Dirt Dork.
@dirtdork.bsky.social
Illinoisan. Likes plants. Posts are whatever crossed my mind, reposts are things I thought anyone who willingly signed up for Matt Thoughts would also find interesting.
I love a good 18th century "what the fuck?" thread.
I see people talking about Charles Guiteau having phimosis, which reminded me about Louis XVI's inability to consummate his marriage (not due to phimosis, as it turns out), and this incredible letter that his brother-in law the Emperor wrote to his brother about Louis's difficulties:
November 11, 2025 at 5:21 AM
I love a good 18th century "what the fuck?" thread.
He fuckin looks like Larry Ellison (derogatory)
Chris Cuomo is trying to make this atrocious little mustache happen even though it looks like he drew it on with a ballpoint pen
November 11, 2025 at 2:24 AM
He fuckin looks like Larry Ellison (derogatory)
Social media neither rewards this nor does it reward "while I can see the rationale and the intracaucus pressures, I think holding out until SCOTUS fucks SNAP would have been a better outcome" over "it's a cave because they're bitches who just want to fly home for break."
yeah there is a large gap between “this move, while possibly not optimal, is at least salvageable and won *something* of value for future engagements” and “this is actually a stroke of strategic genius”
November 10, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Social media neither rewards this nor does it reward "while I can see the rationale and the intracaucus pressures, I think holding out until SCOTUS fucks SNAP would have been a better outcome" over "it's a cave because they're bitches who just want to fly home for break."
Reposted by Dirt Dork.
Resources like Scarleteen are under attack right now thanks to a hostile, censorious, puritan government. And, as illustrated last night, health care precarity in the US is a really big problem. Health educators deserve health care!
It's that time of year again: @scarleteen.com is holding their annual fundraiser to support inclusive, comprehensive, loving sex ed, and this year, they're raising money for health benefits for paid staff. I set a goal of $500 for my personal fundraiser, but please help me get way over the top!
Scarleteen Staff and Volunteer Healthcare Fund
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www.classy.org
November 10, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Resources like Scarleteen are under attack right now thanks to a hostile, censorious, puritan government. And, as illustrated last night, health care precarity in the US is a really big problem. Health educators deserve health care!
My message today included the phrases "absolutely disgusted" and "if so, he's too gullible to be in the Senate and needs to resign." I'm not sure how much longer they could have held out or if a substantively better deal was on offer, but goddamn "agreed to a vote eventually" is Chump Shit.
The guy in Durbin's office kinda chuckled and said "I'll put you down as a 'hold the line.'" I asked if he was getting a lot of those and he said "well, we haven't put together the full report yet and I just started my shift on the phones but yeah, I do have kind of a lot of those on the list."
Call your senators, tell them DO NOT CAVE
November 10, 2025 at 9:47 PM
My message today included the phrases "absolutely disgusted" and "if so, he's too gullible to be in the Senate and needs to resign." I'm not sure how much longer they could have held out or if a substantively better deal was on offer, but goddamn "agreed to a vote eventually" is Chump Shit.
Reposted by Dirt Dork.
The book ends with a poem called "The Ruin", about a ruin, but the poem itself is ruined, full of holes, followed by about 30 pages of riddles that are increasingly impossible to solve because more and more words are missing. I don't know why I'm telling you this except it's one of my favorite facts
November 10, 2025 at 8:20 PM
The book ends with a poem called "The Ruin", about a ruin, but the poem itself is ruined, full of holes, followed by about 30 pages of riddles that are increasingly impossible to solve because more and more words are missing. I don't know why I'm telling you this except it's one of my favorite facts
Reposted by Dirt Dork.
So there's this thing called the Exeter Book, it's a codex from 1072 that's basically some rich guy's mixtape of Old English poetry. The interesting thing is it's heavily water damaged in the back half so the closer you get to the end of the book the more and more of each page is just missing
November 10, 2025 at 8:20 PM
So there's this thing called the Exeter Book, it's a codex from 1072 that's basically some rich guy's mixtape of Old English poetry. The interesting thing is it's heavily water damaged in the back half so the closer you get to the end of the book the more and more of each page is just missing
I guess I just have to ask: do people think that the GOP doesn't know that keeping the filibuster makes it easier for Dems to pass, e.g., a new VRA or admit DC? I keep seeing people say it's Dems wanting to preserve it, but I think there was a little too much faith in the GOP avoiding Senate brain.
November 10, 2025 at 9:04 PM
I guess I just have to ask: do people think that the GOP doesn't know that keeping the filibuster makes it easier for Dems to pass, e.g., a new VRA or admit DC? I keep seeing people say it's Dems wanting to preserve it, but I think there was a little too much faith in the GOP avoiding Senate brain.
Reposted by Dirt Dork.
My honest take is that Ds played a bad hand poorly and the TL is split between people pretending a Pikachu, an expired debt card, and a five dollar coupon for Taco Bell was aces over kings and people pretending shitting on the table and yelling YAHTZEE is 69 dimensional chess.
November 10, 2025 at 5:39 PM
My honest take is that Ds played a bad hand poorly and the TL is split between people pretending a Pikachu, an expired debt card, and a five dollar coupon for Taco Bell was aces over kings and people pretending shitting on the table and yelling YAHTZEE is 69 dimensional chess.
Reposted by Dirt Dork.
Reposted by Dirt Dork.
@bebopott.bsky.social will love this -- looking for something else, I found that Citizens for Judy Baar Topinka is still active -- they filed paperwork for 3rd quarter 2025. Judy's been dead for more than a decade. Her campaign fund has $400,000 in it. They're only expense? Keeping a PO box.
November 10, 2025 at 4:20 PM
@bebopott.bsky.social will love this -- looking for something else, I found that Citizens for Judy Baar Topinka is still active -- they filed paperwork for 3rd quarter 2025. Judy's been dead for more than a decade. Her campaign fund has $400,000 in it. They're only expense? Keeping a PO box.
Reposted by Dirt Dork.
While I don’t ride or die for Pete Buttigieg, the vitriol directed at him is completely insane.
“When I was younger I wished that I could have taken a pill to turn me straight; but I have accepted and embraced my identity now” is an *extremely* common sentiment from Millennial and older gay people!
“When I was younger I wished that I could have taken a pill to turn me straight; but I have accepted and embraced my identity now” is an *extremely* common sentiment from Millennial and older gay people!
When Pete Buttigieg says he would take medicine that makes gay men straight. What do you think is Mr. Buttigieg's attitude towards gays, men and medicine?
November 9, 2025 at 7:39 PM
While I don’t ride or die for Pete Buttigieg, the vitriol directed at him is completely insane.
“When I was younger I wished that I could have taken a pill to turn me straight; but I have accepted and embraced my identity now” is an *extremely* common sentiment from Millennial and older gay people!
“When I was younger I wished that I could have taken a pill to turn me straight; but I have accepted and embraced my identity now” is an *extremely* common sentiment from Millennial and older gay people!
7 is a competently done franchise blockbuster, because say what you will about JJ Abrams (and I have) the man has his strengths. What it wasn't was a work in any way connected to any other piece of Star Wars fiction currently in existence, and it was not interested in being that. 9 wasn't even that.
the prequels are bad movies but at least they are in some way art - confused, badly executed art, but with the kernel of creativity and substance in them. 8 is like that too. 7 and 9 are just voids, a product of a spiritually bankrupt creation process.
November 10, 2025 at 7:43 PM
7 is a competently done franchise blockbuster, because say what you will about JJ Abrams (and I have) the man has his strengths. What it wasn't was a work in any way connected to any other piece of Star Wars fiction currently in existence, and it was not interested in being that. 9 wasn't even that.
I don't know why the Sugar PAC being the only majority Dem donor on here other than the Operating Engineers is so funny to me, but it is.
1/2 Here 👇 are the top ten US PACs in contributions to candidates and the amount and percentage by party. You might note the top one and percentage. However you feel about PACS, the GOP gets a lot of support from them and you can’t expect dems to close their pockets to PACS while republicans won’t.
November 10, 2025 at 7:34 PM
I don't know why the Sugar PAC being the only majority Dem donor on here other than the Operating Engineers is so funny to me, but it is.
Like, I try not to do the "everyone should think like a political strategist" all the time bullshit, but I think it would do us all good to spend like 30 seconds thinking about what we (incredibly online politics perverts) want other people (blessedly not like us) to get out of this.
You don't have to, no matter how angry you justifiably are, make the GOP's arguments for them. You don't have to say "Trump saved Christmas," you can and should just keep shitting on him. People made fun of Jeffries for pretending that the Dems had nothing to do with this, but that's the right line.
November 10, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Like, I try not to do the "everyone should think like a political strategist" all the time bullshit, but I think it would do us all good to spend like 30 seconds thinking about what we (incredibly online politics perverts) want other people (blessedly not like us) to get out of this.
You don't have to, no matter how angry you justifiably are, make the GOP's arguments for them. You don't have to say "Trump saved Christmas," you can and should just keep shitting on him. People made fun of Jeffries for pretending that the Dems had nothing to do with this, but that's the right line.
November 10, 2025 at 7:09 PM
You don't have to, no matter how angry you justifiably are, make the GOP's arguments for them. You don't have to say "Trump saved Christmas," you can and should just keep shitting on him. People made fun of Jeffries for pretending that the Dems had nothing to do with this, but that's the right line.
"Elmo has come to separate the sheep from the goats ha ha."
The second coming but God sends Elmo instead of Jesus would really be a trip.
‘The second coming we all deserve!’ Sesame Street goes global at long last
November 10, 2025 at 6:46 PM
"Elmo has come to separate the sheep from the goats ha ha."
I had not seen anyone claim "the Republicans were about to crack" until they won. Funny.
November 10, 2025 at 6:29 PM
I had not seen anyone claim "the Republicans were about to crack" until they won. Funny.
Man, I am not calling for participation trophies or whatever but I would like people to have just a crumb of fucking perspective. "The longest shutdown in history" and "folded at the slightest pressure" are fundamentally incompatible things to say, even if you think they should have kept going.
November 10, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Man, I am not calling for participation trophies or whatever but I would like people to have just a crumb of fucking perspective. "The longest shutdown in history" and "folded at the slightest pressure" are fundamentally incompatible things to say, even if you think they should have kept going.
Good luck getting a critical mass of Dem primary voters to care, a year in advance, about intracaucus maneuvering. That can be your line, go with God, but absent any evidence that you can get a couple thousand of your fellow GA Dems to agree, we're in a "that and a buck fifty will..." situation.
Go ahead and bitch at me, I don’t care, I’ve seen what makes you cheer, etc.: Ossoff doesn’t get my vote until he says he’s not voting for Schumer as majority leader. That’s it. That’s the line now. If you don’t like it, yell at him, not me. I ain’t changing my mind
November 10, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Good luck getting a critical mass of Dem primary voters to care, a year in advance, about intracaucus maneuvering. That can be your line, go with God, but absent any evidence that you can get a couple thousand of your fellow GA Dems to agree, we're in a "that and a buck fifty will..." situation.
Reposted by Dirt Dork.
So I know the Edmund Fitzgerald has become a bit of a meme in recent years, people love the song (correctly) and it's a huge deal in the Great Lakes.
But as someone who grew up in northern Michigan in the 80s, I thought you all might find it interesting to hear about how it affected us.
But as someone who grew up in northern Michigan in the 80s, I thought you all might find it interesting to hear about how it affected us.
November 10, 2025 at 12:59 PM
So I know the Edmund Fitzgerald has become a bit of a meme in recent years, people love the song (correctly) and it's a huge deal in the Great Lakes.
But as someone who grew up in northern Michigan in the 80s, I thought you all might find it interesting to hear about how it affected us.
But as someone who grew up in northern Michigan in the 80s, I thought you all might find it interesting to hear about how it affected us.
Whether you think this is nuts depends on what your default for "religious views" is and whether that rather than "beliefs" or "practice" captures your relationship with your faith. I grew up getting dragged to speaking-in-tongues, visions of hell, faith healing services. My dad had more than views.
I see Americans say insane things like "I need my partner to share my religious views" and that's fundamentally nuts to me, it's like saying that you can't date people who don't eat steak.
November 10, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Whether you think this is nuts depends on what your default for "religious views" is and whether that rather than "beliefs" or "practice" captures your relationship with your faith. I grew up getting dragged to speaking-in-tongues, visions of hell, faith healing services. My dad had more than views.
I just want Chicago mayors to stop making big plans and tying them to specific taxes that are going to be lightning rods at the best of times. Does MBJ think this makes him look strong? Does he think he's going to jam City Council into passing a tax they don't want because it's for IPV programs?
The end of federal COVID money could mean a 43% reduction in city spending for domestic violence aid as fatal attacks jump. Mayor Brandon Johnson has tied future funding for programs to his proposed corporate head tax, which faces City Council opposition.
City Hall mulls deep cuts to domestic violence programs as funding dries up
chicago.suntimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:51 PM
I just want Chicago mayors to stop making big plans and tying them to specific taxes that are going to be lightning rods at the best of times. Does MBJ think this makes him look strong? Does he think he's going to jam City Council into passing a tax they don't want because it's for IPV programs?
Look, I'll put my stupid fucking cards on the table: I think not getting anything on the ACA means this is not any kind of victory, but I don't see any evidence that anyone had a theory of victory anyway. Either the GOP takes an unadulterated loss, breaks their caucus over the filibuster, or...
November 10, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Look, I'll put my stupid fucking cards on the table: I think not getting anything on the ACA means this is not any kind of victory, but I don't see any evidence that anyone had a theory of victory anyway. Either the GOP takes an unadulterated loss, breaks their caucus over the filibuster, or...
Reposted by Dirt Dork.
The Republican Senate majority is built on minority rule, enabled by unequal representation & the two-party system.
The GOP hasn’t won more total votes or represented more people than Dems since the 1990s. They’ve won the Senate in 7 of 13 elections since 2000 anyway
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
The GOP hasn’t won more total votes or represented more people than Dems since the 1990s. They’ve won the Senate in 7 of 13 elections since 2000 anyway
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
November 10, 2025 at 1:12 PM
The Republican Senate majority is built on minority rule, enabled by unequal representation & the two-party system.
The GOP hasn’t won more total votes or represented more people than Dems since the 1990s. They’ve won the Senate in 7 of 13 elections since 2000 anyway
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
The GOP hasn’t won more total votes or represented more people than Dems since the 1990s. They’ve won the Senate in 7 of 13 elections since 2000 anyway
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...