yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.

Could an empire in decline do THIS? *launches deeply unpopular invasion cementing status as lunatic-led pariah state, its not clear what kind of move i was trying to do*

The Dems appear to have coalesced around “Trump admin must brief congress” as their message. what a bunch of feckless boobs.

The invasion of Venezuela is being defended as a law enforcement operation and ”self-defense.” It is neither. It is imperialism, pure and simple. And illegal seven ways to Sunday. www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

A) this is illegal B) Dems actually do have a lot of leverage to make sure it stops, including through the NDAA

I am reminded (as I often am!!) of Caryl Churchill’s MAD FOREST‘s third act, in which a mad man keeps asking ”did we have a revolution or did we have a putsch”

Btw because I can’t help myself: the fred Hechinger stuff in Marty Supreme is very funny (and Hechinger is great!) but it is anachronistic, and a result of the confusion over what Method acting is

Every time they say kinetic my soul dies a little

What a wimp.

Dems should be promising to indict all of these people when they regain control:

I genuinely do not understand how this is supposed to work given that we do not control their territory or military and they still have a government? or are we invading later today? Or what?

Congrats everyone on immediately becoming experts in both international law and Venezuelan politics and history!

It is really funny how there's something you could almost point to as a morally legitimate reason for doing this — that Maduro is not the rightful president of Venezuela — but of course we're justifying it with reference to supposed drug crimes and Trump just blurts out that it's all about oil

i enjoyed MARTY SUPREME to the extent that i can enjoy spending two and a half hours with the worst person imaginable

The conservative mind has been ruled for a generation by the fantasy of a brilliant, principled liberal who is led by the spirit of honest inquiry to a humble, weeping conversion to conservatism. And since that has never happened in reality, they have to pay each other to perform it for them.

Bari Weiss just going all in with these CBS News statements of policy

Here is the editor of Tablet agreeably reposting someone calling nonwhite NYC immigrants "worthless biotrash." It's astonishing how quickly this stuff has escaped containment

Zohran’s inauguration brimmed w/the energy that NYC is “a shining beacon of possibility” per @jumaane.bsky.social. Amidst the darkness of authoritarianism, inequality & hate, we have a chance to show what’s possible. That’s always been our mission as New Yorkers—it was profoundly renewed today.

Unless you’ve had the misfortune of being immersed in online Nazism for years, it’s really hard to fully capture how everything this agency publishes is full-on Nazism

Ah yes the real life of small children who discuss Freud and play Beethoven. And the real life of dogs who fantasize about being German WWI pilots.

BREAKING: After legal setbacks, President Trump says he's dropping push for the National Guard in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland for now.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have broad authority to search the electronic devices of travelers entering and leaving the country. Here are tips for keeping your data safe.

Elon Musk promised a lot of things by 2025 - colonists arriving on Mars - xAI achieving AGI - Tesla robotaxis serving half the U.S. - completely driverless robotaxis - a Tesla Roadster demo - DOGE cutting trillions none of them happened mashable.com/article/elon-mus...

actually these are DeVille-ed eggs. boiled em in the radiator of my uncle's cadillac

You can tell these aren’t by Charles Schultz because they’re funny

How do you unload 400k worth of lobster

This is very odd piece. Among other things I’d just suggest if the only book you can find to praise in your jeremiad is written by a friend of yours, you should maybe rethink your premise: thebaffler.com/salvos/ameri...

Big cities are as safe as they’ve been in decades, and simultaneously fear and racial hatred around crime are driving our politics

A really unfortunate side effect of my kid loving k pop demon hunters is my kid wanting to listen to k pop

Great movie

"The Israeli government, which I do not support, should never face any consequences whatsoever for its actions" was essentially the way most people talked on here from exactly Oct 7th 2023 to Jan 20th 2025.

to the tune of rolling with my homies: 🎶hungover at Pilates🎶

Set One: Buried alive AC/DC Bag Roggae Rift Wolfman’s Brother > PYITE Sigma Oasis> Taste Sleep (Trey on acoustic) Run Like an Antelope

It’s very typical for online discourse but still a little wearying that people got so het up about the Stancil/Abughazaleh thing given that the two of them were able to have a respectful debate about it and make their points.

I know you were all waiting in deep suspense but I have given up on downbelow station. I think ultimately Cherryh is trying and failing to write like LeGuin and the results are way too hard to wade through for what’s supposed to be a political thriller in space

I think one issue I’m having with the chair company is just… many of the things they think are funny aren’t funny. “jeep tours” for example. Not that funny sounding. The idea of doing jeep tours outside a midwestern city is vaguely amusing if you think about it. but then not really.

Continuing the Buffy rewatch (/ first watch with my kid) I am realizing how useful it is for this kind of show to have a super sarcastic guy you can give all the exposition to.

I know it’s supposed to be very good so this is no comment on the film itself but my brain cannot compute that song sung blue is real.

Had a brief moment where I was like “he pardoned a guy who was hiding his whale ancestry?“

Man I got so excited for a moment until I realized the 2012 much ado is the Whedon one

oh brother, another bad post from political influencer beltway brian. i am furious at beltway brian all of the time. i share screencaps of beltway brian's posts with people who have no idea who he is. i hate all of beltway brian's posts and i read all of them every single day, including weekends

This is a good point (as is the next post of mark’s)… it’s also just weird to me that all of a sudden the idea that “cultural impact“ and “amount of money“ made aren’t the same thing is a confusing concept *to critics*

Loving that "British Culture having a moment" is encapsulated in a farting, overweight man coming in and fixing the failures of an elite, out of touch bureaucracy.

A gorgeously-written book about wolves & caribou & cold and warming & indigeneity & how to ask questions & when not to & how to see loss & how to witness the beautiful. I knew Neil just a bit years ago, & know his brilliant prose, too hidden, I thought, in Nat Geo. Here is the work unfiltered.

Found a bookstore that stocks your novels

Theater seats already suck, but now MARBLE ARMRESTS.

my 11 year old’s Buffy adventure continued today with @janeespenson.bsky.social ’s BAND CANDY!

Read about the new scholarship on Spain, then contemplate the fact that Franco was venerated in the National Review from the start, and you hav a skeleton key, opening up the fact that "modern American conservatism" never maintained a meaningful distance from fascism. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

A modest plea that we radically cut down on— or even eliminate!—the word ”centering/centers“ in reviews and cultural coverage. All it does is signal uncritical political checklist thinking whether you mean it to or not.