Jacob Rosenberg

Trump Is “basically shutting down the legal immigration system” In response to the DC shooting, the administration is blocking pathways for rule-following and vulnerable immigrants.

“This is about throwing sand in the gears of the entire system in order to end immigration.”

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Also apropos nothing else, public opinion was turning against Israel before TikTok went mainstream

MAGAZINER: How many veterans have you deported?

NOEM: We haven't deported veterans

MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea

Anduril Partners With UAE Bomb Maker Accused of Arming Sudan’s Genocide Anduril calls itself an “arsenal of democracy.” So why is it partnering with the United Arab Emirates, an authoritarian monarchy to build drones?

"'not since Operation Cyclone,' the CIA effort to arm the Afghan mujahideen, 'has there been a covert action by any nation state to arm a paramilitary proxy group at this scale and sophistication and try to write it off as just a series of happy coincidences.'"

theintercept.com/2025/12/11/a...

'Heather Cox Richardson Stole My Wife' one man’s account of how the prominent substacker helped radicalize his wife and blow up their

when they make a mount rushmore of soy right content, this will be the Washington www.piratewires.com/p/heather-co...

A year of hell for immigrants In the first Trump administration, cruelty was the point. Now, it is the norm.

"Every disturbing news report about a wrongful deportation or military-style raid of an apartment building should come as a reminder that the US government is using its prosecutorial discretion—it is *choosing*—to normalize casual cruelty and overt racism."

RFK Jr. did zero pull-ups at the airport "They count 20, but the number of actual pull-ups done here is zero."

good blog www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

A year of hell for immigrants In the first Trump administration, cruelty was the point. Now, it is the norm.

Much of the current immigration policymaking—if this rampant clampdown and unleashing of brutalizing force can be called that—seems to be now distilled to a simple modus operandi: we do it because we can. My reflection on a year of hell for immigrants and the Trump administration's casual cruelty:

A year of hell for immigrants In the first Trump administration, cruelty was the point. Now, it is the norm.

We have never seen anything like this year.

@isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social attempts to list the many, many, many ways the Trump administration punished immigrants in 2025—and delighted in their cruelty.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Meet the TikTok stars demanding oil companies clean up their mess There are millions of abandoned oil wells across the United States. A group of unlikely activists in Texas is making sure no one forgets they need to be cleaned up.

www.motherjones.com/environment/...

This is Lake Boehmer—a vast, polluted pool of sludge created by an abandoned well in the Permian Basin.

In Jan+Feb issue @motherjones.com, Molly Taft (@mollytaft.com) writes about the unlikely activists trying to clean up old wells: Republican-leaning, former oil and gas workers on TikTok

Aquarium Drunkard :: Year In Review 2025

aquariumdrunkard.com/2025/12/08/a...

Looking back to look ahead. Our list arrives in the spirit of sharing, and we’re back with our annual Year In Review. As always the following is unranked and unruly. Let it blurb.

Meet the TikTok stars demanding oil companies clean up their mess There are millions of abandoned oil wells across the United States. A group of unlikely activists in Texas is making sure no one forgets they need to be cleaned up.

Go read this excellent feature on orphan wells by @mollytaft.com

(And read it to the end!!! because at the end there is a surprise: a sidebar by me, where my editor let me talk about the everything ranging from the 19th century oil boom to 21st century satellites. #ripMethaneSAT)

Meet the TikTok stars demanding oil companies clean up their mess There are millions of abandoned oil wells across the United States. A group of unlikely activists in Texas is making sure no one forgets they need to be cleaned up.

a big new one from me: I profiled a group of neighbors in west texas who have become the face of the abandoned well problem in the heart of oil country for @motherjones.com - an unlikely group of former industry workers and ranchers who are fed up with how Big Oil won’t clean up its messes:

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Mom of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew rejects White House narrative of her ICE arrest In an interview, Bruna Ferreira, who chose the White House press secretary as her son’s godmother, contested the portrayal of her as a criminal, absentee mom.

EXCLUSIVE:

Mom of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew rejects White House narrative of her ICE arrest

www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Indiana won the Big Ten

We're proud to support our nonprofit journalism siblings as they fight for robust safeguards around the use of AI at their publications. At Mother Jones and Reveal, we're hard at work negotiating similar protections with CIR management. Solidarity!

What’s Going On at Beijing’s “Fake Offices”? — The Dial Lavender Au reports on the rise of “pretend to work” offices.

In 2024, social media posts about people going to "fake offices" to "pretend to work" went viral in China. Local news described these offices as ways to keep up appearances and avoid the stigma of being jobless. Lavender Au visited one to see if that was true, and what people did there all day.

Back in November 2024, @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social explained the long Republican plan to get us here www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Border czar’s former clients cash in on Trump’s immigration crackdown “So we’ve been trying to get access to Tom Homan…”

“So we’ve been trying to get access to Tom Homan…”

Pleased to speak with @nickturse.bsky.social.

“Oversight needs to be broader than this one incident. It needs to cover the entire maritime bombing campaign. And it needs to go beyond the Department of Defense. We need to know how this policy was formulated in the first instance.”

Doughnuts and Bullets: The Absurdity of Working for RFK Jr. What happens when your new boss thinks you’re a child killer?

I wrote about the private, intimate, often ridiculous agonies of working for a man who think you’re a monster nymag.com/intelligence...

Trump keeps firing immigration judges Eight New York City judges have been terminated as the White House continues its purge of the courts.

On Monday, the New York Times reported, eight judges serving on the bench at New York City’s 26 Federal Plaza—ground zero for courthouse arrests—were terminated.

This sweeping purge is part of Trump's broader effort to reshape immigration courts to fit his mass deportation agenda.

Elite graphic.

Ready for War | Eamon Whalen Where Charlie Kirk sought to smooth the divisions within the conservative movement, Nick Fuentes wants to inflame them.

For the @thebaffler.com I wrote about how Nick Fuentes and "The Groyper Wars" changed Charlie Kirk
thebaffler.com/latest/ready...

Can K&W Cafeterias' Legacy of Affordable Southern Staples Outlast the Pandemic? The pandemic closed K&W Cafeterias around the Triangle, but its owners say the beloved eatery has what it takes to stick around.

here’s a piece I wrote for @indyweek.bsky.social in 2020 on K&W’s uncertain future: “There can be all kinds of other things to go and see, but if they have a K&W, I love the place.”

(cc: @tressiemcphd.bsky.social)

an annual holiday repost of a blog about my grandma, a great person and wonderful talker of shit

The @theintercept.com is doing vital reporting on how the US is using fake names from Star Trek ships to hide a buildup in the Caribbean of troops to potentially attack Venezuela

theintercept.com/2025/11/25/t...

Peter Mair, Ruling the Void, NLR 42, November–December 2006 The hollowing of democracies, as ruling elites retreat and voters abstain from mass electoral politics. Peter Mair on the paradoxes of its ‘third wave’ triumph and emergence of a governing class beref...

just finished a quick read of Ruling the Void—part of which is hear in NLR—and highly recommend on how we got parties that aren't political
newleftreview.org/issues/ii42/...