If I were editing a college president’s guest essay about the importance of colleges hosting “difficult speakers,” I would ask her to clarify how her argument squares with her history of expelling students for protesting, and why speakers should be treated better than her own students.

“This is just the beginning” — US Attorney Pirro

Sanders's first resolution -- SJ Res 41 -- would have blocked the sale of tens of thousands of fully automatic assault rifles to the Israeli government. It failed 27 to 70. Thank you to these 27 who voted YES. www.senate.gov/legislative/...

Abughazaleh: I am from one of those families. I do not want Israeli children to live in fear. And I don't want gazan children to starve to death. And there is no enemy of either state that could want me to wish that or excuse the starvation of children. It is that simple.

I truly intended this just as an email and not a public thing but fuck it we ball. The New York Times is not alone in its culpability but it is deeply culpable and its near-monopoly status in our blighted American media ecosystem allows it to do what it does.

They deemed this story newsworthy b/c the NYT & many of its elite white readers are still obsessed with race-conscious college admissions. Now after finally winning at SCOTUS anti-affirmative action folks can only attack it retroactively. That’s why this seemed like a “story” worth risking it all.

All of which to say: I can see why a political young man like Zohran might fill out his college application the way he did. Because if you are like me, you struggle to be known in this country. Our visual sorting is so simplistic and quite brutal.

I’m biracial (US dad, Ethiopian mom US born) and moved to Kenya at 4, had lots of Kenyan Indian friends, families there generations. When I moved to the states I didn’t know I was Black or have any idea of the American binary concept of race until someone called me the n word.

this guy would squash Gillibrand like Shin Godzilla

in search of someone who looks at me the way brad lander looks at zohran mamdani

I’m really excited about this — and about the chance to work with Allison Lorentzen and the entire @vikingbooks.bsky.social team!

Dr. Joanne Liu was set to speak at NYU Langone Health, a hospital affiliated with her alma mater. Then, she says, a university official told her it was being canceled because the presentation on humanitarian crises could be perceived as antigovernment and antisemitic.

Honored to have How the Word Is Passed included on Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of the Century list alongside so many writers I love and admire. www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-fea...

As Audre Lorde told us, “Your silence will not protect you.” The Center for Journalism & Democracy is hosting an evening of powerful dialogue about our eroding democratic and press freedoms with a powerhouse slate of speakers. Information is the currency of freedom. Join us.

A few years ago I visited the National Museum of African American History & Culture with my grandparents. When we stepped out of the building my grandmother kept repeating the words “I lived it. I lived it. I lived it.” She’s still here. That history is still in her bones. You can never erase that.

I have hope for the future because of the kids. If you’ve never heard of DAYLO, get to know them. They are amazing! @penamerica.bsky.social pen.org/south-caroli...

Almost a year ago, we were writing this letter. It gives me no pleasure to observe how accurately we assessed the situation and predicted the outcome if no one changed course. www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2024...

every college, corporate, and nonprofit president right now

American politics makes a lot more sense when you realize that the GOP is afraid of pissing off the GOP base, and the Dems are afraid of pissing off the GOP base, but neither party is afraid of pissing off the Dem base.

An inspiring article on courageous community college leaders who are *publicly* organizing and standing up against DEI attacks.. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

"To our knowledge, no major university leadership has publicly denounced the attack on Columbia or Mahmoud Khalil. In the face of an open assault on a peer Ivy League institution and basic principles of free speech, Harvard remains silent." www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

I really enjoyed chatting with @aliahanna.bsky.social about my unorthodox career path for her newsletter:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex condemned ICE’s detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, calling it a “tyrannical” move. “If the federal government can disappear a legal US permanent resident without reason or warrant, then they can disappear US citizens too."

This is the dark heart & power of the war on terror discourse: its capacity to magically transform political expression into terrorism, and therefore deny an entire class of speakers the right to speak. We are seeing it play out aggressively in real time right now and it is terrifying.

Perhaps this is a lesson that compliance won’t save you.

SCOOP: WaPo Opinion editor David Shipley is out. Jeff Bezos emails staff about a change to Post Opinions: "We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets."

A new McCarthy era is upon us. Stupid, depressing, and dangerous as ever. I wonder whose name will carry the dunce cap in the history books. Too many are complicit. I’ll need to find upset and action, but for now I’m feeling grief at the dehumanization inherent to all this.

LAST CHANCE for an early bird discount to Mapping the Maze for Creative Nonfiction Writers. Let's demystify the process to publication. Presented by Kevin Larimer, @aliahanna.bsky.social, @jordankisner.bsky.social, and @meghanor.bsky.social Register: at.pw.org/nonfictionmaze

The absolute glee some are displaying in blaming Palestinians, and people who protested on their behalf, for their own ethnic cleansing is a strategic error (obvs you target the decision maker), a political error (obvs you need those votes), and a moral error (obvs fix your hearts or die).

Trump has signed an executive order eliminating all funding for diversity and inclusion in the federal government, sending home DEI staff who will then be laid off. The historical echo for this is when Woodrow Wilson resegregated the federal government in 1913. We have reached the second nadir.