Last night, four acclaimed poets and scholars joined LOA LIVE for a fascinating personal discussion on revered critic and professor Helen Vendler. Watch @notquitehydepark.bsky.social, Dan Chiasson, @kjavadizadeh.bsky.social, and Christopher Spaide reflect on the influence of this towering figure.

Every word of this is correct. These have always been murders, and everyone involved should be prosecuted for murder (or abetting murder).

Same team that has run ongoing, blind-sourced "Harvard About to Cave" series since July now follows up, on why Harvard has not "Reached a Deal" with Trump www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u... Story is framed as just another negot that has gone awry, rather than as basic challenge to acad independence

Another banger of a headline from @nytimes.com. Crushing it, guys. It's the chat that was racist and anti-semitic, not this guy who posted in it.

Feelings About Democracy (Or: Feelings? About Democracy?) I've made a first attempt to write my way through our democratic collapse. More to come.

Could we get some leadership who do follow the news? Like, literally, anyone who follows the news/reads/has a functioning brain. I'm so fucking sick of this bullshit.

Feelings About Democracy (Or: Feelings? About Democracy?) I've made a first attempt to write my way through our democratic collapse. More to come.

First Amendment Alert! From the Crimson White: The University of Alabama has shuttered two student publications aimed at women and students of color and cited AG Pam Bondi’s anti-DEI memo as its reason. thecrimsonwhite.com/125358/news/...

We have the worst political leadership class. Just completely uninterested in taking a clear stance against lawless authoritarianism. I genuinely don't understand this.

Labor unions can recruit working class candidates in red states, run them as independents, fund them with money they now give to Democrats, and use union members as the core of their volunteer base. The numbers are more plausible than you think. www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/how-to-win...

Student journalists continue to do their jobs. Wish their predecessors, now running the major media organizations, did the same. Also, Harvard, what the fuck are we doing here? Not beating the "hedge fund that coddles sex pests/criminals" allegations. How's that Bitcoin investment doing, btw?

Student journalists continue to do their jobs. Wish their predecessors, now running the major media organizations, did the same. Also, Harvard, what the fuck are we doing here? Not beating the "hedge fund that coddles sex pests/criminals" allegations. How's that Bitcoin investment doing, btw?

He's welcome to caucus with the Democrats, along with other concerned senators such as Murkowski, Paul, or Tillis.

It's the latter. It's always been the latter. These are 80+ murders, straight up, no discussion, no legal bullshit, no "laws of war" or "OLC says." These are extra-judicial killings, aka murders. You cannot just kill people on suspicion of criminal activity. That's murder!

Bravo to these protestors.

Behind every one of these insane pardons is a bribe.

Is this MAGA-speak for "We're going to shoot down a commercial flight"?

Your reminder that Stoppard did a pseudonymous rewrite of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This is a great breakdown of his skill:

I’m pretty sure that this agreement prevents “a campus dedicated to free inquiry and open debate.”

Shame, shame, shame.

The clear evidence that these are murders is coming to light, but, frankly, there was never any doubt. Our leadership class that gave the regime the benefit of the doubt here had better seriously rethink their approach. Murders. All murders.

The DC shooting story is really getting to me because we literally trained this man as a child soldier for a death squad in a forever war and Stephen Miller et al want to blame it on other cultures? It's our culture, American culture, that killed that woman.

These are, and always have been, just straight up murders. Everyone must be held accountable. No legal blah blah. No "but National Security!" No "just following orders." These are murders.

Being among the first interrogated and ultimately fired by DOGE, I certainly felt we were facing the business end of a right-wing conspiracy theory 🧵

This is an insightful but deeply upsetting article about why everyone in the US feels poor, and why the current political situation emerges as a direct result. www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...

This. What the fuck are we doing talking about war with Venezuela? Literally: WHY? Everything this regime does is insane and bad, but the Venezuela war talk is particularly outrageous and absurd.

Please read this outstanding short speech by @ryanenos.bsky.social about American civil society and the fight against authoritarianism.

in which the Chief Strategist and Portfolio Manager for Simplify Asset Management discovers how anachronistic & damaging “the poverty line” metric is in the USA— www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...

Vahid Abedini has now been released.

What if Dems ran on sacrificing James Carville's human rights?

Foreign news organizations censoring themselves so as not to draw the mad king's ire. Good job, free speech warriors!

@ryanenos.bsky.social explains why so many people refuse to believe our democracy has been upended by a fascist coup. Yes, the authoritarians have not consolidated their power—indeed, I think democracy is winning! But we cannot stop fighting for one second. And we must hold everyone accountable.

Outrageous.

I mean, sure, you can write 1000 words about why probably no one will get in trouble for these murders. But I say again: these are MURDERS!!! If you have to ask, "Should we be killing these people?" you already answered your question.

One of my favorite things is getting to tell friends who are new to NYC that the subway "stand clear of the closing doors please" voice is a trans woman named Bernie Wagenblast and she's amazing.

Share a 90s movie you think deserves more love.

It's manifestly ILLEGAL. Not "questionable." It's murder. Does no one in our leadership class recognize murder when they see it???

I'm trying to learn about and brainstorm major democratic reforms like this. I think our democratic future is going to look very, very different from our current system.

Since February, according to my latest analysis, almost 600,000 Black women have been economically sidelined. The November 20, 2025, Jobs Report makes clear this isn’t a blip. It’s a structural crisis. That is not a recovery. It is a redistribution of opportunity.

Always option #1.

If you have to ask "Is killing these people legal?" you've already answered your question.

Do you think colleges making lists of Jews on a campus, at DJT's request, is a scary idea? Please sign this petition, organized by Jewish profs at Penn, standing against Penn handing over lists of Jewish faculty or students! actionnetwork.org/petitions/st...

How Trump understands "downsizing" government. Layoff services to the people. Bolster the police sate. Net growth, as the US civil service increasingly looks like a police state.

Add Stephen Miller to the boat murders indictments!

This is discrimination, plain and simple.

For everyone concerned that Mamdani is capable of admitting he doesn't know things or asking for help: How often have you seen a politician say "I don't know what that word/phrase means" *on television*? [The correct answer is: basically never.]

A truly impressive job here, conflating anti-semitism and criticism of Israel and the US' foreign policy towards Israel. Like literally paragraph-to-paragraph he can't keep the two straight.

This is the playbook. Russia already ran it once. It's straight out of Hitler's strategy in Austria and Czechoslovakia.

We're going to win—but we cannot let up until we we've built something better and destroyed this sickness, root and branch.

The misogyny and racism is in everything these fascists do.