My forthcoming book is about what happened in America in 2025, when an elected president tried to rule as a dictator. Pre-order here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/818503...
Jacob Weisberg
@jacobweisberg.bsky.social
Reader, Writer, co-founder of Pushkin Industries & Chair of Committee to Protect Journalists
By presenting judging as pure law untainted by politics, Amy Coney Barrett offers a picture so implausible it makes cynics of us all @mgraber1.bsky.social washingtonmonthly.com/2025/11/02/a...
Justice Barrett’s Campaign Biography
Amy Coney Barrett’s book, "Listening to the Law," claims the Supreme Court is above politics. Its very existence proves otherwise.
washingtonmonthly.com
Just finished listening to Season 5 of Michael Lewis' Against the Rules Podcast. It's about sports fandom, and more specifically the modern era of ubiquitious sports gambling and it's one of the best things I've ever heard. 10/10 open.spotify.com/episode/0hvs...
Episode 1: What’s Wrong with Eric?
Against the Rules with Michael Lewis · Episode
open.spotify.com
I spoke with a lawyer from the CFPB to try and get a better sense of what's happening there amidst the DOGE rampage:
Really interesting (and likely telling) parallel here from @nateweisberg.bsky.social: Donald Trump Is Following the Sam Brownback Playbook washingtonmonthly.com/2025/04/28/d...
Donald Trump Is Following the Sam Brownback Playbook | Washington Monthly
Sam Brownback's radical agenda undermined Kansas's prosperity, decimated vital government services, and put a Democrat in power.
washingtonmonthly.com
Heartbreaking story about Trump and Musk causing children to starve to death in Sudan.
Trump’s Aid Cuts Hit the Hungry in a City of Shellfire and Starvation
The stark consequences of the rollback are evident in few places as clearly as in Sudan, where a brutal civil war has combined with a staggering humanitarian catastrophe.
nytimes.com
This is the missing explanation for why so many seemingly sane Republicans obey Trump: physical fear of his armed mob. In the Senate, there are many more cowards than cultists. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/u... via @NYTimes
Senator Lisa Murkowski Makes Startling Admission as Trump Wages Retribution Campaign
Lisa Murkowski, a longtime senator from Alaska and an independent voice in an increasingly tribal party, has been the rare Republican on Capitol Hill willing to criticize President Trump’s actions.
nytimes.com
This entertaining profile of "Baghdad Batya" reminded me of Hoffer's "The True Believer" and the idea that fanatics aren't so much loyal to a particular ideology as they are looking for the emotional fulfillment of belief itself & the high of absolute conviction washingtonmonthly.com/2025/04/09/w...
Who is Batya Ungar-Sargon? | Washington Monthly
A Berkeley-educated leftist who couldn’t bear drinking at a bar with Trump voters is now MAGA’s top defender.
washingtonmonthly.com
Trump’s peculiar genius is for changing the subject from his latest outrageous idiocy to a new outrageous idiocy.
Is MAGA the repudiation of Reaganism, or its apotheosis? Max Boot's excellent new biography provides evidence on both sides. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
The Lucky One | Jacob Weisberg
Who was the “real” Reagan behind the carapace of vagueness, self-delusion, and contradiction?
nybooks.com
February 28, 2025 —a date which will live in infamy—the authority of the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by its own President.
Appalled by the 10-year sentence for Carlos Watson. He was never violent and poses no future threat to society. Six months — or less — would serve the purposes of retribution and deterrence. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/16/b...
Carlos Watson, Ozy Media Co-Founder, Is Sentenced to Almost 10 Years in Prison
A federal jury in July found Mr. Watson, who started the digital media company in 2013, guilty of trying to defraud investors and lenders.
nytimes.com
The Committee to Protect Journalist is on the hunt for a Chief of Staff. It’s a crucial role at an essential organization. @pressfreedom.bsky.social cpjorg.bamboohr.com/careers/80
Chief of Staff
Job Title: Chief of Staff Department: Executive Job Family: Leadership Salary: $165K-$185K Office Location: New York Reports to Title: Chief Executive Officer FLSA Status: Exempt Union Represented: N...
cpjorg.bamboohr.com
Predict Murdochs will be suing each other for the next 30 years. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/b...
Rupert Murdoch Fails in Bid to Change Family Trust
A Nevada commissioner ruled resoundingly against Mr. Murdoch, who was trying to give full control of his empire to his son Lachlan and lock in Fox News’s right-wing editorial slant.
nytimes.com
Cheese sculpture: a truly Midwestern art form. Is that supposed to be a chèvre Noguchi in front of the Prudential Building? www.axios.com/local/chicag...
Aldi's "charcuterie chalet" aims to up your holiday entertainment game
Pop-up features a 20-foot house of salami.
axios.com
This insults France, rewards a criminal, and gives a sinecure to Trump’s own family. Trifecta! www.nytimes.com/2024/11/30/u...
Trump Names Charles Kushner as Pick for Ambassador to France
The announcement elevated Mr. Kushner, the father of President Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law and the recipient of a presidential pardon at the end of Mr. Trump’s first term.
nytimes.com
Market is up today because Trump is naming a Treasury Secretary who is not a sex predator, a conspiracy nut, or a Fox News talking head. But note that his single most qualified pick still falls below the minimum standard of any normal administration.
“CPJ has been studying the authoritarian playbook for silencing the press around the world. In the U.S., as elsewhere, we will follow the facts and remain vigilant. If and when we see parallel moves to curtail the press here, we will challenge them forcefully.” #ipfa @pressfreedom.bsky.social