Husband, father and, really, nothing else matters. Retired publisher & consultant.
It’s such an odd feeling to experience the ruination of one’s country in real time, a feeling closest to bemused dread, a bit like the recently upbraided school bully who knows he’ll have to open.substack.com/pub/phillips...
Is China Going In For The Kill?Trump Has Left The US More Vulnerable Than It Has Been Since 1861open.substack.comAs a NYCer, I’ll admit to a certain amount of trepidation. We’re a prime target
Lindsay BeyersteinI can't stress enough what a crisis this is. Trump's own intelligence agencies concluded that Iran attacked Minnesota's critical infrastructure and Trump is saying that it's Minnesota's own fault and denying it was Iran. The federal government won't defend blue states in a literal war.
The stupidity, not to mention the cupidity, should roil the strongest stomach. We’ve already noted Iranian cyber attacks on Minnesota water supplies. Should our government break all the rules and commit war crimes, Iran will respond without constraint.
Yashar Ali 🐘BREAKING The US and Israel are planning what could be their harshest bombing campaign yet against targets in Iran. The targets include energy infrastructure. There is also discussion of cutting electricity in Tehran. If this moves forward, it would mark the Israeli military’s return to the war.
Native Son here. Born here, raised here, my wife of 56 years a NYCer down to her toes, my kids born and raised here. This is our city. FAFO.
Soraya Nadia McDonald"WE THE FUCKING JUDGE SON" New York, I love you. I love you so fucking much. Via wali_talks on IG
Nicely done by Klonick
Kate KlonickProbably won't get nearly as much engagement as my XKCD-inspired flowchart, but here is the article I wrote for @lawfaremedia.org on the three media narratives of the Hugging Face/Open AI scandal & how lhey shape the regulatory response www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...
Shock-a-Runio!!! Who could have predicted this? Let’s ask Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. They’ll know what to do! I know! Let’s donate to the DNC!!!
Bill Kristol🚨🚨🚨 With the confirmation of Clayton, Trump has loyalists in place at the power agencies who will work to enable his election subversion schemes for 2026 and 2028. They're not incompetent, and they're putting loyalists in beneath them. The threat is far greater than in 2020.
1) Some of us have been saying this since Trump took the oath of office. we’ve been Pooh-poohed since inception. “States run the elections,“ sage ones said. “doomsayer,” said others. The astounding ability not to believe one’s eyes and ears showed up everywhere, despite a clear understanding
Anna O. LawThe document below is a smart, thoughtful, multi-pronged local approach to keep the 2026 midterm elections safe, because we can't pretend that it's going to be a normal election.
1) Bunch is a trustworthy source. I’m with him significant change has to happen, and he’s unfortunately correct right now isn’t the time to do it. OTOH, that may happen regardless. Dems are bankrupt in every way
Will BunchNo, seriously, Dems in disarray We really need to pull an 1850s Whig maneuver and replace the Dems with something better, but I really don't think you can do that when fascism is up in your face www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/u...
Just breath-taking.....and not in a good way. Incomprehensible bad faith, a legal analogue to "ready, fire!, aim."
Inner City PressOK - now hearing on SDNY's subpoenas for reporting about the non-use of the Qatar-gifted jet as Air Force One coming back from Turkey - hearing before Judge Subramanian, who also has Live Nations (and Inner City Press' FOIA case www.courtlistener.com/docket/73400... ) - will live skeet, thread below
1) On the heels of @doctorow.pluralistic.net 's unsettling thread yesterday comes this anguished scream from Prof. Steve Vladek, Georgetown University Law Center. Undoing the damage wrought by the radicalized Right can't be the task of establishment politicians open.substack.com/pub/stevevla...
Bonus 239: The Fifth Circuit's "Precedential Stay" in Sosnava RodriguezThe Fifth Circuit once again did the government's bidding on immigration detention—this time through an unexplained procedural move I've never seen before.open.substack.com👏👏👏👏👏👏 Yellow Dog Democrat that I am, it's a weird feeling to realize my party's deracinated in the extreme. Calls for Cash have replaced statements of principle, and, far more telling, no evidence of life on the streets.
Julian SanchezThis feels grimly accurate. I think for most people, engagement with the party feels like getting on Temu’s mailing list: Just a neverending stream of spam asking for cash and no other meaningful call to be part of anything that might generate any sense of identity or community.
1) Few of us have internalized how much damage has been inflicted on the Federal Government, and, therefore, on all of us. Research is much like learning a language. It depends on a solid foundation of grammar, conjugations, declensions,
Alexander ClarksonIf the American system after 2026 and 2028 elections finds itself unable to repair the damage to research that the Trump administration has inflicted then, however much academics might feel sympathy for US colleagues, the rest of the world will ruthlessly view this as a competitive opportunity
This is as dispiriting a thread as one could imagine because it's insightful and accurate. The failure of everyone - our institutions, our political parties, our economy, and our citizens in aggregate (but not, miraculously, in some locales where the resistance has been ferocious) - is manifest.
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: pluralistic.net/2026/07/22/t... 2/
Ha!
Steve PeersJudge rules Trump must hand over financial records sought by BBC in discovery, in defamation case Trump brought against BBC - www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... There's a basic leverage issue here: Trump's cronies run the FCC & FTC, so he can threaten broadcast licenses and mergers in the US, but not UK
I'd asked earlier what was Mamdani's purpose in again denouncing Netanyahu. After Feds announced Bibi couldn't be arrested, Mamdani used the occasion to proclaim NYC government would abide by Fed decision while at the same time blasting the Israeli PM.
The Associated PressNew York Mayor Zohran Mamdani says that the city will not be able to arrest Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu under a warrant issued by the world's top war-crimes court.
1) Trump's been about redirecting every single dollar within the Federal government to his own personal gain. Employing DOGE to eviscerate most of the government freed money to use for personal gain. The Iran War reflects the same phenomena. He's conducting the war to enhance his personal
Phillips OBrienNew Midweek Update Out (mostly free). The US is weakening itself every day with this war against Iran. It is running down weapons stocks, degrading US institutions, alienating allies and strengthening China. Iranian strategy is proving itself superior. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...
I’m bewildered Mamdani would go here. I don’t understand the politics. He’s the NYC mayor, not Secretary of State. The city he runs has the largest population of Jews anywhere in the world, many, if not most, supporters of Israel. Someone explain this to me as If I were 5……
Mayor Zohran Kwame MamdaniBenjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal.