Fundamentalist faiths make religion dangerous to others, but Christianity properly lived is dangerous to Christians. It’s dangerous to people who refuse to hate those they are told to hate, to people who refuse to oppress, to conquer, to exploit — even when they’re told to conquer in the name of God

Thank you @jfallows.bsky.social for having me on your podcast to talk about 2025 and what comes next for our democracy in 2026.

This is nice to read today. Thank you @anneapplebaum.bsky.social! (And Henry James gor that matter.)

One of the biggest moments of my career: USCIS canceled my client’s naturalization oath ceremony. We filed a lawsuit, went to trial, and the judge swore him in right there in the courtroom!

"Crisis is clarifying. So, in 2026, use it to prepare your newsroom to withstand plausible legal and financial threats... let this moment also lead you back to your audiences and how your organisation can better serve them" @niemanlab.org @elizatalks.bsky.social www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/a-ti...

okay somehow this totally banal observation about the relative scale and influence of social media platforms has made some people extremely mad

Horrified by the terrorist attack in Australia targeting Jewish people celebrating the first night of Hanukkah. Antisemitism has no place in this world. As so many light their candles tonight, we’ll come together to pray for a future where the light will triumph over darkness.

Hard to put into words the feelings of sadness, anxiety, and upset to read about the many tragedies of this weekend -- apparently targeted killings on Jewish people on Bondi Beach and a shooter at Brown University in Providence RI among too many other places in the world. We have so much work to do.

"My support for free speech, for example, opened the door for depravity, and my defense of due process hindered the rough justice necessary to reclaim America." Revealing and illuminating (for me anyway) column from @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/o...

The Sears Tower, decked out in red and green lights, is the perfect backdrop for Chicago’s Christmas celebrations! 🎄(also @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social and I got our tree up!) ⛄️

No parent wants this text. Thinking of the Brown University community.

@chicagotribune.com photogs rock my world every single day but often this year I've thought about how important their art is at the moments when words fail. Their top 100 just drives home what a year it's been in this precious city www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/12/t...

Praying for all our friends and colleagues in Providence and at Brown.

For all the setbacks for the world’s women in 2025, the leaders and vanguards on the 2025 Forbes Power Women list stood as examples of resilience in turbulent times.

I couldn’t leave Chicago without getting a cut from my old barber, Zariff!

It's not just social media. Looks like visitors to the US from Europe and other countries that are part of the visa waiver program will have to submit an enormous amount of data about themselves and their families, including DNA, if proposed new rules are accepted

The Public Media Bridge Fund has awarded $26M to support more than 70 grantees operating 180+ at-risk public radio and TV stations nationwide. This critical funding will help keep local news and cultural programming alive in communities that rely on it. publicmedia.co/bridge-fund-awards-26-million/

For a long time Miami’s wealthy have prospered, while a byzantine bureaucracy has made navigating city rules arduous for everyone else. A new mayor has a chance to change that

What’s remarkable about Scott is that her philanthropy isn’t an effort to offset the moral choices made in earning her fortune, as was the case for the Carnegies et al. As far I can tell, it’s just unadulterated beneficence.

Thanks to MacKenzie Scott for giving out $7 billion+ this year! Pretty exceptional. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/b...

Today we remember the thousands of Americans who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor 84 years ago. Nearly half of those lost were aboard the USS Arizona, and I remember what a moving experience it was when Gabby and I visited the memorial. We’ll never forget their sacrifice.

“While this chilling campaign is vastly unpopular and often loses in court, its speed and scale are unprecedented in U.S. history,” Benavidez wrote.

A date which will live in infamy. Today, we commemorate the more than 2,400 Americans who were lost during the attack on Pearl Harbor. We are forever indebted to the courage of those who stood up for democracy and freedom — and we will never forget their sacrifice.

Spent some time this week volunteering with my team at the @fooddepository.bsky.social. This holiday season and beyond, we’re making sure that all of us in Illinois can thrive. If you have the opportunity, get out and volunteer — we’re all in this together.

On January 1, Illinois begins to regulate employer use of AI, making it a civil rights violation to use AI tools that result in discrimination based on protected characteristics in hiring, promotion, discipline, termination, or other employment terms and requiring notice of AI use. #AIBillofRights

On Dec. 4, the Trump administration released its National Security Strategy which the president describes as "a roadmap to ensure that America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history." Read the strategy, from @katherinepomps.bsky.social. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/trum...

Appeals court upholds disqualification of Alina Habba as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor

Great opportunity for end of year giving, if you want to try to help Chicago after all that has happened here. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/o...

District Judge Boasberg and federal appellate judges deserve our thanks for not simply shrugging and letting the Trump regime get away with defying a court order regarding their cruel and illegal fights to El Salvador..

"There are believers, Catholic and Protestant alike, who are rallying to treat migrants with dignity, compassion and respect." Yes. @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/o...

Harvard Law School’s Jack Goldsmith: “In short, if the Post’s facts are correct, it appears that Special Operations Forces committed murder when the ‘two men were blown apart in the water, as the Post put it.’” open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

I’m mindful today of those for whom this is their first Thanksgiving without a loved one. I’m praying for a measure of peace and the comfort of beautiful memories.

ICYMI -- We looked at the Trump admin's Supreme Court filing arguing for the legality of deploying the National Guard to Chicago. Turns out it has a bunch of factual errors... w/ Devon Lum, Christoph Koettl, Ainara Tiefenthäler 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/u...

The International Energy Agency envisions a $1trn global geothermal investment boom by 2035. Discover how the future of clean energy could unfold

Also, every service. Basically every visit to see my mom is 50% working through 2FA systems with her so she can pay utility bills.

There have always been signs that tech companies were overpromising on AI, and that investors were blindly and dramatically over-indexing on its potential. I want to reshare the essay Janet Haven and I wrote for Foreign Policy in October 2024. A few quotes from that piece:

How Residents In Chicago And LA Are Building Multiracial Solidarity Against ICE blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/24/h...

Love to see this -- Humanities trending!

No, the price is not worth it and it is a bad idea overall to be doing these raids in communities across the USA -- especially the way it was done in Chicago. The evidence is overwhelming at this point. The courts and community members affected have been clear. www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

Note especially the job in Tech and Public Policy

Y’all come through!

An really important thing a lot of people don't realize about Trump is that he doesn't bully people he doesn't think he can bully.

"The first man from Queens to be elected president and the first Queens resident to be elected mayor of New York City met for the first time in the Oval Office on Friday." Now that is a first sentence for the ages.

If you had told me Mamdani and MTG would both be in the news today, and gave me eleventy thousand guesses as to why, I’d … still be guessing.

From a spokesperson for U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin:

The FBI spied on a Signal group chat of immigration activists, records reveal www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...