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Kelly Barnhill

@kellybarnhill.bsky.social

19K followers 980 following 12K posts

I wrote some books, once upon a time. Posting about stories, brain injuries, adorable animals, rhubarb recipes, nature facts, human rights, and how we can make this world safe and kind and good. You are precious to me, and I love you. kellybarnhill.com

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · Nov 8

Hello new followers! Welcome! I'm so glad you're here. Some quick things about me:

I write novels and short stories for both kid readers and grownups. For example! I wrote The Girl Who Drank The Moon which has magic, a swamp monster, a Perfectly Tiny Dragon and a witch. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

The Girl Who Drank the Moon a book by Kelly Barnhill

With more than a million copies sold, Newbery Medal winner The Girl Who Drank the Moon is a must-read for fans of classic children's literature or timeless fantasy fables. Every year, the people of t...

bookshop.org

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 10m

I think we can safely say that years of psychedelic "microdosing" and a current addiction to chatgpt have fully fried what's left of his brains

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 8h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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Reposted by Kelly Barnhill

DeWayne Davis @dewayneforminneapolis.com · 3d

"As a resident of north Minneapolis and pastor in south Minneapolis, he experiences how the present administration ignores too many people. When he talks about bringing dignity, justice and liberation for everyone, he means all."

www.startribune.com/dewayne-davi...

Opinion | Why DeWayne Davis is the best choice for Minneapolis mayor

"His campaign’s theme, 'We Deserve Better,' emphasizes the 'We' that Jacob Frey and Omar Fateh miss," Peter Eichten writes.

www.startribune.com

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 27m

An illuminating story

David Brauer @dbrauer.net · 1h

I hope @dewayneforminneapolis.com doesn't mind me retelling a story he told me when we first met last winter. I kept it to myself because he wasn’t telling it publicly but he mentioned it yesterday. It’s one of the things that’s leading me to rank him first. A hope-its-ok-and-I-get-right 🧵:

Soren Stevenson @sorenwithward8.bsky.social · 2h

Yesterday, I hosted an incredible event, "Ward 8 for a New Mayor." We talked about why we need a new mayor and then @jazzformayor.bsky.social , @omarfatehmn.com , and @dewayneforminneapolis.com laid out why they should be our next mayor. I came away excited about all of them and will rank all three!

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 8h

❤️❤️❤️

Reposted by Kelly Barnhill

s_m_makai @smmakai.bsky.social · 10h

Though a couple of years old, this is one of the best articles I've come across re Thiel.

www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/b...

The Alarming Rise of Peter Thiel, Tech Mogul and Political Provocateur (Published 2021)

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Kelly Barnhill

Book dedications bot @dedication-bot.stefanbohacek.online.ap.brid.gy · 5d

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill #books #literature #dedication

For Christine Blasey Ford,
whose testimony triggered this narrative;

And for my children—
dragons, all.

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Reposted by Kelly Barnhill

Karl (sad trombone noise enthusiast) @brainnotonyet.bsky.social · 20h

“Free speech curfew” is one of the most authoritarian and dystopian terms I think I have ever heard.

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 19h

I mean.

Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 23h

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Reposted by Kelly Barnhill

Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 1d

Just got my copy of Gilded Rage by @jacobsilverman.com

Please buy this important book about how tech zillionaires went off the edge.

(Bonus: I’m in it!)

Book Cover of “Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley” by Jacob Silverman. Featuring Elon Musk with a makeshift crown.

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 1d

Still correct

Stacey Burns @wentrogue.bsky.social · 1d

Four years ago today: @jasonmcgrath.bsky.social’s screed on Frey

Letter to the Star Tribune, 10-11-2021

MINNEAPOLIS MAYORAL RACE
To change city, ditch Frey

Jacob Frey ran for mayor with a promise "to regain our citywide swagger." Aside from its sexist premise (the mayor at the time was a woman averse to showboating), the promise looks ever more grotesque in retrospect. Under Frey's leadership Minneapolis became known throughout the world as the place where racist cops apparently thought themselves free to murder and brutalize in broad daylight with impunity. Swagger, indeed.

Now we know from recently released bodycam footage that in the days following George Floyd's murder, police officers continued to view our residents as enemies to be indiscriminately hunted rather than people to be served ("Frey says body-cam footage 'galling,' front page, Oct. 8). Meanwhile, Mayor Frey talks abstractly about "justice" and "reform" while showing zero backbone in standing up to the Police Federation, which our cops seem to take as their real boss.

A few days ago I attended a neighborhood meeting at which virtually everyone present had a story of the Minneapolis Police Department failing to take any effective action when help was needed following a theft or assault. If Minneapolis is to have any chance of redeeming itself in the eyes of the world, Frey must go, and we must create a new Department of Public Safety that actually serves the people rather than treating them as enemies to be subdued.

JASON McGRATH, Minneapolis

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 1d

Wait, really?

Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 2d

He's even damper than Clammy Sammy Altman - a high bar to clear

Denny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 2d

peter thiel has gotta be the wettest of the oligarchs

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 2d

The man is not well.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 2d

Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel warned that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and critics of AI are “legionnaires of the Antichrist” in private lectures that connected government oversight of Silicon Valley to an apocalyptic future.

Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction

In leaked recordings of private lectures by tech billionaire Peter Thiel he argued that “the Antichrist” is likely to take the form of a critic of technology.

wapo.st

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 2d

That woman is evil

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Bondi: "We've been living through a horrific cycle of political violence in this country ... night after night antifa wrecks havoc on the streets of our cities. In Minnesota, a gunman murdered a state lawmaker and her husband."

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 2d

Life comes at you fast, indeed

Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 2d

Exactly.

Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 2d

Dude Nine Inch Nails gave him their song, that's how cool he is.

Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 2d

There is no universe in which Johnny Frickin Cash was anything but cool. The WSJ, once again, has no idea what it's talking about.

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 2d

Compared to Dylan and Springsteen, country-music legend Johnny Cash can seem deeply uncool. It took time for me to appreciate his profound, plainspoken strength, writes Jon Fasman.

Essay | Can We Finally Give Johnny Cash His Due?

Compared to Dylan and Springsteen, the country-music legend can seem deeply uncool. It took time for me to appreciate his profound, plainspoken strength.

on.wsj.com

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 2d

I hate every speck of this

WIRED @wired.com · 2d

Some sports gamblers are trying to predict WNBA players’ performance—and the outcomes of games—based on the athletes’ periods. One betting content creator has dubbed it “blood money." www.wired.com/story/men-ar...

Men Are Betting on WNBA Players' Menstrual Cycles

Some sports gamblers are trying to predict WNBA players’ performance—and the outcomes of games—based on the athletes’ periods. One betting content creator has dubbed it “blood money."

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Kelly Barnhill

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 2d

Sure but also he and his government engaged in a taxpayer funded lengthy, multi-pronged, deeply corrupt and imo scandalous attempt to threaten and shake down a friendly nation, including by threat of senseless economic warfare, into making our leader feel good about himself by giving him a trinket…

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 2d

The widespread media decision to frame international affairs as "will Donnie get the prize he wants?" is pathetic.

He's not the protagonist of human events. And to the extent he's a significant character in world affairs, whether or not he gets a prize is one of the least important things about it.

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Reposted by Kelly Barnhill

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 2d

The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who has become a symbol of democratic resistance against an increasingly authoritarian regime, even as she has been forced into hiding and barred from holding public office. https://wapo.st/42AcHaX

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 2d

Still true

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 3d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Reposted by Kelly Barnhill

An Average Joe @kokomojoe.bsky.social · 2d

For not winning the Peace Prize, Trump will declare war on
A - Norway
B - Venezuela
C - Greenland
D - Another American city
E - Reality
F - all of the above

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Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 2d

They do not. The Eastern Orthodox have a Patriarch, but he is considered a "first among equals". He is held in reverence but has no real authority over the church as a whole.

Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 2d

I mean. They have lost some talent in recent months

Kelly Barnhill @kellybarnhill.bsky.social · 2d

We are in the most embarrassing timeline

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 2d

“The Nobel Committee is an independent body and the Norwegian government has no involvement in determining the prizes. But I’m not sure Trump knows that. We have to be prepared for anything from him.”

That they have to say this...

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Norway braces for Trump’s reaction if he does not win Nobel peace prize

US president may impose tariffs, demand higher Nato contributions or even declare Norway an enemy, analyst says

www.theguardian.com

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