Stephen S Power

@stephenspower.bsky.social

273

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Changing the world one page at a time. 30+ years in publishing. Novelist, short story writer, poet and aspiring dramatist. stephenspower.com.

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My 4-star review of THE BOOKSHOP: A History of the American Bookstore, by Evan Friss. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Stephen S. Power’s review of The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstorewww.goodreads.com What an engaging book that pairs well with THE BOOK-MAKERS by Adam Smyth. I was particularly inspired by the chapters on Gotham Book Mart, Oscar Wilde and Drum & Spear, so much so that while visiting ...

The perfect symbol of America: a piece of sh*t wrapped in a flag. Photo: David Zalubowski/AP

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Stephen S Power

these people do not intend to ever lose power again

Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court presidential immunity ruling: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be" www.mediamatters.org/project-2025...

Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court immunity decision: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution"www.mediamatters.org

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Stephen S Power

Reply to

Michael Hobbes

Giving up the incumbent advantage because a bunch of disingenuous and/or nihilistic journos have condemned Biden like he's an old building seems the dumbest thing imaginable. Biden wasn't my choice in the 2020 primaries, but he's the president now, and just being the president is a big advantage.

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Stephen S Power

Notice how everyone is somehow talking about Biden Too Old right now, and NOT about how the Supreme Court just legalized Trump being a dictator for life and gutted the administrative state, and how the Heritage Foundation is now issuing terrorist threats? Think that might not be an accident?

That part isn't the disinfo part. It's the chaos and rumormongering that is going to be used to get Mike fucking Johnson etc. into power once they push Kamala Harris out of the line of succession. It's also being used to distract everyone from mounting a coordinated response to the Supreme Court

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Stephen S Power

Again, Black people are an exception here, as basically anyone who stayed in the Jim Crow South has a living memory of living under what amounted to fascism, including the “always walking on eggshells/lack of social trust/long periods of boring endurance/randomized terrifying violence”

Pretty much. What it mostly boils down to is that most Americans really don’t have the faintest idea what living under modern authoritarian regimes actually looks like, and how it’s often at the same time way more boring and way more scary than they’d imagined.

Remember: Everything Hitler did was legal, and the first people he sent to camps were his political enemies. Box 1 checked. Box 2 threatened immediately afterwards.

The Supreme Court's decision on presidential immunity is complex and alarming. Thankfully, The Big Picture is breaking it down. Discover how this ruling could enable presidential abuses of power and what it means for Trump’s legal issues. If you care about our Republic's future, this is a must-read.

The Return of the Imperial Presidencythinkbigpicture.substack.com The radical Supreme Court has given Donald Trump everything he asked for and more with immunity.

Everything Hitler did was legal, and the first people he sent to camps were his political enemies. Box 1 checked. Box 2 threatened immediately afterwards.

along similar lines, has anyone actually explained *why* the seal team six hypo is ruled out by the majority opinion? all I've seen is right-leaning law profs mocking everyone who raises the issue. but nobody has explained why a president wouldn't be immune for assassinating a rival

Everything Hitler did was legal, and the first people he sent to camps were his political enemies. Box 1 checked. Box 2 threatened immediately afterwards.

There is no depth to which Jonathan Turley will not sink. He’ll say that Trump will never do the outrageous things Trump threatens to do, and that there are laws in place to prevent it, then when Trump does them he will say the laws don’t apply and that Trump was forced to do the things by woke.

He will die within three months if he loses and cannot then steal the election.

If Biden loses in Nov, well, that’s a disaster for everybody, but not especially for Joe Biden, he’ll be okay (unless revenge indictments start flying) but if Trump loses, that’s 100% absolutely a massive catastrophic personal tragedy for him, and I really hope you all join me in making that happen

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Stephen S Power

Tolkien Out Of Context: "Tom put his mouth to the crack and began singing into it in a low voice. They could not catch the words, but evidently Merry was aroused. His legs began to kick."

Strongly recommended.

BTW the Evil Empire seems to be selling the DE hardcover right this second for about half off, and as much as I don't like to send business their way, a deal's a deal, and you can always spend your savings at your local indie. And it's almost Father's Day.

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Stephen S Power

This 👇

Hochul clearly has never been to NYC. This is a Buffalo mindset.

Prepping for a quick episode on the latest congestion pricing news and this bit from Governor Hochul's announcement is enraging. 99% of the people Hochul is talking about here — "teachers, first responders, small business workers, bodega owners — DO NOT DRIVE INTO MANHATTAN.

Finally, a decent definition of the metaverse, something I've long searched for: "the internet... would be transformed into a platform, a feudal system where Meta would set the rules and exact a cut from each interaction and transaction." In other words: AOL meets the iTunes Store.

Newsletter: Tech's hyper-growth era is ending. Almost every major web platform has seen traffic declines since 2021, and the industry is getting desperate as it realizes there aren't any massive new markets left- and generative AI isn't the next big thing. www.wheresyoured.at/rotcombubble/

The Rot-Com Bubblewww.wheresyoured.at If you enjoy this post, why not subscribe to my podcast Better Offline? This week's a two parter that further expands on the Rot-Com Bubble, coming out Wednesday and Friday. The noxious growth-at-all...

[email protected] I studied all your novels to see what makes them tick, and my theory is, You don't actually write horror novels. Each book is instead about an emotion set amidst horrifying circumstances. Very enlightening.

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Stephen S Power

Would not have expected this well-reasoned rant from the smug, front-running sports shouter Colin Cowherd but right is right.

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Stephen S Power

Somehow missed this last month (and am surprised how little attention it got), but it's hilarious. Former Congressman Ted Yoho reached out to a fake Parler social site, and ended up effectively hiring a comedian to work for him who was pranking him the whole time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMG_...

A congressman accidentally made me his right hand manwww.youtube.com Parler Social and God Country Family https://parler.social https://gcfcast.com/ Walter Masterson https://www.youtube.com/@waltermasterson https://www.instagram.com/waltermasterson Matt Gaetz/Marjorie Taylor Greene video: https://youtu.be/YgoIwVv8ZnQ?si=4HSkO1NzxWBYodTE Mack Lunn https://www.instagram.com/macklunn/ Video Will Thwaites https://www.willthwaites.com/ Audio Saint Thomas Ledoux https://www.saintthomasledoux.com/ Lighting Taylor Roesch https://www.instagram.com/taylorroesch Comedy Club DC Comedy Loft https://www.dccomedyloft.com/ Ben https://www.patreon.com/PalmerTrolls https://www.palmertrolls.com [email protected]

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Stephen S Power

"I signed an expansive nondisclosure agreement that promised a fine of $5 million and even jail time if I were to ever divulge what actually happened. It expired this year." let it out honey put it in the book slate.com/culture/2024...

For 20 Years, I Couldn’t Say What Donald Trump Did on the Set of The Apprentice. Now I Can.slate.com The con we pulled on America just won’t die.

[email protected] FYI for your October programming: Gladwell's "Revenge of the Tipping Point," which will revisit the ideas in "The Tipping Point," pubs on October 1. As a reminder, one chapter was on the "broken windows" theory of policing.

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Stephen S Power

Hey. You. SFF writer going “I don’t need sensitivity readers; it’s all made up-“ I PROMISE you, it’s not. Whether you mean to or not, you will draw on tropes and stereotypes that run through the real world. Your READERS live in the real world and will draw connections. It’s inevitable.

Shepherd.com is a new book discovery site that has been collecting authors' three favorite reads of 2023. Here's a compilation of them all. shepherd.com/bboy/2023

The 100 most recommended books of 2023 (by 1,639 authors)shepherd.com We present the 100 most-read books that 1,639 authors & super readers picked as one of their 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Great piece. Annoyance to me was embodied in the person who sat behind me on the Midtown Direct to the city who was talking on her phone while filing her nails and eating potato chips pulled from a crinkly bag.

I wrote about being annoyed, and being annoying! www.theguardian.com/wellness/art...

What makes people annoying?www.theguardian.com ‘Annoyance is probably the most widely experienced and least studied of all human emotions,’ say the experts – here’s what we know, and how to deal

My 3 Favorite Reads of 2023 on the new book discovery site Shepherd. shepherd.com/bboy/2023/f/...

Stephen S. Power's 3 favorite reads in 2023shepherd.com Stephen is an author, Book editor, and Knowledge seeker.

Days until this is used on protesters...

Washington state paid $30,000 for a drone that paints over graffiti the drone company's website is flagged as a privacy risk by my browser, and includes more broken links for services like 'border security' than actual working, up-to-date pages www.popsci.com/technology/g...

Washington state deploys $30,000 drone to combat graffitiwww.popsci.com The drone will shoot paint out a modified nozzle to cover vandalism.

Is there anyone in any industry as influential? If I ran a university, I'd launch a film school just to name it after him.

Having known Roger Corman for decades as my friend's dad, what struck me most was the pride he had in his children's accomplishments and the humility he had in his own. Many people proudly display their professional awards in their homes (as they should!) but he put his kids awards in the spotlight.

This is what happens when you stop taking placement fees and start selling books.

Happy Mother’s Day from my local B&N

Yes, the documents prove the crime. Stormy showed what the crime started with--and in a way beautifully orthogonal to why the crime was committed.

People are buzzing about Stormy Daniels’s testimony. And I want to talk about it, too. But they might have missed the more boring but super important evidence provided by the Controller for the Trump Org. The receipts in “Grossing Up and Grossing Out,” link in the thread below.

I'd do it as art project exploring decay by leaving it in the rain.

how much would someone have to pay you to drive a cybertruck for an entire year? i think $50,000 is fair. spend a year revolting your friends and family, then buy the car of your dreams and explain to everyone that you were going through a bad time in your life. i bet most people would accept that