And meanwhile, the brilliant @bijan.bsky.social went long on the beautiful music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland

Returning from a social media break to share this interview with the man of mystery Daniel Lefferts

Jake Nevins on the the illusion of international comity at the Olympics https://go.nybooks.com/4vAaitT

"The Olympic Truce, said the committee just days after the initial airstrikes and right before the start of the Paralympic Games, is an 'aspirational and non-binding resolution,' an expression of principles that is ultimately unenforceable if not entirely symbolic." Jake Nevins on a haunted Olympics

"What were the novels I’d gobbled up as a child doing on the same shelf as Raw Egg Nationalist?" Daniel Lefferts gets to the bottom of why a right-wing press is reissuing the Hardy Boys novels

Minnesota is still under attack. Federal thugs swarmed Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. Witnesses report tear gas used on students and staff. At least two school employees were handcuffed. Video evidence is circulating. DHS is denying it happened 🤬 Schools should be safe havens!

This is the second account - the first being in Chicago - of DHS agents mass detaining people and then *sorting them by race*.

Such an important story: ProPublica went inside the immigrant detention center for families in Dilley, Texas. Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the U.S. and the fear of what comes next. @micarosenberg.bsky.social

Drake is, properly, a last name

On top of everything else, she's so chic!

💔💔💔

He murders you and drags your corpse through the mud. Fintan O’Toole on the “crime” of witness. www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

I know everybody over here already knows this, but it is still helpful to see concrete proof that protesting and documentation work, that they are a meaningful, necessary part of politics blockclubchicago.org/2026/01/27/l...

"Schumer and Jeffries...should be voted out of office." www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

Benito and friends at the gas station, their feet in the air

Worth noting that one reason you’re benefitting so fully from the Star-Tribune’s timely, extensive coverage of unfolding events is that it’s a metro newspaper that hasn’t been systematically starved to further enrich shareholders and executives.

Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse in the Veterans Administration Health Care system. “He felt that doing the protesting was a way to express his care for others,” his dad said. #AbolishICE #ICEOutOfMinnesota #ProtectNurses #HoldHisKillersAccountable

Wrote to @josephoneill.bsky.social to talk about authoritarianism, the horrors in Minneapolis, and what to do about useless Democrats

every republican president destroys the economy

VD Jance

I'm really sick of this "we live in two different media bubbles" "epistemic closure" bullshit. Anyone watching that video and concluding that he didnt murder her is a fucking liar, not someone coming to a reasonable conclusion based on an intricate political philosophy

New: we've obtained material explaining how an ICE surveillance system, called Webloc, works. Draw shape on a map, see all phones available there, follow them home. All without warrant “This is a very dangerous tool in the hands of an out-of-control agency.” www.404media.co/inside-ices-...

In Chicago's Winnemac Park tonight, a growing crowd of around a hundred neighbors have gathered for an emergency vigil for Renee Nicole Good, a 37 yr old mom shot and killed by DHS in Minneapolis today.

there should be no terrified masked poorly trained out of state militia empowered to act extrajudiciously on the street and that is the political floor

The immediate demand today is neither new nor excessive. This demand, with which we must take to the streets, organize our workplaces, and orient our daily practices, is only a small but necessary part of anti-fascist struggle. Abolish ICE. latest @theintercept.com theintercept.com/2026/01/07/i...

“What I sense most powerfully from my friends in Gaza is a feeling of abandonment.” —Sara Roy interviewed by Max Nelson https://go.nybooks.com/3YWMcds

David Cole (@davidcole-gtown.bsky.social) on Trump’s illegal, imperial war on Venezuela

Wrote a little year in review thing about our deranged country email.nybooks.com/t/y-e-axtic-...

Fat Baldglesias

“In the publicly traded world of Netflix and the breathless business reporting that follows it around, the growing success of arthouses and revival houses is an inconvenience best ignored.” —A.S. Hamrah

I have a piece in the current issue of the New York Review of Books on the anti-trans agenda and the dangers it poses for the rights of cis women. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

That once there was a spot For one brief shining moment that was known As Olivia Nuzzi's butthole

Doing an archive crossword; what the hell does this answer mean?

Proud to publish this thoughtful review of Peter Hujar's Day by Hujar expert and man of good taste @andrew-durbin.bsky.social

Even if the Epstein scandal never deposed Trump, can we please be rid of Larry Summers and his appalling idiocy and amorality forever?

“My father started to feel like a ghost. The distance wasn’t just physical. It felt as if I was losing the man who raised me.”

Delighted to bring you: @fucktheory.bsky.social on the Broadway Godot: "Beckett with emotional subtitles"

FT (@fucktheory.bsky.social) on Bill & Ted’s Beckett adventure

new: at least 26 unhoused chicagoans have been abducted since the start of "operation midway blitz." the full scope of people disappeared is likely much larger but is obscured by heavy criminalization, social stigma, and fewer eyes and phones around to bear witness. via @katieprout.bsky.social

Dan Chiasson on Zohran, Bernie, socialism, biryani, and the DSA

Wallace Shawn shares some interesting insights in this interview about his political evolution and why he moved further to the left in his 40s.

As you mourn the downsizing of another magazine, and the layoffs that come with it, ask yourself: have i ever sniffily shared an archive.is link to an article to "help" people get around the paywall?

“No one should be surprised that the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the indiscriminate targeting of Latinos in Los Angeles precipitated the zip-tying, beating, and lengthy detention of black people in Chicago.” —Duncan Hosie

This Sunday, come to the Brooklyn Book Fest and watch me bother @andrealongchu.bsky.social, @jeremygordon.bsky.social, and Sarah Chihaya about criticism

I interviewed Walter Shaub about the mechanics of Trump's takeover of the civil service www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

For over a year now I’ve worked so hard and tried everything I could to avoid this. But I couldn’t save enough, so here we are. I made a Gofundme. Depending on the outcome I will either hire an expensive immigration lawyer and give it one more try, or pack up and use the money to start over.

“What makes trees easier to photograph than people is that trees are endlessly patient and have not an ounce of vanity.” —Benjamin Swett, interviewed by Daniel Drake

“Trust your instincts as a reporter. Take risks, do cool projects, have fun. Don’t be a chore to read.” —@maxrn.bsky.social, interviewed by @drakemotel.bsky.social

Big night in Chicago