Morgan Leigh Davies
@mldavies.bsky.social
1.1K followers 790 following 2.6K posts
Victorian lady invalid, lying in bed surrounded by books. Long covid, ME, other ailments. Bylines in The Sick Times, Electric Lit, Jezebel, etc; cohost of Overinvested pod in absentia; picking away at a novel. she/her https://linktr.ee/morganleighdavies
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mldavies.bsky.social
I want to start a running thread of 2025 book recommendations. I post a lot about books over at Instagram (www.instagram.com/morganleighd...) but here are some of the new books I have loved so far this year!
mldavies.bsky.social
makes an absolutely huge difference. most schools really suck at this
mldavies.bsky.social
I'm always the most impressed with the teenagers I work with who are eager to be edited and genuinely thirst for constructive feedback because they want to get better. if literal children can have this mindset so can grown-ass adults.
mldavies.bsky.social
this is about books not journalism, but even so: I have had BAD editors and it absolutely sucks, but partly for that reason and the hollowing out of journalism... having a good editor is such a GIFT! how often have I had a bad editor or no editor at all! be grateful!!
blipstress.bsky.social
An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.
mldavies.bsky.social
Met most of my closest friends… so…
conradhackett.bsky.social
Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?
mldavies.bsky.social
I’ll be covering this for @jezebeldotcom.bsky.social next month and I wish it were not so important or feel so scarily relevant. Preorder:
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
alixeharrow.bsky.social
kinda sweet that bookshop.org's anti-prime sale overlaps with banned books week, which means today you can get free shipping PLUS 20% off their banned books list! bookshop.org/info/banned-...
Banned Books
bookshop.org
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
mattzollerseitz.bsky.social
They had to buy the Post, gut the newsroom, and restaff with reactionary grifters that don't deserve to carry their predecessors' dirty socks; that was the only way to remake the paper, because they were never gonna get through the front door on merit.
gbrockell.bsky.social
This little twerp, who’s been there a few months, axed two of the lions of WaPo??

Fisher is an investigative champion and had been at The Post for 39 years. Hoffman had been there for 42, and he won a Pulitzer LAST YEAR.
oliverdarcy.bsky.social
Last week, new WaPo opinion editor Adam O'Neal quietly carried out another purge of staffers, cutting editors and major names like Marc Fisher and David Hoffman, among others.

Meanwhile, he welcomed three conservatives to the section.

Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/washington...
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
jackjenkins.me
Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.
(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
gbrockell.bsky.social
This little twerp, who’s been there a few months, axed two of the lions of WaPo??

Fisher is an investigative champion and had been at The Post for 39 years. Hoffman had been there for 42, and he won a Pulitzer LAST YEAR.
oliverdarcy.bsky.social
Last week, new WaPo opinion editor Adam O'Neal quietly carried out another purge of staffers, cutting editors and major names like Marc Fisher and David Hoffman, among others.

Meanwhile, he welcomed three conservatives to the section.

Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/washington...
Post Traumatic Disorder
Adam O’Neal says he’s bringing “intellectual diversity” to The Washington Post’s opinion pages—but the moves he’s making behind the scenes tell a different story.
www.status.news
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
audrelawdamercy.bsky.social
I've written my analysis of today's grim Supreme Court oral argument in the conversion therapy case:

As far as the Court's concerned, imaginary medical uncertainty gives states the authority to hurt queer kids, and takes away states' authority to protect them

ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/chile...
The Conservative Justices Don't Trust Any Science That Supports LGBTQ Kids
States that want to facilitate discrimination against LGBTQ people have the Court's blessing. States that want to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination do not.
ballsandstrikes.org
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
alexaray.bsky.social
It’s boiling in October because you’re using ChatGPT to write your emails, Janice.
mldavies.bsky.social
swan diving into the abyss
tressiemcphd.bsky.social
I have been trying to explain a microfiche machine to one of my dear, brilliant, talented, but clearly too young to be alive collaborators. And it is taking the last of my soul.

“Micro…fish?? I have never heard that word in my life.” I recorded the timestamp so it can be put on my tombstone.
mldavies.bsky.social
Reading up on the new TSwift… miss “English teacher” doesn’t know the plot of Hamlet? Excusez-moi?
mldavies.bsky.social
On a lighter note: Nobel predictions? They seem to like alternating gender year on year so I expect it to be a man. VERY pleased to see Colm show up on the odds list finally, he deserves to win one day.

Helen Garner should be on the list too surely. lithub.com/here-are-the...
Here are the bookies’ odds for the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced next week, on Thursday, October 9. As always, to prepare myself (emotionally, I guess?), I consulted the UK betting site NicerOdds (nicer than w…
lithub.com
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
wingsndnsilver.bsky.social
Abomination.
nkalamb.bsky.social
US immigration enforcement is now the 13th most well-funded military in the world, ahead of Canada and, incredibly, just behind Israel.

inthesetimes.com/article/ice-...
If the immigration enforcement apparatus of the United States were its own national military, it would be the 13th most heavily funded in the world. This puts it higher than the national militaries of Poland, Italy, Australia, Canada, Turkey and Spain — and just below Israel.
mldavies.bsky.social
just finished reading CARELESS PEOPLE and it made my brain melt out of my skull... like seriously nobody with the hubris to start one of these platforms is morally or emotionally qualified to actually run it, unfortunately
mldavies.bsky.social
free us all from the tech ceos I s2g
miriamboosh.bsky.social
Let me get this straight: Link, a Black user, got banned for calling out the Bluesky CEO for following a racist. That’s not a good look, especially given Bluesky’s historical treatment of Black users here on bluesky.
mldavies.bsky.social
Utterly disgusting
bgrueskin.bsky.social
A former OMB official said the change could mean "750,000 fewer people would receive benefits in the next decade... and 80,000 fewer widows and children would receive benefits due to loss in eligibility of a spouse or parent"

A Meryl Kornfield/Lisa Rein scoop

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Trump plan would limit disability benefits for older Americans
Trump administration officials are considering eliminating age as a factor in deciding whether someone is capable of working.
www.washingtonpost.com
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies
athul.acharya.cc
‘Thunberg was “wrapped in the Israeli flag and paraded like a trophy.”’
paultlevin.bsky.social
““They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,” the Turkish activist ErsinÇelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.”+
Israel accused of detaining Greta Thunberg in infested cell and making her hold flags
Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies