Maria Bustillos
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mariabustillos.com
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
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
One of the wickedest things Wes Streeting has ever done is push politically convenient falsehoods about suicide rates amongst young trans people. We have new data from the National Child Mortality Database that exposes the truth he tried to cover up.
New data shows surge in trans kids’ suicides following healthcare rollbacks | Good Law Project
A freedom of information request by Good Law Project has found that deaths by suicide of trans young people under 18 surged following the withdrawal of gender-affirming healthcare
goodlaw.social
February 7, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
Indeed. A party invite for public officials, to be held in Mayfair no less, by a company that has recently been awarded a £240m public contract.
The competition would be livid - had there been any.
Not a good look as the govt resets itself. Palantir hosts party for MOD and others to celebrate its new defence contract promoted by Mandelson’s PR company. www.thetimes.com/article/2ecb...
https://thetimes.com/article/2ecb6a…
February 10, 2026 at 10:19 AM
You know what would be "exceedingly reasonable"?

Demand the dissolution of ICE and the immediate prosecution of every single crime its agents have committed.

Your statement is insulting. Shame on you.
Our DHS reform demands are exceedingly reasonable.

We're asking ICE to do nothing more than follow the standards that the vast majority of law enforcement agencies already follow.

Republicans, the ball is in your court. The clock is ticking.
February 10, 2026 at 7:37 AM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
They have now removed the Pride flag from the Stonewall Inn.

Erasure. Just like the Nazis.

gaycitynews.com/trump-rainbo...
Trump administration removes Rainbow Flag from Stonewall National Monument
The Trump administration removed a large Rainbow Flag from a flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument, the National Park Service confirmed to Gay City News
gaycitynews.com
February 10, 2026 at 5:12 AM
cc: Republicans in the U.S. Congress
February 10, 2026 at 7:13 AM
Or clean water or medical care
“Detention” - a word for sitting in the library on Saturday morning shouldn’t describe stuffing kids and other people into horrifying concentration camps without rights or recourse
February 10, 2026 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
Crockett: "The US is falling apart, partially bc he's allowing for killings in the street, but also bc we have a 34 count convicted felon being shielded from any type of accountability as it relates to a child sex trafficking ring. I don't understand why we're pretending any of this is normal."
February 9, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
idk i think in a time when it feels like nothing matters & all is futile it might actually be time to double down and write your stories & make your paintings & sing your songs & do your art. create the things that make us human and share them.
February 10, 2026 at 6:37 AM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
My commute home from work is littered with abandoned cars. Just sitting there, in the middle of the road. Windows broken out. Lives scooped up and taken away. Just like that.
February 9, 2026 at 11:54 PM
Tropes like 'country kid off to the big city' impose real limitations on identity. @jidesalawu.bsky.social on how that works in postcolonial African literature. It's real good

And for dessert, @camoot.bsky.social's uh theories about the best/worst days of 2025

flaminghydra.com/p/c21dbf3d-6...
Village people / Days of our lives
Jídé Salawu reflects on migration and African identities; Amy Chu does social science
flaminghydra.com
February 10, 2026 at 1:55 AM
Just a groovy guy, groovin' at the rock show with his rockin' friends
The lyrics to most of Kid Rock's songs trigger the requirement to report exposure to his son.
February 10, 2026 at 12:57 AM
o wow I love this band so much
holy shit

holy shit

TOM DeLONGE LISTENED TO OUR BIG GAY BLINK-182 BENEFIT COMPILATION

HE HAS OFFICIALLY DECLARED IT "RAD"

AHHHHH

afewgoodrecords.bandcamp.com/album/some-g...
February 9, 2026 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
@parkermolloy.com wrote a truly excellent piece on the magic and mayhem of our glorious 2025 Chicago Bears

give it a read, and Flaming Hydra a sub :)
Dread and circuses
Parker Molloy, a fan of the Chicago Bears, suffers and rejoices
flaminghydra.com
February 6, 2026 at 12:36 AM
ragged???!! <i>ragged?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?</i>

(guilty as charged)
Waking up to the realization that @joshgondelman.bsky.social sits at the dead center of my intellectual world, connecting the ragged Flaming Hydra media survivors and the Taskmaster UK comedy mob.

Oh are your intellectual foundations underpinned with Foucault? Well fuck you my dude has better hair.
February 9, 2026 at 11:35 PM
You won't read a more beautiful and true account of yesterday's performance, it is by @jawnita.bsky.social
On the biggest U.S. stage, Bad Bunny showed why he is so massive, and why his Grammy-winning love letter to his homeland, 𝘋𝘦𝘣𝘪́ 𝘛𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘴 𝘍𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘴, resonates across the world—from Latin America to Palestine to China to Switzerland
Benito Bowl Wasn’t About Them—It Was About Us
How Bad Bunny triumphed on the Super Bowl stage.
www.hearingthings.co
February 9, 2026 at 10:05 PM
Ridiculous on a hundred levels, but especially telling: the idea that parents could 'imbue' their children with 'unique personality traits' even if they were vile enough to want to

More evil bosh from the ignorant, inhuman authoritarian underbelly of Silicon Valley
“She compares her work to the efforts of a parent raising a child. She’s training Claude to detect the difference between right and wrong while imbuing it with unique personality traits.”
This Philosopher Is Teaching AI to Have Morals
The tech company has entrusted the philosopher to endow its chatbot with a sense of right and wrong.
www.wsj.com
February 9, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
Amazing how centrists always know better than Democratic voters, they always lose, and it's always the voters' fault

cf. NJ-11. They're trying to spin the result as anything but what it is: Voters choosing the candidate they wanted
Ezra Klein's Abundance movement is getting some backup: A new political group is urging Democrats to embrace "pro-growth," deregulatory policies with an eye toward 2028, according to plans first shared with Axios.
Exclusive: Centrist Dems strike back with new group
It's the latest effort by moderate Democrats to shape national politics and expand their influence.
www.axios.com
February 9, 2026 at 6:00 PM
This fine, honest woman is ready to "tell the truth" ok sure
BREAKING: Her attorney tells Congress that Ghislaine Maxwell will speak “fully and honestly” about Epstein’s crimes against girls, but only with clemency from Trump

youtube.com/shorts/wKUiY...
Ghislaine Maxwell will speak “fully & honestly” re: Epstein crimes, but only w/ clemency from Trump
YouTube video by Scott MacFarlane Reports
youtube.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
The Epstein class is forever attacking socialism because they are terrified that people will find out that government can be like this
Yesterday we kicked off NYC’s Free Tax Prep season. That means filing your taxes at zero cost, keeping every dollar of your refund, and not getting ripped off by for-profit companies. 
 
Nearly half of all New Yorkers qualify. Get help—virtually or in person—at nyc.gov/TaxPrep
February 9, 2026 at 2:57 AM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
it really boils down to who do you hate more, rich sex abusers or the left, and I’m afraid that from Thatcher to Starmer we’ve been run by people for whom the answer to that question is “the left”
February 9, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
when pop culture no longer caters to your specific demographic you can accept that the world constantly changes or you can, I dunno, enact a fascist takeover of a country in the futile hope of forcing everyone to like the things you like
February 9, 2026 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
When I worked for Reason magazine during Trump's rise to power in 2016, I was explicitly forbidden by the editor in chief from writing about Trump's racism, or the violence and racism at his rallies.

It was a "sideshow," I was told.
Weird. I tried to warn libertarians about Trump
February 9, 2026 at 2:10 PM
still can't stop thinking about Gabby Babby
All the stars are here: Brantley Gilbert, Brice Bradley, Gabby Babby, Bibb Glibsy, Slab Gabbert, Brice Bryce,
Turning Point USA has announced the performers for their alternative Super Bowl halftime show:

Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett
February 9, 2026 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
This is what we’re doing to people. We are the bad guys.
February 9, 2026 at 11:48 AM