A notable exchange on a basic question of first principles between @darializaforny.bsky.social and members of the @nyeditboard.bsky.social Nicole Gelinas, @joshgreenman.bsky.social, and @semaforben.bsky.social. The full Q&A is worth a read: nyeditorialboard.substack.com/p/darializa-...

Incredible how the the style, cadence, and rhythm, which is to say the aesthetic form, of the section of the Declaration of Independence that lists grievances against the King, has seeped into our manner of speaking politically - 250 years later. NYT editorial today:

I grew up on Long Island, have rode the LIRR my whole life, and still regularly do so. I've truly never heard anyone call the LIRR "the lurr." Not once. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/n...

This is among the greatest moments in the history of Fantasyland. Absolutely perfect chef’s-kiss distillation of our self-satirizing historical moment.

uh huh

How does the US spend $800 billion a year on defense and yet after just six weeks of war with Iran, we're running out of missiles and munitions? For my latest @newyorker.com piece, I dove into the dysfunction of the US defense budget: www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

A piece I've been hoping to read for years: Sergey Radchenko on Sergey Radchenko. Thanks for writing this, @radchenko.bsky.social. bsky.app/profile/radc...

maybe the real deterrent was the straits we closed along the way

In the fog of cease-fire, it helps to have a lighthouse like @suzannemaloney.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

The next time Trump takes questions from the press, I hope a reporter asks him this question: “Sir, if we’ve accomplished all of our objectives in Iran, why do we need a deal?”

In conclusion, the U.S. is now locked into a ”mowing the grass” strategy with Iran.

Only 23% of government workers believe they “can report a suspected violation of a law, rule, or regulation without experiencing retaliation.” That's way down form the share the prior year (72%) who said they could report suspected illegal activity without fear www.thebulwark.com/p/two-more-g...

"In the midst of what is going on now, it is hard, when you sit down at a desk, to feel confident that morning after morning spent fiddling with words and rhythms is a justified activity – especially as there is never any certainty that the whole thing won’t have to be scrapped." — T.S. Eliot, 1942

RIP CBS News Radio. If you grew up in the NYC metro area in the 1980s and spent time in the car as a kid, this may be burned into your brain. record.reverb.chat/s/GLLUSGkHb0...

Stephen Kotkin has spent his career trying to understand what makes authoritarian regimes strong—and what makes them vulnerable. (Often the same things!) He and I spoke about how the US-Israeli war on Iran fits into the longer history of "regime change." podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

Breaking News: John F. Burns, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times best known for his work in Iraq, died at 81.

Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, the man killed in a shooting at Old Dominion University, flew Apache helicopters in Iraq, earned numerous awards for his military service and helped grow the university’s ROTC program enrollment by almost 50% in one year. He was 41-years-old.

To understand the true depth of the tactical and strategic challenge posed by Iran’s closure of Hormuz, read @proftalmadge.bsky.social. www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/hormuz-...

Bill Callahan: I could not work, so I threw a bottle into the woods And then I felt bad for the doe paw and the rabbit paw So I went looking for the pieces of the bottle that I threw All because I couldn't work Ingmar Bergman:

It’s Trump’s War. We’re Stuck With the Bill. Check, please. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/o...

Operation Concepts of a Plan

The new BPB record, "We Are Together Again," is a ray of light in dark times. Profoundly rich. Get it. bonnieprincebilly.bandcamp.com/album/we-are...

I find the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran to be, among other things, baffling in basic ways. It was good to talk to Richard Haass and Nate Swanson, in no small part because I found that they are almost as baffled as I am. Luckily, they also shed a lot of light. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgHH...

This week's cover @thelancet.com

Curious for knowledgable reactions to this proposition: 1. Ideally, Warner would not be sold to anyone. 2. If it gets sold, it's clearly worse in the short term if the buyer is Paramount instead of Netflix. 3. A sale to Paramount is possibly better in the long term than a sale to Netflix.

most depressing part of this might not be the AI but just the phrase "Your Child's YouTube Feed"

Have you read The Nimbus yet and if not when will you be getting on that

Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social

Dear friends on Bluesky, it's been an overwhelming week since the mass layoff at the Post. I'll be continuing the work and would be so grateful if you sign up here to keep up with my future journalism. docs.google.com/forms/d/1dlh...

So "Books" search on Google is just...gone?

Good news alert! "Exposure to lead—a dangerous heavy metal—has fallen by a factor of more than 100 since the 1960s." Beginning of the trend coincides with the establishment of the EPA. (h/t @semafor.com)

"The Predatory Hegemon:" Stephen Walt on Trump and American power. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Good video, and good that he wants to raise taxes on the ultrarich to raise more revenue. But has Mamdani discussed specific ideas for fostering widespread economic growth in the city's private sector, besides cutting regulations to encourage building? Have I missed that? bsky.app/profile/mayo...

In my view, this is the best take on Carney's speech: Matias Spektor on why the world will come to miss Western hypocrisy. "A world in which powerful states no longer feel compelled to justify themselves morally is not more honest—it is more dangerous." www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Aside from the shooting itself, the most upsetting thing in the Pretti video is the way that the ICE officer is trying to pull Pretti away from the woman whom the officer has just shoved and pepper-sprayed. “Stop interfering with my infliction of pain.”

This, to me, is one of the most damning bits in the NYT oral history of Trump's assault on the FBI. Attributed to a "Midwest case agent."

One year in, it's Hobbes all the way down. Me & @profsaunders.bsky.social in @foreignaffairs.com. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

This is true, but it also speaks to a truly difficult dynamic: in many areas (not all!) genAI can produce a result that is not entirely incompetent/unuseful. As the responses in the screenshot suggest, if you’re not an expert in a field, a 40-60% result might seem good, or at least good enough…

The postwar “rules-based order” is dead. A transactional world has taken its place, one where values, multilateralism, and liberalism have less influence, a world more suited for the 19th century instead of a multipolar order. My latest for @foreignaffairs.com. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

something I've wanted to do for a while: technical writing about songs (naming chords, etc) that is legible to non-technical readers, put together with more broadly interpretive criticism in hopes of getting to a deeper understanding of what the music is doing www.hearingthings.co/the-psycholo...

Interesting roundup of changes in media this year by @kang.bsky.social. I hadn't seen this revealing Pew report. Link to Kang's piece: www.newyorker.com/news/fault-l...

A Steve Kotkin banger leads the new issue of FA: the Stalin biographer on "the five dimensions of authoritarianism" and how they create vulnerabilities. Maybe the most important one: for autocrats, "their loyalists are their true enemies within."

On the latest episode of “The Foreign Affairs Interview,” @kschake.bsky.social argues that the Trump administration’s approach to foreign policy is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of American power. Start listening here: https://fam.ag/494W62u

I’m so grateful to @jvogt.bsky.social and @foreignaffairs.com for the opportunity of this conversation on the new national security strategy:

Things would be better if more politicians were inspired by Fred Rogers.

Fascinating stories of Chinese workers who migrated from rural areas to Guangdong in 2006-15: skillfully collected by the poet Zheng Xiaoqiong, translated by Eleanor Goodman, insightfully introduced by @kaiserkuo.bsky.social—and, thankfully, published by @equatormag.bsky.social.

Andrew Miller was a senior official in the Biden administration, working on Israel-Palestine. Today, FA publishes his call for a dramatic reshaping of U.S.-Israeli relations: ending the "exceptional" relationship and replacing it with a "normal" one. www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/end-i...

Read @danblock.bsky.social on what Western media outlets can learn from The Caravan, an Indian magazine, about what to do when the state comes after the free press. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

I love this Patrick Leger illustration for this year's edition of FA's annual "Best of Books" list.

An update on the “American dream,” from NPR’s Scott Horsley: