Mike Westphal
@mfwestphal.bsky.social
280 followers 240 following 1K posts
Biologist, writer, father of three, anti-fascist. he/him https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Westphal/publications
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Reposted by Mike Westphal
atrupar.com
Pritzker: "He wants to militarize major cities because he wants us to get used to the idea of troops on the streets. I believe he's gonna post people outside of polling places and if he needs to in order to control those elections, he'll assume control of the ballot boxes & count the votes himself"
Reposted by Mike Westphal
jwomack.bsky.social
Back in the USA & beginnig my annual election season rewatch of pre-Halloween favorites. Tonight cueing up a more recent addition to the list, The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
Reposted by Mike Westphal
hntdove.bsky.social
AGENT OF BYZANTIUM is Byzantine alt hist, not fantasy. It's set in the 14th century of a universe where Muhammad doesn't found Islam. The Byzantines and Persians are still intriguing against each other in the Middle East, and technology is starting to change.
www.amazon.com/Agent-Byzant...
Amazon.com: Agent of Byzantium: 9781504052320: Turtledove, Harry: Books
Amazon.com: Agent of Byzantium: 9781504052320: Turtledove, Harry: Books
www.amazon.com
mfwestphal.bsky.social
Looking forward to this!!
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Hey, weirdlings and norms... my book tour celebrating the release of the Absolution trade paperback kicks off Oct 20 in Santa Cruz, in convo with the wonderful writer @poingu.bsky.social ! So looking forward to it.
Free book talk and signing
10/20, 7:00 p.m. - Santa Cruz, CA
Bookshop Santa Cruz
in conversation with Claire Oshetsky

(image of the surreal gator book cover of Absolution and author photo)
Reposted by Mike Westphal
catherinezoltan.bsky.social
"We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected... When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains".
"We want their funding to be shut down... We want to put them in trauma". Russell Voight ~ Project 2025
mfwestphal.bsky.social
They’re going to be sets for endless sequels of Resident Evil
tamigraph.bsky.social
Probably worth paying more attention to *why* tech oligarchs and this administration, in particular, are so eager to build data centers. What do we think they’re going to be used for? Endless AI for good projects or…?
mfwestphal.bsky.social
It must be the season, indeed!! We also had pecan pancakes. At the Sherman Oaks Denny’s after seeing Guillermo Del Toro live, presenting clips of Frankenstein. Pancakes go pecan when they go dark.
Reposted by Mike Westphal
richardkadrey.bsky.social
Because my new book is out today I thought I’d do something completely ridiculous but also necessary.
A Spirit Halloween store
Reposted by Mike Westphal
bordergroves.bsky.social
"[A] democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." - FDR (1938)
a man stands at a podium with microphones that say wor on them
ALT: a man stands at a podium with microphones that say wor on them
media.tenor.com
mfwestphal.bsky.social
The statue is cool
jwomack.bsky.social
Very Things to Come/Metropolis, somehow, with color
Sagrada Familia, interior.
Reposted by Mike Westphal
jwomack.bsky.social
Not unlike some critter from the Burgess Shale.
Ceiling, Sagrada Familia
Reposted by Mike Westphal
tomtomorrow.bsky.social
as a wee lad in the early 90s who thought it would be fun to make cartoons for a living, I did not expect to chronicle the descent of the so called american experiment into blatant fascism, but I guess you play the hand you are dealt
Reposted by Mike Westphal
ellinst.bsky.social
😟 We will not be forgiven, if there's anyone left to pass judgement. And think of all the animals dying from loss of habitat.
wildwoods.bsky.social
Unfortunately this piece on loss of the Teakettle Forest in the Garnet fire fails to delve into how USFS repeatedly postponed & deprioritized the funded prescribed burning project that likely would have saved these old-growth trees from burning at high intensity.🌍 www.sfchronicle.com/climate/arti...
‘All the trees are dead’: An ancient California forest has been wiped out
Old growth forests across the West are at risk of disappearing within 50 years. The Teakettle Experimental Forest is a tragic example in California.
www.sfchronicle.com
mfwestphal.bsky.social
Repeat that bit about him wearing a bicycle helmet to class when he was doing his PhD at UC Berkeley? That would seem to me to be important. It’s also important to note that this guy is a fucking idiot.
teabelly.bsky.social
It is important to understand this in context. The Curtis Yarvin followers (who include Peter Theil, JD Vance, and others) want to end democracy and replace it with corporate structure. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Curtis Yarvin’s Plot Against America
The reactionary blogger’s call for a monarch to rule the country once seemed like a joke. Now the right is ready to bend the knee.
www.newyorker.com
Reposted by Mike Westphal
richardkadrey.bsky.social
Good morning from Crime Detective.
Yes, that really is Steve McQueen on the cover. The magazine has conflicting publication dates of 1956 and 1958, the latter of which is the same year THE BLOB was released.
Steve McQueen clutched by a crying teen girl in handcuffs
Reposted by Mike Westphal
richardkadrey.bsky.social
Remember when CRIMSON PEAK got a lot of bad reviews because the studio promoted it as a horror film but what del Toro gave us was a dark gothic romance? That's what worries me about FRANKENSTEIN. I have a feeling it's more gothic than horror. Will the studios fuck that up again?
thefilmupdates.bsky.social
The official trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s ‘FRANKENSTEIN’ starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz.

In select theaters October 17, on Netflix November 7.
Reposted by Mike Westphal
Reposted by Mike Westphal
Reposted by Mike Westphal
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
primary anybody who doesn't talk like this
wyden.senate.gov
They’re using American tax dollars to fund infrastructure in Argentina because that’s where they’re all going to flee when we kick them out of office
ryangrim.bsky.social
After announcing a $20 billion bailout of Argentina, the White House now says it's pausing $18 billion in funding for NYC infrastructure projects

Russ Vought would love nothing more than to tear this country down to its studs
mfwestphal.bsky.social
I’m thinking of all the elected Republicans who are belatedly remembering that insider trading is a crime
dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social
They did not think it would go this fast or be this stupid and they did not realize how much of the population is not at all with them
Reposted by Mike Westphal
ravenbooks.bsky.social
You are young yet, my friend, but the time will arrive when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is going on in the world, without trusting to the gossip of others. Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see. ~Edgar Allan Poe
Reposted by Mike Westphal
georgetakei.bsky.social
I understand this. Please tell me you do, too.
The image is an X post by user Joshua Reed Eakle from 20 hours ago, stating: "The end of due process for immigrants is the end of due process for citizens. Few understand this." The post includes a profile picture and a verified badge.