In whatever time you spend examining the significance of today’s anniversary, I’d ask you to spare a thought for Officer Brian Sicknick of the U.S. Capital Police, his four colleagues who, after the trauma of the event, took their own lives, and all the others forever altered by the day’s events.

I would quite happily give up all the benefits of the internet if it meant I know longer had to see stories about the intellectual and cultural trends among the doyens of Silicon Valley.

If I’m Vladimir Zelensky or Lai Ching-te, I’m not feeling very sanguine about the precedent Trump and Rubio are setting.

Tonight on The Briefing, beginning at 8pm ET! 8pm ET: @ericswalwell.bsky.social @kristygreenberg.bsky.social @draperrobert.bsky.social Bharat Ramamurti 9pm ET: @robertgarcia.bsky.social @michael-feinberg.bsky.social @agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov @jamestalarico.bsky.social

I’m looking forward to joining in on this podcast for the first time from our new home in Washington, D.C.

It’s like he’s on a one-man mission to make a theater even more uncomfortable than the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth.

This is the first one that came to mind with of flood of memories.

I am not of the faith most active this week, and not even particularly observant in that of my own, but maybe a carol reflecting on the acts of a ruler whose power came from his piety, decency, and concern for those less fortunate is not inappropriate and, perhaps, a reminder of what may be.

Not just “no,” but “hell no.” When I think back on the history of film — from Murneau to Lang, Bergman to Kubrick — it’s pretty damn hard for me to see how mediating their movies through one of Mark Zuckerberg’s more obnoxious products would improve the viewing experience.

My personal favorite book — an odd way to phrase it, I know — about the experience of authoritarianism. Now more than ever, this deserves a larger audience.

My first thought upon being assigned to the Los Angeles Field Office was “Well, if it was good enough for Warren Zevon and James Ellroy, it’ll be good enough for me.”

Zweig was the best chronicler — outside of Miklós Bánffy, perhaps — of a world we are poorer for no longer inhabiting.

The book that made me want to devote my life to counterintelligence, this is still the best — and most realistic — novelistic account of a mole hunt ever put to paper.

A bitingly funny account of a demon with which I’ve also had to wrestle, myself, I’m also plugging this because it was written by my closest friend.

If another individual from the world of intelligence — aside from Snowden — has done more to help the forces of totalitarianism and chaos against liberal governments, I’m not aware of it.

It may be sacrilege, and it’s not a particularly strongly held opinion, but I think I prefer the Jacobean revenge dramas to their more famous Elizabethan counterparts.

If you’re a politician, or expert of some sort, or think tanker, or anyone in the world of government and policy — and you care about the rule of law and constitutional norms — please, for the love of god, stop appearing on and cooperating with CBS shows. They’re just useful idiots at this point.

It’s time for Rational Security’s annual end-of-year episode! We will talk about topics and share object lessons submitted by you: the listeners. Submit your topics or object lessons you want us to discuss by emailing them to [email protected] by Dec. 21.

I once dated a woman whose effect on my life was entirely deleterious, save for that she once expressed horror at the fact I had never read Philip Roth. I finally, after we broke up, remedied the deficiency. It pains me to admit how right she was.

Those of us who believe in American exceptionalism do so because it is a creedal nation. Those who tie greatness to ethnic heritage are little more than undisguised bigots, whose accomplishments in their own lives are so small that they need to look to forbearers for anything of which to be proud.

There 👏 are 👏 no 👏 actual 👏 underlying 👏 principles 👏 in 👏 any 👏 of 👏 this.

I’m a fan of almost all of @dieworkwear.bsky.social's postings, but this statement and (especially) the comments attached betray a real lack of understanding about the FBI’s statutory role, authorities, and capabilities, as well as how criminal investigations actually work.

I suspect not many others will have the same reaction, but I damn near jumped out of my chair when I saw this thread. What a jewel of history for those of us that worked in the field.

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” This novel is a thing of beauty: there is no better phrase, in that the book contains some of the most mellifluous prose ever set down, is constructed with a near geometric precision, and is utterly emotionally devastating.

I’m a fanatic for uncanny fiction, and @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social had done yeoman’s work in bringing some lesser known titles to light. This is one of the best.

As I pack up my library, I want to post some brief notes and comments about certain volumes. Upon learning that we were going to have a baby, this was the first work on child rearing that I purchased.

Happy birthday to one of the greats.

I cannot explain why, but each picture reminds me of the other.

It was not a community to which any of us ever wanted to belong, but at least it’s a community, and that’s the sort of solidarity — which the FBI used to have — that Bongino will never be able to comprehend.

While did not lose my cool — I think — I was a bit saltier than usual. It's important, as charlatans, clowns, and would-be authoritarians leave their posts, that we speak honestly about the damage they wrought, both to institutions and people.

I joined MS NOW this morning to talk about Jack Smith’s investigations, and why the congressmen now coming after him are out of their depth.

When I think of Venice in literature, my mind first goes to Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited,” or maybe a later volume of Powell’s “A Dance to the Music of Time.” But this is a great evocation of the city with James as a starting reference point.

RIP Norman Podhoretz. He made society’s issues his, and ours

The wholly earned loss of "the presumption of regularity" is, like so many things over the past year, actually a loss in state capacity; we’re going to be dealing with the ramifications for at least a decade before we can rebuild.

Well, I watched it tonight, and it was awful.

Every federal prosecutor with whom I worked took immense pride in introducing him or herself as being in court “on behalf of the United States.” Their client is not the president; their duty is not to the White House. They work for the people, and we should demand that they do so impartially.

I’m having flashbacks to some of my old haunts in Silver Lake and Echo Park.

“Incredibly cruel”: Ex-FBI agent @michael-feinberg.bsky.social slams Kash Patel over early claims in Brown University shooting

Today's temper tantrums are pretty easy to understand, given that he’s exactly the sort of person who would have ordered the “code red."

It’s just not the holiday season until we construct the “Hereditary” themed gingerbread house.

Every time the little guy rouses from his nap, and does his little stretching routine, and emits his warbles, the same question always comes to mind: “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

Events like this and the menu at Le Coucou consistently make me long to be in New York.

Because she also recently released an eight volume vinyl set of *all* her jazz work, including collaborations with Mingus and Shorter. (It can also be purchased digitally, but let’s not be barbarians.)

National security decisions always have second and third order consequences, and that is why the people weighing them should be of a serious and sober temperaments. Making these choices based on our lesser passions and baser instincts rarely results in the planned outcome.

The notion that there must be a gulf between literary fiction and genre work is nonsense, and I don’t understand how one can refer to "the hacks at Black Mask magazine” with a straight face when the journal published Hammett, Chandler, and Stoneman Douglas. So much contemporary criticism is rubbish.

The new Knausgaard novel will debut in the United States next month, but few of us here would have discovered him had @archipelagobooks.bsky.social not printed him when “My Struggle” first began to make waves. Please consider supporting their work.

There was a cartoon version of the novel from the 1950s, which even though covertly funded by the CIA, I’m quite sure had a better understanding of the story’s nuance.

1. Belle & Sebastian introducing “Trainspotting” outdoors at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, after which they played a full set. 2. Werner Herzog hosting “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” at the same venue with a freeform Q&A after. 3. “The Searchers” outdoors in Monument Valley just after sundown.

Friday evening’s melody.