CNN just pointed it out, but since no one has posted it yet, I'll be that guy. Here's today's round of Kill Your Inner Mercator: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Venezuela in a way your brain can handle

I’ve now see several Brits respond to the new Taskmaster lineup by saying the only contestant they haven’t heard of on the new series is Kumail Nanjani. Turnabout is fair play, I suppose.

Emergency protest, Times Square, right now:

"Hands off Venezuela!"

Seen at an anti-war protest in Manhattan today.

On Madonna: "I think maybe she doesn't hold her money very gracefully, the way some people can't hold their drink." Damn.

(At first glance, at least two of those --- EO 61 requiring a review of legal guidance and police procedures re: protests outside houses of worship and EO 48, appointing a Health Services Administrator under a particular state law --- were re-issued almost verbatim in Mayor Mamdani's EO 2.)

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night Alive as you and me Said I to Joe, "you're ten years dead." "I never died," said he "I never died," said he.

Me, a historian: "The term 'the sixties' doesn't refer to the calendar specifically—one may posit any number of plausible start dates for the decade, and indeed the one thing we can say with certainty is that 'the sixties' didn't begin on ... " "Well, shit. Never mind."

I fleece, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly, DUBAI!

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, Dubai!

An indication of how excited folks are about Mamdani's mayoralty: My most-liked-and-reposted post of Day One of 2026 is already bigger than anything I posted in 2025.

You can literally use this anywhere too, their brain will stutter. The great part? You can say it in a retail setting in the most polite sweetest way too. "Well, (insert pronoun) what outcome were you wanting to come out of this today by chance?" With a smile plastered on your face professionally.

Yep. This is why I chose Whitman.

I'm basic. Admitting that up front. But honestly? "Leaves of Grass."

"What's your goal here?" is such a powerful way of putting the brakes on an escalating cycle of assholery without backing down. It works SO well. Just "What do you want to have happen?"

Trump signed 220 executive orders in his first term and has 225 and counting not even one year into his second term. In case any presidential candidates are wondering what they should be promising to do on their Day 1.

I like that he seems idealistic. I also like that he seems to be able to calmly wield a shiv.

may as well start as we mean to go on

The next Democratic president needs to be prepared to do this immediately in re: every single one of Trump's executive orders since January 20, 2025.

I was wondering what Mamdani's first executive order would be, and I'm not disappointed by this. He has wiped off the books EVERY Eric Adams executive order issued on or after September 26, 2024, the day Adams was indicted on federal bribery charges.

Mamdani: For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty

My mother, born in 1937 and raised in rural Missouri and Iowa, just texted me about how happy she was to watch his swearing in and how much hope it gave her.

2026 is getting Albany to tax the rich to pay for universal childcare. Get in where you can. There are a number of groups currently organizing for this so you won't need to reinvent the wheel.

I am planning to be on here a lot less this year but I will drop in to share organizing opportunities re: universal childcare in NYC and also our continued public library organizing.

I think people are underestimating how much Mamdani, even more so than your average elected leftist, see it as his top priority to not be seen as a failed mayor. He is not going to be another Brandon Johnson, I’d wager

One time @angus.bsky.social compared my viz to a beautiful but incomprehensible russian atlas and I think of it often and fondly.

I feel like people wanting to “solve” uncertainty due to their lack of distress tolerance is part of what has gotten us *here*. But when you remember this, you can handle the scary parts.

Three minutes after I posted this he name-checked bagels and lox.

It's only occasionally explicit, but this inauguration is emphatically structured as a vision of an alternate future for America, an alternate politics, an alternate Democratic Party.

I love Mamdani's "Beans and Cornbread" rhetorical register so much. We should hang out together like wieners and sauerkraut We should stick together like hot dogs and mustard Every Saturday night, we should hang out like chitlins and potato salad

“Just hold on, we’re going to be alright.”

"I promise you this: If you are a New Yorker, I am your mayor." —Zohran Mamdani

This is my song.

NYCers have earned a day to just feel hopeful and happy. Nobody's in denial about political reality, and tomorrow will be here soon enough, but an inauguration is a celebration and an articulation of a vision, and it's okay to let yourself give in to the joy of aspiration.

I AM ONCE AGAIN ASKING YOU TO ACQUIRE ANOTHER COAT

Bread and roses and "Bread and Roses."

"That's the thing about uncertainty—anything can happen, but anything CAN happen." —Jumaane Williams, in his inaugural speech just now.

Bill de Blasio is having a much better time at this inauguration than Eric Adams is.

A better world is possible.

I mostly want an affordable city, but I also want new borough flags.

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are learning today just how badly the city's borough flags suck.

AHEM. MANDY. Real heads know.

Our next mayor. Bread and roses, motherfucker.

People, I've just discovered a new thing. It's called "checking the news to see what the guy did this time, but in a good way."

It’s been a long December, but there’s reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last.

Sending a telegram to your married BFF to make him laugh because you’ve got a gigantic crush on him is the sexiest fucking thing.