Danielle Kurtzleben

ICE’s Detention Center outside Chicago was sued on October 30 for allegedly abusing detainees. One day later, a "system crash" lost all video footage that could have shown how detainees were being treated. trib.al/QwT3aqI

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

I had a follow up! She didn’t call on me!

Q: What did the president mean when he called a reporter "piggy"?


LEAVITT: Look, the president is very frank & honest with everyone in this room. You'll all seen it yourself. You've all experienced it yourselves. And I think it's one of the many reasons the American people reelected this president

This whiteboard is raising a lot a questions answered by this whiteboard.

Yes but also Ralph can do no wrong. I'll allow it.

Page One in Iowa.

Yeah I know it's essentially "perfect is the enemy of the good" but also it has the word "dinger" in it so it's more fun.

One of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten from an editor:

"They don't all have to be dingers."

Six years ago, after watching my circle of friends surrender one too many evenings to insurance wrangling and doctor portals and DMV confusion, I emailed them a proposal: Come over next Tuesday. Grab a six pack. And bring your bills, your credit-card statements, your school forms, the streaming services you need to unsubscribe from, the airline miles you need to manage, the expenses app you need to figure out. I’d be throwing the lamest party ever. At the heart of this party was a truth that has gone under-acknowledged in recent years: We’re all sinking. We’re sinking into a quicksand of tiny, dumb administrative tasks. It is the most tedious quicksand imaginable. Tasks once accomplished with a quick phone call now require logging into a new website, which requires remembering yet another password. Disputing a charge means arguing with a chipper chatbot, or submitting to an hour of brain-melting hold music—call volume higher than expected!—only to be disconnected.

This is...sort of brilliant.

My old econ journalist ass keeps reading that mortgage-backed securities are getting a warm black-tie welcome at the White House today. Wait why would you do that?

“…..and ANOTHER THING!”

(Also possible I’m misunderstanding what constitutes the “files”…)

This is NOT to say don’t release the files! Just that it seems like sorting through them would be a cluster with potentially many unintended consequences and maybe innocent victims!

So ok isn’t there a thing where you don’t release raw intel?

By which I mean: yes releasing Epstein files means knowing more truth, means justice for victims, and those things are great.

And also…do we know that the files don’t contain a bunch of speculation, rumor, unproven information?

Merely a “messy situation”! It’s fine!

If not the GOAT, definitely a GOAT. True Grit is on heavy rotation on my Spotify.

Ugggghhhhh I hate it here

Satirizing what? Making what point?

Emergency Feel-Better Kit A step-by-step guide to pulling out of a spiral...or just riding it straight to hell

Anyway I months ago wrote a post about how to deal with life when your porch goose starts talking to you mid-nervous-breakdown. Time to reup it: daniellekurtzleben.substack.com/p/emergency-...

Important news: Wally the porch goose is trying to find the guy that did this.

I guess i have my next newsletter.

There's a whole thinkpiece to do on that period when people were writing articles about "how to win arguments with your relatives at thanksgiving." And how it happened WAY BEFORE ANY OF [WAVES ARMS] ALL THIS. WE'RE ARGUING NOW AREN'T WE?

I…uh…did the Crimson get her OK to publish her name?

Ok but then for me the question is: is it disproportionately women? Like if women make up 40% of GOP voters but are 50% of qanon people, is that there?

Anyway I may be entirely barking up the wrong tree. Also I suppose QAnon was not entirely about trafficking.

Fun thing is, harassment and discrimination still exist in workplaces! Never left! Hooray!

The Missing Kayaker What happened to Ryan Borgwardt?

One of the wildest magazine-piece rides I've been on in a while: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Do NOT read anything about this before going in, do NOT skim ahead. Just go with it.

You sir are awesome.

It’s a scream-constantly kind of week.

Never forget that just a week ago, Ross Douthat and the NYTimes were asking if women ruined the workplace.