We could use a new sociological metric to indicate how much one can really get away with.

It's as if science fiction and the Middle Ages have pancaked into 2020 in a way that has left us with sci-fi technology and medieval intelligence.

Get rid of the ballots, and there'll be a very peaceful continuation of power, he says. There is an undeniable logic to this. If you accept some assumptions, it's even compelling.

A plea resounds: Call off the debates—for the good of the nation, for the love of country, for the sake of democracy! But self-determination imparts full range of choices, even to reject virtue, offend reason & self destruct. The risk is baked in. Muting the mics won't save us.

I miss the library.

Remember foreign policy? Here's @MatthewTPage and Jonathan Davis on U.S. policy toward Nigeria.

America just spent $11B on an election and what we got is a pickle on a stick.

In 2019 US Department of Commerce estimated the nation's voting age population at close to 254M. That means we have about · 74M for an America that "never leaves anyone behind" · 70M for "America first" · 110M who did not vote.

Hearing the meek silence, I reflect on what Hannah Arendt called "thoughtlessness" coupled w/ "extraordinary diligence in looking out for one's personal advancement." She meant not venality or stupidity but inert, privately plausible neutrality—a disturbingly relatable posture.

Required listening: The Post has published Trump’s full phone call with Georgia election officials. Listen to the audio and read the transcript. By Amy Gardner and Paulina Firozi washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…

Where were all these concerned, outspoken luminaries five years ago? Where were they four years go? Three years ago? Two? Even just last January? They were very silent, unconcerned luminaries back then.

After an overwhelmingly White mob sacks the Capitol and the more nimble of lawmakers perform transformative feats of self-serving recalculation, who is cleaning up the mess? See for yourself. washingtonpost.com/graphics/photo…

"Et tu, Twitter?"

American comedy, drained of wit in the age of Trump, was unable to rise above the absurdity of real events and above the horror they provoked in comedians themselves. I miss it. I'm rooting for comedy to come back.

For a profession dominated by highly educated people, science has a surprisingly pervasive random capitalization problem.

Sometimes I feel that our society valorizes work so much that leisure has become but an image of what it might be, were we able to engage in it---an image itself produced through largely unremunerated work for content platforms that we scroll through amid endless queues of tasks.

Aleksandra Żelazińska, deputy editor at Tygodnik POLITYKA, quoted today in the publication's newsletter, amid updates from Russia's onslaught, a poem by Adam Zagajewski (who died a year ago today), "Try to Praise the Mutilated World." Sharing a translation: poetryfoundation.org/poems/57095/tr…

At pit stops on a 400-mile cycling tour of the Adirondacks, I meet folks who waddle over from huge pickups & loud motorcycles incredulous at long-distance bicycle travel, shocked to learn that a bike can reliably take you almost anywhere a car can—w/ zero emissions & all the fun!

I am heartbroken to learn that someone has attacked Salman Rushdie. As a grad student at NYU Journalism, I would walk by Rushdie's office several times a week on my way to/ from class. Salman Rushdie, my thoughts are with you. May you be in good care and heal swiftly.

Saw this in the paper today and all I want now is a Cornell West-Marianne Williamson debate. nytimes.com/2023/06/05/us/…