Scott Hommel is running for Lamar County Commissioner in the March 3 primary in Texas, having resigned as chair of the Lamar County Rep. Party after racist remarks he posted on the Gab platform surfaced Paris, Texas. Great movie. The town? Not so much josephsfurey.substack.com/p/well-alway...

Is the Melania documentary so bad they had to release three million Epstein files?

This started life as frustration at the number of AI-generated hot takes I was seeing on U.S. intervention in Latin America/Venezuela, areas I know well. It turned into a week of work. But I'm happy with it, and believe it's worth your time josephsfurey.substack.com/p/the-long-s...

A chillingly mendacious retelling of the January 6 insurrection on the White House’s own site www.whitehouse.gov/j6/

Ah, the first day of the Merrineum, which I coined - to my cackling satisfaction - last year. Although I did also like Festervale and Taintmas. Betwixtmas seems to be in common use. Any others?

ICE respects no bounds. theintercept.com/2025/12/19/i...

On the unchecked rise of ICE, the resurgence of racial profiling and how – 35 years later – Northern Exposure still represents the best of America (includes Christmas gift). #elainemiles josephsfurey.substack.com/p/cold-comfo...

Genius from Thomas Frank, getting Simons to red card himself. It has lulled Liverpool into a state of smug, slow-motion self-harm.

The Epstein files release was predictably partial but – as it’s been from the start with this administration – it reads less like caution than a bodge job. Material appears to have been hauled out in haste or subjected to wholesale redaction and shoved into the public domain with a shrug

If Richard Tice objects to Reform UK being described as racist, the remedy is straightforward: condemn racism clearly, consistently and without equivocation. As the case of Reform’s first councillor in Scotland proves, the party will take anyone www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

With the latest mass shooting at Brown University, it is worth recalling that during the decade that Clinton’s federal assault weapons ban was in force, mass-shooting deaths fell by around 43%. After the ban expired in 2004, mass-shooting fatalities rose by 239% in the following decade

Eileen Higgins ends GOP’s 28-year control of Miami City Hall.

World Cup 2026 Nothing in this piece has been addressed. I'd be amazed if teams don't pull out josephsfurey.substack.com/p/world-cup-...

Local law enforcement agencies in 40 states are current participants in ICE cooperation agreements. The expansion has been encouraged by incentives: for example, federal reimbursement for participating officers’ salaries, benefits and overtime (in some cases)

New Orleans antisemitism summit Mayors are being courted to reframe student protest and foreign-policy critique as “hate” while their own residents face: racialised policing; gang-database abuses; criminalisation of poverty and homelessness www.currentaffairs.org/news/a-dark-...

Republican lawmakers carved up Nashville in 2022, redrawing the 7th District and two others to stop the city electing another Democrat. The result is a district stretched across 14 counties, with barely one in five of its voters living in Nashville. Fuck Tennessee.

So long, Tom Stoppard I’ve seen more of his work than any other playwright's, except Shakespeare. He never talked down to an audience and made intelligence feel romantic, teaching us that an idea can break your heart as cleanly as a love affair.

That’ll do nicely, Arsenal. AND you made me some money. We just took the second half away from them. They looked genuinely confused by the end of it

The Sofa Alliance is behind the “use cash” campaign. Big Upholstery has been stealing your coins for years, one cushion crack at a time.

Rubio is such a heel. Not only is the Ukraine peace proposal a Russian document - it was translated into British English, not American English.

“Launched in 2018, the U.S. Civil Rights Trail stands as a breakwater against this tide of whitewash, propaganda and historical vandalism – because it can be seen, touched, walked. In these days of state-sanctioned amnesia, visibility is resistance.” open.substack.com/pub/josephsf...

No wonder Border Control has gone after Charlotte, which is home to St Matthew, one of the largest Catholic parishes in the US. The Church is one of the last institutions in US life with a large, multi-ethnic congregational base and a social teaching on migration that fundamentally contradicts MAGA

FIFA and Trump. This reads presciently josephsfurey.substack.com/p/world-cup-...

Stephen Miller has endorsed Andrew Cuomo. Black mould, bedbugs and the BQE at rush hour have all issued statements of support. Unpaid internships have released a joint letter praising his “leadership style” and the smell of summer garbage on Canal Street has wished him “good luck”.

The Land of the Free has been free – for all, in law – for just 60 years. America’s road to racial justice has been long, tortuous and bloody – and we’re nowhere near a rest stop, let alone a scenic overlook. @prisonculture.bsky.social @prisonpolicy.org josephsfurey.substack.com/p/necessary-...

Feels a little strange being away from New Orleans for Halloween, which takes up most of October there. As my Vodou-practising neighbour told me the day we met, “It’s a season here, not a day. We know it takes time to raise the dead.”

I had such a meaningful night in Chicago with Eve Ewing at the National Public Housing Museum, and I'm grateful to @katieprout.bsky.social for this piece on the event and THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US—about housing, state violence, political imagination, and refusing the myth of dispassionate journalism.

@brian-goldstone.bsky.social White return replaced white flight. Streets were reclaimed like lost property, and the people who made them – in districts rich in art, music and memory – were shown the door, priced out of the very picture they had painted. josephsfurey.substack.com/p/necessary-...

A DOMESTIC Success wasn’t you. The cups moved on to other shelves to keep their sheen. But failure suits, boxed at the top of the stairs, among the crocks your mother saved. #writing #poetry #prompt

SNAP If only that were the sound of Mike Davis’s neck. It sustains working poor families, children, the elderly and the disabled. Every major study - by the CBO, Brookings and USDA - finds that every dollar spent generates about $1.50–$1.80 in economic activity through grocery stores and suppliers

New Orleans Saints are not marching in - they’re crawling toward a No 1 draft pick

At last, a Trump nominee too toxic for Republican senators. Paul Ingrassia, whose Nazi-curious texts were leaked to Politico, has withdrawn from the running to lead the Office of Special Counsel - leaving him to gaze deep into his own eyes in the funhouse mirror of power.

This made me giggle #arsenal #gooners

Alex Jones has the energy of a televangelist possessed by an army surplus store. Every morning he wakes up and fights the air until it confesses to being part of the Deep State. It’s not often I wish the worst of their imagination on someone. Consider it done

Back to therapy. My shrink and I joke about what she could put on her business card, if she had one. Because nothing in this life is new. For when Mercury in retrograde is not to blame. Emotional baggage unpacked. Hold only - no carry-ons.

Woke up to the news of Diane Keaton’s death. I’ll put on some coffee and Alan Parker’s Shoot the Moon. She’s on the screen for about 90 minutes in that, second only to Reds, which is a longer movie.

Yes, Machado came with Rubio’s recommendation, but that was his shameless projection of American self-image; an attempt to outsource virtue while the US’s own institutions corrode. #nobelpeaceprize

Vincent Battiloro, NJ, killed two teenage girls in a road-rage attack. Had livestreamed about one victim mocking Charlie Kirk. Self-described fan of Kirk & Andrew Tate. Families say police ignored stalking reports. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/nj-...

A win! But it’s been a while since the Saints were any use. The twilight of the Drew Brees era. Four straight NFC South titles, 2017-2020. I’m still bemoaning the no-call in the 2018 NFC Championship, when a ref swallowed his whistle on what may be the most blatant pass interference in NFL history

@searchlightmag.bsky.social Me, writing for Sam Bright, on the poisonous politics behind Kent’s newly revived “blitz spirit” writesbright.substack.com/p/the-global...

Here’s me writing something a little closer to home for @writesbright.bsky.social’s Substack. writesbright.substack.com/p/the-global... #raisethecolours #unitethekingdom #globalfarright

World Cup 2026. If Trump continues to menace host cities and keep qualified teams in visa limbo, I can foresee trouble, boycotts maybe. The usually gutless FIFA has said the cup is bigger than any country, any leader open.substack.com/pub/josephsf...

Is there no aspect of popular culture that this admin doesn’t hate? ICE will be enforcing immigration laws at the Super Bowl in Santa Clara. Noem calls the NFL “weak” for handing halftime to Bad Bunny, saying it “won’t be able to sleep at night” following its move

Hegseth. In recent years, more active-duty service members have died by suicide than in combat. The Department of War reported 492 suicides in 2022 alone, and the rates among younger enlisted soldiers - the rank and file Hegseth wants to subject to harsher “discipline” - are among the highest

This is the first in a series of roadside dispatches on America reckoning with its own past – on the measures towns have taken, or refused to take, to confront their histories and turn recognition into meaningful repair. Thank you @eji.org josephsfurey.substack.com/p/well-alway...

As for the Unite the Kingdom protest… Dave Male, Gary Bloke, Pete Feller, Steve Chap, Andy Mann, Dean Geezer and Tony Dude are coming to a kebab shop near you soon. Double shish and a broken window.

Kash Patel meant Valhalla, New York. He wasn’t expecting to see Charlie Kirk at Odin’s banquet hall of slain warriors but in suburban Westchester. Cue images of LARPing Vikings with plastic polearms at a Renaissance fair off the Taconic State Parkway

Nuno’s out. Postecoglou the bookies’ favourite? Forest have become a manager tasting menu

Happy with the Champions League draw. Tougher games at the Emirates. Top eight, here we come #Arsenal