Shaun Manning
@fasterthanshaun.bsky.social
Co-founder and former owner of Booksweet, your community bookstore in Ann Arbor. Writer of things, mostly comics. Open for work. He/Him.
shaunmanning.com
shaunmanning.com
Reposted by Shaun Manning
i am begging people to understand that without black church attendees, especially women, the democratic party is not a viable political party and religion isnt just about right wing evangelicals.
So, I see Andy Beshear has a book out offering himself up as the latest Bible-thumping Dem (see James Talarico.) Folks, if you think competing for evangelicals is the Dem path to victory...no. If you think we need more religion in US politics...no. Religion in politics is a problem not a solution.
February 18, 2026 at 4:25 PM
i am begging people to understand that without black church attendees, especially women, the democratic party is not a viable political party and religion isnt just about right wing evangelicals.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
BREAKING — WE WON! DC Superior Court Judge Darlene Soltys ordered the DC Metropolitan Police to produce ALL body cam footage of the March 2025 DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace within 14 days.
Thanks to my @rcfp.org lawyers for their tireless work.
Details on thehandbasket.co later today!
Thanks to my @rcfp.org lawyers for their tireless work.
Details on thehandbasket.co later today!
February 18, 2026 at 3:40 PM
BREAKING — WE WON! DC Superior Court Judge Darlene Soltys ordered the DC Metropolitan Police to produce ALL body cam footage of the March 2025 DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace within 14 days.
Thanks to my @rcfp.org lawyers for their tireless work.
Details on thehandbasket.co later today!
Thanks to my @rcfp.org lawyers for their tireless work.
Details on thehandbasket.co later today!
Reposted by Shaun Manning
My city, Oakland, has roughly the same population (a bit more, actually) as the entire country of Iceland.
IMAGINE, if you will, what we could dream up and design and see with this level of arts funding -- instead of funding our carceral state.
IMAGINE, if you will, what we could dream up and design and see with this level of arts funding -- instead of funding our carceral state.
I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
I’m constantly astounded at the sheer level of artistic production coming out of Iceland. Novels, movies, music. Amazing.
February 18, 2026 at 3:18 PM
My city, Oakland, has roughly the same population (a bit more, actually) as the entire country of Iceland.
IMAGINE, if you will, what we could dream up and design and see with this level of arts funding -- instead of funding our carceral state.
IMAGINE, if you will, what we could dream up and design and see with this level of arts funding -- instead of funding our carceral state.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
“Is there a technology the left is excited about?”
High-speed rail! MRNA vaccines! New cancer treatments! Solar and wind energy collection! Better and longer-range EVs! That wood that's harder than steel! New apples! Fibermaxxing! Buldak Swicy ramen! Muppets! Muppets are too a technology, shut up!
High-speed rail! MRNA vaccines! New cancer treatments! Solar and wind energy collection! Better and longer-range EVs! That wood that's harder than steel! New apples! Fibermaxxing! Buldak Swicy ramen! Muppets! Muppets are too a technology, shut up!
February 18, 2026 at 1:40 PM
“Is there a technology the left is excited about?”
High-speed rail! MRNA vaccines! New cancer treatments! Solar and wind energy collection! Better and longer-range EVs! That wood that's harder than steel! New apples! Fibermaxxing! Buldak Swicy ramen! Muppets! Muppets are too a technology, shut up!
High-speed rail! MRNA vaccines! New cancer treatments! Solar and wind energy collection! Better and longer-range EVs! That wood that's harder than steel! New apples! Fibermaxxing! Buldak Swicy ramen! Muppets! Muppets are too a technology, shut up!
Reposted by Shaun Manning
I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
I’m constantly astounded at the sheer level of artistic production coming out of Iceland. Novels, movies, music. Amazing.
February 18, 2026 at 2:23 PM
I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
More creative teams need to realize the big golden seal of quality that 'Didnt Use Slop' is nowadays
February 18, 2026 at 11:47 AM
More creative teams need to realize the big golden seal of quality that 'Didnt Use Slop' is nowadays
Reposted by Shaun Manning
One might be forgiven for thinking that the undermining of trust in previously-irrefutable, material historical evidence was an actual aim of the swivel-eyed billionaire loons foisting "AI" upon us all.
The @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social is 100% correct here. These AI images are damaging history and they are a very real threat to the history of the #Holocaust.
February 18, 2026 at 11:57 AM
One might be forgiven for thinking that the undermining of trust in previously-irrefutable, material historical evidence was an actual aim of the swivel-eyed billionaire loons foisting "AI" upon us all.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
Sorry to get radical but I don’t think it’s my job or yours to embrace, accept, understand - and certainly not to use - the thing being sold to us as AI. I don’t like any part of it, so I won’t. I’m missing out? Good, that’s what I want. You’re worried about me missing out? That’s fuckin weird, man.
February 18, 2026 at 5:13 AM
Sorry to get radical but I don’t think it’s my job or yours to embrace, accept, understand - and certainly not to use - the thing being sold to us as AI. I don’t like any part of it, so I won’t. I’m missing out? Good, that’s what I want. You’re worried about me missing out? That’s fuckin weird, man.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
Millions of Epstein files suggest the existence of a 'global criminal enterprise' that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity, a panel of independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council says.
Allegations in Epstein files may amount to 'crimes against humanity,' UN experts say
Millions of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggest the existence of a "global criminal enterprise" that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity,...
www.reuters.com
February 18, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Millions of Epstein files suggest the existence of a 'global criminal enterprise' that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity, a panel of independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council says.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
"i want ai to do my dishes and fold my laundry" idk man id be pretty worried it would like fold my cat in half or something
February 18, 2026 at 11:35 AM
"i want ai to do my dishes and fold my laundry" idk man id be pretty worried it would like fold my cat in half or something
Reposted by Shaun Manning
So BEFORE anyone asks, it's STILL the Streisand Effect. It's not the Talarico Effect or the Colbert Effect or the Brendan Carr Effect. It's the Streisand Effect.
This may end up being a massive own goal for the Trump administration.
February 18, 2026 at 12:08 AM
So BEFORE anyone asks, it's STILL the Streisand Effect. It's not the Talarico Effect or the Colbert Effect or the Brendan Carr Effect. It's the Streisand Effect.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
Sorry for the back-to-back quote tweets, but I don't know how much this was ever publicized.
Escapist's new owners never updated the staff page after the sale. The pre-sale writers were unceremoniously cut, and many never actually contacted or formally separated. Don't trust Escapist's staff page.
Escapist's new owners never updated the staff page after the sale. The pre-sale writers were unceremoniously cut, and many never actually contacted or formally separated. Don't trust Escapist's staff page.
February 17, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Sorry for the back-to-back quote tweets, but I don't know how much this was ever publicized.
Escapist's new owners never updated the staff page after the sale. The pre-sale writers were unceremoniously cut, and many never actually contacted or formally separated. Don't trust Escapist's staff page.
Escapist's new owners never updated the staff page after the sale. The pre-sale writers were unceremoniously cut, and many never actually contacted or formally separated. Don't trust Escapist's staff page.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
Administrative warrants are hall passes written by the bad kids at school
February 16, 2026 at 7:57 PM
Administrative warrants are hall passes written by the bad kids at school
Reposted by Shaun Manning
Counterpoint: no, that’s a true herring
Emmer: "It's a false herring for these guys to suggest, 'Oh, we now we need a judicial warrant,' because they know that that's going to delay any enforcement of the actual administrative warrant."
February 17, 2026 at 1:36 AM
Counterpoint: no, that’s a true herring
Reposted by Shaun Manning
Reposted by Shaun Manning
Complaining that following the Constitution will stop you from doing the thing you want to do is... an admission that what you want to do is unconstitutional.
You swore an oath to defend the Constitution. You are violating that oath, Rep. Alford. Time to go home and let someone else do the job.
You swore an oath to defend the Constitution. You are violating that oath, Rep. Alford. Time to go home and let someone else do the job.
Rep. Mark Alford: "If you tie a judicial warrant to what ICE is doing, it will never happen"
February 17, 2026 at 12:36 AM
Complaining that following the Constitution will stop you from doing the thing you want to do is... an admission that what you want to do is unconstitutional.
You swore an oath to defend the Constitution. You are violating that oath, Rep. Alford. Time to go home and let someone else do the job.
You swore an oath to defend the Constitution. You are violating that oath, Rep. Alford. Time to go home and let someone else do the job.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
Still processing this choice by @chicagomag.com. No matter how they couch it, they’re elevating an unapologetic bigot. There’s a lot of real estate between ignoring him and ranking him among the most powerful people in Chicago (ahem, Berwyn), and Chicago Magazine jumped over all of it, eyes closed.
Chicago Magazine named Nick Fuentes #7 in its list of Top 50 powerful Chicagoans of 2025.
February 16, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Still processing this choice by @chicagomag.com. No matter how they couch it, they’re elevating an unapologetic bigot. There’s a lot of real estate between ignoring him and ranking him among the most powerful people in Chicago (ahem, Berwyn), and Chicago Magazine jumped over all of it, eyes closed.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
So when thousands of women (and children) were being duplicated--including in non-consensual AI porn--it was no big deal. But it took "only a 15-sec clip" of these two famous white men to draw outrage and fear. Gotcha. Cool cool.
It took only a 15-second clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt duking it out on a crumbling rooftop — made by A.I. with a two-sentence prompt and the click of a button — to draw swift outrage, and sizable fear, from Hollywood.
"It’s nothing short of terrifying," one scriptwriter said.
"It’s nothing short of terrifying," one scriptwriter said.
Why an A.I. Video of Tom Cruise Battling Brad Pitt Spooked Hollywood
A 15-second clip created by an artificial intelligence tool owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance appears more cinematic than anything so far.
nyti.ms
February 16, 2026 at 8:36 PM
So when thousands of women (and children) were being duplicated--including in non-consensual AI porn--it was no big deal. But it took "only a 15-sec clip" of these two famous white men to draw outrage and fear. Gotcha. Cool cool.
We've all got ideas of how the Wuthering Heights movie *should* have gone
February 16, 2026 at 10:06 PM
We've all got ideas of how the Wuthering Heights movie *should* have gone
Reposted by Shaun Manning
All I see on my Twitter timeline are reporters parsing every quote from AOC in Germany, trying to mock them for incoherence or inaccuracy, while a demented old man who can’t string sentences together or stay awake sits in the Oval, while the legacy media happily sanewashes his quotes.
February 16, 2026 at 5:46 PM
All I see on my Twitter timeline are reporters parsing every quote from AOC in Germany, trying to mock them for incoherence or inaccuracy, while a demented old man who can’t string sentences together or stay awake sits in the Oval, while the legacy media happily sanewashes his quotes.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
Wildly fluctuating prices used to be a hallmark of collapsing economies but are now proof of Business Genius Innovation
(5/11) Walmart, Whole Foods, and Kohls are switching to electronic shelf labels that can display dynamic prices. Kroger deployed them with Microsoft AI—a setup a 2024 Senate inquiry warned could enable “surge pricing” via facial recognition. (Kroger claims it will only lower prices.)
February 16, 2026 at 6:06 PM
Wildly fluctuating prices used to be a hallmark of collapsing economies but are now proof of Business Genius Innovation
Reposted by Shaun Manning
Job-seekers SHOULD withdraw from jobs that don’t feel like the right fit. Whether that’s a tool the newsroom uses, questionable editorial judgment, an employee policy that seriously mismatches your needs… It respects the employer’s time and shows a clear sense of purpose in your job hunt.
A conscientious journalism grad withdraw from a job when she learned the Cleveland Plain Dealer uses AI to write its stories.
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
February 16, 2026 at 3:46 PM
Job-seekers SHOULD withdraw from jobs that don’t feel like the right fit. Whether that’s a tool the newsroom uses, questionable editorial judgment, an employee policy that seriously mismatches your needs… It respects the employer’s time and shows a clear sense of purpose in your job hunt.
Reposted by Shaun Manning
This is a fab thread and anyone with an interest in how language works should read it!
You wouldn’t translate a car’s ハンドル as “handle”.
You wouldn’t translate a ハイタッチ as “high touch”.
So why would you translate 「」 as “”?
True facts: 99% of the time, you shouldn’t, and here’s why.
Translation theory thread!🧵👇
You wouldn’t translate a ハイタッチ as “high touch”.
So why would you translate 「」 as “”?
True facts: 99% of the time, you shouldn’t, and here’s why.
Translation theory thread!🧵👇
February 16, 2026 at 1:34 PM
This is a fab thread and anyone with an interest in how language works should read it!
Reposted by Shaun Manning
Good thread here – I follow some self-sustaining/reader sustained local papers in e.g. Mississippi and elsewhere and I think this is what is up, going forward
As a Clevelander, the collapse of the PD over the past 20 years has been painful to watch, but we do have lots of wonderful alternatives in the city to get real news from these days —here are a few:
signalcleveland.org
signalcleveland.org
Greater Cleveland news prioritizing Clevelanders, Signal Cleveland
Greater Cleveland news — from local government to your child’s school and community events — we break down what matters.
signalcleveland.org
February 16, 2026 at 1:35 PM
Good thread here – I follow some self-sustaining/reader sustained local papers in e.g. Mississippi and elsewhere and I think this is what is up, going forward
Reposted by Shaun Manning
I think the idea is to get everyone to hate us so that we can complain that we are the victims.
During her 11 months as the de facto leader of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Kari Lake has wasted millions of dollars and done profound damage to America’s foreign broadcasters, and to America’s ability to communicate with the world
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
What Is Kari Lake Trying to Achieve?
The Arizona politician has wasted millions of dollars while blocking U.S. efforts to bring reliable news to repressive countries.
www.theatlantic.com
February 16, 2026 at 11:23 AM
I think the idea is to get everyone to hate us so that we can complain that we are the victims.