“The Lord won’t mind”: a great New Yorker profile of David Byrne - by the fabulous Amanda Petrusich. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Note to people in the Philly-to-D.C. corridor: Don’t miss “American Sublime,” the wonderful Amy Sherald retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

A breakfast shoutout to the inventor of the air fryer.

Like your mom always said: You are the company you keep.

Musk and others on the far right are obsessed with things like Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons because they see fantasy worlds as reinforcing their own beliefs about immutable hierarchies of race, gender, and by extension morality www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Epstein Emails say Trump Knew of His Conduct www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...

Precisely because the reopening deal does nothing to extend the expiring “Obamacare” subsidies, the problem at the heart of the fight hasn’t gotten better. If anything, it’s about to get worse. The latest edition of The Breakdown from @citizencohn.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/here-is-ho...

Totally predictable and tragic outcome www.thecut.com/article/draf...

Morning music

You cannot be an honest and forthright critic of bigotry, xenophobia, racism, or antisemitism, and say nothing about Donald Trump. www.thebulwark.com/p/right-wing...

It is hard to come up with a better analogy for whiteness than preferring the AI simulacra of your supposed authentic art form to whatever a Black woman from your art form’s cultural geography might make.

Baltimore 4:32 PM

“Trans Forming Liberty”

“Kingdom”

Breonna Taylor

“The Boy With No Past”

Detail from “Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons)”

“As Soft as She Is”

Baltimore Museum of Art - 1:10 PM

A special good morning to Harley Earl

“woke” is when you acknowledge that black people have contributed to the united states

🏋🏿‍♀️ music

Good morning, Charm City - good to see you

i closed out my column this week with this preemptive jab at basically every commentator currently looking for ways to say that last night didn’t count

The obsessive wokeness panic is about elite labor market competition and prestige. People use a lot of fancy words to obscure this, and offer some substantive criticisms as well, but that’s ultimately its driving force.

During this campaign in New York: I received five home visits from campaign door knockers. All were bright, articulate young people touting Mamdani.

I do think yesterday’s results reinforced the dynamic that while much of the American leadership class is chickenshit, most of the electorate is not

I knew it would take less than a day for a tiktok dj to make something.

ah, perhaps instead of pumping millions into endless factional infighting Dem donors could invest in making local Dem organizations genuine civic spaces that can reach people during and between elections

might it be that cuomo & his bankrollers were inadvertently key catalysts in propelling mamdani’s primary win & ultimate victory? before cuomo entered the primary field in march, mamdani had yet to take off, but his rise began almost immediately & continued to build to primary night. pre-cuomo….

Note to young Muslim New Yorkers: Yes, you can.

“Hope is alive,” Zohran Mamdani tells supporters in his victory speech in Brooklyn. “Hope over tyranny.”

Godzilla has appeared in 47 movies, yet his acting has never improved.

Is he flying to his new home in Florida - or hitching a U-Haul trailer to his muscle car?

Breaking: Zohran Mamdani wins NYC’s mayoral race, capping the Democratic socialist's meteoric rise to lead America's most populous city. 🔗 on.wsj.com/4oUifWC

In honor of my great-great grandmother Somerville Staples, who witnessed the rise and fall of Reconstruction while steering our family out of slavery.

"One manager for a Home Depot location who spoke to me on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information told me sales are down 20 percent in some of the city’s stores." ICE raids are bad for business. www.thebulwark.com/p/scoop-ice-...

A special good morning to Ms. Emma Thompson

one last observation: donald trump has never won a majority of the vote and yet the political press treats him like the embodied spirit of the american people. will be interesting to see how they discount mamdani as representing new york if he wins less than a majority.

How racism works in American politics www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Flashback to the time I got into it with Scott Jennings on CNN because he was claiming antisemitism only exists on the left. I pointed to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye. He dismissed it as “one stupid dinner.” Welp, here we are.

Morning music

They only have time and resources for threats.

“How Have Trump’s Policies Affected US Economic Conditions?”   * Worsened conditions     61% * Improved conditions     27% * Had no effect           12% @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2025/11/03/p...

A special Sunday greeting to Edward Berger

“.. One furloughed Defense Department worker, who visited a Virginia distribution site .. said it was her first time seeking help from a food bank. “I usually donate,” she said. “The roles are reversed.” @politico.com #SNAP www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

Note to Canada: appeasement only makes him worse

The right declared BLM to be a terrorist organization. Now they’re giving this devout white supremacist the “let’s hear him out” treatment. If the purpose of P25, the DEI purging, sending troops to Black-led cities, dehumanizing ICE kidnappings, and Goebbelsesque messaging wasn’t clear to you before

5:35 PM

Yo @tressiemcphd.bsky.social: one of my first trick-or-treaters of the evening!