A little New Year's ditty for y'all!

Happy new year, everyone! Surely next year will be better, right? Right?

First time I've seen this. This is amazing

A corollary to media grifters inventing a trend: media grifters who point out the bleeding obvious and claim it as a "new trend."

As it happens, I have experience with high-level government demands to stop an explosive, accurate story from running, and I also have experience with 60 Minutes spiking a story I was involved in, so I have thoughts about the travesty at CBS. If you want some journalism anecdotes, here are a lot:

The books I read in December (pictured). The last book I read in 2025: my third read of Jack Kerouac's THE DHARMA BUMS. Total number of books read in 2025: 347 (a new record!)

The last book I am reading (a reread) in 2025. Seems appropriate.

Liberal Currents is doing smarter and far more important work than The Bulwark, which has been completely destroyed by opportunistic grifters like JVL. Their writers clearly offer better, more historically rooted, and less counterfactual takes on the present political landscape.

Transphobes come in two forms. There is the hateful, insecure, grasping at superiority types, but then there is also the "stupid as a bag of rocks" kind:

I think an argument can be made that nearly every working journalist or media type needs to demonstrate fluency in Janet Malcolm's THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER before shooting their mouth off on social media. My essay on that vital volume from 2014. www.edrants.com/the-journali...

Unable to spot a trend, today's media grifters now manufacture them from their GI tracts. This logistical tactic of inventing the narrative is what keeps these dolts in business. No different from Bulwark Bozo claiming fascist MTG as a heroic figure preserving "liberal democracy."

Apparently Americans need to be reminded yet again that we have never suspended elections during a war. Lincoln was reelected during the Civil War (a large part of why we have absentee voting), FDR during WW2. It's never been true, and scaring folks with untrue things makes you not a good person.

RIP Isiah Whitlock Jr. We loved all the characters you played, especially as Clay Davis. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UXJ...

Who will stop the Piano Man's reign of terror?!

One last little essay for 2025: "Why Repeatedly Kicking Jonathan V. Last in the Balls Gives Me Hope." I have had enough with these covert fascists infiltrating all places in media. They all need to be kicked in the balls, if we want to save this country. www.edrants.com/why-repeated...

"Please be kind enough to explain when and where and under what authority you gained access to this material.” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse & Sen. Dick Durbin write letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, asking how she's "read the Epstein files"

Hey, remember when the Senate Republicans confirmed Bove to a lifetime judgeship? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Tut tut, my dear fellow. I am a most sagacious fellow for prioritizing access journalism and all its attendant ethical problems over human rights! And I too shall play the knowing fool and stump for a peer getting ratioed as I open my fresh Vaselined lips to take in Nazi cock for a tremendous story!

Tatiana Schlossberg died today. people.com/tatiana-schl...

Thank you. This smart observation pinpoints why the McArdles and the Lasts of our world fill me with a tremendous blood-curdling rage. These scumbags can RECOGNIZE certain strains of morality, but they NEVER practice it. Because that would involve a modest risk and the grift is too alluring to stop.

New level of anger towards fascists and their enablers discovered today. Achievement unlocked?

Patti Smith by Mary Ellen Mark New York, 2000

If you want to understand why I'd probably pop open the champagne if I learned that someone had stabbed Jonathan Last, here's your answer. The Bulwark is NOT to be trusted. Jonathan V. Last is a Vichy whore fond of sucking Nazi dick. Block this fascist asshole immediately.

If Chuck Schumer cannot resign, maybe some people should dress up as the Baileys, show Chuck to a car, and drive him as far away from the Beltway as possible. Keep Chuck in a locked room for the rest of his days. He is that much of a threat to the future of this nation.

It IS a concentration camp.

Anyone who doesn’t see this potentially happening hasn’t been paying attention. I know the things I spend my time on would certainly put me on lists for this.

The US is at war with Venezuela. No Congressional authorization, no public debate, no clearly stated goal, no casus belli, and a gradual ramp up rather than big opening, so many haven’t noticed (or deny it). But this attack removes the ambiguity. US is at war with Venezuela. With no end in sight.

So Netanyahu met with Trump today and now Trump is threatening to bomb Iran again. Amazing how that happens.

Glenn is among the best at these honest and fairminded considerations of film icons. And his piece on Bardot is definitely worth your time.

Trump guys on Twitter are using Grok to “hunt” daycares in their nearest city to see if there are kids in them and, if there are, if they’re Somali.

I understand and appreciate the work writers and thinkers do in chronicling and categorizing the different conservative movements and ideologies but there should be much more weight placed on “hey these people are all bigots” than is given.

I miss the good old days where you ended up talking to someone very bad for you at a post-midnight hour and you turned psychotic organically.

I just think it’s so much cooler and more interesting to try to be the best audio show rather than the shittiest television show

Some useful data on the last gasps of Christianity in America. The only "god-fearing Americans" left are MAGA hatemongers. White Christianity is now a hate-driven ideology. www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/what-the-2...

10 am. Read 100 pages, biked under 10 miles, studied Spanish and German. Now I'm going to hole up in a cafe and write. Was this easy after an extremely lazy and ridiculously pleasant holiday weekend? Hell no. But if a mook like me can do it, so can you.

It's ridiculous to shift from lazy holiday mode to nose to grindstone for a few days, only to return back to lazy holiday mode. Just give all of America a week and a half off. It's not like we have a lot of holidays or anything.

The shift from "sir this is a Wendy's" to "just put the fries in the bag" indicates a cultural rightward shift; whereas the former is making fun of someone by implying they're a customer doing too much, the latter is making fun of someone by implying they're a *worker* & should know their place

A "reporter" from Rolling Stone posted outright lies about me for a week without a single shred of evidence. So did a WSJ "reporter" who pulled his post after I called an editor. There are numerous bad actors here and elsewhere who are no different from Trump in manufacturing claims and quotes.

The leaders of the Democratic Party do not speak and operate as if the opposition is fascist so why would a voter who doesn’t spend every day hooked on all this think so?

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.

Well, this is a deeply unsettling video that I can't stop watching! youtu.be/cxF_LJnwySY?...

Two weeks ago I spent the whole day at the Museum of the Moving Image to listen to New Yorkers. This is what Liam shared with me.

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.

Jeffrey Wells's answer to "Person, woman, man, camera, TV." Why did I even look? Consider this pro bono for @glennkenny.bsky.social so he gets at least one day off.

I'm glad she has more novels coming. THE WILDERNESS has so many insightful and original observations about the world we live in and was clearly written with glorious painstaking care. It's a stunning followup to THE TURNER HOUSE, which I also loved.

Surely one of the most dubious 'talents' to ever emerge from France, Brigitte Bardot spent most of her days foaming at the lips with unhinged diatribes against Muslims, brown-skinned people, and gays. She had only one skill: inspiring misogynistic film directors to sustain erections.

In short, young people in increasing numbers understand that the "morality" behind modern Christianity is rigged, reflecting a reality that hasn't been true for decades. The same goes for boomer-driven neoliberalism, which doesn't get that the days of walking in and asking for a job are long over.

This was under Trump 1.0, the "kinder and gentler" form of fascism. They obviously have a lot to hide from us. Then again, the MAGA Cult lacks the moral compunction or the critical thinking skils to understand the full extent of what's happening here. 77 million fools who think he's a Christian.

They say imitation crab is the sincerest form of crab