Sam Bessey 🐬

They/them or ze/hir. Genderqueer dude. Software engineer at Brown University Center for Computation and Visualization. They/them

[Sam Bessey 🐬 @queer_coded]

Trans rights are human rights.

[Mamylon @MattAmylon]

A great example of this is “X-Men: First Class,” a mostly competent movie that was obviously only researched through Wikipedia and seems to be a faux-nostalgic homage to a wild guess of what “classic” X-Men might have been like, if such a thing existed—we just don’t know!

[blithe spirit @emmkick]

I can think of one manager who did a lot by 33.

[Abdallah Fayyad @abdallah_fayyad]

It’s actually genuinely inspiring that a city that went through a devastating attack at such a massive scale—and all the Islamophobic reaction to it—can overcome petty bigotry and still see a Muslim as one of them. That’s truly what cities are all about.

[Edward Fitzpatrick @FitzProv]

.@RIHouseofReps passes passes ‘Freedom to Read Act’ aimed at library ‘censorship.’ Rep. @DavidMoralesRI said the bill is needed because the state has had 25 attempts to censor books, but Rep. @SherryRoberts29 said it would help ‘promote perversion’
https://t.co/1JR2U0zd6S

[Mamylon @MattAmylon]

Thinking about the literacy curve in these blogs in the context of Medicaid work requirements. All means testing tends to work as a tax on functional illiteracy, either because eligible recipients fumble the paperwork or have to hire people to help them fill it out

[Data for Progress @DataProgress]

There is not a single congressional district in the U.S. where more than 15% of voters support cuts to SNAP, the federal program that provides food assistance to millions of low-income Americans.

[Mamylon @MattAmylon]

All the positive Thunderbolts reviews are talking about how it handles trauma well. You never see people raving about Sinners or Mad Max: Fury Road handle trauma well (although they do) because that’s not really something you say about an action movie that’s good in any other way

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Since winning in 2022, John Fetterman has lost his closest advisers, including three of his top spokespeople, his legislative director, and his chief of staff.

Former and current staffers paint a picture of an erratic senator who has become almost impossible to work for, and whose mental health situation is more serious and complicated than previously reported. No one is saying every issue (say, his respectful relationship with Trump) stems from his mental health—but it’s become harder to tell which ones do.

Fetterman’s staffers, his truest believers, now question his fitness to be a senator. They worry he may present a danger to the Democratic Party and maybe even to himself.

[Sam Bessey 🐬 @queer_coded]

So Columbia isn't just complying at this point, huh?

[@itslaylas on upscrolled 🪬 @itslaylas]

President Claire Shipman of Columbia University just sent out an email advertising an "International Student Relief Hardship Fund". When you click on the link for "Special Student Relief", you're taken to the ICE website to report people. Sent this after a student was detained.

[Mamylon @MattAmylon]

Medical dramas don’t count as techno-optimism because—as has become increasingly obvious since 2020–the people who call themselves techno-optimists don’t consider “saving lives” or “healing the sick” to be interesting or optimistic use cases for tech

[Mamylon @MattAmylon]

In general I don’t agree that the protests were a big win for the centrist wing. A congressman was set to speak at the Providence march and he just went home after the prior speakers talked a lot about Palestine and hating Congressional Dems. Good sprinkling of Luigi-themed signs

[Mamylon @MattAmylon]

If this becomes a story I think it might be a bigger vote-swinger than the Switch 2 thing. People get furious when they’re denied access to these meds, and it’s a classic and obvious “for me and not for thee” thing—everyone knows that celebrities and elites are all using them!

[Julia Serano @JuliaSerano]

NEW: "Should Democrats Throw Trans People Under the Bus?" I've seen others make the moral case against it, but here I make a purely political case why this is a BAD idea for Dems. no-paywall link, 8 min read, pls share w/ the politicos in your life!
https://t.co/Yz5Xmi697A #LGBTQ

[Sam Adler-Bell @SamAdlerBell]

A challenge this cycle is that our anti-genocide organizing has made so little discernible impact; our interventions have seemed to amount to expressions of moral outrage / disaffiliation… it’s hard to escape the feeling that our vote is reducible to the same. But it isn’t.

[Sam Bessey 🐬 @queer_coded]

@lashon__hara The comments are also *wild*, or at least they were when I looked last night. Crafting subreddit mods have such a weird chip on their shoulder regarding what they do and don't choose to remove...

[Zeeti @DJZeeti]

Thank you Joe Biden

[sean illing @seanilling]

The neoliberal transformation of universities into post-pubescent summer camps genuinely breaks my heart

[Sam Bessey 🐬 @queer_coded]

Please... vote kate off the island

[Reegs @Reegs815]

🏝️ROUND 2: MATCH 5🏝️
#LostGOAT

[james tom @jestom]

finally some good news for once

[Mamylon @MattAmylon]

Munro was the absolute best person to do what she did within the past 60 years. The unquestioned master. You owe it to yourself to read at least some of her stuff that’s free online—here’s “Passion” which might be my favorite short story period https://t.co/Ki4sTQF4RO