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joelmathis.bsky.social
Try to say a true thing every day. Opinion at @kansascity.com and @kansasdotcom.bsky.social. Was in Philly once upon a time. Journalism will never love you back. Will occasionally post about stupid culture stuff even though we're in a democratic emergency.
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So close to just re-starting the Obama agreement. (Which would be good.) www.axios.com/2025/06/02/i...

submitted 39 minutes ago • 0 comments

Genuine question: Will the Trump Admin find some anti-DEI rationale to try to prevent this from achieving its goals?

submitted 4 hours ago • 0 comments

Seems like if you spend a quarter-billion dollars to put a never-popular president over the electoral finish line, you kind of have to take responsibility for what that president ends up doing.

submitted 5 hours ago • 0 comments

"We're all gonna die" isn't just for Medicaid cuts.

submitted 6 hours ago • 0 comments

My wife keeps the tortillas mentioned in the New Yorker article in our fridge constantly. She makes a hell of a breakfast burrito with them.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

One other possible reason the judiciary maintains its independence while Congress does not: lawyers spend years in law school learning not just law but the cultural expectations of their profession. They are catechized in the way elected officials aren’t. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/o...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

The Lord of the Rings movies are actually tedious. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

The Trump administration’s cuts to National Endowment for the Arts grants has touched communities across the country, including Kansas City. My look at what the cuts mean for KC arts, through the experience of Charlotte Street Foundation >>> www.kansascity.com/news/politic...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

A secondary tip for male friendships - after “go to breakfast” - is this:

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

I can smell the Canadian wildfires from Kansas.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

My latest: www.kansascity.com/opinion/read...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

open.substack.com/pub/joelmmat...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

I didn’t expect the climax of RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD to be an homage to FAIL SAFE.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Why I need the Knicks to win. @libertyhall.bsky.social

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

My hometown weekly paper that never covers national issues is once again putting federal cuts on the front page.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

The first HUNGER GAMES movie is just a gritty WIZARD OF OZ reboot.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

I need the Knicks to win because I have a pre-planned event with my son and I don’t want to miss TNT’s farewell.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Well, we are all going to die.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

This might make sense, if the Trump Administration wasn't also driving away the scientists! "No bad immigrants, just the good ones, but also not the good ones actually they're bad" in the MAGA policy.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

NYT Mag has a piece about the hard task of men making deep friendships, and guys: It's not that hard. Go have breakfast.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

(Checks savings account.)

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

We should just put “not all Democrats are happy” as the subhead to any political story.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Somebody tell Pete Hegseth. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Seems designed to cause a panic.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

One thing that’s happened as I get older and farther away from my fundamentalist upbringing is a slow embrace of the idea that one of the pleasures of cinema can be seeing beautiful people lit and dressed beautifully.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

The Trump Amin’s list of “sanctuary cities” is … wrong. (Lawrence, where I live, is a city. It is in Douglas County which obviously not a city.)

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

open.substack.com/pub/joelmmat...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Yoo’s OLC opinions justifying torture and expansive presidential war powers during War on Terror 1.0 certainly helped pave the way to our current moment.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Real "how it started/how it's going" energy. Fall 2016: BURN IT ALL DOWN! Spring 2025: ohshitohshitohshitohshit

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

This is...interesting from the Trumpiest of Trumpy think tanks. A lot of discomfort with Trump's trade wars! claremontreviewofbooks.com/lets-not-do-...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Harrison Butker's wife is speaking out, and more power to her if she's living the life she wants to live, but uh... this line. www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-c...

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

I watch a lot of the CHEERS channel on Pluto while washing dishes. Everybody knows the Sam-Diane dynamic gave the show a raw edge during the first half its run. ...the back-half episodes where Frasier and Lilith's marriage goes to shit sneakily replicates it and are the best parts of the KA era.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

I can't decide if it's better or worse for us that he is (seemingly) this blitzed out of his gourd.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

“Blessed are…” (shrugs)

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

"Elon Musk WILL return" is like the tag line at the end of a Bond movie, except for the villain.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

I write about the MAGA right’s anger at “sanctuary churches.” Religious liberty for me, not for thee. open.substack.com/pub/joelmmat...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

All Cops Are Beestung.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments