This Monday vibe is brought to you by ambient anxiety™️.
Ambient anxiety: when you can’t choose what global and local acts of state terror and incongruously mundane activities give you existential dread, choose them all, with ambient anxiety.
To everyone who needs to hear it: Trans folks have been saying this is coming for years, now. Anti-trans actors weren’t shy about their goals. We know our history and we know the next steps in the authoritarian shuffle.
Please listen to trans folks.
A nation of newspapers and newspapermen indeed. I guess "objectivity" is when you're such a smug and effortless propegandist you don't even notice how deeply sick you've become.
As of tonight, licenses of trans people across Kansas are being invalidated en masse, enabling the overnight criminalization of an entire group of people for going about our lives. It’s often said you never know when you’re living through history, so let me assure you: that’s what’s happening now.
it took an expensive, coordinated effort & a lot of people saying “this doesn’t matter” to get from a bathroom ban costing one state $400 million & a gubernatorial race to “trans people must turn in their documents which become invalid in a few hours or face fines & potential jail time” in 10 years.
it's 2016: north carolina introduces a bill to ban trans people from using bathrooms safely. there's a national outcry; companies withdraw business up to and including the NCAA cancelling a publicized game. the bill fails.
it's 2026: kansas passes a law nullifying trans people's licenses. crickets.
BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide.
This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.
Read this sentence slowly:
“Gov. Gavin Newsom, crypto executives and business leaders are ramping up efforts this week to stop the proposed wealth tax...”
gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...
When you’re a UK trans woman, you roll invisible dice every day before work. All sixes, and a coworker with billionaire money will take your employer to court over you, you will be on the news, and when you leave the country, men with abuse allegations against them will call it a victory for women.
Today, we launched “Cancer in Confinement,” a series exploring why cancer is often deadlier inside U.S. prisons than in the free world. This is the big project I mentioned yesterday. I hope you will read and share.
Memo: Meta plans to add facial recognition to its smart glasses in 2026, saying the political tumult in the US would distract critics from the feature's release (New York Times)
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
This is a very good summary of the SAVE act.
The Trump administration is planning to terminate $600M of CDC grants to CA, CO, MN, and IL. We're publishing the full list.
They are using vulnerable communities as a weapon to dismantle public health, targeting partisan enemies, and manipulating media. 🧵 1/5
grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0...
I have incarcerated comrades & loved ones who are enduring the daily torture of US prisons. They also continue to make art. They often don't have the proper supplies and yet they make it knowing that it will never make it out to anyone else. But they continue to make art nonetheless. Keep making art
Illinois Republican State Sen. Andrew Chesney wants to use his SB 3842 bill to declare all trans folks legally mentally ill.
legiscan.com/IL/bill/SB38...
Your timeline sounds empirically better than mine.
::stares into the abyss::
This is just a reminder that it is totally valid if you opened a browser window, a text message, or a feed today and felt overwhelmed and depressed.
It’s okay to not be okay.
The hypernormalization of the moment is effed. Take care of yourselves and each other.
CHARLES RAFFERTY The Problem with Early Warnings People don't like to leave a party unless the house is actually on fire. Even then, if the flames are far enough away to be pretty, they'll finish their drink, take one more pass at the hors d'oeuvres. How things happen has always been unclear. Hurricanes begin in a place where no one lives. Agents of the government start to wear masks. Fascism is a word my neighbors won't use yet. They are following the law, they say, and the sirens are coming for someone else.
This hit so fucking hard today.
M Gessen: In case anyone still thinks they are immune, No one is safe. #Minneapolis Gift article from The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/o...
I will not argue with strangers on the internet during my lunch break.
I will not argue with strangers on the internet during my lunch break.
I will not argue with strangers on the internet during my lunch break.
I will not argue with strangers on the internet during my lunch break.
…
Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts.
Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.
Being an American feels like getting on a school bus and then your bus driver decides to do a drive by
We seem to be bombing Caracas. There are 3 million people in Caracas. This is an unprovoked attack. This is a war crime. This is criminal. We are the bad guys.
Just here to wholeheartedly second this endorsement of @sabs.bsky.social and How Far the Light Reaches.
“Staff discussions on ad implementation have ranged from prioritizing sponsored content in the chatbot’s answers to adding a sidebar that shows ads related to the user's query.”
Thanks for sharing this document, @rweingarten.bsky.social.
I read it, and I believe it's inexcusably inadequate and will not prepare teachers or schools to confront the very real dangers of the "A.i." products pushed by your partners, including OpenAI.
A few thoughts for your consideration...
If anyone needs hopeful stuff, here is a modest dose: www.instagram.com/pocket_pubs/...
Edited by Mia Arias Tsang and published via @pocket_pubs insta, with art and layout from Grace Cope (@grapecope insta). I wrote the words.
Purchase info here - www.instagram.com/pocket_pubs/...
🚨 URGENT!!!!!! Congress is trying to ram through 18 massive censorship/surveillance laws TODAY 🚨
CALL THESE REPS NOW and tell them
—NO to KOSA
—NO to Section 230 reform
—NO to age verification laws
—NO to the SCREEN Act
—NO to digital ID laws (App Store Accountability Act)
badinternetbills.com
One of my favorite things is getting to tell friends who are new to NYC that the subway "stand clear of the closing doors please" voice is a trans woman named Bernie Wagenblast and she's amazing.
