James Knode
jamesknode.bsky.social
James Knode
@jamesknode.bsky.social
Friend. Writer. Grateful for a wonderful wife and two of the loveliest girls ever. In awe of the world and appreciative of my little place in it. Books, history, DC sports, Richmond, VA.
Reposted by James Knode
RFK: “Where did all this autism come from? It never existed when I was a kid!”

“A Christmas Story”, a 1983 movie based on a 1971 memoir about a childhood in the 1930s: “This is my brother Ralphie. He has a ton of sensory issues and behaviors we don’t understand. Every family has a child like him.”
December 26, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Reposted by James Knode
James Merril’s poem “Christmas Tree,” written while he was dying of AIDS. 1995.
December 24, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by James Knode
on comma splices and run-on sentences and that sort of stuff
The road goes on and on (and on and on and on).
[a guide for the perplexed copy editor]
open.substack.com
December 23, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by James Knode
BREAKING: WATCH the full 60 Minutes CECOT segment here. This was sent to me anonymously. It appears to be the segment CBS' Bari Weiss killed. www.muellershewrote.com/p/watch-the-...
WATCH: The 60 Minutes CECOT Segment
I was sent the CECOT segment anonymously in a group chat.
www.muellershewrote.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Reposted by James Knode
All of these links went to promotion of this story earlier today. All these links are dead now — that's how thoroughly they've scrubbed this.
December 21, 2025 at 10:57 PM
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Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales was born in Maryland. She has a valid U.S. birth certificate, medical and immunization records, and sworn affidavits.

Yet, ICE claims her documents are “not authentic” and has held her in immigration detention for days.
Trump Administration Says Maryland Woman's Birth Certificate Is Fake In Dystopian Move
Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales was arrested on Sunday. ICE won’t release her despite extensive documentation of her citizenship, her attorneys told HuffPost.
www.huffpost.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by James Knode
Back in the days when I was still going to church, the pastor who eventually persuaded me to stop going to church had a phrase that he liked to say a whole lot, and for all I know he still likes to say it.

The phrase was "we're creating victims and villains."

www.the-reframe.com/stories-we-t...
Stories We Tell
Recognizing victims and villains is not creating victims and villains. A series on living in a culture of repair, against a culture of abuse.
www.the-reframe.com
December 17, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by James Knode
NEW: Without USAID funding to help buy food for refugees, the World Food Program rushed to prioritize families based on need, determining that only half the population would get food.

Refugees learned which half they were in from a number stamped on the back of their ration card.
After Trump Officials Cut Food Aid to Kenya, Children Starved to Death
“Brutal and traumatizing”: Interviews and a trove of internal documents show government officials and aid workers desperately tried to warn Trump advisers about impending disaster and death.
www.propublica.org
December 17, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by James Knode
Tom Emmer scrubbed his website of any mention of a Somalia caucus he once led with Keith Ellison
December 16, 2025 at 6:51 PM
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Sounds about right.
December 15, 2025 at 12:38 PM
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December 15, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Reposted by James Knode
Things we learn:

1. Bovino's existence is the result of chain migration, which MAGA wants to ban

2. His family arrived legally under an immigration law MAGA wants to repeal

3. His father killed a woman while driving drunk, a crime for which MAGA aims to deport immigrants

And much more. Read it.
Greg Bovino’s the star of Trump’s deportation show. We trace his roots.
As a boy, the Hollywood movie “The Border" set the course for his life. He couldn’t believe the Border Patrol agents in the movie were the bad guys. Now that he’s in charge of deportation efforts caus...
chicago.suntimes.com
December 13, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by James Knode
7News Australia reports that the hero who jumped and disarmed one of the terrorist shooters

His name is Ahmed el-Ahmed

A 43 year old married father of two

He owns a fruit shop in Sutherland

No experience with guns

He was walking past

He has two bullets in his arm
December 14, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by James Knode
Bovino, the man overseeing mass deportations, publicly declared that we must all have our papers on us, at all times, or we could be stopped, harassed, kidnapped, and detained, as they did with the man in this case, who is a US citizen.
December 13, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by James Knode
Democratic leadership didn’t want to stick their necks out for him. The GOP didn’t want him even referred to as a “Maryland man.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, his congressional representative fought for him. And we should never forget any of this. apnews.com/article/abre...
Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed from federal immigration detention, his attorney's office says
Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been released from an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania following an order from a federal judge issued Thursday, according to his attorney’s office.
apnews.com
December 11, 2025 at 10:29 PM
December 10, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by James Knode
That is patently false: not only do immigrants score better than native-born Americans in tests, the mere presence of immigrants improve test scores for all students, when factoring in white flight

sesp.northwestern.edu/news-events/...
December 9, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by James Knode
“Why are folks getting dumber?” Because they don’t read. “Why aren’t men as romantic & poetic as they used to be?” Because they don’t read. “Why are people so vulnerable to propaganda?” “Why is everyone a conspiracy theorist?” Because they don’t read. Because they don’t read.
December 8, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Reposted by James Knode
I've seen this complexion before
December 7, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by James Knode
This is a deeply-reported story that addresses the heart of American healthcare. It's worth your time. Please read and share. projects.propublica.org/albany-georg...
As Phoebe Memorial Grew, the Health of Albany, Georgia, Declined
The five-part series, “Sick in a Hospital Town,” pursues one question: Why are people in Albany so sick when its most powerful institution is a hospital?
projects.propublica.org
December 7, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by James Knode
I'm starting to wonder how much "the male loneliness epidemic" is just straight and bisexual women identifying low-effort, mean, and incompetent men and choosing not to date, marry, and tolerate them anymore
December 6, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by James Knode
The White House surrenders at 138 million views. Sabrina wins.
December 5, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by James Knode
“The decision was made to exclude me from the filmed production of Swan Lake because I was told my brown skin would disrupt the aesthetic.” ~ Misty Copeland

When folks gripe about DEI, remind them who benefited from shutting out dancers like Copeland. That pattern runs through our whole history.
December 4, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Reposted by James Knode
Yes, this is worth listening to.

In my very long memory of public affairs, have never heard a public statement by a "president" (a) more alarming in mental health terms, and also (b) more overtly racist and hate-filled.

Watch carefully the sycophants around Trump as he rants. They *all* know...
I hope people take two minutes to listen to this shocking display of bigotry. It brings clarity to what we are fighting against. We should all be sick to hear such un-American drivel from the President of the United States.
Trump: "It’s a hellhole right now. And those Somalians should be out of here. They've destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain. You have her. She’s always talking about the Constitution provides me with – go back to your own country and figure out your constitution."
December 4, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Reposted by James Knode
America does not have capital punishment for selling or smuggling drugs and none of these people were arrested or tried. There could have been mountains of cocaine in open view on the deck of the boats and it still would have been murder of unarmed civilians.
Rand Paul just posted this letter from the Coast Guard confirming that 1/4 of the boats they stop carry no contraband. The likelihood that Hegseth & Bradley ordered the murder of innocent civilians is very high.
December 3, 2025 at 5:48 AM