Great read and interview. Read the newsletter in between downs during the Bears game. It’s a feature of the 11 minutes of game time, not a bug.

Looks like @timmiller.bsky.social found the Great Minnesota American and he sat down for an interview for a @thebulwark.com exclusive. youtu.be/d83vDDlqM_Y?...

Twitter is down so what else have you got going on?

Welcome to all the people dusting off their Bluesky account because Twitter is down right now.

Zero impact on referral traffic is being affected by this outage.

I'm loving this new attitude, Ted! Lean into it! Be the king of theatrical!

"We will run that business largely like it is today, with 45-day windows. I’m giving you a hard number. If we’re going to be in the theatrical business, and we are, we’re competitive people — we want to win. I want to win opening weekend. I want to win box office." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/b...

Real treat this week as I got to talk to Chuck Klosterman about his new book, Football, on The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood. (There *is* a Hollywood angle, trust me!) We talked how gambling and Red Zone have changed the NFL ... and might kill it? www.thebulwark.com/p/football-i...

She sounds like a substitute teacher that just lost control of the class.

KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF HER

Quick message to the numerous companies asking me to rate their products and/or services: Trust me to tell you if the product exceeded my expectations or failed to meet them. If you don’t hear from me, then assume that you met the base standard of what I expected. Okay?

the question to ask about this is, okay, he wants to cancel the midterms. how does he get the VA state board of elections to cancel the midterms? how does he get the georgia board of elections to do it? how does he convince republican house members to quit their jobs and give up their paychecks?

This seems like a win/win/win situation for all involved. Google gets paid. Apple gets a more powerful Siri. My data stays private within the iCloud network.

Before "prestige TV" a movie actor would show up on a popular sitcom and you would see the crystal clear difference between movie star and TV star. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but there was a difference and it showed. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUDi...

The Median American voter (extremely complimentary) Too busy having to work and handle life’s obligations to get caught up in squabbles, but knows when shit gets bad, then you show up. God love him.

We love inventions that will only be used as intended, don't we folks?

Chicago:

Meh

UPDATE: Jack Daniel’s parent co. Brown-Forman tells me it has nothing to do with CBS’ “Whiskey Friday” concept. “Jack Daniel’s is not involved in any such segment, nor do we have any awareness of the segment and any potential partnerships or sponsorships.”

I find this to be quietly powerful. You’ve got Superman with his arm around the guy. In the original, a fellow astronaut is about to execute the person having the revelation. I’m prone to overthinking, but I find the idea of being open to people changing their ways really moving.

Across the Movie Aisle is basically a “The Smashing Machine” appreciation podcast at this point. You should definitely subscribe. *The subscriber chat and only my posts. Still, subscribe. substack.com/home/post/p-...

What!? The Clintons are prioritizing themselves over everybody else? Bill and Hillary Clinton? Those two? Well, I never… www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/u...

“Let’s make sure every single night has something with viral potential" - Bari Weiss This is how every CMO sounded at every tech start-up between 2010 and 2015. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/b...

You’re laughing!? A Deputy had a pig drawn on his coffee and you’re laughing!? That could have been your cup!

Reuben Gallego just became my favorite for the 2028 Democratic Primary.

Reuben Gallego just became my favorite for the 2028 Democratic Primary.

Podcasts have launched on Netflix. It's...strange. It's the same production quality you see on YouTube (YMMV). Which, I guess, is not that shocking given podcast-level quality can be seen on cable news. Not sure how I feel about it yet. I'm not sure if it makes Netflix look like a lesser platform.

It doesn’t seem like David Ellison has what it takes to run a studio, let alone two. “David and the Skydance team asked if the Paramount executives thought they had bad taste in movies. “The short answer is ‘yes,’” the Paramount executive told me.” I mean, yikes. www.vulture.com/article/larr...

David Ellison is in full “do you know who my dad is” mode. It’s a weak look, as the image CNBC used here shows. www.cnbc.com/2026/01/12/p...

Do it and make sure everybody knows you did it! Don’t let Congress push you around Donald! www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Let's be clear. Donald Trump will indict the Fed Chair, kidnap foreign leaders and kill American citizens in MN if it distracts you from asking WTF is in the Epstein files because HIS BASE doesn't like pedophiles. None of this is normal. But everything he does is from weakness right now.

Jerome Powell has a stronger spine than most CEOs and all elected Republicans not named MTG or Thomas Massie.

🚨FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR POWELL: “Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the federal reserve setting interest rates based on our assessment of what will best serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.”

“I have asked the clergy of the diocese to make sure their affairs are in order and they have written their wills.,not the time for statements. It is time to put our bodies between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable”. Rob Hirschfeld, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire

The only thing better than winning is the Packers losing.

Update: The Bears turned it around.

Between these two tweets all while Grok’s data centers are consuming the energy/water of a small city in the service of creating borderline CSA material, EDDINGTON is once again shown to be the defining movie of our age.

Uh, Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers are right. www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo...

Something that has really struck me during the go-around with Trump is how protests have been peaceful, and often pretty creative. It’s crucial that we continue to be peaceful while staying loud. www.cnn.com/us/live-news...

We need to impeach and remove this motherfucker too.

“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats.” “The 2020 election was stolen.” “January 6th was Nancy Pelosi’s fault.” “She’s a domestic terrorist.” “I’ll lower grocery prices on day one.” “No new foreign entanglements.” Lies. All lies.

Many of you have become drama-addicted doomers, and you seem to think it's important for the rest of us to join you. Yes, things are bad. But change is within our power. Grow up. Act like sober, responsible adults in a democracy instead of cynical, all-is-lost teenagers. Now get off my lawn. /5x

Nothing grinds my gears quite like the "paid protester" charge. In part because it's a morally bankrupt view of the world and people; and in part because I've been to hundreds of protests and where's my goddam check?

W. David Marx's new book, "Blank Space," is an important guide through our moment of cultural stagnation and collapse. I was glad to get him on the podcast this week to discuss the book and our moment; this passage highlights like the crux of our problem. www.thebulwark.com/p/an-age-of-...

They don't like Vance. They don't want him succeed. Vance is dumb and arrogant enough to think any time on camera for any reason helps him.

They will move the officer across state lines. They take all the evidence before you can investigate. They don’t cooperate with local authorities. We saw the same thing in Illinois.. As much as we want to hold people accountable the feds actively work to make it impossible.

I wonder if anyone will revisit their charitable interpretations of Elon’s definitely-not-a-Nazi-salute

I worry that I’m falling back into Eddington behavior after yesterday. I’m really trying to guard against it.

The National Review writers really showed who they are after an American citizen was killed in Minneapolis. It was really hard to read these…because of all the pop-up ads.

Abolish