Is Donald Trump going to hell? A religious historian discusses the afterlife, blasphemy, and what scripture might have to say about our pope-insulting president.

Is that............thunder in the distance? The sound of God’s fury thundering over the White House? Frogs emerging from rivers?

No, but here's what a religious historian told me about Trump, damnation, and eternal judgment during these pope-fighting times.

I have to watch this full interview. The clips have been so 🫨

The problem with condemning MomTok's Taylor Frankie Paul Expressing outrage over allegations we all knew about isn't doing the moral work of untangling why we kept watching anyway.

We all knew about TFP's domestic violence; it was right there in the first season, treated like gossip and promptly forgotten about.

Why did we keep watching anyway?

The problem with condemning MomTok's Taylor Frankie Paul Expressing outrage over allegations we all knew about isn't doing the moral work of untangling why we kept watching anyway.

Wrote about trauma as the trade of reality TV and why the finger-wagging at ABC rings hollow (sorry!)

An Ivy League town faces bitter battle over affordable housing New Jersey’s statewide battle over growth, rooted in a once loosely enforced 1970s law against racial segregation, has turned “vicious” in Princeton.

I'll just add to this by noting that the DEFEND HISTORIC PRINCETON signs have been their own hilarious menace.

I knew those lying pull-ups were bad news :( www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

"How am I going to sell my house with this crap in my backyard?" ICE wants to turn warehouses into detention centers. The suburbs are fighting back.

Property values x ICE resistance

We now know what Trump's "locker room banter" looks like The locker room, in the mind of the president, is where misogyny is not only permitted but protected.

Also, I'm happy that the women's team declined Trump's invite. But! It bums me out that this whole situation necessitates women opting out and foregoing what they deserve.

We now know what Trump's "locker room banter" looks like The locker room, in the mind of the president, is where misogyny is not only permitted but protected.

"Grab em' by the pussy" and Trump's call with the men's hockey team aren't the same. One is sexually violent, the other a lame dig.

But I argue here they share a familiar misogyny: That men are owed by women to accept insulting banter. That they are entitled to have their disrespect overlooked.

Everybody hates Cory Sex workers, bankruptcy, stolen valor, a restraining order, and Trump's “Complete and Total” endorsement for Congress.

I didn't know much about this "Cory Mills" fellow until @nlanard.bsky.social talked to over a dozen people who personally know the Florida Republican. Now, I can't get enough.

The loathing! The gossip! What a mess! www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The power of mocking Trump’s pathetic monsters It's impossible to ignore the administration's blend of violent repression and overwhelming cringe.

"A powerful blend of menace, deadly incompetence, and total lack of drip." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Rep. Joaquin Castro meets with the 5-year-old boy held with his father at a Texas detention facility | CNN US Rep. Joaquin Castro met Wednesday with Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old Minnesota boy taken from his family’s suburban Minneapolis driveway last week after federal agents apprehended his father, t...

“[Liam] keeps asking about that hat and that backpack that are in the picture,” the congressman said. “I think they took that from him.”

www.cnn.com/2026/01/28/u...

One key point I want to drive home is that, as terrifying and lethal as ICE agents can be, these are also the same dudes who go back to their hotel rooms and do heinous, loser shit like this.

No amount of camo and military-style gear can hide that. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

ICE’s theater of war Camo and hats for jungle combat do not make sense in American cities. But they are key to dressing for the war ICE has imagined.

What do mirrors reflect back to ICE agents who dress up for war? When they outfit themselves in dramatic camo and hats for jungle warfare in...Minneapolis?

I wrote about the inherent theatrics in ICE's tunnel vision of violence and the real identities behind the body armor.

At day cares in Minnesota, strangers are showing up at their doors as parents scramble to protect staff Parents are stepping in to be volunteer teachers or shuttle providers to work to protect an immigrant workforce.

The first time it happened, a man was outside the day care recording. “There’s nobody here,” he was saying into the camera on his phone.

“Can I help you?” she asked him. The man said he was there because of Nick Shirley’s video. He wanted to see the children.
19thnews.org/2026/01/minn...

Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong The pushback against ICE exposed a series of mistaken assumptions.

shared a pull quote but do read the whole thing, these people have done more for the American project than I (if not Adam) can really put into words www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

They want to tell you a kid with a Spider-Man backpack is evil Liam Ramos' innocence, like the innocence of all kids, is unimpeachable. The visuals of his arrest are excruciating.

Wrote about the Spider-Man detail that absolutely crushed me

Gourmet Magazine Gourmet is a worker-owned publication about food and the people who make and consume it.

"Condé Nast, in its monied magnificence, failed to renew its trademark for the magazine. Now it is ours—and yours too if you subscribe."

gourmetmagazine.net

Gourmet Magazine Is Back. It’s Not Exactly Sanctioned.

"The new founders dismissed questions about their immediate video or podcast plans. 'Good writing is really cool,' said Nozlee Samadzadeh, a co-founder.

“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” invites you to look directly at a woman's rage Mary Bronstein’s new film is a shot-out-of-a-cannon rejoinder to the message that suffering women should “tough it out.”

Rose Byrne's win at the Golden Globes is a perfect moment to read our conversation with writer/director Mary Bronstein on "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You," one of our favorite films of 2025.

A new theory explains why Trump keeps threatening global takeovers Neo-royalism challenges us to look beyond a century-old paradigm and see the hierarchical lens through which Trump justifies domination.

Fantastic conversation w/ @inaeoh.bsky.social from @motherjones.com on neo-royalism and what it means for world politcs.
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Very much enjoyed our chat!!! Thank you again for taking the time :)

Monster of 2025: Cigarettes Is dying early really pro-social?

I now desperately want a cigarette www.motherjones.com/media/2025/1...

Yes! Starting tret has certainly been humbling lol I'm still peeling a bit but hopefully on the other side soon.

Re: normalization, young age. I think there's been plenty on this? I talk about that a bit and my own experience with viral trends dictating real-life beauty standards in this piece too.

In your face: The brutal aesthetics of MAGA Does proximity to power rely on a specific look?

I'm a month into TRETINOIN! And reflecting on a year of ~Mar-a-Lago face~

My central question, which I explore plenty here—what it means to CUT UP YOUR FACE to gain purchase in a cruel administration, a la "mass deportations but make it sexy"—is something I still think about all the time.

the brutal aesthetics of MAGA 🎵 www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

His Vanity Fair photos of Trumpworld blew up online. We called to talk. Christopher Anderson, who photographed Trump’s team at the White House for Vanity Fair, defends his unvarnished — and extreme — close-ups.

"I didn’t put the injection sites on her...I find it shocking that someone would expect me to retouch out those things."

RFK Jr. did zero pull-ups at the airport "They count 20, but the number of actual pull-ups done here is zero."

What started as relief that RFK Jr. did not go shirtless this time quickly curdled into a creeping suspicion that something was deeply wrong. That the "pull-ups" we were witnessing were not, in fact, real.

🙏 to @caseyjohnston.bsky.social for the sharp, much-needed clarity

Kennedy’s Methodical 2-Decade Quest to Dismantle Vaccine Policy

rfk jr wants to kill your kids, it’s really that simple.

Falling Off the Aging Cliff at 44 Research shows that aging catches up with us at distinct moments. Elder millennials are headed toward the edge.

"You can run all you want, but you’re still running toward the cliff."