Robert Stanton

Very moved by Steve McQueen’s END CREDITS at The Shed: excellent expat American actors from London give voice to the declassified FBI files on Paul Robeson and his wife, Eslanda Goode, the driest depiction of the destruction of individuals by an unrelenting bureaucracy of surveillance.

I’m I-need-a-sweater-in-air-conditioned-spaces old.

Today, we pause to celebrate the resilience and solidarity of the American workforce. (1/3) #LaborDay

I love my local diner for the kindness of the staff and consistently good and comforting food, but sometimes my toast comes with both slices butter side up.

Fun fact, tho not so much given the circumstances: Many large west coast SEIU local numbers are based off mergers. 1021 was 10 locals, now 1. 521 was 5, now 1. 721 was 7, now 1. Not 925. 925 is numbered after the 9 to 5 movement of women workers in the 70s, which Dolly wrote the song about.

NEW: What Monday’s Supreme Court election order ruling is and is not. The Republican majority gave Trump a temporary win. It could be short-lived — or it could “foment chaos,” as Justice Jackson wrote, calling out the majority in unusually direct terms. Tonight, at Law Dork:

Take the subway from Queens to the agency after closing. Pick up the script waiting in the bin. Read it on the way home. Stay up until 3 to work on the sides. Learn the last page on the ride in to keep it alive. One tiny bead of sweat rolls down your side in the waiting room. Replay after. 1988.

I have yet to see Matt Damon in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” but I *did* see Yul Brynner, Joan Diener, and Russ Thacker in Mitch Leigh’s “The Odyssey” before it came to Broadway as “Home Sweet Homer.”

Loved watching Ryan Czerwonko and company in Adult Film NYC's production of Woyzeck, imaginatively directed by Seth Bockley in the late, great John Christopher Jones's translation, after a lovely bike ride out to Modern Sweater, a new performance venue in Ridgewood. www.adultfilm.nyc

I met Jennifer Precious Finch over 20 years ago when we were some of the only guests at a Desert Hot Springs resort. She gave me the EP her band The Shocker had just released, which I loved, and I would see her play and say hi when she came to town. Such a delightful person and wonderful musician.

Kudos to James Udom, Nick Westrate, Isabel Arraiza and the rest of the cast of the excellent "Othello" at Classical Theater of Harlem.

Rewatching “The Prisoner” decades on, and it’s fun, having since done plays by Ionesco, to feel his influence in the episode “Free for All.” Cinematography, editing, and actors all work toward something absurd, playful, and eerie: Eric Portman, Rachel Herbert, and George Benson are all excellent.

The Prisoner is on the Criterion Channel! As I experienced it initially, in summer replacement season, 1968!

Thanks to fellow museum goer Horace, for the first time I saw the service buttons in the Frick. In the room with Rembrandt’s self-portrait, they’re on the rail behind the opposing couch.

I realized today that I came out to my parents 43 year ago this month. I was back from my first year in acting school. But I had come out to my oldest friend some time in 9th grade, seven years before that. So by my math, I have been out for 50 years.

I was so fortunate to work with the talented and kind Albert Wolsky twice in the 90s. RIP.

A livestream of a volcano in the Philippines captured a meteor crashing to Earth today. What are the odds? Mayon Volcano, Location: Albay, Luzon, Philippines

My milkshake brings all the ants to my car

More than anything, Republicans want Democrats to start to believe that it's hopeless so they won't bother to turn out. But the truth is that even the Virginia decision is not enough to prevent Democrats from taking the House if we have a wave election. But we have to have a wave election.

The only ways they can get what they want are through cheating, disenfranchisement, or disregarding and nullifying the will of the people. They can’t persuade without lying, nor can they actually govern.

Sometimes the guys at my diner call me Avelino, after my great-grandfather, or Tamaulipas, where my great-great-grandfather Encarnación was born.

Whenever I call a friend in London, I feel like I’m in the song Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.

Virginia County Circuit Judge Jack Hurley is once again attempting to block the democratically-passed redistricting referendum. We expect notably passionate Attorney General Jay Jones to succeed in his appeal in front of the Virginia Supreme Court, which previously approved the referendum

Trump is reported close to a "deal" with himself under which US taxpayers would pay him $10 billion. I served in multiple communist and authoritarian dictatorships, but I never witnessed corruption on this scale or this blatant.

“The Balusters” is so impressive.

You are a senator.

The bloodlust… true psychopathy.

If I were in Trump's Cabinet, I would spend Easter calling constitutional lawyers about the 25th Amendment. This is completely, utterly unhinged. He's already killed thousands. He's going to kill thousands more.

Sue his ass.

An interview by Alexandra Viets with two women living in Beirut about life there now: open.substack.com/pub/alexandr...

States Move to Limit Access to H.I.V. Treatment www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/h...

“.. A banner depicting U.S. President Donald Trump hangs outside the Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C., on the day the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran.” @reuters.com

Paramount should enjoy its growing news monopoly while they have it because when Democrats win back power we are going to break up these anti-democratic information conglomerates. All of them.

Once, ONCE, I want to open the New York Times app without thinking, “What?! Oh, fuck.”

REVIEW: Kathleen Chalfant and Elizabeth Marvel lead a first-rate cast in Jacob Perkins's look at alcoholism and healing, The Dinosaurs (★★★★) www.timeout.com/newyork/thea...

R.I.P., Harry Haun. What a kind fellow, good reporter, and lovely writer.

🚨BREAKING: Hours after federal immigration officers shot and killed a man in Minneapolis, Pam Bondi seized upon the incident to demand access to voter rolls, directly tying the Trump administration’s quest for voters’ unredacted personal data to its aggressive immigration raids across the state.

One Year of Trump. The Time to Act Is Now, While We Still Can. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...

ICE must be abolished. It has become a lawless, rogue agency. Federal law enforcement agencies must follow the law, if they're going to have any credibility enforcing it. We are demanding justice for Renee Good and the prosecution of ICE agent Jonathan Ross for her murder.

RIP, John Cunningham.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/o...

BREAKING: WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate advances a war powers resolution to limit further attacks on Venezuela and sets up a vote for final passage.

Anyone withnessing the chaos and barbarism of the untrained thugs masquerading as law officers for the last nine months understands ICE is raw human trash gathered into a lawless street gang. That's all. This isn't policing. It isn't legal enforcement. It's just incompetent, undisciplined terror.

I just left the Venezuela briefing. It's worse than you thought. Oil company executives seem to know more about Trump's secret plan to "run" Venezuela than the American people. We need public Senate hearings NOW.

Do I dare to skeet "impeach"?