As it happens, I have experience with high-level government demands to stop an explosive, accurate story from running, and I also have experience with 60 Minutes spiking a story I was involved in, so I have thoughts about the travesty at CBS. If you want some journalism anecdotes, here are a lot:

Elon Musk promised a lot of things by 2025 - colonists arriving on Mars - xAI achieving AGI - Tesla robotaxis serving half the U.S. - completely driverless robotaxis - a Tesla Roadster demo - DOGE cutting trillions none of them happened mashable.com/article/elon-mus...

Today’s the last day to sign up for this and get the discount!

The reason this Harvard history professor decided he was done with one of the best and most privileged jobs in the world was, in his own words, because he was forced to lecture in a mask during peak Covid. I’m not making this up.

They are losing it lol

It's stuff like this that makes it so amazing whenever somebody yells at Pete Hegseth or whoever in a restaurant and the entire news media superstructure spends 10 days fretting over civility and comity.

I’m not gonna dunk on some small depressed account, but one reply I get to this is “you think there’s gonna be elections/Trump will listen to judges??” And I wonder how people haven’t noticed that Garcia is home and free and Republicans got crushed in elections this year

Anytime these guys show up a daycare center, the managers should immediately start filming and tell them to stop behaving like pedophiles and trying to access children without their parents’ permission. Publish their photos and names

Today in media news

The mail is a public mass communication service ie essential to democracy

Random reminder that Jim O'Neill (guy on the left) worked directly for Peter Thiel for nearly two decades until joining this administration.

Men doing this whole “I will vanquish continents for my children” LARP is so goofy in the context of household surveys. It’s nice you’ll kill millions for your daughter, maybe we can start at doing a load of laundry for your wife who does the vast majority of household labor?

Daycare centers were also the primary target of the Satanic panic, because fundamentally American religious conservatism is opposed to women having jobs outside the home.

It rocks because a) it was his not Kamala’s campaign promise that the Files would be released, b) he is mad that this is biting him in the ass in a way that among other things diverts resources from his election rigging schemes, and c) he repeatedly said that his “friends” are the ones in the Files

Trumpers have a howling void of angry insecurity where a soul should be. Unchecked power tastes like ashes in their mouth because they thought when they got it everyone would be forced to like and admire them even though they’re irredeemable assholes. But people still treat them like assholes.

This is going to catch me flack: it's what people who don't know what good writing is think is good writing, and without understanding what makes writing good.

It is impressive how really committed they are to ending civilization.

I must watch this now

As I said recently in The Guardian: "Despite their hopes to the contrary, anti-trans campaigners have not won the hearts and minds they believed the Supreme Court would give them" So they turn to this; desperate, fascistic calls for the destruction of those they hate (framed as ideas, not people).

There was a liberal court for a few years in the mid 20th century and the right wing response was to delegitimize for DECADES right up to the point they had a supermajority, at which point it became Wrong to do so. These people think you are stupid bsky.app/profile/chri...

There are people who still refuse to believe that Trump is a shallow mediocrity and every time they launch into some 3D chess explanation I think, how are you that naive?

“Over the long Christmas break, the president of the United States may have leaked classified information about a secret military operation targeting Venezuela, and did so while calling in to a New York radio show – hosted by a ‘Marty Supreme’ cast member – to brag…

Bill Barr had the reporter who broke the Epstein story surveilled. Nothing to see here, folks.

This is just comically racist:. There is something a bit “off” about Mamdani. Sorta like Obama.

Maybe 15 years ago I was in Western Massachusetts with a partner who wanted to check out the Norman Rockwell Museum. I only knew of Rockwell as 1950s kitsch and had low expectations. As it happened, we showed up while an exhibit on Rockwell's Civil Rights legacy was on display. Blew my mind.

[After two glasses of wine at every dinner party] Hey did you know comic books imposed self-censorship to avoid government intervention so for like thirty years Superman comics stopped being about punching bad guys and instead he’d be like IF I DON’T EAT ALL THESE PIES JIMMY WILL TURN INTO A CLOCK!

Stood in line behind Jon Stewart at a Duane Reade

this seems specifically designed to break mail-in voting (where deadlines are defined by postmark)

Lmao

Discount is only good for two more days!

We believe The Barbed Wire’s diversity, vulnerability, and tenacity defines us for the better. We’re one of many independent journalism outlets still telling wrenching, impactful stories — and we’re doing it with a roll of duct tape and some shoe string. thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/23/2...

Bernie Sanders: "We need to be thinking seriously about a moratorium on data centers. You gotta slow this process down. It's not good enough for the oligarchs to tell us 'you adapt.' Are they gonna guarantee healthcare to all people? What are they gonna do when there are no jobs? Make housing free?"

We’re in the part of holiday break where i don’t know what day it is, but there are only (holds up some fingers) THIS MANY days left to sign up and get the discount:

The "nobodies" doing "nothing" are the ELITES and most of the politicians representing you. PEOPLE in their communities are in motion, everywhere. You just have to pay attention and importantly you have to JOIN THEM.

🤷🏼

The Post was around 50% as deranged in its de Blasio coverage, but he didn’t come into office with the massive outside force that Mamdani is bringing. Gonna be a test of the paper’s influence; it beats him up every second but he’s got a posse saying “shut the fuck up.”

NYC’s soon to be First Lady. Just exquisite, can’t wait for Rama and Zohran to start working for New Yorkers. Scroll up and read the whole thread

Yes. One uses traditional fashion editorial (which is edited and corrected because it is considered art) and the other uses photojournalism (which is not because that’s verboten in journalism)—both to great effect

The right wing meltdown about the NY mag photo shoot is telling. She is not some elite richie rich but they complain about her that way because she is striking and beautiful in a way that cuts against the Mar a Lago aesthetic. But even more, those photos!

Insane NY Post column suggesting that the new First Lady who is sad about leaving her longtime neighbors in a not fancy NYC neighborhood is an ungrateful brown woman

We’re in the part of holiday break where i don’t know what day it is, but there are only (holds up some fingers) THIS MANY days left to sign up and get the discount:

Our government’s priorities are entirely backward. And purposefully so.

My first second impression reading this headline: wow, they raided the Cato Institute? Stephen Miller really running out of options

What a beautiful photo from last night’s snowfall. Photo credit: Adam Gray for The New York Times

I think we should get money out of politics entirely but the one nice thing about call time is that when the candidate can’t do it, it tells you they might not be good at asking for things on behalf of their constituents either. (Otherwise totally agree with Kasky)

It’s pretty wild that the most rabidly anti-immigrant administration in recent memory is comprised of a President married to an immigrant, a VP married to the daughter of immigrants, an assistant AG in charge of Civil Rights who’s an immigrant (Dhillon), & it was all funded by an immigrant (Musk).

Imagine watching Sinatra, son of Dolly & Antonini born in Genoa & Sicily, respectively, and Martin, son of Gaetano & Angela, born in Montesilvano, Italy & Ohio respectively, (Angela to parents born in Monasterolo, Italy), and crusading against the value of children of immigrants to the U.S.

Ok I know I said on the last ep of slate money that the insanely expensive thing I’d never buy for myself was a specific fancy pen but now I realize I was aiming too low. I would like this luxury padded room where I can read, drink a glass port that’s older than me, and scream into the void

Also, I'm offering a discount on my opinion writing workshop until December 31st (a sort of early bird special because early sign ups help me plan): www.elizabethspiers.com/workshops/