The relationship between statelessness and atrocity is a major theme in Hannah Arendt; I make a specific argument about the Holocaust in "Black Earth."

War update: Russia helps Iran resist Trump, succeeds Russia helps Cuba resist Trump, succeeds Trump helps Russia invade Ukraine, fails

Hard for Trump to get out of a war that is making so much money for Putin.

And thus the US government badmouths Ukrainian systems that are battle tested and work. Warmongers is an old-fashioned word but it fits the Trump crew very well.

Notes from the much larger and more significant war: in March Russia gained no net territory in Ukraine, and lost more soldiers than it was able to replace.

This is terrible for Americans and also hurts national security. Increasing the military budget won’t defeat Iran. What is actually called for — under a sane government — would be a systematic defense review with an eye to less expensive systems that are suited to modern war. (1/4)

The joke’s on them because the email reads Protestant Service (No Catholic Mass), when any ex-Catholic fule kno that Catholicism famously doesn’t do Mass on Good Friday. The Stations and Passion, yes. Mass, no.

My upcoming book, Crisis of the Common Good, is all about the underlying spiritual sickness in America - how we have come to worship profit, consumption, and technology at the expense of real meaning and connection. Here are the dates for the book tour.

Remember when Joni Ernst said she was concerned about voting to confirm Hegseth because of his writings & statements which indicated hostility to women serving in non-support military roles, but said she decided to vote for him after he privately assured her that wasn’t the case?

Nothing says “white men are superior” like invalidating the accomplishments of everyone who isn’t a white man so there’s no competition.

I know it’s competing with an illegal war and 10,000 other major scandals but I feel like people should be making a bigger deal out of the DefSec systematically trying to resegregate the military

Made sure I got a photo of her when I was there last week

My uni's head of digital' - previously IT specialist in banking his entire career: 'the future of HE is tech- and process-led, not academic led'. Managers/BoG: 'hook it into my veins'. What we're actually *for* other than sharing profits between senior managers and PA Consulting remains unexamined

‘Today forty nations, led by Britain and France, discussed ways in which they could work to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The United States was not invited to participate.’

What I learned from my first few weeks as a Green MP? Most politicians have no clue how tough things are out there | Hannah Spencer

Trump has turned the Department of Justice into his own personal vendetta machine. And Pam Bondi was happy to go along for the ride. We've witnessed the most egregious politicization of the DOJ in recent memory. And I lived through the Nixon years.

A functional public mail system is indispensable to our communities, but it cannot come at the expense of our postal workers' safety. I met with NALC Branch 9 workers to discuss what needs to be done to ensure safe working conditions for our hardworking letter carriers.

“A growing number of NHS staff are refusing to work on Palantir’s health data platform over ethical concerns about the controversial US tech company” Good www.ft.com/content/dbb6...

Vibe wars are both horrible and unwinnable. See my Sunday piece in Substack. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/u...

Prediction markets aren't just corrupt. They are a sign of our nation's spiritual atrophy - as every moral question became commodified and wagering becomes a growing source of meaning and purpose. My latest substack:

This is what we run on this fall. Also the corruption.

“You’re far more charitable than I am. I think the dude is coo coo for coco puffs! “ Yes, @hcrichardson.bsky.social you’re absolutely right! He is not mentally ok. And since he’s not ok and the GOP is letting him “steer the ship”, what does this say about them? Thank you HCR! #MEPolitics #NoKings

Every day a fresh reminder that leaving the Labour Party was the right thing to do. Factory farming is a moral horror and an environmental disaster, and Labour seems incapable of resisting industry lobbyists in any field. The Wye is a toxic soup thanks to the chicken industry.

So inspiring

The whole Iran war is looking more and more like a gimmick to drop energy sanctions on Russia and pressure Europeans to do the same. A war to make Russia’s much larger war easier and possible to sustain.

We lost a vanity war in the Persian Gulf and created a huge new problem for our allies. And now we say that it is their fault and that they must solve the problem we created.

If we don't discuss the history of the Holocaust, or if we treat it as an event outside of history, then it can be vacuously dismissed, as the judge does here. I try to explain the usefulness of seeing historical patterns in "Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning."

Syracuse is named after a classical Greek city known for its practical and artistic ceramics, a city which is now in Italy. When we kill the humanities we kill self-knowledge. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/n...

I spend a lot of time on here bemoaning the widespread use of AI, but my outrage does tend to overshadow that actually a lot of my students do not use it and are very vocal about wanting to throw themselves off a cliff rather than engage with that slop, and it shows in their authentic writing.

Birthright citizenship isn’t a close call—it’s settled constitutional law. Today’s oral argument made that clear, even as the stakes remain enormous. Here’s what mattered and what comes next. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

If 90% are willing to pay taxes, there's a lot here democrats can use to educate the public. I think Biden was trying, but didn't have the right language. "Taxation is the road to freedom." Give @hcrichardson.bsky.social & @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social a listen. 🗽 www.youtube.com/live/aBcPKrw...

Oh man. 90 minutes of conversation between @hcrichardson.bsky.social and Jon Stewart made my night! 🤍

Congress now has access to unredacted versions of the approx 3M Epstein files that the DOJ has released. Trump is at the heart of the crimes.

You can see pretty clearly when the President decided to reassure a worried nation.

They’re destroying more than fifty research facilities across thirty-one states, labs that house decades of irreplaceable long-term science, the kind you literally cannot restart once it’s gone. #USForestService

It is crazy how few people know this: Russia now occupies less Ukrainian land than it did one month into the full-scale invasion four years ago

Let’s hope SCOTUS reads this clear and concise history of the 14th Amendment and that they put law above their loyalty to one man.

Why would I use "AI," I actually know how to fucking write

GORSUCH: Do you think Native Americans are birthright citizens under your test? SAUER: Ah, I think ... so. I have to think that through.

Hundreds of people outside the Supreme Court for a rally in support of birthright citizenship, as Trump sits inside for oral arguments over his exec order trying to strip citizenship from some citizens. The crowd is currently chanting: "Defend the 14th Amendment! It is ours!"

"We're told the president of the United States has just left the Supreme Court"

The Constitution, not the president, decides who is a citizen.

14th Amendment (1868): “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Seems pretty clear to me.

Todd is the man who was fired for refusing to hand over Eisenhower’s sword to Trump. He’s GREAT at making history fun and relevant on social media. Worth making his dream come true. 🙂

A Dutch court has ruled Grok must stop generating non-consensual undressing images of Dutch residents worldwide and child sexual abuse material in the Netherlands, with €100,000-a-day fines for non-compliance, reports Ramsha Jahangir.

Just reupping this image from my newsletter last week, that I hope people will feel free to save and liberally spred around the interwebs. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

Alex Jones ‘urged MAGA to move on without Trump. “We cut bait on Trump and we mobilize against the Democrats,” he said. “Trump is just a minor figure.”’

Trump has not “given” the USPS special control over mail ballots because that is not a thing that is his to give. PLEASE STOP PRETENDING THAT THE CARNIVAL BARKER HAS MAGIC POWERS JUST BECAUSE HE SAYS HE HAS MAGIC POWERS.

Flowers in a glass vase with a glass frog and a shell, watercolour and Indian ink.