Current situation. We chatted with the gentleman holding the flag, not so much the National Guardsmen (who are still here—thought that time limit was up?) Here on a legislative visit.

Boy howdy, do we all need something to look forward to. And the answer--of course-- is BOOKS! Once again, your peeps at @wirobooks.bsky.social have you covered. Take a look at our round-up of titles coming out this fall & find your new fave. www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/sne...

I know @zachpowers.bsky.social already did the big reveal of his mention in this week’s @newyorker.com (Alexandra Schwartz’s article on Patricia Lockwood), but it was still cool to come home from vacation and stumble upon it in the wild! I felt the glow.

this is the guy that the modern right wing considers one of their finest intellectuals

Anytime these yahoos question the value of vaccines, tell them to go into any older cemetery and do a quick survey of the percentage of graves of children age five and under. Then tell them to kindly piss off.

Mainstream media might be giving up on delivering solid book reviews, but we never will! (For as long as the lights stay on.) @wirobooks.bsky.social has got you covered. Bookmark us and visit every morning to start the day off right--because happiness is finding a good book (& a good book review)!

"For those of us who believe that attention to and investment in public health is a crucial element of a thriving community," the dismantling of so much of what Anthony Fauci achieved in his 50 years of government service is criminal malfeasance.

I love listening to @ashdashlee.bsky.social preach her love and righteous rage on the #onemillionrising #nokings trainings in strategic non-cooperation. It’s mainlining optimistic action. #indivisible

Tennis pavilion went in the last time. Now the no-roses Rose Garden Patio--complete with community-pool-quality umbrellas on the four-tops--and ground breaking soon on the vast ballroom ('cause no one's gonna stop him). Bets on when he opens the White House Club, and what the buy-in's gonna be?

Learning all about the tactics of noncooperation in small and large ways on the second #OneMillionRising call. It’s one way to beat back the darkness. @ashdashlee.bsky.social

Hey, folks! Join the cool kids and get your pre-order in for @writesloud.bsky.social’s debut collection, FIRST KICKING, THEN NOT, from @stanchion.bsky.social. (The pennant is the extra-cool touch—you know you want one.)

After letting the inaugural winner of the Kimbilio National Fiction Prize sit in my TBR for far too long, I just consumed @mshatter.bsky.social’s MALAWI’S SISTERS. It’s a powerful, affecting story of the fallout from the shooting death of a young Black woman; Malawi & her family will stay with you.

Just listened to @mollyjongfast.bsky.social's HOW TO LOSE YOUR MOTHER. I kept wanting to tell Jong-Fast, "It's dementia! That means she won't remember! Stop being frustrated! (I mean, about about the memory stuff.)" @wirobooks.bsky.social www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/h...

Why did I love this? "Maybe it’s the juxtaposition of memoir as academic dissertation with memoir as blunt 'can we talk?' observations...Perhaps it’s just that she really knows how to frame and tell a story." My review of @melissafebos.bsky.social THE DRY SEASON in @wirobooks.bsky.social.

The love/hate—that is what we are here for!

It's an extra-crappy day under the 47 administration, as ICE becomes better funded than 99% of the world's militaries. We all need to find some joy. I recommend listening to @ejeancarroll.bsky.social read her best-selling memoir NOT MY TYPE. She shines--& unlike spineless Rs, refuses to back down.

And do you know who is huge into wind energy? Midwest red farm states. It’s like the Rs aren’t thinking *any* of this through.

Hey, @kateshaw.bsky.social, @leahlitman.bsky.social, & @profmmurray.bsky.social, I think Barrett was assigned the injunction opinion because she took heat from 47’s Mob for those earlier opinions. She had to prove she was true gangster with a bullet to the rule of law. @strictscrutiny.bsky.social

Excellent Warren Zevon reference (“The Envoy”), @radiofreetom.bsky.social on with @timmiller.bsky.social @thebulwark.com podcast. It’s a shame this administration has zero actual credibility out in the real world; Zevon would NOT have been able to come up with anything more ridiculous.

Little Belfast, Maine turned out about 1,000 people today to say #NoKings and I was proud to join them. #NoFauxKings

Not sure how comfy I feel parking in a lot that has about 25 of these SUVs surrounding me. I don’t have my birth certificate with me, so if I disappear, check El Salvador.

OMG. I just saw the fully dystopian ad featuring everyone’s least favorite Kidnapper/Trafficker Barbie, Kristie Noem, posing with CECOT prisoners as though she were mistress of her own dungeon, with a cameo from her overlord. It is horrific, and made with your tax dollars.

Folks! I'll be interviewing Jeffery Deaver, author of the Colton Shaw series (from which the CBS show "Tracker" is adapted) starting at 2:15 on Saturday at everyone's favorite book festival. Join us & come with questions. Plus, visit us at the @wirobooks.bsky.social booth--we've got swag!

Which begs the question, “Then why are all you clowns trying to kill us?”

I have truly never understood these foaming-at-the-mouth evangelicals and self-described Christian conservatives who completely miss the concept that Jesus was a bleeding-heart liberal. Were they issued a different version of the New Testament than the rest of us?

The fact that the cardinals felt comfortable electing an American as pope is a clear sign that the world sees US political power in decline. We’re no longer threatening to hold a monopoly on global power. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/w...

Oh, the irony, @washingtonpost.com: to win a Pulitzer for the work done by a political cartoonist who felt the need to quit you for your censorship of her work. It’s like the Mobius strip of irony, and yet you’re celebrating without a shred of shame.

In these very Dark (Side) Times, May the Fourth, and everyone’s favorite Jedi knight/Resistance leader @markhamillofficial.bsky.social be with us all.

That's a wrap on another knock-it-out-of-the-park @dcwriterscon.bsky.social, brought to you by @wirobooks.bsky.social & a tireless volunteer team. The energy was off the charts & agents asked so many of our authors to send pages. The expertise from our speakers was <chef's kiss>. Don't miss 2026!

I wasn’t able to make it to a #MayDay protest today, but I did make a sign (I took the “put it all in” approach 😆). Love to see all these masses generating all this energy—let’s keep it up!! @indivisible.org @50501movement.bsky.social @womensmarch.com @moveon.org

Hope you'll read my latest for @wirobooks.bsky.social: "[Gaige's] stories foreground troubled marriages and fraught parent/child dynamics. HEARTWOOD offers another take on thrusting suburban humans into the grip/awe of nature." I loved the story and the people within it.

Shouts out to @alsobrooks.senate.gov and @elfreth.house.gov on @maddow.msnbc.com, along with Catonsville senior living residents whose weekly protests continue to grow. Go, Maryland! The Opposition lives here!

I believe the term for our collective feeling is Schadenfreude, which translates roughly into, “Eat that, you power-mad pinhead!” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/b...

I'm extremely skeptical of organized religion in general, and--as a no-longer-observant Catholic--Catholicism especially; however, I am so very sorry to hear of the death of Pope Francis. Having an outspoken, thoroughly decent person in a global leadership position is so necessary right now.

We need leaders who show they understand the danger we are in as our constitutional rights are dismantled in real-time. Thank you, @vanhollen.senate.gov, for showing other elected officials how to meet this moment.

On @allinwithchris.bsky.social, @asharangappa.bsky.social: "We went from zero to Pinochet in one week." Touche. I was just talking today to a Chilean native who made the same point.

And of course it's also an official presidential act, so it's doubly fine.

We're getting close to GO time, folks! The premier writing conference in the DC area is May 2-3, and registration closes on 4/30. Register now to pitch your project to 3 lit agents and learn from publishing pros! @dcwriterscon.bsky.social www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/page/the-202...

Thank you, @maddow.msnbc.com, for spending so much time highlighting all the many protests this weekend, especially given the relative dearth of coverage in the big papers. We need to amplify the power of coalition.

You keep making me shake my head at your choices in coverage, @washingtonpost.com. 1,300 coordinated protests throughout the country, some in deeply red areas, and your coverage is in the Sunday metro section? Isn’t it a bigger story? “Mass protests across the U.S. signal opposition to Trump, Musk”

"I cannot believe that Donald Trump is doing exactly what he said he was going to do, and not what I convinced myself he would really do, despite all evidence to the contrary," says every businessman who actually voted for this colossal catastrophe. Thanks, boneheads.

Congratulations to @maddow.msnbc.com and Susan for their 26 years together. Hope their celebration tomorrow—which will take Rachel away from the air for the evening—is magical.

Once again, @washingtonpost.com, you are normalizing a completely insane concept. I guess you can’t say, “long in Trump’s bat-shit crazy sights,” but there are other ways to make clear this is NOT normal. “White House studying cost of Greenland takeover, long in Trump’s sights”

Hallelujah! Suck it, Elon—I think Crawford would have won without all your help, but the intense hatred everyone holds for you sure didn’t hurt the cause.

Many thanks to Cory Booker for standing up and speaking for all of us—for 25 hours and four minutes—demanding that we all take risks, take action, push back, and get into some good trouble to protect our democracy against the predations of this lawless, corrupt administration.

"Our 5 Most Popular March Posts." www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/our... @jbywrites.bsky.social @genemeyer.bsky.social @aaknopf.bsky.social @authorsguild.bsky.social @dcwriterscon.bsky.social @mshatter.bsky.social @hsmithwrites.bsky.social #booksky

Find the joy.

I am seriously bummed that I'm traveling on 4/5, but I look forward to seeing everyone's pics of the off-the-charts protests that will be taking place nationwide. Let's show them we're serious and we're not going away. @indivisible.org @50501movement.bsky.social @womensmarch.bsky.social

"The world, it seems to me, is governed by strong conviction, paltry imagination, and meagre understanding." @appletwigli.bsky.social, from the devastating excerpt of her new book, in this week's @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

A book for these times: SEVEN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS THAT CHANGED AMERICA, by Linda Gordon, in @wirobooks.bsky.social. "No form of political activity has done more to make democracy more inclusive and participatory." Time for some good trouble. www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/s...