Happy New Year! Dear Lord - in 2026, let us overcome most of your followers and save our nation from fascism.

My last thought on this ruinous year in American politics is that the Republican plan to dissolve the foundations of our government and pave a path to permanent, unaccountable power- has failed. We must now fight for free elections, and be ready for external actors to seek advantage in our miseries.

While 2025 was the year America suffered a devastating siege from within, it was a very good year for me personally. Other than a year off from public commentary, my health improved significantly, my children are doing great, and found higher ground above the AI wave crashing into knowledge workers.

Elon Musk promised a lot of things by 2025 - colonists arriving on Mars - xAI achieving AGI - Tesla robotaxis serving half the U.S. - completely driverless robotaxis - a Tesla Roadster demo - DOGE cutting trillions none of them happened mashable.com/article/elon-mus...

Media I supported in 2025 that found and told the truth during these dark times for America: @nytimes.com, @washingtonpost.com (news section), @propublica.org, and @wired.com. Each one of them did devastating and original investigative work about what The Emperor and his agents are doing. Thank you!

Exclusive: ICE officials plan to spend $100 million to recruit gun-rights supporters and military enthusiasts through online influencers and a geo-targeted ad campaign, part of what the agency called a “wartime recruitment” strategy to hire thousands of officers, according to an internal document.

Dear Lord. How nightmarish. We are not in “wartime” against our farm workers and roofers. wapo.st/44QrP5j

Sigh. If national employment data does not validate the claim that young white men are suffering, there is no need to validate this corrosive narrative because, in some fields, this is happening. Better to try to increase turnout among minorities. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/27/o...

Wanna see real-life miracles? Fund scientific research. A team of US scientists just cured Alzheimer’s in mice — and there is now hope that the disease can be reversed in humans. futurism.com/health-medic...

Good. We must rally more and more people to say no to The Emperor. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/a...

They are losing and they know it.

The return of the measles. Brought to you buy The Pro Life Movement.

I just taught my lecture course on mid-20th c US history, which starts with Harding and concludes with Nixon. For the first time, I had to pause and stress that those scandals were actually shocking at the time and, what’s more, that Americans actually demanded people be held accountable.

Let me say that celebrating the birth of Christ is like MLK day. You have all these conservatives saying how wonderful the guy was online and in public declarations, yet they have forgotten just how unpopular the guy was in his time, and that they, back in those days, would have been his oppressors.

This wholesale corruption should be the first of two impeachment articles. (The second should be self-enrichment)

So did he see three ghosts last night or not?

[sounds of quiet and cautious little feet moving slowly about the house in pre-dawn darkness]

Kennedy Center Christmas Eve jazz concert canceled after Trump name added to building

"Like Amazon Prime, but with human beings."

8th grade son: "Dad, I am the last person in my class who doesn't have a phone." Me: "That means we won." Son: "What?" Me: (maniacal laugh)

The DOJ is now online commenting on posts, claiming information they released in the Epstein files is fake and shouldn’t be trusted. The desperation is obvious.

it requires an absolutely staggering lack of self awareness for chatterton to complain that he has lost elite opportunities because he has anti-woke views.

It is almost here!

New at Media Nation: Two weeks after a hopeful sign from "60 Minutes," Bari Weiss cancels a story and trashes the brand. dankennedy.net/2025/12/22/t...

A senior reporter at CBS news confirmed on the record what we all suspected: Comrade Weiss killed the 60 minutes story because it was critical of The Emperor. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/21/n...

Comrade Weiss merely had to tell her subordinates tbat the piece needed more work. An infinite amount of work. (There is no such thing as 60 minutes reporters deciding right before airtime that a finished major story isn’t worthy.)

America is not voting for a man like this who says stuff like that.

Everything about congestion pricing has worked out great in NYC. Even most opponents converted after seeing the results. Yet again, conservatives were wrong about a social change.

This year-of-Trump review was very good and showed why there is no point to include a National Review Guy claiming Nero has made mistakes, but what really matters is some general policy directions that predecessors messed up, not the reign of terror we are seeing. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/o...

Russ Vought set out to ensure a second Trump term would not be hampered by checks and balances: “I don’t want President Trump having to lose a moment of time having fights in the Oval Office about whether something is legal or doable or moral.” (Published October w/ @newyorker.com)

The picture of HHS sec Noem is frightening. It's like she's... undead. From this story: www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12... static01.nyt.com/images/2025/...

Funny how the Boston School Committee is finally getting a spine about closing schools only after Mayor Wu won an astounding re-election. May it be a sign that BPS will finally begin the path to sane management. #bospoli

To those who fact-checked The Emperor's poolside political rant last night: I salute you. 🫡 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/u...

This is the kind of out-of-context photo from the State House people usually go nuts for.

I have no idea yet what to make of the Susie Wiles interview. It will take me a few days to process whatever that was. However, if you want a smart, properly-informed take right now, please read what Professor Cotlar thinks in this thread.

I had missed that the Globe's resident "educated MAGA" columnist had left #mapoli and is now offering gentle advice to The Emperor at the Washington Post.

What if I told you that due to millions of years of evolution, the human brain is the greatest idea machine that ever occurred, and any "innovation problem" is about culture, economics, politics, and poverty?

Amen!

Happy 100th birthday to the perpetually optimistic Dick Van Dyke. You have made me smile hundreds of times in my life. And now my children also. God bless you.

So Republicans are once again promising America a new healthcare plan.

I would like to let everyone know that the historic, unprecedented new technological behemoth created to gather and analyze previously-private federal and commercial data in order to find immigrants - has all of your data also. The fascists have it, and will one day be used against you, too.

Yes, folks, it's true! "Beat the Press with Emily Rooney" is returning to the webwaves tonight with a segment on @scottvv.bsky.social's Contrarian Boston. Emily, Scott and I will be talking about the Olivia Nuzzi-RFK Jr.-Ryan Lizza shitshow. scottvanvoorhis.substack.com/p/is-the-wu-...

Did anyone not know AI was going to be the person of the year? TIME should have had the courage to make “Stephen Miller” the person of the year to make an important point instead of asking us to read the 325,342th article about how important AI is.

This is re-heated circa-2002 college republican nonsense.

Dear Media, There are no House GOP "moderates". You have no idea what the word means anymore. Every GOP member has fallen in line nearly every time on every horrible thing. You are desperate, I know. But stop lying to... yourselves. www.cbsnews.com/news/health-...

Not sure what all the media coverage of the Walshe murder trial is for. This isn't exactly a whodunit.

While I'm clobbering the Globe, this story about a terribly-performing school district just shrugs and says it's due to poverty. No mention of schools that have tons of poor kids that do far better, of course! (Shhhh! It doesn't matter what schools do) #mapoli www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/10/m...

The Globe's "Bostonians of the Year" is once again a disheveled mess of people who don't live in the city. It's been getting worse for a few years now. #bospoli www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/09/m...

What could go wrong?

I don't want another dime given to the rich people of Lexington. If they want to build a temple to themselves, no more money from state government. #mapoli www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/08/m...