Michael Feinberg

Be well, stay safe, and talk to you in a few weeks.

A handful of you will know why I’m feeling this sort of sentiment; I’m not going to explicate why for others, and hope no-one does in the comments, either. Suffice to say that I have a sense of optimism — however wary or fleeting it may turn out to be — which has been gone for quite a while.

...so that, before we really know where we are, life seems to have begun in earnest at last, and we ourselves, scarcely aware that any change has taken place, are careering uncontrollably down the slippery avenues of eternity."

"This is perhaps an image of how we live. For reasons not always at the time explicable, there are specific occasions when events begin suddenly to take on a significance previously unsuspected...

Anthony Powell’s works are rarely far from my thoughts, but over coffee this morning, I was inspired to hunt down the precise wording of this quote from the second volume of his magnum opus:

Simon & Garfunkel always said selling the rights to this for a song was one of the dumbest things they ever did, but the Cyrkle took it places they never could.

YouTube video by Drag City Silver Jews "Random Rules" (Official Music Video)

This morning’s mood and aesthetic, not the least because it was filmed partly at Chicago’s Rainbo Club, where my friends and I spent a good part of our dissolute hipster twenties.

‘Clinton Plan’ Emails Were Likely Made by Russian Spies, Declassified Report Shows

The sad and fundamental truth is that neither the Obama administration nor the Clinton campaign took Russian electoral interference seriously, meaning that now, a decade on, Russia’s man keeps trying to prove that he’s not.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/u...

I’ve seen them, and forced my wife to watch the first one. I’m skeptical about the upcoming remake, but the fact that it stars Peter Dinklage gives me some hope…

A perfectly painted vulgar picture.

I can totally get behind ventless blazers! It’s just the single vent I can’t abide.

Another word for “anticipatory silence” is “cowardice.”

His ability probably is not subject to debate, but I’ve personally been present for him bragging that he does not like to read, for any reason whatsoever.

I hope that those of you who never worked in the USIC can get as big a smile from @johnsipher.bsky.social’s post as those of us who’ve been there did.

I’ve been quoting a Camus line from “The Fall” quite a bit this week in private conversation. It’s not a fortifying sign that he’s become so applicable of late.

The Enduring Power of “The Rules of the Game” Jean Renoir’s tragic farce, from 1939, scathingly denounced French society’s frivolity amid threats of war and fascism.

Jean Renoir’s “The Rules of the Game,” released in 1939, is a vision of looming catastrophe, of authoritarian menace from within as well as from without, and of the diabolical complicity of France’s privileged classes, @tnyfrontrow.bsky.social writes.

YouTube video by The Kennedy Center Bruce Springsteen - I Hung My Head (Sting Tribute) - 2014 Kennedy Center Honors

I will see you Sting covering Springsteen, and raise you Springsteen covering Sting (cutting out, of course, the Johnny Cash middleman interpretation).

The shoes are far from the only issue. I’m more offended by the wearing of French cuffs — traditionally on the more formal side of suiting — with a sport jacket.

Don’t get me started on the fact that the coat is probably single-vented, which is just a woven token of vulgarity and barbarism.

I prefer to think of it as a sort of Bove-multiverse. Every time he had a chance to do the right thing, he did not, thereby creating another whistleblower, similar in form and structure to the past ones, but ever so slightly unique.

A perfect album from when I was sixteen? That’s an easy call.

Huh. If only there were publications by such people; maybe we could call them The Bulwark or The Dispatch. Perhaps some of them could form nonprofits named The Society for the Rule of Law or Home of Brave. Would that such a world were possible!

I don’t disagree!

I literally just said that I have zero desire to be conflated with the Republican Party. I’m not sure in what sense you think I’m living in denial or that I think it could return.

Um, I’ve been pretty clear that I consider *myself* a conservative. Please don’t conflate all of us with today’s Republican Party.

Agents carry guns for a reason, and wear body armor for a reason, and, yes, learn to fight for a reason. But those are simply the tools of their trade, not accessories to make them look cool.

Patel does not understand the difference, which is why most of the workforce has utter contempt for him.

FBI agents actually do dangerous stuff: there is never a morning where, in some city, a squad or SWAT team is not risking their own lives to arrest someone actively causing harm to his or her community and neighbors.

I don’t want to sound like I’m presenting a paper at an MLA conference, but there’s a real element of performative masculinity — not based on their actual accomplishments or abilities — in a lot of what Patel and Bongino say and do.

And to be clear, I say this as someone who *likes* fighting; I was a competitive boxer even when I was practicing law. But just because something looks cool or is an enjoyable hobby doesn’t mean that it makes tactical sense or comports with DOJ polices and goals.

This was one of Patel’s dumbest ideas. The goal of a UFC fight is to force your opponent into submission, usually through ground-fighting. If an FBI agent is engaged in hand-to-hand combat, the primary goal is to momentarily incapacitate your adversary, gain distance, and draw one’s weapon.

Here at the full comments which were on my mind when I noted that. They’ll prosecute white collar crime when doing so reinforces other priorities, but view their role as to very much assist the business community.