Joan McRobbie
@joanmcrobbie.bsky.social
Policy, communication, former journalist, HKS MPA.
@pkrugman.bsky.social points to cause for celebration: Fear of Trump declines globally as Trump hatred prevails
Fear Strikes Out
Fear Strikes Out
Fear Strikes Out
But the hatred remains
paulkrugman.substack.com
September 18, 2026 at 8:27 PM
@pkrugman.bsky.social points to cause for celebration: Fear of Trump declines globally as Trump hatred prevails
Fear Strikes Out
Fear Strikes Out
Can we survive 28 more months of madness at the helm?
Opinion | Trump Has Untethered Himself From Reality
The president’s distortions have an impact on much more than belief in his claims about what he was doing on Sept. 11.
www.nytimes.com
September 18, 2026 at 11:40 AM
Can we survive 28 more months of madness at the helm?
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
DOJ spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said she found it “remarkable that sitting federal judges are giving on-the-record interviews.”
It is remarkable! Seven judges, appointed by Dem and GOP presidents, are doing this. Why, Ms. Pels, do you think they're doing this?
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/u...
It is remarkable! Seven judges, appointed by Dem and GOP presidents, are doing this. Why, Ms. Pels, do you think they're doing this?
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/u...
Trump’s Minnesota Surge Threatened Democracy, Judge Warns (Gift Article)
In a rare interview, Patrick Schiltz, who served as the federal court’s chief judge last winter, called the administration’s actions “a grave threat to the rule of law.”
www.nytimes.com
September 17, 2026 at 2:04 PM
DOJ spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said she found it “remarkable that sitting federal judges are giving on-the-record interviews.”
It is remarkable! Seven judges, appointed by Dem and GOP presidents, are doing this. Why, Ms. Pels, do you think they're doing this?
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/u...
It is remarkable! Seven judges, appointed by Dem and GOP presidents, are doing this. Why, Ms. Pels, do you think they're doing this?
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/u...
Listen to this KY city council member's eloquent testament to how a good local newspaper enables a community to thrive. She speaks to what's being lost as new hedge fund ownership guts the Lexington Herald Leader.
Startling speech by a city council member after newsroom cuts at the Lexington, KY Herald Leader.
Urge you to watch, listen and learn of the bond that a good newspaper can create without losing its independence.
Owner: Hedge fund Chatham Asset Management
kiesow.net/how-to-talk-... via kiesow.net
Urge you to watch, listen and learn of the bond that a good newspaper can create without losing its independence.
Owner: Hedge fund Chatham Asset Management
kiesow.net/how-to-talk-... via kiesow.net
How to talk about the local news crisis: We are all worse off.
Last week, McClatchy rolled out the latest round of destructive cuts to its local reporting staff. The cuts themselves are barely newsworthy within the industry at this point, though the futility of '...
kiesow.net
September 17, 2026 at 2:24 AM
Listen to this KY city council member's eloquent testament to how a good local newspaper enables a community to thrive. She speaks to what's being lost as new hedge fund ownership guts the Lexington Herald Leader.
Good day for voters.
My new one @slate.com
Let’s Celebrate the Supreme Court Not Outright Rigging the 2026 Election
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Let’s Celebrate the Supreme Court Not Outright Rigging the 2026 Election
slate.com/news-and-pol...
September 15, 2026 at 2:42 AM
Good day for voters.
Agree wholeheartedly with @pkrugman.bsky.social: "So let’s applaud leaders like Amodei for speaking up and applaud the growing willingness of other CEOs to warn about the dangers of their technology, even if their attack of conscience partly reflects the looming prospect of Democratic subpoenas."
The MAGA Plot(s) to Destroy Humanity
On AI and climate, it’s the same story of mass destruction
paulkrugman.substack.com
September 15, 2026 at 12:10 AM
Agree wholeheartedly with @pkrugman.bsky.social: "So let’s applaud leaders like Amodei for speaking up and applaud the growing willingness of other CEOs to warn about the dangers of their technology, even if their attack of conscience partly reflects the looming prospect of Democratic subpoenas."
Amen to this.
Trump is trying to blackmail the Kennedy Center into putting his name on it. They should refuse.
Remember Kipling's warning about paying the Danegeld.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Remember Kipling's warning about paying the Danegeld.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Trump’s Kennedy Center Shakedown
The only appropriate option is to refuse to accede to his demands.
www.theatlantic.com
September 14, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Amen to this.
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
mackenzie scott really seems like the only billionaire to figure out that you can be a literal hero to millions with a relative pittance
A $50 million gift will fund Native student scholarships for the next five years and create a permanent endowment to support Indigenous students for generations.
A $50 million gift from MacKenzie Scott is being dedicated entirely to Native students, with $10 million funding scholarships over the next five years and $40 million placed in a permanent endowment to support Native students for generations to come.
A $50 million gift from MacKenzie Scott is being dedicated entirely to Native students, with $10 million funding scholarships over the next five years and $40 million placed in a permanent endowment to support Native students for generations to come.
nativenewsonline.net
September 12, 2026 at 2:02 PM
mackenzie scott really seems like the only billionaire to figure out that you can be a literal hero to millions with a relative pittance
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
I've taught this many times. It's an astonishing piece, one of the best by a brilliant writer. Very hard going; worth it if you can.
Speaking of sense memories, I always revisit this incredible @tomjunod.bsky.social feature from 2021 about "Falling Man," photographer Richard Drew, and the image's indelible impact on our culture and all that came next.
The Falling Man
Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in i...
www.esquire.com
September 11, 2026 at 7:36 PM
I've taught this many times. It's an astonishing piece, one of the best by a brilliant writer. Very hard going; worth it if you can.
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
On the Just Security Podcast, @ambdanfried.bsky.social recalls NATO allies’ “spontaneous outreach” to the United States in the days and weeks after 9/11.
Watch the full episode: www.justsecurity.org/156794/just-...
Watch the full episode: www.justsecurity.org/156794/just-...
September 11, 2026 at 4:01 PM
On the Just Security Podcast, @ambdanfried.bsky.social recalls NATO allies’ “spontaneous outreach” to the United States in the days and weeks after 9/11.
Watch the full episode: www.justsecurity.org/156794/just-...
Watch the full episode: www.justsecurity.org/156794/just-...
SCOTUS may decide the midterms, says Judge Luttig, expressing plaintive hope that the Court is aghast at what it has wrought "Surely, surely, it will understand the signal moment in Am'n constitutional history that would be presented, & this time understand its supreme obligation to the nation."
How the midterms could be stolen - a warning. judgeluttig327269.substack.com/p/january-3-...
January 3, 2027 - The Final Battle for America’s Democracy
House Republicans are poised to claim that the midterm elections were stolen from them when they meet on January 3 to decide which Members-elect will be seated in the 120th Congress
judgeluttig327269.substack.com
September 11, 2026 at 2:21 AM
SCOTUS may decide the midterms, says Judge Luttig, expressing plaintive hope that the Court is aghast at what it has wrought "Surely, surely, it will understand the signal moment in Am'n constitutional history that would be presented, & this time understand its supreme obligation to the nation."
Even now some things are beyond belief.
This is the founder of Silk Road – which enabled international drugs trafficking on an industrial scale, among other things – speaking at President Trump's midterm convention (after getting a pardon from him), because lol nothing matters.
LMAO this guy is being featured at Trumpapalooza because Trump pardoned him
September 11, 2026 at 1:01 AM
Even now some things are beyond belief.
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
I miss eating. Thanks, Brooke Rollins.
"Hi there! I'm the Secretary of Agriculture in a nation where just about every single kind of food has been recalled because it will give you explosive shits and then kill you dead. Well, I'm here to tell you about how government regulation and oversight is baaaaaaaad."
Brooke Rollins: "Do you remember, especially the moms out there, when they told us what light bulbs that we could screw into our light fixtures, which washing machines we could use, and which toilets we could flush?"
September 10, 2026 at 1:53 AM
I miss eating. Thanks, Brooke Rollins.
Mamdani just keeps showing how it's done.
The Catholic League and the extremist wing are going bananas over this
www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/mamdani-wi...
www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/mamdani-wi...
Invited by Pope Leo XIV’s New Archbishop, Mamdani Will Attend 9/11 Memorial Mass
Three sources say the mayor will join Archbishop Hicks at St. Patrick’s Thursday and stay for the reception. The Catholic League boss who wants him gone made $671,000 last year writing press releases.
www.thelettersfromleo.com
September 10, 2026 at 1:17 AM
Mamdani just keeps showing how it's done.
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
Our reporters interviewed 40 of the men the Trump administration sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador: They described being beaten, sexually assaulted by guards and driven to the brink of suicide. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...
‘You Are All Terrorists’: Four Months in a Salvadoran Prison
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Our reporters interviewed 40 of the men the Trump administration sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador: They described being beaten, sexually assaulted by guards and driven to the brink of suicide. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...
That's it on burgers for me.
Opinion | Why Did Trump Order Up 660 Million Pounds of Mystery Meat? (Gift Article)
On second thought, I’m not that hungry.
www.nytimes.com
September 7, 2026 at 7:37 PM
That's it on burgers for me.
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
I flunked algebra and hated math, but this story was inspiring, and a testament to working collaboratively. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/s...
The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice (Gift Article)
Joan Birman thought her major discoveries were behind her. Then came an email from a young neighbor — a girl who knew little but wanted to learn.
www.nytimes.com
September 6, 2026 at 11:23 AM
I flunked algebra and hated math, but this story was inspiring, and a testament to working collaboratively. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/s...
20-year-old college student Pierre Damas Bel, forced to wear an ankle bracelet simply for being Haitian, killed himself. His blood is on JD Vance’s hands.
Never forget. JD Vance, Stephen Miller, and Donald Trump have Pierre's blood on their hands. Vance in particular is smart enough to know that libeling Haitians with the "eating cats and dogs" lie would lead to deaths. He just didn't care.
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/o...
Opinion | Pierre Damas Bel Should Still Be Alive
The price of unprotected status can be very high.
www.nytimes.com
September 5, 2026 at 5:16 PM
20-year-old college student Pierre Damas Bel, forced to wear an ankle bracelet simply for being Haitian, killed himself. His blood is on JD Vance’s hands.
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
"But in Springfield, the heightened level of fear is so widespread, & the state-imposed terror vs a vulnerable minority so constant, that it is impossible to see this as anything but [Trump's] proof of concept for the president’s militarized vision of what America should be" - @swin24.bsky.social
Inside Trump’s Nightmare for Haitians in Springfield: ‘We’re Following Our Orders’
The most urgent moral test in all of Trump’s America today is happening in a small Ohio city – and we as a country are failing it miserably.
zeteo.com
September 3, 2026 at 9:35 PM
"But in Springfield, the heightened level of fear is so widespread, & the state-imposed terror vs a vulnerable minority so constant, that it is impossible to see this as anything but [Trump's] proof of concept for the president’s militarized vision of what America should be" - @swin24.bsky.social
Read this thread from @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social if you need a reminder of why we honor Gloria Steinem. Or if you are somehow unaware of how radically things have changed for women just since the 1960s--due to the leadership of Steinem & others. Some of us remember vividly.
That's very untrue. Steinem once told Terry Gross that she didn't marry until her sixties because "first I had to reinvent the institution of marriage." Women had no economic equality in the workplace, no equal access, no right against marital rape, sexual harassment...
September 3, 2026 at 9:27 PM
Read this thread from @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social if you need a reminder of why we honor Gloria Steinem. Or if you are somehow unaware of how radically things have changed for women just since the 1960s--due to the leadership of Steinem & others. Some of us remember vividly.
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
The two-branch doom loop
Eight ways to check the Supreme Court's role in the authoritarian project
open.substack.com
September 3, 2026 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Joan McRobbie
"You should write about take no-shit women like me. Girls need to know they can break the rules."
― Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
― Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
Breaking News: Gloria Steinem, the feminist crusader who galvanized the modern women’s movement, challenged sexist assumptions and fought for gender equality, has died at 92. nyti.ms/4cVollO
September 3, 2026 at 11:16 AM
"You should write about take no-shit women like me. Girls need to know they can break the rules."
― Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
― Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road