I think the second part is the bigger news.

“In case anybody cares, this is less and less fun.” - Seymour Hersh in “Cover-Up,” also everyone working in media

I can't find US outlets referring to Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources, the basic intl law & UN precept that one nation can't grab another's resources. That would be... a timely explainer, right about now. The Guardian seems to be the only place that's bothered to specifically note it.

Lol

This is from a week ago but it’s newly relevant:

I guess the lucky thing is, they know for absolute certain no major news is going to happen in the next two weeks that will in any way jeopardize this incredibly expensive plan.

Welp.

I guess the lucky thing is, they know for absolute certain no major news is going to happen in the next two weeks that will in any way jeopardize this incredibly expensive plan.

The weirdest thing here is, this is from his Instagram recently, but the original was posted five years ago, and it's still up. And it... doesn't solve the mystery of why he added an extra pair of hands.

It's so funny to think "we had a 38-page handbook but we just replaced it with five values" inspires confidence instead of alarm. Like, if you walked into a restaurant and were told that, you'd leave immediately.

A thing I'd be genuinely interested to know the answer to -- and that someone should ask! -- is, "What stories that CBS has done would've been covered differently if this policy had been in place, and what specifically would've changed?"

The dirty secret of criminal justice policy is that policy rarely explains trends

It is almost as if crime rates in individual cities around the country rise and fall in sync, whether they have “tough-on-crime” prosecutors or not.

I do think the easiest and likeliest fix they’re going to make is telling Grok it can’t apologize or admit error anymore.

Media is starting to report the Grok child porn story but way too many are centering the bot's "apologies" and "admissions" without explaining that these are being generated in response to user requests and are not in anyway authentic or meaningful.

I was told electing a progressive prosecutor would inevitably lead to a rise in crime. share.inquirer.com/gjgwFN

(Trying to remember how many days you’re supposed to want to claw your eyes out with new glasses before the optometrist concedes you’re not just “taking time to get used to them.”)

Seems noteworthy that the apology that Grok made about generating CSAM isn’t an official statement but a prompted one

What's funny is, the best rebuke to this approach -- caricaturing the work your colleagues have been doing and disparaging it, like you weren't there working alongside them -- has already been given by the guy he's replacing, who talked movingly about the actual work of journalism.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HORSES! IT IS HORSE BIRTHDAY! HORSE!!!!!

I get that it's just empty flattery, but it's very funny to have a journalist claim, with a straight face, that the issue with press coverage of a story like Hunter Biden's laptop is that it didn't center the voices of average Americans who knew nothing about the particulars of the case.

The new year starts off on a high note for me. I'll be the announcer for the inauguration of Zohran Mamdani as the next mayor of the City of New York.

As I was saying.

If you begin Star Trek: Voyager episode Spirit Folk at exactly 11:49:35 on New Year's Eve, Ensign Harry Kim will kiss a cow as the clock strikes midnight. Join in a very dumb annual tradition and start 2026 off on the right hoof.

In the rooms of AA they call 12/31 “amateur night.” Stay safe if you’re drinking (get a ride, have a buddy). Stay safe if you’re not drinking and want to stay stopped (drive yourself, have a buddy). Good luck out there.

The funniest thing here is that this guy taught at Harvard for forty years and somehow didn’t realize he was baiting people who love two things above all else: having an excuse to mention they went to Harvard, and telling you you’re wrong.

As I was saying.

If nothing else, if not for the AV Club's Random Roles, there's a decent chance we'd never have had the opportunity for Curtis Armstrong to tell his story about working on the Gary Busey film "Quigley".

This is a great story, and yet another reminder that -- for something that felt like a fun goofy feature when it launched -- as we lose more and more actors, the AV Club's "Random Roles" has turned out to be an amazing oral history project.

One of the best to ever do it

I made fun of Nate Silver and Matt Yglesias and this guy got so mad at me for refusing to explain the joke that he decided I was a Russian bot trying to undermine faith in media elites.

Weird how all this concern about artists cancelling shows at the Kennedy Center didn't materialize when Ric Grenell cancelled and moved a ton of shows for the three weeks when he let FIFA use the space for free. wapo.st/4jDdu2l

I’m not super familiar with the DC theater scene but I’m, like, 99.9% sure there’s more than one performing-arts space within the city limits.

Sorry, wait, Matt Taibbi is doing the “I’m not owned I’m not owned” dril tweet but in the form of an actual lawsuit?

The best part here is that she has to refer to the events of January 6 for her timeline, but there is no way to accurately characterize the events of that day that won’t antagonize her boss and his base, so she has to resort to “stuff happens”.

I’m sure it’s a coincidence but it’s very funny that the first “60 Minutes” after the CECOT debacle was just a compilation of past segments grouped around the theme “alcohol”.

Every installment of this MTG rehabilitation tour feels like “Nice Scorpion Regrets Past Stings, Needs Help With River Crossing!”

“SCOTUS only sets the floor” is worth remembering in a lot of different contexts.

This can mean only one thing: Marty has managed to destroy the sports almanac.

I’m going to regret weighing in because it’s going to sound like I’m defending him, and I’m not, but: I don’t think he’s thinking of chicken pox. Having spent a lot of time looking at antivax materials I think he’s probably getting this from a 1969 “Brady Bunch” episode antivaxxers love to cite:

Now that it’s a few days behind us I can say that I admire the boldness of Cinematrix having a “Christmas Movie” category for which both “Jaws 4” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” qualified.

In my time living here, going in reverse order, mayors' approaches to Gracie Mansion have been: * ditched it for Turkish Airlines First Class lounge; * insisted on 45-minute drive from it to their gym in Park Slope; * refused to live in it on ground of "billionaire"; * fled it after surprise divorce

Just a few days until the new year begins and movie releases suddenly collapse into the official two genres of January: “Horror” and “Whoops”.

Literally had to go double-check, after seeing the reference to “dismal ticket sales” alongside the demand for $1 million in supposed damages, to confirm: It was a free concert.

jeremy strong in the springsteen movie looks like they made an oscar bait minions adaptation

I like to imagine that there is a rivalry between two top ham-sniffers: one, a meticulous keeper of precise traditions, the other a brash bad-boy with a colossal nose.

When you can’t remember the name of the show “Deadwood”.

RFK: “Where did all this autism come from? It never existed when I was a kid!” “A Christmas Story”, a 1983 movie based on a 1971 memoir about a childhood in the 1930s: “This is my brother Ralphie. He has a ton of sensory issues and behaviors we don’t understand. Every family has a child like him.”

Hohoho! I drew this year's holiday card for my art rep, Felix Comic Art. I wanted the recipients to get something that looked like a piece of vintage original art, but also couldn't help poking some fun at Felix's love for Dark Knight Returns.

I just realized we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of the time I took my kid to Riverside Park on Christmas Day and watched a couple bicker for over an hour as they endlessly took and retook a photo to announce their engagement to the world. Truly, the best Christmas present of all.