Ben SK

Review | ‘Carrie Carolyn Coco’ is true crime through a different prism In looking back at the life of a friend who was fatally stabbed, Sarah Gerard pushes against the typical arc of such a story.

With more Leon Botstein/Bard connections in the Epstein files, I’m thinking about Sarah Gerard’s Carrie Carolyn Coco, which I reviewed for WaPo in 2014. Gerard contextualizes the killing of her friend Carolyn Bush within the larger culture of misogyny at Bard. (gift link: wapo.st/4arzzww)

another edition of our favorite game: what liberal media?

hindsight is 20/20 but maybe selecting university presidents on their willingness to debase themselves for private donor money is related to the current difficulties in defending academia from fascism

Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich

#MeToo didn’t go far enough, actually

Ms. Omar, visibly shaken after the assault, insisted to her staff and security that she would continue. She asked for a napkin and told them: "Just give me 10 minutes. I beg you. Please don't let them have the show." Ms. Omar then turned the crowd. "Here's the reality that people like this ugly man don't understand," she said. "We are Minnesota strong, and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us." Someone in the crowd later thanked Ms. Omar for staying and continuing after the assault, which had shaken not only her but the entire room. "I learned at a young age you don't give in to threats," Ms. Omar said.

Ilhan Omar is an American hero. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

The people of Minnesota have executed one of the most impressive civil resistance campaigns I can remember:

- Organized a city wide general strike
- Maintained nonviolent discipline amidst violence
- Mobilized 10,000s in subzero temps to protest and watch ICE
- Flipped public opinion against ICE

Tweet from Columbia Jewish Alumni Association: "Maybe if Mamdani had grown up in NYC and not Uganda, he'd know that snow days are a cherished part of American childhood"

I think it's really bad that the group that claims to speak for Jews at Columbia University is so grossly xenophobic.

Also - Mamdani did grow up in NYC.

“And therefore, because of this failure, I will resign the immense public trust placed in me by the people of Long Island,” he didn’t add.

part of this is like, conservatives projecting; part of this is conservatives unable to imagine politics without money; and part of this is dudes who are so out of touch with feminized labor that they think children's birthday parties exist as a spontaneous act of parthogenesis

man the stuff i am seeing on IG from
the most normie, i don’t really talk about politics accounts suggests something different

Imagine going to this screening on a night like this one. The blood of an American civilian runs on a Minneapolis street. These people have no shame.

Fuck Tim Cook. He’s a Nazi.

Imagine how much they’d be lying about what happened without all the videos showing it from multiple angles.

The way to reconcile this is their aspiration was always to put down a slave revolt, not fight in one. bsky.app/profile/osit...

I wish Democrats would start just speaking the truth:

“ICE is killing American citizens in public for exercising their freedom of speech because Donald Trump wants to be a king.

This isn’t about immigration—Trump wants to make it illegal to oppose him, and to stay in power until he dies.”

This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.

also when mamdani says affordability he means "your bus should be free and your rent shouldn't be allowed to go up" and when schumer says affordability he means "there should be a means tested tax credit you can get by mailing in the upcs from your cereal boxes"

school being canceled because the president sent armed thugs to harass and imprison the populace for voting against him should be the biggest domestic scandal in american history

The world’s most surveilled, policed, and incarcerating country and we still get people saying we have to pay these guys to keep us safe which should really make you wonder what all that surveilling, policing, and incarcerating is for.

Wow — New YouGov / Economist poll:

46% support abolishing ICE
43% oppose abolishing ICE

This is the first time that abolishing ICE has received net positive support

Renee Macklin Good’s wife says she ‘nurtured kindness’ On Wednesday, Renee Macklin Good was fatally shot by a federal ICE agent. Becca Good, her wife, shared the following statement with MPR News.

On Wednesday, Renee Macklin Good was fatally shot by a federal ICE agent. Becca Good, her wife, shared the following statement with MPR News.

These students are being brutally harassed by their government and still showing more bravery and integrity than most college presidents.

Sadiq by Brian Turner It should make you shake and sweat, nightmare you, strand you in a desert of irrevocable desolation, the consequences seared into the vein, no matter what adrenaline feeds the muscle its courage, no matter what god shines down on you, no matter what crackling pain and anger you carry in your fists, my friend, it should break your heart to kill.

…it should break your heart to kill.

Before we go, I have to acknowledge the ICE summary execution of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. This 37-year old woman leaves behind a young child whose father has already passed away. Like many of you, I'm in a state of shock after watching the two different video angles of the final moments of her life. She posed no danger to ICE at all, they shot her through her windshield anyway, and then DHS Secretary Kristi Noem—in full contradiction of the video evidence—lied, saying that Good attempted to ram the officers. Supported by Donald Trump, she called it an act of terrorism. Well, there was an act of terrorism, and ICE committed it. Justice for Renee Nicole Good.

I’m not going to lie. I’ve been writing about the War on Terror in its depravity my whole adult life. And the brazen execution of Renee Nicole Good has left me in a state since the moment I watched it.

kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life

The end goal of Grok sexual harassment is to make women afraid to be visible. It’s a punishment for daring to exist in a way the perpetrators can’t control. There’s no one solution to this, because the problem isn’t just technological. It’s cultural. It’s misogyny. This is just one expression of it.

He's doing foreign policy like a private equity firm.