Two consecutive WaPo headlines.

I really don’t like the little mics. The zoomers look like dweebs.

This is not an apples to apples comparison. The Republicans lost ignominiously in 2013 not for structural reasons, but because their policy was shitty and evil. They’ll lose this time because…their policy is shitty and evil. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/u...

What’s Elon doing in Atlanta?

Oh my stars, Republican senators actually stood up to Trump. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/u...

The Russians are sending drones all over Europe, Israel is using very old public guilt as cover for committing genocide, and the United States is sinking into authoritarianism, but I have good news: in Croatia, they have chips that taste exactly—not just a little, exactly—like fried chicken.

The MAGA following would really like to Memento away everything they’ve discovered about Trump and Epstein so that they can keep digging and continue to give their lives purpose rather than face up to their own complicity.

1/8 I don’t really much invest in what Julian Michaels thinks, but the anecdote that starts this article raises my hackles. So, a thread. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/w...

Damn man, why have I only been listening to James Taylor in his cozy, established niche. I’d never listened to his first, eponymous album. It’s urgent and experimental and sumptuous. And the Abbey Road production is just wicked. Total revelation, man. open.spotify.com/album/67zzo0...

Why hasn’t Trump won the Nobel Peace Prize yet? www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/w...

. @katemanne.bsky.social, by my lights the most important feminist philosopher in the world, makes a VERY compelling case that Donald Trump raped a 13-year-old girl. This includes terrifying details, but it must be read. open.substack.com/pub/katemann...

😒 Deadlier

cnn editor: u got that story on ice? cnn reporter: sure did boss, real fuckin hypernormalized, just like u asked cnn editor: first of all, i love it

Man, I sure am getting tired of all this winning.

Once an acquaintance of mine who did not know I was in an interracial relationship started posting about how those relationships were immoral because the power dynamic made them inherently abusive. There does seem to be an urge to categorize and separate that nominal leftists are not immune to.

Dems should be scrambling to figure out what possible candidates can go short-form, vertical-video viral in Idaho, Nebraska, and Texas.

Wow the Democratic leadership needs to read the frickin’ room. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/n... w

I know they’re friends, but I can’t wait to see Bello smoke the chip off Raffy Devers‘s shoulder. I had quite enough of him sulking like Achilles, and I’m glad he’s gone #redsox

#Redsox should trade one of their new acquisitions and cash for Tomoyuki Sugano from Baltimore.

The Devers trade was the right move for THIS season. I’m guessing they’re going to do some more trading before the deadline, but even if not, this was the best thing for the Sox. People will call me a fool, but this is the Nomar trade redux (and it has Theo’s name all over it). #redsox

I’m not asking for it. I don’t think anyone should ever decide about another person’s ultimate fate. But I do dream daily about the time when he is finally dead. When he no longer dominates our thoughts. Imagination is a wonderful means of transport. One day we will be free.

Oh that would be just perfect! 🤣

open.substack.com/pub/yaschamo... We do need to talk about this more, as it’s a fact few people understand: Americans are—on average—rich as Croesus, comparatively speaking. And that fact makes the politics even weirder!

1.) Get out of here with this crap. 2.) If this counterfactual were real, it would be cool if the LLMs could help a certain chunk of my voting and non-voting fellow country-people with all that.

Habemus Pipam

“Water May Be Wet, Trump Says After Taking Shower”

If the Supreme Court does not follow the moral imperative to classify the arrest and deportation to a foreign prison, without due process, of not only Kilmar Garcia but anyone, as illegal, then it is the government’s responsibility to reform the USSC. And voters’ to elect politicians who will do it.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/b... We've been living in a Thomas Pynchon novel for 10 years now.

Hear us out Canada: We kind of already like most of the same stuff. Help us totally change our policies for the better, and in exchange you get to drop the whole stupid monarchy thing. We’ll add some “u”s after some “o”s; you stop writing “cheque.” Win–win!

My take: The lack of embodied, motivated reality among the things that “extract” our minds leaves them ultimately unfree—the question is whether we will freely choose to tie ourselves to the mast and only use these tools when they augment and set them aside when they limit our cognition.

www.youtube.com/live/rCUK2Vb... So help me God, Corey Booker is—at this moment when it seems so absurd—making me proud to be an American. (Right at this moment I’m typing in particular)

Getting on a plane to the US on an urgent personal matter. Wouldn’t feel safe from from danger—mechanical or fascistic —otherwise. When I land, I hope to hear that Democratic senators have made vociferously clear that either their GOP colleagues will see to it that the @secdef.govpeeps.us, . . .

1. Last year I took on the role of Associate Editor of Philosophy @ Marginalia Review of Books. I'm excited to share the first two pieces I commissioned/edited. First is @kritikredux.bsky.social's review of Robert Pippin's The Culmination. A must read. www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/the-mea...

They quietly changed this, which is good, I guess. I was waiting for the Orwellian moment the newly-formed Department of Orhtographic Reformative Knowhow informed us that “taxpayer” would from here on be spelled “taxpaer.”

It's the Ides of March today.

Come on, @nytimes.com, you’re the New York Times!

How Zelenskyy’s language strategy hit a wall in Trump’s White House blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2...

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Every elected Democrat in Congress should hold a town hall in Republican districts. These people need to hear the truth.

Hey @rhodesben.bsky.social , was just listening to the most recent pod save the world and wanted to clarify two things about the surge of the Linke in the German election: 1) Merz shot himself in the foot by insulting anti-fascist protesters just before the election, calling the leftists crazies…

I am a US citizen living in Germany, and I humbly suggest that the EU, Britain, Canada, and Australia stop all intelligence sharing with US agencies and impose the same sort of sanctions on the US that they do on Russia.

If you'd like to support our work on this podcast, we have a Black Friday sale on monthly and annual www.patreon.com/vocalfriespod promo code: 783C5 until Nov 30

Okay, I’m planning to focus my social media time almost exclusively to Bluesky (with some old folk outreach at FB and maintaining my connection with my kids on TikTok); but I refuse to call the posts here “skeets.” 🤨