Maria Bustillos
@mariabustillos.com
I help run @flaminghydra.com and its writer-owned parent cooperative, the Brick House.
Digital ownership rights, archives, libraries, fun, and press freedom are things I love.
maria | at | flaminghydra | dot | com
mariabustillos.com | flaminghydra.com
Digital ownership rights, archives, libraries, fun, and press freedom are things I love.
maria | at | flaminghydra | dot | com
mariabustillos.com | flaminghydra.com
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
It will not surprise you to learn that Toby Youngs 'Free Speech Union' has obtained a High Court injunction banning the publication of a list of its donors open.substack.com/pub/democrac...
Who funds the Free Speech Union?
Toby Young’s outfit went to court to hide its donors. Today we reveal that funders include US anti-abortion groups, Brexit politicians and Tufton Street insiders.
open.substack.com
January 17, 2026 at 8:45 AM
It will not surprise you to learn that Toby Youngs 'Free Speech Union' has obtained a High Court injunction banning the publication of a list of its donors open.substack.com/pub/democrac...
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
This could be the unified Dem position. It is wildly popular. Puts the regime on defense on two fronts at the same time. Good policy, good politics.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of nearly 100 House Democrats, will announce later today that it's formally endorsing legislation to strip $175 billion from ICE and put it toward affordable housing. www.huffpost.com/entry/doj-fe...
Progressive Caucus Backs Bill To Redirect ICE Money To Affordable Housing
www.huffpost.com
January 16, 2026 at 9:29 AM
This could be the unified Dem position. It is wildly popular. Puts the regime on defense on two fronts at the same time. Good policy, good politics.
Seems like a good idea @governorwalz.mn.gov
I think Walz should take a lesson from Brad Lander
Put his body in the streets & call for the abolition of ICE
Stand up for his constituents and The Constitution
That is the energy needed for this moment
bsky.app/profile/brad...
Put his body in the streets & call for the abolition of ICE
Stand up for his constituents and The Constitution
That is the energy needed for this moment
bsky.app/profile/brad...
ICE must be abolished. It has become a lawless, rogue agency. Federal law enforcement agencies must follow the law, if they're going to have any credibility enforcing it.
We are demanding justice for Renee Good and the prosecution of ICE agent Jonathan Ross for her murder.
We are demanding justice for Renee Good and the prosecution of ICE agent Jonathan Ross for her murder.
January 17, 2026 at 5:32 AM
Seems like a good idea @governorwalz.mn.gov
idk there's all this criticism but what do all y'all think Walz should be saying? srs question
'the bait' means harming the goons... surely nobody should be harming any goons, if they can help it? that would be the pretext for military escalation
'the bait' means harming the goons... surely nobody should be harming any goons, if they can help it? that would be the pretext for military escalation
“don’t take the bait!!!” THEY’RE PEOPLE BEING TERRORIZED BY ARMED FEDERAL AGENTS, NOT TROUT
January 17, 2026 at 5:16 AM
idk there's all this criticism but what do all y'all think Walz should be saying? srs question
'the bait' means harming the goons... surely nobody should be harming any goons, if they can help it? that would be the pretext for military escalation
'the bait' means harming the goons... surely nobody should be harming any goons, if they can help it? that would be the pretext for military escalation
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
For @wired.com, I wrote about how misogyny and homophobia have been used by the right to wage a campaign to destroy Renee Good www.wired.com/story/the-ca...
The Campaign to Destroy Renee Good
After an ICE agent shot and killed the Minneapolis mother, conservative media launched an all-out attack on her reputation. Her identity as a queer woman was central to it.
www.wired.com
January 16, 2026 at 10:46 PM
For @wired.com, I wrote about how misogyny and homophobia have been used by the right to wage a campaign to destroy Renee Good www.wired.com/story/the-ca...
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
Same with DOGE — it’s so weird when people are Iike “gosh it failed to meet its goal of government efficiency” rather than “looks like its real goal was to steal data while breaking federal agencies and ending support for black and brown people abroad”
Decent story but infuriating that this is still being cast as a good-faith institution that failed to achieve its lofty goals rather than a fundamentally cynical right-wing project.
Look what Bari Weiss is doing to CBS! Why would you assume her goal here was any different?
Look what Bari Weiss is doing to CBS! Why would you assume her goal here was any different?
January 16, 2026 at 11:56 PM
Same with DOGE — it’s so weird when people are Iike “gosh it failed to meet its goal of government efficiency” rather than “looks like its real goal was to steal data while breaking federal agencies and ending support for black and brown people abroad”
He needs to be impeached for crimes against the English language alone
Apparently the State Department, led Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the nation's top diplomat, released a strategic plan. Goal 1 is U.S. National Sovereignty. Goal 2 is "The Western Hemisphere and Establishment of the Donroe Doctrine."
There's more, but take that in.
www.state.gov/agency-strat...
There's more, but take that in.
www.state.gov/agency-strat...
Agency Strategic Plan - United States Department of State
The Agency Strategic Plan sets forth the vision and direction for how the Department will implement U.S. foreign policy and foreign assistance.
www.state.gov
January 17, 2026 at 1:30 AM
He needs to be impeached for crimes against the English language alone
Save journalism and libraries with my friends
what is the biggest writerly goal you are willing to cop to publicly? I would like to be nominated for a Lammy
January 17, 2026 at 1:17 AM
Save journalism and libraries with my friends
It's because, if they have to face that their friends and leaders are straight-up evil, they'll crack, their sense of self will come unmoored
They're not dumb iow they're trapped (I have a lot of family like this)
They're not dumb iow they're trapped (I have a lot of family like this)
Whenever I spent time on normie platforms (your threads, your Facebook), I become more and more convinced that a large part of our problem as a nation is the literacy crisis. People have trouble with basic reasoning. They can't follow very simple logic or compound sentences. It's disturbing.
January 17, 2026 at 1:09 AM
It's because, if they have to face that their friends and leaders are straight-up evil, they'll crack, their sense of self will come unmoored
They're not dumb iow they're trapped (I have a lot of family like this)
They're not dumb iow they're trapped (I have a lot of family like this)
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
Tom's Back!!
Hell Yeah, @flaminghydra.com keeps lapping the competition, if you're not subscribed, you might wanna change that
Hell Yeah, @flaminghydra.com keeps lapping the competition, if you're not subscribed, you might wanna change that
TODAY: An ABSOLUTELY FREE edition, where we introduce our new contributor, freaking @tomtomorrow.bsky.social! The man himself! flaminghydra.com/famous-meme-...
FAMOUS MEME Comics
You may riff in the comments
flaminghydra.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Tom's Back!!
Hell Yeah, @flaminghydra.com keeps lapping the competition, if you're not subscribed, you might wanna change that
Hell Yeah, @flaminghydra.com keeps lapping the competition, if you're not subscribed, you might wanna change that
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
TODAY: some witchy new poetry from Carrie Frye 🧙♀️ flaminghydra.com/r/ad77c423?m...
Spellbound solitude
Carrie Frye with a sorceress’s lament; vote in the final HYDRANYM
flaminghydra.com
January 17, 2026 at 12:25 AM
TODAY: some witchy new poetry from Carrie Frye 🧙♀️ flaminghydra.com/r/ad77c423?m...
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
I already blocked them, but if I see any of you repost them to dunk, I will unfollow you. You are not a journalist, you are not diseminating important information. Do not give them one ounce of your attention. Nothing good can possibly come from that.
✅ @icegov.bsky.social has been verified by @bsky.app.
January 17, 2026 at 12:25 AM
I already blocked them, but if I see any of you repost them to dunk, I will unfollow you. You are not a journalist, you are not diseminating important information. Do not give them one ounce of your attention. Nothing good can possibly come from that.
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
the weirdest thing to me about this line of argument is that the signifiers that might be read as a "ferocious cultural revolution" -- the big metoo wave, geting rid of racist corporate logos, tearing down confederate statues -- all happened during the first trump administration!
what the hell is this revisionist nonsense? This *did not happen*—except in the minds of the far-right. You're buying their bad faith bullshit. MAGA called for and now is building a white ethnostate b/c *they are white nationalists*. That's what they do. FFS
January 16, 2026 at 10:50 PM
the weirdest thing to me about this line of argument is that the signifiers that might be read as a "ferocious cultural revolution" -- the big metoo wave, geting rid of racist corporate logos, tearing down confederate statues -- all happened during the first trump administration!
Can we bring this back??? #abolishICE #minnesota #uspolitics #fyp
TikTok video by Alexa Sciuto
www.tiktok.com
January 16, 2026 at 10:41 PM
I love this piece
January 16, 2026 at 10:33 PM
I love this piece
Just imagining a big bonfire, one day, of every copy of Project 2025 that can be found
January 16, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Just imagining a big bonfire, one day, of every copy of Project 2025 that can be found
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
🔥 JUST NOW — Rep. @ilhanmn.bsky.social lights up complicit Republicans: “Those of us who escaped places like that, the one place we thought we would never experience this is the united Goddamn states… I am ashamed. And we must do all we can to bring back the 🇺🇸 we all escaped into.
January 16, 2026 at 7:38 PM
🔥 JUST NOW — Rep. @ilhanmn.bsky.social lights up complicit Republicans: “Those of us who escaped places like that, the one place we thought we would never experience this is the united Goddamn states… I am ashamed. And we must do all we can to bring back the 🇺🇸 we all escaped into.
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
A huge misconception bad animation fans have is that everything needs to be fluid and animated at 24+ frames at all times when animation can be wonderful at any budget or frame rate if you got amazing and well timed execution of your limited animation. Always a great example of how less is more.
From: The Tell-Tale Heart (1953), dir. Ted Parmelee, UPA
January 15, 2026 at 2:44 PM
A huge misconception bad animation fans have is that everything needs to be fluid and animated at 24+ frames at all times when animation can be wonderful at any budget or frame rate if you got amazing and well timed execution of your limited animation. Always a great example of how less is more.
It doesn't need to love us back (it never did), the only good part of regionalism is that the people love *each other* for the sharing of the place and/or time
americans love replying to this post with their regionalisms and it makes me a little maudlin because it's such a display of americans loving being american in a time when america is not loving them back
the wildest thing is right-wingers acting like minnesotans in videos must be outside agitators when we can all hear their accents. i don't think i could do that accent convincingly if i spent a year practicing. and neither would i wish to. have you heard that shit? craziest american accent
January 16, 2026 at 8:06 PM
It doesn't need to love us back (it never did), the only good part of regionalism is that the people love *each other* for the sharing of the place and/or time
Is anyone going to leak the Epstein Files finally?? Now would be such a good time
January 16, 2026 at 7:52 PM
Is anyone going to leak the Epstein Files finally?? Now would be such a good time
Counterpoint: it's not complex at all, POLITICO, not even a little bit
lol uh guys this is BARI WEISS you're talking about, have a peek at CBS News if you want a clue
January 16, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Counterpoint: it's not complex at all, POLITICO, not even a little bit
At least the autocratic monsters of the 18th century and before had beautiful stuff made to look at later. These spectacularly vulgar goons won't manage even that.
January 16, 2026 at 4:27 PM
At least the autocratic monsters of the 18th century and before had beautiful stuff made to look at later. These spectacularly vulgar goons won't manage even that.
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
Two days ago we learned that Federal agents showed up at a Washington Post reporter’s home, searched it, seized her phone and two laptops. We also learned that the Post's owner, Jeff Bezos, remained silent that day. No words of support.
Well, Thursday came and went and still nothing from Bezos.
Well, Thursday came and went and still nothing from Bezos.
January 16, 2026 at 3:52 PM
Two days ago we learned that Federal agents showed up at a Washington Post reporter’s home, searched it, seized her phone and two laptops. We also learned that the Post's owner, Jeff Bezos, remained silent that day. No words of support.
Well, Thursday came and went and still nothing from Bezos.
Well, Thursday came and went and still nothing from Bezos.
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
I would say the problem with the Supreme Court isn't just life tenure per se, it is life tenure *plus the ability to retire at will* www.dorfonlaw.org/2026/01/the-...
The Complete Irrationality and Disastrous Effects of Life Tenure for Supreme Court Justices
The world is on fire, and we have larger issues to be worried about than life tenure for Supreme Court justices. On the other hand, the worl...
www.dorfonlaw.org
January 16, 2026 at 2:59 PM
I would say the problem with the Supreme Court isn't just life tenure per se, it is life tenure *plus the ability to retire at will* www.dorfonlaw.org/2026/01/the-...
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
Flaming Hydra has graciously given this out for free! For any Spider-Man fans and comic book historians, here’s a closer look at the story behind Mary Jane Watson’s iconic introduction, and who REALLY wrote it. Thanks to Josephine Riesman & Zach Rabiroff for this.
flaminghydra.com/a-swingin-su...
flaminghydra.com/a-swingin-su...
A Swingin’ Surprise or Two
The best-kept secret in the history of Marvel Comics was in high dudgeon by the time he sat down at his typewriter. It was a July afternoon in 1971, and Ron Whyte, a playwright and activist, was about...
flaminghydra.com
December 24, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Flaming Hydra has graciously given this out for free! For any Spider-Man fans and comic book historians, here’s a closer look at the story behind Mary Jane Watson’s iconic introduction, and who REALLY wrote it. Thanks to Josephine Riesman & Zach Rabiroff for this.
flaminghydra.com/a-swingin-su...
flaminghydra.com/a-swingin-su...