The guy who put a 19 year old named Big Balls in charge of gutting key government services: “experience matters when lives are at stake”

Stranger Things season 6

Every so often I remember that Ronald Coase co-authored a good book at 100 years of age (and as far as I know did not just fob it off on his co-author). What a legend

So who’s winning?

If you want to get me a gift, subscribe to my new YouTube channel! One more to 1k subs! Latest video here: youtu.be/GvCmeuJyT9g?...

This, by @anamariecox.bsky.social on the OU essay, is very, very good. youtu.be/GvCmeuJyT9g?...

Given Ed Dept asks they are clearly looking for paperwork violations they can hit Brown for, not real safety issues, eg full audit trails of every underage drinking disciplinary case the last five years. The 1990 Clery Act theoretically imposes huge fines for recordkeeping lapses

Did I get stuff wrong about 2025? Boy, did I! open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...

This is perfect. The DOJ's embarrassing snafu with disappearing redactions was the fault of Elon Musk. Musk cancelled government subscriptions to Adobe programs that would have made the redactions permanent. What a pack of fools.

Before the new year begins, our columnists weigh in on how the Trump administration’s foreign policy of upheaval will continue to reverberate across the globe. Read predictions from @dandrezner.bsky.social, @rikefranke.bsky.social, @bloggingsbyboz.bsky.social & @profpaulpoast.bsky.social here:

I want to go to there.

Zosia and Carol Sturka At Tanagra

<— Honored to have been a guest on @gideonrachman.bsky.social’s last FT podcast of 2025, also featuring @leslievinjamuri.bsky.social and @jamescrabtree.bsky.social. www.ft.com/content/1e62...

Conservative political correctness is out of control.

The biggest lie the devil ever told was "This DVD is enhanced with Disney's FastPlay. Your movie and a selection of bonus features will begin automatically."

Two stories side by side in WashPost

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas

When I lecture on Frankenstein (the novel) in my politics of pop culture course I compare him to an incel. Film is definitely pulling on (and magnifying to extremes) a tendency in the text. Here's how he justifies his first murder:

Some thoughts on bio-hacking in Frankenstein… and Silicon Valley. open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...

In thinking about what you can do this year, keep this in mind: showing up at protests has real impact - - www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Christmas morning

You don’t even need to be one of the world’s foremost experts! shows.acast.com/spacethenati...

No doubt, the highlight of the 4th quarter was when KAT and Jalen Brunson broke out into a duet of “Uptown Girl.”

The blatant selling of pardons is perhaps the clearest instance of criminal conduct authorized by SCOTUS. Pardons are a quintessential "official act." So, even when Trump takes a bribe to issue one, he is presumably above the criminal law.

My Christmas gift for those of you on this site Christmas morning is this scorching-hot take after watching DIE HARD for the first time in a while last night: Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson gets a bum rap.

An unnoticed SISSY SPACEK - 76 Candles🎂 today - in front of a cinema showing CARRIE in 1976.

Happy holidays to everyone who's in solitude today. You get to decide what this post-solstice 24 hours is like! You could mourn or reflect, give gratitude or binge-watch, join your chosen family or cozy up with your animals. You may not be surrounded by people, but a lot of us are in the same place.

Kash making a run at Angleton's crown for most destructive person in the history of US intelligence

Recreating this legendary Peanuts scene. Yeah hoe!

Here's a particularly juicy nugget I found in my reporting . . .

NORAD Santa tracker is Woke

<— forgot there was a 60 Minutes reference in DIE HARD.

Obligatory youtu.be/BGzO1ghRKp4?...

Now, when the Gentiles are at their most vulnerable, is the time to strike at the hea-- I mean, Merry Christmas to one and all!

How bad was this? The White House asked Bari Weiss to spike the show in order to drum up interest

Wow, appears Machado and Lee quoted a subhead listing a myth that Roth was *denying* in an article, as if Roth had actually stated it as a true fact rather than a falsehood he was refuting! That's... not good for a scholarly book

Hamlet: and I, Hamlet, vow to honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and ... Ghost: wait ... did you say Hamlet? Hamlet: yes? Ghost: not Scrooge? Hamlet: ... no? Ghost (scrolling increasingly desperately through Google calendar) oh shiii..

At best, Bari Weiss is unserious and unschooled about her job. At worst she’s ham-handedly trying to help appease Trump in the interest of promoting her boss’ business empire. (via @dandrezner.bsky.social) danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-amateu...

This CBS News story about another fatal boat strike in the Pacific has some vague reference to Democratic pushback — but no actual quotes from anyone opposed to the administration. And you have to wonder, how in the world did that get past their editor in chief. www.cbsnews.com/news/us-mili...

Just gonna leave this here: open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...

“.. We need to get better at treating this like a business,” ICE acting director Todd M. Lyons said .. as efficiently as Amazon moves packages: “Like Prime, but with human beings.” @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

I'm keeping this going for the next two days, y'all.

Another example of why "just unsubscribe from the Post" is not always the most helpful frame for how to respond to the enshittification of legacy media. Support indie journalism, for sure. But this stuff is valuable and *expensive.* I don't want to abandon the people that do this work.

Now that Bari Weiss pulled a segment telling the truth about Trump's deportations to let Stephen Miller have his say (i.e. spread propaganda), it's a good time to check out our deep dive into Miller's real worldview and agenda, which doesn't pull any punches: newrepublic.com/article/2041...

"There is no obvious demand for a news network that is not overtly right wing but also seeks to curry favor with Trump." nymag.com/intelligence...

Tariffs aren’t complicated, but refunding them is complicated. Tariffs don’t raise prices, but removing them lowers prices. 🤡

"The tariffs are so complicated that even the government agency tasked with enforcing them can't accurately describe what they are." 🤣😢 reason.com/2025/12/23/t...

Yeah, coming from anyone else, this would just be an amateurish and reflexive “let’s make sure we quote the other side.” But we also know Weiss’s history of not bothering to reach out for comment when she absolutely should have.