Rick Perlstein
@rickperlstein.bsky.social
"O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet..."
The land that never has been yet..."
Here's the tragedy: Timothy Crouse made exactly the same argument, for similar reasons, in 1972.
The entire press corps should walk out, not come back, & we simply shouldn’t tolerate this.
Months of “Joe Biden won’t do a press conference.” A nonstop national story. Same with Harris in Aug/Sep 2024 & interviews. Trump does this stuff & everyone shrugs. It’s appalling.
Months of “Joe Biden won’t do a press conference.” A nonstop national story. Same with Harris in Aug/Sep 2024 & interviews. Trump does this stuff & everyone shrugs. It’s appalling.
KAITLAN COLLINS: What would say to Epstein survivo---
TRUMP: You are so bad. You are the worst report. No wonder CNN has no ratings. She's a young woman. I don't think I've ever seen you smile. They should be ashamed of you.
TRUMP: You are so bad. You are the worst report. No wonder CNN has no ratings. She's a young woman. I don't think I've ever seen you smile. They should be ashamed of you.
February 4, 2026 at 3:22 AM
Here's the tragedy: Timothy Crouse made exactly the same argument, for similar reasons, in 1972.
Google book search: People inquired. Google's media people said it was a bug, being fixed, and now it's been fixed. I'm abashed, but also pleased at the thought my alarmism sicced a mob on them, alerting the suits that this service has a badass activist constituency base....
February 4, 2026 at 2:24 AM
Google book search: People inquired. Google's media people said it was a bug, being fixed, and now it's been fixed. I'm abashed, but also pleased at the thought my alarmism sicced a mob on them, alerting the suits that this service has a badass activist constituency base....
This is a good explainer of Google's latest theft of the commons. THE COMMONS: Not private property. Most of the books and documents are public domain. They could have written a few lines of code and just limited to those. They did not. The long game is to own us.
winbuzzer.com/2026/01/28/g...
winbuzzer.com/2026/01/28/g...
Google Disables Search for Book Previews
Google has disabled search functionality for preview books on Google Books, leaving users unable to search through pages that remain visible on the platform.
winbuzzer.com
February 3, 2026 at 7:09 PM
This is a good explainer of Google's latest theft of the commons. THE COMMONS: Not private property. Most of the books and documents are public domain. They could have written a few lines of code and just limited to those. They did not. The long game is to own us.
winbuzzer.com/2026/01/28/g...
winbuzzer.com/2026/01/28/g...
I don't mean to seem alarmed, but it appears Google's book search function is, just...gone.
In a sane country it would be a huge deal, front page news, that a privately owned utility that millions researches, from journalists to scholars, rely on every day to advance knowledge can just disappear.
In a sane country it would be a huge deal, front page news, that a privately owned utility that millions researches, from journalists to scholars, rely on every day to advance knowledge can just disappear.
February 3, 2026 at 5:36 PM
I don't mean to seem alarmed, but it appears Google's book search function is, just...gone.
In a sane country it would be a huge deal, front page news, that a privately owned utility that millions researches, from journalists to scholars, rely on every day to advance knowledge can just disappear.
In a sane country it would be a huge deal, front page news, that a privately owned utility that millions researches, from journalists to scholars, rely on every day to advance knowledge can just disappear.
"Nouvelle Vague" was awfully weird, given that there's nothing on the music, which is half the experience of the "Breathless" film.
February 3, 2026 at 1:57 AM
"Nouvelle Vague" was awfully weird, given that there's nothing on the music, which is half the experience of the "Breathless" film.
Seriously, I'd sneak in to watch it again just to study Baron's eyes. A mystery just out of reach.
The "Melania" movie is getting subject to perfectly reasonable mockery for its ridiculousness and perfectly reasonable rage for it corruption, but I'm here to say that if you are interested in how the American presidency works you should absolutely see it, and not to enjoy the camp. 1/x
February 2, 2026 at 8:54 PM
Seriously, I'd sneak in to watch it again just to study Baron's eyes. A mystery just out of reach.
I just blew a gasket about an acculaton of stuff and lost my temper at a writer named David Avallo. I apologize to him. I deleted the half- baked list post.
February 2, 2026 at 8:06 PM
I just blew a gasket about an acculaton of stuff and lost my temper at a writer named David Avallo. I apologize to him. I deleted the half- baked list post.
February 2, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Rick Perlstein
AI is literally a consent manufacturing machine.
February 2, 2026 at 4:13 PM
AI is literally a consent manufacturing machine.
The "Melania" movie is getting subject to perfectly reasonable mockery for its ridiculousness and perfectly reasonable rage for it corruption, but I'm here to say that if you are interested in how the American presidency works you should absolutely see it, and not to enjoy the camp. 1/x
February 2, 2026 at 4:53 PM
The "Melania" movie is getting subject to perfectly reasonable mockery for its ridiculousness and perfectly reasonable rage for it corruption, but I'm here to say that if you are interested in how the American presidency works you should absolutely see it, and not to enjoy the camp. 1/x
I made the Epstein files!!
February 1, 2026 at 3:03 PM
I made the Epstein files!!
I'm watching "Misery" for the first time. Immediately recognized the author character is basically the same protagonist as "Pluribus," right down to the personality. And because I, too, know authorial misery...
January 31, 2026 at 11:05 PM
I'm watching "Misery" for the first time. Immediately recognized the author character is basically the same protagonist as "Pluribus," right down to the personality. And because I, too, know authorial misery...
Thread about the first investigation file on Epstein, if you can stomach accounts of powerful men reducing children to quavering shells. Here's a good detail about a gentleman who retains great favor with the Senate Minority Leader. (Schumer loved his idea of judges issuing "storture warrants."
Dershowitz enters the chat by providing PBPD with social media evidence that one of the victims posted on her blog that she smoked weed and loved her boyfriend.
January 31, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Thread about the first investigation file on Epstein, if you can stomach accounts of powerful men reducing children to quavering shells. Here's a good detail about a gentleman who retains great favor with the Senate Minority Leader. (Schumer loved his idea of judges issuing "storture warrants."
I have a riff in "The Infernal Triangle" about a Timseman writing around an obvious fact in so artful a way it's like he's mastered a journalistic version of quantum physics--all for the benefit of not telling the truth.
Look at how hard they have to bend over backwards to avoid stating the obvious. COULD IT BE that Amazon was trying to curry favor with Trump, or did they sincerely think "Melania" will be a monster hit? Critics are wondering! Will the mystery of their motives ever be solved? Who knows!
The $35m marketing push for “Melania” is 10x that of some other high-profile documentaries.
Hollywood is questioning whether it’s just an attempt by Amazon to ingratiate itself with a president who uses the office to reward allies & punishes critics.
Hollywood is questioning whether it’s just an attempt by Amazon to ingratiate itself with a president who uses the office to reward allies & punishes critics.
January 31, 2026 at 10:05 PM
I have a riff in "The Infernal Triangle" about a Timseman writing around an obvious fact in so artful a way it's like he's mastered a journalistic version of quantum physics--all for the benefit of not telling the truth.
Okay, I so need to know more about this "Melania’s exclusive senior adviser" character.
youtu.be/B5ESGW6Uk-0?...
youtu.be/B5ESGW6Uk-0?...
January 31, 2026 at 2:27 AM
Okay, I so need to know more about this "Melania’s exclusive senior adviser" character.
youtu.be/B5ESGW6Uk-0?...
youtu.be/B5ESGW6Uk-0?...
It is a characteristic of Washington Post Style Section reporting, in is purest ore, that the observation in the parentheses is NOT a sneakily subversive criticism. No--this author, in the Sally Quinn tradition, is reporting that as a good thing. I have a lot about this in The Infernal Triangle.
January 31, 2026 at 1:59 AM
It is a characteristic of Washington Post Style Section reporting, in is purest ore, that the observation in the parentheses is NOT a sneakily subversive criticism. No--this author, in the Sally Quinn tradition, is reporting that as a good thing. I have a lot about this in The Infernal Triangle.
This asshole can fuck fight off. Right off into a Twighlight Zone episode where he spends eternity being forced to watch "Soundtrack to a Coup d'État" with his eyelids propped open.
January 31, 2026 at 1:42 AM
This asshole can fuck fight off. Right off into a Twighlight Zone episode where he spends eternity being forced to watch "Soundtrack to a Coup d'État" with his eyelids propped open.
So, America now.
(The headline, too: French kiss. Please don't hur us Donald!)
(The headline, too: French kiss. Please don't hur us Donald!)
January 31, 2026 at 12:36 AM
So, America now.
(The headline, too: French kiss. Please don't hur us Donald!)
(The headline, too: French kiss. Please don't hur us Donald!)
Worst. Paywall. Ever.
January 30, 2026 at 10:42 PM
Worst. Paywall. Ever.
Now they're releasing Epstein files to distract from the distraction from the Epstein files.
(My point: "don't talk about X because it's a distraction from Y" is often dumb politics. )
(My point: "don't talk about X because it's a distraction from Y" is often dumb politics. )
January 30, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Now they're releasing Epstein files to distract from the distraction from the Epstein files.
(My point: "don't talk about X because it's a distraction from Y" is often dumb politics. )
(My point: "don't talk about X because it's a distraction from Y" is often dumb politics. )
This is a piece of intellectual journalism of rare richness, nuance, and moral insight.
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
The Strange Story of the Famed Anti-Fascist Lament “First They Came…”
In his celebrated mea culpa, the German pastor Martin Niemöller blamed his failure to speak out against the Nazis on indifference. Was that the whole reason?
www.thenation.com
January 30, 2026 at 12:52 AM
This is a piece of intellectual journalism of rare richness, nuance, and moral insight.
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by Rick Perlstein
The college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
College approached and paid student to write op-ed in The Dartmouth
The Dartmouth ran the article on Nov. 17 without knowledge that the College had been involved.
www.thedartmouth.com
January 29, 2026 at 10:40 PM
The college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
January 29, 2026 at 6:20 PM