The White House is “ridding society of shameful, dangerous racial hierarchies.” www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

The Red Sox present:

You may have heard my arguments against the Electoral College before. Here’s a new one the Founders never anticipated: If the President is elected by popular vote, he probably wouldn’t selectively punish entire states for voting against him.

Watching the end of the Cubs/Padres game and struck by the actual cries of pain.

Good night, and good luck.

You can't raid and arrest everyone in an entire apartment building, or even legitimately get a warrant to do that, any more than you could for a whole neighborhood. That would be a general warrant. This is the most specific core the-British-did-it-to-us thing the Fourth Amendment is written to ban.

With Chicago in the ICE crosshairs right now, here are some independent and nonprofit media orgs to read, follow and support. Unraveled: @unraveledpress.com Block Club Chicago: @blockclubchi.bsky.social Chicago Reader: @chicagoreader.com The TRiiBE: @thetriibe.com WBEZ: @wbez.org

Director of the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness ⬇️

If you want first person accounts of what the Trump DOJ has done to pressure immigration judges: www.thisamericanlife.org/868/the-hand...

It’s remarkable. You can assign current names to her 90 year old pseudonyms.

Chicago: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Today marks the first day in the 55-year history of PBS and 54-year history of NPR that public media has broadcast to its audiences without federal funding. But even though lots of local outlets are at risk, PBS and NPR are still here, providing fair, accurate news coverage and will not be silenced.

Our national podcasting contest for college students is now open for entries. Submit your story for a chance to win our $5,000 grand prize, and hear your podcast on NPR.

In Students for Fair Admissions vs Harvard (2023), SCOTUS ruled that admitting students to college on the basis of race was a violation of the 14th Amendment, whether public or private. (Even though no students were actually admitted on the basis of race).

Among many, many other things, one of the most aptly named people ever. I was honored to speak to her in 2011. www.npr.org/2011/09/24/1...

Thesis: Peacemaker S2 is a very loose adaptation of “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” (It’s really great. So rare to see a sequel that rather than repeat he original, swings for the fences… and succeeds)

quick while the government is shut down let’s all switch to metric

Come for the blistering ruling, stay for the lengthy excerpt of an interview Michele Martin of @NPR did with a DHS spokesperson that is invoked as evidence.

I will say if that whole military meeting had been an email it would have been a pretty weird email

In August of 2001, I visited the aircraft carrier USS John F Kennedy at the invitation of the fleet commander. Since then I’ve met many more members of the military, commissioned and non, active and vet, including some wounded warriors at two visits to Walter Reed.

he’s talking about stationery now

It is undeniable that this moment is being shaped by people who marinated for years in an informational environment where reality was not only demoted but actively disdained. It took a while for that bubble to become impermeable but it did and now we have a chunk of people who know nothing but.

Worthwhile just for reminding us of the Shirley Sherrod case alone.

great piece from the always-great @pastpunditry.bsky.social and a welcome antidote to vacuous commentators whose historical memories seem to go back no further than the first iron man movie

The Crown Fountain is a wonderful installation in which water from two large columns which show faces of Chicagoans floods a court with an inch of so of water. When it opened, the city was surprised by how many families would come to let their kids splash in it. Including mine.

The ICE Officer, Greg Bovino, who got a US Attorney in California fired with a phone call to the WH, is now leading his troops through downtown Chicago, looking for people who look illegal. chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

I have lived and worked in and around Chicago for 27 years and I have been assaulted less often than Sen Paul has been in his own back yard.

I think both Ezra Klein and Ta-Nahesi Coates are both very smart and worth reading/listening to, even if sometimes wrong (as we all are) and I think Klein deserves credit for engaging with his critics and also both make good points. So there.

My understanding is that the UN was headquartered in the US post WW2 because a) we were the dominant world power, along with the USSR, but b) unlike them, we could be trusted to allow free discussion, debate, and collective action.

Old school Chicagoans say “beeves.”

Gift link; www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

Gift link! www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/m...

Lots of excellent reporting and writing in the NYT today. Will post some, but I’m out of gift links. First, and most importantly, the great Nikole Hannah-Jones on the lived experience of Black and queer people in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/m...

It seemed to me, without looking into it too seriously. that “Reacher” S3 hadn’t generated the same buzz that S2 did. So I finally started watching it, and I think, if so, I know why. Boy, Reacher just flat out murders a whole lot of people.

Always a joy to visit Abt Electronics’ antiques display and see things I paid full retail price for as a working adult.

A year ago, Steve Inskeep interviewed Gordon Sondland, Trump’s former ambassador to the EU. Sondland said that Portland was “destroyed.” Steve said, no it isn’t. By the time he was done retreating, Sondland was saying well, there are homeless people on the streets. www.npr.org/2024/10/15/n...

I think there is a direct relationship between punishing people for mourning George Floyd and punishing people for not mourning Charlie Kirk.

This is great. I wish I knew him.

Again, despite all the obstacles thrown up by ownership and management, and despite all the departures of top talent, the journalists at the WaPo continue to do superb work. They pretty much own the Hegseth beat.

For my part, I wondered why after taking the House in ‘22 the newly empowered GOP majority didn’t immediately create a special committee to investigate the ‘20 election.

The university president's letter is bananas, and anyone who sends such a letter should not be running an academic institution. A thread. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

Thank you to everybody at UMD who came out for my conversation with Dean Shonekan. A delightful evening and I managed to get a crab cake before heading home.

In fact, the Comey indictment is an instance of the press doing its job. We knew that the USA who refused to indict would be fired. We knew who would replace him. We knew there was a memo prepared for her explaining why she shouldn’t indict. We know Bondi herself tried to stop it.

“[P]resently some master brain in the Inner Party would select this version or that, would re-edit it and set in motion the complex processes of cross-referencing that would be required, and then the chosen lie would pass into the permanent records and become truth.” — Orwell, “1984”

short answer, no, but listen anyway

My wife, a Millennial, calls me rather than texts only under two circumstances: There is something gravely wrong, or One of our young children has successfully used the potty. I am pleased to tell you that today it was the latter.