“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” -Anatole France

"50 percent of rural Americans disapprove of ICE’s handling of enforcement, while 50 percent approve 75 percent of men aged 18 to 29 disapprove of ICE’s handling of enforcement, while only 25 percent approve"

"One of the last things I heard on that cell floor was my cellmate begging for medical care." Aliya Rahman describes her brutally assault, arrest and detention by ICE agents, who also refused to provide medical care or disability accommodations, in Minneapolis.

"Super Bowl 2026 transcended the realm of sports to become a microcosm of contemporary America. On the field, in the stands, and on screens, the evening blended spectacle, politics, and pop culture, confirming that the NFL final is also one of the most powerful barometers of the nation's pulse."

That’s the sound of every history department updating the “careers” tab on their website.

Enraging Trump and beating the Patriots in one evening? Nicely done. 🐰 🏈 🍊

When I wake up tomorrow, my first thought will be "the Patriots lost the Super Bowl." And it will be a great morning.

Donald Trump has turned America into a violent fascist kleptocracy. But the NFL just forced some culturally unfamiliar music upon me. I have never felt more politically homeless.

Did I turn off the TV just in time not to see Mike Tyson say something nice about MAHA? If so, that's a win.

In any case, the Super Bowl halftime-show throne still belongs to Beyoncé.

The fact that he performed in daylight did him no favors.

From @theathletic.com: Our reporter is in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and it was packed two hours before game time. There were a sea of Bad Bunny fans wearing shirts that say “I'm just here for the Benito Bowl.” Follow live updates for the Super Bowl: nyti.ms/3MlFZoJ

Amber Glenn, a queer Texan who started ice skating at the stonebriar mall in frisco at age 5, who plays magic the gathering, is an olympic gold medalist

This game will give us a lot of time to reflect on whether AI or legalized gambling is doing more damage to society

Fucking warplane flyovers.

God bless Brandi Marie Carlile for avoiding the bombast we so often get with that song.

The deeper you are into studying a language, the more hopeless Google translate seems. (My experience is w/French.) It makes you dig around for synonyms. Sometimes they can't be found. It usually doesn't catch figures of speech. It doesn't display the gender of nouns. Oof. You get what you pay for.

Church today was about justice. The preacher mentioned the readings, Isiah & Matthew, but took his text from Jewish theology, the Pirkei Avot (Ethics of Our Fathers). "It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it." Yes. We will die before justice is won. But..

The staffer

I saw a gorgeous red-tailed hawk today. I first saw it perched in a tree with it's white chest sticking out like a sore thumb. It flew off when I went closer so I was able to capture a few pictures in flight.

Fantastic music-making. Thelonious Monk's quartet, recorded live in the studios of Radio France, February 1964. “Don't play what the audience wants, play what you want and let the audience embrace what you do, even if it takes them fifteen or twenty years.” —Thelonius Monk

Dear New Orleans: This is not how you do it. Signed, Minneapolis

@laprofmme.bsky.social Let's pool our pennies.

Cool concert tonight from Detroit via a free livestream. The world premiere of a work by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels. Plus a performance of Wynton Marsalis's Swing Symphony. 8 pm, EST. livefromorchestrahall.vhx.tv/live-broadca...

Why are news organizations using “cease fire” when it is no such thing?

JD Vane's holiday at the Winter Olympics is insane on so many levels: 14 aircraft, a 100-vehicle motorcade, the contempt it shows for everyday taxpayers... (And, yes, bringing food to Italy is nuts. Eat well while you're there & smuggle cheese & olive oil home in your luggage.)

I can hear the wind howling. I can tell that it's colder than fcuk outside. It's not exactly tropical inside. Where is my incentive not to go back to my warm bed & its layers of blankets & quilts?

Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas is just a delight on every level

Trump vs. Human Rights. "An extensive list of 'egregious violations' of human rights committed in the US, compiled in the international NGO Human Rights Watch's annual report, highlights the drift currently seen in the country under Donald Trump." www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/a...

Good article on the misery that the US is inflicting on everyday people in Cuba. What Trump is doing is just an intensification of six decades of US economic warfare. apnews.com/article/cuba...

This says nothing good about us. "Epstein revelations have toppled top figures in Europe while US fallout is more muted." apnews.com/article/jeff...

A side benefit to learning French has been discovering the late great French pianist Martial Solal. I'd never heard of him until I started listening to podcasts on Radio France to supplement my lessons. His improvisations are hugely creative & full of style & wit. Check him out here. 👇🏽

The National Symphony Orchestra performed for the first time since Trump announced he's closing the Kennedy Center for two years. It was a blistering aural indictment of chaos and unnecessary man-made misery. And a moment of hope... www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

The Bad Plus has been a working band, in every sense of the term, for 26 years. This year will be its last. Reid Anderson and Dave King get into why that is, and how far they’ve come, in an unfiltered audio interview at The Gig.

In my experience it's always a shock for classical musicians to play with a jazz, pop, or R&B rhythm section, say, for a pops concert. Playing on top of the beat & rock-steady is like speaking a different language. Which it is, metaphorically. English to Chinese.

The Great Norwegian Ski Jumping-Penis Scandal. All the prep you need for the Winter Olympics in one video. It's insane. Best part? It's true.

President Donald Trump says he won't apologize for posting a racist video of the Obamas. Trump told reporters, “I didn't make a mistake,” as he flew to Florida aboard Air Force One on Friday.

😂

Looking for a good history of immigration to the USA (and prior) that includes (but is not solely about) discussion of how the process and legalities have changed over time. Suggestions?

Love this. Applies just as much to history profs 🗃️ “The iterative process of confusion, endurance, and incremental understanding is what literature professors teach when they assign whole books. This march toward understanding doesn’t have a great name other than reading.”

Any census conducted under a Republican administration will be fatally flawed. Many US citizens & immigrants with papers will be afraid to take part. And they'll be right not to.

You know you've crossed some sort of line when even theTimes calls a blatantly racist video blatantly racist. But it would have been more accurate to say that Trump acted in a blatantly racist way when he posted the racist video.

Love this. (And zero is indeed the correct answer.) h/t @averysafecat.bsky.social

Reposting because this was truly great theater & you should go if you can.

An unspeakable slaughter of over 160 innocents in Nigeria. Members of small Muslim farming villages, killed by militiamen who claim to practice a purer Islam. Utterly heartbreaking. apnews.com/article/nige...

Humans warehoused in camps for months, some for years. Remarkable organizers doing all to support, monitor, and relay from outside. Indie media like @lataco.bsky.social, started as a taco site, now the vanguard of journalism in this country, deserving your $. lataco.com/captive-loti...

We need a new and joyous German word for the powerful schadenfreude at capitalist tech bro failures www.ft.com/content/f018...

Short thread that's worth your time. 👇🏽

I’ve been thumping the table about this for years. Now it’s accelerating. I wish I could get my private college colleagues to realize that if it’s not stopped, it’s coming for us, too. “But we’re private!” Sure, ask Orban or Erdogan what an autocrat does with private higher ed.