To any Democrat who ever said about any issue, "Maybe if we agree with Republicans just this far, they'll stop there," remember that you were wrong, it was obvious at the time, and you really should never believe that again about any issue, ever.

“To make sense of Trump’s law enforcement operations, it is useful to see the police less as a simple instrument of state power than as a political body in its own right” —@stschrader1.bsky.social

R.I.P. Éliane Radigue, one of the most innovative and radical composers of our century- if you haven’t heard her music yet, prepare for something simultaneously delicate and oceanic. I don’t love the word “genius” but she deserves it.

Soft Pink Truth "Can such delightful times go on forever?". Baltimore music inaugurating Baltimore-designed speakers, Polk Audio ES 20. Can't wait to watch the UFO box! @drewdaniel.bsky.social #CDFriday

My Lord Chief Justice, speak to that vain man.

greetings to all who are headed to #RenSA26 ! I will be taking part in these two sessions on poetry and queer studies respectively- and hope to cross paths with simpatico early modernists- I’ll be the one feverishly buying too many books 📚

I’m putting together a team

Happy to help!

A stunning detail the ICE chief shared in this hearing that was supposed to be a brag, except it isn't: ICE has arrested 379,000 people between Jan. 2025-Jan. 2026 -- but only 8,700 were suspected gang members or known suspected terrorists. That's 2%! www.huffpost.com/entry/latest...

For those interested in why Black & Caribbean people are going off about the sugar cane from last night's halftime show: sugar is a plantation commodity that fueled slavery & colonialism bookshop.org/p/books/swee...

Curious to learn more about Puerto Rico after Bad Bunny's explosive Super Bowl performance? Access "Puerto Rico: A National History," an engaging and surprising history of colonialism, revolt, and the creation of a national identity, on MUSE. https://bit.ly/4bLOp3i

Delighted at the SPT shoutout and @carlzoilus.bsky.social is always cogent! Check him and his crew below:

Hey! Vicki Bennett (aka People Like Us) made a video for the last song on my new album by collaging together a bunch of photographs I have taken over the years - check it out:

Hey folks! Years in the making, my new Soft Pink Truth album « Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? » is out today from @thrilljockey.bsky.social ! Super grateful to everyone who helped me make this happen! ⏳⌛️🕯️🙏

very grateful to The Quietus for publishing this essay- on everyday fascism and the promise and problem of “beauty” as an inadequate but therapeutic response to the ugliness of the present - plus there are some thoughts on disco and Patricia Highsmith- this felt like a risk but I’m glad it’s out

Mood in minneapolis right now

Demonstrators as far as the eye can see. Current status of the march in Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota for Ice Out of Minnesota. They are turning onto 3rd Street from 5th Avenue.

The parents of a 7 year old, all of whom are in the process of applying for asylum, took their daughter to the ER when her nose wouldn't stop bleeding. ICE picked them up near the hospital and they are now in detention in Texas, presumably awaiting deportation. www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...

ICE kidnapped a 5-year-old and sent him alone to a facility in Texas. Hell isn't hot enough.

There’s no turning back now!

HIs notable silence signifies racist aversion but also perhaps an intuitive awareness that King’s legacy is MAGA kryptonite, too strong for him to touch- the civil rights struggle is vivid evidence that the America his base wants to return to was an oppressive era of Jim Crow brutality.

Really moved to see my book about suicide integrated into the Lauryn Youder installation discussed in this article. www.frieze.com/article/arti...

I went to Minneapolis last week. What I saw was horrifying and inspiring in equal measure. Gift link to my latest column: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...

Loving this new book “Tricks” from our living national treasure @dapowell.bsky.social - sad, horny, witty poems that reward rereading

i don't really give a shit if consultants think being anti-ICE is "good messaging" or whatever when people are actively being shot, beat, gassed and jailed.

the problem with an untrained secret police squad that shoots people in their cars isn’t that they’re untrained

My new solo album comes out on @thrilljockey.bsky.social on January 30th but you can hear the last song on the record today: thesoftpinktruth.bandcamp.com/track/undern...

(Sound on)

One lesson from yesterday: "In the eyes of the state and its agents, all of the rest of us are walking around with a standing presumption, not just of guilt, but of murderous intent. Anything but total and immediate submission is domestic terrorism."

FUCK ICE

Terrific thread 🧵

"Maduro is a brutal authoritarian dictator," I wisely intone, as the corrupt demented paedophile US President violating Constitutional Law while operating a gestapo and concentration camps illegally arrests a foreign leader on charges which read like they were written on a paper placemat in crayon.

This is like an ICE kidnapping but on an international scale.

happy NYE from Matmos y’all

So many people were struggling in 2025, I hope 2026 brings whatever you need.

R.I.P. Richard Smallwood, an incredible artist. Fun fact: As an undergrad I was in the Young Inspiration Gospel Choir at UC Berkeley and one semester he was our special guest and taught us to sing some of his songs and arrangements. That concert together in an Oakland church was 🔥

Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable group. “Big tech has made their choice.” www.404media.co/google-has-c...

That time of year again!

Christmas scene report: My brother gave us vintage salt and pepper shakers shaped like washing machines in honor of « Ultimate Care II »

Fine, whatever, this random cat is your new god of the winter solstice

Is this a whale bone that washed up on the beach in Half Moon Bay? @lordchiefjustice.bsky.social shown for scale

If you happen to be looking for bad redactions in a large set of data files today for some reason, there's an open source tool for that.

Their plan is to weaponize fake victimhood in order to drive out trans people from the teaching profession : « religious freedom » arguments always boil down to the freedom to discriminate. The paper she wrote was a deliberate attempt to troll, and it worked like a charm.

spiritual selfie:

"I want people to know what happened to him, a man who lived 30 years here, hardworking, paid taxes, and they treated him like an animal," said Gantchev's wife, who ...fears retaliation from federal officials. "They are so rude to him... They treated him like he was a murderer."

When The Soft Pink Truth lets the violins take over

Yknow it might be a good idea for Dems to counter this any time soon

The White House claims the vote to rename the Kennedy Center was “unanimous.” That is false. I was muted on the call and denied the opportunity to speak or register my opposition. That is not consensus. That is censorship.

R.I.P. Rosa von Praunheim, one of the greatest to ever do it