Rika⁷

Happy #portfolioday! I'm Marika, a Black illustrator and designer. I'd love to work on more book covers, book-adjacent work, and science fiction and fantasy projects. www.commanderrika.com/illustrator marikawrites589(at)gmail.com

one big priority for the next Dem congress should be knocking over the Ellison empire somehow. it's plenty rickety

NEW: I spoke with current and former EA employees to understand how the latest layoff round played out and the realities of daily life at the U.S. publisher. The short version? EA is controlled by an executive class that "cannot fail, only be failed." Workers, then, will always pay the price.

At least 18 early voting centers in rural Alaska have not opened as of Friday, state Sen. Bill Wielechowski says. The commonality? All the affected areas have at least a 60% Alaska Native population — with nearly a dozen having Alaska Native populations upwards of 90%: https://demdock.com/4yTW5Ze

A reminder, because it is almost that time of year: More children are killed by cars on Halloween than any other day of the year, by far. www.vox.com/future-perfe... If you're a parent, I hope you'll do what you can to keep kids safe. If you're driving on Saturday, PLEASE exercise extra caution.

Anthropic is trying to write its own federal AI regulation law. The major AI firms have all issued feeble proposals for how their AI will serve the public, in anticipation of their pending IPOs. It's all a reminder that we cannot, any under circumstances, let AI firms govern the future.

They know "A.i." in education is poison. If you're in NYC, please come to the @aimoratoriumnyc.bsky.social rally TOMORROW to call on the @mayor.nyc.gov to CANCEL the "A.i." pilots in our high schools! actionnetwork.org/events/rally...

Look, I know all the reasons we got here, but we really need to start seriously thinking about what we do in a world where The Markets punish whole countries for voting for decency, compassion, and fairness. We must stop pretending the capitalist machine is an objective, value neutral force.

Using Black people’s likenesses for AI-generated ads where you cast them as stereotypes isn’t just incredibly unethical, it should be illegal www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/hou...

You can do the same thing, buying a house and borrowing against it—ha ha, just kidding, normal people get taxed annually on their wealth via property taxes, the "you can't tax wealth, the economy will collapse!" rule applies solely to the super-rich.

Average Trump scandal: many people dead after uncontroversial government program illegally cut by doge for nonexistent savings Average mamdani scandal: he’s playing BASKETBALL with his FRIENDS

If I don't get at least twenty emails, I will be very disappointed in all of you.

I named a character in MAZYWOOD “Priscilla Stephens” after my 88-year-old aunt, a 1960s civil rights warrior in ailing health. She came to my book signing in Miami and was surprised to hear her name in my reading. 😍 I am still trying to raise money to help offset her bills. gofund.me/fef960f97

And if she cleaning while listening…

The largest chocolate manufacturers made the switch and hoped you wouldn’t notice but now the price of cacao is collapsing which threatens the economic stability of these countries. Anyway if you love chocolate here are some great African brands to choose from. www.tasteatlas.com/best-rated-c...

This article does not discuss one major reason why chocolate in the West got worse - Ghana and Ivory Coast, the two African countries that are the biggest suppliers of cacao globally, got organised and started demanding fair prices for it. www.reuters.com/world/africa...

start paying artists you fucks!!!! the potential of you reaching nirvana depends on it!

First of all: thank you. This is necessary and important and good. Second: who tf is not signing on to this because I would like to have a little conversation.

Every few weeks some cynical edgelord who wants to feel More Sophisticated And Leftist than I am will tell me that I've seen the last free & fair election in this country, and my sweet summer child. We have not even seen the first yet.

This is something we get accused of surprisingly often and all I can say is: yes. Good. I am here to destroy the hopes and dreams of husbands who don't think they have to add value to their wife's life.

Also the US has never had free & fair elections for everyone, and if this is your first time worrying about it, welcome to the party! Fortunately lots of people have been here for decades and know what to do, if you are ready to listen!

like this? this is the whole logic of deplatforming, en toto. if you were wondering why center-right liberals and blackshirts were horrified by deplatforming as a strategy and quailed about 'cancel culture', this is why: because it works.

I really need the world to understand this: THE MOST VOTED CONGRESSPERSON PERSON IN BRAZIL IS A BLACK TRANS WOMAN. Her name is Erika Hilton. DO NOT LET ANYONE THROW TRANS AND BLACK PEOPLE UNDER THE BUS.

during the 2023 WGA strike. a real one.

As someone who’s been in and out of this space over his career, you know, I think we have enough data centers that we don’t need to be powering new ones off the souls of orphan children or whatever like we are now