Anna Merlan
@annamerlan.bsky.social
Journalist at Mother Jones and elsewhere, author, writer of social media posts on micro-blogging sites. Tips to Amerlan@motherjones.com or on Signal, username annamerlan.30
Not sure how I’m going to survive when I’m no longer in Japan and can’t go into a konbini every 20 minutes
January 6, 2026 at 2:15 AM
Not sure how I’m going to survive when I’m no longer in Japan and can’t go into a konbini every 20 minutes
Time to get super into Kafka again I guess
January 3, 2026 at 11:49 PM
Time to get super into Kafka again I guess
I know these guys famously do not think anything through all the way, but holy shit
January 3, 2026 at 8:20 PM
I know these guys famously do not think anything through all the way, but holy shit
Every time I leave the country something insane happens so really this is my fault
January 3, 2026 at 9:53 AM
Every time I leave the country something insane happens so really this is my fault
Will Eric Adams now admit he lives in New Jersey do we think
January 2, 2026 at 3:22 AM
Will Eric Adams now admit he lives in New Jersey do we think
Rang in the new year in a hot bath on a tiny island in Japan drinking lemon gin while the wind raged outside so there’s nowhere to go but down for old Merlan
December 31, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Rang in the new year in a hot bath on a tiny island in Japan drinking lemon gin while the wind raged outside so there’s nowhere to go but down for old Merlan
Eric Adams is going to use cryptocurrency to fight antisemitism. Eric Adams is going to use samurai swords to fight food waste. Eric Adams is going to use 100 rubber duckies to fight prostate cancer. I would believe literally any combo of words hellgatenyc.com/eric-adams-s...
Eric Adams Says His Next Gig Is Fighting Antisemitism With Cryptocurrency
How? Don't ask.
hellgatenyc.com
December 31, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Eric Adams is going to use cryptocurrency to fight antisemitism. Eric Adams is going to use samurai swords to fight food waste. Eric Adams is going to use 100 rubber duckies to fight prostate cancer. I would believe literally any combo of words hellgatenyc.com/eric-adams-s...
Reposted by Anna Merlan
Friend in Westchester NY is trying to place a very friendly cat that hangs out in their yard. The cat is good with other cats. Please spread the word. They’ll have to go to aspca if it gets much colder (yes they built a temp shelter plz read the screenshot). #adoptdontshop #Westchester #PeekskillNY
December 30, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Friend in Westchester NY is trying to place a very friendly cat that hangs out in their yard. The cat is good with other cats. Please spread the word. They’ll have to go to aspca if it gets much colder (yes they built a temp shelter plz read the screenshot). #adoptdontshop #Westchester #PeekskillNY
We visited this Okonomiyaki place in Osaka where all the cooking, order-taking and everything else is done by one woman named Shiho with a powerful death metal scream for calling out orders. I would trust this woman to do open-heart surgery on me visitjapan-vegetarian.com/oko-fun-okon...
visitjapan-vegetarian.com
December 29, 2025 at 8:39 AM
We visited this Okonomiyaki place in Osaka where all the cooking, order-taking and everything else is done by one woman named Shiho with a powerful death metal scream for calling out orders. I would trust this woman to do open-heart surgery on me visitjapan-vegetarian.com/oko-fun-okon...
Reposted by Anna Merlan
Let's not forget the 2023 article by @annamerlan.bsky.social for @vicemagazine.bsky.social about RFK Jr's #crankfest get together.
www.vice.com/en/article/r...
www.vice.com/en/article/r...
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Gives the Game Away
At a health policy roundtable with some of the anti-vaccine world’s biggest names, the candidate marveled at how much press attention he’s received by running for president.
www.vice.com
December 28, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Let's not forget the 2023 article by @annamerlan.bsky.social for @vicemagazine.bsky.social about RFK Jr's #crankfest get together.
www.vice.com/en/article/r...
www.vice.com/en/article/r...
Reposted by Anna Merlan
New, from me: The NYT reporter who specializes in profiles of beleaguered right-wingers on campus went to New College...and found out that things were going ok!
So let me explain some pretty massive errors of omission: 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nyt-re...
So let me explain some pretty massive errors of omission: 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nyt-re...
The NYT Recruiting Brochure for New College
A failing Ron DeSantis higher ed experiment gets a boost
donmoynihan.substack.com
December 28, 2025 at 7:50 PM
New, from me: The NYT reporter who specializes in profiles of beleaguered right-wingers on campus went to New College...and found out that things were going ok!
So let me explain some pretty massive errors of omission: 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nyt-re...
So let me explain some pretty massive errors of omission: 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nyt-re...
I’ve got my best guy on the case
December 28, 2025 at 7:58 AM
I’ve got my best guy on the case
Reposted by Anna Merlan
we have this exotic thing here that maybe hasn’t made it ‘across the pond’ yet it’s called jewish people
December 25, 2025 at 2:59 PM
we have this exotic thing here that maybe hasn’t made it ‘across the pond’ yet it’s called jewish people
Tenet Media founder Lauren Chen, who secretly took money from two people with ties to Russian state media to involve conservative influencers in an unwitting propaganda scheme, is back in the US after being deported to Canada under President Biden. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
December 25, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Tenet Media founder Lauren Chen, who secretly took money from two people with ties to Russian state media to involve conservative influencers in an unwitting propaganda scheme, is back in the US after being deported to Canada under President Biden. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Stayed at the small town Japanese bar for so long that the proprietor evaluated my appearance very carefully and then put on The Cure, before coming over to confirm that, as he suspected, I fucking love The Cure
December 25, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Stayed at the small town Japanese bar for so long that the proprietor evaluated my appearance very carefully and then put on The Cure, before coming over to confirm that, as he suspected, I fucking love The Cure
Reposted by Anna Merlan
...it's indistinguishable from endless Daily Stormer-level garbage they've already posted, as @annamerlan.bsky.social at @clarajeffery.bsky.social's Mother Jones documents in this important, scrupulously researched piece.
DHS shared an AI-generated video of Santa working for ICE, proving yet again that the official voice of the US government is still cruel, gross, and weird.
The official voice of the US government is cruel, gross, and weird. What is that doing to us?
Joking memes about imprisonment, deportation, and death by alligator are designed to radicalize and desensitize.
www.motherjones.com
December 23, 2025 at 10:50 PM
...it's indistinguishable from endless Daily Stormer-level garbage they've already posted, as @annamerlan.bsky.social at @clarajeffery.bsky.social's Mother Jones documents in this important, scrupulously researched piece.
Congrats to Bari Weiss on an incredible PR campaign for 60 Minutes today
December 23, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Congrats to Bari Weiss on an incredible PR campaign for 60 Minutes today
Reposted by Anna Merlan
So Weiss failed to 1) protect her newsroom and reporters 2) understand public perception 3) comprehend the impact of her own actions 4) REALIZE THEY ALREADY SENT THE EPISODE TO CANADA WHERE PEOPLE HAVE THE INTERNET AND CAN BROADCAST IT TO THE REST OF THE WORLD
December 23, 2025 at 12:48 AM
So Weiss failed to 1) protect her newsroom and reporters 2) understand public perception 3) comprehend the impact of her own actions 4) REALIZE THEY ALREADY SENT THE EPISODE TO CANADA WHERE PEOPLE HAVE THE INTERNET AND CAN BROADCAST IT TO THE REST OF THE WORLD
Reposted by Anna Merlan
Dozens of feuds, internecine wars, and petty beefs are rivening MAGA from top to bottom.
MAGA is eating itself alive
From TPUSA to the White House, the feuds are spiraling out of control.
www.motherjones.com
December 22, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Dozens of feuds, internecine wars, and petty beefs are rivening MAGA from top to bottom.
What’s crazy is to become the head of CBS without enough experience to understand this super basic fact because your white grievance substack did unusually well with boomers
You do everything in your power to get every relevant voice in a story. But as one of my former colleagues told a local official who thought his silence would kill a piece: “I’d like to have you. But the story is being written with or without you.”
Reporter: We have 3 videos, 2 breathalyzers, 4 bartenders, and a minivan full of nuns attesting to how the driver was drunk and reckless when he hit the school bus.
Weiss; What did the driver say.
Reporter: He and his lawyer won’t talk. We asked them 5 times.
Weiss: I’m killing your story.
Weiss; What did the driver say.
Reporter: He and his lawyer won’t talk. We asked them 5 times.
Weiss: I’m killing your story.
December 22, 2025 at 3:36 PM
What’s crazy is to become the head of CBS without enough experience to understand this super basic fact because your white grievance substack did unusually well with boomers
Okay I’m sorry I have one more low-stakes take for the year: Gen Z people, especially people that appear to be assigned female at birth … sing out loud in public way more often than I would expect. The subway. The airport bathroom. Things of that nature
December 22, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Okay I’m sorry I have one more low-stakes take for the year: Gen Z people, especially people that appear to be assigned female at birth … sing out loud in public way more often than I would expect. The subway. The airport bathroom. Things of that nature
Reposted by Anna Merlan
really cannot be emphasized enough that bari weiss has literally never done journalism. i don’t mean that in the pejorative sense. i mean that in the “has never performed the job she was hired to do” sense
One explanation for Bari killing the story is that she did so as a public act of fealty to the administration. But another is that, as an inexperienced journalist, she doesn’t understand that a refusal to go on the record is a kind of comment in and of itself
December 22, 2025 at 2:19 PM
really cannot be emphasized enough that bari weiss has literally never done journalism. i don’t mean that in the pejorative sense. i mean that in the “has never performed the job she was hired to do” sense
Reposted by Anna Merlan
Here is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her ‘60 Minutes’ colleagues in full:
December 22, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Here is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her ‘60 Minutes’ colleagues in full:
Also the New Yorker which I generally worship and god knows how many other feuds I’ve forgotten 🫠
I’ve been so critical of the Times that I have gotten cranky and highly personal emails from their PR flacks, so, no
December 21, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Also the New Yorker which I generally worship and god knows how many other feuds I’ve forgotten 🫠