Today's Reliable Sources lead: Is the Washington Post cutting its way to irrelevance? cnn.it/4tpahb9

Big gap between the R reactions to this (we are fucked and won't win MN this year) and the reactions in my replies (Dems are trying to lose by nominating a gestapo enabler)

The popularity of brainrot Charlie Kirk/Jeffrey Epstein memes on TikTok etc have made me think hard about how much of the perceived shift right of young people was irony-poisoning. Not 100% of, but a lot of it. Dems were the Be Nice party, Trump was the Shitposts and Memes candidate.

Not a controversial take here but @radleybalko.bsky.social is a rock-solid, fearless reporter who has been covering these issues since George Bush was president. Great guest.

She’s running. youtu.be/SiV3xVkX-kg?...

Every time I think about what my university is doing (generally) with LLMs and “efficiency” and look at places like our subreddit or hear students in the halls I get so fucking angry at how they deserve better

If only...

For example the video yesterday of "ICE IS GASSING A DAY CARE RIGHT NOW!!" is the daycare right up the street from my house. I about shit my pants and raced out the door until I saw it was actually from Saturday. I already dealt with that daycare gassing, thank you. Please don't lie to me for likes

I cannot stress how completely bizarre & unheard of it is for the DNI to be personally present for a search warrant execution, never mind this one.

reviews of the new Charlie XCX mockumentary THE MOMENT are predictably polarized - ranging from "I don't care" to "I love it"

I think the key that unlocks Dan was his desire to share the things he loved with other people. Wouldn’t be the worst way to honor him if we make the effort to do that for the things we love, too. defector.com/dan-mcquade-...

Ilhan Omar: “He was saved by security”

In "A House of Dynamite," the worst movie I saw in 2025, President Idris Elba starts talking about a podcast he listens to moments before a nuclear missile levels Chicago and everyone in the theater laughed.

ICYMI, I wrote about this very thing www.thenewworld.co.uk/matt-muir-do...

9-9-6 was a Chinese term invented mostly to show how depressing and lifeless work culture was; watching softbrained AI guys adopt it as an ideal is ... well, entirely predictable

Dan had the only truly necessary trait for a writer and that's curiosity.

Ossoff: "This is a seismic event. This should have people across the country absolutely shook. This is a huge deal. This is an FBI raid on the Fulton County Elections office ... This is a shot across the bow at the midterm elections. He tried to steal power when he lost it in 2020."

Dan McQuade, 1983–2026: defector.com/dan-mcquade-...

So this is the task they assigned to keep her busy while they were cooking up a coup in Venezuela. Good times.

AJC has the warrant that was executed in Atlanta today. Here’s the listing of items being sought.

I found this and thought you all needed to see it

"A new film" is a funny tagline, but so is "twenty days to history" - the dramatic countdown to her becoming First Lady. She was already First Lady before!

I spoke to a woman at the protest in minneapolis and she explained she wanted to be there in part because "i was a kid when george floyd got killed" and i nearly dropped my recorder

Eight great reads (and one listen) about the miracle of Minneapolis: www.headsupnews.org/p/people-pow... includes @adamserwer.bsky.social @erikhane.bsky.social @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social @kerryhowley.bsky.social @mollycoleman.bsky.social @jamellebouie.net @pkrugman.bsky.social @brucespringsteen.net

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

btw I think this stinks. Most discourses rn are started by people reacting to screenshots of headlines or undated videos of people's comments being clipped. It would be better if they were reacting to more op-eds they disagree w! But NYT has dominated the Take Zone.

DSA more electorally successful now (Zohran), its ideological positioning less important (Zohran blowing off their resolutions when asked about them during campaign).

Sidebar: The changes at WaPo have made the NYT/WP opinion clout level even more lopsided. NYT Opinion can get a discourse cookin' every few days. WP doesn't; biggest impact I've seen recently was Brandon Johnson being asked to respond to their Chicago op-eds.

Related: One project of the Searchlight wing of the party is getting back to 2012 Obama positioning on immigration. Secure the border, pass a comprehensive bill. They feel (I don't disagree) that Boehner killing the House version of reform kept the issue for Trump while radicalizing imm groups.

Two Federal Agents Who Shot Alex Pretti Are Placed on Leave www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

It's once again time to trot out this research that shows Lexis and Westlaw still hallucinate case law 17% - 33% of the time. dho.stanford.edu/wp-content/u...

My New One at @slate.com on the 50th Anniversary of the Buckley v. Valeo Decision: “One Supreme Court Case Is Most Responsible for Our Oligarchy. It’s Not the One You Think.” slate.com/news-and-pol...

Bearish on the current AI-friendly leadership in DC doing anything about this, but there are surely ways to create penalties for this stuff, which can do reputational damage to real people. See also: Scammers spoofing celebrities w AI video to scam people.

Noticing thread in two RW reactions to MN events: the killing of Pretti, and Omar not flinching when she was sprayed by a crazy person. On Pretti, lotsa "well it wouldn't have happened to me bc I stay inside and obey law enforcement." On Omar, theorizing (inc by Trump) that she staged it.(1/2)

Bumpin' that youtu.be/neGKDx3C0z4?...

The strictly business-brained NFL exec who months ago foresaw the February 2026 vibes and then hired Bad Bunny

Two Democratic members of Congress attacked in three days. Maxwell Frost was assaulted on Saturday, Ilan Omar tonight.

Right. Letterboxd allows reviews for stuff that has been screened at festivals but not widely released. (I saw "Magellan" early, reviewed, no prob.) AFAIK the only people who've seen "Melania" are the throne-sniffers at the WH screening, bc it's not screened for critics.

I support Letterboxd here. Review-bombing something you haven't seen is lame. Plenty of ways to make fun of a movie you hate that don't involve giving it a fake score on a site people like to use for their real movie takes.

This is such a MAGA-era conservative thing. I'm already in like 3 public databases just for doing legal work right wing idiots don't like.

So basically it turns out that what doomed Rapa Nui was not the sort of resource drain / ecological devastation that took down the Maya (and which Diamond & co are only too eager to apply everywhere even without evidence), but simple colonialism

Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center Philip Glass Philip Glass Philip Glass Philip Glass Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center

You can chafe at people calling them the "secret police" or you can insist they stayed masked and anonymous while they take facial-rec photos of citizens. Can't do both

Been back and forth to Oregon for various races; my sense is that the "Dems let chaos reign" vibe peaked in 2021-22, Portland gov/electoral reform was a success, crime's way down, Gov. Kotek is much more competent and decisive than Gov. Brown was. GOP isn't flipping this seat in 2026

if bovino is out and conservatives are turning on noem then there is a real opportunity to demand that miller resign too.

Abolish DHS. If you can imagine a world before Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, you can imagine a world without the Department of Homeland Security. My latest at @startribune.com. (gift link)

Alex Vindman, he of the first impeachment trial, is running against Sen. Ashley Moody in Florida www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTXv...

BREAKING Greg Bovino has been removed as Border Patrol "commander at large" and will return to El Centro Calif, where he is expected to retire soon. A stunning turnaround after Pretti killing. Bovino's traveling blue city crackdown is over www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...