Open borders create more safety than closed ones, and most of the benefits of safety are downriver from being the sort of people who keep their borders open, thereby avoiding the terrible dangers inherent to being the sort of people who would keep their borders closed.

I'm always struck by how this is framed as the responsibility of other American Jews, and not of Israel to change its policies dramatically.

Wesleyan University President Michael Roth, a leader in organizing college presidents, has proposed Democracy Summer 2026, evoking the heroic Freedom Summer of 1964 that aimed to advance voting rights in Mississippi, now employed to safeguard the midterm elections. From Bob Kuttner:

Jesse Jackson's 1988 letter to the "Deaf President Now" protesters at Gallaudet University. "The problem is not that the students do not hear. The problem is that the hearing world does not listen." gallaudet.edu/museum/histo...

in 2023 when I was organizing parents against our archbishop’s transphobic new school guidelines, one dad asked how loud I thought it was prudent for us to be, given how punitive the Archbishop is. I was like “loud enough that all the trans/nb kids at your parish see it” and he was like “…. oh”

I'm back from a week of vacation with a report on the next wave of the Defiance: The Singing Resistance. It's easy to join; it's addictive once you do it; and it converts rage into loving action. Link below: open.substack.com/pub/theconne...

Look, I'm going to be very clear as someone who does interviews every once in a blue moon. Putting people's "ums" in a quote is malicious.

I’m pretty sure this is the ??? quest in Majora’s Mask…

douglas adams was our most accurate futurist

Oh, you want these romances, you say? Congrats, they exist! Historical bicycle riders: A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell Victorian werewolves: Soulless by Gail Carriger Queer dragon shifters: Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha (aka the horny dragon book) Hockey historical: Puck and Prejudice by Lia Riley

But again, what this shows is Indivisible’s problem isn’t with any PAC, certainly not any Jewish PAC, but with AIPAC (and other groups) specifically due to specific choices they’ve made (to help fund fascism). They’re not being “singled out” at all, and their sin has nothing to do with being Jewish.

If you want to fight fascism, you must practice disability justice. If you’re claiming to be on the left but believe disabled people are “expendable”, you’re aligning with fascists. If you are against tyranny but refer to people like me as “a drain”, you’re carrying water for the Nazis.

For me this is very simple. There is widespread, longstanding practice of using "Zionists" as coded slur for Jews, or "Jews I don't like" (regardless how they define themselves). That is sufficient reason to refrain from broad-brush language such as "Zionism=Racism" or "Zionists not welcome".

At literally no point in this headline was it possible to predict the next word, 10/10 work

The Pride flag at the Stonewall Monument is re-raised! New Yorkers won’t let Donald Trump erase LGBTQ+ history, or trample the rights of our LGBTQ+ neighbors.

Anyone who had genuine concerns about youth gender medicine would staunchly and wholeheartedly support social transition. Let kids explore their identities to see what works for them! The fact that this movement opposes even pronouns and haircuts shows that it's just bigotry all the way down.

Again, amazing financial reporting out of the WSJ. It should also be filed among a necessary class of stories, something like: “Extremely rich, tech savvy Americans fall for obvious frauds all the time, it’s not just for the elderly or people who don’t do computer good.”

The thing about ebooks as a substitute is that it ignores two major needs of teen readers: autonomy (the ability to get a book without going through parents) and community (the ability to pass a book around to all their friends.)

"Any serious push to account for the actions of this government — to abolish the president’s private army, restructure immigration enforcement and punish anyone responsible for wrongdoing — must include recompense and repair for its victims." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o...

This sends a chill across all new vaccines. Companies will not put billions into developing and bringing a new vaccine to market, when the world’s largest market can’t buy them

Accessibility isn’t optional. The decision by the United Nations to cut sign language interpretation for the next disability rights committee session undermines anti-discrimination obligations.

Columbia will never be free of this stain.

"Since launch, more than a dog a day has been found and more than 27 dogs a day every day every year have been shot by the police using your Search Party by Ring cameras to hunt and kidnap your neighbors who they also shoot to the tune of about 4 a day every day every year, as well as the dogs."

Incantation bowls really ARE super bowls

"The work is the medium by which we learn" YES.

Hoping for a world where more people try to be a Kermit…

"the humanities, designed to make people of all backgrounds and wherever located masters of their technology and not its unthinking servants." 1965!!!

Repeatedly elevating the same center-right, middle-aged voices as arbiters of ‘what Jews need’ risks missing the very people who are the Jewish future. open.substack.com/pub/rabbisan...

This is the strangers' case / and this your mountainish inhumanity

My “why is the Beit Midrash always freezing!?” sweater has now reached vesthood. All it needs are sleeves and the front band and then it will be done! Bets on whether that will happen before or after the last grey snow mountain in the city melts?

“When we can’t see people like us, our imagination shrinks. It becomes harder to dream.”

If you tuned in to #BlackandJewishAmerica #InterwovenHistoryPBS, thanks so much! If youre interested in more, keep your eyes peeled for The Souls of Black Jewish Folk next week, or check out a historic first: www.oheleidotchemdata.org. Our first services are on Feb 27-28, Parashat Tetzaveh!

The behavior of our big beautiful billionaires over the past several decades is psychologically what I can only describe as "Crying out for consequences." They can't stop themselves and deep down they need to be stopped. They need it as much as we do

“But what do you want Democrats to do….” I don’t know stuff like this?

Not pictured: Haruki Murakami’s wife, or indeed whoever is cooking, cleaning, paying bills, running errands, doing the laundry, answering emails, etc like yea his routine is goals, but let’s not lie to ourselves about all the invisible work others are doing to enable him to have that routine

GELATINOUS CUBE AT A JOB INTERVIEWE "A keye feature of my managemente style ys a commitment to transparencye"

This also speaks to my argument re: rich guys and newspapers: they think their business side hires are smart and they're just hobbled by the actual journalists, who are idiots.

This part of our response essay is where I'm at. Boiling down all of politics to electoralism has been absolutely terrible for resisting rising authoritarianism. www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...

TIL that this meme is an ancient Sumerian proverb. "The dog understands 'take it'. The dog does not understand 'put it back'."

A lot of the people had never been tear gassed before. I talked to someone in the center of the cloud who had never been gassed and had only been to big protests like No Kings. She said the march had felt like the exact same vibe, right up until she was gassed for the first time in her life.

yeah seeing the "Minneapolis took off because the so-called 'activists' got out of the way and let normal people in" takes is really frustrating. that's not at all an accurate look at what's happening in Mpls or anywhere else. All these movements rely on cores of people who have experience.

Inspiring things are happening in New York City, goddamn

I am so happy that Liam is home!!! @comixaction.com put out the call and @ethansacks.bsky.social gave me inspiration and the words — a good community is everything 💫 #Comics4Liam / comics4liam.com FREE ALL THE CHILDREN caged in these horrifying detention centers… ABOLISH ICE!

what’s astounding about this is not only the incredible cruelty but the complete lack of even the most basic public relations instincts they kidnap a five year old and generate national outrage and rather than do some basic window dressing to treat him nice while abusing everyone else they do this

As far as I know, Tom Suozzi here still does not have a primary challenger in his district (NY-3 on Long Island). The filing deadline is April 6 for the primary on June 23, and if there's a remotely progressive town council member or PTA president in that district, this is the time to make a move.

It's a nationwide digital spotlight on ICE arrests and detention centers.