Gary Farber
@garyfarber.bsky.social
Science fiction fanhistorian, former fanzine/Worldcon guy. Former Amygdala, Obsidian Wings blogger. Brooklyn, Seattle, Boulder, Oakland, Minneapolis. He, him. First they come for the immigrants, LGBTQ+, Muslims, abortion providers, so as a Jew I speak out.
Find the hidden cat.
November 7, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Find the hidden cat.
So, since I was last posting, I had my left big toe amputated, a femoral-to-femoral bypass, the month of September entirely in hospital, and the same great troubles with emotional equilibrium in the face of fascism that so many of us are having.
I'm still here on earth.
I'm still here on earth.
November 7, 2025 at 2:44 PM
So, since I was last posting, I had my left big toe amputated, a femoral-to-femoral bypass, the month of September entirely in hospital, and the same great troubles with emotional equilibrium in the face of fascism that so many of us are having.
I'm still here on earth.
I'm still here on earth.
Find the hidden cat!
November 7, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Find the hidden cat!
But now I'm off to hospital for possible leg and toe infection, since I'm diabetic. Meh. Should be home in a few hours, he said, trusting he's not jinxing himself.
July 15, 2025 at 4:27 PM
But now I'm off to hospital for possible leg and toe infection, since I'm diabetic. Meh. Should be home in a few hours, he said, trusting he's not jinxing himself.
Reposted by Gary Farber
I'm not dead. I've been immobilized in bed in immense pain with piriformis syndrome, a kind of pinched nerve & spasming muscle -- along with a severe digestive tract issue, and I lost the Bluesky password on my phone. I've literally been unable to sit on a chair since my last post here.
What Is Piriformis Syndrome?
Piriformis syndrome is a condition in which the piriformis muscle, located deep in the buttock, spasms and causes buttock pain.
www.spine-health.com
July 12, 2025 at 7:09 PM
I'm not dead. I've been immobilized in bed in immense pain with piriformis syndrome, a kind of pinched nerve & spasming muscle -- along with a severe digestive tract issue, and I lost the Bluesky password on my phone. I've literally been unable to sit on a chair since my last post here.
The problem with reading history practically every day for 50 years is I constantly wind up wiping my brow & saying things like "people have forgotten Gertrude Berg? Really? Jeebus. How fucking ignorant of 'em."
Probably it helps to be Jewish, grow up in Brooklyn & have read lots of 1950s history.
Probably it helps to be Jewish, grow up in Brooklyn & have read lots of 1950s history.
My essay about the brilliant, pioneering & shockingly forgotten showrunner-pioneer Gertrude Berg, who invented the family sitcom (pre-Lucy!), then got eaten by the blacklist in the 1950s — a story with disturbing modern parallels
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
The Forgotten Inventor of the Sitcom
Gertrude Berg’s “The Goldbergs” was a bold, beloved portrait of a Jewish family. Then the blacklist obliterated her legacy.
www.newyorker.com
June 9, 2025 at 3:50 PM
The problem with reading history practically every day for 50 years is I constantly wind up wiping my brow & saying things like "people have forgotten Gertrude Berg? Really? Jeebus. How fucking ignorant of 'em."
Probably it helps to be Jewish, grow up in Brooklyn & have read lots of 1950s history.
Probably it helps to be Jewish, grow up in Brooklyn & have read lots of 1950s history.
More leopards coming for people. Pro-space Republicans are going to be eaten.
Dozens of active and planned NASA spacecraft killed in Trump budget request
Proposal would end nearly all new major science missions
www.science.org
June 9, 2025 at 2:25 AM
More leopards coming for people. Pro-space Republicans are going to be eaten.
Reposted by Gary Farber
Kat having a platform to be a really clear moral left voice in national media seems like a good thing, and a major positive result of her campaign already. 1
I don't care if these monstrous ICE raids are a "federal operation". This is authoritarian violence, plain and simple.
Just because Stephen Miller has kidnapping quotas for brown people he doesn't want to see on the street doesn't mean we have to think it's okay.
Just because Stephen Miller has kidnapping quotas for brown people he doesn't want to see on the street doesn't mean we have to think it's okay.
June 9, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Kat having a platform to be a really clear moral left voice in national media seems like a good thing, and a major positive result of her campaign already. 1
Adam Serwer: "But neither billionaire [...] opposes the bill for what makes it a monstrosity: that it redistributes taxpayer dollars to the richest people in the country by slashing benefits for the middle class, the poor, and everyone in between."
Musk and Trump Still Agree on One Thing
Whatever they may be fighting about, they are both committed to showering tax cuts on Americans who already have more than they need.
www.theatlantic.com
June 8, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Adam Serwer: "But neither billionaire [...] opposes the bill for what makes it a monstrosity: that it redistributes taxpayer dollars to the richest people in the country by slashing benefits for the middle class, the poor, and everyone in between."
Reposted by Gary Farber
So Trumps sent more than double the number of National Guard into LA than eventually responded to the Capitol being attacked.
June 8, 2025 at 5:17 PM
So Trumps sent more than double the number of National Guard into LA than eventually responded to the Capitol being attacked.
Reposted by Gary Farber
Reposted by Gary Farber
Illinois Congresswoman and notorious bigot Mary Miller posted an Islamophobic tweet this morning, realized she had made a mistake, and then posted an anti-Sikh tweet.
She has since deleted the anti-Sikh tweet.
She has since deleted the anti-Sikh tweet.
June 6, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Illinois Congresswoman and notorious bigot Mary Miller posted an Islamophobic tweet this morning, realized she had made a mistake, and then posted an anti-Sikh tweet.
She has since deleted the anti-Sikh tweet.
She has since deleted the anti-Sikh tweet.
Reposted by Gary Farber
People often ask me how they can help libraries. The 1st thing you can do, after getting your library card, is follow and read Kelly’s censorship news. Know the players and know the game. It’s the same all across the U.S. Knowledge is power. Then you will know where to start in your own community.
This week, the ACLU was in court over the order that all US military schools remove "DEI" books from shelves. Here's how they got here, what's happening in these schools, and why military-housed books have been an easy target this year.
That + book censorship news.
bookriot.com/aclu-dodea-l...
That + book censorship news.
bookriot.com/aclu-dodea-l...
How The ACLU Is Responding to Book Bans in US Military Schools: Book Censorship News, June 6, 2025
Learn about the ACLU's lawsuit over book bans in US military schools. That, plus this week's book censorship news.
bookriot.com
June 6, 2025 at 2:57 PM
People often ask me how they can help libraries. The 1st thing you can do, after getting your library card, is follow and read Kelly’s censorship news. Know the players and know the game. It’s the same all across the U.S. Knowledge is power. Then you will know where to start in your own community.
Reposted by Gary Farber
must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away
“In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately”
June 5, 2025 at 8:15 PM
must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away
Reposted by Gary Farber
OH MY GOD IT'S HAPPENING
June 5, 2025 at 7:45 PM
OH MY GOD IT'S HAPPENING
Reposted by Gary Farber
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH
June 5, 2025 at 11:22 PM
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH
Reposted by Gary Farber
intelligent, well informed people just cannot get themselves to understand that we are in fact being ruled by fools with the impulse control of an overtired toddler. on ketamine.
June 5, 2025 at 11:27 PM
intelligent, well informed people just cannot get themselves to understand that we are in fact being ruled by fools with the impulse control of an overtired toddler. on ketamine.
There is no truth to the rumor that Elon Musk has asked me to start a new political party with him. I would never entertain such a notion with that horrible, awful, man. I want to make entirely clear this is not happening, will not happen, could not happen, will never happen. Don't believe rumors.
June 5, 2025 at 11:33 PM
There is no truth to the rumor that Elon Musk has asked me to start a new political party with him. I would never entertain such a notion with that horrible, awful, man. I want to make entirely clear this is not happening, will not happen, could not happen, will never happen. Don't believe rumors.
For fuck's sakes. "Hegseth orders Navy to rename ship honoring [...] gay activist Harvey Milk. A DOD official said the decision's timing, during Pride month, was intentional. [...] Other ships in the John Lewis class include Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sojourner Truth, John Lewis, Thurgood Marshall [...]"
abcnews.go.com
June 4, 2025 at 1:00 AM
For fuck's sakes. "Hegseth orders Navy to rename ship honoring [...] gay activist Harvey Milk. A DOD official said the decision's timing, during Pride month, was intentional. [...] Other ships in the John Lewis class include Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sojourner Truth, John Lewis, Thurgood Marshall [...]"
Reposted by Gary Farber
I tried to do a version of this report that @warren.senate.gov did, but gave up. The task was too overwhelming!!
Two-plus full pages, 34 of 130 entries, focus on the regulatory help Musk got after buying the Presidency for Trump. (This is just a selection.)
www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
Two-plus full pages, 34 of 130 entries, focus on the regulatory help Musk got after buying the Presidency for Trump. (This is just a selection.)
www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
June 3, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I tried to do a version of this report that @warren.senate.gov did, but gave up. The task was too overwhelming!!
Two-plus full pages, 34 of 130 entries, focus on the regulatory help Musk got after buying the Presidency for Trump. (This is just a selection.)
www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
Two-plus full pages, 34 of 130 entries, focus on the regulatory help Musk got after buying the Presidency for Trump. (This is just a selection.)
www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
