Have you noticed that book reviews are disappearing from the public discourse? Dwight Garner is on the nose here. (Free link)

If justice can be negotiated in secret for the powerful, it’s no longer justice. Americans should be outraged by any secret deal made by Trump & his cronies behind closed doors The people deserve answers, transparency & accountability, no matter who’s involved! #SheShed #Democracy #Accountability

I'd never translate this Russian poem by Galina Galina (1870-1942) into English verse; its perfection cannot be replicated elsewhere. And Rachmaninov's luminous setting flows effortlessly from the simplicity of her words. (Poem and paraphrase in Comments.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu1e...

Loved Asmik Grigorian's performance of "Eugene Onegin" at the Met last night. Wonderful singing and conducting. The staging and choreography, not so much.

"A spokesman for Mr. Mamdani referred all questions to the Police Department." Not a good look, Mayor Mamdani! FREE ARTICLE.

Must watch this video to learn what's happening with those who sailed on the Global Sumud Flotilla.

Activists sailed to Gaza to deliver aid, but were met with drone attacks and imprisonment. An exclusive look at the Global Sumud Flotilla. From our colleagues at @revealnews.org:

Big story, little coverage. Why?

A rare chance for New Yorkers to see Lina Wertmuller's "The Seduction of Mimi" on the big screen. You may be shocked by her harsh, satirical vision, but you won't be bored.

The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 this week. It was a slap in the face to the countless activists who fought for the VRA — and those who died for it. But we cannot give up. Here's how we should respond.

This looks interesting: a study of German fiction of the 1890s by Holly Yanacek, including Theodor Fontane, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Thomas Mann, and Hedwig Dohm. Glad to see Andreas-Salomé in such good company! Details from the publisher: www.bloomsbury.com/us/rethinkin...

A conversation with Frida Escobedo, the Mexican architect who designed the new wing of New York's Metropolitan Museum.

Solidarity with the Romany people.

Sometimes words fail me. The murder of this journalist is one of those times. Make no mistake, it was an intentional murder by the Israeli forces.

Best news in quite a while!

At a packed Budapest metro station, crowds of Hungarians are chanting: “Russia, go home.” It’s our turn now. #Vote

This is great news! I wish they could complete the task in less than 5 years. But maybe that's unrealistic.

I remember 1989, when the wall fell in Berlin. I remember 1990, when Mandela walked free. One time I mentioned to my students, what that felt like and they could not understand.

Israel intentionally kills another journalist in Gaza. But it can't kill the facts of its own barbarous behavior. Palestine will be free!

"The Sleepers," a Sophie Calle installation at MoMA, is open now. www.moma.org/artists/6655...

Trump is threatening mass death in Iran if he doesn’t get his way. He has spiraled out of control—and Congress has the power to stop him and end this war. Every Republican lawmaker who refuses to speak out, ducks a question, or votes to continue this war bears responsibility.

First unalloyed pushback from a Senate Republican is, unsurprisingly, from Lisa Murkowski.

My fellow Americans, what kind of nation are we? Paul Krugman says the fate of the American idea is on the line tonight. He has a message for every elected official -- Republican and Democrat. (Photo: a highway in Tehran.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKSX...

So true!

Completely unstable and perilous. The House must bring up impeachment articles, and the Senate needs to remove a president who wants to commit war crimes. We cannot sit idly by as Donald Trump threatens to end an entire civilization.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” -Trump Article III The following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide.

call for an investigation into the president's fitness. call for the house to impeach. say you will obstruct every last bit of senate business. call for soldiers to disregard illegal orders. say you will prosecute the people who do this. say you will take their military pensions and benefits.

We won't last 33 more months of this. This must stop. We must make it stop.

Donald Trump is an unhinged warmonger and war criminal using violence for personal gain and profit, while innocent people pay the price.   Congress must reconvene to pass the War Powers Resolution. The 25th Amendment must also be invoked. Congress has to do our damn job. War powers and Impeachment.

Do you know how EXTREMELY FUCKED UP SHIT HAS TO BE for me to be reposting Tucker Carlson positively???

Can't tell you how many members of Congress who *at best* had nothing to say when I asked about the Minab girls school attack. There is a profanely cold detachment inside Capitol Hill, a mode completely unrecognizable to common human decency I wish I could properly convey to you.

Will the Roma people of Hungary vote against Orban and in favor of better education for their children? It's not a foregone conclusion. (FREE ARTICLE)

Is there anything you can do to stop the Republic from turning into Trump, Inc.? And to stop the Mideast War? You can join the rest of us at tomorrow's No KIngs Marches. More than 3,000 are planned, in all 50 states. Let's show the world what democracy looks like.

again I point out how strange it is that high-level diplomatic negotiations of war and peace are being conducted by freelancers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, both of whom have egregious conflicts of interest, and not the actual secretary of state

BREAKING: Award-winning journalist Scott MacFarlane is joining MeidasTouch as our Chief Washington Correspondent. This is a major expansion of our enterprise and investigative reporting in D.C.

Trump is suspending sanctions on Iran and Russia, which will put over $15 billion in their treasuries to help them fund the wars against us. It’s stunning. We have never ever seen this level of war incompetence in American history.

“They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor.” — Tupac said it years ago… and here we are. The Pentagon is now asking for an additional $200 BILLION for this war. We always find the money for war. But when it comes to housing, healthcare, or feeding people? Suddenly it’s crickets.

Finally now, Mr. Putin? What took you so long?

This is a lie on a scale of Elon Musk saying he would cut the deficit to zero. Just insane. Not just untrue, but the opposite of the truth, which is that immigrants are lowering the deficit. www.cato.org/white-paper/...

So interesting to read this interview with Mahmood Mamdani in the Times today! (FREE ARTICLE)

CNN at the site of an Israeli strike in Lebanon that killed 9 people, including 5 children: "We're told it was a yogurt factory by the neighbors here." "The children's bodies, we're told, are in pieces and are going to take a while to identify the DNA so that they can actually do a burial."

EXCLUSIVE: Military leaders warned Hegseth not to gut the offices that limit risk to civilians. He ignored them. The decision faces renewed attention as the Pentagon investigates a strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed hundreds of children.

I wonder what percentage of Americans knows that the CIA helped overthrow a democracy in Iran in 1953, installing a brutal dictator who tortured and murdered people. Republicans keep citing the 1979 Islamic Revolution as if that was the start of U.S.-Iran hostilities. Go back 26 years earlier.

A purpose of the war on Iran might well be to provoke a terrorist attack inside the United States, thereby justifying the need to “federalize” elections. We must anticipate it, with sadness and resolution, and not be surprised, if it happens. snyder.substack.com/p/the-desire...

Most essential point to remember: we had a nuclear non-proliferation deal with Iran. Trump ripped it up.

The latest Quinnipiac University poll found more than half of the American electorate opposes the ongoing military campaign against Iran, and nearly three-quarters said they would be against the use of U.S. ground forces there. From Stars and Stripes' Phillip Walter Wellman:

ON THE GROUND | Is Trump’s war over? Not for the thousands in Beirut left homeless by bombs

Breaking news: A drone assault hit a major U.S. diplomatic facility in Iraq in a suspected retaliation by pro-Tehran militias to the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran, according to a security official and an internal U.S. alert reviewed by The Post.

Is the US about to send troops to Iran? Kudos to PBS for covering this important story. Not a word on the CNN website.