After federal troops forced a fugitive slave named Anthony Burns back into slavery in the 1850s, one Bostonian wrote, “we went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists.” The abuse of power radicalizes people. We are seeing that now.

I regret to inform you that the decision to invade Venezuela for It’s oil is actually most likely an example of ass-backwards state autonomy, rather than of state capture by the oil companies.

Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal warns ICE: "No law enforcement professional wears a mask... Those that come into our communities wearing a mask to commit crime... You getting arrested". "Fake wannabe law enforcement... The criminal in the WH will not be able to keep you from going to jail".

Again, absolutely consistent with decades of right wing politics: *they* have unlimited rights and freedoms, and when you oppose them in pretty much any way, you threaten them intolerably and they are fully justified in meeting that aggression by having the cops smash your face in.

Great article on the details and the politics by @lizafeatherstone.bsky.social jacobin.com/2026/01/mamd...

This reaction video is going to get a lot of use HT @jpforlou.bsky.social

Oof. Hats off to the guy who took the video. That took some onions.

The most chilling thing to read. “The bottom line is this: When a federal officer gives you instructions, you abide by them and then you get to keep your life,” Representative Wesley Hunt of Texas said on Newsmax." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/o...

Since last year, Trump admin planned what to do if ICE agents were accused of crimes (even murder): Protect them “no matter what." Trump laid out ways to retaliate: —Refuse to hand over an agent —Charge local officials with “obstructing" —Threaten to cut off more funding led by @swin24.bsky.social

I have a new piece up @slate.com, on the politics of Minneapolis's DA going after the ICE officer (now ID'd as Jonathan Ross) who killed Renee Good. She's been aggressive on police shooting in the past, residents are outraged at the killing, and she can charge even without a fed or local arrest.

Capitalism for developers and communism for landlords is, imo, simply the correct approach to housing policy.

lmao don’t vote for a fucking DHS budget at all!!!

Governor I was not familiar with your game

You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today. This could be you.

Cea Weaver is the real deal. Her presence in the Mamdani administration is a very good sign.

At the @status.news newsletter that I read daily, they're saying... "A chaotic on-air rollout, cringe social media posts, and MAGA-friendly editorial choices have turned Tony Dokoupil’s “CBS Evening News” debut into a source of embarrassment and growing alarm inside the network’s newsroom.

To loosely paraphrase Gandhi on colonial law, it is shitting on the word "law" to say that what Trump did to Venezuela is legal. It is established only by the naked sword, wielded arbitrarily over those who had no say its appointing its government.

I'm old enough to remember when Elon Musk said it was so easy to remove bots that any social platform that failed to do it was prima facie committing fraud

I have a new paper w Andrea Prat & Jake Spitz. We show that Republican appointed Supreme Court Justices vote in favor of the richer party by over 70% today, as compared to D’s at 30%. In the 1950s and both were at 50%. This strong trend may contribute to rising inequality. www.nber.org/papers/w34643

Nan Goldin made a 10 minute film about Gaza - entirely silent. Surprising, simple and effective as always with her. youtu.be/_PaLHriVbjw

America is rich and the UK is poor… True but this statistic shocked me… The average wealth per American adult is $620k but the median is only $124k! The average wealth per UK adult is $339k and the median is $176k. 🧵

Great article by @lizafeatherstone.bsky.social on Sarahana Shreshtha's extremely effective campaign to take power utility public in mid-Hudson Valley. And how straightforward & great it would be, there & everywhere else. jacobin.com/2025/12/huds...

Satisfying review profile by @davidklion.bsky.social https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/stephen-miller-hatemonger-biography

"tell me we didn't just fire a dozen $500,000 missiles at a $200 camel" "sir, no evidence of any camel present, sir!"

Samuel Stein looks at how New York City Hall is "booby-trapped to prevent progress on housing"—and how mayor-elect Mamdani and his allies can overcome the obstacles. jewishcurrents.org/zohran-mamda...

Great historical research from Zachary Foster palestinenexus.com/articles/ori...

🎄😂

Classical lute music (well, theorba) by Kapsberger. Fits the holiday season, very traditional but very new to most people youtu.be/MUL8lPZ9tM0

Surprisingly clear story by @ryanlcooper.com of how we got here & why what worked so well in the past can't possibly work now. Long for an article but really short for so smoothly packing in 80 years of history & engineering jacobin.com/2025/12/amer...

To survive a school shooting is traumatic enough but to then face a racist smear campaign that falsely accuses you of being the murderer is even worse. That, writes @jeetheer.bsky.social, was the fate of a queer Palestinian student at Brown University. https://bit.ly/3MO9hMK

I can see why Bari Weiss spiked it. You should watch it. The Oligarchy will spike this one soon, but just keep passing it around, downloading and uploading. Ironically this was the original point of the internet, distributed protection from deletion www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIm6...

The most impressive thing about Bari is her ability to violate ethical principles while indignantly claiming to defend them.

How We Live Now. h/t to @noahgarfinkel.bsky.social

Interesting piece by @972mag.com on the economic shocks of genocide and war on Israel www.972mag.com/israel-genoc...

Fun, full 15-min video by Spencer Snyder on why fast & free buses are totally doable youtu.be/P275SobdE-s

This is what happens when you allow the executive to have arbitrary power over "some" people: it instantaneously morphs into arbitrary power over EVERYONE, because one use of arbitrary power is to undermine the boundaries between status categories WE LEARNED THIS SHIT IN 1850, FOR FUCK'S SAKE

In response to the reappearance of MMT, I have, somewhat reluctantly, written up where the current crop of 'pop MMT' goes wrong. The short version: yes the central bank issues money; no this doesn't change anything. criticalfinance.org/2025/12/19/w...

“I am an aristocrat who would like a monarch who governs an absolutist state with a very competent bureaucracy that can be turned against my enemies but is at the same time highly susceptible to state capture by me and my allies, an alliance that will last forever so I really don’t need to worry.”

The idea that the problem is that we just haven’t GOTTEN TUFF!! on cartels is a fucking joke, it’s the attitude of an idiotic child who thinks the world is a video game. Mexico had a more or less explicit strategy of “just fucking kill them” for a number of years. Guess what? They didn’t disappear!

The Abundance movement often points to environmental groups as the obstacles to building. But who actually files the lawsuits blocking projects? It’s not environmental groups. It’s been lawyered-up HOAs protecting property values all along. Regulation by litigation is the problem.

There are cats who LOOK like Hitler, but there are no fascist cats. No cat will ever respect authority enough to go Nazi.

new today: for the first time in English, two brilliant essays by Natalia Ginzburg, "Universal Pity" and "The Jews," translated by Gini Alhadeff, with an introduction by Pankaj Mishra www.equator.org/articles/our...