James Banko

Penn Law J.D., NYU M. Phil., Fulbright, Reed College, Frick, Skadden, Curtis, Mallet; Grant & Eisenhofer; Faruqi & Faruqi, Labaton Sucharow

[Patrick Byrne @PatrickByrne]

If you’re not following this account of a Japanese man abroad in America, you should be.

[James Banko @jamesbanko]

@japan_nobunaga This is a very good post.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

I needed to move a sofa.

I mentioned this to an American. He said, "You know anybody with a truck?"

I did not know anybody with a truck.

He looked at me with real concern. Not pity. Concern. The way you look at a man who has told you he does not have a name.

"You gotta know somebody with a truck."

I asked how one acquires such a person.

He said, "You just do."

This is the third time I have received that answer in this country. It is the answer to everything here. You just do. There is no process. There is only the eventual fact of having.

He said, "Ask Kevin."

I do not know a Kevin. He said Kevin like I should. He said it the way you say a shared uncle.

I met Kevin four days later. Kevin owns a truck. Kevin does not own a truck for himself. Nobody owns a truck for themselves. Kevin owns a truck for a fifteen mile radius.

Inside I said: THIS MAN HAS TAKEN A VOW. HE DID NOT ANNOUNCE IT. HE SIMPLY PURCHASED A BED AND ACCEPTED THE CONSEQUENCES.

Kevin arrived on Saturday. He brought the truck. He also brought a second man.

I had not asked for a second man.

The second man's name is Tony. Tony came because Kevin came. Tony did not know me. Tony did not ask what we were moving. Tony brought gloves.

They moved the sofa in eleven minutes.

I offered them money. Both of them laughed at the same time, which felt rehearsed and was not.

I asked what I owed them.

Kevin said, "Buy the pizza."

That is the price. That is the entire economy. The truck costs one pizza and the pizza is not negotiable and the pizza is also not expensive and everyone knows what size.

Inside I said: THE FEE IS FIXED ACROSS THE ENTIRE NATION AND WAS SET BY NO ONE.

We ate on the floor because the sofa was against the wall and none of us wanted to be the first to sit on it.

Tony told me his daughter plays soccer. I asked if she is good. He said, "She's aggressive."

I still think about that.

Three weeks later, Kevin texted me.

"You free Sunday? Helping Tony move a fridge."

He did not ask if I wanted to. He informed me of a fridge.

Inside I said: I HAVE BEEN CALLED UP. I DID NOT ENLIST. THE PAPERS WERE FILED ON MY BEHALF.

I went. I moved the fridge. I have no truck. I contributed only arms.

Afterward, a man I had never met asked me if I knew anybody with a truck.

I said, "Yeah, I got a guy."

I have a guy.

I am somebody's guy now, too. Tony has told two people about me.

He describes me as "the guy who's strong for his size."

I have never been prouder of a sentence in my life.

[Jamison Daniel @AntiquarianMuse]

A fully masked ICE agent pepper sprayed a woman in New York yesterday merely for videotaping
He approached her. She was standing still. That guy needs jail time.

If this goes viral, the city will seek charges.

[Bret van den Brink @BretVDB]

“One feels Keats as a presence in the conscience of Wallace Stevens, who nevertheless attempts to restore the priority of the positive sublime. What is assertion for Wordsworth has become for Stevens a hope. The naivety is gone, for Stevens stands on the other side of Romantic dualism. Like Wordsworth, he is not willingly a dialectical poet: he too would celebrate the predialectical moment before perception's power yields to knowledge and what is created is differentiated from what is given. But Stevens knows better—knows that in the end such a moment is fictional—even if an absolute fiction—and that it therefore refers us back to an unexamined posture of the mind, a faith. Its consequence is therefore hypothetical—obsessively so, and Stevens is never quite free of the anxiety that his hope is after all a protest, and a regressive one at that.”

—Thomas Weiskel, The Romantic Sublime

[James Banko @jamesbanko]

@BretVDB This book by Weiskel is beautifully written. One of my favorite books of criticism. His death at the age of 29 destroyed a brilliant mind.

[Giorgia Meloni @GiorgiaMeloni]

Esprimo, a nome del Governo italiano, solidarietà e sincera vicinanza per le drammatiche notizie che giungono da Berlino.

L'Italia condanna e si oppone con forza a qualsiasi forma di odio ed estremismo, lavorando ad ogni livello per difendere la libertà e la sicurezza dei nostri cittadini.

Un pensiero commosso ai familiari della vittima e auguri di pronta guarigione ai molti feriti. Siamo al fianco della Germania e del popolo tedesco.

[GBC @GBC_Press]

🚨 BREAKING:

​A judge has issued a ruling blocking the Donald Trump administration from moving forward with the $400 million White House ballroom project without the approval of the U.S. Congress.

​Trump is facing criticism from all sides...

[KATY PERRY @katyperry]

I am deeply appalled and angry to see “Firework” used on the @WhiteHouse TikTok account as a backing track for video footage of military strikes. I did not approve this, I was not asked, and I absolutely do not condone it.

I wrote this song to be an anthem of hope, healing, and inner strength for people going through their darkest personal moments. To see a message of self-worth and upliftment weaponized to soundtrack destruction and violence is a complete violation of everything my song stands for.

My music is for bringing people together, not celebrating warfare.

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

They died serving our country. They should be honored, not erased.

Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Hawaii

Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Texas

Sgt. Angel Rampersad, 28, of New York

Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of North Carolina

[Marlene Robertson🇨🇦 @marlene4719]

This is the president of the United States, insulting a political opponent:

“Ilhan Omar and her brother are thinking about moving together. Very much in love. She should get the hell out of our country.”

What a loathsome sick fuck.

[Dan Diamond @ddiamond]

Remarkable camera angle of President Trump as he listens to Wall Street Journal reporters receiving an award for their investigation into Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein — which they pursued despite Trump’s threats and lawsuit.

[Maine @TheMaineWonk]

Andrew Harnik just accepted an award at the White House Correspondents Dinner for this photograph which perfectly encapsulates the Trump presidency.

[Dimko Zhluktenko 🇺🇦⚔️ @dim0kq]

Trump: Would you go to Moscow?

Zelensky: It's difficult. There are a lot of Ukrainian drones there. It's dangerous

Absolute banger, it's legendary to be speaking with former BEST Ukrainian commedian 🤣🤣🤣

[Governor Newsom Press Office @GovPressOffice]

And neither are you. Accountability is coming.

[Annie @AnnieForTruth]

💯💯💯🎯🎯

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

🚨BREAKING: In the latest blow to President Donald Trump’s anti-voting agenda, a federal court on Wednesday granted the NAACP’s request to halt the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) implementation of his executive order against mail voting. https://t.co/xKdX7AXr1K

[Christopher Miller @ChristopherJM]

Western intelligence sources say Russia is preparing a big nighttime aerial attack on Ukraine, with Kyiv possibly the main target. Russian drones have already descended on the capital, bombers equipped with missiles are in the air and explosions have already been heard. It may well be another long night. Zelenskyy has urged residents to mind the air raid warnings. Bomb shelters and underground metro stations are filling up.