Something horrible is about to happen
Things I’m thinking about 1/22/26
ICE STOPPED PAYING THEIR MEDICAL BILLS. I really don’t understand how this isn’t wall-to-wall news. There are over 73,000 people detained in ICE facilities as of this month; ICE hasn’t paid a single third-party medical provider since October 3rd, 2025. They announced they won’t even begin processing medical claims until April 30 at the very earliest. This is a profound humanitarian catastrophe that is only due to get worse; I fear that by the time all the facts are known something unspeakable will have happened.
They detained a five-year-old boy named Liam Ramos. The image of this little boy, wearing a Spiderman backpack and knit blue hat of a cartoon character, is burned in my brain. I know about Liam because I follow Ms. Rachel on Instagram, who wrote in her post, “We must lead with compassion and keep families together. The children are watching. The children are scared.” A similar sentiment from a woman named Mary Pat Sullivan last week in the Minnesota Star-Tribune’s letters to the editor, which I have been reading almost every day since Renee Good’s murder: “Kids in Minneapolis are traumatized. Even if you agree with the mission of ICE, please understand what their tactics are doing to our kids. This needs to stop.” I wonder how many children just like Liam are in immigration detention right now that the public doesn’t know about.
The FTC is still fighting Meta’s monopoly. I’m sure the Trump appointees at the FTC think they’re fighting wokeness in Silicon Valley or something but I think it’s kind of nice that there are at least a few people left in Washington who want to do literally anything to help the American people.
Trump is suing JPMorgan Chase for allegedly refusing to continue providing banking services to him after January 6th. The thing about Trump’s endless bullshit legal cases is that when institutions don’t fold and try to fight back, they usually win, which is maybe a good attitude to have about everything in life. In a statement, JPMorgan said: “We respect the President’s right to sue us and our right to defend ourselves – that’s what courts are for.”
I agree with everything in Derek Guy’s op-ed on how the U.S. can bring back domestic clothing manufacturing. Culture is downstream of politics, and public jobs programs and skills training around well-compensated manufacturing jobs could turn Americans away from fast fashion and towards a more sustainable relationship to clothes.
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, TPUSA has gotten darker, more obnoxious, and more female. It’s interesting that these students think of themselves as influencers first, activists second. I remember plenty of politically engaged Republicans on my college campus who were gunning for jobs in politics (I went to school right outside Washington D.C.) but few, if any of them, were interested in building their own brands for social media. I do not feel sorry for Lesley Lachman but I think she’s not really prepared for when her rising star inevitably falls. I laughed a bit at her sad indictment of the Ole Miss College Democrats, who should probably take a page out of Zohran’s playbook if they want to attract their classmates: “We’re going to the rodeo. They’re, like, you know, planting seeds.”
Meanwhile, young men, insecure about their looks like virtually all young people who came before them, are not doing well. I don’t know if any men under 25 read this newsletter, but if you’re out there, PLEASE do not do any of these things. Finding a girlfriend is very easy. You just have to be nice and shower every day.
Pubs across the U.K. are banning Labour MPs in protest of higher taxes. Has any man in history ever been more unpopular than Keir Starmer?
Just as I suspected, any successful efforts to encourage Americans to read probably won’t involve the “literary scene” in any meaningful way. I am so earnestly touched by Doechii’s suggestion to read Toni Morrison. Morrison is for everyone! Anyone can do this! I like that Kai Cenat is honest about his reading journey, taking it slow and looking up words he doesn’t understand on camera, like anyone learning something new. I think a lot about how many of the people who have made literature a central focus of their lives and careers have little interest in America’s literacy crisis, except as an object of derision, or maybe despair that they weren’t around during Condé Nast’s glory days. Unless you literally never leave a handful of bars in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, I think having contempt for the millions of Americans who don’t read much is profoundly isolating, and doesn’t create any good writing of substance—disdain for the public has always struck me as a lack of curiosity above all, and does anyone really want to read an incurious writer? I really believe this moment demands that writers champion the cause of literacy for all. There’s no honor in closing ranks. There’s no money in it either.
A possible exception to the rule: Vogue is starting a book club. All respect to what Chloe Malle is doing here but you can’t convince me to watch the Emerald Fennell adaptation of Wuthering Heights, sorry!
I think I might have a party for this newsletter around America’s 250th anniversary, for those of you who live in New York or might be here this summer. Think of it as a Fourth of July party for people who hate it here. Watch this space!
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