T. Scott Ray

T. Scott Ray

@tscottray.bsky.social

Writer in Austin, TX. Originally from Mississippi.

245 followers262 following310 posts

In fact, I don't think they were able to turn it around at all. What did happen to the Titanic? Which, in this metaphor, is the economy.

FactPost@factpostnews.bsky.social

JD Vance on the economy: "You don't turn the Titanic around overnight"

"As of press time, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety has released none of the video surveillance of the shooting of Kohen Wiley, neither the body-cam footage nor the overhead video from the Walmart parking lot where Wiley was shot."

Ashton Pittman@ashtonpittman.bsky.social

JUST IN: The police shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley as he sat in his mother’s lap in a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, Miss., in June “was justified,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office said on Monday. Her office will not charge the white officer who shot the child.

"A short clip from a bystander was posted on the internet shortly after the shooting, showing neither the shots being fired nor the car driving towards officers."

Tomatoes are one of the greatest things in the world. And not as easy to grow as this might make you think. Guy Clark has some words about this.

dr. rich traditions, JD@helldude.bsky.social

oh you made the computer sound like a guy? it can summarize answers really fast? well life-giving liquid just falls out of the sky and a delicious tomato can just appear magically out of dirt. id say "but your thing is cool too" but id be lying. your thing is dumb as fuck compared to a tomato

T. Scott Ray reposted

NEW: Texans spent decades steadily tearing down the church-state wall, claiming it is a myth meant to obscure America's true Christian roots. Now, Trump is helping them export their playbook nationally. The result: A federal bureaucracy remade in their Christian nationalist image. (Gift link)

texasmonthly.comTexans Spent Decades Tearing Down the Church-State Wall. Now They Have Trump’s Ear.Dan Patrick calls the separation of church and state a lie and has worked to infuse Christianity into Texas institutions. Trump is helping him take that strategy nationwide.

"that birds a liar!"

Eric Garment@ericgarment.bsky.social

"Can you believe it, Liz?! They wouldn't sell me the $15,000 animatronic bird that I definitely didn't want to use for sex stuff with Mickey Rourke." vs. "Liz Lemon! Help me convince these people to let me buy their animatronic bird! I wanna give it to Tracy Jr. as a fill-in dad."

Just a couple days ago there was a big NYT article about politicians living in fear--both sides, of course. Today a sitting rep gets raided by Homeland Security. Interesting.

I'm constantly fascinated with everyone in this administration's seeming undying belief that there will never be another administration after it, where they might face consequences.

Jacob T. Levy@jacobtlevy.bsky.social

Did you ever think you would miss Bond-villain-looking Steven Mnuchin? Mnuchin was a faithful Trump lapdog but he was still in some vague sense trying to be Secretary of the Treasury. He wasn't a daily presence on cable news acting as a partisan hack attack dog. He wasn't... this.

It's funny and good that many people in public office couldn't pass a high school history class.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Q: How do you define socialism personally? JD VANCE: I think in reality what it actually means in the American context is you want to replace American workers with foreigners workers, and you want boys to play in girls' sports

I think they know what they're doing here. No quote scrubbing, no sane washing, allowing him to demonstrate how briefly he can focus on any one thought. Example after example of how little his team is telling him about anything.

The Time interview with Trump is a master class in subjecting yourself to a stream of lies, lunacy, and insults with no correcting him, no calling out his crazy shit, nothing to show for it, nothing accomplished. It’s enabling, not journalism. They should die of shame. time.com/article/2026...

T. Scott Ray reposted

When are people in the sports world going to stand up and say “we would prefer the openly evil 28% approval rating president not attend our game in-person because it is a massive inconvenience for our in-person fans, a strain on local law enforcement, and harms the television product”

I just think presidents shouldn't go to football games. Maybe they could do presidential stuff instead. Or watch on the tv at the white house in between meetings.

More than a skynet sort of situation, we should be worried at how much of their humanity people are letting atrophy as they outsource all thought and emotion and compassion and empathy to these prediction robots.

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Real nice grid you got here. Be a shame if something happened to it.

Politico@politico.com

EXCLUSIVE: Sam Altman met with top power utilities to discuss ways to secure the electrical grid. He also offered one possible solution to the cybersecurity risks: OpenAI’s own cyber services.

But surely they wouldn't just demolish a storied DC building

"The Trump administration is, for the first time, threatening the demolition of the Kennedy Center if the arts institution isn’t allowed to follow its plans for the site, including adding President Donald Trump’s name to the front of the building."

T. Scott Ray reposted

I think that Dolly Parton was, for a lot of people, an ambassador of the "good" values people think of about the South: kindness, hospitality, can-do spirit, sharp and witty and down to earth. I think for a segment of people, too, she was theantithesis of a lot of noxious masculine country stuff.

Nitish Pahwa@nitishpahwa.com

I think the universal grieving comes in no small part from the fact she represented the best of what America could be, and that she never stopped chasing that ideal, artistically and socially

T. Scott Ray reposted

It’s pretty telling that the one person who unites all of us isn’t being lauded for the number of records they sold or how good they were at business, but for their acceptance of all, generosity of heart, and joy of spirit.

T. Scott Ray reposted

This is 100% the reader's version of the classic "I want to be able to say I have written, without doing the writing" use case for AI. Nobody is forcing you to "plow through" a book list! If you hate books and reading this much, you can just opt out. But they want to be able to say they've "read."

Matt Pearce@mattdpearce.com

I’m learning that the people who gamified paragraphs are having trouble reading books. www.axios.com/2026/08/11/r...

T. Scott Ray reposted

On Wednesday night, Houston’s White Oak Music Hall hosted an unusual lineup. 👀 On the main stage: Attorney General Ken Paxton. On the smaller upstairs stage: Meet Me @ the Altar, an all-female punk band, and Leisure Hour, an emo rock act known for its following of “DIY emo baddies.”

texasmonthly.comIn Houston, It Was Ken Paxton Versus the Emo BaddiesThe U.S. Senate candidate shared a concert venue with an emo band. Their tones were remarkably similar.

My most recent AI experience was, as all of them have been, not one I signed up for. Gmail summarized an attachment where Gemini confused how much money I was owed with how much was deducted from a deposit.

I read the summary quickly, not at first aware it was an AI summary--they put it right at the top in what looks like the body of the text--and was instantly angry because it seemed like a billing error.

Nope, just an incorrect AI summary on an attachment with less than 20 lines of data. I'm sure the AI summaries folks are using to write and research do better though. And anyway, everyone is checking their work at every step, right? Right?