Alison McGhee posted this photo to go with an essay on Facebook* about the occupation of Minneapolis. The essay was fine, but she's no slouch as a photographer, either.
You already know what Trump's State of the Union message contained (lies), but what drove Cory Robin crazy was the Democratic response: "I spent yesterday tearing my hair out over the Democrats' response to Trump's State of the Union Address. I could say a lot about their choice of respondent and the substance of the response. But I want to focus only on style, rhetoric. Long story, short: I was appalled. I don't think I've ever encountered, outside academia, people with such a bottomless appetite for mountainous piles of meaningless, unnecessary, empty words, each of which seems genetically engineered to make any sentient being stop paying attention. Reading this speech, that is the only conclusion I can come to: that its sole and entire purpose is to make people stop paying attention. Again, forget substance, forget ideology, forget what the Democratic Party is, just focus on the style, the words, the impact on you, the listener, the reader. I'll dwell on just a few moments (which seemed like more than moments) in the speech, a few passages that do the opposite of what a passage is supposed to do—that is, get you from one place to the next."
Scahill and Hussain at Drop Site News, "As Trump Launches 'Massive' Regime Change War, Iran Strikes Back at U.S. Bases and Vows Not to Capitulate: Diplomacy was weaponized as an 'instrument of deception,' an Iranian official tells Drop Site. Tehran promises to inflict losses on the U.S. At approximately 9:40 a.m. local time in Iran, President Donald Trump launched what he bluntly characterized as a regime change war aimed at eliminating the Iranian leadership, destroying the country's missile system and naval forces, and calling on Iranians to rise up and seize control in the aftermath of the attacks. The bombing campaign was initiated by Israel but Trump's statement announcing U.S. involvement made clear the stakes to Iranians: 'Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take,' Trump said in a taped statement on Truth Social soon after Operation Epic Fury began. 'This will be probably your only chance for generations.' In what has now become a signature component of Trump's approach to Iran, the U.S. constructed a false veneer of continuing diplomatic negotiations, only to turn around and launch a major attack."
And for some quick history, Jean-Luc Szpakowski on "What happened in the Iran demonstrations." You will not be surprised to learn that the US and Mossad all played their role.
Don Moynihan, "Trump's weak justifications for attacking Iran: Why is American attacking Iran? It helps to have a coherent reason, to justify to the American public the costs in money and blood, to allies about the potential long-term risks, and to Iranians about the future of their country. After 9/11 there was broad support for invading Afghanistan because the country hosted the attack's mastermind. In 2003 there was less support for what turned out to be the false claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. They didn't, but Saddam stuck a belligerent tone and kicked weapons inspectors out. In 2026…Iran was at the negotiating table and we invaded…for reasons." But it's pretty clear that, Pete Kegsmith to the contrary, we did start this war, because we let Israel push us into it But why?
"AIPAC Coordinates Donors in Illinois House Primaries: Three Democratic candidates are benefiting from dark-money super PACs, and they share hundreds of donors who have previously given to AIPAC and its subsidiaries. With Israel's reputation reaching record lows among Democrats, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is resorting to ever more sophisticated methods to support its preferred candidates while cloaking its own involvement."
At Columbia, ICE impersonated police officers and claimed to be searching for a missing child as a ruse to invade a college dorm and kidnapped a student. Mamdani picked up the phone and got Trump to release her.
"'Great villains': Law firms that 'groveled' to Trump scorched as revenge bid dropped: President Donald Trump's Justice Department backed down on Monday on a huge monthslong legal battle, no longer defending a series of executive orders that attacked prominent law firms that represented anti-Trump clients in the past. It's a huge victory for the rule of law, voting rights attorney Marc Elias told MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace — but also a huge black eye for the law firms that made deals with Trump to avoid similar regulatory action against them."
David Dayen finds "The Quintessential Epstein Files Email: Jeffrey Epstein and his friends standing up for Mary Jo White against Elizabeth Warren tells you everything about the class war at the heart of the files. On June 5, 2015, Kathy Ruemmler, then a corporate lawyer for Latham & Watkins but just one year removed from her stint as White House counsel for Barack Obama, emailed her good friend Jeffrey Epstein. Ruemmler, who was once under consideration to become Obama's attorney general, wrote, 'I am working on a PR strategy for MJ White v. Elizabeth Warren.' Epstein responded, 'Good[.] mj is good.' And Ruemmler followed on in a response, 'Yes, and EW is the worst.' This is the perfect Jeffrey Epstein email, with as much explanatory power about this man, and more important the world he associated with and cultivated, than anything to do with child sex abuse. It shows that there is in fact an Epstein class, which not only believes in their own personal impunity, but seeks to protect their fellow travelers as well. And that ultimately lines up with a political and economic vision that favors corporate domination over the public interest. But you have to unravel all the backstory to best understand it."
RIP: "Neil Sedaka, a Pop Hitmaker Across Two Eras, Dead at 86: The songwriter and performer broke through with early Sixties hits like 'Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,' then mounted a Seventies comeback with 'Laughter In the Rain' [...] Alongside his neighbor and longtime songwriting partner, Howard Greenfield, Sedaka set up shop at the famous Brill Building and helped define the pop style that emerged from the New York City hit factory. Their success with songs like 'Stupid Cupid' for Connie Francis helped Sedaka secure a record deal of his own. He notched his first Top 10 hit in 1959 with 'Oh! Carol,' then followed it up with notable tunes like 'Stairway to Heaven' (not that one), 'Calendar Girl,' 'Little Devil,' and 'Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen.' The run culminated in 1962 when 'Breaking Up Is Hard to Do' went to Number One, and 'Next Door to an Angel' peaked at Number Five." I've always been a sucker for doo-wops, and these songs were always such fun.
RIP: "Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now and Godfather star, dies aged 95." Yes, he was great in a lot of things, but lets's not forget his genre credit for The Twilight Zone, and most of all, that moment, early in his career, but at the end of the film, when Scout Finch looks up and sees him in the shadow behind the door, and their faces change in one of the finest acting duets on film, with virtually no dialogue. (In the book, Boo Radley had one short line of dialogue, though he is a huge, invisible presence from the beginning. That line was cut from the movie, to no ill effect.)
RIP: "Blues Icon John Hammond Dies At 83 [...] With more than six decades devoted to the blues, Hammond stood as one of the music's most committed and enduring champions. [...] For generations of artists and listeners, John Hammond represented a living bridge to the roots of American blues. His dedication preserved a lineage that might otherwise have faded from mainstream view. He is survived by his wife Marla. His recordings remain a testament to a life spent in service of the blues."
"Newspapers Did Not Kill Themselves: New docs say Jeffrey Epstein collaborated with the Russian mob to loot the New York Daily News, then tried to help Mort Zuckerman discard it when reporting became inconvenient. Almost nobody noticed earlier this month when the New York Daily News announced what felt like a 500th round of layoffs. Not long ago, the venerable working-class tabloid behind “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD” would have been the ideal outlet for demystifying the prodigious evils of the Uptown Epstein network for outer-borough New Yorkers who elected Zohran Mamdani. But the latest iteration of “New York's Hometown Newspaper” has all of four reporters covering national news."
"A Running Count of How Many People ICE Has Killed and Injured: ICE doesn't share its violent incidents with the public. So here's our list. The Trump regime's deportation monomania has left far more people dead and wounded than it wants you to know. Agents' public executions of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have rightly drawn widespread fury, heartbreak, and action. And they are just two of the many more agents have murdered or caused to die in the field since January 2025. Even more people have died in immigration prison. And as for the people federal agents have merely injured? An official count doesn't exist. There is no doubt that the regime is working overtime to hide the full scope of the terror campaign spreading across our country. The Prospect launched this tracker to do our part to stop them from getting away with it. We are collecting data to bring the real harm into sharper focus and to counterbalance the mainstream media's sanitation of what we would call “pogroms” if they were happening in any other country. "
"Phil Ochs' Sharp, Satirical Protest Songs Still Resonate Today: Fifty years after his death, the protest singer's music is more relevant than ever. [...] 2026 marks half a century since Ochs' death, yet his lyrics are more relevant now than perhaps even he could have imagined. Ochs' career achievements, by any reasonable measure, were substantial—he wrote hundreds of songs, recorded seven albums for two major record labels, consistently sold out Carnegie Hall and other medium-sized concert venues, successfully organized several large-scale rallies, and always provoked an enthusiastic response from crowds at the countless political events at which he performed." Since I went to a lot of those rallies I saw him many times, and always loved him, so I was glad to see this appreciation of work that, yes, still resonates with me.
Neil Sedaka dedicated "The Immigrant" to John Lennon, but hearing it now makes me cry.
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