It’s blazing hot this weekend. Join me in donning too-short shorts and deep tank tops, sipping aperol spritzes and parking yourself in front of a fan, trying to not think about how mother nature is about to shake our whole species off like a case of the fleas and we kinda deserve it.

“I’ve wondered a lot about the line between fiction and nonfiction, and what license is actually bestowed by the act of labeling something as fiction.” (The discourse that this piece has sparked is frankly fascinating.)

PAY. ATTENTION. TO. LOCAL. ELECTIONS. AND. NOT. JUST. FEDERAL. If one good thing came out of the Trump era, it was revived civic attention and participation. There is very real danger to be faced if we don’t keep it up. The QAnons know this too.

Shot, and chaser. Pathetic old con artist.

He’s publicly, vulnerably queer and it makes people so mad. I love it. And so does he. His music isn’t really made for me, but even an elder millennial like me can appreciate his masterful control of his own narrative.

Invent a culture crisis, claim it’s an existential threat, legislate against it, craft the narrative to say that it’s a liberal plot to legislate FOR it and you are just the bastion of the status quo, mobilize electorate off of it. The hyper conservative playbook in a nutshell. It’s exhausting how successful it is. Then, as a follow up, rewrite or ignore history. “We are so accustomed to using the word fascist as an epithet that it feels awkward to adjust it for political analysis.”

Reparations aren’t just about race, but they are ALL about who has been allowed inclusion and participation in democratic society. Who has been allowed bodily autonomy. Who has been allowed rights. Who has been aggressively and violently culled from our ranks.

American will call every religion extremist except its preferred iterations of Christianity. Yikes.

Oh no! The Atlantic is my favorite publication by far and they have been doin STELLAR work over the last few years. SUPPORT JOURNALISM, PEOPLE.

Small Dog Nation loves an art mystery.

Professor Blyth drops another hit. “In short, beware the rhetoric of inflationary reaction. A perversity thesis joined to naked self-interest should not guide policy, no matter how hard it is to get that folk model out of our heads.”