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James Fallows

@jfallows.bsky.social

140K followers 1.2K following 3.9K posts

Reporter and writer: https://fallows.substack.com/ and https://www.ourtownsfoundation.org/ One-time speechwriter, long-time pilot, longer-time husband of linguist/writer Deborah Fallows. Note same wristwatch in the two photos, more than 50 years apart.

fallows.substack.com

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 19h

Hey, I found the right one decades before dating apps existed!

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 19h

I guess we'll never be able to prove it either way. But do you rmember when there was a MAGA boomlet that Trump (not the guy from Chicago) might be the next Pope?

That was just about as plausible as Nobel prize. IMO.

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 19h

Corny niche humor department:

Dating app for pilots only.

Inside jokes, but some actually funny.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbSZ...

Finally a Dating App for PILOTS ONLY!

YouTube video by Just Plane Silly

www.youtube.com

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 19h

Any news organization that treated "Will Trump Get Nobel?" as a remotely serious question, and not one more indication of his accelerating hallucinatory patterns, has some 'splaining to do.

Looking at you, all major news orgs.

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 1d

Adventures in framing:

Headline presenting this as a real-world question. Rather than as another sign of deepening vortex of narcissistic delusion and detachment from reality.

Headline: Trump Has His Eyes on Nobel Prize. Will He Get It?

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 1d

A columnist still at WaPo.

Headline: "Yes, Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize."

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Reposted by James Fallows

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 1d

Nothing remotely resembling an insurrection is happening anywhere in the country. Any violence associated with protest has been isolated, mild, and, in nearly every case, instigated by federal law enforcement. If we let Trump get away with calling dissent an insurrection, our republic is over.

BREAKING: Trump Admin 'Seriously' Considering Using the Insurrection Act, Reports NBC

President Trump is "seriously" considering invoking the Insurrection Act in order to more easily deploy National Guard troops to major cities as part of crime crackdown, NBC reported on Wednesday

www.mediaite.com

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 1d

Worth reading whole article. Clear eyed about Roberts.

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 1d

Spoiler alert ...

Headline "Trump wants a Nobel Prize. He'll learn Friday if his campaign paid off."

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 1d

Truly excellent new piece by Lincoln Caplan in @harvardmagazine.bsky.social on John Roberts, seen in full.

Careful, meticulous, devastating case on how "institutionalist" has enabled destruction of crucial institutions. Including his now discredited court.
www.harvardmagazine.com/legal/suprem...

Quote:
Their outcomes, along with the Court’s actions in the last few years, carry the seeds of American tragedy. Roberts, often described as an institutionalist, has enabled the most hostile anti-institutionalist ever elected president. The leader of the nation’s judicial system has empowered the president who is the most disdainful in history of the decrees of judges, the provisos of the Constitution, and the workings of American democracy. The chief justice, attempting to thread the needle between principle and practicality, has opened the door to the possibility of the ultimate constitutional crisis: a president’s outright defiance of the Supreme Court.

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

Same here.

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

Back in the day, Harvard had something called "reading period" — a two-week (or so) period before first-semester and second-semester big-deal exams. The whole idea of it was a time for people who had been skipping classes to cram and catch up. This included 98% of members of Crimson staff.

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

And was on the Crimson! 45+ years ago. So presumably knows this is not a new thing.

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

Your memory serves.

It was in the Atlantic. DAMHIK.

Reposted by James Fallows

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 2d

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 2d

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

2/2
And to be fair:

Maybe, maybe?, someone at NYT wrote this preposterous headline and preposterously put story on page 1, as implied /s/ signal, or with a "Hey Pitchbot!" "Hey Onion!" wink, showing they can make fun of themselves and their tics too?

"Harvard man" replacing "Florida man"? Maybe?

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

We need more leaders, Dems and (come ON!) even Republicans to speak up this way.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 2d

Donald Trump is breaching the Constitution and breaking the law.

A show of force so he can militarize our cities because of the 2026 elections.

We need to stand up together and speak up.

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

Not anything to joke about. But quite the headline from federal prosecutors based in California.

www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr...

Headline "Florida Man Arrested on Federal Criminal Complaint Alleging He Maliciously Started What Became the Palisades Fire."

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

My approach too.

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

Yes. Because most of them who ended up in journalism spent their college time the way I did: Mainly at the Crimson, which could mean until 2am, often at the cost of morning classes.

Shocked, just shocked, to hear that kids these days are skipping classes.

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

Shocked, just shocked, by this important scoop on front page of today's NYT. /s/

Based on report that came out ... nine months ago

And behavior long predating that

("Skip a class? Perish the thought!!" Says anyone who ever worked on a college newspaper, which covers a lot of people in the media.)

NYT front page headline: "Harvard Finds Skipping Class Part of Culture."

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

Reminder to @CNN about why this is a humiliating self-own by them.

1) Prez *does* have some legal power to change geog name, as used in federal documents. Thus Gulf of Mexico-->USA!

2) Prez has *zero* legal power to create, abolish, or rename a fed dept. Requires act of Congress.

STOP NOW CNN

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 2d

This is capitulation. It is not the "Department of War." If CNN concedes on this point, they'll concede on any point.

Jon Passantino @passantino.bsky.social · 2d

CNN is now using the Trump preferred “Department of War” name in its official statements

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Reposted by James Fallows

Denise Wheeler @denisedwheeler.bsky.social · 3d

Reuters photographer Jonathan Ernst noticed that Bondi flipped open a file during the Senate hearing and he zoomed in.

Inside were her crib notes for attacking the senators.

The GOP now practicing Cliff's Notes Fascism

In other words, under oath Bondi was purely a performance.

Bondi senate hearing had a folder full of notes for attacking the senators

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 3d

Well done by @whitehouse.senate.gov

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse @whitehouse.senate.gov · 3d

AG Bondi, here’s that correction you requested.

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Reposted by James Fallows

Alex Aronson @alexaronson.bsky.social · 4d

Everything that's wrong with legal journalism in one New York Times headline and pie chart.

If all these "legal experts" are so shocked by the threats to the rule of law, maybe they're not the experts we should be asking in the first place.

All of this was foreseeable. Many forecast it.

NYT headline: "Bow to the Emperor: We asked 50 Legal Experts About the Trump Presidency."

Pie chart showing over 50% of surveyed legal experts saying that Trump's second term has posed "much more threat" to the rule of law "than I expected."

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