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Reposted by Holly M. Wendt

Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 1d

You don't have to judge Columbus by the standards of today. His tenure as governor of Hispaniola was so horrific that he was dragged back to Spain in chains to answer for his many crimes.

Plus he never set foot on any land that would ever be a part of the United States of America.

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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 2d

This heartfelt and meaningful statement by Portland resident and author Cristina Breshears on another social media platform bears reposting here. I don't think the intent is to idealize Portland but to remind all of us what is important and why. (Posted here with permission.)

For nine nights now, the steady thrum of Black Hawk helicopters has circled over Portland. The sound is constant, invasive; a low mechanical beating above our homes. It’s expensive. It’s intimidating. And it’s unnecessary.

Our protests have been largely peaceful. There is no insurrection here. Yet this federalized military presence makes us feel like we are living in a war zone (the very kind of chaos this administration claims to be protecting us from).

The irony is painful: it is only this occupation that makes Portland feel unsafe.

Each hour of helicopter flight costs taxpayers between $2,000 and $4,000, depending on crew, fuel, and maintenance. Multiply that by multiple aircraft over multiple nights, and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars burned into the sky.

Meanwhile, the Woodstock Food Pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church — which feeds working families, elders, and people with disabilities — has seen its federal funding slashed by 75%. How can we justify pouring public money into intimidation while cutting aid to those who simply need to eat?

This is waste, fraud, and abuse in plain sight:
* Waste of public resources on military theatrics.
* Fraud in the name of “public safety.”
* Abuse of the communities that federal agencies claim to protect.

Portland is a Sanctuary City. A sanctuary city is not a fortress. It’s a promise — a living vow that a community will protect the dignity and safety of everyone who calls it home. It means that local governments and ordinary people alike will refuse to criminalize survival. That schools, clinics, churches, and shelters will remain safe spaces no matter who you are or where you were born. But the term reaches far beyond policy. It’s an ethic of belonging; a refusal to criminalize need, difference, or desperation.

Sanctuary isn’t weakness. It’s courage. It takes moral strength to meet suffering with care instead of punishment, to believe that our neighbors’ safety is bound up in our own, to insist that safety is not achieved through force but through community, inclusion, and trust. It is living Matthew 25:40 out loud and in deed. It is an act of moral imagination and moral defiance. To hold sanctuary is to say: you belong here.

When we hold space for the most vulnerable — refugees, the unhoused, the undocumented, the disabled, the working poor, the displaced — we become something larger than a collection of individuals. We become a moral body. We do more than offer charity. We offer witness. We declare that the measure of a nation is found not in its towers or tanks, but in its tenderness.

Sanctuary cities are not lawless; they are soulful. They represent the conscience of the nation, a place where the laws of empathy still apply. To make sanctuary is to affirm that the United States is not merely a geographic territory, but a moral experiment: a republic that must constantly choose between fear and compassion, between domination and democracy.

A nation’s soul is measured not by the might of its military, but by the mercy of its people. When helicopters circle our skies in the name of order, while food pantries struggle to feed the hungry, we are forced to ask: What are we defending, and from whom? The soul of a nation survives only when we make sanctuary for one another. Not through walls or weapons, but through compassion and collective will. If we allow intimidation to replace compassion, we will have traded our conscience for control.

Please know that despite the hum of war machines overhead, the conscience of our city — whimsical, creative, stubbornly kind — can still be heard.

Portland is not the problem. Portland is the reminder. A reminder that a city can still choose to be sanctuary. That a people can still choose to be human.

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Patrick Dubuque @euqubud.baseballprospectus.com · 3d

VLADIMIR: Well? Shall we score a run?
ESTRAGON: Yes. Let's.

They do not score.

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Reposted by Holly M. Wendt

Dave Housley @housleydave.bsky.social · 8d

The @barrelhouse.bsky.social conference is coming back to DC on April 18, 2026, and we're open for registration! It's $95, and that includes the one-day conference, 1 book, 1 meeting w an editor, and your choice of literary stuff from our partner presses. www.barrelhousemag.com/conference

The Barrelhouse conference, Conversations and Connections, is coming back to DC on April 18, 2026.

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Holly M. Wendt @hmwendt.bsky.social · 4d

Short Relief was one of the best parts of my writing life. Big ups to @euqubud.baseballprospectus.com for making it happen & bringing the joy back into the timeline from time to time.

Patrick Dubuque @euqubud.baseballprospectus.com · 4d

Random Short Relief from January 2019:

@hmwendt.bsky.social on the perils of online research, @rumhamlet.bsky.social on crows, and me on being a good, but not Good, kid. I miss Short Relief a lot.

Short Relief: You Can't Go Back | Baseball Prospectus

When I was ten years old, during the decade when all the kids collected baseball cards for three months, I had an idea. I had a couple of friends who lived up the hill from me. One lived in a giant ho...

www.baseballprospectus.com

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Reposted by Holly M. Wendt

Jess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 5d

It cannot be made clearer.

If you continue to support the Harry Potter franchise in any way, you are directly funding the removal of trans people's human rights in the UK.

JK Rowling pledges to keep up fight against SNP trans policies

Author vows to bankroll campaigners after Scottish government fails to pay group's legal fees in Supreme Court equality case

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Holly M. Wendt @hmwendt.bsky.social · 4d

the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa

An image of Maid Marian and Robin Hood from the animated film Robin Hood

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Suss-- 🥌 @suss2hyphens.bsky.social · 4d

the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa

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Reposted by Holly M. Wendt

Sean Thomas Dougherty @seanthomasd.bsky.social · 4d

Two new poems in Sweet for your poem sweet-tooth.

sweetlit.org/sean-thomas-...

Sean Thomas Dougherty

Press Play to hear the author read their piece. The beautiful words inside the hand I hold, words like carpal bones, the small digits In the wrist that connect the arm, as the handTurns slightly at…

sweetlit.org

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Reposted by Holly M. Wendt

Melissa Paints @melissavandiver.bsky.social · 5d

If you ever wondered if your art was valuable, the people who are stealing it for profit sure think so

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Nathan Bishop @nathanhb.bsky.social · 5d

Counting down the minutes til first pitch? The Light Bat offers you some thoughts on yesterday's win, the unique dominance of this team, and looks ahead to Bryce Miller trying to send literally the Seattle Mariners to the ALCS. open.substack.com/pub/thelight...

10/8/25: Embracing Gravity

We are the baddies (complimentary)

open.substack.com

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Sundress Publications @sundresspub.bsky.social · 5d

The Best of the Net is looking for volunteer readers for its 2026 issue! Find out more here: bestofthenetanthology.com/work-with-us...

Best of the Net is seeking volunteer readers - 10 to 20 submissions per week - Apply by 11/1/25

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Reposted by Holly M. Wendt

sara lippmann @saralippmann.bsky.social · 6d

if you always wanted to know what it’s like to write in the dim glow of dawn alongside other ungodly masochists here’s your chance (free, no frills, donations support @writingco-lab.bksky.social) www.writingco-lab.com/classes/ungo...

East Coast Ungodly Writing Club early morning weekday write-in with Sara Lippmann
5:30-7:00 am EST, October 13th-24th
writingco-lab.com/classes

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Reposted by Holly M. Wendt

Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 6d

In case you, like me, saw your electric bill more than double.

Peter Butler @peter-butler.bsky.social · 6d

Bloomberg research found wholesale electricity up ~270% in areas near data centers

It doesn't seem like nearly enough people are taking it seriously

One A.I. image isn't too much energy, but 5 million videos? Per day/hour/minute whatever. It's not sustainable

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring

Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.

www.bloomberg.com

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Reposted by Holly M. Wendt

Jennifer Savran Kelly @jsavrankelly.bsky.social · 6d

And for nonwriters, it may be an interesting slice of history. The Lavender Scare was a US-government-led attack on the LGBTQ+ population from the 1950s to '70s, and the simultaneous invention of the queer pulp novel ultimately contributed to the Lavender Scare's end.

Jennifer Savran Kelly @jsavrankelly.bsky.social · 6d

Good morning #5amWritersClub & @authorsabb.bsky.social. It's #BannedBooksWeek! I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be a writer in 2025, when free speech is constantly under attack. I hope you find this essay to offer a glimmer of hope!
jennifersavrankelly.substack.com/p/banned-boo...

Banned Books Week and "Survival Literature"

What the Lavender Scare and queer pulp fiction teach us about being a writer in 2025

jennifersavrankelly.substack.com

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Reposted by Holly M. Wendt

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 6d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

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Holly M. Wendt @hmwendt.bsky.social · 6d

Happy NHL season! Counting down the minutes to puck-drop? Need something to do during intermissions besides chew your nails and second-guess the coaching decisions? Maybe pick up a hockey novel like HEADING NORTH! Print: www.braddockavenuebooks.com/pages/books/... Ebook available at That Other Site.

A copy of the novel HEADING NORTH on a blue background with an ice hockey puck. The novel cover features a stylized Golden Gate Bridge on a background of blue-green mountains and fog.

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Reposted by Holly M. Wendt

ANMLY @anmlymag.bsky.social · 6d

ANMLY is now open for new work!

We're especially seeking more from writers outside of the US, more nonfiction, & more translation!

> anmly.submittable.com

*Fee waivers available*

Check out our latest issue to see what we're into!

> anmly.org/ap40

ANMLY Submission Manager

**ANNOUNCEMENT: Fees will be waived for all Black and Indigenous writers, and writers of Palestinian descent, to support those most targeted by state violence. Email editor [at] anomalouspress [dot] o...

anmly.submittable.com

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DeMisty D. Bellinger - Ice Is for Tea, Not Fascism. @demisty.bsky.social · 6d

Do you like writing the whimsical in your short fiction? Do you amuse your readers, or make them muse? If so, send me a story at Necessary Fiction! I'm guess editing this month: necessaryfiction.submittable.com/Submit

Necessary Fiction Submission Manager

necessaryfiction.submittable.com

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LVC English & Communications and Creative Writing @lvcengcw.bsky.social · 8d

\*/\*/Check it out! NEW POEMS OUT NOW by ENG+CW Prof. Nyk Cialini in Phylum Press & Labyrinthine! Phylum focuses on solarpunk & eco-art & Labyrinthine (online) is a promising litmag ... for the weird and gothic. (Clickable links in profile.) Go Nyk! #GOLVC #ENGCW_Applied_Learning

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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 10d

Currently at:
— only buy tech too old to have AI built in
— painstakingly disable AI every time they add it to something that used to work perfectly well
— if it can't be switched off, abandon the platform or tool
— if there are no good alternatives, avoid the AI parts
— patiently wait for the crash

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 10d

🫡

How to Turn Off AI Tools Like Gemini, Apple Intelligence, Copilot, and More - Consumer Reports

AI features are crowding into Google search, Gmail, iPhones, Windows laptops, and other products. If you're suffering from AI overload, these settings can help.

www.consumerreports.org

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Wendy Xu @wendyxu.bsky.social · 14d

"single-use plastic of the mind" had me GAGGED

But a still graver scandal of AI— like its hydra-head sibling, cryptocurrency-is the technology's colossal wastefulness. The untold billions firehosed by investors into its development; the water-guzzling data centers draining the parched exurbs of Phoenix and Dallas; the yeti-size carbon footprint of the sector as a whole—and for what? A cankerous glut of racist memes and cardboard essays.
Not only is the ratio of Al's resource rapacity to its productive utility indefensibly and irremediably skewed, Al-made material is itself a waste product: flimsy, shoddy, disposable, a single-use plastic of the mind.

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Patrick Dubuque @euqubud.baseballprospectus.com · 10d

OK, here you go, the one topic in everyone’s mind this morning: How would the great minds of philosophy throughout history feel about an automated ball-strike system?

Various Great Philosophers and How They Would Feel About the Automated Ball-Strike System | Baseball Prospectus

Gathering the greatest minds of two and a half millennia to embrace a little debate.

www.baseballprospectus.com

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Mike Piellucci @mikelikessports.bsky.social · 12d

Good morning! My cover story on Dirk Nowitzki is now online.

TV, life after retirement, the Mavs, Harvard business school, secret hoops training sessions, the next Nowitzki hooper, Dirk playing jazz flute -- it's all in here. I hope you enjoy.

www.dmagazine.com/publications...

Dirk is Anchorman! - D Magazine

Six years after retiring from the Mavericks, he's made a career move that would shock his younger self. And that's far from the only thing he's been doing since hanging up the jersey.

www.dmagazine.com

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Reposted by Holly M. Wendt

Evan Sutton @evansutton.bsky.social · 13d

Guess this seems like a poor use of resources but what do I know futurism.com/future-socie...

While image generators used the equivalent of five seconds of microwave warming to generate a single 1,024 x 1,024 pixel image, video generators proved far more energy-intensive. To spit out a five-second clip, the researchers found that it takes the equivalent of running a microwave for over an hour. If they’re consuming far more power as the length increases, the math doesn’t look good.

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