February 7, 2026

Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: “...  Donald Trump became incensed when a reporter tried to compare his excuse that a 'staffer' posted a racist video with his charge that former President Joe Biden didn’t know what was being done in his name.” MB: Trump is back to declaring himself “the least racist president.” 

Molly Jong-Fast in the New York Times: “Jeffrey Epstein ... will go down in history as perhaps this century’s most horrifically accomplished social climber. He knew pretty much everybody, name-dropping, favor-trading, sex-trafficking and possibly blackmailing his way all the way up, up, up.... And what does Mr. Trump have to do with it? He’d promised to rid America of exactly the sort of self-dealing global elite that Mr. Epstein was in the middle of. 'Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it,' Mr. Trump said in his 2016 speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.... Finally, someone was letting the American people know the terrible secret that no matter how hard one worked, no matter how smart one was, there was no getting ahead in America circa 2016. It wasn’t their fault. It was the fault of the elites. Around this time, we saw the rise of QAnon, a conspiracy theory that claimed that a sex-trafficking ring was being run by elites out of the nonexistent basement of a pizza shop. QAnon sounded crazy to the rest of us at the time — and it’s still crazy — but the Epstein files show it had parallels in reality.”

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Kellen Browning & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: “Seven years after she swept into office as a progressive agitator unafraid to hammer fellow Democrats, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has emerged as an increasingly sought-after leader within the party she set out to disrupt. She has positioned herself as a top antagonist of Vice President JD Vance, a potential heir to ... [Donald] Trump’s political movement, sparring with him on social media. She has stepped up her support of moderate and mainstream Democrats, sending a fund-raising email last month asking her supporters to donate to the Senate campaign of former Representative Mary Peltola of Alaska, a friend whose support for oil drilling and gun rights are at odds with the New York congresswoman’s stances. And, at a time of tumult around the country and uncertainty within the Democratic Party, her direct and camera-ready speaking style is breaking through. After federal agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, she swiftly appeared on cable news and argued he had been 'executed in the street.'” (Also linked yesterday.)

Here's an elaboration on a story linked earlier Friday: ~~~

~~~ Michael Gold of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has sought to pressure Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, to help name New York’s Penn Station and Washington Dulles International Airport after ... [Donald] Trump in exchange for releasing billions of dollars he has frozen for a rail tunnel under the Hudson River. Top administration officials have told Mr. Schumer in recent weeks that the money would be released if he agreed to name the facilities in Mr. Trump’s honor, according to four people.... The Trump administration began withholding funds for the new tunnel connecting New York City and New Jersey, a $16 billion project, in October. The agency overseeing its construction moved to halt ongoing work on Friday as money was running out. Mr. Trump and Mr. Schumer met at the White House last month to discuss the frozen funds. Though he is the top Senate Democrat, Mr. Schumer has no direct oversight over either transportation hub and rebuffed the request, according to two of the people.... Withholding money from the tunnel over the names of Penn Station, the busiest train station in the country, would be a significant escalation of the effort to ensure Mr. Trump’s legacy, tying it to a project that would have massive ripple effects across the East Coast.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Do you think Trump understands that when Congress or some other entity dedicates a building to, say, George Washington or Franklin Roosevelt, that they're doing it out of love, respect and/or admiration for a dead president, while Trump is trying to secure naming rights through blackmail or some other form of strong-arming? Does Trump understand the difference? The Lincoln Memorial is the highest honor the nation can bestow; Trump Central Station would be a crime. ~~~

     ~~~⭐Update. Patrick McGeehan & Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from suspending billions of dollars of funding for a rail tunnel under the Hudson River, pending future arguments in the case. Construction of the new $16 billion rail tunnel, the biggest transportation infrastructure project in the United States, had come to a halt earlier in the day, four months after the Trump administration suspended its federal funding. Judge Jeannette A. Vargas of the Southern District of New York ordered the federal government to unlock the billions in federal grants to the program, as the case proceeds through the courts. If the Trump administration complies, the project could soon restart construction.... The [Gateway Development C]ommission sued the government for breach of contract in a federal court in Washington on Monday, contending that it was owed more than $200 million in expenses that had not been reimbursed. The states of New York and New Jersey filed a separate suit in federal court in Manhattan this week.” An NBC News story is here.

~~~ This isn't any better: ~~~

Zachary Small & Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times: “Trump administration officials have suggested that the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery create a section in the museum to display multiple images of the president in addition to his official portrait. The concept initially came up during a Dec. 19 tour of the museum that included Abby Jones, the acting chief of protocol at the State Department, and the White House photographer, Daniel Torok, according to three people familiar with the discussions. They said the administration officials noted that the White House often received artworks of Mr. Trump created by Americans that could make for a display in a corner of the museum. Ms. Jones is taking an increasing role in presenting the president’s viewpoint on what he sees as necessary changes in Smithsonian content.... A spokeswoman for the National Portrait Gallery declined to comment, and it was unclear to what extent the idea of adding more images of Mr. Trump remains under consideration.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Gregory Svirnovskiy of Politico: “... Donald Trump deleted a racist video on his social media account that depicted former President and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys, following criticism from a bipartisan group of members of Congress. '... it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,' Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) wrote on X on Friday morning, before the post was deleted. 'The President should remove it.'... The post drew widespread backlash from Democrats. But the criticism from Scott — ... the only Black Republican in the Senate — is particularly notable. In a statement issued before Scott’s criticism, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the backlash and said the clip came from a longer video that showed Trump as the Lion King and depicted top Democrats as jungle characters.... Leavitt said[,] 'Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.' Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) joined Scott by calling on Trump to take the post down.... So too did Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.).... A statement from a White House official — sent from an unsigned press email address — confirmed the video was removed and claimed an unidentified staffer had posted it to the president’s social media account.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Really? Either (a) Trump is trying to deflect responsibility because he's too weak to admit his reprehensible mistake, or (b) an "unidentified staffer" controls his personal social media account, where Trump -- or someone -- announces policies and directs Cabinet members and staff to take certain actions. I'm not sure which is worse. ~~~

     ~~~ Erica Green & Isabella Kwai of the New York Times: “The clip was in line with Mr. Trump’s history of making degrading remarks about people of color, women and immigrants, and he has for years taken aim at the Obamas in particular. Across Mr. Trump’s administration, racist images and slogans have become common on official government websites and social media accounts, with the White House, Labor Department and Homeland Security Department all having promoted posts that echo white supremacist messaging. The White House usually responds to criticism about such things by laughing it off.”  Related story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The NYT story has been updated. Donald “Trump ... insisted he had nothing to apologize for even after he deleted the video following an outcry.... Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Friday, Mr. Trump said he only saw the beginning of the video. 'I just looked at the first part, it was about voter fraud in some place, Georgia,' Mr. Trump said. 'I didn’t see the whole thing.' He then tried to deflect blame, suggesting he had given the link to someone else to post. 'I gave it to the people, generally they’d look at the whole thing but I guess somebody didn’t,' he told reporters. Still, Mr. Trump offered no contrition when pressed. 'No, I didn’t make a mistake,' he said.” A Guardian story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So he admits he didn't bother to look at video he posted. And he admits (or lies) that a staffer -- "the people" -- didn't bother to look at it either. And that wasn't a mistake? Or two? The reason he doesn't think he made a mistake is that he thinks posting ultra-racist content is acceptable. ~~~

~~~ Adam Klasfeld: "Trump ... shar[ed] a video rehashing his election lies and then depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.... Racism was always the lifeblood of Trump’s Big Lie.... Sometimes, the racism embedded in Trump’s election subversion strategy was subtle, but other times it was not. Trump’s lawsuit aiming to topple the election results in Wisconsin sought to invalidate the vote totals in precisely two diverse counties: Milwaukee and Dane. That’s why Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky told Trump’s then-lawyer Jim Troupis during oral arguments that his lawsuit 'smacks of racism.' Rudy Giuliani’s campaign to vilify and terrorize Georgia election workers Wandrea 'Shaye' Moss and Ruby Freeman rested upon racist stereotypes, including by falsely accusing them of passing each other USB drives 'like vials of heroin or cocaine.'” 

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: “While the post exhibited both the president’s vile racism and his failing impulse control, it also seems to have been an attempt to use racism to break the growing coalition against him. As when they arrested Black journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort as well as Black protesters at a church while leaving white protesters free, Trump and his allies are hammering on racial fault lines.”

Chris Hayes puts Trump's racist video in the context of Trump's racist everything. Clip of Hakeem Jeffries' response to Trump is just right, too. ~~~ 

~~~ So after all that, this is fitting: ~~~ 

~~~ Trump “Remembers” He's a Christian Hero; Forgets Obama Was the Hero. Kathryn Wilkens of Mediate: “In an article published on Friday, top CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale refuted ... Donald Trump’s claim that he freed persecuted Christian Mariam Ibrahim from a Sudanese prison with 'one phone call,' noting that she was 'freed during the Obama administration.' Speaking on Thursday morning at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump discussed the case of Ibrahim, who was unjustly imprisoned and sentenced to death over her faith in 2014. After a global uproar, she was released the same year.... 'I did that. I did that. I did that with one phone call, actually,'  he said. 'And she had such support, it was so easy. And when I explained it to the powers that be: “Yes, sir, we will do it right away.’” 'Ibrahim was released in 2014, during the Obama administration,' wrote Dale on Friday.... 'There has never been the slightest indication that a private citizen in the US, a businessman and celebrity at the time, was the person who convinced Sudanese authorities to let her out of prison.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Somehow, telling a self-aggrandizing "sir story" lie at a prayer breakfast seems a little worse than Trump's usual self-aggrandizing "sir story" lies.

Tyler Pager of the New York Times: Donald “Trump is hosting an annual meeting of governors at the White House this month, but is ... not inviting Democrats. The meeting, part of the National Governors Association winter gathering, will only include Republican governors, according to multiple people familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss scheduling that was not public. Mr. Trump is still planning to hold a separate, bipartisan dinner for governors and their spouses at the White House as part of the N.G.A. activities, but he personally blocked invites for two Democrats: Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland and Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado. The president told staff members that he only wanted Republican governors for the meeting, which includes cabinet secretaries. 

“The N.G.A. alerted Democratic governors of the change by email on Friday morning.... 'N.G.A. leadership has decided that this will not be an N.G.A. event, and no N.G.A. resources will be used to support transportation for this activity.' Brandon Tatum, the acting chief executive of the N.G.A., said in a statement that the organization was 'disappointed' in the administration’s decision.... But some of Mr. Trump’s most prominent critics, including Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, are expected to be invited to the dinner. It is unclear whether they — or any other Democratic governors — will attend.”

More Murder at Sea in Our Names. Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: “An American military strike blew up a boat suspected of moving drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, killing two people, the United States Southern Command said. The strike was the first authorized by Southcom’s new commander, Gen. Francis L. Donovan, a Marine who took charge of U.S. military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean during a ceremony at the Pentagon earlier in the day. It was the 37th strike announced by the Trump administration in the campaign, which began in September. The strikes have claimed 128 lives, according to a tracker maintained by The New York Times. A 12-second video clip accompanying the announcement showed the boat traveling across the water with two people at the rear, near the outboard motors, and then a sudden explosion that set the vessel ablaze. Southcom, based in Doral, Fla., said in a statement that unspecified intelligence had determined that the boat was 'engaged in narco-trafficking operations' and that it was following a known drug smuggling route. A broad range of legal specialists on the use of lethal force have said that the U.S. strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings because the military cannot deliberately target civilians who do not pose an imminent threat of violence — even if they are suspected of engaging in criminal acts.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Ashley Ahn of the New York Times: “San Siro stadium in Milan broke out in scattered boos as Vice President JD Vance appeared on huge screens there during the opening ceremony for the Winter Games, an indication of the fury in Italy over the Trump administration’s policies. Near the end of the ceremony’s lengthy Parade of Nations, the U.S. delegation of athletes, decked out in white Ralph Lauren coats, entered the stadium to cheers and whistles. But the crowd’s mood seemed to shift when the screen switched from the athletes to the stands, where Mr. Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, were waving small American flags. Their appearance on the screens lasted for only a few seconds but was met with a smattering of jeers and boos that were audible despite the loud music playing for the parade.... Hours before the opening ceremony at San Siro stadium, protesters took to the streets of Milan to condemn the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel in Italy, which U.S. officials have said was 'to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations' and not to carry out immigration enforcement.” ~~~

Is Our Military Officers Educated? Not No More. Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that the Defense Department would sever its academic ties with Harvard University, the latest broadside by the Trump administration in its pressure campaign to force the university to cut a deal with the government. In a statement and video published on Friday evening, Mr. Hegseth attacked the university in hyperbolic language, decrying it as a politically liberal institution, and said that, beginning in the new school year in September, the Defense Department will 'discontinue graduate-level professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs at the school.' Mr. Hegseth added that military personnel who are attending classes will be able to finish those courses of study.”

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “John Phelan, the billionaire art collector whom ... Donald Trump appointed to oversee the U.S. Navy, appears to have traveled on at least two transatlantic flights [in 2006] with Jeffrey Epstein.... The flight manifests containing Phelan’s name were released in October by the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and appear to have gone overlooked until they were posted on a military-themed message board on Reddit this week.... The aircraft was nicknamed the 'Lolita Express' because, as some of Epstein’s accusers have said, he frequently had young women and girls aboard to entertain his guests.... Phelan is at least the third member of Trump’s administration to appear in the voluminous documents made public in recent months, joining Trump himself and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.” 

Daniel Ruetenik & Graham Kates of CBS News: "U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said he had 'limited interactions' with Jeffrey Epstein, but documents show they were in business together as recently as 2014. Lutnick and Epstein each signed on behalf of limited liability companies that agreed on Dec. 28, 2012, to acquire stakes in a now-shuttered advertising technology company called Adfin, documents released among the so-called Epstein files show. Epstein and Lutnick's signatures appear on neighboring pages in the contract, with Epstein signing for his Southern Trust Company, Inc. and Lutnick for a limited liability company called CVAFH I. The documents list nine shareholders in total.... Their relationship continued into ... 2018, when Lutnick emailed Epstein apparently complaining about an expansion plan for their neighboring Frick Collection art museum." 

Erik De La Garza of the Raw Story: “Newly released Justice Department documents are revealing details of a bizarre trip involving Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, according to a report from The Daily Beast. The files include a 2012 email exchange between the accused sex trafficker Epstein and his convicted accomplice, Maxwell, discussing a fossil-hunting excursion in the Dakotas. In one message, Epstein described plans for 'dinosaur and fossil hunting with jack horner on the ranch.'” MB: Sounds less bizarre to me than most of Epstein,Maxwell's and RFKF's exploits, unless the Daily Beast article reports that Bobby strapped dinosaur bones on the roof of his car.

Daniel Hampton of the Raw Story: "A former ABC News medical correspondent has vowed never to set foot on CBS as long as the network keeps anti-aging influencer Peter Attia on its payroll after new Justice Department files revealed his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.... [Dr. Jen Ashton's] ultimatum comes after revelations Attia exchanged roughly 1,700 emails with the accused sex trafficker between 2015 and 2019. In those messages, Attia gushed about Epstein's 'outrageous' lifestyle, lamented he couldn't 'tell a soul' and cracked crude jokes. The emails came despite the financier being a known criminal.... CBS News boss Bari Weiss, however, hasn't budged so far. The Trump-friendly network executive has indicated she wants to keep Attia around because she values his 'contrarian voice.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Well, yes. Most people would never applaud and encourage a pedophile and sex trafficker. So I guess it's fair to say that doing so is "contrarian." I would not say, however, that a normal person would "value" that sort of criminal sociopathy. I also do not see any "value" in featuring such a person on the public airwaves, what with CBS being a broadcast network and all. On the other hand, the guy who is ultimately in charge of all this -- because the FCC chair is under the thumb of said guy -- is a convicted criminal, a long-time friend of Epstein himself, and someone who wished Maxwell well after her arrest for sex trafficking of children & lying under oath.  

Ryan Nobles of NBC News: "Members of Congress will be able to begin reviewing the unredacted version of the Justice Department’s files on Jeffrey Epstein on Monday morning, according to two sources familiar with the DOJ’s plans. The letter states that members can review the documents in person, provided they give the DOJ 24 hours’ notice. The option at this point is only available to members of Congress — and not their staff. They may take notes but can’t bring in any electronic devices, the letter said. The review will only be of the 3 million files currently available to the public, not the extensive trove of more than 6 million documents in total that the DOJ says it has in its possession."

Federal Judge Rules DOJ Is Untrustworthy. Yunior Rivas of Democracy Docket: "A federal judge in Oregon issued a sweeping rebuke of the Justice Department’s nationwide push to seize state voter rolls, ruling that the department can no longer be presumed to be acting in good faith and warning that its conduct threatens voters and states’ rights. And the judge cited a recent letter sent by Attorney General Pam Bondi linking the voter roll crusade to the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota as one reason to doubt the department’s truthfulness. In a sharply worded opinion released Thursday, U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai concluded that the department’s public statements and actions stripped it of the trust courts typically afford federal law enforcement agencies. Kasubhai had already announced from the bench — on two separate occasions — that the DOJ’s lawsuit seeking Oregon’s unredacted voter registration data would be dismissed."

Julianne McShane of MS NOW: “The Department of Homeland Security unsuccessfully sought to expedite deportation proceedings against the family of Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old formerly detained with his father by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Minneapolis, a local school official said Friday. The government filed a motion Wednesday seeking to end asylum claims for Liam’s family, according to Minnesota Public Radio, which first reported the news Thursday night.... At an asylum hearing Friday, the family was granted a continuance, according to Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Liam goes to school.... Danielle Molliver, the family’s attorney, told MPR on Thursday that the [government's] filing was 'retaliatory.'”

Mike Hixenbaugh & Daniella Silva of NBC News: “Accounts from detained families, their lawyers and court filings describe the federal detention center in Dilley [Immigration Processing Center] as a place where hundreds of children languish as they’re served contaminated food, receive little education and struggle to obtain basic medical care....  Unlike earlier iterations of family detention, many of the children now held at Dilley are U.S. residents, apprehended not at the border but at their homes, outside schools, in courthouses and during routine immigration check-ins.... Advocates and human rights groups say detaining children is harmful and never warranted, noting that families with pending immigration cases have historically been allowed to remain together outside detention, including through the use of ankle monitors.” 

Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: “Hours after an immigration agent fatally shot Renee Good inside her S.U.V. on a Minneapolis street last month, a senior federal prosecutor in Minnesota sought a warrant to search the vehicle for evidence in what he expected would be a standard civil rights investigation into the agent’s use of force. The prosecutor, Joseph H. Thompson, wrote in an email to colleagues that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a state agency that specializes in investigating police shootings, would team up with the F.B.I. to determine whether the shooting had been justified and lawful or had violated Ms. Good’s civil rights. But later that week, as F.B.I. agents equipped with a signed warrant prepared to document blood spatter and bullet holes in Ms. Good’s S.U.V., they received orders to stop, according to several people.... The orders, they said, came from senior officials, including Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, several of whom worried that pursuing a civil rights investigation ... would contradict ... [Donald] Trump's claim that Ms. Good 'violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer' who fired at her as she drove her vehicle.” The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So not even the slightest bit of justice for Renee Good and her family because Kash Patel is afraid of Donald Trump.

Natasha Korecki & Selina Guevara of NBC News: “The text messages a Border Patrol agent sent to colleagues and family members after he repeatedly shot a Chicago woman in October can be released to the public, a federal judge ruled Friday. In messages previously made public, the agent bragged about his marksmanship. U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis stated in court that the text messages provide insight into the agent’s and the Department of Homeland Security’s credibility, as well as into how DHS leadership perceived the shooting.The agent, Charles Exum, shot Marimar Martinez five times on Oct. 4, after she allegedly rammed her car into agents’ vehicles. Martinez denies ramming them and said agents were the aggressors. Exum did not have his body camera turned on during the incident. In one text message previously released, he bragged about his shooting skills, writing: 'I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.' Government lawyers argued that the release of Exum’s text messages would further sully the agent and his family. The judge pushed back. 'I don’t know why the United States government has expressed zero concern for the sullying of Ms. Martinez’s reputation,' Alexakis said.... Her lawyers say officials have refused to correct the record after branding her a 'domestic terrorist.'

DHS Is a Disaster in Every Way. Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: “The saga of dozens of Cuban men who thought they were being deported from the United States last year and then spent weeks in a prison at the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, took a new turn this week as they were transferred to detention in Mississippi.... Left behind were 34 Haitians designated for repatriation, some of whom were transferred back to Haiti on Thursday, according to people familiar with the detained immigrant population held at the base who were not authorized to speak about it publicly. ICE agents and the U.S. military have held about 780 migrants at Guantánamo during ... [Donald] Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Some were sent on to other countries by U.S.-chartered or military aircraft. But others, like the Cubans, had to be brought back to the United States first before deportation, prompting critics to describe the operation as expensive and inefficient.” MB: They really don't know what they're doing.

Will Oremus of the Washington Post: “NewsGuard, a company that rates the reliability of online news outlets, is suing ... Donald Trump’s Federal Trade Commission, alleging the agency has tried to drive it out of business because it disagrees with its assessments. Founded in 2018 by a pair of veteran media executives, NewsGuard researches news sites and assigns them 'reliability ratings' based on their journalistic standards, selling these scores to readers, tech platforms and advertisers that want to steer clear of low-quality sources. The company, which insists it is rigorously nonpartisan, has made enemies in recent years by giving low ratings to conservative outlets such as the right-wing cable news channels Newsmax and One America News.... Last year, the liberal nonprofit media watchdog Media Matters for America sued the FTC, alleging that its investigation of Media Matters was part of a 'campaign of retribution' against the organization for calling advertisers’ attention to hate speech on X.... In August, a federal judge ordered a halt to the FTC’s investigation, finding that it likely violated Media Matters’ First Amendment rights.”

Elizabeth Harris of the New York Times: “After almost a century in wide circulation, the mass market paperback is shuffling toward extinction. Sales have dropped for years, peeled away by e-books, digital audiobooks and even more expensive formats like hardcovers and trade paperbacks, the mass market’s larger and pricier cousin. Last year, ReaderLink — the country’s largest distributor of books to airport bookshops, pharmacies and big-box stores like Target and Walmart — announced that it would stop carrying mass markets altogether. 'You can still find them in some places,' said Ivan Held, the president of Putnam, Dutton and Berkley, publishing imprints that once did brisk business in mass markets. 'But as a format, I would say it’s pretty much over.'”

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