Jeff Berman

Wandered into Garden District Bookshop on a recent trip to New Orleans and picked up The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke — first in his Dave Robicheaux series. Hard-boiled, poetic, swampy noir. Raymond Chandler on po’boys and chicory coffee. Ripped through it. #Booksky 💙📚

Better late than never in coming to the Murderbot series #BookSky 💙📚

# of paragraphs for news orgs to mention there's no discernable need to deploy troops to Portland, Oregon

The Guardian: 1st paragraph
BBC: 4th paragraph
AP: 5th paragraph
Time: 6th paragraph
Politico: 8th paragraph
NPR: 9th paragraph
CNN: 10th paragraph
NBC: 12th paragraph
Fox News: never mentions

They misspelled Epstein again.

When Joint Terrorism Task Forces were first set up, people predicted they could eventually be used by an authoritarian government to go after political enemies. And now they are.

What starts as a war reporting satire evolves into a riveting character study of a spiraling young correspondent. Incredibly tough needle to thread setting this in Gaza pre-10/7 but deftly handled. Blazed through it. Hard to believe this is a debut novel. #booksky 💙📚

Jackbooted thugs

But if that was ham, a grand jury will indict him.

Don’t let this die. Keep elevating this.

“Abundance contains within it a bigness that befits the American project…. It is a determination to align our collective genius with the needs of both the planet and each other.” #booksky 💙📚

Judge Boasberg was a prosecutor when I was a public defender. We battled. Hard. He is a paragon of integrity. This attack, to use a technical legal term, is just so deeply fucked.

Holds up. Unfortunately.
#booksky 📚💙

Beep beep

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Love this.

Trump's SEC has dropped a major lawsuit against Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange.

This comes just weeks after the Trump family's crypto venture (World Liberty Financial) helped broker a $2B deal between Binance and a UAE state-backed firm.

It's all out in the open.

It’s fine, he’s just got all your personal data. 💊💉

California opens inquiry into Paramount and Trump The California Senate’s move follows a letter from three US senators to the embattled media company.

👀

www.semafor.com/article/05/3...

There is one place, however, where Musk, with the help of his minions, achieved his goals. He did indeed shred U.S.A.I.D. Though a rump operation is now operating inside the State Department, the administration says that it has terminated more than 80 percent of U.S.A.I.D. grants. Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished.

Musk should be asked about this in every interview he does now and forever. To ignore it is a dereliction of duty.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...

Sen. Joni Ernst, after an audience member yells, “People will die,” during her discussion on Medicaid cuts at her town hall:

“Well, we all are going to die.”

Maybe we need US Senators who aren’t actually rooting for you to die.

So many snowflakes.

Arya Sundaram @arya_sundaram DHS agents just denied me entry to the immigration court on Varick St. I identified myself as a member of the press and said I was there to observe. They still didn't let me in, saying I had "no business" there. 11:04 AM · May 29, 2025 · 82 Views

15 min. ago, Arya Sundaram, "migration reporter for Gothamist/WNYC" tweeted:

"DHS agents just denied me entry to the immigration court on Varick St."

That Immigration Court is at 201 Varick Street at Houston St. @aryasundaram.bsky.social of @wnyc.org/ @gothamist.com

Link:
x.com/arya_sundara...

This is a senior Justice Department official.

Who is in charge of pardons.

And also in charge of investigating the “politicization” of the Justice Department.

Trump cut staffing at the VA, and now Dallas vets are waiting months for care.

Surgeries are being delayed. Vets are being left without mental health care.

I’ve called for an investigation—because if you claim to support veterans, act like it.

Axios Pro Rata

AXIOS: Trump's move on Harvard "could hurt America's economy by reducing the number of startup founders. ..

".. Around 44% of U.S. unicorn companies — startups valued at $1 billion or more — are founded or cofounded by immigrants .."

@axios.com
www.axios.com/newsletters/...

Checking in with the BlueSky historians. How has appeasement worked out? You know. Like historically?

Because of course they did.

This “deep state” is in fact the last vestige of a democracy committed to equal rights and the common good in what had become a corrupt oligarchic sham of it. The “unelected bureaucrats” were the only ones listening to and responding to the people.

All dismantled in the name of “democracy.”