Jennifer Block

NEW DOC SHORT out. The fight over puberty blockers, hormones, etc. is often framed as inseparable from politics, but we show here why a broad coalition--yes, including lefties--is raising concerns or even supporting restrictions. jenniferblockauthor.substack.com/p/the-most-hea… YouTube link below.

Good night. #washingtonpost

It’s been three years since ‘Time to Think’ was published, so I haven’t read a review in a while. However, these reflections posted yesterday really got to me, especially in the current climate. Whoever posted has, I think, captured the essence of the book. Thank you

@megynkelly @TheFP @meghan_daum @JulieRei This is a remarkable find by @byrne_a: Dr. Loren Schecter, president elect of WPATH and head of gender-affirming surgery at Rush Univ, appears to have done a 180 on whether gender-transition surgeries prevent suicide: x.com/byrne_a/status…

Matt Walsh and these other right-wing empty men who think they're avatars of über-masculinity particularly hate Alex Pretti because he exemplified the virtues they love to extol but are too cowardly to actually embody. They cosplay as trad men by dressing up in campy plaid shirts and sitting in podcast studios with a log cabin aesthetic. Alex Pretti went to the street to fight for causes he believed in, protected and helped others in both how he protested (he was helping two women when ICE grabbed him) and in his work as an ICU nurse. He lived the values they pretend defines them, all while they lack the courage to ever do or risk anything. He's a reminder to them of what they're not: a mirror showing their own fragility. That's why they feel vicariously strong watching ICE agents shoot him in the back and killed him.

My mom was stopped and harassed by masked ICE agents while shopping at an outlet mall in Texas. Because she has an accent, they assumed she spoke Spanish and started talking to her in Spanish. When she said she doesn’t speak Spanish, they began demanding where she was “from,” rapidly listing countries without even giving her a chance to respond. My mom told them she’s been in this country longer than some of them have been alive. She was only allowed to leave after showing a photo of her U.S. passport on her phone. She is a U.S. citizen. She has lived in this country for 47 years. If you think this is just about “sending criminals back,” you are dead wrong.

ICE agents in Minneapolis threaten to smash the windows and forcibly remove the occupants of a vehicle carrying Italian journalists.

Full ACLU report is here: aclu.org/news/immigrant…

@tilleymylily @annbauerwriter Are you reading the news? This is not immigration enforcement. It’s indiscriminate, it’s endangering children, and it’s not civilized governance of a free society. BTW citizens have been harmed, killed for exercising their rights to document and protest. propublica.org/article/videos…

Illegal aliens with a final order of removal have already received due process. Illegal aliens who have committed violent crimes shouldn’t be at large while they’re getting the due process they don’t deserve. And you’re citing democracy when the POTUS campaigned on enforcing our immigration laws? WTAF?

Can someone who wholeheartedly supports the ICE protests in Minneapolis please give me a solid two-sentence rationale + recommended immigration policy? Sincere request.

I hope the vast majority of freedom-loving Americans are uncomfortable with the idea that masked police are now telling people engaged in First Amendment-protected activity that they are "domestic terrorists" who will be added to a secret government database.

@annbauerwriter Really difficult for me to see how this is hazy. And baffling how people who saw authoritarianism during covid are having a hard time seeing it now.

@writingblock Getting angry at me for being stranded in a hazy midpoint on this complex issue doesn't help.

On Instagram, Minneapolis journalist and anchor Jana Shortal of @kare11 - clearly wearing a press credentials - says she was pepper sprayed and punched in the eye by federal agents while trying to capture the aftermath of today’s fatal shooting.

It’s the first day. We will learn more. A NYT analysis of video offers an initial sequence. A citizen holding a phone is put on the ground. His weapon is found and taken. Only afterward is he shot, again and again and again. Agents block police from the crime scene.

A judge has unsealed the memo ordering the detention & deportation of Rümeysa Öztürk. It confirms the sole evidence against her was that she co-wrote an op-ed the government disliked. Here she is being arrested by men in plainclothes. Over an op-ed.

Excellent article by @writingblock "The appeal of 'free births' without doctors or midwives" provides important perspective missing from @guardian #BirthKeepers scam series on why families turn to unassisted birth in failing health system bostonglobe.com/2026/01/03/opi… via @BostonGlobe

Horrible. She was brought to the U.S. from Honduras as an 8-year-old child. DHS is out of control.

@DanWuori Never stop posting these!

For your baby the whole world is a puzzle waiting to be solved. 🧩 Check out this clever little one as she combines background knowledge and trial and error in an effort to put on a pair of socks. She clearly understands their purpose and knows they wrap around her feet. But exactly how, remains a bit of a mystery. So it’s time for the scientific method. Note how each of her hypotheses differs. Our hero seems to know (from past experience) that the process begins at the toes, but when pressing the sock into them doesn’t work she moves progressively down the foot - next wrapping it around her foot just below the toes. While this method covers part of her foot, the heel is still exposed, so she tries again, draping it over the full length of her foot, mimicking the coverage and visual appearance of a successful effort. Don’t you just love the way this video provides a window on her thinking? This miniature scientist was shared to IG by oykkubudak. By the way, the Turkish caption asks if this is the way to wear socks?

Estrogen for menopause was demonized for decades. Now some vocal, very online doctors are saying it’s a miracle drug. The FDA appears to agree. @WritingBlock reports on the latest. thefp.com/p/estrogen-is-…

Terrific reporting by @writingblock. Exactly the thesis I would have presented. Doesn’t take a genius to see that the pendulum swinging from excessive caution to unbridled enthusiasm is a great way to cause predictable harm. open.substack.com/pub/bariweiss/…