It’s Sondheim night. This may be the best Sondheim musical (?), but then again—like Mahler symphonies and Mozart operas—which ever one you are currently listening to automatically gets top billing. #musicsky

A direct, prescient, and essential speech by @ricksteves.bsky.social. It is vital to remind ourselves that we are indeed seeing what we are seeing and Rick Steves helps us illuminate the stakes of the world today. www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20u...

Me: I don't totally understand what I'm watching but I love it. Them: I don't totally understand what I'm watching so I hate it.

As with everything, this latest midnight tantrum will amount to nothing. BUT just to stress how abnormal this presidency is: seven years ago, it was pretty major news that a *private* 1971 tape caught Reagan referring to Black people as monkeys. www.bbc.com/news/world-u...

Thursday night Charlie Parker #jazzsky

Reminder of some recent history: When ICE was occupying L.A. in June, they stationed themselves outside of Dodger Stadium and asked for access to the parking lot. www.latimes.com/sports/dodge...

Some early—really early—Kansas City jazz this unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon (sorry east coasters) #musicsky #jazzsky

One of the best to ever do it. Rest in peace, and thanks. m.youtube.com/watch?v=dTmM...

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Wrote today about how Republican lawmakers, seemingly, had issues with ICE this whole time? (with more than a slight tip of the hat to Martha Gellhorn’s reporting in rural Germany after WWII) robrankin.substack.com/p/no-one-eve...

Teaching this piece every semester never gets old—especially to classes where the vast majority of students are hearing it for the first time! A line-in-the-sand masterpiece that is as fresh as ever! #musicsky

Listening to the best of America after a weekend that exposed its worst. #jazzsky #musicsky

“America’s conscience has been sleeping, but it is waking up.” from George Leonard’s reporting from the March on Selma, March 1965.

YES, YES, YES, 1,000x YES!

Introduction to 'Requiem' by Anna Akhmatova (1935-61)

Protester in Minneapolis just before disappearing in gas: "Fuck you! Stop. Damn! I'm 70 years old and I'm fuckin' angry!"

America 2026

The Hague wouldn’t be enough.

This country has the memory of goldfish

Minnesota: "School officials say the [5-year-old] child was used as bait. They say [ICE] agents made little Liam knock on the door to ask to be let in in order to see if anyone else was home."

From @theathletic.com: Indiana won its first college football national championship, finishing the season undefeated with a 27-21 win over Miami. nyti.ms/49Q0Icb

Very proud IU grad over here! Go Hoosiers!!

We are watching one of the wildest things a nation-state has ever done: A superpower is committing suicide because the GOP Congress is too cowardly to stand up to the Mad King. This is one of the wildest moments in all of geopolitics ever.

Some especially timely thoughts from MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, reprinted in the *essential* @libraryofamerica.bsky.social two volume set of Civil Rights journalism

Given how this cult works, there should be three descriptions of a GOP member of congress: (R-[State]-[Are They Retiring]). The *only* ones even remotely speaking up against Trump are retiring or are not seeking reelection.

They are burning synagogues again in the US. "A fire heavily damaged Mississippi’s largest synagogue before dawn Saturday – the same house of worship in northeast Jackson that the Ku Klux Klan bombed in 1967 because the rabbi supported civil rights." mississippitoday.org/2026/01/10/f...

The obvious problem with this “we all need to live with each other” rhetoric is that one side’s sole ideology is the expulsion of an entire sector of society because they don’t want to live with them.

There seems to be this belief that if Trump is throwing out the entire post-WWII order, there must be SOME rational or ideological reason behind it, when in reality we are taking Greenland because Fred Trump never told his son he loved him.

This is just adorable. An 18 year old Anton Webern.

"Maybe we're at the McCarthy moment — do you have no decency? We have someone dead in their car for no reason whatsoever" MN Gov. Tim Walz speaks at press conference after the fatal shooting of a 37 year-old woman, U.S. citizen by ICE in Minneapolis. www.ms.now/news/federal...

Teaching with this view never gets old

The serious report this fifth anniversary of Jan. 6th deserves @pbsnews.org: www.youtube.com/watch?v=klgj...

It’s like clock work: 1) Liberals who pay attention claim that the latest Trump admin action is fascistic. 2) Fox News and GOP congressmen take a day to dismiss it as insane. 3) Trump admin puts out a social media image that 100% confirms part 1.

As a reminder, Trump spread a false story in the wake of the Asheville floods that Doug Emhoff was bulldozing homes to make way for a lithium mine. This led to Asheville residents getting into conflicts with FEMA workers. Every accusation is a confession.

It’s Iraq with truth serum

Kind of shocked this press conference isn’t being accompanied by a sick electric guitar

“Hello darkness my old friend”

Trump: "We are going to run the country." What does that possibly mean?

The television news coverage in the US right now is the pretty pathetic (John Bolton on MS NOW). The only substantive coverage happening right now is on @en.france24.com www.youtube.com/live/Ap-UM1O...

Entering the second quarter of the 21st century and hearing national security pundits speak about the “day after plan.” Everything old is new again!

This tarnishes the one month legacy of the FIFA Peace Prize

So, the President has gone to war with a foreign country and kidnapped its leader because… why?

My hope, following Mamdani’s inspired inauguration, is that we can leave that nihilistic notion of “cringe” (read: believing in anything) in 2025.

Mamdani is being inaugurated, outdoors with wind chill around 11 degrees, almost a year after Trump moved his inauguration indoors due to the cold (28 degrees with little wind). Just an observation.

Jack Smith: The evidence made clear that President Trump was, by a large measure, the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy. These crimes were committed for his benefit. The attack that happened at the Capitol as part of this case does not happen without him.

Wonderful ending from back when things ended.

Marx Brother's Day on TCM to ring in the new year!