CBS News commenters in the Epstein files who have refused to work with me because I'm too "ideological": 1. Admittedly just 1, but still.

Time for Trump punish Amazon after all for failed marketing and distribution, and gross Brett Ratner for hammering home that she doesn't sleep with him www.thedailybeast.com/why-even-don...

Huge turnout for NYC Ride for Unity Alex Pretti memorial #IceOut

On never forgiving MAGA and ICE. For ourselves. But for them too. open.substack.com/pub/virginia...

On The Daily Blast, @gregsargent.bsky.social talks to @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social about why Noem’s standing will likely keep declining and how ordinary people have taken charge of this story in a manner Trumpworld cannot fathom. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Minneapolis is a "standing reprove to the idea that no one is virtuous or that no one cares about democracy," says @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social. "It looks American." On the pod, Heffernan is so good on the power of ordinary people and the hollowness of MAGA: newrepublic.com/article/2058...

There are 2.7 million people in Brooklyn and they haven’t sold ANY tickets for MELANIA at the downtown Brooklyn Alamo on opening weekend. 🤣 🤡

Beyond the biology, there is a core philosophical dilemma at work here, the "problem of other minds." We don't have access to other people's thoughts, and so it's easy to think their desires aren't justified. This has political implications as @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social and I discussed:

So we're in a tinderbox. How're you holding up? Me @newrepublic.com

How should Americans respond right now when we don't know what we're in the midst of? EM Forster called this "The 1939 State"—and now we're in the 2026 version. open.substack.com/pub/virginia...

I'm attending Hands Off NYC's event, “Solidarity with Minneapolis, ICE Out for Good!” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve...

It doesn't matter whether removal under the 25th Amendment is merited (it is) or whether anyone in the Cabinet will act on principle (they won't). It matters who if anyone is up for some real Wolf Hall shit

#Antifa #AntiFascists 👍 After Renee Good’s Murder, Wine-Mom Gangs Are Now the New Antifa @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2054... via @newrepublic.com

The wine moms are enraged. After Renee Good’s Murder, Wine-Mom Gangs Are Now the New Antifa newrepublic.com/article/2054... via @newrepublic.com

The Epstein files offer the best explanation of how we got here. open.substack.com/pub/virginia...

As @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social and I recently discussed, this is the problem of other minds. Because cognition is done through hidden states and language is an only a very partial extrusion of thought, we can't know for sure that other minds are as real as ours.

@virginiaheffernan.bsky.social, as is her wont, wrote the end-all be-all of articles about modern chip manufacturing last year. It's mind-breaking, in a good way. If China wars on Taiwan, we're all screwed. www.wired.com/story/i-saw-...

The reason the boomer pussyhats were right is that they included the people whose pussies were grabbed, including @ejeancarroll.bsky.social TDS was nothing but clarity

Another great discussion- @matthew.flux.community and @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social looking at the roots [ed: corrected from "rots"] roots of conservatism/liberalism from psychological, cognitive, religious, philosophical lenses. I'll of course plug my most recent flogging below.

Mamdani and Sam Levine are already making NYC better for all New Yorkers. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has issued new tipping laws to keep Uber and DoorDash from using interface tricks to deprive workers of $550M. nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/01/13/d...

1939 Italian prediction markets were gamified in the newspapers. Trying my hand at a 2026 version. Better than Wordle!

Amid the deafening propaganda in the US right now, please take notes in an actual notebook. The 1939 diary of an antifascist can show you how. open.substack.com/pub/virginia...

The ruling-class men who think in e-genics now command ICE. They're openly crushing women, children, and undesirables. In the Epstein files, you can see how the groundwork was laid.

We are not divided. A majority of adults oppose Trump’s attack on Venezuela. A majority think ICE has gone too far. A majority disapproves of the president.

“The major takeaway should never stop shocking us. America’s corporate elite have spent the last five decades living like feudal lords, convinced they were entitled to exploit the masses and molest women and children with abandon.” @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social

My dad at the end of his life decided "$1000 is a nickel to me." He tried to buy $550,000 of antique chairs. He also planned a $500,000 party where Dizzy Gillespie was gonna play. I'm really glad my senile dad was not an evil person & did not have nuclear codes. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/u...

Whatever wag-the-dog distraction Bondi tries to stage with the Maduri show trial, the Epstein files are still coming. What they're showing so far: 5 decades of an extractive overclass.

I'm attending Indivisible Brooklyn's event, “No War, No Kings March and Rally” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/indivisiblen...

Remembering the terror and trauma on this day five years ago, with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Jamie Raskin, who were there. No paywall. Well, This Is About to Go Down open.substack.com/pub/virginia...

To a year of freer consciences and more pluralism. Here's the piece on William Penn (that Google didn't want you to see): virginiaheffernan.substack.com/p/tolerating...

This was palpably chilling. Searching Google for the complete text of William Penn's treatise on religious tolerance, I got nothing but the American Heritage Education Foundation. Two pages of nearly identical returns, then nothing. Looked like this. Tried an incognito window, same. Bing is OK.

My son gave me A Chill in the Air, Iris Origo's Italian war diary, 1939-1940. It's an antifa document in retrospect, but in the foreground it's just a diary. We need books like this now. I hope diaries are not extinct & not every observation or voice of anguish is being spent on Bluesky or TikTok.

Will never forget the day that both the New York Times and the Washington Post saw a catastrophic war crime and said, huh, seems like a pretty good idea

After decades of imperialism by other names we seem to have settled on imperialism by the name imperialism

Early aptitude. Is that what they call it now. Google's AI is like reading the Epoch Times or Pravda these days.

I really like traditional New Year’s resolutions. This year mine is simple: to cultivate belief in other minds. The way to do this is by (1) meeting people (2) reading. open.substack.com/pub/virginia...

Dead: economics Ahead: philosophy virginiaheffernan.substack.com/p/can-you-re...

Love that @longlead.com

First in a short series on empathy, which is both too much and too little to ask of humans. open.substack.com/pub/virginia...

""And you cannot separate the Old Testament from the New Testament. You cannot. You cannot.” OK, so Erika Kirk doesn’t hate Jews. She just wants to turn them into Christians." - @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social Merry Christmas, chaverim. newrepublic.com/article/2046...

Watch Torture Video Bari Weiss Doesn't Want You to See — and get some news about our podcast. virginiaheffernan.substack.com/p/the-tortur...

Killing the CECOT story multiplied its potency. 60 Minutes has exposed Trump's cruelty for years but no other segment that has gotten this kind of attention. The 7 in 10 Americans who already oppose ICE should expect company. Well done, Ms. Weiss. www.muellershewrote.com/p/watch-the-...

The American people don't like ICE. And they don't like CBS News under Bari Weiss. open.substack.com/pub/virginia...

Ask high school pals abt CBS if you’re home for the holidays. WaPo lost public trust last year & CBS has now. People vote with their ratings; the Weiss-Kirk town hall lost 40 percent of younger viewers for the timeslot. CECOT wd have been a ratings win but they don’t care about viewers anymore

So whose obituary is in the balance? Clinton, Summers, Brooks, Chomsky - whose obit will have it in paragraph 5 (“marred by scandal”), whose in line one, like it’ll be for Maxwell? Does it matter if Brooks lives for decades & we’re talking the Times obit only? Obituary bookmakers please advise

There’s something despair-inducing about a former professor of mine (& Larry Summers’s wife) being asked to get Epstein yet another copy of Lolita and saying oh hey check out Willa Cather if you’re looking for literary novels

The Times should not pretend to be surprised by David Brooks’s proximity to Epstein & the edgelords Epstein sponsored. Brooks was one of them. I originally published this in Wired in 6 years ago.

On that Vanity Fair masterpiece. open.substack.com/pub/virginia...

"OK, so Erika Kirk doesn’t hate Jews. She just wants to turn them into Christians." newrepublic.com/article/2046... Fascinating piece by @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social

New @vanityfair.com piece has singlehandedly reminded the young why expensive feature journalism in glossy magazines exists. And the simmering subtle grotesquerie of the photos reminds us why they’re glossy. Congrats to Chris Whipple, Christopher Anderson, Guiducci, all involved.