My newest piece for Ambush Magazine. I've felt so pessimistic lately that I almost missed the publication deadline; I had no idea what I could write that wouldn't be depressing. But I surprised myself, and ended up feeling a little better once I was done.

One of the most interesting stories I've read this year. This is a tour-de-force of reporting, about the most fascinating person you’ve never heard of. #PeterPutnam

If you want to see the original political playbook for the era we’re living through now, you should read this book.

As we move into Pride weekend in New Orleans, I'm reminded of this fantastic panel discussion on the history of Pride in New Orleans from five years ago. Panelists included: Frank Perez, Valda Lewis, Michael Hickerson, Mark Gonzalez, and the late Catherine Roland. #NewOrleans #Pride #History

Robert W. Fieseler's new book, American Scare, is a fascinating exposé of the Johns Committee, which devastated the lives of countless people in 20th C. Florida. This is an absolute page-turner, with plenty of lessons for our times. Here's my brand-new interview with @wordbobby.bsky.social

The city gave "Matt Wisdom, a local tech entrepreneur...and his team access to everything in the 311 system — without any kind of contract or other formal agreement outlining what they could or could not do with the data."

#SuicideHotline #FalseInformation

Gay Easter Parade pop art, acrylic on canvas by Chris Tassin #peeps #GayEasterParade #NewOrleans #LittleDebbieSnatchcake

#CatSky #GoldenAfternoon

“When the range of factors that can get a person arrested stretches from political speech to a paperwork error, we are in territory described by the Russian saying, ‘Give us a person and we’ll find the infraction.’”

“In 1775, George Washington personally warned British General Thomas Gage not to mistreat Continental prisoners…Even amid the brutalities of war, Washington understood that how we treat captives speaks to the soul of what American democracy was supposed to be.”

Thousands held a rally to demand the release and safe return of Rumeysa Ozturk, who was disappeared by the Trump regime, one of many people that have been kidnapped nationwide. #3E

Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk being detained by ice Via @bedford.bsky.social

This list is by no means comprehensive, and any astounding omissions are my fault entirely. #StupidCoup

In which she quotes: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”

A friend drove two hours today for her breast cancer chemotherapy only to learn it was canceled due to NIH cuts. Clinical trial ended midstream. No treatment, no restart, no plan, no information. Her bro-in-law's chemo was also canceled.

DOGE broke into the U.S. Institute of Peace headquarters in Northwest D.C. Monday evening, the independent nonprofit’s CEO said.

This is a coup! U.S. Institute for Peace called the DC police on the Musk team members in an effort to stop them from trespassing because the institute has control of its own building and the land it sits on. But instead, the DC police allowed them to enter and kicked out the institute’s officials.

Mad world, mad kings, mad composition!

I'm not tired of winning. You're tired of winning.

“[Nathan] Hooven, a disabled Air Force veteran and former Trump supporter, was fired from his VA job without warning. ‘I think a lot of other veterans voted the same way, and we have been betrayed.’”

“The Trump administration…climbed over the backs of a bloodied but hopeful people to reach the man that ordered their suffering.”

“No one was left in the city to speak his name. All memory of the King of Olympus lay scattered and fallow like an ancient statue in pieces, waiting to be reassembled.”

The shouting and roaring of rude men is so hideous.

Emergency video: The Ukraine travesty t.co/GUplJZpdRs

A draft-dodging coward and his amoral sycophants, rolling over like little dogs for Russia, and daring to scold someone who has risked everything to defend the sovereignty of his country against a hostile invasion by long term enemies of the United States.

Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was magnitudes below presidential: repeatedly cutting Zelenskiy off from speaking while claiming he wasn’t grateful enough for American assistance.

The Democratic Party, alongside two other national party committees, has filed a lawsuit against Trump for claiming ultimate power over federal agencies.

To me, a Nazi salute means, "I want to murder your family." There can be no irony about it: It puts deep anger and hatred in my heart to see it done and I will never forgive anyone who justifies or minimizes it.

“It’s not that they cannot—they will not. When it was Sanders or an individual who demanded even a modest change in policy on Gaza, they brought out the knives. When it’s Musk and his apartheid army of incels, they wield sporks.”

Unprincipled men were useful, enabling those who had more scruples to keep their hands tolerably clean in a world where there was much dirty work to be done.

A special Sunday event: a photographic essay celebrating owls, magnificent birds of prey. These nocturnal hunters hail from Europe, Asia, North America, and South America, and are seen here in photos from recent years.

Many thanks to Dr. Graham McDougall for speaking with me about the Greater New Orleans PrimeTimers for Ambush Magazine. The interview is also available in the new print edition.

“There is no precedent in American history for anything like this. Musk is a private citizen who has not been elected to anything…Spending a quarter-billion dollars on Trump’s reelection efforts has effectively allowed the world’s richest man to buy the federal government itself.”

“Remember who we are. Remember that underneath what we're furious about is what we care about, that our deepest feeling in this moment isn't necessarily anger, but protectiveness for what we love that may feel like fury. And that love is very, very powerful.”

A tool I’m using to contact members of Congress

The logic of the coup that is going on now. And how to resist it. snyder.substack.com/p/the-logic-...

One must care for small immediate results as well as for great and distant ones—and in my own mind nothing takes greater emphasis than the possibility of being certain that our own character and deeds make a few lives near to us better than they would have been without our presence in the world.

From former Congressman @adamkinzinger.bsky.social (Republican, Illinois): “Where is Democratic Leadership? What is the message?”

Call script:

Contract for Landry’s temporary homeless shelter went to politically connected firm: The move, officials said at the time, threatened to disrupt the city’s long-term plan to get hundreds of people living on the street into permanent housing. Read More: https://buff.ly/4jmPwrh