Timothy Noah

More here.

Correct.

I'll be writing again soon about the Cohen and the endangered murals inside it by Ben Shahn, Philip Guston, and Seymour Fogel. If you're just tuning in, here's the story so far:

newrepublic.com/article/2010...

newrepublic.com/article/2012...

Trump is remodeling Washington to fit his twisted vision of America | Judith Levine The administration is offloading gems of US architecture while redesigning the city to match the president’s values

The Guardian on the Wilbur J. Cohen building:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Trump White House reportedly moves to demolish it before selling the land:

news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Here's the petition to save the Cohen:

www.change.org/p/save-the-w...

Jared Kushner is part of Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery Paramount is telling WBD shareholders that it has a smoother path to regulatory approval than does Netflix.

Of course there’s a Trump angle.

I look forward to seeing this reported by Bari Weiss’s CBS News!

www.axios.com/2025/12/08/j...

Then why did they make a stink in the first place? Because they didn’t think it through!

10.) Ergo, there is no war and this is all just simple murder. You start tugging at these strings and you have to denounce the legal memo justifying these actions, which has not been made public because it wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny by an 11 year-old. The End.

9.) Except: What’s the war? Are whatever guns would be purchased pointed at US soldiers? No. Are they even used to terrorize others, making them terrorists? We have absolutely no idea.

8.) And if the original crew was unarmed, then killing THEM was a war crime, too.

7.) And if the survivors are unarmed, how do they differ from the original crew, most of them now dead? They were unarmed too!

6.) You are therefore pointing out that the survivors are unarmed.

5.) If you reject the Orwellian argument about the survivors (seeking to be rescued is an act of war—they should have called the Red Cross instead!) you’re rejecting the notion that drugs = weapons.

4.) This is so obviously out of whack with the common understanding about shooting survivors that Republicans are tempted to call it a war crime. BUT

3.) I was an act of war, the Trump administration maintains, because it could result in the recovery of drugs, which are the equivalent of weapons (because money raised from their sale can buy weapons), and ergo equals terrorism.

2.) If you maintain that killing two survivors floating in the Caribbean was a war crime, you reject the manifestly absurd claim that radioing cartel members for rescue was an act of war.

Second Strike Scrutiny Obscures Larger Question About Trump’s Boat Attacks

1.) This piece does an excellent job explaining why Republicans won’t ultimately give Trump a hard time on Hegseth’s war crime. The logic of saying it was a war crime leads you inevitably back to the absurdity of classifying drugs as weapons. To wit:

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...

YouTube video by Saturday Night Live Pentagon Press Conference Cold Open - SNL

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWG5...

ICE dog attack on Vancouver man ‘should shock the conscience,’ Murray says U.S. Sen. Patty Murray called for the release of a Clark County man whose attorneys say was mauled by an ICE dog, despite not resisting arrest.

Dear Republican Congress:

Your guy in the White House has turned America into a police state. Your silence about scenes like this will be held against you in the midterms. How do you explain your inaction to your families?

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

Okay, I watched it. Miraculously, the mic seems not to have picked up my ringing phone. I can't hear it, anyway.

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Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson

PS The Thompson essay is well worth reading: harpers.org/archive/1941...

The December print issue of The New Republic begins with an unbylined "11th Hour" column whose author I am not free to divulge. Suffice it to say I have admired him since birth. It's not online so I attach it here. If you can't make it out you'll just have to buy a paper copy.

Supreme Court to rule on Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship Lower courts across the country have blocked the policy.

What the hell?

www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

Recession Ushers in Widest Income Inequality Gap on Record The U.S. now has the greatest disparity between the rich and the poor within Western industrialized countries, new Census data show. Timothy Noah of Slate magazine and Howard University professor Rode...

Fifteen years ago I forgot to turn off my cell phone ringer before doing a live interview with the late, great Gwen Ifill. I pretended not to hear it. Can you detect the ringing? Gwen told me she didn't hear it but I think she was being polite. I can't bear to watch.

www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

"Kinetic warfare." "Retronym" is a word coined by Frank Mankiewicz, George McGovern's campaign director, to delineate previously unnecessary distinctions. Examples...

The Pentagon has a genius for making acts of violence sound like the quiet tidying of a stack of papers on the surface of a walnut desk. Years ago I figured “kinetic” could never be beat, but “double tap” is just so good.

slate.com/news-and-pol...

SOS A quick review of where we stand on December 3, 2025.

This just in on Backbencher.

timothynoah.substack.com/p/sos

Trump Frees Fraudster Just Days Into Seven-Year Prison Sentence

It’s just wrong to send a white person to prison, especially one named Gentile.

Our president never met a white collar criminal he didn’t like.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/u...

How Sovereign Wealth Funds Grease Trump’s Kleptocracy It’s no wonder Trump wants one of his own.

Oh, THAT’s why Trump likes sovereign wealth funds. My latest.

newrepublic.com/article/2038...

YouTube video by Archive Media Vault "THREE MEN IN A BOAT" (1975 Jerome K. Jerome TV Adaptation-starring Tim Curry, Michael Palin)

This is kind of meh Stoppard; an adaptation of Jerome K. Jerome’s hilarious novel “Three Men In A Boat” with a great cast that somehow fails to be especially funny. I’d always wanted to watch it but when I finally found it on You Tube yesterday it was disappointing.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgwk...

I have now watched this. It’s seriously great.