“Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously…Those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers’ lives.” — Mayor Mamdani www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

“Donald Trump welcomed 2026 with a glitzy bash at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach where he auctioned off a freshly painted portrait of Jesus Christ for $2.75m and said his new year’s resolution was a wish for ‘peace on Earth.’” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

I’d like to think our FedEx guy was inspired by Donald Judd. (As you know, I love the proof-of-delivery photos.)

You mean Putin lied? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/u...

Meanwhile, at City Hall: “Mr. Adams also vetoed 19 City Council bills on Wednesday, ranging from legislation that would grant more licenses for street vendors to another that would provide the Civilian Complaint Review Board access to all the Police Department’s body camera video.”

“A major escalation to Mr. Trump’s attacks on the state came on Tuesday, when he used the first veto of his second term to kill a pipeline project to provide clean drinking water to the state’s eastern plains, a largely conservative area.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/u...

“A Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida has blocked release of Mr. Smith’s report on the Florida case. As a result, Mr. Smith declined to answer most questions about the documents probe, citing the ruling.” Trump really got his money’s worth with Aileen Cannon.

The NY Post has accused Mamdani of being the new deBlasio, but his approach to hiring reminds me more of Bloomberg. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/n...

Say what you will about the Times, but this is a thing of beauty. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

It is kind of wild that no big media outlet has busted open the story of who is making DHS' posts on X. Whoever that may be is certainly plugged into hardcore white supremacist internet propaganda with a harder edge. "Groyper" would be underselling it. This is Daily Stormer-tier sludge.

White is the new black.

“When’s the next nationwide protest?” You might be asking yourself. Here’s a big one that’s happening in less than a month! Jan 20th. Free America Walkout. Women’s March, 50501, & More. Be There.

The President of the United States incites pogroms against Black residents of Minnesota, and the violence begins.

They really detest knowledge, don’t they? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/c...

unvarnished gutter racism and Nazism from the president. a disgrace to our country.

So I’m reading Tatiana Schlossberg’s obit which mentions a number of the stories she wrote as a Times reporter, including one about a dead bear mysteriously discovered in Central Park…. www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/n...

This is Tatiana Schlossberg’s essay about her illness. It’s a very good one. I would hope that the New Yorker, in her memory, has taken it out from behind the paywall so that everyone can read it. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

“They raised serious questions about whether the Justice Department had misled Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., who is overseeing the case, by telling him that local prosecutors had acted alone in charging Mr. Abrego Garcia.” Short version: the DOJ lied to the judge. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/n...

You’ve got to wonder why there are 5.2 million pages in Epstein’s folder. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/u...

An epic investigation of Trump’s inability to end the Russian war on Ukraine (on day one or any day) It’s too early in the morning for me to read the whole thing, but you can… (gift link) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Does Homeland Security need a ballroom, too? www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

This is authoritarian rot in plain sight. A DOJ weaponized against “enemies” of a sitting president isn’t law enforcement — it’s vengeance. That’s how democracies die: not overnight, but when power decides dissent is a crime. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

I wrote this a year or two early. But the inexcusable badness of the OMNY card machines only underscores my respect for the design and thoughtfulness of the MetroCard machines. www.curbed.com/2022/08/good...

Like the scavenger hunt he ran during his campaign, Mamdani’s choice of swearing-in site indicates that he loves and appreciates this city like a lot of us do. It’s a very good place to start. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/n...

Seems superfluous. Hasn’t Idris Elba always been a knight? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/w...

“‘It’s a delicate period of time,’ Mr. Trump said, ‘It’s another thing to attack his house.’ He suggested that he had blocked the sale of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine to prevent just this kind of attack…” Hard to be both a puppet and a good faith arbitrator.

“It is financially devastating but morally exhilarating,” said Doug Varone, leader of a dance troupe that canceled upcoming performances at the renamed Kennedy Center. Don’t you wish all those tech and media CEOs thought the same way? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/a...

“The strike was on a dock where U.S. officials believe Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, was storing narcotics and potentially preparing to move the drugs onto boats, the people said.” Great. A revival of CIA strikes on Latin American nations…. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/u...

“Venezuela plays a smaller role in the global drug trade than other countries in the region. In private, Trump administration officials say their main goal is to drive Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, from power.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/w...

“The assortment of singed flotsam appears to be the first physical evidence of the U.S. campaign, which has destroyed 29 vessels and killed more than 100 people in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.” Over 100 extra-judicial killings, aka murder. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/w...

“The ultra-luxury Billionaires’ Row tower at 220 Central Park South…is being sued by its next-door neighbor, Gainsborough Studios, for damage caused by years of heavy-duty construction.” The developer, Vornado Realty Trust, is refusing to honor its agreement to pay for the damage. Shock! Shock!

Sad, but true. The GOP and Trump are one.

This is either a very good time or a very bad time to watch (or rewatch) The Parallax View…

Reminiscent of Malaysia’s Putrajaya, completed 20 years ago. No mention of it, however. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/w...

Which facility? No one is saying. What kind of facility? Who knows? Did it actually happen? Maybe. Is he just making shit up? Anyone’s guess. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/u...

“‘It’s possible it doesn’t happen,’ Mr. Trump said of a peace deal. ‘In a few weeks, we’ll know one way or another.’” — The Art of Kicking the Can Down the Road by Donald J. Trump (with Vladimir V. Putin). www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/u...

1. The cover photo of Diane Keaton (1975) by Norman Seeff is so lovely. 2. The Lives They Lived is the only issue of the Sunday Mag I read cover to cover. It’s about lives that were interesting rather than subjects perceived as important. Death short circuits the stultifying editorial machine.

P.S. I noticed this story because Virginia Gardiner, part of the OG Dwell editorial team, later started a company, LooWatt, that specializes in waterless toilets which also provide fuel for generators. And they do a lot of work in Madagascar. loowatt.mg

One of the projects orphaned when Trump killed USAID was supplying low cost toilets to countries without much plumbing. Toilets are not just a convenience. They prevent the spread of disease. (gift link) wapo.st/49vjHcU

Interesting research suggests that wolves play a role in reducing car/deer collisions, and not just because they help reduce deer populations. Wolves seem to prefer the convenience of trails and pathways cleared by humans, which causes deer to avoid those same thoroughfares. (gift link)

Newly discovered recordings show how far Donald Trump went to attempt overturning the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. Trump told the Speaker he could call the session “for transparency, and to uncover fraud,” adding, “Who’s gonna stop you for that?” trib.al/uicRmnz

Yes, money is changing hands. A lot of money. And Trump limits empathy —to the extent that he is capable of it —to the criminally corrupt, aka “the victims of ‘witch hunts.’”

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.

This spokesperson is confusing the role of artists with that of civil servants. Of course, under Trump, civil servants *don’t* perform for all people so, I guess, someone has to.

Instead of, say, figuring out how the shooter procured his weapons and doing something about that?

I had missed this. Perverse even by the standards of the Trump White House. They’re threatening to pull student aid from Brown over the shooting www.nbcboston.com/news/local/t...

That would be *architecture* critic.

Good that the Times is covering the plan to tear down the landmark I.M. Pei designed city hall. A shame they didn’t quote one of the plan’s most incisive opponents, Mark Lamster, architect critic of the Dallas Morning News. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/27/u...

“Three Republican senators joined five of their Democratic colleagues in issuing a statement on Thursday that described Mr. Putin as a ‘ruthless murderer who has no interest in peace’ and who ‘cannot be trusted.’” That would be 3 out of 53.