"Never spread the lie in the headline" should be a hard rule of 21st century journalism. Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.

How it started / How it’s going

Wisconsin -Iowa snow game in 1925 Over 30 fumbles. share.google/images/5Vg4N...

Since Stephen Miller is in the midst of another of his Aryans-only trantrums, we should note that his family are 20th century immigrants from the shtetl of Antopol (Антопаль) then in the Hrodna gubernia of Russia. Applying his immigration rules, they would all have perished in the Holocaust.

Imagine getting ready for your daughter to come home from her freshman year of college for Thanksgiving, and the day of departure she goes MIA, and then 48 nightmarish hours later she calls you to tell her that ICE goons kidnapped her and shipped her to Honduras www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/25/m...

What floors me is the media’s flat delivery of this administration’s actions. They just report it. Zero analysis or “hey, so this is against the Constitution but Congress does nothing.”

Two things we learned today: 1. Pete Hegseth murdered *suspected* drug runners. 2. Donald Trump pardoned a *convicted* drug trafficker. That’s where we are, folks. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/w...

I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.

The State of Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services’ entire FY2026 budget for all cash assistance programs, including Louisiana Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program (FITAP), STEP Transportation, Post-FITAP, electronic Healthy Incentive Program, and others is $42,661,206

#DogDayAfternoon embodies everything that was disjointed and demoralized about the mid-Seventies, especially in bankrupt NYC. It premiered less than two months after the famous "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD" headline in the Daily News. #TCMParty

November 9. A day to remember Heroes in Berlin #Mauerfall

Trumpist rule consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: there must be a president and executive branch whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside its opponents and victims whom the law binds but does not protect. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/m...

"I've fallen off my chair, Brian." #NoirAlley #TCMParty #TheGreatJewelRobber

All you peacenik liberals wringing hands over what to do: Yes, of course, vote. It's your primary responsibility as a citizen. But now more than ever, fulfill your second civic responsibility: Serve on juries. Never has it been more imperative to thwart rogue injustice.

Texas is preparing emergency resources for wildfires and floods. The Texas National Guard should be THERE — not in Illinois. We stand ready to support their return home so they are best positioned for helping Texans respond to any natural disasters.

Huh. Gonna be an awkward day for Secretary of State-National Security Advisor-Acting Archivist Marco Rubio. www.rickscott.senate.gov/services/fil...

Get yourself a Congressperson who will codify Bivens.

A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.

@laurarbelin.bsky.social, I know it's been a crazy month, but there's a fascinating story waiting to be written about a former Iowa MOC who died early this month at 100: Merwin Coad. He imploded at age 36. Start with the links in the footnotes in his Wiki bio I wrote 17 years ago, and go from there.

Raintree County X Peyton Place = #Parrish. #TCMParty

The great unwritten piece of investigative journalism for this decade is "What Trump Was Up To" when he flew to Mar-a-Lago in 2021 with many boxes full of classified documents. There seemed to be general disinterest among the mainstream sleuths in trying to answer that question. Who will write it?

I think Illinois can and should sue Texas in the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction and seek a preliminary injunction against the use of any un-federalized Texas National Guard troops in Illinois.

The courtroom scenes in #MyFavoriteWife are the best I've seen in any screwball comedy - especially the scene near the end of the film (with all the stars lined up before the bench, and the judge delivering advice about what should have been included in the brief). #SummerUnderTheStars #TCMParty

Dearest Martha, The National Guard stand solemn watch at the Krispy Kreme tonight. I cannot tell if they defend the people from the donuts, or the donuts from the people. Powdered sugar hangs in the air like cannon smoke. Jensen took a hot coffee to the face, he may never recover. Yours in glaze,

I really think RFK Jr. has a great shot at making his uncle and father mere footnotes in American history. Such is the devastation he has already wrought and will continue to wreak.

Wonder if Trump or anyone asked Putin why he hacked the U.S. Court Systems this past week. www.techradar.com/pro/security...

Nice pull from my childhood, and on the nose

The Ned Beaty monologue is not too far from what Milton Friedman was teaching at the time the film was released. And later his son. #Network #TCMParty

Dark humor seldom gets darker than #Network’s contract negotiations scene. #TCMParty

In response to White House staffer Stephen Miller’s comments, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said: “If we wanted a white supremacist’s opinion, we’d ask. But we don’t. So we won’t. Also, Minneapolis is great.”

Cool trivia: John Davis Lodge, the actor who played long-haired, deep-voiced Count Alexei, became Connecticut's 79th governor in 1951. #TheScarlettEmpress #TCMParty

Someone already has a logo T-shirt for #DoubleIndemnity fans #TCMParty

I’ve had a license to practice law for 36 years and I am morally certain that I’ve never met a lawyer who couldn’t truthfully, emphatically, and categorically deny ever having counseled anyone to say “fuck you” to a court.

The fictional ending of #TheUndercoverMan (solved by a jury panel switch) led to the even more fictional ending of The Untouchables (with DeNiro), with the added legal fiction that one jury would hear a divorce case. There are no juries in equitable matters like family law. #TCMParty #NoirAlley

Since the AG doesn't seem to be getting ethics guidance from her team these days, I wanted to make sure she has the rule in the Justice Manual in front of her, which expressly prohibits this.

If you are one of these staffers and you disagree with this decision and want to explore legal challenges, hmu. You can email me at [email protected] or Signal me at NationalSecurityCounselors.16.

This week's award for ridiculous audacity goes to the Trumped-up DOJ, for suing four states because it thinks that the enforcement of environmental laws adopted by their legislatures is a "transparent monetary-extraction scheme."

You might appreciate why Stephen Miller wants fewer dolls in America if you knew about his backstory

It's really hard to overstate how hugely favored conservatives were up until two months ago. Here's the graph of Canadian polling between March 2023 and March 2025. (Reminder: blue is conservative.) Those are months and months of 20+ point leads for Tories.

You can’t say criminals don’t deserve due process when due process is the thing that decides if they're criminals. Otherwise you're just kidnapping people you don't like.

History always has a lesson.

Republicans can end the tariffs whenever they want to do so. They are choosing to go along for the ride.

Cory Booker. 👇👇👇

Did anyone vote for this in November? Trump bragged about deporting "them." It turns out "them" includes innocent people, lawfully in America, legally protected from being taken to El Salvador but taken there anyway. In court, federal lawyers oppose his return. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

The “methods for doing so” are (1) getting two thirds of Congress and three fourths of the states to repeal the 22nd Amendment and (2) declaring himself king. That’s it. Stop treating this despotic bullshit as if it’s some worthwhile thought experiment we have to consider as legitimate.

This is how it's done. A strong and principled response by WilmerHale to the illegal Executive Order attack - a form of attempted government intimidation declared unconstitutional by a federal judge. This is how to guard the rule of law.

I was a US/UK Fulbright Scholar in cybersecurity in 2021, and I cannot imagine breaking this promise to 20,000 of the most idealistic and driven people in the world. Every one of the US Fulbright Scholars abroad is having to explain this shameful act to their host institutions and foreign partners.

Weeks like the last one should resolve any doubt that the world continues to need brave lawyers and judges.

The military is plans to scrub photos of the Enola Gay, one of the bombers that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, from its website as part of its purge of diversity content. It's among more than 26,000 images that the Pentagon plans to delete. apnews.com/article/dei-...

"Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty." - Hannah Arendt