Notices by Lili Saintcrow (lilithsaintcrow@raggedfeathers.com)

Crock pot bubbling, fresh bread out of the oven and on cooling rack. The house smells divine, and it's finally warm enough after days of freezing and snow.

There are still good things. Holding to them, insofar as I can.

"With his authoritarian orders, the president—and his unelected South African Rasputin—have not only pre-emptively cut off discussion and debate, they have eliminated the fundamental tools of discussion and debate, namely words themselves."
https://lithub.com/winter-is-here-on-the-chilling-effect-of-elon-musk-and-donald-trump/

"Lamar gave Williams space to reclaim that dance as he was rapping about the ills of folks who don’t belong in the same universe as Black excellence trying to tell us what to do."
https://andscape.com/features/genius-of-kendrick-lamars-super-bowl-halftime-performance/

"This is the way that tens if not hundreds of millions of people are introduced to software, and the software they’re introduced to is inherently exploitative."
https://www.wheresyoured.at/what-were-fighting-for/

"Bagenstos told Popular Information that both judges were "very clear" about the scope of the TROs and that the NIH is violating both orders."
https://popular.info/p/trump-maintains-funding-freeze-at

There's a dual problem here: The felon in the White House and his brownshirts will not stop until they are removed from power and placed in jail cells; and many of our institutions are falling over themselves to comply in advance.

"...a country with a functional, if flawed, democratic machinery handed absolute power over to someone who could never claim a majority in an actual election and whom the entire conservative political class regarded as a chaotic clown with a violent following."
https://kottke.org/25/02/the-power-of-chaos

A diverse, educated populace is difficult to control. Intense effort must be made to sicken, rob, and dumb-propagandise en masse, in order to take control.

That’s why they’re prioritising book bans, antivaxxing, and the “AI” grift. Oligarchs and dictators require scared, sick, stupid slaves.

So let me get this straight, an unelected South African fraudster is wandering around government buildings with a bunch of podcast-addicted NeoNazi groypers, stealing sensitive taxpayer data, and the billionaire-owned press doesn’t see a story there?

On Presuming Good Faith
https://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/2025/02/on-presuming-good-faith/

In which I have a simple script, I am not taking questions on plain truth, and you can prove it for yourself.

So many things I'd be able to do, see, experience if I weren't trying so hard to survive successive rising waves of violent fascist corruption.

It's all just such a *waste*--deliberately engineered to steal our time, effort, and energy so a few vile, greedy rich men can grub up another few pennies.

Alas, Poor Mug
https://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/2025/01/alas-poor-mug/

In which my favourite swan-dove to its doom, the weather has finally shifted, and though I learn slowly I CAN be taught.

The Work For Today
https://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/2025/01/the-work-for-today/

In which there is an incomplete list, I invite brooding upon small good things, and we are all twisting rope as fast as we can.

"Additionally, efforts to demystify AI may inadvertently reduce its appeal, indicating that maintaining an aura of magic around AI could be beneficial for adoption."

(You know what else relies on "maintaining an aura of magic around"? Monarchy, cults, and snake-oil sales.)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00222429251314491

For the afternoon crowd: Admittedly Crowded Brain
https://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/2025/01/admittedly-crowded-brain/

"But the real-life backstory of the witches of Oz is just as fascinating. It involves a hidden hero of the 19th-century women’s rights movement and the most powerful woman in Baum’s life: his mother-in-law, Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage."
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-feminist-inspired-witches-of-oz-180985334/

"And in every case we worked on, when the agents realized they were being watched, they abandoned their stakeout."
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/ice-watch-programs-immigrants-how-to-start