Bill Barr had the reporter who broke the Epstein story surveilled. Nothing to see here, folks.

anyone taught by wurman should ask the university of minnesota law school for a refund

This is slavery.

My concerns about crime among the most wealthy actually are about them as the perpetrators, not the victims.

An essential development over the past decade-plus is that the ignorant went from feeling chastened when their ignorance was revealed to banding together and deciding that, actually, they were right. They might disagree at times, but they agreed that ignorance itself was an indicator of trust.

👇👇👇

“The U.S. government just banned five people from entering the country because it doesn’t like their speech. This ban, according to the State Department, is necessary to protect free speech. If that sounds insane to you, congratulations on your reading comprehension.” Via @mmasnick.bsky.social

Denmark lost more troops per capita in the post 9/11 war on Afghanistan. Saying they “are not a good ally” because they won’t surrender their territories to the US is lunacy. We are betraying our allies to satisfy the whims of a would-be Emperor for whom the US is not enough.

really cannot be emphasized enough that bari weiss has literally never done journalism. i don’t mean that in the pejorative sense. i mean that in the “has never performed the job she was hired to do” sense

I’ve heard both for far too long — I moved to Los Angeles from New York in 1994 to become a full-time film critic for the LA Weekly (R.I.P.), and I’ve lived here ever since. I always assume that most NY media BS about Los Angeles is a result of ignorance, tight deadlines and pure jealousy.

Good morning

Can someone please respond to Stephen Miller with this message from Frank Sinatra?

A smarter model for paying for college: income-based repayment. You start paying your student loans only once you earn enough to comfortably get by. That turns higher ed debt into something more like a tax surcharge on success, not a choke collar on people who are struggling.

Dean Martin, born Dino Paul Crocetti, son of Italian immigrant Gaetano Crocetti Frank Sinatra, son of Italian immigrants Antonino Sinatra and Natalina Garavanta Merry Christmas to everyone except Stephen Miller and his enablers and handlers

Can't wait for the loosened up, non-perfect, but quickly shipped AI-enhanced updates to hit my banking and insurance services next year. Im sure there will be no issues there at all.

This is John Roberts' America.

Incredibly relevant for our times. I was stunned by how politically charged the film was on rewatching last night.

Tesla doesn't recongise Trade Unions. Apple doesn't recognise unions. Amazon is anti-union. McDonald's is anti-union. Starbucks is anti-union. Google is anti-union. Walmart is anti-union. The big corporations are not on your side.

I’ve heard most journalists and politicians say that Trump hasn’t been directly accused of wrongdoing or implicated in the Epstein Files. But, there are repeated instances of Trump being directly named as a perpetrator—by victims and by Epstein. It’s not circumstantial, it’s direct.

Nu de VS tegen prominente Europeanen sancties afkondigen, gaan beschuldigingen van censuur en intimidatie heen en weer www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

“The impossible attracts me because everything possible has been done and the world didn’t change.” “Sun Ra: Do the Impossible,” is a new documentary on Alabama jazz icon Sun Ra premiering on PBS series ‘American Masters’ Feb. 20 Photo by Baron Wolman

Imagine interviewing a victim of torture and independently confirming the details of his torture and then being told you can’t broadcast it because the people who ordered the torture wouldn’t give their side of the story.

Madness

And here’s the kicker, as Stephannie Stokes (who wrote this story) reported in a follow-up piece: After taking their kids away, Georgia often bills parents for the cost of foster care. One mother was charged nearly $13,000, with interest, and threatened with jail when she couldn’t pay.

Since the Internet Archive has popped back into relevance tonight, just an FYI: It's one of a handful of tech nonprofits that have low-key become super important *in general* over the years, and perhaps especially this year.

In which we learn that the US attorneys office concluded that Trump traveled on Air Epstein regularly without appearing in he passenger manifest.

In general, with any generative systems, if they’re suggesting humans providing input for the machine to make the final output, vs machines providing options for the human to make the final output, then you should be deeply skeptical. Not “human in the loop”, but “fluent human as authority”.

jesus

CBS didn't run the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT, but over here at @propublica.org we've been working on the story since March, including finding out who each and every man sent to that maximum security prison was. You can see our reporting here: www.propublica.org/series/depor...

The right wing oligarchs are consolidating control of all media and the left barely wants to put money in a single newspaper/news site.

it really is something that no one affiliated or allied with trump seems to have any sense of how to use power with subtlety and finesse.

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

It basically impossible for me to accept that they honestly decided it “needed more reporting” literally 2 hours before it was set to air. The only thing that makes any sense is interference from ownership/management.

This is the worst case scenario that everybody was worried about

"If I'm sounding more worried to you than I've sounded in months, it's because I am."

the main reward you are likely to get for total loyalty to trump is the destruction of your career and your reputation www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/n...

Yes, it’s illegal. Like changing it to Department of War, like ten thousand other things. Part of the Trump strategy is to break the law and convey “the rule of law is weak and feminine and laughable and should be overridden by Our Guy.” Trump is fundamentally anti-law. /1

Maria Shriver, niece of JFK: He was a man interested in the arts, culture, education, language, history... It is beyond comprehension that the president has sought to rename this great memorial. C’mon my fellow Americans! Wake up! This is not dignified. This is not funny... It’s downright weird.

The Kennedys hosted Ella Fitzgerald, Pablo Casals, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein at the White House. Donald Trump hosted Kid Rock.

One small way to try to re-establish social trust would be to transparently disclose *in this very column* that you hung out with Jeffrey Epstein. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/o...

Carr is destroying everything from broadband consumer protections and media consolidation, to oversight of prison telecom monopolies and robocallers. Just blanket, mindless deregulation dressed up as efficiency. there's like two people in the press (I'm one) who even cover it. Like, at all.

The Onion, 23 years ago. theonion.com/no-blood-for...

This is extremely important

Couldn't agree more. All of these proposals are constitutional, reasonable, and vital. (1/2)

This is a textbook case of political asylum.

Please get vaccinated. This doesn’t have to happen. But it will happen more, and with more fatalities as long as RFK Jr and his anti-science enablers continue to spread disinformation. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

ah yes, all workers should have the right to hurl racial slurs at black customers

they can generally hint at inflation, or tariffs, but the fact that consolidated corporate lobbying influence has hollowed out consumer protection like a fucking pumpkin NEVER enters into the conversation at ANY of these major outlets. Ever. it's utterly surreal.

25 years ago today, SCOTUS elected George W Bush president of the United States by blocking completion of a voting canvass in Florida. A subsequent canvass by the Associated Press showed that Bush's rival, Al Gore, had won the race in Florida—and thus the contest for the presidency—by 700 votes.