Jonathan Blanks

Letter to alums Dear Fellow Alumni, Now that the celebrations of our first-ever football national championship are dying down (Will we ever stop celebrating? Time will tell!), it’s time to get back to the serious m...

Fellow #IU Alums,

Please check out this letter (to you!) and join us in pledging to withhold donations from the school until our alma mater takes steps to restore the values it once held so dear.

And share with any alums in your network.

To wit:

bsky.app/profile/anth...

I told KMW to her face that Reason’s chuckleheaded bothsidesism was the proverbial last straw in calling myself a libertarian. She got defensive, but Reason kept Reasoning.

There are some there who still do good work but I’ve been furious at this shameless audacity all morning.

By “immigration” you mean “racism,” as the many replies have already explained the man is a U.S. citizen.

There’s a difference between the rich and powerful usually winning and the rich and powerful paying no costs.

If you take away even weak guardrails, you increase problems.

NFL concussions, forcing NBA/NFL owners to sell teams, NCAA players getting paid. Coverage matters.

You can’t hold power accountable without information. Niche outlets don’t have the resources to do that. Fewer journos=less accountability

He says during the Olympics, about a section of the American economy that has outsized influence on major municipal budgets and is fueling —and increasingly funded by and entangled with—an over-leveraged multi-billion dollar gambling industry that may be bankrupting millions of Americans.

Pass.

A screen shot that is a teaser on Firefox reading "Mark Ruffalo criticizes Kevin O'Leary's criticism of Billie Eilish" from Paste Magazine. Somebody fucking shoot me.

Major papers abandon sports coverage and slash foreign desks, fire all the photogs, what will pick up the slack?

::opens browser::
::stares::
::reaches for hemlock::

Pour one out for every professional political pundit, writer, consultant whatever that has spent the last decade trying to pretend that the Trump phenomenon was about trade or opiates and not a big chunk of white america losing its mind over having a black president bsky.app/profile/kyle...

the thing is the Gateway funding is just not something that can be negotiated on. it's our money. it's appropriated. attempting to trade it for something after it's been appropriated is merely acknowledging that the grounds for freezing it are wholly fictitious. in a sane world, it's impeachable.

Apropos of absolutely nothing: the John Wick club scene is peak US action cinema. The shots, the music, the Thanatos. Absolutely perfect.

It turns out if you purge the majority of the responsible professionals from government agencies you get shambolic results from government action.

Valuing loyalty over competence has costs.

Is it……. Is it the thing we all said when she was nominated

What happens when you make it harder to drive legally in a place with pathetic public transit infrastructure?

YOU GET MORE UNLICENSED, UNINSURED DRIVERS

The State of Florida's war on math, knowledge, and functioning society is both fascinating and horrifying.

I wonder how auto insurance companies feel about this.

I’m back filling in as @zeteo.com’s FIRST DRAFT newsletter author and we have a jampacked schedule this am, for instance:

1) we get into our reporting on how Trump’s Greenland threat is far from over

2) the small Ohio city that’s prepping for Trump’s invasion

3) we…

zeteo.com/p/scoop-trum...

For example, here's @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com today with just a teaser of how we might start thinking about this. It's important! We shouldn't brush it off! But we should be specific. www.liberalcurrents.com/from-powerle...

"I learned how to cop from John Woo films!" This turd, probably.

The cast of SCTV

SCTV is on Internet Archive if you'd like to enjoy the early work of Catherine O'Hara and her fellow sketch comedy gods.

S1: archive.org/details/sctv...
S2: archive.org/details/sctv...
S3: archive.org/details/19-m...
S4-5: archive.org/details/66-s...
S6 + Cinemax: archive.org/details/sctv... #TVSky

Sharing one last time before the weekend.

I’m proud of the work I did this week.

Please support independent journalism however and wherever you can.

Someday—probably after she’s gone—we’ll hopefully be able to have an honest reckoning of Oprah’s outsized, decades-long role in poisoning our culture by elevating and mainstreaming reactionary grifters and pseudoscientific woo woo wellness bullshit.

some Public Service Journalism: I took that Minnesota judge's pdf list of court orders that ICE violated, found all the cases on CourtListener and linked to the dockets reason.com/2026/01/30/j...

Also, yet again, we have 250 years of history, much of it pretty turbulent, during which law enforcement were not afraid to show their faces.

Trump-administration officials and MAGA influencers have repeatedly called these activists “violent” and said they are involved in “riots.” But the resistance in Minnesota is largely characterized by a conscious, strategic absence of physical confrontation. Activists have made the decision to emphasize protection, aid, and observation. When matters escalate, it is usually the choice of the federal agents. Of the three homicides in Minneapolis this year, two were committed by federal agents. “There’s been an incredible, incredible response from the community. I’ve seen our neighbors go straight from allies to family—more than family—checking in on each other, offering food and rides for kids and all kinds of support, alerting each other if there’s ICE or any kind of danger,” Malika Dahir, a local activist of Somali descent, told me. If the Minnesota resistance has an overarching ideology, you could call it “neighborism”—a commitment to protecting the people around you, no matter who they are or where they came from. The contrast with the philosophy guiding the Trump administration couldn’t be more extreme. Vice President Vance has said that “it is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say, ‘I want to live next to people who I have something in common with. I don’t want to live next to four families of strangers.’” Minnesotans are insisting that their neighbors are their neighbors whether they were born in Minneapolis or Mogadishu. That is, arguably, a deeply Christian philosophy, one apparently loathed by some of the most powerful Christians in America.

One thing I found deeply moving about resistance in the Twin Cities was the universalism of loving your neighbor, the philosophy driving the opposition to the ICE/BP invasion. I couldn't help but notice the contrast with the blood and soil-ism of Miller and Vance. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Anti-wokes:We need to get rid of DEI because it promotes unqualified minorities into positions of influence!

Also anti-wokes: Here's Coleman Hughes!

Nonpolitical Media Has Been Flooded With Outrage at Alex Pretti's Murder Anatomy of a turning point.

Why were Renée Good and especially Alex Pretti the ICE killings that broke through, resonating in non-political spaces? Why is this the time the Trump regime's lies failed, and what does it mean for MAGA? Is Minnesota a turning point?

I explore that and more in @liberalcurrents.com.

Every social theory undergirding Trumpism has been broken on the steel of Minnesotan resolve. The multiracial community in Minneapolis was supposed to shatter. It did not. It held until Bovino was forced out of the Twin Cities with his long coat between his legs. The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

JOINT STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JOINT STATEMENT FROM THE DAKOTA/LAKOTA NATIONS OF SISSETON WAHPETON OYATE, SPIRIT LAKE, CROW CREEK, STANDING ROCK, YANKTON SIOUX, AND ROSEBUD SIOUX FORT TOTTEN, N.D.; FORT YATES, N.D.; SISSETON, S.D.; CROW CREEK, S.D.; WAGNER, S.D.; and ROSEBUD, S.D. - January 25, 2026 — The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, Spirit Lake Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and Yankton Sioux Tribe stand together in deep sorrow, empathy, and solidarity with the families and communities affected by recent federal enforcement actions in Minnesota. We extend our deepest condolences to the families who have lost loved ones as a result of recent enforcement activity, including the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old individual during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026. We also hold the people of Minneapolis in our thoughts during this time of grief, uncertainty, and heightened tension. No family or community should have to endure fear, violence, displacement, or separation in the places where they live and work. Our hearts are with all those whose lives have been disrupted or torn apart by these events. Recent federal law-enforcement actions, including the use of lethal force and the taking into custody of an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Minnesota, have caused alarm among Indigenous communities across the Twin Cities metropolitan area. At this time, information regarding potential charges remains unclear. These incidents have intensified longstanding concerns about the safety, treatment, and rights of Native people living in urban areas far from their home reservations. The Minneapolis St. Paul metropolitan area is home to one of the largest urban Native populations in the United States. More than 35,000 American Indian and Alaska Native people live throughout the Twin Cities metro area, representing dozens of Tribal Nati…

harm, yet continue to seek dignity, justice, and safety wherever they reside. From these histories comes a responsibility to seek better and mutual relations, grounded in respect, restraint, and humanity. Our teachings remind us that we are not separate from one another. As Indigenous peoples, we hold the belief that we are all related — Mitákuye Oyás'in. This principle calls for accountability without dehumanization, for justice without violence, and for policies rooted in dignity rather than fear. Indigenous peoples are American citizens under the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, and the federal government carries a continuing fiduciary duty to Tribal Nations as a political class of people. This duty includes safeguarding constitutional rights, ensuring due process, and preventing unlawful detention or harm to tribal citizens — regardless of where they live. While we recognize the strong emotions these events have stirred, we urge our citizens to prioritize safety. We are asking our tribal members not to engage in protest activity that could place individuals at risk of harm, particularly in situations involving armed enforcement. There are meaningful ways to support families and neighbors -through community care, education, advocacy, and mutual aid — that do not expose our people to dangerous confrontations. Our Nations remain committed to ensuring that enrolled citizens living away from their home reservations have access to proper tribal identification. We will continue efforts to expand access to tribal IDs and related documentation, recognizing that identification affirms citizenship, protects rights, and supports safety wherever our people reside. As Dakota and Lakota leaders, we stand united in our responsibility to protect our citizens, honor our ancestors, and safeguard future generations. We will continue to speak with clarity, compassion, and strength on behalf of our people. We stand together. We remember. We endure. Chairwoman Lonna J. Street, Spirit L…

Six tribes have issued a statement telling the feds to stop detaining their members.

The gov’t “carries a duty to Tribal Nations. This duty includes safeguarding constitutional rights, ensuring due process, and preventing unlawful detention or harm to tribal citizens, regardless of where they live”

This is actually the reason I wasn’t emphatic about her seeing it, but have since told her she should

reminder: Don't buy-in to the doomers who say that all is lost. Public opinion still matters.