Maria Bustillos
@mariabustillos.com
I help run @flaminghydra.com and its parent cooperative, the Brick House.
Digital ownership rights, archives and libraries, fun, and press freedom are some things I love.
maria | at | flaminghydra | dot | com
mariabustillos.com | thebrick.house
Digital ownership rights, archives and libraries, fun, and press freedom are some things I love.
maria | at | flaminghydra | dot | com
mariabustillos.com | thebrick.house
Pinned
Maria Bustillos
@mariabustillos.com
· Mar 10
I'm a founding member of FLAMING HYDRA, a cooperative of the best independent journalists and artists around, making a superfine newsletter for you each weekday.
Love press freedom? Support us for just $3 per month.
Try free samples at flaminghydra.com/free
Love press freedom? Support us for just $3 per month.
Try free samples at flaminghydra.com/free
I loved @winterjessica.bsky.social's review of the new Scott Galloway book (www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...), so much so that I kept right on yelling about it all in @flaminghydra.com
flaminghydra.com/alone-in-the...
flaminghydra.com/alone-in-the...
Alone in the Manosphere
The New Yorker’s Jessica Winter this week dissected Scott Galloway’s new book on masculinity, Notes on Being a Man, with an expert scalpel. According to Winter, Galloway tacitly agrees with right-wing...
flaminghydra.com
November 11, 2025 at 4:14 PM
I loved @winterjessica.bsky.social's review of the new Scott Galloway book (www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...), so much so that I kept right on yelling about it all in @flaminghydra.com
flaminghydra.com/alone-in-the...
flaminghydra.com/alone-in-the...
Short fiction from @csmcgowan.bsky.social absurdist, fun, spot the Pynchonian vocab I had to look up
It’s a restrained work, I hope, but I have put my whole self into this. flaminghydra.com/the-paramete...
The Parameters
On the bed in the evening, when the air is cool, I read excellent and important books while she watches movies on her iPad. I hate the iPad. The moving images in my peripheral vision distract me from ...
flaminghydra.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Short fiction from @csmcgowan.bsky.social absurdist, fun, spot the Pynchonian vocab I had to look up
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
Whenever someone says "Scott Galloway has some good ideas" I immediately exit the conversation, this is a nice validation of that practice.
ALSO TODAY: @mariabustillos.com on Scott Galloway's take on the Masculinity Crisis and his prescription for “aspirational masculinity” which "boils down to subjugating women, only a little bit less and a little more politely than his alt-right brethren would." flaminghydra.com/alone-in-the...
Alone in the Manosphere
The New Yorker’s Jessica Winter this week dissected Scott Galloway’s new book on masculinity, Notes on Being a Man, with an expert scalpel. According to Winter, Galloway tacitly agrees with right-wing...
flaminghydra.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Whenever someone says "Scott Galloway has some good ideas" I immediately exit the conversation, this is a nice validation of that practice.
Bernie and AOC have long operated on that same frequency, and they would have remade the party long ago if voters could choose freely. But Schumer and co. will do anything to keep their claws on the wheel.
This point absolutely correct and I will add that Mamdani demonstrates that an insurgency, even one with real moral clarity and anger at the status quo, can still be cheerful and inviting.
November 11, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Bernie and AOC have long operated on that same frequency, and they would have remade the party long ago if voters could choose freely. But Schumer and co. will do anything to keep their claws on the wheel.
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
agree, and the fact they can’t even do this demonstrates how little they think of their constituents that they won’t shoot straight with them about anything. i thought a lot this morning about how mamdani says we deserve to be treated with dignity
instead of saying this was good strategy, maybe senate dems should say: "the republicans were going to kill people by starving them to death, and because we aren't monsters, we decided to let this fight go. We'll keep fighting. Stop electing monsters."
November 11, 2025 at 1:47 PM
agree, and the fact they can’t even do this demonstrates how little they think of their constituents that they won’t shoot straight with them about anything. i thought a lot this morning about how mamdani says we deserve to be treated with dignity
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
It’s already started - the BBC allows Newsmax boss to opine about bias, suggest some of the Jan 6 mob were merely innocent tourists visiting Congress, without pushback
November 11, 2025 at 8:35 AM
It’s already started - the BBC allows Newsmax boss to opine about bias, suggest some of the Jan 6 mob were merely innocent tourists visiting Congress, without pushback
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
It’s wild to suggest this is a circular firing squad or something when it’s millions of citizen Democrats who hate it versus 47 elected Democrats who conspired to surrender for nothing.
We’re not fighting “each other,” we’re fighting you. There’s only a few dozen of you, but you hold all the power.
We’re not fighting “each other,” we’re fighting you. There’s only a few dozen of you, but you hold all the power.
But there are real dangers out there that must be fought; and energy spent fighting each other is energy lost to that bigger fight.
November 11, 2025 at 1:27 AM
It’s wild to suggest this is a circular firing squad or something when it’s millions of citizen Democrats who hate it versus 47 elected Democrats who conspired to surrender for nothing.
We’re not fighting “each other,” we’re fighting you. There’s only a few dozen of you, but you hold all the power.
We’re not fighting “each other,” we’re fighting you. There’s only a few dozen of you, but you hold all the power.
"I also enjoyed the Alvin and the Chipmunks version of 'The Waste Land.'"
LOT going on here obviously so i will add my own specialist knowledge, which is the penguin classics versions of the odyssey and iliad are terrible prose translations that do not benefit from being read aloud
*maximum alpha at 1.25x speed* continuously lives on in my head, unfortunately.
November 11, 2025 at 10:13 AM
"I also enjoyed the Alvin and the Chipmunks version of 'The Waste Land.'"
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
The thing about Mamdani is that he’s a talented politician but not otherworldly or one in a billion, he’s just a competent guy with popular ideas who ran against an entitled piece of shit and to me it’s a lot more optimistic to imagine 1000 campaigns like his than to view him as a unique phenomenon
November 11, 2025 at 1:42 AM
The thing about Mamdani is that he’s a talented politician but not otherworldly or one in a billion, he’s just a competent guy with popular ideas who ran against an entitled piece of shit and to me it’s a lot more optimistic to imagine 1000 campaigns like his than to view him as a unique phenomenon
"leader of the free world"
a senescent con man doing his utmost to destroy the free world, more like
god what a train wreck it all is
a senescent con man doing his utmost to destroy the free world, more like
god what a train wreck it all is
The fact that all large UK broadcasters continue to use X, an openly white supremacist platform that has been redesigned specifically to amplify far-right elites, is doing massive, real-time harm to the country.
November 11, 2025 at 9:57 AM
"leader of the free world"
a senescent con man doing his utmost to destroy the free world, more like
god what a train wreck it all is
a senescent con man doing his utmost to destroy the free world, more like
god what a train wreck it all is
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
This is the last guy who should be telling anybody how to Be a Man imo better alternatives abound
flaminghydra.com/issue-439/#a...
flaminghydra.com/issue-439/#a...
November 11, 2025 at 2:34 AM
This is the last guy who should be telling anybody how to Be a Man imo better alternatives abound
flaminghydra.com/issue-439/#a...
flaminghydra.com/issue-439/#a...
@bsky.app claims it 'ran out' of posts from my Following feed (?!), so here's the Discover NO I'm not going to look at the Discover feed ever, pls stop being sneaky
November 11, 2025 at 7:13 AM
@bsky.app claims it 'ran out' of posts from my Following feed (?!), so here's the Discover NO I'm not going to look at the Discover feed ever, pls stop being sneaky
This is the last guy who should be telling anybody how to Be a Man imo better alternatives abound
flaminghydra.com/issue-439/#a...
flaminghydra.com/issue-439/#a...
November 11, 2025 at 2:34 AM
This is the last guy who should be telling anybody how to Be a Man imo better alternatives abound
flaminghydra.com/issue-439/#a...
flaminghydra.com/issue-439/#a...
The frantic emptiness of Musk's response to JCO says a lot about tech bros' inability to understand why people don't want AI art, music, or literature
he has nothing to say about these, either
Human Compatible, Stuart Russell
Zero to One, Thiel / Masters
Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes
Life 3.0, Max Tegmark
The Big Picture, Sean M. Carroll
Lying, Sam Harris
Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom
Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Radical Candor, Kim Scott
Human Compatible, Stuart Russell
Zero to One, Thiel / Masters
Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes
Life 3.0, Max Tegmark
The Big Picture, Sean M. Carroll
Lying, Sam Harris
Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom
Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Radical Candor, Kim Scott
![from ratboy genius (dogprom_2) on Twitter: LMFAO this fucking ad i just got. joyce BBQ'd his illiterate ass so bad he's pushing ads about how he reads books actually [QUOTE POST] from blinkist about '9 nonfiction books Elon Musk thinks we should all read.'](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:un7ax3cmaqemchu5tsqnymts/bafkreihqwsizjpw4hawl65atbwjvoduacsah4e4e5a3ubrujgb23qc23fq@jpeg)
November 10, 2025 at 9:46 PM
The frantic emptiness of Musk's response to JCO says a lot about tech bros' inability to understand why people don't want AI art, music, or literature
he has nothing to say about these, either
Human Compatible, Stuart Russell
Zero to One, Thiel / Masters
Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes
Life 3.0, Max Tegmark
The Big Picture, Sean M. Carroll
Lying, Sam Harris
Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom
Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Radical Candor, Kim Scott
Human Compatible, Stuart Russell
Zero to One, Thiel / Masters
Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes
Life 3.0, Max Tegmark
The Big Picture, Sean M. Carroll
Lying, Sam Harris
Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom
Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Radical Candor, Kim Scott
November 10, 2025 at 9:34 PM
he has nothing to say about these, either
Human Compatible, Stuart Russell
Zero to One, Thiel / Masters
Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes
Life 3.0, Max Tegmark
The Big Picture, Sean M. Carroll
Lying, Sam Harris
Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom
Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Radical Candor, Kim Scott
Human Compatible, Stuart Russell
Zero to One, Thiel / Masters
Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes
Life 3.0, Max Tegmark
The Big Picture, Sean M. Carroll
Lying, Sam Harris
Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom
Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Radical Candor, Kim Scott
Nobody??
that would be nobody????
that would be nobody????
Kaine on why he thinks just getting a vote on healthcare is a win: "We're the minority party, but everybody will get to see who is standing for them when it comes to lowering their healthcare costs"
November 10, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Nobody??
that would be nobody????
that would be nobody????
He's making her point! it's incredible, he literally has nothing to say
Joyce Carol Oates owned Elon so hard he's spent the last day posting about movies he hasn't seen in 15 years
November 10, 2025 at 5:10 PM
He's making her point! it's incredible, he literally has nothing to say
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
Hilarious seeing @punchbowlnews.bsky.social provide cover for @schumer.senate.gov here. The Democratic whip did not "break" with his party. This was orchestrated by Schumer with a unified caucus.
November 10, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Hilarious seeing @punchbowlnews.bsky.social provide cover for @schumer.senate.gov here. The Democratic whip did not "break" with his party. This was orchestrated by Schumer with a unified caucus.
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
I’ve been saying that Democrat should never have cast the stakes of the shutdown as ACA premium subsidies when the public understood it the stakes as trying to throttle an Administration otherwise reveling in the unfettered power over spending and violence it had appropriated for itself
The disruption of air travel was presumably a factor, but it's still a choice to stress it as federal workers were missing their second paycheck (and being fired) and the administration was starving kids and fighting to keep starving kids.
The Dems caved and got nothing, but the hostages were real.
The Dems caved and got nothing, but the hostages were real.
November 10, 2025 at 1:42 PM
I’ve been saying that Democrat should never have cast the stakes of the shutdown as ACA premium subsidies when the public understood it the stakes as trying to throttle an Administration otherwise reveling in the unfettered power over spending and violence it had appropriated for itself
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
The big lesson from the right wing capture of centrist media (eg the Washington Post), is that the quality of the product gets worse and the audience they are trying to appease are not going to tune in.
The BBC spends so much time bending over backwards to placate and whitewash the right, and it will never be enough because the British right does not want the BBC to exist.
www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...
Tim Davie resigns as BBC director general after accusations of ‘serious and systemic’ bias in coverage
Davie says departure is ‘my own decision’, while head of news also quits. Insiders say it ‘feels like a coup’ by broadcaster’s enemies
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:38 PM
The big lesson from the right wing capture of centrist media (eg the Washington Post), is that the quality of the product gets worse and the audience they are trying to appease are not going to tune in.
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
For sure @flaminghydra.com is a 100 percent human publication. So thrilled you are coming over!
A small sample of our views on the subject of artificial intelligence:
flaminghydra.com/yakkin-about...
flaminghydra.com/movie-review...
flaminghydra.com/issue-176/#s...
A small sample of our views on the subject of artificial intelligence:
flaminghydra.com/yakkin-about...
flaminghydra.com/movie-review...
flaminghydra.com/issue-176/#s...
November 9, 2025 at 7:50 PM
For sure @flaminghydra.com is a 100 percent human publication. So thrilled you are coming over!
A small sample of our views on the subject of artificial intelligence:
flaminghydra.com/yakkin-about...
flaminghydra.com/movie-review...
flaminghydra.com/issue-176/#s...
A small sample of our views on the subject of artificial intelligence:
flaminghydra.com/yakkin-about...
flaminghydra.com/movie-review...
flaminghydra.com/issue-176/#s...
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
DONALD TRUMP: [asleep, drooling on long red tie]
SENATE DEMOCRATS: fine, we give in
SENATE DEMOCRATS: fine, we give in
November 10, 2025 at 2:37 AM
DONALD TRUMP: [asleep, drooling on long red tie]
SENATE DEMOCRATS: fine, we give in
SENATE DEMOCRATS: fine, we give in
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
Note that still in post at the BBC is Robbie Gibb, who helped set up GB News, and John McAndrew, formerly director of news and programmes at GB News.
November 10, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Note that still in post at the BBC is Robbie Gibb, who helped set up GB News, and John McAndrew, formerly director of news and programmes at GB News.
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
In a normal democracy, a total collapse of party leadership would result in an no-confidence vote and immediate snap elections to find leaders who can lead
November 10, 2025 at 3:18 AM
In a normal democracy, a total collapse of party leadership would result in an no-confidence vote and immediate snap elections to find leaders who can lead
Reposted by Maria Bustillos
Tonight was a very bad night.
November 10, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Tonight was a very bad night.