Why the greatest deliberative body in the world was no match for the “extreme anchoring” negotiating technique Roy Cohn taught Donald Trump. My latest. newrepublic.com/article/2139...

How Cornyn and Tillis Got Played by Trump

Todd Blanche’s nomination moves forward, thanks to the art of the outrageous demand.

newrepublic.com

My story about the threat posed by Trump's Grand Prix 250 prompted a wave of criticism on Bluesky from Indycar fans that I've now addressed with a correction and an extended update. newrepublic.com/article/2137...

Why Trump’s 250 Grand Prix Is a Really Bad Idea

It isn’t smart to host an Indy 500 race that roars past six museums and a sculpture garden.

newrepublic.com

The Washington Post I know would have run a piece explaining why its opinion editor lasted only a year despite giving Bezos the moronic libertarian propaganda he demanded. It would have contained denials from management but would have explained what’s up. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Adam O’Neal departs as Post Opinions editor after a year

O’Neal helmed a revamp of the section in a directive from Post owner Jeff Bezos.

washingtonpost.com

More Margo. www.npr.org/2026/08/01/n...

Opinion: Remembering Margo Howard

Margo Howard had a lot of life experience and used it to offer advice for years as "Dear Prudence" for Slate. She died this week at the age of 86.

npr.org

Timothy Noah@timothynoah.bsky.social · 6d ago

Bon voyage to Margo Howard, longtime gossip columnist for Slate and daughter of Ann Landers. She was one of a kind. May her memory be a blessing. It is to me. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/28/m...

Jeanine Pirro’s motion to dismiss charges against the Olympic rower she accused, absurdly, of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool is theoretically written for the judge, but really it’s written for Trump. That’s why it’s all about blaming Interior. Pathetic. www.washingtonpost.com/documents/d4...

Good news about the Cohen building, the Trump-endangered "Sistine Chapel of the New Deal" timothynoah.substack.com/p/wuxtry-wux...

Wuxtry, Wuxtry! Trump De-Lists Cohen!

This is not a complete rescue, but it's a very welcome reprieve.

timothynoah.substack.com

Around the National Mall is what may be the densest concentration of precious historic, scientific, and artistic objects in the United States. Trump is hosting an Indy 500 race around it that will create potentially damaging vibrations. My latest. newrepublic.com/article/2137...

Why Trump’s 250 Grand Prix Is a Really Bad Idea

It isn’t smart to host an Indy 500 race that roars past six museums and a sculpture garden.

newrepublic.com

Bon voyage to Margo Howard, longtime gossip columnist for Slate and daughter of Ann Landers. She was one of a kind. May her memory be a blessing. It is to me. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/28/m...

Margo Howard has died. She was babysat by Elizabeth Taylor, thrice divorced, and a longtime writer of ‘Dear Prudence.’ - The Boston Globe

"My answers are going to come from my experiences," Ms. Howard once said of her approach to the family trade of penning advice columns.

bostonglobe.com

Tom Ricks on the only thing anybody wants to talk about, Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey." Subscribe to Backbencher. It's free, for crying out loud! timothynoah.substack.com/p/an-old-war...

An Old War Correspondent Admires Christopher Nolan's "Odyssey"

Combat trauma isn't superimposed on Homer's narrative; it's there in the original.

timothynoah.substack.com

How the French do oligarchy. My latest, on Le Monde’s newspaper series about Bernard Arnault. newrepublic.com/article/2135...

Turns Out France Has an Oligarch Problem Too

Le Monde relates the adventures of Bernard Arnault, ninth-richest human on the planet.

newrepublic.com

While I wasn’t looking my Slate piece about how your psychological reaction to summer camp explains your character for the rest of your life turned 20 years old. Next year it can drink! Here is my, I guess, 19th annual summer repost: slate.com/news-and-pol...

You Are How You Camped

If there's a more reliable Rorschach than sleep-away camp, I'd like to see it. How you responded to being shipped off (often at an appallingly tender...

slate.com

Welcome to Donald Trump’s garrison state. Lafayette Park is sealed off by black fencing, denying visitors more than a glimpse of the White House. The ostensible reason is to allow the National Park Service to perform repairs, but, peeking through, none seems underway or particularly necessary.

The ACHP approved the Section 106 proposed change Friday. It will be published in the Federal Register in the next few days and a 30-day public comment period will follow. Call your congressperson. As I write in the piece, giving Trump this power is like handing an arsonist a box of matches.

Michael Tomasky@mjtoma.bsky.social · 2w ago

From @timothynoah.bsky.social: The administration has given a regulatory green light to miners, oil drillers, and Trump himself. trib.al/o0UEsdE

Those stupid Scowling Trump banners were also No Bid. www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

Docs shed light on DOJ spending for Trump banners

The multistory banners of the presidential visage have also attracted congressional scrutiny.

politico.com

Timothy Noah@timothynoah.bsky.social · 2w ago

As real estate tycoon Trump favored competitive bidding. As president, not so much. The results are predictably shoddy. My latest. newrepublic.com/article/2132...

From @timothynoah.bsky.social: The administration has given a regulatory green light to miners, oil drillers, and Trump himself. trib.al/o0UEsdE

Trump’s Latest Plan to Sell Your History Out From Under You

The administration has given a regulatory green light to miners, oil drillers, and Trump himself.

trib.al

The National Museum of American History will now be surrounded by Trump administration signage warning that inaccuracies dwell within. Name one, Mr. President. Your Domestic Policy Council’s heavy-breathing report didn’t name any. www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...

Trump orders warning signs near Smithsonian, escalating fight over history

President Trump issued an executive order Friday to install signage and exhibits near the National Museum of American History, warning visitors of "inaccurate information."

washingtonpost.com

Just received this email to my New Republic account: How come you liberals are always whining, complaining and bitching about everything. If you're having such a miserable life, why not just kill your family and yourself? Believe me, nobody will miss you. Another satisfied customer!

Corporations are getting presidential pardons. Oddly, this is happening even though criminal prosecutions of corporations have been declining for years. If corporations are people they’re really pampered people. My latest. newrepublic.com/article/2133...

Trump Invents the Corporate Pardon

Presidents never did that before, but the Supreme Court says corporations are people.

newrepublic.com

In a sort of Endist Gotterdamerung, Foreign Policy magazine publishes TEN essays in a single issue about the “End of” thus it that. The Atlantic, eat your heart out!

The End of the World as We Know It

Ten essays on what has been lost.

foreignpolicy.com

Trump is laying waste to America's collective patrimony. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's proposed revisions to the Section 106 process, which are expected to be approved this week, would in effect hand a box of matches to an arsonist. My latest. newrepublic.com/article/2132...

Trump’s Latest Plan to Sell Your History Out From Under You

The administration has given a regulatory green light to miners, oil drillers, and Trump himself.

newrepublic.com

cleanup on aisle 5 www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Dear Christopher Nolan: Please hire a scriptwriter for your next film because although you’re a great storyteller your dialogue is bad. The low point in “The Odyssey” being Matt Damon saying quite solemnly “Our Bronze Age is coming to an end.”

As real estate tycoon Trump favored competitive bidding. As president, not so much. The results are predictably shoddy. My latest. newrepublic.com/article/2132...

Donald Trump, the No-Bid President

The trouble with competitive bidding is that it gets in the way of corruption. Our president knows how to solve that.

newrepublic.com

I just saw it in Bethesda, Md., with Beth Frerking and Dave Wood. It’s a movie about the perils of metaphor. You try to get home but you’re impeded by sirens, lotus-eaters, Scylla and Charybdis, etc. This is why I try to keep metaphors out of my copy. Nothing but trouble.

John Schwartz@jswatz.bsky.social · 2w ago

One minute into The Odyssey, a fire alarm went off. We’re all waiting outside, for the all clear. How many years before I see my home again?

Freddy Cannon, RIP. (Chuck Barris, game show producer and “Gong Show” host, wrote this song.) m.youtube.com/watch?ra=m&f...

NEW * Palisades Park - Freddy Cannon {DES Stereo} 1962

YouTube video by Smurfstools Oldies Music Time Machine

m.youtube.com

With “The Odyssey” in the news, here’s a performance by Hattie Morahan of Tom Stoppard’s final work, a deliciously tart monologue titled “Penelope.” It begins at 1:02:39, though the preceding discussion with Stoppard and Oxford classicist Emma Greensmith is interesting, too. youtu.be/IjGGu5lEots

The UK Première of Penelope by Sir Tom Stoppard

YouTube video by Classics for All

youtu.be

‘Pulte got really scared’: Inside the White House debate over Trump’s elections speech www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

‘Pulte got really scared’: Inside the White House debate over Trump’s elections speech

Acting director of national intelligence Bill Pulte, a favorite of the president's, had at one point pushed to reveal the names of intelligence officials accused of concealing election interference fr...

politico.com

What is Christopher Nolan’s Homeric epithet? “Devotee of 70mm” “Muddier of soundtracks” “Maker of arthouse blockbusters” None of these quite work. Suggestions welcome.

Our president is quite obviously senile and represents a danger to our country. If his Cabinet had any backbone (or weren’t nuts itself) it would remove Trump under the procedures of the 25th amendment regarding an incapacitated chief executive. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/17/u...

Takeaways From Trump’s Speech Claiming Election Vulnerabilities and China Interference

Documents released by the Trump administration to support the president’s claims did not back up his most aggressive statements.

nytimes.com

An ingenious shareholder lawsuit alleges the Ellisons violated their fiduciary duty by bribing Trump to put the fix in on the Paramount-Warners merger. Trump will likely be very angry about what the discovery process turns up.