JON STEWART: “So in the FUTURE we WILL use A.I. to cure diseases… but right now it’s mostly murder, surveillance, and surge pricing for the McRib — What a trade! I’m getting the sense you guys might be full of shit.”
Evan Derkacz
@evanderkacz.bsky.social
Editor of @RDispatches.bsky.social (pitch me: evan@religiondispatches.org). Once mistaken for Harpo Marx at a bookshop. True story. He/Him
Don't take the wrong lesson from El-Sayed's well deserved victory in the awful, Islamophobic Michigan primary. AIPAC isn't some all-powerful bogeyman that explains the whole of US politics. It's just a well funded lobby that *lost* a race it DESPERATELY wanted. And it blew $30M in the process 🥳.
Excellent corrective to the ignorance model by @kshwetz.bsky.social. And a Q for the research community: given the power of language, does it maybe make sense 2 move on from the "hesitancy" rubric to clearly distinguish groups w/ hesitancy from those who embrace an ideology that demonizes vaccines?
Katherine Shwetz@kshwetz.bsky.social · 2mo agoOut today! theconversation.com/how-vaccine-...
Perfect that the NYT uses "insurgent" for Dems running from the Left (or far-right Repubs)... and for violent anti-state actors. Sure, it's dictionarily correct, but reveals the Times' obvious disdain for everything but the center (whatever it happens to be at a given moment).
Above all, this decision may reveal their conviction (& the conviction of the right-wing power structure that developed & underwrites them) that it's no longer necessary, for the sake of precedent, to uphold the religious rights of those they despise. They feel free to simply rule unequally.
Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie@audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 4mo agoThe Court's GOP justices love to talk a big game about defending people's religious rights but they really only care about *some people & *some religions A Black man in a Louisiana jail is not one of those people and Rastafarianism is not one of those religions ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/lando...
Please, mayor @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social, I know you've already gotten an earful, but please cancel Thursday's regents... I'd love to have my son with me at the parade!
A now for something completely idiotic. Although, I'll say this for him: he certainly puts his beliefs into action. www.harpercollins.com/products/sui... @michaelhobbes.bsky.social @notalawyer.bsky.social @ifbookspod.bsky.social
Suicidal Empathy
The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood...
harpercollins.com
This interview in @bombmag.bsky.social (by Paul Maziar, whose insight is uncanny) doesn't just make me want to read these new poems again with fresh eyes, it makes me want to marry the person who wrote them all over again. bombmagazine.org/articles/202...
BOMB Magazine | Jacqueline Waters by Paul Maziar
Poems that confont healing and pain with humor and unexpected turns.
bombmagazine.org
Remember when his Sieg Heil was just a gesture of heartfelt joy?
Ben Lorber@benlorber8.bsky.social · 9mo agoYesterday Elon Musk retweeted "white solidarity is the only way to survive". In our numb overwhelmed media environment it barely made headlines that the world's richest man endorsed blood-curdling white nationalism. My brief writeup for @religiondispatches.org religiondispatches.org/elon-musk-ju...
The cowardice, yeah, but the fact that he's taking his cues from Thomas Friedman is just crushingly depressing. It's like cribbing from the test of a C- student.
Alex Ip 葉清霖@alexip718.com · 7mo agoINBOX: It took exactly twenty days for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to walk back his comments describing Israel as an "apartheid" state, a position held by the experts working for the United Nations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch: www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Could there be better confirmation of @laurenhorngriffin.bsky.social's excellent piece on Iran as a meme war? religiondispatches.org/2026/03/06/t...
Trump's War on Iran Isn't About Armageddon, It’s the First Meme War
On Monday, two days after the U.S. and Israel carried out a series of attacks on Iran—dubbed “Operation Epic Fury” by the U.S. and “Operation Roaring Lion” by Israel—reports began circulating of comma...
religiondispatches.org
Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com · 7mo agoThe White House just posted a video mixing real footage from the Iran strikes with a killstreak animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 x.com/WhiteHouse/s...
Europe-focused but just as relevant to US & Trump/MAGA. And this line (about the BBC) just cuts to the heart of the problem with the NYT whose coverage "is all too often shaped by internal guidelines and a collapsing vision of performative neutrality."
Cas Mudde@casmudde.bsky.social · 7mo agoExcellent critique of the media’s normalization of the far right.
So, as you clearly signal that you will throw anyone under the bus that rural Missouri voters deem "not normal," you're humblebragging about your support for same sex marriage? He's clearly another sleazy pol lacking conviction and crafting a message... Voters will see that.
Ahhhhh@nerdjpg.com · 8mo agoI’m sorry please correct me if I’m insane and wrong… but is this newsom saying he “fell prey” to not being “culturally normal” because he was supportive of same sex marriage?
As a Black man with Tourette Syndrome, the Public Advocate has some thoughts on BAFTA, Pt. 1: Hear about his experience with Coprolalia, his thoughts on how BAFTA mishandled the moment, and the need for care for all who are harmed: Full video: youtu.be/FgaqKIxS4Hs
In this weeks Group Threat @victorerikray.bsky.social writes about the resurgence of unabashed defense of white supremacy & colonialism in Rubio’s Munich speech & how DuBois anticipated exactly this over 100 years ago. groupthreat.com/p/the-souls-...
The Souls of White Folk in Munich
Marco Rubio’s speech in Munich yearned for a white nationalist international
groupthreat.com
Darnit, just as the narcissist's rating is among the lowest since the 1930s. Sure. And bravo to The Hill's Dominick Mastrangelo for failing to mention that numerous federal agencies appear to be among Gallup's clients.
Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 8mo agoGallup will no longer measure presidential approval after 88 years thehill.com/homenews/med...
simply one of the greatest calls of all time
I'd love to see @michaelhobbes.bsky.social & @notalawyer.bsky.social cover Gen Z fave: Chan 5 w/ Andrew Callaghan. Not exactly standard IBCK, but I think it'll pique your interest partly bc it's hard to pin down politically (tho not nec in the good way). www.youtube.com/@Channel5You...
Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan
More content on https://www.patreon.com/channel5. Directed, produced, filmed, edited, and created by Andrew Callaghan
youtube.com
The officer who shot Alex worked for DHS for 8 years. The officer who shot Renee worked for DHS for over 10 years. Both are considered “highly trained.” The problem isn’t "training." DHS was built to violate our rights and has been empowered to act with impunity. We must MELT ICE and dismantle DHS.
So my theory that Jonathan Chait is actually an AI project whose sole purpose is to demonstrate how vacuous ideological centrism can be... it's looking pretty convincing right now.
Tom Nichols@radiofreetom.bsky.social · 9mo ago"Newsom’s greatest vulnerabilities may be cultural issues. His tenure has seen the state fall hard for faddish progressive policies on immigration, education, and crime that either didn’t work, violated the intuitions of most Americans, or both." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Democratic leadership are unlikely to ever “find their spines.” But that’s not entirely necessary. What’s necessary is to build so much resistance & so much support for the right path that they’re more worried about not doing the right thing than about taking a risk.
Bill Kristol is urging defunding ICE. BILL KRISTOL. And people still think it’s a political non-starter?
Bill Kristol@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 9mo agoDems should introduce legislation now defunding ICE and CBP operations in Minnesota, so they have to leave the state. One sentence bill. Demand an immediate vote. Maybe refuse to vote for cloture on any funding bills (or other bills) until a vote. Make the GOP Congress break w/ Trump or own it all.
It’s time. I want the see Steve Kerr’s Warriors and Minneapolis’ Timberwolves agree that they simply cannot play this game tonight. A strike in solidarity with the besieged city and its murdered and abducted residents.
They're "too nihilistic" for political classification? Nihilism has long been *the* go-to description of MAGA (incl. in The Atlantic several times). What he means is a data set of 1 tells him that bros. in this standard right-wing movement won't mindlessly vote 'R' every time.
Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 9mo agoThis man's entire job is to classify one-dimensional right-wing movements as far too complicated to place on the ideological spectrum. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
And our highest profile professional opinionators will continue to insist that Democrats aren't dominating elections because of trans people or identity politics or [insert some other Chait-ian, Chatterton-Williamsian hobby horse].
Amy Klobuchar@amyklobuchar.com · 9mo agoThe White House is laser focused on threatening a military takeover of Greenland. Where’s the same focus on lowering costs?
“YORAM HAZONY IS SURPRISED BY BLATANT ANTISEMITISM IN THE MAGA COALITION — BUT ANTISEMITISM IS SECOND NATURE FOR NATIONALISTS” By @benlorber8.bsky.social, 11/21/25 … 1/
Yoram Hazony is Surprised by Blatant Antisemitism in the MAGA Coalition — But Antisemitism is Second Nature for Nationalists
On November 20, Israeli nationalist Yoram Hazony sat down for an interview with conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat to offer an explanation for the rise of antisemitism on the MAGA Righ...
religiondispatches.org
Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.