Turns out decades of championing individualism was a bad idea. It's a "get yours" society. Not a lot of interest in broader, common objectives. I wonder how things will work out as our resources get tighter?

The cowardice of the elites is a defining feature of America in 2025

Really hope Vought sees some punishment for his term of illegal activities. Right up there with Miller and Homan as people that need to be made an example of. They've ushered in a new era of bad faith government and need to be dealt with seriously.

It's like reading a week's worth of headlines.

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

Censorship is here and it’s come in the form of corporations censoring themselves in order to win favor with the regime.

Explained to my 5yo that I wouldn't respect her taste in music until she listens to Down by the River and Neil's guitar noodling gives her goosebumps. She asked me to turn Paw Patrol up.

Florry coming to the Cactus Club, I like that.

To sum up: the President is not enforcing the law about TikTok access in order to structure the timing and sale of another giant social media platform to his political allies.

What a fucking clown show of a country we've become. The United States attorney general has zero idea or concern about settled First Amendment law. (Never mind the conspiracy-addled goon running HHS.)

Let me guess: it involves selling TikTok's U.S. domestic operations to the right wing Ellison family and Oracle, who'll combine CBS/Paramount/Time Warner/CNN with TikTok to create one of the most effective right wing propaganda machines ever constructed?

It's 100% going to a Trump crony so they can game the algorithm for Trump. It's Twitter 2.0.

Cowardice under a delusion that it is pragmatism.

almost hard to remember when the center and right were having a years-long meltdown about free speech on campus because students protested Milo Yiannopoulos speeches

Godwin's law noted, but this is called "state of exception" and was originally coined by Nazi political philosopher Carl Schmitt. It's in the first chapter of the fascist rulebook. Create an emergency, and you can do no wrong.

It's amazing how clearly and intelligently a wide cross-section of society can speak on guns when they're not beholden to an absolute lunatic asylum of an organization and its money.

Are we there yet? When the very paragon of status quo journalism is discussing the president's pet army and his attempts to take over the economy, it feels like we might be at a pivotal moment. This is an organization dedicated to, above all else, not rankling the masses, yet here we are.

The dude has a lot of weird fixations, but the windmill thing might be the most untethered. He just fucking hates wind turbines for no discernible or logical reason.

Is there a point where the rich, powerful people step forward and try to stop the descent into autocracy, or do they just figure they'll benefit from the new reality?

People cast about looking for an explanation as to why there's long-term declines in Christianity, but shouldn't we credit the public with being smart enough to understand that much of it is a thin veneer on some of the worst political opinions imaginable?

A great iteration from a great Pitchfork series, Sunday reviews. Not necessarily new info for Pavement junkies but some really enjoyable thoughts on their first album.

Me when I was in school: oddly specific that they put this “bills of attainder” thing in the constitution, what is that really for Me now: ah

You think the irony of using "academic hothouses" lands for ole Tom or nah? Because that's clearly loaded, anti-university language. Perpetuates the really bad stereotype that all universities are chock full of salivating radicals. Non-academic folks would be shocked at how normie faculties are.

I feel like the hat is a watershed moment in post-satire. I also feel like it's perfectly representative of the political climate. It's both dead serious and a little joking, and supporters can take whatever they want from it.

Is it the most leading question ever asked? Also, how the fuck are we here?

I don't know Lorenz's whole story, nor do I follow her closely, but she's always given strong grifter vibes. The peripatetic career, always wrapped up in some kind of controversy unrelated to her reporting... I expect a full-on conservative flip at some point. She'll be a mini-Bari Weiss soon.

People are STILL minimizing b/c the worst hasn't happened. Sure, DC now has military checkpoints, but isn't crime bad there? Sure, people are being dragged away by goon squads, but aren't they mostly illegal? Sure, universities and the media are being strong-armed, but aren't they too liberal?

Somewhere in last 15 years or so the belief that longform journalism usually works best as narrative, & that narrative usually works best with fully-drawn characters—vs talking head experts—became an exotic notion, replaced by virtuoso marshaling of damning facts too dully arranged to digest.

Not to mention the whole Leonard Leo-driven court packing scheme being orchestrated by the greasiest, greediest billionaires in the country.

I've just discovered this shitty line of ice cream, and I've never believed in American Exceptionalism until now.

The price of cold brew is TOO DAMN HIGH. It's collusion. It's an international coffee conspiracy.

What makes it all the worse is that the universities are so very clearly in the right. They'll win the court case. Some brave university will have to make the principled stand and tell the Trump administration to fuck off and demonstrate that the courts will find in favor of the universities.

The complicity of Congress in rubberstamping all these utterly unqualified dipshits will long be remembered. And they have the audacity to complain about affirmative action and DEI, as if all of these appointments and nominations have the qualifications to do anything more than run a carwash.

This is as wild as anything Trump has done in his second term. This is government control of the media, full stop. Appalling that CBS would agree to these terms. I'll never understand how so many of our institutions (in media and out) turned out to be entirely spineless when pressured.

It'd be funny if it wasn't material to millions.

It's not binary, Nancy. You can say the Trump administration is clearly hiding something AND he's gutting Medicare/Medicaid. Hammer both points. Dem leadership is a joke.

Happy to see this one get published. Another piece of evidence demonstrating the FOI is increasingly a tool of the powerful. FOI users tend to be whiter, wealthier, more educated, more likely male. Not shocking but certainly disconcerting. doi.org/10.1177/3049...

1. class bias has them defending business interests and the rich 2. sagging ad revenue has them trolling and chasing controversy clicks 3. ownership influence has them normalizing corruption and authoritarianism for access and profit suggesting they're being "gamed" is a misread, I think

Republicans may lie about what's in their budget bill but the numbers sure don't.

Counterpoint: No, they won't. They're all sociopaths.

Worth a watch: Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.

Why sacrifice the university presidency? We've seen time and time again that it's not going to stop Trump's scrutiny and meddling. If anything, it encourages him. These aren't stupid people. What is going on?

RIP to a real one. LBJ asked aides if Congress was trying to fuck him by pressing for the Freedom of Information Act. Yet, somehow--nobody knows entirely what was said--Moyers convinced LBJ to sign the FOIA into law from his Texas ranch, setting off a cascade of modern FOI laws across the globe.

What the fuck

I appreciate n+1, but I've never really understood it. Always confused by the audience. Who wants writing on popular subjects but produced in the cryptic tone of academic scholarship?

Sure makes you think. 🤔

We're reading Magic Tree House right now. It's the most benign (and frankly boring) kids' adventure series imaginable. Shel Silverstein?! Eric Carle?! These joyless freaks won't be satisfied until we're all reading the Bible to our kids at night.

I haven't been this mad at a neighboring state since I looked at a map.

What's the motivation for somebody like McMahon to take on this role? No expertise in the area. No genuine interest in supporting DOE. The salary is insignificant to her. Does she get off on ruining the U.S. education system? High fives from rich friends? Just enjoy being cruel?