jayalaw: We have lived in too many interesting times; I wish you a 2025 that has boring news, filled with good luck, brimming with windfalls and flush with kindness. ⁂

Jon Stewart: “The threat to comedy, comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether. We’re the banana peel in the coal mine. When a society is under threat, comedians are the ones who get sent away first. It’s just a reminder to people that democracy is under threat. Authoritarians are the threat to comedy, to art, to music, to thought, to poetry, to progress, to all those things. It’s never been. All that s*** is a red herring. It ain’t the pronoun police, it’s the secret police. It always has been and it always will be. And this man’s decapitated visage is a reminder to all of us that what we have is fragile and precious. And the way to guard against it isn’t to change how audiences think. It’s to change how leaders lead.” (continued)

sharonk.bsky.social: Korean reporting is nightmarish on the conditions Korean workers were contained in. Their waists and hands were tied together, forcing them to bend down and lick water to drink. The unscreened bathrooms contained only a single sheet to cover their lower bodies. Sunlight barely penetrated through a fist-sized hole, and they were only allowed access to the small yard for two hours. Detained by US immigration authorities for eight days, the workers and their families expressed shock, describing human rights violations and absurdities they could not have imagined as ordinary Koreans living in 2025. (continued)

Good evening, I’m Margaret Pomerantz … (continued)