Marshall Herskovitz
@mherskovitz.bsky.social
Writer, producer, director - thirtysomething, Last Samurai, My So-Called Life, Dangerous Beauty. Let's build a future for our children - and their children. LA, PDX
Great Conversation Live with The Intellectualist today, covering everything from My So-Called Life to income inequality to World War III! Thank you, Brian! Please watch! theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/live-with-...
Live with The Intellectualist
A recording from The Intellectualist's live video
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com
Story that got WAY too little attention last week: Todd Blanche on a call with faith leaders assured them DOJ and WH are “working hand-in-hand" to make sure the "DOBBS DECISION BECOMES PERMANENT IN EVERY SINGLE STATE.” thehill.com/policy/healt...
Blanche pledges to make Dobbs decision ‘permanent’ in every state
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told faith leaders he is planning to roll back abortion access even in states that have laws protecting it. On a private call last week hosted by the Whit…
thehill.com
As Ed Elson & @justinwolfers.bsky.social point out on @profgalloway.com's Prof G Markets... ...disordered psychological thinking underpins the failures of both the tariffs & the Iran war. As I wrote on page 128 of @bandylee.bsky.social's, "The MUCH more dangerous case of Donald Trump"... 1/
Justin Wolfers@justinwolfers.bsky.social · 2w ago“If they make more, we must be making less. If they export more, we must be losing.” That’s the zero-sum story in a nutshell. It’s also not how trade works. https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/the-lawyers-theory-of-trade
1) The moral collapse of the great law firm Paul Weiss perfectly illustrates the fatal difference between capitalism and neoliberalism. Famous for decades for its groundbreaking pro-bono, pro-social victories, the firm-- www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/u...
How a Top Law Firm Went From Standing Up to Trump to Bending the Knee (Gift Article)
Paul Weiss was a progressive stalwart for decades and led the legal resistance against President Trump in his first term. Then it surrendered without a fight. This is the inside story of its transform...
nytimes.com
🎯 @repwalkinshaw.bsky.social : “Any senator who votes to confirm Todd Blanche should know — you’re now part of the cover-up. You’re complicit in the cover-up if you vote to confirm the Todd Blanche for attorney general, who has led the cover-up of the Epstein Files.”
As seen throughout his life, JD Vance is a shapeshifting sociopath. Here, he pathetically mimics not just Trump's persecution complex, but also Trump's cadence and inflection when speaking in the 1st person about himself: "JD" ...and when he says, "...and the media didn't care about that." 1/
The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 2mo agoVance: "I'm trying to be non-partisan…Because I'm speaking to all of you...I've got the angel on my shoulder saying, 'JD, don't be partisan. Make this non-partisan.' And then I've got the devil on my shoulder who wants to talk about every time Joe Biden fell up or down the stairs."
This man, who I understand to be a 17 year veteran, likely just threw away his military career. He is a patriot of the first order.
Maureen Berzanski 🧷🇺🇦🇺🇸🏳️🌈🟧🌊 🐾@moberzan.bsky.social · 2mo agoToday, our friend Jay USAF Major Jason Watson read his oath to the Constitution and demanded that Congress do its job to IMPEACH this President and cabinet. He was arrested on the Capitol steps. #DOOR @defendersofourrepublic.org @removalcoalition.bsky.social @citizensimpeachment.com
1) Further evidence that a growing part of the Democratic coalition has disconnected from reality. The activist screaming in Wiener's face crossed the line from political speech to physical threat. (A threat against a pro-trans candidate-- www.nytimes.com/2026/06/27/u...
Pro-Transgender Candidate Is Chased From a Trans Rights Event Over Gaza
nytimes.com
1) A righteous and necessary Democratic populist economic movement is in danger of being hijacked by extremists who espouse insanity already rejected by 90% of Americans. Dems must decide if they're willing to do the hard work of saving America-- www.nytimes.com/2026/06/24/o...
Opinion | Democrats Are Done With Caution
nytimes.com
1) Today is a day to teach and remember. First and foremost the heroism of those - many our fathers and grandfathers - who waded into hell in order to save freedom from the forces of tyranny. But we must also teach and remember that millions--
1) Piece notes today's average CEO pay is 465 times what workers make. Not noted is that in 1965 - during America's greatest period of growth, when the world's greatest middle class was built - average CEO pay was only 30 times-- www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/b...
Led by Elon Musk, C.E.O. Pay Heads Toward the Stars
nytimes.com
Sebastian Junger is a brilliant writer, a serious person with very penetrating things to say about everyone and everything surrounding the Graham Platner phenomenon. Read this. I JUST HAD BREAKFAST WITH GRAHAM PLATNER open.substack.com/pub/sebastia...
I JUST HAD BREAKFAST WITH GRAHAM PLATNER
Here is what you need to know.
open.substack.com
Remarkable piece by David French should be the basis of a mandatory course in every high school and college in America. If you can't see behind the paywall, the most important sentence is Santayana's: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/31/o...
Opinion | The Fire of Stupidity Cannot Be Contained
nytimes.com
Many lessons can be learned from how Hungary finally defeated Orban. This is perhaps the most important: "They were united by a sense of moral outrage." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/o...
The tech bros gave us crypto currency that isn’t currency, artificial intelligence that isn’t intelligence, and prediction markets that are inside-trader scams. On the other hand, they have given us gigantic data centers that employ no one and destroy communities. So there’s that.
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” Dune (1965) Frank Herbert
You have to actually read it to understand how corrupt this administration really is:
Once again @washingtonpost.com shows how shamefully captured it is by tech self-interest. See below the substance of Trump's EO, perhaps the most reasonable he's ever contemplated, reminiscent of safeguards against nuclear accidents. To WaPo it is unendurable government intrusion. wapo.st/4varGo1
Dreyer never mentions that as an authoritarian state, China's people accept universal surveillance as a normal part of life. Americans don't, and shouldn't. And they're just learning that every time you use AI you're helping to create a universal surveillance state. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/o...
Opinion | Why China Is So Much Less Scared of A.I.
nytimes.com
The secret to understanding AI is simple: the sociopaths creating it are the aliens in Rod Serling's 1962 masterpiece "To Serve Man." youtu.be/Zp_EhjlLGkQ?...
1) Even Newsom misses the point: Firing 20% of white collar workers will leave 14 million highly-skilled people unemployed. At the height of the Great Recession there were "only" 10 million unemployed. But it's even worse. These-- www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/t... www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/t...
California’s Governor Signs A.I. Order Aimed at Protecting Workers
nytimes.com
As the Trump era unravels before our eyes, Americans must reckon with the fact that authoritarianism isn't what did him in; millions cheered his smashing of our most sacred values. In the end we were just lucky. He was more interested in looting the country than in being a dictator.
I’m not sure why this isn’t being mentioned more, but: IRS policy for 50 years has been that the sitting president & VP get audited every year, in an effort to reassure the public they’re not corruptly abusing the office to enrich themselves.
Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 3mo agoTrump and sons to be ‘forever’ exempt from tax audits ft.trib.al/ePJ9DiF
Yes, we must win the AI race with China, just as we had to win the nuclear race. But the nuclear race was controlled and PAID FOR by the govt for the good of the American people. The AI race is controlled by billionaires who only want to beat China so they can make trillions destroying human labor.
National Review@nationalreview.bsky.social · 3mo agoDan Foster: "What's clear to me is we must win the AI race with China. We must, whether it's good or bad." https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-data-center-race/
Rampant corruption. State-sponsored cruelty. The definition of a functioning liberal democracy...
1) Kevin O'Leary is following a 90-year history of right-wing propaganda calling out Communist, Russian, Chinese influence on liberal US movements. To be clear, foreign governments try to influence US politics all the time, but they do it across the board, giving money to pro-Palestinian groups as--
A universal surveillance state is completely at odds not only with the 4th Amendment but the very founding of America. You can't have a free country if your movements are constantly tracked by the government. Just look at China. This idea would have been unthinkable to our forebears. wapo.st/4uc4aXn
AI license plate cameras tore this town apart and led to a state of emergency
In Troy, New York, residents and city officials are at odds over police use of Flock cameras, which some call a safety tool and others see as surveillance.
wapo.st
1) Huge admirer of French, but I think he's wrong in his attack on Platner. There are many American men like Platner, with a history of saying and doing wrong things, and condemning them is ironically more a left wing problem than a conservative one, yet here-- www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/o...
Opinion | The Platner Trap
nytimes.com
