Some personal news: after six and a half years as an opinion columnist at the Boston Globe I am leaving the paper ... and launching a subscription Substack newsletter, Truth and Consequences (truthandcons.substack.com)
We are governed by children
Scoop | Hegseth wanted Eisenhower’s globe for his office. His staff broke it.
Photos obtained by The @washingtonpost show a gash in the World War II-era artifact that resulted from a botched relocation attempt.
By @AlexHortonTX @DanLamothe
Gift link wapo.st/3WF2YQo
Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) retweeted
I will not be pressured into voting for somebody in the name of preserving a progressive agenda that I have fought for my entire life, but has now abandoned me. Since college, I have marched for everybody. Now that Jews are in peril around the world, nobody is marching for us.
Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) retweeted
You really don't realize how talented swing-state and swing-district politicians tend to be until you see politicians from safe seats suddenly forced to fight a competitive election.
Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) retweeted
The tsunami of antisemitic hate I've received this past day from Abdul El-Sayed fans has really convinced me that Michigan Jews will be in safe hands if he's elected to the Senate.
If NYS Democrats aren’t planning to redraw her district so that she loses a primary challenge in ‘28 … they should be
Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) retweeted
This is pretty much what we're seeing everywhere re: under 45s but its mostly coming from a big, gaping turnout differential this year. I have never seen anything like it in my 9 years of analyzing elections. Ever.
“for the anti-Israel crowd is almost always interested in making a point, never actually making a difference.”
Haviv Rettig Gur, whatever you think of him and his views, hosted me twice on his podcast to speak about Palestinian perspective and views, no matter how divergent and different mine are. He did not condition his hosting upon me appearing next to other Palestinians who disagree with me or agreed with him, or even other Israelis; he did not set this up as a debate, but as a conversation and a discussion that was elastic and allowed for mutual learning and engagement, not "gotchu" moments, even though we strongly disagreed on a variety of subjects.
On the other hand, Mr. Mehdi Hasan would not entertain talking to me after he blocked me for two years on social media unless I debated another Palestinian who disagreed with me on his platform, "Zeteo News," with him as the moderator of said debate. He was not interested in a one-on-one conversation with me as he has done with several other guests of his. You make of that what you will but it is absolutely the case that Zionists can often be exponentially easier to engage and speak with than anti-Zionists and the oracles of the “pro-Palestine” industrial complex, particularly when it comes to embracing new and diverse Palestinian perspectives outside of the militantly-enforced orthodoxies, for the anti-Israel crowd is almost always interested in making a point, never actually making a difference.
Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) retweeted
Haviv Rettig Gur, whatever you think of him and his views, hosted me twice on his podcast to speak about Palestinian perspective and views, no matter how divergent and different mine are. He did not condition his hosting upon me appearing next to other Palestinians who disagree with me or agreed with him, or even other Israelis; he did not set this up as a debate, but as a conversation and a discussion that was elastic and allowed for mutual learning and engagement, not "gotchu" moments, even though we strongly disagreed on a variety of subjects.
On the other hand, Mr. Mehdi Hasan would not entertain talking to me after he blocked me for two years on social media unless I debated another Palestinian who disagreed with me on his platform, "Zeteo News," with him as the moderator of said debate. He was not interested in a one-on-one conversation with me as he has done with several other guests of his. You make of that what you will but it is absolutely the case that Zionists can often be exponentially easier to engage and speak with than anti-Zionists and the oracles of the “pro-Palestine” industrial complex, particularly when it comes to embracing new and diverse Palestinian perspectives outside of the militantly-enforced orthodoxies, for the anti-Israel crowd is almost always interested in making a point, never actually making a difference.
Mehdi once wrote a book about how to win an argument even when you know you’re wrong. The trick is to be manipulative and dishonest.
Mehdi has never to my knowledge talked seriously about the Israeli historical experience as he demands of me for Palestinians.
And Mehdi is accusing me of ignoring Palestinians in an interview that, though it was meant to be focused on the Israeli experience, talked a lot about Palestinians.
I’m starting to think Mehdi isn’t an entirely trustworthy guy.
Try as you might, you’ll never find a better example of NYT concern trolling than this
nytimes.com/2026/10/21/us/po…
Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) retweeted
Lots of replies here, not a single one of which addresses the question asked in the post, why the candidate for NY-10 is in the West Bank two weeks before the midterm election in which Lander is on the ballot.
It would also be the largest-ever margin of victory on the congressional ballot for a party that is in the minority in both the House and Senate.
The only two that come close are 2018 (8.6) and 1894 (10.6). BTW, in the latter election, Republicans picked up 127 seats!
If the NYT/Siena poll is correct and the generic ballot ends up D+11, this would be the largest midterm victory (for either party) since the Watergate era. It also implies that Democrats would probably win over 250 seats.
nytimes.com/2026/10/21/upsho…
Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) retweeted
I assume he’s mainly doing this for the clicks but it’s still striking the extent to which Mehdi has fully and unambiguously embraced the most virulent strains of anti-Semitism
Keep in mind Vance is saying that Amy Acton, as a child, lied about being sexually molested by her stepfather.
Vance: The media and the Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The ad features Amy Acton's estranged mother disputing Acton's account of childhood homelessness, rape and abuse. Both 1978 Mahoning County court records and Acton's brother, Phillip Stearns, corroborate her account of living in a tent and abuse.
wyso.org/2026-10-20/amy…
Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) retweeted
Join us, it's going to be quite the show.
Talking with @brianros1 at 1:00 for the latest episode of Two Bearded Jews Talk Politics ... open.substack.com/live-strea…
Once again, Mamdani conflates the deaths of civilians and Hamas terrorists in Gaza ... and once again needlessly promotes the blood libel of genocide against Jews.
He can't help himself from sticking his finger in the eyes of his Jewish constituents. He's such a loathsome, awful person.
Today, Brad Lander, rabbis, and other New Yorkers accompanied Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest. For that, they were detained by the Israeli government.
Harvesting olives is not illegal. The occupation is.
I am thankful that Brad has been released. But other New Yorkers remain detained, and they must be released immediately.
The same Israeli government detaining them has committed a horrific genocide against Palestinians, killing more than 74,000 people over the last few years alone.
The detention of these New Yorkers must end. The occupation must end. The genocide must end.
Talking with @brianros1 at 1:00 for the latest episode of Two Bearded Jews Talk Politics ... open.substack.com/live-strea…
Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP’S FORMER FIXER) retweeted
Worth reading from @speechboy71 on the painful dilemmas that Jewish voters in Michigan are grappling with.
ms.now/opinion/abdul-el-saye…























