Andrew Sabl

@andysabl

Political theorist (Univ. of Toronto). Toronto/NYC. Realism, liberalism, toleration, privilege and opportunity, Hume, political ethics—and politics, humo(u)r, puns. Also husband, dad, stepdad.

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Andrew Sabl@andysabl· 26d

A bunch of Europeans are hanging out in this American bar and grill in Morocco. They spend the movie drinking, gambling, admiring the piano player, complaining about their love lives, and wishing they were in Portugal instead.

Graphic showing a collage of movie posters with the text superimposed: “DESCRIBE YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE AS BORING AS POSSIBLE”

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Jul 7

Taking a break from posting to concentrate on work. Leaving everyone with this.

Bella, the world’s cutest dog, looking upwards at the camera.

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Jul 5

Bella wants everyone to know that it’s *very* important to get to the bottom of this fallen branch.

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Jul 4

This graph…explains a lot. In *average* wealth, the U.S. excels. In median wealth, the opposite. U.S. wealth is concentrated at the top. Source (and more commentary): open.substack.com/pub/angusrei...

Graph of average and median wealth across several OECD countries

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Jul 3

Too many to name. But if I have to choose three, Ellison, *Invisible Man* Shklar, *American Citizenship* Fischer, *Albion’s Seed*

Cover photo for Judith N. Shklar’s ^American Citizenship: The Quest for Inclusion* (Harvard University Press).

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Jun 27

That this made the Globe and Mail shows that Canada is…not a very dangerous country. (Good!)

Headline and sub-head of Canadian Press story by Marissa Birnie appearing in The Globe and Mail, 27 June 2026:

B.C. homeowners terrorized by viral
'door-kick challenge':
Homeowners say groups of teenagers are pounding on their doors late at night and then running away.

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Jun 24

I love this. Affordable, electric, no frills (but AC, which isn’t a luxury). But my favorite part?

Keeping things simple

Slate plans to sell vehicles to customers directly and bypass the traditional dealership model altogether. The company has more than 160,000 reservations for the truck, it said, and deliveries are set to begin in the fourth quarter.

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· May 23

From the article, noted without comment:

To do this, San Antonio borrowed some moves from Oklahoma City. Jordan Mandelkorn, who helps lead the Spurs’ creative marketing efforts, said the team had adopted the practice of having camera operators in the stadium find fans who weren’t wearing the shirts and lightly shaming them on the Jumbotron. (They also praised those who were wearing them.)

“If you reach a critical mass, everybody will start to follow suit,” said Mr. Mandelkorn, noting that it had been a big boost when former star players like Tim Duncan and David Robinson were spotted in the stands with the shirts. “If they’re wearing it, it kind of sets the tone for everyone else. No excuses.”

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· May 23

We need to constantly remember how little political junkies and activists resemble the mass electorate. Most people *do not follow politics closely.* www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/u...

Among Democratic supporters, Mr.
Schumer was viewed slightly more negatively than positively, though 35 percent of Democrats had not heard of him.
[The last clause is highlighted.]

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· May 23

I love New York. Corporate sports team management: “Wouldn’t it look great on TV if all the fans wore the same color T-shirts? New Yorkers: nah. How about: we’re individuals who get to wear what we want. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/n...

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/nyregion/knicks-fans-free-t-shirts.html?unlocked_article_code=1.klA.z7Se.IiIMUuCTk8yC&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· May 20

Bella has decided she’s had enough.

Bella the toy poodle raising herself to her full height to make a statement.

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· May 19

People, get a grip. It’s the lead story in print. As with most thing Trump, the NYT’s coverage (1) far more restrained than it should be (2) present, not absent (and not buried): it’s a matter of a culpable bad frame, not a cover-up. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/u...

Lead story in the print edition The New York Times, Tuesday May 19, 2026:

“After Trump Drops Suit, U.S. Allots $1.8 Billion As 'Redress' to His Allies”
“Critics Call Deal a Political Slush Fund”
This article is by Glenn Thrush, Andrew Duehren and Alan Feuer.

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration on Monday
announced the creation of a $1.8 billion fund to compensate those who claim they were targeted by the Biden Justice Department and Democrats, forging a pipeline to funnel taxpayer money to President Trump's allies.

The highly unusual anti-weap-onization" fund - denounced by critics as a political slush fund - was unveiled just atter Mr. Trump withdrew his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service
demanding at least $10 billion. It was apparently an effort to skirt
oversight by the judge in the case, who had expressed concern that the suit represented self-dealing between the president and a department run by his former defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, now the acting attorney general.

The tandem moves amounted to an end-run that appeared to strip Judge Kathleen M. Williams, who had been overseeing the I.R.S. case in the Southern District of Florida, of her appointed role in approving a formal settlement agreement. By dismissing the case in its entirety, Mr. Trump was able to reach an agreement with his own appointees without risking the rebuke of an impartial and
independent arbiter.

The cash value of the fund was set at $1.776 billion, a nod to the nation's founding. …

…

"This is one of the single most corrupt acts in American history," said Donald K. Sherman, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit legal watchdog group that has been critical of the administration.

Continued on Page A16

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· May 18

“If you see this, post a tree.” Ok, if you insist.

Photo of a bonsai in a shipping crate with a mailing label and packing tape nearby.

Source: https://parcelpath.com/carrier-services/how-to-ship-a-bonsai-tree/

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· May 11

Nobody wants to admit that Trump’s entire understanding of nuclear weapon development probably consists of having once watched *Notorious* www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/u...

“It’s an offer that basically said they will not have nuclear weapons,” he said. “They’re going to hand us the nuclear dust and many other things that we want.” The president often refers to Iran’s near bomb-grade uranium as “dust,” though the material is stored in canisters, typically as a gas.

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· May 10

I’m in Austria—and will never not love that German has a single two-syllable word for “case of fire” (Brandfall).

Sign by an elevator in Vienna (in German and English):

Bitte Aufzug im Brandfall nicht benützen!

Please do not use elevator in case of fire!

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Apr 26

Post your favo(u)rite “Lord of the Rings” character(s). Wrong answers only.

Photo of Canadian-American economist John Kenneth Galbraith

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Apr 22

Ok, who’s the Guardian subeditor who spotted this pull quote (which the source used to describe the state of the market)? 😆 Mhttps://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/22/condom-prices-iran-war-cost-price-rise-karex?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

'Very fragile'

Condom prices could rise 30% due to Iran war, says world's top producer Karex

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Apr 19

Indeed, it’s in print today. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

NYT front page for Sunday, April 19, 2026, showing the article everyone was reading the day before: “The Shadow Papers” by Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak. Gift link in the post.

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Apr 7

Editorial cartoon from The Globe and Mail (Toronto):
Happy-looking astronauts giving thumbs-up signs. From Earth, visible through a porthole, we see a radio-speech bubble saying, “OPEN THE F@*!-NG STRAIT, YOU CRAZY B#$!*?DS!” Caption: FARTHER FROM EARTH THAN ANY HUMAN YET...

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Mar 23

Katanna at the bar says hi.

Katanna, bartender at the Blinded Tiger in Terminal 8 at JFK airport

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Mar 22

My flight’s delayed at JFK—but stumbled on a charming bar, “Blinded Tiger,” in Terminal 8. However: too cute by half, the owners went for a “speakeasy” esthetic and *hid it inside the Duty Free Shop* with no sign outside. Nobody knows it’s here. Good for me—it’s very quiet!—but bad for the bar.

Interior of “Blinded Tiger” bar in Terminal 8, JFK airport

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Mar 22

Call me crazy, but I think it’d be nice if, say, 1 out of 20 ads that university administrators ran to stress their institutions’ value suggested that social scientists and humanists exist and that our work is worthwhile.

Full-page ad for the University of Michigan in the New York Times, March 22, 2026:

If you want to know what a university is for, Look to the work.
Look to the Physicians
destroying cancer with sound instead of scalpels.
Look to the Architects
designing stronger structures with 72% less concrete.
Look to the Librarians
preserving and providing access to millions of digitized books.
Look to the Designers
bringing braille into the digital world.
Look to the Engineers
making electric vehicles charge 5X faster.
Look to the Researchers
creating an artificial ovary so cancer survivors can become parents.
Look to the Scientists
developing tools to improve and protect our water.
Across 19 schools and colleges, from regional campuses
to one of the nation's leading academic medical centers,
throughout classrooms, communities, and continents, wherever Michigan goes, progress follows.
To keep the work moving forward, the University of Michigan is investing $1 billion over the next decade in the people and ideas behind it-transforming public investment into the public good.
For answers.
For action.
For all of us.
Look to Michigan
Look to Michigan
umich.edu/look

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Mar 1

This is “lost in the clouds”? The simplest explanation of a 2 x 2 classification? Sometimes journalists’ contempt for abstruse writing really does seem more like a determination to avoid all serious thinking. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/b...

But, alas, at times in his new book he gets lost in the clouds. Here’s a sample, discussing Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher: “Kant is here invoking two binaries we’ve already discussed. The first is that between a priori and a posteriori truth; the second is that between analysis and synthesis.”

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Feb 25

Got it.

Eric Michael Garcia • @ericmgarcia.bsky.social
Ilhan Omar is shouting "You have killed Americans" as Tlaib is saying the same.
10:07 PM • Feb 24, 2026

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Feb 19

Via Jaanika Merilo on Substack: Sheinbaum and Carney are far more popular than Trump… …in the United States.

Most popular leaders among US adults.
YouGov Poll (Jan 22-26, 2026)
#1 Volodymyr Zelenskyy +14%
#2 Mark Carney +6%
#3 Claudia Sheinbaum +5%

[Selected others from the chart:
Donald Trump -16
Viktor Orbán -19
Xi Jinping -44
Vladimir Putin -72]

Net favorability = Favorable minus Unfavorable

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Feb 14

🎶 I live in here in Brooklyn With a cat with no name My snails feel good to be out of the rain 🎶 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/n...

Ms. Yeung, 40, lives with her 16-year-old cat, who has no name, and her two snails, Lady Godiva and Richard, in Kensington, Brooklyn.

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Feb 13

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand… Notice who’s missing when she mentions whom Canada has historically relied on to defend it? www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/f9f7c04...

She said the Western alliance needs to shift more attention to the Arctic.

"Canada's role in NATO has historically been one where we export our defence to Europe," the minister said.

"It is the moment in time where NATO, as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, must look north, and not only east."

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Jan 11

At the No Kings-No War-No ICE protest in NYC

Protest sign:
“WE DON’T DO KINGS HERE
ESPECIALLY NOT SHORT-FINGERED VULGARIANS”

Protest sign:
“I’ve seen better cabinets at IKEA!”

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Dec 31

Going to pop this. I figure it’s now or never.

Extra Strength Tylenol Sinus tablet with the expiration date “2025/12”

Andrew Sabl@andysabl· Dec 26

Our Bella (the redder one) and her cousin Bowie in their matching Christmas “jammies”