Velvet Hydrangea
@velvethydrangea.bsky.social
Dog mom. Artist. New Englander. New Yorker. Angeleno. New Englander again. Xennial.
Pinned
Rage Against The Machine - The Ghost of Tom Joad (Official HD Video)
YouTube video by RATMVEVO
youtu.be
Songs I needed to hear today: a chronic thread youtu.be/1VypaE6kKJ8?...
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
An absolute bedrock institution for understanding how the planet works, just civilization-scaled vandalism by the most incurious morons on Earth
December 17, 2025 at 2:52 AM
An absolute bedrock institution for understanding how the planet works, just civilization-scaled vandalism by the most incurious morons on Earth
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
I've tried and failed a couple times to write a post explaining how serious this would be. NCAR is globally essential to our climate change response. This can't just be replaced. Every scientist in the world will be doing climate research with one hand tied behind their back for at least a decade
Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
bit.ly
December 17, 2025 at 2:30 AM
I've tried and failed a couple times to write a post explaining how serious this would be. NCAR is globally essential to our climate change response. This can't just be replaced. Every scientist in the world will be doing climate research with one hand tied behind their back for at least a decade
What is it even like to be in the US Navy right now? Is everybody stoked to be outright murdering people and about to colonize South America ...again?
Trump: "Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled ... It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the USA all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us."
December 17, 2025 at 1:43 AM
What is it even like to be in the US Navy right now? Is everybody stoked to be outright murdering people and about to colonize South America ...again?
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
This is a photo from the Vanity Fair article. Notice how they have to arrange it so Stephen Miller is on the end, so it isn’t obvious that there is no reflection of him on the mirrored table.🧛
December 16, 2025 at 9:08 PM
This is a photo from the Vanity Fair article. Notice how they have to arrange it so Stephen Miller is on the end, so it isn’t obvious that there is no reflection of him on the mirrored table.🧛
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
Yet another excellent courtroom exhibit.
Here is a map of the affected countries (excluding Tonga), to give you a sense of how much this new ban restricts immigration from Africa in particular.
Of the newly-added country, Nigeria faces the largest impact, with tens of thousands of visas issued every year to Nigerians.
Of the newly-added country, Nigeria faces the largest impact, with tens of thousands of visas issued every year to Nigerians.
December 16, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Yet another excellent courtroom exhibit.
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
Easy solution: stop building fucking data centers
Illinois is running out of power. The news is a blow to Gov. JB Pritzker’s climate change-fighting goals too, as demand from AI data centers soars while wind and solar development stalls.
Illinois running low on power as AI data centers spike electricity demand
chicago.suntimes.com
December 16, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Easy solution: stop building fucking data centers
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
Didn't the Dems cave precisely because they were "promised" there would at least be a vote, and we told them all not to fall for it, but they did, and here we now are?
BREAKING: Mike Johnson just said he won't call a vote this year to extend enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act — effectively guaranteeing they will expire at the end of this month.
December 16, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Didn't the Dems cave precisely because they were "promised" there would at least be a vote, and we told them all not to fall for it, but they did, and here we now are?
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
Virginia Heffernan wrote this shortly after the 2016 election and it still holds true
December 16, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Virginia Heffernan wrote this shortly after the 2016 election and it still holds true
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
The older I get, the more my politics mature from childish, naïve beliefs like "the world is complicated and leaders have to make hard decisions" to more serious, adult principles like "hurting people is bad and helping people is good."
December 15, 2025 at 4:51 PM
The older I get, the more my politics mature from childish, naïve beliefs like "the world is complicated and leaders have to make hard decisions" to more serious, adult principles like "hurting people is bad and helping people is good."
It's a rough week to be 78
This has been a very hard day. Damn.
Joe Ely, Texas-Born Troubadour of the Open Road, Dies at 78 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/o...
Joe Ely, Texas-Born Troubadour of the Open Road, Dies at 78 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/o...
Joe Ely, Texas-Born Troubadour of the Open Road, Dies at 78
www.nytimes.com
December 16, 2025 at 4:13 AM
It's a rough week to be 78
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
28 Democrats voted yes on a bill that motherfucking TED CRUZ voted no on. It could not have passed without those 28 so check the list and if one of your senators is on it don't forget to write or call to tell them they're a bigot and a quisling and worse. Than. TED. FUCKING. CRUZ.
Here are the 28 Dem Senators who voted to advance the first federal ban on trans athletes & a federal definition of sex that would make trans & intersex people non-existent: Angela Alsobrooks (MD), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), Chris Coons (DE), ->
By a vote of 76-23, S 1071 passes the motion to proceed to the motion to concur. Won't know who voted for this until the roll call is uploaded, but safe to say it passed with the support of at least 24 members of the Democratic caucus. (Rand Paul probably voted nay and Steve Daines has been absent).
December 16, 2025 at 2:38 AM
28 Democrats voted yes on a bill that motherfucking TED CRUZ voted no on. It could not have passed without those 28 so check the list and if one of your senators is on it don't forget to write or call to tell them they're a bigot and a quisling and worse. Than. TED. FUCKING. CRUZ.
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
Speaking ill of the dead is controversial, particularly when it was a violent death. It’s edgy; it’s sensitive; best avoided in most cases, etc.
Baselessly making another person’s murder *about yourself,* and then approving of it, is a different thing. That is delusional, narcissistic, sociopathic.
Baselessly making another person’s murder *about yourself,* and then approving of it, is a different thing. That is delusional, narcissistic, sociopathic.
December 15, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Speaking ill of the dead is controversial, particularly when it was a violent death. It’s edgy; it’s sensitive; best avoided in most cases, etc.
Baselessly making another person’s murder *about yourself,* and then approving of it, is a different thing. That is delusional, narcissistic, sociopathic.
Baselessly making another person’s murder *about yourself,* and then approving of it, is a different thing. That is delusional, narcissistic, sociopathic.
💔
A huge loss for daytime TV & soaps. I’d argue that Anthony Geary is the greatest star in the history of the genre, even over Susan Lucci. 8-time Emmy winner. h/t: @charlesgaba.com
www.tvinsider.com/1234092/anth...
www.tvinsider.com/1234092/anth...
'General Hospital' Icon Anthony Geary Dies at 78
'It was a shock for me and our families and our friends,' Geary's husband, Claudio Gama, tells TV Insider.
www.tvinsider.com
December 15, 2025 at 8:18 PM
💔
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
In lieu of estimates of how long it's going to be before you get service back, I would accept a rolling total of ten bucks taken off your bill per hour that your service has been out, up to a bill of zero. I don't think anything except that would motivate them to actually fix anything.
December 15, 2025 at 7:55 PM
In lieu of estimates of how long it's going to be before you get service back, I would accept a rolling total of ten bucks taken off your bill per hour that your service has been out, up to a bill of zero. I don't think anything except that would motivate them to actually fix anything.
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
"We really shouldn't diagnose him as a 'narcissist' without clinically examining him"
December 15, 2025 at 3:43 PM
"We really shouldn't diagnose him as a 'narcissist' without clinically examining him"
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
Rob Reiner had one of the most wide-ranging audiences of any American filmmaker. People rewatch his films with nostalgia and joy. They quote them with parents and pass them down to children.
Ignore the other one's commentary. It's like a black hole commenting on the sun.
Ignore the other one's commentary. It's like a black hole commenting on the sun.
December 15, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Rob Reiner had one of the most wide-ranging audiences of any American filmmaker. People rewatch his films with nostalgia and joy. They quote them with parents and pass them down to children.
Ignore the other one's commentary. It's like a black hole commenting on the sun.
Ignore the other one's commentary. It's like a black hole commenting on the sun.
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
The Democratic candidate who taps into this will win the nomination and, if we still have a democracy, the White House
"For the first time, a majority of Americans believe billionaires are a threat to democracy. A remarkable 71 percent believe there should be a wealth tax. A majority believe there should be a cap on how much wealth a person can accumulate."
Opinion | The Billionaires Have Gone Full Louis XV
www.nytimes.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:38 AM
The Democratic candidate who taps into this will win the nomination and, if we still have a democracy, the White House
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
The ACA isn't just "health care for people who don't have a conventional employer." It also disallows something that was incredibly common 20 years ago, which I fear is getting lost to generational memory: insurance companies could deny you health care for essentially any previous health problem.
I'm dubious about Amazon's commitment to keeping pre-existing conditions a thing of the past.
December 14, 2025 at 11:50 PM
The ACA isn't just "health care for people who don't have a conventional employer." It also disallows something that was incredibly common 20 years ago, which I fear is getting lost to generational memory: insurance companies could deny you health care for essentially any previous health problem.
This is the shit that makes me violent. They want my independence. It's not theirs to take.
They want banks to be able to go back to openly discriminating against women and POC. They want women to need to have a man to cosign a credit card or a bank loan like before this rule was passed.
US consumer watchdog to narrow civil rights era lending law, sources say
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to propose in the coming days narrowing a key part of civil-rights era fair-lending regulations as Republican President Donald Trump's administratio...
www.reuters.com
December 14, 2025 at 1:37 PM
This is the shit that makes me violent. They want my independence. It's not theirs to take.
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
Sometimes I see my pup play keep away with my older dog & I'm convinced she's a @rejectedjokes.bsky.social character in disguise. "You want this? This stick right here? I want you to have it. Here. Here. Just take it. I want you to take it. Not like that! If I adjust it like this--take it. Too slow!
December 13, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Sometimes I see my pup play keep away with my older dog & I'm convinced she's a @rejectedjokes.bsky.social character in disguise. "You want this? This stick right here? I want you to have it. Here. Here. Just take it. I want you to take it. Not like that! If I adjust it like this--take it. Too slow!
I saw Boiler Room at 11:30pm in Manhattan. It was a very New York audience for a very New York movie. The cheer that sounded when the telemarketer tells Ribisi the Village Voice is free--I wish the actors had been there to hear how the line landed. My favorite NYC audience experience.
Raising the always fun question: What are your most memorable theater-going experiences?
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
It was hands-down one of the most memorable theater-going experiences I can remember, a collective 30-minute butt-clench/armrest-grab for the final climb. And we knew he lived! Wild.
December 13, 2025 at 12:29 AM
I saw Boiler Room at 11:30pm in Manhattan. It was a very New York audience for a very New York movie. The cheer that sounded when the telemarketer tells Ribisi the Village Voice is free--I wish the actors had been there to hear how the line landed. My favorite NYC audience experience.
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
25 years ago today, SCOTUS elected George W Bush president of the United States by blocking completion of a voting canvass in Florida. A subsequent canvass by the Associated Press showed that Bush's rival, Al Gore, had won the race in Florida—and thus the contest for the presidency—by 700 votes.
December 12, 2025 at 5:36 AM
25 years ago today, SCOTUS elected George W Bush president of the United States by blocking completion of a voting canvass in Florida. A subsequent canvass by the Associated Press showed that Bush's rival, Al Gore, had won the race in Florida—and thus the contest for the presidency—by 700 votes.
Reposted by Velvet Hydrangea
I guess it's fitting that it's a reimagined, worse version of someone else's artwork
December 12, 2025 at 4:00 AM
I guess it's fitting that it's a reimagined, worse version of someone else's artwork
BUT I DON'T FUCKING WANT TO LIVE IN NORTH KOREA AND I DON'T THINK MY NEIGHBORS SHOULD, EITHER.
Trump has added a ‘militarized zone’ to the southern border wall in California
Trump has added a ‘militarized zone’ to the southern border wall in California
Trump has added a ‘militarized zone’ to the southern border wall in California
www.independent.co.uk
December 12, 2025 at 12:56 AM
BUT I DON'T FUCKING WANT TO LIVE IN NORTH KOREA AND I DON'T THINK MY NEIGHBORS SHOULD, EITHER.