It's Their Time

As the US plays imperialist games and Europe focuses on self-defense, China quietly advances its own imperialist agenda, barely noticed

Those of you who believe in mortal sin ought to recognize this for what it is.

When I said last year that the average American MAGA supporter closely resembles a Russian vatnik in both mindset and ideology, I meant it seriously.

yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.

Rough vibes on this website today, likely because people feel Hopeless and Helpless Because Can't Stop It and No One Who Is Supposed To Is Trying To So Now We're Fighting Each Other™. I recommend activities such as book, or potentially instrument if you like instrument, or even do talk on phone.

I went up to the Hill to ask Mike Johnson what he thought of Trump usurping Congress's powers to invade and occupy Venezuela. He said this was the first he was hearing of the invasion and thus he couldn't comment on it.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act is a law, passed by Congress on November 19 with an overwhelming vote. Complying with it was not optional. The Department of Justice did not comply. I want to make sure this is very clear.

the reason people sometimes act madder at democrats than republicans when republicans do impossibly evil shit is the same reason why, if you hired an exterminator to handle a roach infestation and he showed up to feed and play with them instead, your first instinct wouldn’t be to yell at the roaches

this is basically ricks' argument in THE GENERALS: that the structure of the american military (and political leadership) has generated an enormously competent professional force... that consistently generates useless results because of a void of strategic thinking at the top

Department of Homeland Security is proposing a new rule that would authorize collection of any form of biometric information or samples from anyone, including US citizens, “encountered” by USCIS or “associated with” any applicant for admission to the US, US residency, or US citizenship.

See jokes on you. You read that as “I don’t want a woman *to draft me and send me to a pointless war,*” but it was actually “I don’t want *a woman* to draft me and send me to a pointless war.”

Hakeem Jeffries is absolutely worthless. His only demand is that Dems get a briefing on what just happened. “Far too many questions remain unanswered…”

Drugs are the primary boogeyman used to justify imperial intervention in Latin America. When academics and activists like myself talk about legalizing drugs, it's not only to keep drug users safe from the toxic supply (which is reason enough), it's about geopolitical stability. It affects YOU

THREAD: I'll fact-check all the viral misinformation about the US military operation in Venezuela in this thread This image, purporting to show the US military arresting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, is AI-generated. According to Google's SynthID detector, it was created using Google AI.

rubio pretty much believes in a reverse domino theory for latin america and since he is effectively running foreign policy in the region i would expect him to see cuba as his next target

So many journalists wring their hands about how to deal with Trump's dishonesty. Wish more of them would follow Aaron's lead: "(This is a lie.)"

Jesus Christ, I just saw that Trump even ordered the bombing of the dead body of Hugo Chavez in his mausoleum. You may recall that Trump subscribes to the insane conspiracy theory that Chavez rigged the 2020 presidential election from the grave. That’s how deranged all this is.

BREAKING 🚨 🚨 🚨 CBS Folds Again, Cancels 60 Minutes Segment on Epstein Cover-up After DOJ Pressure dailyboulder.com/cbs-folds-ag...

Once again, one of the primary reasons we have arrived at this point (completely out-of-control & unconstitutional abuse of executive power to conduct wildly illegal foreign policy) is that no one, including the most senior people involved, went to jail for the rest of their lives for Iran-Contra.

So if you’re Venezuelan and in the U.S., we’re kidnapping you and flying you back to Venezuela. And if you’re Venezuelan and in Venezuela, we’re kidnapping you and flying you to the U.S.

DOJ is still in violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

9th Cir., 2-1, holds that open carry is protected by the Second Amendment even where a state allows concealed carry, strikes California's law banning urban open carry and its licensing law for open carry in rural counties. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...

Ex-Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun has Lunch with the FT and in one of those instances so rare that you know he didn't sign an NDA, says exactly why as.ft.com/r/e503690d-8...

FLASHBACK: In 2020, when Congress was debating COVID relief, Democrats pushed for oversight of the money going out. Republicans said "Jared Kushner will do the oversight, we're not adding any fraud protection to the bill." And then there was a lot of fraud, mostly by Republicans.

It’s remarkable how quickly Vance and his cohort have gone from “Trump could be America’s Hitler” (derogatory) to “Trump could be America’s Hitler” (not derogatory).

Here is the editor of Tablet agreeably reposting someone calling nonwhite NYC immigrants "worthless biotrash." It's astonishing how quickly this stuff has escaped containment

"It’s just embarrassing that we don’t have a story we can tell people about what reality is" - Carl Caves www.quantamagazine.org/its-a-mess-a...

Ok everyone got their easy dunks out of the way, here's a substantive one THIS happened BECAUSE he was completely defeated. The George W Bush Presidency had effectively ended at that point. He lost not just the House, but the Senate too, because voters hated him. You get THIS when WE WIN.

"The world's richest man, a well-documented drug addict who is a Nazi and a major support and adviser of the President of the United States of America, has created a website that produces CSAM on demand at scale while he demands ethnic cleansing worldwide"

They are good people, obviously. Many people much smarter than I am have addressed how the American right thinks in terms of good and bad people rather than good and bad acts. Less well-discussed is how they think it is •obvious• who is who, and that they have excellent judgment about character.

I just sniped a kid in Overwatch and he wrote "ohhh Kirked me" and I just found out they're using that as shorthand for a good snipe HOLY SHIT LOL

As it happens, I have experience with high-level government demands to stop an explosive, accurate story from running, and I also have experience with 60 Minutes spiking a story I was involved in, so I have thoughts about the travesty at CBS. If you want some journalism anecdotes, here are a lot:

Read this thread if you're suddenly seeing every third post about the Somali day care centers. oy vay

It’s a shame the Lord of the Rings films didn’t give Gollum two more rings. I really wanted to see a three-ring Serkis.

it is extremely funny that RFK both does not believe in the germ theory of disease and is a lab leak truther

I’m starting to suspect Elon is not operating in good faith

I’d known for a while that my sexual desires were getting out of hand, but it wasn’t until I spanked a statue that I realized I’d hit rock bottom...

I agree with Never Trumpers on a lot, but split hard on this: I do not think the Democratic Party needs to convince swing voters that Democratic candidates aren't too liberal. I think the party needs to convince swing voters that they themselves are actually quite liberal. They just won't admit it.

Thirteen years ago that I discovered 1) the King of Siam offered Abraham Lincoln war elephants, and 2) he refused. Consider, instead: what if he had not blogtarkin.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/d...

I really appreciate this 💗

🧵For those who missed it, another familiar name appears in the latest tranche of Epstein files. Nicholas Tartaglione--the former NY cop sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murder of 4 men. The same dirty ex-cop who was put in Epstein's cell with him at the Metropolitan Correctional Center

This is not hard. Artists are not responsible for ensuring the Kennedy Center remains relevant and successful. The center’s board is responsible for that, in a fiduciary way. All of this energy being directed at artists should be re-directed at the board.

John, I bet you already read this, but I really like this (regarding "LLM house styles"): marcusolang.substack.com/p/im-kenyan-... It trully brings a perspective a lot of people don't consider when discussing this -- colonialism.

Cheryl Hines and Tucker Carlson with a profound (but common) misunderstanding of what public health means.

Blood for the Blood God.

This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)

I am annoyed by the persistence of 'resist libs are tired of resisting Trump' line. No Kings put record-breaking numbers of people into the streets, specials/off-years are at D+10 or more. I don't think the resist libs are tired. I think some writers are tired of writing about resist libs.