Ceci n'est pas une state-sanctioned killing

 

Remember in June of 2024 when Joe Biden did a poor job in his debate against Trump, and a few days later George Clooney, movie star and the unofficial face of “woke, liberal Hollywood,” wrote an op ed in the New York Times urging Biden to step aside?

Remember how within a couple weeks Kamala Harris announced she was running, with the support of a wide swath of party leadership? 

Heck, forget the summer. Remember back in February 2024, when Ezra Klein, celebrated writer at the NYT and major thought leader among liberals, called for Biden to step aside, months before the debate had even happened?

As soon as we saw it with our own eyes, waves of Democrats across the country began calling for Biden to step aside. When people from Biden’s inner circle said, “No, no, you’re mistaken. He isn’t faltering. He was jet lagged/tired/getting over a cold…” we didn’t care. We saw the evidence with our own eyes, and we said out loud what we knew was true, regardless of our party affiliation. We knew that our country would be less safe with a president whose mental abilities were slipping, and we didn’t deny reality just to appease the president or the party leaders.

art by Rene Magritte, 1929

The contrast between that scenario and the Republican response to Alex Pretti’s murder is stark, with comments like, “well what can you tell from a grainy video anyway?” We have crisp, clear recordings of his murder from a dozen different angles, all showing the same thing: a man holding a phone attempts to help a woman, then is swiftly murdered by multiple CBP agents with guns. The whole thing happens in about 8 seconds. There’s no nuance to parse.

I have many serious disagreements with the Democratic party, but I will say this: I have never felt like I had to fall in line behind Dear Leader or else risk physical harm or loss of social status or loss of a job or being put on a blacklist. In contrast, every Republican legislator who has spoken out against Trump has done so on their way out of politics (Romney, MTG, etc.), or else they quickly transitioned to butt kissing once they realized Trump was heading into power (Cruz, Rubio, Graham, etc.). They know that there is no future for them in the Republican party if they step even a little bit out of line.

Friends, get out of there. You might not feel like you can join the Democrats, but you don’t have to stay MAGA at the cost of your own integrity.

Books read in 2025

 I read 33 books in 2025, a good amount for me.

Churchy

I leaned into Mormon stuff this year, most notably with Mormon Enigma, a biography of Emma Hale Smith. I read it through the summer and thought about it the rest of the year. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to understand church history from a less common perspective. 

At Last She Said It is written by the hosts of the podcast of the same name, which has been a must-listen for me the last few years. 

Brigham Young at Home, an obscure book that was written by one of his 57 children. A church friend loaned it to me, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this slice of life (while still remaining a thousand percent disgusted by polygamy).

A Short Stay in Hell is Mormon-adjacent. It's written by a church member, and the main character is a church member, but that's where it ends. The guy gets to the afterlife and learns that everything he thought he knew is wrong. This is the bleakest thing I read all year, besides current news articles, of course.

Took a minute to get going, but really stuck the landing

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (cry emoji)

Hamnet (double cry emoji)

Delightfully messy

Margo's Got Money Troubles, Everyone Is Lying to You, Leslie F---ing Jones

My high hopes didn't pan out

The House on Mango Street, The Library Book, The Liar's Dictionary

Nonfiction that made me think (and seethe)

Careless People, The Turnaway Study, Girl on Girl

Romance

The best of my five contemporary romance books was Back After This by the wonderful Linda Holmes. Of the others, two dealt with the logistics of caring for aging parents and one dealt with setting boundaries on a complicated/manipulative parent. Emotional labor abounds.

Biggest surprises (both about plagues!)

Wish You Were Here is a story written during and about the height of the covid pandemic, and it blew my mind in a good way. Pathogenesis made me feel like an insignificant speck in the sweep of thousands of years of human history, but was somehow also life-affirming.