Peter Blitstein

Just one game in the regular season and we would have our starting pitching lined up right. At home. One game. Maddening too!

You don’t know who we just disappeared to El Salvador. Think about that.

American politics makes a lot more sense when you realize that the GOP is afraid of pissing off the GOP base, and the Dems are afraid of pissing off the GOP base, but neither party is afraid of pissing off the Dem base.

Office of the Attorney General Washington, D.C. 20530 March 11, 2025 MEMORANDUM FOR ALL DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES FROM: THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SUBJECT: ENDING PROCUREMENT OF PAPER STRAWS President Trump recognized that there has been "[a]n irrational campaign against plastic straws” that has led to the forced use of nonfunctional, more expensive, and potentially hazardous, paper straws. The Department stands with the President in rejecting these misguided efforts. On February 10, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order, Ending Procurement and Forced Use of Paper Straws (Feb. 10, 2025), that restores reason, saves money, and protects human health and the environment by making clear that it is "the Policy of the United States to end the use of paper straws." The Executive Order additionally directed the heads of executive departments and agencies to "take all appropriate action to eliminate the procurement of paper straws and otherwise ensure that paper straws are no longer provided within agency buildings" and to "take appropriate action to eliminate policies designed to disfavor plastic straws." In accordance with President Trump's direction, it is the policy of the Department to eliminate the procurement and provision of paper straws. The Justice Management Division (and other Department components, if applicable) shall take appropriate action to eliminate the procurement of paper straws and ensure that paper straws are no longer provided within Department buildings. Department components shall take appropriate action to identify and eliminate any portion of policy or guidance documents designed to disfavor plastic straws.

Crucial memo shared with me that was sent out to all Department of Justice staffers tonight from Attorney General Pam Bondi:

The first lesson of Whiggism was "the legislature must control the power of the purse."

The first lesson of classical market liberalism was "trade wars are bad."

The lesson of the first crisis of the 1787 American constitution was "the Alien and Sedition Acts are bad."

The idea of putting mayonnaise on a Katz’s sandwich is abhorrent

It’s a shonda.

Every single right-wing thinker for the past decade: "Liberal democracy is over, when we get in power we're gonna try to do a dictatorship"

Pundits: "I think we can agree Trump is a little unconventional, but perhaps this time he may surprise us"

Many people visit New York this time of year, so I would like to provide you with a helpful tip: find the coffee or bagel or pizza place with the long line outside, and then go about two blocks down the street. It's the other place that you want.

“People in the past did not know what would happen next.”

He was a mensch and a splendid historian.

Meal prepping is like “what if for lunch every day I gave myself a tiny little punishment for being alive?”

Clearly it’s the eclipse.

There are multiple standard systems for transliterating Russian to English, not to speak of different standards for transliterating into German or French. It gets very confusing.