David Sewell

As we start to get to the “you still haven’t voted so I’m going to creepily send you your address from a los Angeles phone number to remind you to vote” part of election season, please reflect on this 2021 text from my father (Leo was my cat):

UVA undergrad Aleena Patel created a very cool resource that helps voters in Charlottesville and Albemarle County both find where their polling place is and how to get there via various means of transportation, keeping in mind that not everyone drives. transittoturnout.org

Reason #101 why I'll never be an SNL writer: I came up with a sketch idea for a remake of "Wild and Crazy Guys", only it's about two plant freaks who go to suburban garden centers, find the ground cover section, and jump around gleefully high-fiving and shouting "Phloxes! Phloxes!"

UN peacekeeping chief LaCroix says major questions hang over southern Lebanon as UNIFIL exit nears apnews.com/article/leba...;

Tadai Me:i Camp calls supporters to join in prayer and protest on the Tohono O’odham Nation as border wall construction is set to begin this Monday, on Indigenous Peoples Day.

People should remember that to Pete Hegseth, the guy with a "Deus Vult" tattoo, to characterize behavior as "medieval" is praise, not criticism. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Hard to overstate how much Hegseth's execution stream mirrors the U.S. military's traditional description of ISIS propaganda: broadcast killings designed to send a message, strike fear and create a social media spectacle. Will almost certainly be repurposed by online terror cells

If the governor of Tennessee doesn't commute her sentence, and if no court intervenes to make that happen, we as a nation will deserve whatever opprobrium comes our way from the civilized world. www.cnn.com/2026/10/06/u...

The Center for Biological Diversity has been an effective plaintiff in several lawsuits that have impeded or reversed some of the Trump Administration's harms (e.g. dismantling "Alligator Alcatraz"). Dedicated staff, worth your support.

When some comics became intangible online, paper became *visible* to artists again, leading to beautiful new paper comics. Now, when some "art" becomes inhuman, *we* become visible to ourselves again. What beautiful new *human* art might be the result?

Traverse barriers and checkpoints in the occupied West Bank—your choices reflect the reality of nearly 3.5 million Palestinians who live there. www.wired.com/story/experi...

What's on your bookshelf that the Internet Archive doesn't have? There's an app for that. Scan a book's barcode or ISBN to see whether the Internet Archive needs it for preservation and digitization. Scan your shelves. Save a book. help.archive.org/help/donate-... 🧵

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and powerful ex-Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan have formed an unlikely electoral alliance to challenge Fatah's dominance of the PA - if Palestinian legislative elections go forward as scheduled in November, which is a big if: apnews.com/article/pale...

"Here, everyone listened as though potatoes were one of the accepted routes to God." A newcomer shares the experience of their first Quaker meeting https://thefriend.org/article/first-light-an-anonymous-enquirer-at-a-quaker-meeting

cnewa.org/season-of-cr...

An important report from the AIC—the ICE policy change has been covered by major media outlets in the past week, but the AIC goes into detail about the effects of and probable reasons for ICE's move. www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/ice-ele...

Diesel prices are at an all-time high, half of all families with children in Virginia have experienced food insecurity in the past year, but at least the grocery stores are fully stocked with pumpkins. 🤨 🤷🏼‍♂️

Those who ban the press and start state run media are never the good guys in history.

I’m working on a story about the impact of upcoming changes to Medicaid in Charlottesville. I'm looking for people who'd be open to talking with me about how new work requirements will impact them. Feel free to DM me or shoot me an email at hdreid@vpm.org!

On the ground at the Kennedy Center where people are gathering ahead of tonight’s “Hands Off the Arts” protest. Activists are expected to hold hands to form a human chain around the center, and musical performances are expected.

Another cruise ship has docked in Alaska with a dead endangered fin whale on its bow. 💔 Ships can kill these swimming giants in an instant as they hurtle through their habitat, and these collisions are one of the most frequent causes of premature death for several highly endangered marine mammals.

A Philadelphia family just bought their first home with a $10,000 first-time homebuyer grant funded by a group of Quakers It’s part of the congregation’s racial justice plan to redistribute wealth to Black residents in the Germantown area as a form of reparations

After more than 4 months imprisoned at a decommissioned hotel in Equatorial Guinea, a deported Phoenix man was arrested there Friday, in what attorneys are calling retaliation for his speaking out about abusive, dangerous conditions for dozens held at the hotel. tucson.com/news/local/b...

Gerrard Winstanley, who died 350 years ago today: “Was the earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease, and for them to bag and barn up the treasures of the earth from others, that these may beg or starve in a fruitful land; or was it made to preserve all her children?”

At San Diego's Natural History Museum, I saw a small sign suggesting they had a ....scientific specimen lending library?? For the general public? This couldn't be real. But it's so real. Aisles of taxidermy, bones, and fossils--and you can take them home. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

We welcome today’s announcement of a “new approach” in UK policy towards Israel in response to its violations against the Palestinian people. This marks a fundamental shift. We welcome this change as a long-awaited and positive step towards a broader reset. www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...

Who knew that Lucy van Pelt was a pre-Socratic philosopher? One of the fragments of Heraclitus, as preserved by Aristotle, is ὁ ἥλιος νέος ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἐστίν, "the sun is new every day". Which naturally followed from his doctrine of change (cf. "you cannot step into the same river twice").

These Generals Fought for Israel. Now They See ‘Jewish Terrorism’ as the Threat. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/w...

The moving letter James Baldwin received from his childhood teacher at the peak of his fame and his heartbreak www.themarginalian.org/2026/08/26/j...

On 9/11, US airspace closed, Canada launched Operation Yellow Ribbon. Gander, a town of 10,000, received 38 airliners. Residents immediately sheltered, fed, clothed, and supported stranded passengers for days, providing this hospitality free of charge. interestingengineering.com/culture/oper...

2026 MN State Fair Crop Art entry "Witness" based on pStar Tribune photograph by Leila Navi with MPR reporter Sam Stroiza.

This is infuriating enough by itself (though I'll give the judge some credit for not seeming happy at having to rule as he did), but DHS General Counsel James Percival posting a "Resistance is futile" meme on X is beyond appalling. The O'odham deserve better. www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report...

Declining morale. Suicidal thoughts. Disrupted families. “Moldy showers, broken toilets, no hot water for weeks, meals that came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas.” Sounds like a floating immigration detention center. www.cnn.com/2026/08/13/p...

Lebanon abolishes death penalty in landmark parliament vote apnews.com/article/leba...

ME: Shhh, be very quiet, I’m training my horse to think. THEM: What horse? I don’t see a horse. ME: He hasn’t learned to think yet, so he doesn’t exist. THEM: What. ME: That’s logic: He doesn’t think, therefore, he ain’t. THEM: Oh no. ME: What? THEM: You put Descartes before the horse