Artists famously do not like fascists. The two things do not co-exist! The fascists know this and think they can replace human art with AI "art" or whatever, and good luck to them!

It's quite an experiment to have a government run by the dumbest people on the planet.

This is not hard. Artists are not responsible for ensuring the Kennedy Center remains relevant and successful. The center’s board is responsible for that, in a fiduciary way. All of this energy being directed at artists should be re-directed at the board.

“You are not entitled to a response from us, or anyone, ever.” — Madison Biedermann, whose entire, taxpayer-funded job is to serve as a spokesperson for the US Department of Education Via @charlesornstein.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/prop...

Still mind-blowing that a top admin official was revealed to have taken $50,000 in cash in a paper bag from people looking for government favors, the reaction of the administration was "Whatever losers, this is how it works now" and bigshot news media said "If you say so, we'll forget about it"

Remember, kids: press play on Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" at exactly 11:56:20 on New Year's Eve to get that iconic drum fill when the ball drops.

The President of the United States appears to be getting regular IV infusions, the public doesn’t know anything about it, & the DC media evidently doesn’t care. We are months into the mystery of Trump’s hands, the White House is lying, & I’ve seen a grand total of one serious news story about it.

Maybe, if you're not actually in university classrooms, teaching students in the age of gAI, perhaps you might want to stop and listen when people actually in those classrooms raise concerns about what they are seeing; and not just dismiss us as luddites, or boomers, or cruel profs playing cops

Oh the billionaire who doesn't live in New York and who has no expertise in emergency services thinks that Bonsignore, the FDNY's emergency services chief is unqualified? My uncle says that Drake Maye is unqualified to be an NFL QB. You guys want to run a news flash on that story too?

Trump's DOJ was monitoring all the movements of the Miami Herald reporter who was covering the Epstein case.

💰Trump’s wealth increased by about $2.5B since his reelection, to $6.9B 💰 Eric’s increased 10x, to $400M. 💰 Don Jr.’s 6x, to $300M. 💰 Barron, a college sophomore, is worth $150M.

The celebration and digital metastasization of conspiratorial thinking culminating with the U.S. head of health and human services believing that and governing as if modern diseases don’t emerge naturally, pandemics are all manmade, and science (not the complexities of nature) is to blame.

I don't know how many times it needs to be said that you absolutely should not let fucking "AI" anywhere near your legal contracts, either in creating them or evaluating them, but apparently it needs to be said at least one more time, so allow me to say it again, here, right now

A nice thread in which an actual expert patiently explains why the Secretary of Health and Human Service is not simply a liar, but an especially stupid one.

The third & final round of this year's Slate Movie Club rolls on w/ @justincchang.bsky.social on the low-key Channing Tatum/Kirsten Dunst romance Roofman, the collapse of the midbudget studio movie, & his #1 of the year, Oliver Laxe's harrowing Morocco-set road movie Sirât: slate.com/culture/2025...

Trumpists are gutter trash.

The GOP has really leaned in to singling out Somalis for very explicit racism. Ron Johnson and the rest of the party are just loathsome, un-American people.

the very last person who should be prattling on about the dangers of inexperience is the grifting troglodyte who killed millions when he was put in charge of “efficiency”

Republicans motivate their core voters to show up every cycle and they do. Democrats just assume their equivalent will do the same and spend the entire cycle pursuing swing voters, meanwhile depressing core turnout. Then they blame those core voters when they lose. The cycle must be broken.

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”

“Consequences for powerful people doing bad things” like a cheat code to have a country that doesn’t suck

All of the money that changed hands in the Teapot Dome scandal totaled less than $10 million after adjusting for inflation, and it was considered so corrupt we still teach it in high school government classes a century later.

Corruption so pungent, it wafts right off the page: Lobbyists who do pardon deals “say their going rate is $1 million. Pardon-seekers have offered some lobbyists close to the president success fees of as much as $6 million if they can close the deal.” Gift link www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

👇👇

Just making the place a magnet for talent

Full transcript of the 60 Minutes CECOT piece that Bari Weiss Streisand Effected into the stratosphere (shared by The Nation) www.thenation.com/article/soci...

It’s hard to believe that one man can cause so much stress, so much fear, so much pain and suffering…a man who took an oath to preserve and protect our Constitution. This man, who is inciting terror across our land, must be removed from office. In a sane world, it would happen immediately.

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

Imagine watching Sinatra, son of Dolly & Antonini born in Genoa & Sicily, respectively, and Martin, son of Gaetano & Angela, born in Montesilvano, Italy & Ohio respectively, (Angela to parents born in Monasterolo, Italy), and crusading against the value of children of immigrants to the U.S.

Because I took Christmas Day off from posting Movie Club entries, today I have 2 to share: first, @justincchang.bsky.social on Bradley Cooper's gritty-but-glossy dreamed Is This Thing On?, the French-Canadian cabin-in-the-woods drama Who By Fire, & other 2025 hits & misses. slate.com/culture/2025...

"Afraid of appearing partisan, the Obama administration looked the other way when it came to prosecuting war criminals and torturers. The lack of confrontation is coming back to haunt us." Every previous administration left unaccountable for its crimes is a lesson in why not to repeat the mistake.

CBS destroying a brand they built up over the course of like 100 years for one criminal idiot is a pretty funny bit

The Ghost of Christmas Future Perfect: “You will have been visited by me.”

We don’t spend enough time discussing how the entire MAGA movement is kept afloat by the constant threats of stochastic terrorism orchestrated by the president of the United States. Congress, the courts, much of the media … all kept in line by the mob boss and his army of anonymous goons.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Vladimir Putin is the one who picked Steve Witkoff to be Trump's special envoy to Russia. Why would anyone think this is not a red flag?

You know how sometimes people will make sensationalist claims to the FBI for the fame and clout of them coming out six years later in a report no one was sure would ever be publicly available

The DOJ is not even trying to hide that it functions as Trump's personal law firm

Oh, so, suddenly it's a CRIME to fly on a PRIVATE JET with the world's most famous PEDOPHILE and a bunch of UNDERAGE GIRLS who were SEX TRAFFICKED and then FIRE everyone at the FBI who INVESTIGATED YOU and replace them with LACKEYS whose only job is to COVER FOR YOU while you STEAL MONEY from TAX PA

"It is logically impossible to simultaneously be evil, corrupt, and incompetent" is an absolutely amazing take to have in the year of 2025

Round 2 of Movie Club starts with me working through my resistance to what I call the Safdie school of filmmaking, though it isn't limited to the movies made by those two brothers, together or apart. slate.com/culture/2025...

Trump brought his poll numbers down by like 1,500%

OK, I need more people to engage with this story. I risked life and limb for this piece!!

The Olivia Nuzzi story and the Bari Weiss at CBS story are the same story, which is that the upper echelons of legacy media are absolutely rife with people who worship power and don't feel burdened by any sense of responsibility to their profession or the public.

BREAKING: Over-glorified blogger continues to demand unearned respect from people whose journalistic reputation she is destroying

The New York Times investigated 346 people who donated at least $250,000 to Trump and found that more than half of them (197) have received pardons, jobs, government contracts, special treatment, or favors.

Senators like Kaine should resign mid-term, but insofar as they won’t, they ought to serve as archetypes for candidates who need to lose their primary elections. This kind of irresolute wimpiness ~entirely explains Democrats’ historically consequential failures in the Trump era.

Because Bari Weiss is an opportunistic political maneuverer, it probably doesn't get said clearly enough that she is also an astounding clod, in wildly over her head. The fact that she seems to have spiked this story without realizing this would happen tells you all you need to know about her.

it's not that you have to be stupid to be an effective regime mouthpiece, but it certainly helps bari weiss that she has a wind tunnel between her ears www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...