KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN is on @criterionchannl.bsky.social and ... it's really good.

Union protections, man.

Gene Marks, as ever on the side of the little guy. thehill.com/opinion/tech...

This half-counts, right? youtu.be/h1J_DVutL-w

Is it too late to go back and blow up their bridges to the 21st century? You know, like Belgium did to keep the Germans out at the outset of WWI?

I think of this as the @daveweigel.bsky.social rule. (Which I follow imperfectly.)

There's a lot to envy about the parliamentary system, but the two-term limit on presidencies is helpful here in one respect: A prime minister's term can pretty much only end badly. Nobody leaves 10 Downing Street while they and their party are still broadly popular. nytimes.com/live/2026/02...

Last movie post today, promise: Watched THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE and PHANTOM THREAD last night on the same cinema screen. I've always thought complaints about modern film lighting were overblown. I was wrong. ANN LEE was very hard to see. I thought it was projection. But THREAD was easy to watch.

Yeah. *Some* libertarians warned you. A few others jumped on the bandwagon!

"The Epstein class" is a global rot In Europe, ties to Jeffrey Epstein are ending careers, sparking spy probes, and possibly toppling governments In America, not so much. How the lack of elite accountability became the tipping point for democracy. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/jeff...

Related: You're a "habitual" movie-goer if you see at least six big screen movies a year. ANN LEE and PHANTOM THREAD were my fifth and sixth movies @libertyhall.bsky.social so far in 2026. Which means I can skip the rest of the year and still be a habitual Liberty Hall attendee. #filmsky

I'm not going to "sportsball" at you but I will say we did a big-screen double feature of THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE and PHANTOM THREAD @libertyhall.bsky.social tonight instead of football and I'm ... pretty satisfied with my life choices.

One of the takeaways here is that there is real value in going to the cinema to see an adult-minded film instead of yet another CGI spectacle.

Make America Great Again (dismantles America's soft power) Make America Healthy Again (consumes only fat and cholesterol) Make American Cancer-Free Again (covers self in toxic sludge)

(Nods.)

More movies should just come to a halt in the middle for a sublime musical interlude. youtu.be/jkCiRSDPIzk?...

(Nods.)

Watching A NIGHT AT THE OPERA with the teen and he loves it and I feel like this is one of my top three parental accomplishments.

Though one has to wonder what data tells you to get rid of sports coverage

Juggling: The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman Bubbleball by Ben Golluver

The “favorite dad movie“ thread this week inspired me to pick this up. $5 on ebay. Worth every penny. I love this movie so much. Cc: @jonshorman.bsky.social @bilgeebiri.bsky.social

You heard about the prosecutor defending ICE who broke in court said “the system sucks. This job sucks.” She isn’t the only one frustrated. Philly’s federal judges are reaching to Greek mythology metaphors to express their frustration. 🧵 www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

4/ I suspect Lemon and Fort will have less trouble because this is the kind of high-profile case lawyers love. But “just go independent,” even if you can make the revenue work, leaves the average indie journalist exposed. Newsletter folks talk about lawyer and insurance cost worries all the time.

Melania finally came to my town. No one is at the matinee.

This pessimism and anger. So unusual in Philadelphia sports fans.

Interesting journalism opportunity in Kentucky. couriernewsroom.bamboohr.com/careers/265

last time I paid any attention to the Olympics was the Mitt Romney Olympics. Am I missing anything?

This is a BIG deal. Not just another L for the DOJ here, but one clearly laying out that the DOJ is not entitled to the presumption of regularity, meaning courts treat the DOJ's claims as skeptically as they'd treat anyone else's, rather than usual deferential standard

Was driving my kids to school and the first thing on the radio was reporting about Trump's video depicting the Obamas as apes and I think many people still don't fully appreciate what it means to have to raise Black children in a country where the president is so brazenly and consistently racist

Sometimes you provide context through story placement, even in the digital age:

Not to put too fine a point on it, but... Going to the Super Bowl after you decide to cut the sports section is a choice, and not one that reflects well on the exec who does it.

At least the guy who filed this is now basically running the FBI.

My latest, on Missouri's AG filing suit to keep undocumented migrant out of the Census count: It's gerrymandering by other means.

If state legislatures cared *at all* about privacy & safety, they’d pass building codes requiring public bathrooms & locker rooms to be single-occupancy. I wonder why they don’t (The best thing you can say about this terrible bill is that our Governor will probably veto it) #ksleg

I was told the singular problem is the selection of adverbs typically contained in a New York Times headline.

"The Trumpist wager is that the U.S. can behave like a rogue state while continuing to lord it over others indefinitely through sheer strength." daniellarison.substack.com/p/trumps-pre...

(Welder who is really into Death Cab) Bah-bah This is the sound of acetalyne…

Warrantless searches & arrests. People detained without charges. People detained after a judge has ordered their release. This is not law & order, friends.

I love my video store-slash-arthouse movie theater.

Did something bad happen in 2020? abcnews.go.com/Business/wir...

Ellmers argues that Trump should make ICE goons as murderous as the real SS stormtroopers so that wine moms won't dare disrespect them.

Instead of taking the layup right in front of him to adhere to New START limits, he will do nothing and kick the can down the road. It's like his blather about a "better deal" with Iran. He pretends to support a future agreement that will never exist to cover for his opposition to the existing one.

In two weeks, say.

Trump's pardon attorney is going to need a pardon attorney.

Make Dems the Wife Guy (Complimentary) Party Again

Once you see "flooding the zone with shit" as Trumpism's SOP not just in the media sphere but with every institution that might hold it accountable, you start to see it everywhere.

Yesterday, I spent an extra 20 minutes doing my very low-impact cardio workout. Basically walked a little more. Today: My left hamstring is incredibly stiff. Middle age, man. I don't know what to tell you.

Huh. waysandmeans.house.gov/2026/02/04/s...