It’s a shame that the worlds of high-stakes poker and literacy have so little overlap that nobody ever seems to have asked Molly Bloom whether she’s read Ulysses

Bewildering and disheartening to see literally hundreds of people line up in Osita Nwanevu’s replies to insist that American hegemony is good, actually. Never in human history have a people so saturated in propaganda been less aware of it or more falsely sure of their sophistication and virtue.

Yes, the “please don’t put in the newspaper that I love Henry Kissinger” bit is comedy gold, but the craziest thing about the Chotiner interview is that Sunstein freely admits to believing in nothing. What are human rights? Oh, you know, whatever you feel like. Definitely nothing universal!

This explains it better than I can

society would improve immediately if we just seized the assets of every person who wrote jeffrey epstein a birthday note

Wrote for the Appendix N blog bandwagon about how my brain got to be the way it is and how Ursula K. Le Guin came to be the chief architect of my mind palace: 1999ad.blogspot.com/2025/09/appe...

Destroying the Corporation for Public Broadcasting isn’t the worst or most harmful thing the administration has done, but it might be the thing that makes me the saddest yet. Taking joy and education away from children is just cartoon villain shit.

[after thinking about it for three hours] ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL

Larry Summers will never contribute anything worthwhile to society in any way, but the absolute least he could do is shut the fuck up and disappear from public life completely and permanently

brad lander primary chuck schumer

My latest for the New York Times:

Do the right thing: rank me #1, Zohran #2, and DON'T RANK ANDREW CUOMO.

Looking at Iran and saying, “Killing all these civilians is a regrettable necessity, and if they didn’t want to die they’d overthrow their evil government” establishes a precedent Americans really do NOT want to live with.

It's pretty telling that the second part of the "Mamdani is a danger to Jewish new yorkers" pitch is always "so vote for sexual harasser shitbag Italian Catholic Andrew Cuomo" and not "so vote for Jewish Progressive Brad Lander"

It was gonna be tempting to make fun of this parade regardless, but this truly is pathetic. Shambolic, limp, and there are three times as many people in the parade as there are watching! Massive loser energy.

nervous to go to protests? Don’t be. They will be peaceful family affairs. Go with a group, peel off if anything makes you nervous, don’t stay to the bitter end. This moment calls for all Americans to express their rights. And when some cannot, it’s important for others to stand in their place.

It’s so annoying how every dullard who just learned what an em dash is now thinks they’re experts at spotting ai writing

Every blue state should be calling emergency sessions to set up systems of actual authority and mutual aid in an effort to protect their citizens and themselves from the coming war between the federal government and democratically held states.

It’s completely insane that US troops are illegally deployed to suppress domestic opposition and it’s not uniformly condemned by the press and political elite.

Sam Altman thinks AI will “spin straw into gold” next year

the Brazilian replies to this post will take you on a fucking journey

young men don’t need a “left Joe Rogan” they need sports betting regulation

I can't emphasize enough that the most important thing journalists can do right now is publish exactly this kind of article

Seems like as good a time as any to remind everybody that centrists love dictators and don’t give a damn about democracy: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

CBP is detaining german tourist for over 1 mo because they accused her of intending to tattoo for $$ while in US. In jailing her to deport, they held her in solitary for 9 days, also kept her from her return flight Feb 15. She's still jailed. CoreCivic+CBP ⬆️ 💵 www.kpbs.org/news/border-...

My new paper--led by Shahill Parsons at Rice, with Quinesha Bentley and @morganwack.bsky.social --looks at the racist and sexist discourse aimed at Angel Reese after her 2023 NCAA championship win, AND the wave of supporters who came to her defense. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Even with our media less derelict than usual in covering the fiasco at the White House, I don’t think Americans understand how apocalyptic this all is. Look at international news. Look at how people abroad are responding on social media. We’re watching the end of the U.S. as a superpower.

i guess i never posted about it here before but president's day seems like as good a holiday as any to bring it back up: we don't have nearly enough federal holidays. that's why i think we should create around 30 more, each anchored to the friday or monday around a significant union army victory

Cricket craves pasta

Our research university leaders are totally failing us in the authoritarian moment. Not even trying to loudly & publicly defend the project of academia or the institutions. Just choosing a combination of “keep our heads down” & anticipatory compliance. Shamefully inadequate to the moment.

Proof: Cricket is an unusually bad cat

there are a lot of things that I am mad at Elon Musk about but near the top of the list is that he has managed to make me think a fucking spaceship isn't cool I should not be having a "ha ha" reaction to this, my inner child resents it deeply

“Law exists to serve human welfare, not to enforce ‘natural’ rights”—wish more people were thinking this way (and about these matters)!

I know more people need to read The Empusium because I don’t see one single Trans Castorp joke on the entire internet

hey 👋 shot in the dark here, but could anyone out there just give me 50 million dollars or so? i should make a couple things clear. one is that i don't actually need it. the other is that i'm not interested in working for it. i just want it for free and for no specific reason. thanks!

Merry Christmas to all

Leaving a bag of monopoly money near your murder scene and watching the cops fail to find it for three whole days while following an unrelated bike is what being a D&D DM is like

Zero reward for the white supremacist killer who murdered a teen in Manhattan the same day. Yeremi Colino does not matter to these people.

Regardless of how you feel about Thompson or his killer or extrajudicial executions in general, this episode makes it painfully clear that we are not all equal under the law. How much money have we wasted on this manhunt now? Money that would never be spent on “justice” for a normal person?

Former Amazon worker here; do not cross this picket line. Don't do it. Don't even order from them (unless absolutely necessary). They're a disgusting company to work for and the reason for my knee problems that required years of physical therapy. Fuck Amazon. We stand with the workers! 👊🏻✨

MAHKET BAHHSKEEET www.boston.com/news/local-n...

Some reduce the 2024 campaign to a contest between two old men, but it's a choice of two slates of federal appointees who'll impact your life in a million ways. Biden has staffed executive agencies with excellent choices who are doing good work. Trump will empower an army of Stephen Millers.

Good cat