on someone smashing their window with bricks? This is the last one I’ll throw before fleeing into the night. You need to get it together, dude.

Also, please tell your neighbor to the left (your right), “FUCK YOU, BRIAN!”

Thanks!

The 15th annual World College Radio Day takes place on Friday, October 3, 2025, with stations from around the globe celebrating and bringing attention to student radio as an enduring form of media. The first licensed college radio stations launched in the United States in the 1920s and since that time student radio practitioners have been innovators in technology, music discovery and radio programming.

By nature, radio has traditionally been an ephemeral endeavor, with many shows never recorded and lost to the ages. While some stations meticulously save paper materials like internal newsletters and promotional materials sent by bands and record labels, many others regularly purge these bits and pieces of day-to-day operations. College radio has added challenges due to ever-changing groups of students, tight budgets and space constraints. In light of these factors, many college radio stations aren’t able to save and archive as much as they would like.

The Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications launched a dedicated college radio collection in February 2024 in an effort to preserve the materials associated with college radio culture. It now contains over 9,000 items from student radio stations and student radio trade organizations from across the United States and Canada. The wide-ranging collection includes radio station flyers, music charts, playlists, zines, program guides, organizational documents, correspondence, meeting notes, recordings of artist interviews, oral histories, scholarly articles, clippings, photos, training manuals, scripts, magazines and more. It is especially exciting to me that these items now exist in a central place online, so that college radio fans, participants, scholars and alumni can search and find materials from a variety of stations.

Recent additions to DLARC College Radio include college radio collections from Haverford College, Mount Holyoke College, Lehigh University and Virginia Commonwealth University. We have also added program guides/zines from several campus and community radio stations in Canada, including CiTR Discorder (from 2009 to 2023), CFUV Offbeat Magazine (1986-2002) and various CKUT program guides and magazines.

We have been regularly adding items to DLARC College Radio from Yale University’s archives, including materials from Yale’s independent student radio station WYBC and from The Ivy Network. Formed in 1947, The Ivy Network was initially started by members of college radio stations at Ivy League schools, including those at Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton. The Ivy Network was “designed to further the aims and purposes of the member stations, to gain the advantages which the free exchange of information, ideas, and advice will bring, and to obtain advertising on a national scale,” according to its policy document.

In honor of College Radio Day, we invite you to explore and contribute to the growing collection of student radio materials in DLARC College Radio on the Internet Archive.

Here are some highlights:

• Early organizational documents from Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, including its 1940 constitution
• WMHC (Mount Holyoke College) DJ and studio notebooks from the 1970s and 1980s, full of handwritten playlists, scribbles and notes
• Pledging Ritual (circa 1932-1945) and other materials from the Phantom Mask, a radio drama fraternity at University of Oklahoma
• Sunflower Story Hour – a 2025 WGSU radio drama focusing on the supernatural
• Episodes of WINGS (Women’s International News Gathering Service) newscasts from 1986 to present
• Recordings from CFRC Radio’s Oral History Project done in conjunction with the Queen’s University radio station’s 60th anniversary

The Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications is funded by a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) to create a free digital library for the radio community, researchers, educators, and students. DLARC invites radio clubs, radio stations, archives and individuals to submit material in any format. To contribute or ask questions about the project, contact: Kay Savetz at kay@archive.org. Questions about the college radio sub-collection can be directed to Jennifer Waits at jenniferwaits@archive.org.

Good Boy, a horror movie told from the point of view of its dog protagonist, comes to theaters this weekend. The Onion shares everything you need to know about the film.

Q: What is Good Boy about?

A: A loyal dog discovers supernatural forces lurking in his crotch that must be exorcised through intense licking.

Q: What’s so unique about the film?

A: It’s viewed from the perspective of a bored audience member.

Q: How did they get the dog to react?

A: The crew rubbed peanut butter on the ghosts.

Q: Where does it take place?

A: About two and a half feet off the ground.

Q: How long is it?

A: 504 dog minutes.

Q: How is Glen Powell’s performance?

A: Again, that is a Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever.

Q: Is it scary?

A: Most theaters allow you to purchase a ticket and then wait in the parking lot while the movie plays.

The post What To Know About ‘Good Boy’ appeared first on The Onion.

KNOXVILLE, TN—After a disappointing lunch that shattered his romanticized view of the topping, heartbroken local man Vince Salazar stated Monday that he now understood he had only ever loved the idea of a fried egg on a hamburger. “I thought the sunny-side up burger upgrade was what I really wanted, but I’ve come to see that I fell for a glamorized flavor profile that was never going to make me happy,” said Salazar, who explained that he had fetishized what it would be like to have an ooey-gooey yolk poured over his beef patty and allowed to soak into his bun, never truly appreciating what made a burger great in the first place. “In a lot of ways, it’s society’s fault for perpetuating the myth of an idealized fried egg burger and bombarding you with these messages about how amazing it will be if you order one. Because that’s just not true. In reality, you can’t force a new topping onto your burger and expect everything to be perfect. It has to happen organically.” At dinnertime, reports confirmed a newly smitten Salazar was telling anyone who would listen about how guacamole was the burger ingredient he had been looking for all along. 

The post Heartbroken Man Realizes He Only Loved Idea Of Fried Egg On Burger appeared first on The Onion.

The widow of the recently deceased Leonard Hendrick, 66, would like all single men in the community to know that her husband died and she is ready to move on.

The post Leonard Hendrick appeared first on The Onion.

The post Report: It Nice That Linemen Feel Comfortable Showing Off Bare Bellies appeared first on The Onion.

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go…

1. Moving people to a new team just so they can be fired

This got relayed to me from a coworker who is in a supervisory role, Dorothy. She has a direct report who she is working on terminating, as this individual has not been meeting the basic requirements of the job, including the essential functions. They were already given an extended probation and continue to not meet the requirements of the role. There’s a whole backstory to it, but a new development has occurred that seems really suspect.

Dorothy was told by her supervisor, Sophia, that once this person is out, they will transfer another employee to Dorothy’s team who has been performing poorly for years, despite repeated interventions by their current supervisor, Rose. Sophia wants to transfer this person to Dorothy’s team so Dorothy can fire them, because “Dorothy now knows the process.” Sophia plans to repeat that with a third poorly performing employee currently being supervisored by Sophia (in lieu of Blanche, who retired a month ago).

This is obviously incredibly messed up, but my question is … HOW messed up? Transferring people to a different team explicitly so they can be fired feels like stepping into illegal territory! Also, I’ve told Dorothy she should be documenting this in as many ways as possible, because this seems like the type of thing that could then be used later down the line to get rid of her.

Clearly, the supervisors who are supervising these poorly performing employees should be the ones to handle any terminations — they are the ones who know the person’s work! It is part of the responsibility of a supervisor! But what should Dorothy be doing to protect herself or stop this from happening?

Yikes, this is ridiculous! It’s not illegal — companies can use whatever process they want to fire someone, as long as it’s not discriminatory — but it’s terrible management and incredibly unfair to Dorothy. Sure, she has “learned the process” by dealing with her current person, but there’s no reason Rose can’t “learn the process” too — and it’s part of Rose’s job to do that when it’s needed. Dorothy presumably didn’t sign up to be the company firer, and if she agrees to keep letting people be transferred over to her so she can fire them, it’s going to affect her reputation: people will think that Dorothy’s team is where you get sent to be fired, or that Dorothy is a bad manager who fires people without cause.

Dorothy should push back with her own manager and say she’s not willing to take on firing processes for other managers. She can point out that it’s time-intensive and emotionally draining, and that while she will of course take that on when there’s a problem on her own team, it’s far too great of a burden to take it on for teams that aren’t even her own. She should be firm about this, because the idea is ludicrous enough that there’s a good chance they’ll cave if she flatly refuses.

(For what it’s worth, I’m betting that Rose is a big problem here: she’s had an employee who’s been performing badly for years and hasn’t dealt with it, and apparently Sophia considers her incapable of dealing with the situation now. Although obviously Sophia is also a big problem, as the architect of this bonkers idea.)

2. Should my company have been more discreet about only some people getting retention bonuses?

I am very happy at my company and feel well-treated. A few years ago, the owner/CEO went into semi-retirement and sold half the business to NewCEO (but he still does some work behind the scenes from home). When he made the announcement about this, he also stated that he was giving all employees who had worked there more than a year a large bonus to thank us for our hard work in helping grow the business. My understanding was that it was a retention bonus as well as a thank-you, to be paid out in chunks of money a year apart (I assume to make sure the transition to NewCEO was smooth with little turnover, which it was).

Fast-forward a few months later, and a Teams message went out from NewCEO saying, “All employees hired more than one year from X date, your bonuses will appear in your next paycheck.” I was very happy and grateful to get this substantial bonus — after all, OldCEO didn’t have to do this! But two newer women who had missed the one-year mark were blindsided and very upset by this. One was in tears. Either they weren’t at the meeting when it was announced or were hired since, I’m not sure.

Should the company have done this more discreetly, not mentioning it on company-wide Teams? The bonuses weren’t a secret (even though amounts weren’t made public). Or should they have given everyone a bonus just to avoid hard feelings? Should they have given the new women a heads-up? I’m not sure that would have been well-received either.

Yes, they should have been more discreet about it. Sending out a message announcing some people but not at all are getting substantial bonuses is a recipe for the people who aren’t getting them to be upset, even if there’s a clear, objective reason for who falls in which category. It’s naive to think it won’t. (It’s also naive for people not to understand that bonuses sometimes work like this, but the company still should have foreseen this.)

I’m not saying they should have hidden it; trying to do that could cause worse problems if it eventually came out anyway, which it probably would. But sending a blithe “people in category X, your bonuses will appear in your next paycheck” message to the whole company was tactless and unnecessary.

That said, tears are a pretty strong reaction and I wonder if something more was going on there.

3. Should I offer feedback to unprofessional intern candidates?

I’m a program manager at a small nonprofit. Along with managing the several interns we have, I’m also the person who receives their application materials. I’m currently in the middle of hiring for a marketing internship, and while I’ve seen some strong candidates and am looking forward to interviewing them, I’ve also seen some … less than great application materials.

I remember being in college and am sure I made some errors in professionalism while applying for internships, but it wasn’t quite on the level of having a shirtless picture of a guy (which is not applicable to the nonprofit I work for, although I’m sure it might be for some roles?) as the cover of my online portfolio. I received one application from someone who simply just said “Thanks” in the body of their email, and another applicant sent me an attachment of a .txt file that contained a link to their LinkedIn in lieu of a resume.

I feel very strongly about replying to all applicants, even if just to say “We appreciate your interest, but we’ve decided to go with a stronger candidate” because I know how disappointing it is to get radio silence. Would it be a kindness to also gently point out the issues I notice? I don’t want to preach to them, and I would never want to do it in a demeaning or demoralizing way, but not saying anything that could help them in the future feels unkind. Am I overthinking this?

It would be a kindness and I understand the impulse because I used to have it too, but it’s not a good use of your time and it’s not your job.

If someone specifically asked for feedback, I’d be more inclined to offer some, but otherwise there are lots of resources on job-hunting and communicating with employers out there. Plus, “don’t include a shirtless photo on your portfolio” and “your email is way too brusque” is just not the kind of thing that you, an employer with no relationship with these candidates, are well positioned to offer. If it were something more straightforward like “yellow type on a grey background is making your resume hard to read,” then sure.

Related:
should I point out job applicants’ mistakes to them?

4. I was charged PTO for attending a work event

In my first week at my new job, we had a team-building outing. Everyone was expected to attend. We had to leave the office at 2 p.m. and the outing was over by 6:30. This week, I noticed that three hours of my PTO had been deducted for it. This also happened before. Last summer, while I was interning for the same company, I had to go to a team lunch (which I ended up having to pay for myself, btw) that ran over, and (because I was hourly at the time) they deducted the 1.5 hours the lunch ran over from my paycheck.

As a newly hired employee fresh out of college (and intern, at the time) I don’t feel like I can skip out on these team activities. Do I have any recourse? Obviously I do not want my PTO used for what are essentially mandatory work events. Is it even legal?

If you’re required to attend, it’s work time and must be paid. However, they can charge your PTO for it — because that’s still paid time. The law on paying you for required work stuff just mandates that you be paid; it doesn’t look at whether that pay is coming out of your PTO balance or not.

But it’s still BS and completely contrary to logical understanding of what PTO is. (And wow, way to team-build; I’m sure that didn’t have the effect they were going for.)

You could approach it this way: “I don’t think this PTO should have been deducted from my check because the team-building event was mandatory — so work time, rather than me taking time off. Is there a way to get this fixed?”

The post moving people to a new team just so they can be fired, only some people are getting retention bonuses, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.