Eric Thomas

I've been banging this drum for years. was true during the Biden admin too! while elites hemmed and hawed and delayed for years, juries and grand juries had absolutely no trouble holding trump accountable

People will be mad at me for saying this, but I think we have to do it. Nothing is more important for the future of this country, and indeed humanity, than the app that makes you schizophrenic and helps you forget how to learn. The juice is worth the squeeze.

Yes, Lord of the Rings is about how you must trust the “hard men.” Just as Narnia is about an evil lion. And the New Testament tells a tale of a wimp who wouldn’t fight back. Next week on “fascists read classics,” we’ll meet tech visionary George Orwell…

At Least We Owned the Libs Sure, it was a huge bummer that they cut funding for fixing the streets in our town. We enjoyed going places. But, overall, it’s worth it for the t...

"The water's been brown for three weeks. It's a drag, but I bet there’s an Ivy-educated lib walking around Bushwick in a really bad mood right now. So it's totally worth it." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/at-...

This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems... SIMON: What? SHAPIRO: ...Or saying... SIMON: You imagine that? SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over. SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level. SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this. SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived. ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...

In the spring, the Trump administration abruptly cut $500 million from an emergency food assistance program that delivered meat, dairy, eggs and produce to food banks across the country.

Thousands of planned deliveries were canceled without warning.

And it’s… done! My completed manuscript is in the hands of my very kind editor at U of Texas Press.

A huge thanks to everyone who provided feedback on early and less-early-but-still-mediocre drafts. You know who you are.

Onward! #academia #anthropology #ethnography #patagonia

Making them wear high-visibility vests over camo is such a good joke you couldn’t write it

Trump's red state army threatens America's cities DC is just the appetizer.

New in PN: Trump's red state army threatens America's cities

"What this latest executive order purports to do is to allow Trump to send red state guard members into blue states, shattering the entire concept of state sovereignty."

The D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force established in Executive Order 14252 of March 27, 2025 (Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful), shall establish an online portal for Americans with law enforcement or other relevant backgrounds and experience to apply to join Federal law enforcement entities to support the policy goals described in Executive Order 14333. Each law enforcement agency that is a member of the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, as well as other relevant components of the Department of Justice as the Attorney General determines, shall further, subject to the availability of appropriations and applicable law, immediately create and begin training, manning, hiring, and equipping a specialized unit that is dedicated to ensuring public safety and order in the Nation’s capital that can be deployed whenever the circumstances necessitate, and that could be deployed, subject to applicable law, in other cities where public safety and order has been lost. ( (ii) The Secretary of Defense shall immediately begin ensuring that each State’s Army National Guard and Air National Guard are resourced, trained, organized, and available to assist Federal, State, and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety and order whenever the circumstances necessitate, as appropriate under law. In coordination with the respective adjutants general, the Secretary of Defense shall designate an appropriate number of each State’s trained National Guard members to be reasonably available for rapid mobilization for such purposes. In addition, the Secretary of Defense shall ensure the availability of a standing National Guard quick reaction force that shall be resourced, trained, and available for rapid nationwide deployment.

Today’s Executive Order creating a *nationwide* military “quick reaction force” and setting up an online portal to permit random fascist vigilantes to join soldiers is one of the scariest things I’ve seen in U.S. politics in my adult life. Why is it not getting more attention?

Historian suggests fighting a wildfire with a back burn.

The economy is so good that I'm firing the BLS Commissioner for reporting numbers so grim I refuse to believe them, and also demanding the Fed cut rates typically seen during a recession.

Donald Trump: six months in six charts The US president has had a profound impact at home and abroad with a tumultuous start to his second term

Donald Trump: six months in six charts https://on.ft.com/3IFmGVb

The antipathy for the Department of Education is the most enduring relic of the cause that birthed the modern GOP: not having to go to school with Black people.

Huge fan of yours, Mr. Lander. Thank you for your service and keep making good trouble!

Dude's wanted a military parade for himself for years and he finally makes it happen and turnout is worse than at a medium sized city's farmers market on a rainy day while like 2% of the entire country went out to protest his bullshit

No Kings protest at the Minnesota State Capitol

No Kings protest at the Minnesota State Capitol

No Kings protest at the Minnesota State Capitol

No Kings protest at the Minnesota State Capitol

Despite warnings from the law enforcement not to attend today’s No Kings rally after this mornings shooting of Minnesota lawmakers with the killer on the lose, the No Kings Rally is happening at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul.

Signs from the #nokings rally in Northampton, MA.

60 years of progress in expanding rights is being rolled back by Trump − a pattern that’s all too familiar in US history Donald Trump’s measures ending government diversity efforts are part of a much broader effort to reverse civil rights gains for all Americans. It’s not the first time such a backlash has happened.

Full story: 60 years of progress in expanding rights is being rolled back by Trump − a pattern that’s all too familiar in US history buff.ly/vAyBAlW
- Narrated by Philip Klinkner, Hamilton College

This is about UK universities but the parallels to US universities are very clear. And in the US, our Land Grant university model breaks the ivory tower barriers down even more, through Cooperative Extension (funded by USDA) and USGS climate science centers.

Here Is Everything That Has Changed Since Congestion Pricing Started in New York Fewer cars. Faster travel. Less honking. And some questions we still can’t answer.

Sing it from the rooftops: congestion pricing in NYC is an unambiguous triumph. It is succeeding beyond its backers wildest aspirations & none of the second-order effects people worried about have come to pass.

It's a pure win. Celebrate it! Talk about it! For once, let's own the f'ing narrative.

Agriculture text is out. Will go through it in this thread.

tl;dr: this'd be the largest SNAP (nutrition assistance, formerly food stamps) cuts in history. It would severely worsen food insecurity in America.

Reframing

A list of bad-news headlines wrapped up with an Atlantic article headlined “Why are young people everywhere so unhappy?”

I don’t know man, what could it possibly be?

ACLS, AHA, and MLA File Lawsuit Alleging Illegal Dismantling of National Endowment for the Humanities Lawsuit aims to reinstate NEH grant programs, divisions, and staff.

www.acls.org/news/acls-ah...

Hell yes, ACLS. #savetheNEH

Mohsen Mahdawi, Columbia Student Detained by Trump Administration, is Freed Mohsen Mahdawi had been an organizer of pro-Palestinian protests at the university. The Trump administration had tried and failed to deport him for it.

Great news, apparently it is still not possible to deport someone just because Marco Rubio doesn't like what you say www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/n...

It’s unironically Very Good that every pro-democracy political actor from Angela Davis to David Brooks agrees we need an unprecedented popular front that mobilizes civil resistance to stop the march of tyranny and restore popular rule to our government.

Now, we just have to organize it.

Thank you Senator! Keep pressing! This is ALL unconstitutional!