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Peter Sagal

@petersagal.bsky.social
206K followers 414 following 11K posts

I make Dad jokes on NPR and also write books and other things.

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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 3h
Apropos of this: if you’ve never read Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America,” there’s a DC tour guide, Mr Taylor, who for me is one of the most indelible and quietly heroic characters in modern literature.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 3h
The Alito Op-ed in the WSJ on originalism (adapted from his book) is really remarkable. www.wsj.com/opinion/just...
wsj.com
Opinion | Justice Samuel Alito: Even Originalists Make Mistakes
An interpretive method disciplines the decision-making process, but it doesn’t free judges of the need to exercise judgment.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 4h
From a story over the weekend on the President personally deciding to use public funds for his ads: “Mark Paoletta, the budget office’s counsel, and Will Scharf, the White House counsel, both said it would be legal to use D.H.S. funds.” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Directed Use of Taxpayer Money for Ads Praising His Presidency (Gift Article)
The government-funded ads show just how much President Trump has been able to use federal money for his own aims.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 16h
Score at the library book sale. @markharris.bsky.social
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Yesterday, had an illuminating convo with @daphnarenan.bsky.social about her book “Supremacy,” (co-authored with @nikobowie.bsky.social) with Don Verelli, who found the book as revelatory and surprising as I did — and he’s a former Solicitor General. www.chicagohumanities.org/events/atten...
chicagohumanities.org
Peter Sagal’s Constitution Sessions: Supremacy
The case against ultimate judicial rule
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This obit lists a remarkable number of lucky breaks in his career. One opponent gets sick, then another, another suddenly resigns, etc. and he continued to rise. You have to assume as all of this happened, he was always asking himself: “Will they ever find out?”
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Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
🎵 Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Annie Hall... 🎶
@ boston.com
Ringo Starr returns to Forest
Hills Stadium
The 86-year-old drummer played the Queens venue for the first time since his former band performed there in
1964. The concert featured a mix of classic rock hits alongside his current arous.
Generated with Al, which can make mistakes

The picture is of Woody Allen.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
youtu.be/VmDgKobjYsc?...
youtu.be
ORIGINAL "Chiller Theatre" Stop Motion Opening - WPIX 11 - NY 1970's and Early 1980's
YouTube video by Superseven / Sandra West & More!
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Every year we go to a local carnival where my 5yo’s favorite thing is the water race, the game where you shoot a water gun at a target to move a metal horse across a board. So yesterday, I duly put down my $5 and helped him win a little stuffed dino.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Just saw a US Army recruitment ad that was one big bug shy of Starship Troopers.
static.klipy.com
Starship Troopers: I'm Doing My Part
ALT: Starship Troopers: I'm Doing My Part
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Studying @daphnarenan.bsky.social and @nikobowie.bsky.social’s book SUPREMACY for our event on Sunday and it is astonishing how quickly the Republican Party began to transform after the Civil War.

IT DID NOT TAKE LONG for Lost Cause arguments to creep into Republican discourse. In 1867, when Henry Raymond became the most prominent Republican editor to oppose Reconstruction, his language echoed Pollard's. Although Raymond had initially been critical of white Southerners for asking the Court to resist Congress's authority, he nevertheless agreed with Pollard that black suffrage was "subversive of that system of 'regulated, American liberty'... which our fathers gave us, which is embodied in the Constitution of the United States, and which has been respected and maintained by the unbroken practice and traditions of the successive administrations of our Government from the very beginning of its history." Raymond added that if radical Republicans had their way, "the party which has thrust negro suffrage upon the South shall not shrink from forcing it upon the North." He therefore defended the Court as a necessary obstacle to "Congressional suprem-defended the Court as a necessary obstacle to "Congressional suprem. acy" and to the radical goal of constructing "absolute political equality» on the graves of the states.
The Times's early attacks on Congress were parried by most other Republicans, including Horace Greeley of the New-York Tribune. Yet Greeley also began to question whether the Constitution permitted Congress to permanently dictate the affairs of white Southerners. Even as he endorsed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, Greeley traveled to Pollard's hometown of Richmond to sign the bail bond that freed Jefterson
Davis.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I know, I know, I KNOW... but my jaw dropped. A gift link. (Also, hat tip to Sadie Gurman, who for many years now has pretty much owned the DOJ beat) www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
wsj.com
Exclusive | Decades After Watergate, Justice Department Reviews Whether Nixon Got a Raw Deal
A revisionist historian went to the DOJ headquarters to present his case that the former president and his associates weren’t treated fairly.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
In response to my other threads a very common reaction is why can't I just pay a small amount to read one article? In the business this is generally called "micro-payments". The short answer is this has been tried countless times and it's never worked. The longer answer is that the incentives ...
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Let me say a couple words about paywalls. They’re annoying. I feel that (as a news consumer) and know that (as a news publisher). But asking for your email, either to read an article or even to access a gift link (someone said this happened to them a a Times gift link a moment ago) isn’t some …
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Important; it’s an immigration judge, who unlike federal judges are under the direct supervision of the Administration, which has been pushing out judges they feel are unduly biased towards immigrants.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Mr Feinberg below is one of the agents fired by Kash Patel. Seems like an important point.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
So I’ve been a lifelong Red Sox fan, but — like a lot of us — I never got over the Mookie Betts trade. My feelings about the team have been conflicted since then, and they haven’t given me much reason to come back.. firing Alex Cora and his whole staff hurt. (Even if the results were good.)
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Tom the Dancing Bug, by Ruben Bolling @rubenbolling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
HERE WE GO! Another of Blaine’s epic threads.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Got nothing against Atlanta -- some of my best friends, etc, great times there -- but I love Philadelphia, and Kyle Schwarber is what I would look like as a baseball player if I played baseball. GO PHILLIES.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
this is remarkable
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Jack Lynch @jacklynch000.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Teaching Swift today, and will always share this on “Modest Proposal” day.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The Attorney General just announced that the DOJ has filed a formal complaint against Federal District judges in Minnesota -- all but one of them, in fact -- because they did interviews with the NYTimes for this article. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/u...
nytimes.com
Trump’s Minnesota Surge Threatened Democracy, Judge Warns (Gift Article)
In a rare interview, Patrick Schiltz, who served as the federal court’s chief judge last winter, called the administration’s actions “a grave threat to the rule of law.”
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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
okay here's 6 www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/u... www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/u... www.liberalcurrents.com/mass-deporta... www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202... www.latimes.com/politics/sto... www.wsj.com/us-news/trum...
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
SCENE: An office in DC. February 2024. JACK SMITH: I’ve got to make a secret trip to Atlanta to co-ordinate with my co-conspirator in my campaign to bring down Trump. No one can even know I’m there. AIDE: You’re the most well-known prosecutor in the world. Maybe send some underling?
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is the first time this has been said in human history (at least about me, no notion about Mr Black)
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This Sunday!
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Watching Schmitt in the Senate today, I thought of this speech as well.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I cannot exaggerate the number of times I have thought of this moment, especially Heston's delivery of the line "IT'S A MADHOUSE!," over the last decade.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
If you missed it, there was a dramatic baseball moment over the weekend, and fortunately Jason Benetti was there to make the call. awfulannouncing.com/mlb/jason-be...
awfulannouncing.com
Jason Benetti shines calling Justin Verlander's final game: 'A farewell to something more than a player'
Saturday was Justin Verlander's moment, but Detroit Tigers announcer Jason Benetti made the legendary pitcher's final game even more special.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Late to it, but delighted to find former Postie Dana Milbank at the new Washington Sun. www.washingtonsun.com/perspectives...
washingtonsun.com
It Was Already a Pretty Bad Week. Then Trump Surrendered to China.
Xi came to town, and the American president became a supplicant.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
[Smug Don Johnson in “Knives Out” voice:] I was reading Daniel Dale when he was at the Toronto Star. www.cnn.com/2026/09/27/p...
cnn.com
I started fact-checking Trump 10 years ago. Here are 15 things I’ve learned | CNN Politics
Ten years ago this month, in my old job as Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star, I started what I believed would be a quick little side project: fact-checking underdog presidential candidate ...
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Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I'm on today's episode of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! with fellow panelists Dulcé Sloan and Faith Salie recorded live in Omaha! Thanks to Peter, Alzo, and the whole team for having me along! (The guest is legendary volleyball coach John Cook!)
Dulcé, Faith, and me at the panelist table onstage in Omaha. Lillian King and Mike Danforth are visible over my shoulder!
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
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Steve Herman @newsguy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The general manager of WBHM in Birmingham announces the public radio station is compelled to begin referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America." view.reach.uab.edu/?vawpToken...
view.reach.uab.edu
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Thank you, Omaha, for coming out in force, and for putting me up in lights. And thanks to Coach John Cook for joining us in front of 1603 (we assume) happy Cornhusker fans.
The marquee of the Orpheus Theater in downtown Omaha
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A flatteringly comprehensive portrait of our show. They consulted experts! www.poynter.org/reporting-ed...
poynter.org
‘The darker times get, the more important it feels’: The enduring joy of NPR's ‘Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me!’ - Poynter
The NPR news quiz has survived nearly 30 years of media upheaval by staying funny, familiar and surprisingly adaptable
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I know Tim. No better advocate for Chicago, its buildings and its history. As a teenager, he assisted the legendary photographer and preservationist Richard Nickel.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In an Uber. Driver having loud phone conversation with someone in Spanish. A little annoying, but it happens. He hangs up. Says, “Mi hermano. La Migra.” And starts weeping.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Non-zero chance they think it was named for President Ford.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This version of the story is more skeptical of the truth of the charges than the earlier Pro Publica story, FWIW.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Thank you! Should have done a more diligent search. Hey, Elliott! Loved your podcast!
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Not sure if I watched it on its first run or a later repeat, but so was I. @hodgman.bsky.social and Elliott Kalan recently recorded a fantastic podcast to go along with it, if you're want to (re) watch it. maximumfun.org/podcasts/i-p...
maximumfun.org
I, Podius | Maximum Fun
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A certain NYT columnist this AM reminded me of this passage from Mark Twain's "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven," published (mostly) posthumously. The hero is observing a heavenly procession of the greatest literary geniuses in history.
But why did they throw off on Shakespeare, that way, and put him away down there below those shoe-makers and horse-doctors and knife-grinders--a lot of people nobody ever heard of?"

"That is the heavenly justice of it--they warn't rewarded according to their deserts, on earth, but here they get their rightful rank. That tailor Billings, from Tennessee, wrote poetry that Homer and Shakespeare couldn't begin to come up to; but nobody would print it, nobody read it but his neighbors, an ignorant lot, and they laughed at it. Whenever the village had a drunken frolic and a dance, they would drag him in and crown him with cabbage leaves, and pretend to bow down to him; and one night when he was sick and nearly starved to death, they had him out and crowned him, and then they rode him on a rail about the village, and everybody followed along, beating tin pans and yelling. Well, he died before morning. He wasn't ever expecting to go to heaven, much less that there was going to be any fuss made over him, so I reckon he was a good deal surprised when the reception broke on him."
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I stopped engaging with critics of the "White House Press Corps" because life is hard enough but if you're going to do so, you should know who now makes up the White House Press Corp. Also: Phil Williams is a treasure.
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Steve Gale @stevewg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Colley Hill, Surrey: coffee break from birding the steep scrub. Love the plaque on the bench I’m sitting on
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Excellent work here by WBUR, one of my (many) hometown stations.
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I was deputy M.E. at the WSJ when Murdoch took over, with a similar “editorial independence board.” Within 4 months, our top editor was gone, replaced by a loyal Murdoch deputy. That board raised a quivering objection, but the deed was done. If the Ellisons own CNN, they’ll do whatever they want.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
www.npr.org/2026/09/20/g...
npr.org
Statement on White House bans from Tommy Evans, NPR's Editor in Chief
NPR and our Member stations will continue to uphold First Amendment rights, and to stand with any news organization targeted for its reporting.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
More great enterprise reporting from the Washington Post, with some serious Hannah Arendt vibes.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Here's CNN, MSNow and Politico's legal motion against the WH ban on them. The evidence of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination is all these quotes from the President saying, repeatedly (in essence), "I don't like their viewpoint." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com
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