Turbo Tax. Once again proving to be among the very worst software that I use. Poorly designed, poorly executed. Sucks from beginning to end.

Voted in TX primary election today. More people there than I expected.

the glorious constitutional principle of "the president can't fuck with Supreme Court justices' investment portfolios" stands strong

I can't even last five minutes on this site without feeling myself starting to drown in despair.

It's telling that Trump goes straight to bird kill to support his diatribe against wind turbines, when it's completely obvious to anyone paying the least attention that Trump cares fuck-all about bird kill.

I am going to re-up this a third time: Please read this excellent piece by Lincoln Caplan about why John Roberts—more than Mitch McConnell, more than Stephen Miller or Russell Vought, more than anyone else—owns the destruction of Constitutional order. www.harvardmagazine.com/legal/suprem...

I wrote about a new Nazi party that seeks to criminalize all human virtue, and how that means that human virtue is the greatest weapon against the new Nazi project. www.the-reframe.com/the-crime-of...

www.politico.com/news/2025/10... “It’s pretty vague what the advantages are of signing the compact,” said Teresa Sullivan, the former president of the University of Virginia, one of 9 colleges the Trump administration is trying to court. “If you’re thinking of this as a deal, it’s a one-sided deal.

I’ve seen posts claiming this “truth” is evidence of dementia, but IMO that’s not the right frame. This is strategy. Since 2021, the right has been rewriting history, bending timelines, to connect their grievances (Covid) and conspiracy theories (Jan 6, censorship, etc) to the Biden administration.

If you think you know why US newspapers died, this feature documentary now streaming for free on PBS might surprise you. It wasn't the Internet. Newspapers were specifically targeted by vulture capitalists. I composed the score for the film, which features electric cello & Crowfoot guitars.

Also their linguine will kill you. www.usatoday.com/story/money/...

So today's Substack about the impact of tariffs concluded: "in many ways the level of the tariffs is less important than the huge uncertainty Trump’s policies have created. And that uncertainty hasn’t abated at all." Ya don't say. paulkrugman.substack.com/p/leprechaun...

Yes, because NYT is a fascist institution

🚨🚨 @utaustin.bsky.social is working to eliminate its Black studies, Latin studies, and gender studies depts -- utterly reneging on its mission and depriving students of the full educational opportunities they deserve. Please--scholars AND publishers--share & write to UT leaders. #SaveUT

Pulitzer Prize-winning alum tells UT leadership to stop being Trump's bitch. www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outl...

At the grocery store today. So many spots in the shelves empty. I haven’t seen it this bad since the pandemic.

I know this is left field but this entire line of thought is incredible proof that there is one huge group chat and we’re not in it.

One thing I don't see a lot of game critics really delving into: We all agree that GamerGate and gamer subcultures have been a pivotal component of this current era... But what you don't see discussed is which games shaped those cultures from a literary movement standpoint. Whose voices are these?

Pritzker: "He wants to militarize major cities because he wants us to get used to the idea of troops on the streets. I believe he's gonna post people outside of polling places and if he needs to in order to control those elections, he'll assume control of the ballot boxes & count the votes himself"

genuinely think they are feeding him AI videos

A really old trick conservatives use is to accuse liberals of supporting an idea that would make sense under liberal values but that liberals don't actually support for tactical reasons. So you face a choice of either accepting the false accusation or you argue against your own values.

This is capitulation. Dems need to grow a spine and let ICE do its own dirty work

I spent more than a decade at The Post. It was good to me and I was proud to work there. I’ve largely refrained from being critical since I left. But this framing of the special counsel probe is embarrassing and flatly wrong. Stunning, but not. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Bray is a historian at Rutgers who received death threats after landing on Turning Points USA's Professor Watchlist. As a result, he announced he was moving to Europe. And then this happened. This kind of harassment and abuse of scholars is Charlie Kirk's legacy and it's only getting worse.

NO LOYALTY OATHS IN HIGHER ED! Trump's attacks on our universities are an attempt to consolidate power. This loyalty oath directly undermines our right to academic freedom & goes against every democratic principle our country should uphold. Please click below, sign, & share. #DefendHigherEd

REI is closing unionized stores. So many companies that like to pretend to be progressive remain still virulently anti-union at their core. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/08/b...

Sometimes I think about the time my former boss outright told us three years in advance that he was gonna lock us out for as long as it took to crush our union when our contract ended, and how confident he was that we couldn’t do anything about it.

She’s left us no choice. It’s time for Isaac Chotiner to interview Bari Weiss.

There are a lot of organizations that (I think wrongly) don't let news reporters become editors. That divide is seen as big. The gulf in experience and knowledge here is much bigger. CBS News' new editor in chief is neither a news reporter or editor.

I just bookmarked this and you may want to, as well. 🙄

very cool that if you are working on behalf of right-wing culture warriors, you no longer need standing to have your claim adjudicated by the supreme court

Thugs

Picture here is from 1992. LA riots. Ive seen this called bad news judgment. In any real journalism outfit this is more like a firing offense. I basically say such things. Beyond belief.

The political right's greatest project is discrediting experts. Only in a "do your own research" world can their cultural preferences - anti-abortion, anti-gender affirming care - claim equal legitimacy to the left's medically-backed positions on those issues. SCOTUS is a full partner in that effort

So very excited to announce that as of today the number of Videographic Books in the world has doubled! Check out ADAPTIVE FORMS, Gregory Brophy & Shawn Malley's fabulous new open-access book on contemporary science-fiction - complete with video essays on ARRIVAL, SNOWPIERCER, BLACK PANTHER, etc.!!!

John Roberts’ Constitution: The federal government protecting people’s right to vote or giving them health care violates the sacred principle of state sovereignty but if the deranged POTUS and his bloodthirsty advisers want to use the military to invade other states for being too liberal that’s fine

Vandy AAUP on the Compact. Share widely! "We join the @aaup.org National Leadership in urging the Board of Trust, Chancellor Diermeier, Provost Raver, & the Vanderbilt leadership to completely reject this Trump loyalty oath & any other that seeks to commandeer Vanderbilt’s institutional autonomy."

Feel free to attribute the following to a former OMB General Counsel: The supposed "new legal analysis" is, to use a technical legal term, horseshit. What the law actually says is that when Congress enacts a law ending a lapse, furloughed employees get paid at the earliest date possible. Period.

In which we discuss the Trump administration's higher ed compact as an extension of its use of patronage (which is, in many ways, the opposite of its stated goal of meritocracy). And @profmarkovic.bsky.social plays it coy re his feelings about private equity; see if you can read between the lines!

we’re gonna need a cbs news pitchbot pretty soon

crazy that one of the most storied institutions in american journalism is going to be run by two people with basically no experience to do it

"The logic is straightforward: a modern state cannot function if its bureaucracy operates like John Gotti’s crime family."

"Precisely because they have been losing court cases over free speech and visas for foreign students, Trumpists now seek to entrap universities in a deal that effectively removes the protections of federal law and gives the administration arbitrary power over them."

This is true for students too. Yes there are many factors impacting student reading, but working 30+ hours a week to be able to afford college is definitely one of them.

Delighted news of this is now spreading. Congratulations to my department colleagues involved in the project.

OPINION: "Signing on to the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education offered by the Trump administration would end the school's ability to determine its own future." — The Inquirer Editorial Board

Over 400 faculty and staff from the #uva College of Arts and Sciences convened for an emergency vote. 97% of eligible voters endorsed a resolution demanding President Mahoney refuse to consider the Trump admin's Compact for Academic Freedom!!

It’s important to flood social media and news channels with news about how ICE lies, so that potential jurors see it.