We can't defend our humanity while we're being deceived. New column: scratchcolumn.substack.com/p/bring-back-the-robot-voice/

I read Ross Douthat's "Believe" so you don't have to. scratchcolumn.substack.com/p/does-ross-...

Proud of my governor and my state. www.timesunion.com/opinion/arti...

Rob Reiner: I'm going to make a coming of age drama, a fantasy adventure story, a romantic comedy, a psychological horror and then a courtroom drama. Us: Across your entire career? Reiner: In a 6 year period. Us: That sounds- Reiner: -Each one will be arguably the best movie in that genre.

closing my browser now

I made a little list of all my fellow columnists who have left the Washington Post since fall 2024 — and where their work can now be found. Let me know who I'm missing, so I can add them! open.substack.com/pub/scratchc...

Very happy to report I have started a new column and posted my first piece: "Starting from Scratch" about quitting my job at the Post. Check it out, please (& share, subscribe, etc.). open.substack.com/pub/scratchc...

Here I’ll save you: mistaken mess of pseudo-profundities ending w/: “Eventually Americans, restless as any people on earth, will want to replace threat with hope and resume our national pilgrimage. When that cultural and spiritual shift occurs, a lot will change in our religious and political life.”

fixed

🎯

Ok ok I’ll watch “Adolescence.”Sheesh.

@peterbeinart.bsky.social thank you for this sobering, compassionate, inspiring little book

Thank you. I never want to see another headline or article about motive. I don’t care why — I only care how. Guns are how

"What a guy like James Dobson does, and what James Dobson did for his whole adult life, is offer people—white men primarily, but not exclusively—a rhetorical framework for doing evil and feeling good about it." defector.com/james-dobson...

What I now believe is: other than MAYBE how much their groceries cost and whether they can see a doctor, voters "care" about what they're told to care about. Trump&Co have proven that. Democrats need to lead with a strong moral compass and actual facts — and convince voters what's really important.

The number of unsubstantiated assertions and unacknowledged assumptions in a random David Brooks paragraph never fails to astound me. We salute you, sir, whoever "we" might be.

Elite journalists wriggle & wriggle & try & try but they can not escape the fundamental dilemma: journalism is, by its nature, supposed to be on the side of accuracy, against lies & liars, but the GOP is lies & liars top to bottom. And for reasons of power & access, journalism can not say so.

OK, who's writing the Declaration for tomorrow?

I've got this weird hangup where someone asks "aren't you proud?" of such-and-such thing a child of mine got or did and I just fumble my response because what I believe is: They. Are. Lucky. This terrific piece by @volts.wtf breaks it down. www.vox.com/science-and-...

So good. "Democrats keep citing polls showing that 56% of Americans oppose gender-affirming care for minors. But where do they think those poll numbers come from? They come from years — years — of Republicans flooding the zone with their messaging " Opinions are MADE, people!

Portrait of Immorality in Green and Orange.

I keep hearing it takes a bully to stand up to a bully. No, it takes a person of principle and courage. #nocuomo please. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

no pressure, my NYC friends, I'm just pinning all my hopes on you . . . #nocuomo

America needs atheists — always, but especially now. So come all ye godless patriots TOMORROW, June 22, at 2 p.m.

"You sound real corny being scared of the subway."

Absolutely spot-on use of the royal "we":

Do we really have to say "Liberals say" here? Isn't it just a true thing that is happening?

No.

Yes, there are people who use their children as an excuse not to care about other people's children. But those aren't good people. Lyz lays it out, per usual.

Let’s resist the impulse to face the coming recession with spunk and ingenuity and instead just stay pissed off

Excellent news

Seems pretty clear

Here’s the Quid. What’s the Quo?

It might be easier for some in the press to get it right if the Founding Fathers had used "Bribe" instead of "Emolument."

seems like a great time to get into a super-popular restaurant in Rome.

"Majoritarian grievance is the energy drink of all fascist movements, but the Task Force is more than just a propaganda stunt to shore up the base. It is weaponizing the constitutional guarantees on the free exercise of religion." newrepublic.com/article/1948...

Here's the answer to the "Who cares if it's accurate? It's just a movie!" defense of all based-on-a-true-story entertainment. deadline.com/2025/05/trum...

Melania dreaming of a celibacy scenario

Trump's genius is that he's such a moron that people don't take it seriously when they're told he's a fascist, and he's such a fascist that people don't take it seriously when they're told he's a moron

he thinks "I don't know — whatever my lawyers say" is the crafty answer

"writer's block" never resonated with me. What I get is better described as "page fright."

But of course, he's focusing on dolls because they seem "frivolous," both in that they're toys and that they're for girls. But school supplies, clothes, car seats and diapers will be affected. www.usatoday.com/story/money/...

If it’s good, God did it. If it’s bad, that’s on Satan. No wonder the religious right likes this guy: they’ve bought this bs before

“I know they’re good folks” because . . . ?

yes, signed! And sharing again.

Princeton leading the "which college gets my Dartmouth alumni contribution this year (Ivy Edition)" contest. Prize: $25 + goddamn self-respect. standup.princeton.edu

Trump thinks that paying for things = being ripped off.

Why? Too persuasive? Too emotional? Too “doing the right thing”?

"If parents want to erase the line between religious doctrine and verifiable fact, no U.S. government, state or federal, has the right to stop them. "But no government concerned with educating children should be paying for the eraser." Hearing today at the Supreme Court. wapo.st/3YTgwWM

You gotta kinda feel bad for SNL. What's left for them?