FOREVER WARS Is Entering An Armistice Period

Edited by Sam Thielman 

I HATE DOING THIS, but I need to. 

The Trump administration is trying to not only criminalize trans people, but invent a new category of terrorism to persecute them. It's reviving its 2020-era ambition to redefine antifascism as terrorism, and anyone who's presently smirking that doing so is legally incoherent is not paying attention to all the masonry dust accumulating around the foundations of the rule of law in this country. They should pay more attention to the people being executed on boats in the southern Caribbean, because those are the wages in Trumpworld of designating an entity to be a terrorist organization, and it does not matter that such designations are not grants of war powers, although he might get those, too. Meanwhile, ICE is tear-gassing protesters in Chicago and its bureaucratic parent is arresting elected officials in New York. I don't think anyone can object to the REIGN OF TERROR thesis anymore. 

I want to cover all these rapidly-escalating developments as they deserve to be covered. But I am very close to finishing the draft of my second book, THE TORTURE AND DELIVERANCE OF MAJID KHAN. I'm writing this on Friday afternoon, after I have drafted so much of my final narrative chapter that only one section remains. It so happens that next week also begins the Jewish High Holidays. (The second since the Israelis began a genocide that is wiping Gaza City off the face of the earth.)  

And so I'm going to pause this newsletter as an act of accountability to force me to finish the book. I write a whole lot, as Sam can tell you, and now I need to not write anything for FOREVER WARS, which will require Sam to act like a bartender who's cutting me off. 

I hate doing this. You pay for this newsletter—not enough of you, but still—and I want to give you your money's worth. I ask for your indulgence. Soon—soon—I will have completed the most challenging and ambitious nonfiction work I've ever attempted. That won't be the end of my work on the book, but it will be the beginning of the end. 

I expect that by after the High Holidays, I should be sufficiently into the endgame that we can resume this newsletter without impacting our coverage, my book draft's total-total completion and my mental health. Figure we'll return in early October. Take care of yourself and one another until then. Please do not cancel your FOREVER WARS subscription. I just need a little bit of time.

And I hope that it won't be long before we can start collecting preorders for THE TORTURE AND DELIVERANCE OF MAJID KHAN, because this almost-finished book is the greatest thing I have ever done professionally. This improbable book is starting to feel to me like the work I was put here to accomplish. You'll see it in 2026. But you and I will see each other next month. 

An earlier version of this post was bylined by Sam, who hit the button too quickly. He regrets the error.