”What turns people into radical jihadist clerics? A new book suggests thwarted career ambitions. A subset of Muslim clerics who advocate for jihad started out as mainstream clerics looking for state-sponsored jobs…only to become unemployed, disenchanted, and radicalized” news.mit.edu/2017/why-som...

Fantastic music-making. Thelonious Monk's quartet, recorded live in the studios of Radio France, February 1964. “Don't play what the audience wants, play what you want and let the audience embrace what you do, even if it takes them fifteen or twenty years.” —Thelonius Monk

Surprised it took this long www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/t...

This analysis from @parkermolloy.com helps clarify how, for Bezos, the Post opinion section is now like the Melania doc: a media platform to advance his many interests.

In light of Trump’s post yesterday, some history: “On Memorial Day 1927, 1,000 white-robed Klansmen marched through the Jamaica neighborhood, eventually spurring an all-out brawl in which seven men were arrested. One of those arrested was Fred Trump.” www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix...

Oldie but goodie: “flirted with racial prejudice”

“It’d be tempting to label the rise of BTS and Bad Bunny as signs of globalization. Tempting—and wrong. Brazilians are in love with Brazilian music. Italians, Italian music. In a world of endless choice Mr Page adds, a ‘claustrophobia of abundance’ can take hold, driving people back to the familiar”

I’m a specialist that just opened a new practice. I’m trying to be in-network for all commercial insurances and Medicaid. Medicaid was easy; they want their customers to get care. Commercial insurance is being very difficult, because they don’t want to have tons of docs in network. I’ll explain…

Feeling of speck in my eye for a week. Irritating but not debilitating. Urgent care doc say call eye institute. Eye institute receptionist determines my case isn’t an emergency, offers appointment in April. My repeated experience of American medical care: be in crisis or wait months. Maddening.

This chart seems to suggest a striking pattern: Kevin Warsh's speeches are consistently hawkish, except when Trump is President and about to appoint a new Fed Chair. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

“What we are seeing is the weakness of strong states. Regimes that rely on repression face a challenge: The more force they deploy, the more they risk exposing their own brutality to politically persuadable observers. Overreach doesn’t just project strength; it also undermines legitimacy.”

“Now, instead of fearing race-day pain, she says she greets it. “Like, thank you,” she says. “This is a sign that I know I’m giving this everything I have.“ Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/m...

Worth noting that when the Montgomery boycott started they probably thought it would be quick. The Baton Rouge boycott before them lasted less than a week. Of course Montgomery would last for over a year and go in front of SCOTUS multiple times.

Given the moment, some films that offer history, lessons and, perhaps, a bit of hope: bsky.app/profile/owas...

“I want my death to be as strong a statement as my life continues to be. I want my own funeral to be fierce and defiant, to make the public statement that my death from AIDS is a form of political assassination.” — Mark Lowe Fisher, 1992, actupny.org/diva/polfuns...

The ICE killings in Minneapolis evoke Selma but the day-to-day tactics in Minneapolis remind me of the Birmingham Bus Boycott: a grinding, continuous, citywide and logistically demanding effort of non-cooperation over months to break an unjust status quo.

Had to double check this wasn’t The Onion

I was out at a restaurant with friends and a young man stopped by my table tonight to tell me my essay collection changed his whole life. And I thanked him and wished him well, and then thought about how it can be a really nice life, to be writer.

We have a Boston Review Forum out today on the Democratic Party in a time of authoritarianism www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...

Re-upping this thread from a year ago because it's very relevant to understanding the resistance in Minnesota and its effects

“Criminality is so rampant inside CBP that it has seen one of its own agents or officers arrested every 24 to 36 hours since 2005.”

Apologies to Will for continuing to put this essay in his mentions but he keeps saying things that @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com said today (with a shout out to @owasow.bsky.social here) www.liberalcurrents.com/from-powerle...

Sometimes its more competitive, sometimes it's more authoritarian....

Two things can be true: we’re a competitive authoritarian state with all sorts of efforts to put a thumb on the scale of who has power AND we have sufficiently free and sufficiently fair elections that every month we see the party in power lose.

“People of every color Marching side to side Marching ‘cross these fields Where a million fascists dies You’re bound to lose You fascists bound to lose!” youtu.be/VwcKwGS7OSQ?...

Two things can be true: we’re a competitive authoritarian state with all sorts of efforts to put a thumb on the scale of who has power AND we have sufficiently free and sufficiently fair elections that every month we see the party in power lose.

Hello super friends. There is a new @crosstabspodcast.com It features a cool experiment in talking to non-political voters by @kabirkhanna.bsky.social at @cbsnews.com He's super smart. You should listen to him. Hey, did you know it's an election year?? Again??! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Virginia Postrel in 1999 on GOP then: “The party that thinks it is better than the American people, that makes large segments of the voting public believe they are its enemy, that convinces people it wants the government to boss them around and destroy the things they love, will lose.”

“Melania the movie isn’t a documentary; it’s a protection racket. It’s a reminder that the richest people in the world are investing in entertainment brands… because all of these vanity projects and capitulations are a way to consolidate their own power and fortune.”

"It may take time to prove you're right, but you have to stick to it." - Fred Korematsu Jailed for refusing to abide by FDR's Exec Order 9066, he took his case against internment all the way to the Supreme Court - and lost. Remember him on Korematsu Day, January 30th. 1/

How is possible that a browser tab I opened three months ago is right there but the web form I was filling out for the last hour is nowhere to be found?

Email is emotional labor

Right after George Floyd was murdered, many on the right—from elected officials to police chiefs—condemned the killing. That moment of narrative consensus, though, was fragile and soon new stories and interpretations gained traction to restore the old partisan divides. Expect similar pattern now.

“In October…only 34% said ICE made them feel less safe. Since then, many of those in the middle have come off the sidelines. My most recent survey, which was initiated after the shooting of Renee Good, showed a jump to 45% of voters saying they now feel less safe as a result of ICE’s raids.” Gift 🔗

"The current protester tactics have been overwhelmingly nonviolent — nothing comparable to Minneapolis in 2020, when a police station burned, let alone the 1960s. The political question is not whether there has been disorder, but rather whom the public holds responsible for the killings."

unpopulism

“This has to be the most expensive documentary ever made that didn’t involve music licensing,” said Ted Hope, who worked at Amazon from 2015 to 2020 and was instrumental in starting the company’s film division. “How can it not be equated with currying favor or an outright bribe?”

“Visible state violence against sympathetic civilians was the beginning of the end for Jim Crow. It may be a turning point now, too.” Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/o...

I’ll be doing a book talk with @jjgreenjr.bsky.social for my new book: *No Option But Sabotage* at Politics and Prose (The Wharf) this Friday, 1/30. We'll be discussing: -the climate crisis -social movement -protest tactics -and responses to repression politics-prose.com/thomas-zeitz...

“As an NPR report observed, in President Trump’s second term, “content is governing and governing is content.” But spectacle cuts both ways. The same cameras that broadcast enforcement operations also capture repression. Winning a physical fight isn’t the same as winning an argument.” Gift link:

Someone share Neon Liberalism with @barackobama.bsky.social We've got experts on social movement like @owasow.bsky.social www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal... We've got on the ground analysis from @whstancil.bsky.social www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

"Winning a physical fight isn’t the same as winning an argument.” @owasow.bsky.social

Interesting article by @owasow.bsky.social “The political question is not whether there has been disorder, but rather whom the public holds responsible for the killings in Minneapolis.” I’m not as optimistic though that enough people have shifted to blaming ICE as much as is needed for policy change

I was just thinking yesterday about the direct line you can draw from Bull Connor to Greg Bovino, but this article by @owasow.bsky.social unpacks it perfectly.

Political scientists see non-violent resistance as much more effective--and it's not just from aggregate statistics. Rather, it's the way that peaceful resistance undermines the state's repressive capacities. This op-ed by Berkeley prof @owasow.bsky.social explains this logic 🎯. Give it a read!

“What we are seeing is the weakness of strong states. Regimes that rely on repression face a challenge: The more force they deploy, the more they risk exposing their own brutality to politically persuadable observers. Overreach doesn’t just project strength; it also undermines legitimacy.” Gift link

“Muslim ban set off a fury of protests across US, garnering tremendous media attention and discussion… Portraying ‘Ban’ at odds with inclusive elements of American identity prompted some citizens to shift their attitudes…” link.springer.com/article/10.1...

An important point. A study of police in Chicago police between Jan. 2011 and Dec. 2015, “found that more than half of the officers received fewer than one complaint a year. By contrast, the worst 1 percent of officers generated about 25 percent of the complaints.” www.theroot.com/how-to-go-fr...