Been seeing people ask what the No Kings protest fundamentally accomplished.

I dunno, 2 million more people showed up to this one than the last protest. That's 2m more people convinced they need to be active.That's 7m people motivated to leave their house instead of doomscroll.

Seems significant.

I updated my Patreon tiers!

Now "Stars and Sips Society" can join monthly writers' rooms calls on Discord, to get story advice and brainstorming help from me and other creators.

In the last one we discussed one member's short stories, another member's comic, and my own plot problem in Chapter 5.

It's funny, the no kings protests could be the best chace to normalize the idea of nationwide strikes in the US, if the organizers are serious. They do maybe 2 more on weekends to really lock them into people's practice, then say, "hey, let's show them we really mean business & do it on a Wednesday"

Social media companies: "We have to get NSFW artists off our platform because they might end up distressing our sharehold- ummm, we mean, kids"

*AI hentai ad promoting roofing companies drops*

Social media companies: *crickets*

Who could possibly have predicted that the violent Maccabi Tel Aviv fans who are linked to violent far-right groups and hooligans would be so...violent?

Another stunning own-goal for Keir Starmer and his advisers. Great work, team! /s

This is your occasional reminder that Rose O'Neill, creator of the Kewpies, first published female cartoonist in the United States, and among the first cartoonists to build a merchandising empire on their work, turned out some absolutely baller, romantic-feeling size-difference monster art.

"Harry Potter: The Keir Starmer of fantasy literature" is probably the most devastating insult I've ever heard.

Guys new scamming method on bluesky. Please share this around. Dont fall for this stuff

Block, move on.

roughly a million years ago during the student protests in London, some friends and I set up a Missed Connections Twitter account so people could try and meet up with the hot protesters they'd seen on marches, offering the No Kings people this piece of information for free

A lot that could be said about this but if you look on Twitter it’s noticeable that the replies and quote tweets are *overwhelmingly* telling him he shouldn’t have apologised and even attacking him for doing so. That’s the feedback loop certain users are plugged into now, and it has consequences.

For completeness's sake, I should finish the rest of the conversation

'But doing the wrong thing is worse than nothing.'
'Doing anything is worse than doing nothing'

It feels like the classic Yes Minister line on politicians' logic;

Something must be done.
This is something.
Therefore, we must do it.

In other news, my dog is a cat because all cats have four legs, and so does my dog.

Bluesky is basically that scene in "12 Angry Men" when Juror 10 goes on a tirade about people from slums being violent, drunken animals and the other jurors get up and turn their backs on him without engaging him or arguing with him.

The only surprise is that anyone is even remotely surprised at this conclusion.

The sad part is, none of this surprises me. We've all stood by and watched the 'debate' around immigration sink lower and lower, the language getting harsher, more dehumanising.

To torture a writing phrase, some see this as a pivotal moment. For others, it's just another day at the office

Honestly, it feels - rather depressingly - like the natural consequence of Twitter's lack of moderation, the increasingly radicalised nature of the platform, and the coarse nature of political discourse, especially around immigration.

Don't engage. Just block. They want to push their rage bait on here. Don't give them the satisfaction.

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Totally worth it!

I feel like what they really mean is "cats don't show their affection as readily as dogs do."

I can't say myself since I've never owned a cat, but a few of my cat-loving friends are like, 'that's probably it, honestly.'

In essence, whoever wins, Labour and Conservatives lose?

EHRC anti-trans campaign loses its momentum - a week of absolute scenes has left the organisation in limbo. Here's what happened, why it happened, and what it all means iandunt.substack.com/p/frightened...

As I said, I respect your opinion - you have a right to it - but I respectfully disagree, and I hope I've made it clear why I believe that is the case.

I will fully concede that I have every chance of being wrong, but that just means I have a chance to learn more.

In light of that, I fail to see how the Supreme Court ruling solves any problems at all.

Taking rights away from a tiny minority of people, even if you dislike that group, is a dangerous precedent to set forth.

Court judgments are not immovable. Judges can be wrong (shocking, I know!)

Indeed, whatever the EHRC provides, it will doubtless be challenged under Article 8 and/or Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (another reason for the intervention?) as well as human rights jurisprudence.

Which, in my view, leaves us back to where we started.