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Mika Cooper

@mikacooper.bsky.social
954 followers 2.6K following 341 posts

Once an English professor, now a layabout, laying stuff about.

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Reposted by Mika Cooper
ProPublica @propublica.org · 08/10/2026
The government doesn’t track how often immigration agents detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve tallied more than 500 Americans held against their will in warrantless arrests and detentions during President Trump’s second term.
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
One of the few paintings I’ve seen of this subject where the word “Temptation” (as opposed to “Torment”) actually seems appropriate!
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This is just state barbarism. Nothing less.
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Bought a house on a pond in semi-rural Rhode Island, imagining (as an amateur skywatcher) that one of the perks would be a dark night sky. Sadly, the house across the pond keeps outdoor lights blazing all night long. I can barely see stars dimmer than a magnitude of 2. It's like living in town. 😢
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Norway produces more oil than Venezuela. And yet, between January and August 2026, electric vehicles made up 97.8 percent of all new cars sold in that country. Moving to EVs is often based on intelligence, not need. Which is why it lags in the notoriously short-sighted and stupid United States.
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
6% of Republicans think climate change is a major problem, down from 13% in 2009 news.gallup.com/poll/708050/...
6% of Republicans think climate change is a major problem, down from 13% in 2009
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This painting would make a great cover illustration for a new edition of Girard's *Deceit, Desire, and the Novel* or Sedgwick's *Between Men* (although her use of Manet's "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" on the original edition was a pretty excellent choice in itself).
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 16/09/2026
As I said the first time Trump proposed tariffs: this is precisely why he likes them! It makes everyone come to him on bended knee, begging for exemptions. It makes economic survival dependent on his whim. That, not any economic theory, is the whole attraction. Mafia boss thinking.
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 14/09/2026
Cis people do not understand how much trans people's rights have regressed in just 5 years. 5 years ago, there were none of these restrictions. 19 states banned legal recognition 21 states have bathroom bans 8 states ban gender marker changes on DLs 25 ban gender affirming care for trans youth
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 14/09/2026
Patrolling & policing & condemning & "cancelling" online was never a uniquely progressive thing, even during Woke One (🙄). Every faction does it; it's just an outgrowth of the structure & incentives of social media. But it's pure fucking poison. It builds nothing, yields nothing.
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 04/09/2026
Sorry ladies. Catturd has spoken.
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Ditto. Concur 100%. Why can't a kid wander around his gated community?
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 02/09/2026
If there's one thing that is genuinely easy to accomplish in US politics, it is getting the pack of slavering morons that is the Republican base to hate someone or something new. You just gotta point and say "we hate this now." They *love* hating shit. Canadians? Sure!
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 01/09/2026
To anyone paying any attention at all, it was always clear they would move from targeting youth trans care to adult trans care. Now, Wales' gender clinic has shut down surgeries for transgender adults, because too many trans people were getting care. Subscribe to support our journalism.
erininthemorning.com
Wales Gender Clinic In The UK Pauses Surgeries Over Accusations That They Help Too Many Trans Patients
UK doctors are notorious for delaying trans people’s care. One clinic didn’t—now, they’re being targeted.
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Well, happy 29th anniversary to the greatest ‘reverse ferret’ ever issued by a media outlet
“We apologise for the Princess Diana page one headline DI GOES SEX MAD, which is still on the stands at some locations. It is currently being replaced with a special 72-page tribute issue: A FAREWELL TO THE PRINCESS WE ALL LOVED.”
Statement published by the National Enquirer, August 31, 1997
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I honestly can't figure out what is supposed to be scandalous about these tweets! They seem perfectly innocuous to me: "Look at our response to 9/11; we should launch a similar response to COVID." Am I missing something?
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
CBS News has posted a breathless story about how two El-Sayed tweets they just discovered "invite scrutiny" ... ...And then you read the tweets and uh, they don't seem that out of line, especially for someone who has a medical degree. www.cbsnews.com/news/abdul-e...
Meanwhile, El-Sayed's past references to the deadly attacks have continued to surface, including two deleted social media posts verified by CBS News that have not been previously reported. In those posts, he calls for the American public to muster the same outrage for the COVID-19 death toll that they displayed after 9/11. In one, from April 2020, El-Sayed compared the nearly 3,000 Americans killed on Sept. 11 to the mounting COVID-19 death toll and argued for a response commensurate with the nation's post-9/11 mobilization. In another, El-Sayed wrote that because more Americans had died from COVID than in the Sept. 11 attacks, he hoped "that means we'll spend the next ten years fighting a war for public health & against poverty ... like we launched a global #Waron Terror after 9/11. We could save lives rather than take them."
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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
At some point if you’re still working with ICE you just like hurting and bullying people
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I don't think it should be controversial to say, "we will not provide financial or military assistance to a country where the Minister of National Security brags about popping people's dreams of 'food' and 'education' then sending them to a prison where they are starved."
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Cameron 🇺🇸🗽🦅 @cameroncorduroy.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
only in America could there be a bullshit health craze centered around eating burgers, fries, and a milkshake
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Actual adult people who work in the mainstream press talk to this guy and take him seriously. He's a white supremacist, yes, but he's also just a premium sexless dork.
Richard Hanania: The point of a game like Grand Theft Auto is to identify with the character.

By making a female character, the new game will be promoting autogynephilia.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, and if they make her bisexual then the game won’t necessarily be unhealthy.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
If this was about electoral advantage — the thing reactionary centrists claim as their expertise — they would be writing about how this entire issue is a distraction. If you are concerned about the influence of fringe radicals over policymaking, Republicans are the bigger threat. Of course they are.
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David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
“There is no vaccine that’s safe and effective.” RFK Jr. is not a vaccine skeptic. He is a vaccine opponent. And he’s doing what he can to subvert our vaccine regimen, with the ultimate goal of destroying it. Don’t believe otherwise.
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Another treat from Agostino Carracci: preschool teacher gets naked and goes to sleep while the kids go crazy. Today is Agostino's birthday.
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Yay! I love that cavernous renovated one-time-convent-stable it's in. Very cool museum! Enjoy!
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
(Obviously you know all the paintings, but it's just really nice seeing them all together in one spot & so elegantly displayed)
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I'm sure you've already seen the show, but just in case you haven't, you totally have to! www.centraalmuseum.nl/en/now/exhib...
centraalmuseum.nl
Gerard van Honthorst - Different to Rembrandt | Centraal Museum Utrecht
In 2026, Centraal Museum presents the first major retrospective exhibition on Gerard van Honthorst (1592–1656). In Utrecht, the city where he was born, married and died, Honthorst is finally given the...
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Actually going with you to the Rijksmuseum would be like winning the lottery.
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
OMG I'M IN AMSTERDAM TOO & WAS GOING TO GO TO THE RIJKSMUSEUM TODAY BUT GOT A LATE START!!! Went to the FABULOUS Honthorst show in Utrecht on Weds, then Frans Hals yesterday. Wanted to do Van Gogh Museum today but all sold out, so figured I'd go back to the RM but got delayed. Have a lovely visit!
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Oh, please.
A screenshot from the NYT’s Wordle game, showing that the ordinary word LYNCH is for some reason not considered a playable word.
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
This is absolutely WILD. Here's the dashboard video posted by @fritschner.bsky.social. Fast forward to about 1 minute. An ICE officer jumps out of a van and pulls a gun on this woman immediately before lying and claiming she "almost ran us over." *profanity warning if watching in public.
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Used to love going to the one at the Arsenal Mall!
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
He always allows NENE, an obscure bird found only in the Hawaiian Islands, but today denied NODDY, a family of oceanic birds consisting of several species & a worldwide distribution.
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
right? I've now added that one to my absurdly long list of reasonable words denied by Sam Ezersky.
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Bolts @boltsmag.org · 04/08/2026
Virginia has been the only state in the country to enforce a lifetime ban on voting for anyone convicted of any felony. The governor’s announcement on Friday restored voting rights to some 66,000 people.
boltsmag.org
Virginia Governor Restores Voting Rights for Thousands With Past Felony Convictions - Bolts
This is the only state that was banning people convicted of any felony from voting for life. Virginians have an opportunity to end that system for good in November.
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Just when you think you've found a nice, private spot for some music, courtship, etc, Death and Folly show up and try to join in the fun. So annoying! By Pieter Coecke van Aelst, born OTD in 1502.
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Sub-moronic click bait. She should read some Wittgenstein, Huizinga, Thi Nguyen, Eric Berne. Even her beloved drinking & chatting with friends (perhaps about how dumb "games" are) is a highly rule-governed, gamified social behavior. Games are humans being human. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The hill I will die on: Games are the opposite of fun, and I’d ban them for anyone over 12 | Emily Watkins
Get your balls, pucks, Scrabble boards and packs of cards away from me – all I want is space to be together, ideally with a coffee or a glass of wine, says writer Emily Watkins
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
It's one of my all time favorite novels, & it had me in hysterics from its opening pages. But my guess is that if you're now 15% into it & haven't yet been howling with laughter even once, then it's not going to get any better for you. You might want to cut your losses.
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Had they but world enough & time . . . .
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Reposted by Mika Cooper
EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I wrote about the Nolan Odyssey for the LRB. I'll summarize some of my main points below, in case you don't feel like reading all that. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Emily Wilson · An Uncomplicated Man
As they say at the awards shows, I was humbled to learn that Christopher Nolan has read at least the first line of my...
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
key point here. letting the west bank burn and the most violent settlers run amok is basically an electoral movement by Netanyahu. us18.campaign-archive.com?e=f77fda7ddf...
us18.campaign-archive.com
Israel's grim reality: Letting the West Bank burn will probably help Netanyahu’s coalition in polls
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
It ought to be!
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
All people convicted federally. apnews.com/article/bide...
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Yeah, it's totally padded with bullshit. But there were some real legislative achievements there (many of which have now been undone by Trump). The IRA was honestly one of the greatest pieces of environmental legislation ever passed.
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Fair. But passing the ARP, IRA, the Chips & Sciences act, the Infrastructure Act, handing out cannabis pardons, leaving Afghanistan, enrolling 5 million uninsured in healthcare, & the enhanced CFPB enforcement aren't just checking email. As far as legislation goes, Biden was surprisingly effective.
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Biden was no great president, but doing jack shit wasn't one of his problems. The American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Act, IRA, Veterans Health Act, pardoning all pot convictions, leaving Afghanistan—all of those were good achievements. Trump's reversed a lot. Here's the positive case for Biden:
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Mika Cooper @mikacooper.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Another day, more evil.
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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 22/07/2026
In the latest NDAA amendment votes, five Dems crossed party lines to ban Tricare coverage for ttrans care for dependents of military members: H. Cuellar (TX) V. Gonzalez (TX) D. Davis (NC) S. Figures (AL) And Terri Sewell (AL) becomes the newest Dem to do so. Subscribe to support our journalism.
erininthemorning.com
Five Dems Crossed Party Lines To Strip Health Care From Trans Servicemembers And Their Families
“It's not just an attack on transgender kids.”
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 22/07/2026
As energy bills rise, the US DOE deletes money-saving energy efficiency tips from its website. You think it can't be this stupid, but it is: the libs like using energy efficiently, so to own the libs, we must waste energy, at any cost.
grist.org
Why did energy-saving tips disappear from the Energy Department website?
As the country sizzled through heat waves, the government removed some of its most actionable advice about how to conserve energy.
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