Jess

Why is Cookie Monster in an AI ad for Xfinity in which he ate no cookies? Did AI also write the ad?

A problem with Cheesecake Factory Discourse: I now want ridiculous cheesecake, and for the next week it is MAGA coded as they defend the honor of The Factory.

I'm going to try to do this cleanly. Today's right wing governments are networked to each other. Those networks are well-documented. You can read about them in books. Following the elections in one node of that network is good practice for understanding the U.S. node.

if voting didn't matter they wouldn't be working so hard to stop you

Oh so a country *can* choose not to make the same mistake twice

ive talked on how i wont engage with writers who use ai, i wont eat at a restaurant with an ai menu, i wont have anything to do with it. but what this post illustrates is regardless of how OTHERS react, ultimately the worst part about using ai is that you are punishing YOURSELF and dont even know it

A lot of dictatorships try to make these kind of arrangements when things go south. Important to remember there are other kinds of criminal, civil and reputational accountability pardons can’t touch. And if you’re pardoned you have no 5th amendment rights.

This is literally the end of the rule of law. If a President can pardon people committing crimes on his behalf - and the Supreme Court says he himself can't be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of his job - then the government becomes a lawless entity able to violate our rights without limit.

Technically any time is a good time for Measure for Measure, and programming it for pre-election was intentional, and Psalm knows what he's doing, but this is certainly a heck of a week to finally get over to @folger.edu for it. (I had to delay and the FOMO was killing me! Psalm is a perfect match.)

Some rare good environmental news! 🌎 After decades of efforts to cut pollution, DC region has met federal air quality standards for ozone. The progress is remarkable: In the late 1990s, we had dozens of unhealthy air days per year. In 2026, just 5. Details: www.capitalweather.com/dc-region-sl...

Yes, Arena Stage brought in Anna Shapiro's revival of Are You Now or Have You Ever Been for reasons, but this is still incredibly on the nose in the week of previews

this is fucking appalling. i already knew james dolan (who owns the knicks and madison square garden) was a douche but this is next-level. www.nytimes.com/athletic/771...

This feels exactly like the golf course. Trying to tell the judge one thing when their actions are clearly pointing to another. (Slatkin is back as guest conductor and is talking.) www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/w...

Okay, look, I know obviously this is the most corrupt administration ever, and we should throw Jared down a well, but I just want to say... when you're committing $700M in crimes, USE A LAPTOP?! Don't do billion-dollar-crimes on a *phone*! Can't even buy _plane tickets_ on a phone!

The intersection of virtually unrestricted cash gifts to the executive, an unrestricted executive pardon power, and a Congress unable or unwilling to utilize the impeachment power is virtually fatal to democracy.

A man who murders Ukrainians and kidnaps their children is not a humanitarian. The unbelievable malice and credulity of Witkoff and Kushner. Errand boys send to trade away someone else's country. When this is over, justice must be done to those who sold America's allies for coin to our enemies.

EFF just won our lawsuit against the Office of Personnel Management for unlawfully disclosing personal information about federal employees to DOGE in violation of the 1974 privacy act!

My brain cannot process this level of corruption. She was being paid $50 million to engineer a pardon from Trump *while working at the Justice Department* as a "Special Government Employee." And it worked. He got the pardon, and she got the money. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/u...

In the bedrock of my soul I know he started out thinking the press pool was a literal pool and has been seething with disappointment since he discovered the mistake

Yes. This is disgusting. The Trump admin manufacturing the evidence to support their conspiracy theories of widespread non-citizen voting. They arrest a tiny number of people (arrests crafted to draw attention), at least some of whom having no idea of the crime they’ve been accused of.

Terribly sad news: Longtime Washington Post film critic and full-time beautiful, illuminating human Ann Hornaday has died. Always the one you wanted to see at a film festival, so insightful and easy-breathing as a stylist. A fine WaPo obit here, paywalled. www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

Judge Reyes is talking about integration. And getting death threats. (I will not get the satisfaction I want. So much contempt. No dramatic courtroom declarations of do not pass go, do not collect $200. The end runs around process and the lies to get there are clear.)

He clearly hates his own allies. They're in court today to have to answer to all of this. Worst client ever. (They deserve it. We don't.)

It'd probably be more efficient if the government just nationalized the company and took it over directly.

Quoting Trump's social media post of today, Judge Reyes orders govt to explain by 8pm whether it still takes the positions it took 2 days ago. Also orders Associate AG Stan Woodward to attend hearing tomorrow.

Correct. It closes if a beloved loop for bikers and runners as well as several spots known for hosting large family gatherings. And it manages to leave the space with fewer golf holes than it had before. It’s a travesty.

Racist thief. "old, broken, dilapidated, and of no further use or effect" = "Black people touched it, eww". It's all three courses, the historic minigolf, the cherry grove, and the parkland, all to be destroyed for his fever dream of something that cannot work on sinking landfill in a swamp.

Trump started an illegal war, prices are through the roof, Americans are hurting, & yet he lays awake thinking about how to screw our DC neighbors & take over their public parks. Out of touch doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Russian bear and have their heads crush’d like rotten apples!

“tell cersei it was me”

I am clearly too online, but I feel that a Mikado adaptation that doesn't include a Naomi Wolf (oh buddy, oof) reference is leaving opportunity on the table. (InSeries is having fun, and I approve this message.)

called it baby

lol Zacharia didn't even make it to the SNL cold open skewering her

Is it bad if major defense contractors have their own foreign policies?

Really appreciate @michael-feinberg.bsky.social tonight emphasizing that it doesn't matter how successful by the book the response was, everyone in that school is screwed up for life for witnessing child murder by a child; we just mitigate that as best we can because we chose to live this way now.

Instead of allowing harrassment of Rep. Omar, impeach Todd Blanche

Trump administration is Beriamaxxing.

A hot wind, because it was 90 degrees today, but that does not stay the Knife Ghost. (keep all your appendages, friends. It's butternut squash season, which is way worse than pumpkin carving.)

Ukrainian presidential advisor Serhiy Beskrestnov confirms Elon Musk's Space X crippled Ukrainian capabilities last night. In other words, the US deliberately sabotaged European defence operations mid-mission. Every country in the world should move away from buying American hardware ASAP.

you quite simply love to see it

White House: “We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign. She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.” Lesson is not that graft is not tolerated by the White House, but do it via crypto or corporate deals rather than texts asking for cash. And be a male, preferably a Trump.

Gonna be sunny and 80 tomorrow and Wednesday. washingtonian.com/2026/10/12/t...

Trump’s destruction of parts of a DC public park in violation of a federal judge’s order cannot go unpunished. This land, like the Kennedy Center & Yosemite belongs to the people, not him. The perpetrators need to be held in contempt.

This is not a peace plan. It’s a surrender plan. 72 hours: sanctions on Russian diesel lifted, a threat to blind Ukraine’s military, a friendly call with Putin, Zelensky told to leave office, Kash Patel headed to Moscow. Reject this betrayal. Slava Ukraini @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu

Whole thread, especially this post and post 4.

if you have even a second of wondering, "well maybe she did something..." -- she was raided by DHS, not the FBI

I notice that in prior NPS corruption around illegal tree removal (i.e. Dan Snyder), the companies doing the work never made it into the media coverage. Just clear cut mature tree stands on landowner orders, take the money, and no consequences whatsoever. Consumers deserve to make informed choices.

Just thinking about this as the state harasses Ilhan Omar over 40 year old paperwork.