Jessica Hertz
@jessicaiswriting.bsky.social
Loves books and dogs. She/Her.
Writing at Five Points Journal, The Pinch, Bitch Magazine, Oyster River Pages, Pembroke Magazine, and more.
JessicaHertz.com
Writing at Five Points Journal, The Pinch, Bitch Magazine, Oyster River Pages, Pembroke Magazine, and more.
JessicaHertz.com
Are people placing bets? I’ll put 20 bucks on Bad Art Friend to take the whole thing.
After some first round upsets, 32 iconic Literary Twitter moments remain! Vote in the next round of our What was Literary Twitter? bracket to push your favorite discourses to the top.
What Was Literary Twitter? The Bracket *Day 2*
Welcome to day two of What Was Literary Twitter! Plenty of you voted yesterday in our first round of polling, and it was exciting to go though the results. The top seeds sailed through, YA won all …
buff.ly
November 18, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Are people placing bets? I’ll put 20 bucks on Bad Art Friend to take the whole thing.
Meanwhile, we will continue to accept Texas transplants who are sick of living there with graciousness because that’s what NYC does.
You don’t need to add any more disincentives, Gov.
There’s already your higher crime, shakier power grid, and worse pizza.
There’s already your higher crime, shakier power grid, and worse pizza.
November 4, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Meanwhile, we will continue to accept Texas transplants who are sick of living there with graciousness because that’s what NYC does.
Is the desecration of the White House the worst thing this administration is doing? Not by a long shot. But it *is* a very visible and visceral symbol the lawlessness and entitlement with which it is operating.
NEW: NBC News confirms that the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, on the east side of the White House, has been destroyed as part of the demolition of the East Wing.
(📸 Getty Images)
(📸 Getty Images)
October 24, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Is the desecration of the White House the worst thing this administration is doing? Not by a long shot. But it *is* a very visible and visceral symbol the lawlessness and entitlement with which it is operating.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
Pretty sure that when you have giant frogs everywhere, God is very disappointed in how you are treating immigrants.
Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight.
Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...
Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...
October 10, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Pretty sure that when you have giant frogs everywhere, God is very disappointed in how you are treating immigrants.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
whole lot of people who probably think they can spot right-wing racism when it's couched in dog whistles suddenly pretending they can't hear a normal-ass whistle
October 9, 2025 at 4:54 AM
whole lot of people who probably think they can spot right-wing racism when it's couched in dog whistles suddenly pretending they can't hear a normal-ass whistle
Ahhhhhh!!!! This is so fucking COOL! The ocean is magnificent and terrifying!
I used to cower from and yet be compelled by that diorama in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life at AMNH as a kid, and that kid is freaking out right now.
I used to cower from and yet be compelled by that diorama in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life at AMNH as a kid, and that kid is freaking out right now.
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
September 25, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Ahhhhhh!!!! This is so fucking COOL! The ocean is magnificent and terrifying!
I used to cower from and yet be compelled by that diorama in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life at AMNH as a kid, and that kid is freaking out right now.
I used to cower from and yet be compelled by that diorama in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life at AMNH as a kid, and that kid is freaking out right now.
This is horrifying (it was horrifying when they were thought to be smuggling drugs, and yet somehow what actually seems to have happened is even worse)
The president probably blew up a boat smuggling migrants, not drugs, and this story is just going to go away tomorrow when he does something even worse, isn’t it?
September 4, 2025 at 1:21 AM
This is horrifying (it was horrifying when they were thought to be smuggling drugs, and yet somehow what actually seems to have happened is even worse)
I’m so tired of and sad about living in a country where children are murdered at school and, collectively, we refuse to do anything about it. This isn’t rocket science – countries with strict gun laws don’t have this happening all the time – but we seem to have decided it’s an acceptable price.
August 27, 2025 at 6:00 PM
I’m so tired of and sad about living in a country where children are murdered at school and, collectively, we refuse to do anything about it. This isn’t rocket science – countries with strict gun laws don’t have this happening all the time – but we seem to have decided it’s an acceptable price.
Saw a trio of twenty-something friends taking a selfie. One of them looked at the picture and said: “Oh, wow! We are all SO photogenic!” This is the energy and self-confidence I wish I had when I was younger.
August 13, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Saw a trio of twenty-something friends taking a selfie. One of them looked at the picture and said: “Oh, wow! We are all SO photogenic!” This is the energy and self-confidence I wish I had when I was younger.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
I just sent this out.
The Jewish people have moral frameworks for this moment.
It is a choice not to heed them.
Please let us meet this moment, let us see the shattered Temple around us, right now, and our responsibility to it.
The Jewish people have moral frameworks for this moment.
It is a choice not to heed them.
Please let us meet this moment, let us see the shattered Temple around us, right now, and our responsibility to it.
to Jews, on the Gaza famine
an open letter: we have been commanded
www.lifeisasacredtext.com
July 24, 2025 at 10:22 PM
I just sent this out.
The Jewish people have moral frameworks for this moment.
It is a choice not to heed them.
Please let us meet this moment, let us see the shattered Temple around us, right now, and our responsibility to it.
The Jewish people have moral frameworks for this moment.
It is a choice not to heed them.
Please let us meet this moment, let us see the shattered Temple around us, right now, and our responsibility to it.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
If you’re in line to make a stay in line joke, this is a New York City election and it’s “stay ON line”
June 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
If you’re in line to make a stay in line joke, this is a New York City election and it’s “stay ON line”
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
This is a vital message: one of the larger reasons BlueSky is refreshingly free of alt-right shitlords is because in the early days we made a gentleperson’s agreement to starve these fuckos out and it worked. No likes, no quotes, no engagement. They got bored and left. Please keep the Old Ways.
June 18, 2025 at 11:17 PM
This is a vital message: one of the larger reasons BlueSky is refreshingly free of alt-right shitlords is because in the early days we made a gentleperson’s agreement to starve these fuckos out and it worked. No likes, no quotes, no engagement. They got bored and left. Please keep the Old Ways.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
The cruelty of this is, genuinely, staggering. This is a policy that saves virtually no money whatsoever whose success is measured in the number of children it kills.
Breaking: The Trevor Project received a stop-work order last night on its contract with the national 988 suicide prevention hotline. The Trump administration is eliminating the option for LGBTQ callers to the hotline to press 3 and connect with someone who specializes in LGBTQ mental health.
June 18, 2025 at 2:14 PM
The cruelty of this is, genuinely, staggering. This is a policy that saves virtually no money whatsoever whose success is measured in the number of children it kills.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
In a lengthy exchange, with ICE Deputy Field Director Bill Joyce, Reps Nadler and Goldman are denied the ability to visit the 10th floor. Joyce says it's not a detention facility it's just a place ppl are housed for several days w/out beds.
June 18, 2025 at 3:15 PM
In a lengthy exchange, with ICE Deputy Field Director Bill Joyce, Reps Nadler and Goldman are denied the ability to visit the 10th floor. Joyce says it's not a detention facility it's just a place ppl are housed for several days w/out beds.
I have not been the biggest fan of Hochul, but I have to hand it to her here.
And Lander is the real deal. Didn’t realize he has been doing this for weeks now. Good for him.
And Lander is the real deal. Didn’t realize he has been doing this for weeks now. Good for him.
Yeah you’ve got hochul uploading an official nygov social video calling lander’s arrest, and I’m quoting here, “bullshit.” They think the feds have overreached and are vulnerable.
June 17, 2025 at 9:32 PM
I have not been the biggest fan of Hochul, but I have to hand it to her here.
And Lander is the real deal. Didn’t realize he has been doing this for weeks now. Good for him.
And Lander is the real deal. Didn’t realize he has been doing this for weeks now. Good for him.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
A reporter from The City had overheard one agent say to another minutes before Lander’s arrest, “Do you want to arrest the Comptroller?”
www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/17/b...
www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/17/b...
Brad Lander Detained by Masked Federal Agents Inside Immigration Court
The arrest came in his latest visit to the courthouse to speak with migrants there.
www.thecity.nyc
June 17, 2025 at 5:20 PM
A reporter from The City had overheard one agent say to another minutes before Lander’s arrest, “Do you want to arrest the Comptroller?”
www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/17/b...
www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/17/b...
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
Not an original point but worth saying again - there is not a single element in this picture that identifies any of these folks as law enforcement agents. No badges, no uniforms, no vests. Out of context it just looks like a bunch of random guys are kidnapping a mayoral candidate.
Breaking News: Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller who is running for mayor, was detained by ICE agents at an immigration court as he tried to escort a migrant out of the courthouse to prevent his arrest. nyti.ms/4jWkANE
June 17, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Not an original point but worth saying again - there is not a single element in this picture that identifies any of these folks as law enforcement agents. No badges, no uniforms, no vests. Out of context it just looks like a bunch of random guys are kidnapping a mayoral candidate.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
"I was never a Sauron fan. Did I facilitate Sauron's rise to power by donating most of Isengard’s resources to his reconquest campaign and persuading my legions of Uruk-hai followers to support him? Sure, but that doesn’t mean I agreed with him on everything."
I, Saruman, Have Ended My Alliance with the Dark Lord Sauron
“Last year, two mercurial billionaires formed a partnership and vowed to drive the country in a new direction. Donald Trump had the political power...
buff.ly
June 6, 2025 at 3:21 PM
"I was never a Sauron fan. Did I facilitate Sauron's rise to power by donating most of Isengard’s resources to his reconquest campaign and persuading my legions of Uruk-hai followers to support him? Sure, but that doesn’t mean I agreed with him on everything."
“MAHA is, above all things, the apotheosis of a puritanical American tendency to blame the ill for their illness, the poor for their poverty.”
This is excellent writing on some terrible policy.
This is excellent writing on some terrible policy.
I read the Surgeon General nominee's book so you don't have to, and it's hot fucking trash, and I wrote about it! buttondown.com/theswordandt...
You Are What You Eat
Casey Means, Influencer General Casey Means, the Trump administration’s new nominee for Surgeon General of the United States, has a prescription for America....
buttondown.com
May 29, 2025 at 12:43 AM
“MAHA is, above all things, the apotheosis of a puritanical American tendency to blame the ill for their illness, the poor for their poverty.”
This is excellent writing on some terrible policy.
This is excellent writing on some terrible policy.
Wow. That was an astonishing piece of political oration.
April 2, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Wow. That was an astonishing piece of political oration.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
Booker: "I confess that I have been imperfect. I confess that I've been inadequate to the moment. I've confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes that gave a lane to this demagogue. I confess we all must look in the mirror and say 'we will do better.'"
April 1, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Booker: "I confess that I have been imperfect. I confess that I've been inadequate to the moment. I've confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes that gave a lane to this demagogue. I confess we all must look in the mirror and say 'we will do better.'"
Cory Booker is doing what I feel like we’ve all been desperately needing for the past three months - someone to say, on the senate floor, in no uncertain terms, that this is an absolutely dangerous moment and are in a crisis, because we are. More of this.
April 1, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Cory Booker is doing what I feel like we’ve all been desperately needing for the past three months - someone to say, on the senate floor, in no uncertain terms, that this is an absolutely dangerous moment and are in a crisis, because we are. More of this.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
This! If you can switch from Whole Foods to a different grocery store and buy your books from bookshop.org instead of Amazon, that’s still a big step even if you feel tied to Amazon for other items. If everyone divested 30% that’s more than if a few people divest 100%.
When it comes to boycotting, just a thought. It’s okay if you can’t quit a company cold turkey. In Master Gardeners, when we encourage people to switch to native plants, the goal is 70% native, not 100%. If you were shopping at a store 80% of the time and cut it back to 60%, that 20% still hurts.
February 27, 2025 at 2:07 AM
This! If you can switch from Whole Foods to a different grocery store and buy your books from bookshop.org instead of Amazon, that’s still a big step even if you feel tied to Amazon for other items. If everyone divested 30% that’s more than if a few people divest 100%.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
This is precisely why journalists should not be casting Trump and RFK as crusaders against Big Pharma. What they object to is regulation and consumer protection, i.e. they want to make it easier for corporations to poison and lie to us.
If you saw the Hims & Hers Super Bowl ad about their “life-changing” approach to fixing American obesity and "the system," you should know they're actually just a compounding pharmacy selling non-FDA-approved mixes of weight-loss drugs - basically the apex of health care capitalism, warts and all
February 10, 2025 at 2:51 PM
This is precisely why journalists should not be casting Trump and RFK as crusaders against Big Pharma. What they object to is regulation and consumer protection, i.e. they want to make it easier for corporations to poison and lie to us.
Reposted by Jessica Hertz
NYC— the deadline to register as a Democrat is this Friday. It’s a frustratingly stupid system but the long and short is you CANNOT VOTE IN THE MAYORAL PRIMARY UNLESS YOU ARE A REGISTERED DEMOCRAT BY THIS FRIDAY 2/14.
Please update your registration— you can do it on the DMV website. Vote him out!
Please update your registration— you can do it on the DMV website. Vote him out!
BREAKING: DoJ moves to drop the charges against Eric Adams. Because of course they do. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/n...
Justice Dept. Seeks Dismissal of Federal Corruption Case Against Adams
The New York City mayor cultivated a close relationship with President Trump, who said they had both been persecuted.
www.nytimes.com
February 11, 2025 at 12:44 PM
NYC— the deadline to register as a Democrat is this Friday. It’s a frustratingly stupid system but the long and short is you CANNOT VOTE IN THE MAYORAL PRIMARY UNLESS YOU ARE A REGISTERED DEMOCRAT BY THIS FRIDAY 2/14.
Please update your registration— you can do it on the DMV website. Vote him out!
Please update your registration— you can do it on the DMV website. Vote him out!