Jonah Blank

Somebody REALLY hates free bus service.

When shaking a foreign leader's hand, Xi Jinping always looks as if he'd rather be doing absolutely anything else.

But, man:

Fallout of #Epstein scandal:
♦️Actual prince gets stripped of royal titles, evicted from home.
♦️Fake prince receives no penalty, prepares to expand rental home with massive golden throne chamber.

Verifiably true.

Actually, seeing a man of color, getting scared, and calling The Police, is pretty typical racist behavior

It was.
(For China).

Clearly, the new CEO of CBS News is not an actual human.
He is a 1980s album-cover rendered into humanoid form.

Will she be given painkiller?
Or will RJKJr forbid it?

Hey, Jong-Un! You up?

'sup with not answering my texts? Trying to 👻 me? LOL!

Fer-real, tho-- 📲 🤙🏼 me?

I'm in Da Hood-- can swing by.

Like, just gimme a call? Can B there in minutes (I've got my own ✈️!)

Leaving soon...

[10 min later]
Hey boo! Maybe you didn't get my texts...

That statement is correct: “tariffs are taxes”- on us! Trump keeps raising our taxes. And Congress should stop him.

I'm shaking almost too hard to type. I entered SLC airport and heard screams and cries for help. I could see people gathered around, watching. I sped over to discover this woman face down on the floor, four grown men pushing her down, while she cried "HELP ME" and pled for her child.

Heartbreaking, and VERY ominous:
♦️Heartbreaking for the man and his family: They will be in mortal danger if forced to return to #Afghanistan.
♦️Ominous, because the Administration's contention-- ie, the Taliban now pose no threat-- could send tens of thousands MORE back to certain peril.

There are only two reasons to test nuclear weapons:
1. To make sure they work.
2. To show other nations that you have them.

The US has had no need to do (1) for three decades, or (2) since 1945.

Trump is planning to start detonating nuclear weapons purely as an ego-flex. Because, of course he is.

As soon as I read "The print version..." I assumed the next words would be "...is ending its run."

Which is NOT what happened.

Glad to see @bostonmagazine.bsky.social is thriving-- and growing! (A million years ago, they ran the very first profile of me as an author. Would link, but pre-Internet).

I'm Andrew Cuomo, and I approve this message.

(Not the multimillionaire who used to have a fancy job in Albany. Just plain ol' Andy Cuomo-- electrician in Bensonhurst. No idea why anyone is asking my opinion about politics).

Killing 104 #Palestinians in a single day sure sounds like the war has already returned.

Earlier today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on yet another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) in the Eastern Pacific. This vessel, like all the others, was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. Four male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel—and killed—during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. No U.S. forces were harmed in this strike. The Western Hemisphere is no longer a safe haven for narco-terrorists bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans. The Department of War will continue to hunt them down and eliminate them wherever they operate.

Another illegal US maritime strike—again in the Pacific.

Against a vessel allegedly operated by an unspecified "designated terrorist organization."

Four reported fatalities—dubbed w/o ID or evidence "narco-terrorists."

There's a word for premeditated killings outside of armed conflict.

I staffed Joe Biden a lot longer than KJP did. I too have enormous respect and affection for him.

I was late to the he's-got-to-step-down camp: I joined after The Debate.

I'd be really interested to hear a case for why the Dems should've stuck with him.
♦️KJP makes the absolute worst case possible.

If you tried to come up with the absolute most embarrassing, self-pitying, refusing-to-even-address-any-of-the-vital-issues defense of keeping Joe Biden as the Dems 2024 nominee...
...you couldn't produce a more pathetic example than that of KJP.

Who got paid a fortune to expand THIS into a book:

This brings the cumulative tally of anonymous civilians executed in international waters recently to a total of:
♦️As many as Donald Trump wishes to kill.

Does anyone know what Cuomo's dad did for a living?

Having lived through it: Yes, most 80s music was awful.

BUT:
♦️The Clash
♦️Public Enemy
♦️NWA
♦️Bowie
♦️Kool Moe Dee
♦️Pogues
♦️Pixies
♦️Violent Femmes
♦️Sonic Youth

Indonesia’s new capital, Nusantara, in danger of becoming a ‘ghost city’ State funding for the project has plunged, while construction has slowed and few civil servants have been eager to move away from Jakarta

Three years since former president Jokowi launched the ambitious new capital in Kalimantan, meant to replace polluted, congested and sinking Jakarta, some fear Nusantara is in danger of becoming a glorified ghost town www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

I've long been #NeverBloomberg. For every single office.
Here's another reason:

DOJ managed to spell Kat Abughazeleh's name wrong 3 of 9 times they use it in the same document

The alleged ceasefire in #Gaza-- for which the press has largely accepted Trump's framing as a Nobel-worthy world-historical achievement-- achieved only one tangible thing: Return to Israel of all 20 living hostages.

Today, Israel killed five #Palestinians for every hostage returned.

Just today.

His Pod Save America interview was VERY thin-skinned.

I was primed to be a big supporter (hence a post of mine that aged very poorly, about how Dems should support him-- I left it up rather than try to rewrite my own history). But I'm expecting more disappointments to come from him.

It's tough to get a handle on Gallego. Sometimes he looks too much like the senator he replaced: too crypto-cozy, too eager to cozy up to MAGA.

But then you get moments like this:

True.

Platner's response could have been: "I had no idea! I'm mortified and ashamed. I hope I won't be judged by some dumb things I've done at some low points in my life."

Instead: "How DARE anyone criticize me about anything I've ever done? They should be damn grateful I'm even IN the race!"

My take, FWIW:
♦️Fear of donors: Represent the people. If they can't do that, get out of public office.
♦️Object to Mamdani's views on Israel: Then say so.
♦️Fear of GOP ads: Stop being such damn cowards. The ads are already there.

If Dems don't fight, they'll never win.
And won't deserve to.