The scary thing is that this ruse would probably work on the President of the United States and about half of his cabinet.

Is it just me, or do the Heat have the all-time run for making blockbuster trades and free-agent signings?

Excited to share the cover and an early endorsement from @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social for my forthcoming book, "The Carbon Wave." It's out Sept. 1! Preorders help the book travel further. The book is on sale this week with free shipping at Bookshop. Order your copy today! bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

The Department of Political Science at Aarhus University is hiring both Assistant Professors and Associate Professors. Assistant Professor: international.au.dk/about/profil... Associate Professor: international.au.dk/about/profil... Please share these opportunities with your networks!

"Intellectual diversity" law used to fire instructor who covered politically unpopular opinion. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/u...

This made my stomach turn. The presence of such attitudes not unusual. It is the institutionalization of the attitudes that is terrifying. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Because I don't have much direct knowledge of the subject, I have appreciated recent articles that have pushed back against the AI-datacenter apocalypse narrative. Good to hear more than one perspective on the issue. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Okay, fine, I'm just going to say that I liked the Cheetos video then.

Careful planning is Washington’s whole thing: symbolic sightlines; monuments that speak to one another; columns, rooflines and axes aligned just so. The whole city is supposed to be a work of civic art. Trump’s projects test this 235-year-old idea: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

As a contrarian, I find it somewhat disconcerting that I am mostly on board with all of the pro-Knicks content.

It's not really about UFC - some people like and some people don't, that's America - but the commercial corruption of our national monuments. If the next President owns stock in Frito Lay and wants to have a Chester Cheetah dance party on the Lincoln Memorial, are we going to allow it?

Put aside thr tackiness of the event, which is a matter of taste (lots od people like UFC, different strokes for different folks), what violates every notion of democracy and good governance is that a private company is openly selling access at $1.5million a pop as bribes to the president.

Despite being indicative of a gigantic problem with our political economy, the charming part of the SpaceX IPO is that is partially driven by the fact that many people still just think space is cool.

I'm inclined to be like this because it fits with my predisposition toward Musk. But Krugman is pretty good and it all seems like a disaster waiting to happen. paulkrugman.substack.com/p/elon-musk-...

Converse (1964) remains undefeated. (also "the center" in American politics has positive valence around it, so is attractive to survey respondents, especially in vague philosophical questions of this type).

I get this sense too. The Spencer Pratt claim, which was so absurd on the face of it, might have been close to the final nail.

When I fancied myself a science fiction writer in the 5th grade, I thought this was how the President would speak.

I read the "Vanderbilt Report". I thought it might make me grumpy because it was teed up to be another "the left is ruining the academy" at a time when the political right is on afull-blown scorched earth campaign against universities. It is actually very fair and careful. Worth reading. 1/

Good news. Budweiser is uncanceled.

Castle was the only one who boxed-out. He should slap each of his teammates in the back of the head.

Good work Knicks. But also a garbage breakdown of fundamentals by the Spurs. 1 out of 5 players boxed out. The best shot blocker and rebounder was watching the ball come off the rim from approximately the top of the key. Even in the NBA, fundamentals win basketball games.

You gotta block out.

It is actually worse. He asks "who got more votes?" and he refuses to answer. This is a simple matter of fact. It would be like asking "is the sky blue?" and the nominee claiming he couldn't answer. We are made so much dumber by authoritarianism.

America is at war. People are experiencing significant economic pain. And this is what we have going at the seat of power.

The entire job of a judge is to characterize things. To say whether they were violations of the law, whether they caused harm, etc.

One must understand that there is nothing more Chicago than the White Sox. (And, yes, that is a swipe at the Cubs)

Put it in the Louvre

There is nothing about capitalism that says we cede moral agency. We are making a choice when we do business with Elon Musk: when we buy his products, let him into our government to use our tax dollars, post on his platform. We enable him.

Excellent public testimony here on (and against) Trump’s proposed Arch by @hollybfletcher.bsky.social. open.substack.com/pub/hollyber...

A problem with authoritarianism and media conglomeration is that the owners of these media companies don't care if they are profitable so they use them rather to send signals to the authoritarian who wields control over their profit-making businesses.

But keep in mind this is just the tip of the iceberg in corruption. There has never been anything like it in American history. When voters start paying attention (they largely aren't right now), there will be massive blowback. Lawmakers must seize the moment for reform.

Call me a traditionalist, but I think if you have a 7'4" player that he should be crashing the boards on every shot.

Respect to the Athletic for this one.

Shoulda taken my advice.

Gordon Wood died yesterday at 92 after being struck by a car in East Providence. He was my Phd advisor and I recall some experiences with him. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/gordo...

I wouldn't be totally surprised if Trump finds an excuse to cancel his appearance at the NBA Finals tonight, The vibes have to be leaking through to him at this point, and if there is one thing Trump excels at, it is staying in environments he finds psychologically comfortable.

"when the fossil fuel dependency that has structured their geopolitics for a century begins to visibly crumble — it will be the next shock emanating from Trump’s war. Not because the change happened suddenly, but because so many simply weren’t watching." proelectrica.substack.com/p/elite-cogn...

That we are even discussing the validity of CA and LA elections when Republicans do poorly in these overwhelmingly Democratic areas shows how much Trump has damaged our democracy. Democracy is in big trouble if people don't trust elections. Now we are questioning even the obvious ones.

Reading Gordon Wood as a freshman at Berkeley was among the most important intellectual events of my life. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/b...

What are we even doing here?

It's true, he really said this...at a celebration of a critical battle leading to two of the most diverse countries in the world, the USSR and USA - the latter of which is a country of immigrants - defeated a racially exclusionary regime that was committed to the cause Hegseth just promoted.

This is right. These Jim Crow voting restrictions, by Alito's logic, could not be separated from partisan intent, so under our current Supreme Court, they would all be protected under the Constitution.

But that's not all. It's corruption of epic proportions.

Hard to imagine that in a country that was essentially willing to kneecap itself to elect a faux-populist president (twice), this will be sustainable forever. Eventually, the virtual guillotines will come out. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/b...

Latest from me: For Posterity and for the Moment: Trump Was and Is a Threat to Democracy ryandenos.substack.com/p/for-poster...

Critically important @ryanenos.bsky.social - I share his fear that any setback for Trump will lead to triumphalism about how American democracy was never threatened in the first place ryandenos.substack.com/p/for-poster.... I invite anyone to apply this logic to attempted murder.

Latest from me: For Posterity and for the Moment: Trump Was and Is a Threat to Democracy ryandenos.substack.com/p/for-poster...

And just like that, we have a new contender.

If armed police picked you up on the street, would you be able to produce a birth certificate to prove where you were born? Not that it matters -- you don't need to be born in the US to be a citizen -- but for many of us, the production of a birth certificate is something we simply could not do.

Saddened to see this. Like many, I only had the briefest interactions with Raul, but they were invariably joyful. The world is a bit dimmer to lose these.