On Tuesday, Gov-elect Spanberger reacted to a fainting by immediately fetching water. youtu.be/Ch92pcxs8PE?...

so far, grand and petit juries are the institutions with the best track record in standing up to authoritarianism

"It was one of the most horrific things I’ve ever seen." "If you’re going to take one of us, take all four of us." "They took him. They took him. They took him." The photos & quotes here, including that of an "extremely volatile" ICE officer enjoying her lollipop... nymag.com/intelligence...

"I’m not aware in my 35-year history in the aviation market where we've had a situation where we're taking these kinds of measures." www.washingtonpost.com/transportati...

“Addicted to their screens, strapped for cash, spiritually unmoored and socially stunted by the pandemic, young New Yorkers needed a reason to get out of the house. They found it in Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral run.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/n...

Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.

Next week's @newyorker.com cover. www.newyorker.com/culture/cove...

There is some sad irony in McClatchy shutting its DC bureau the same day that Dick Cheney died. That bureau (then Knight-Ridder) did some of the best, most skeptical reporting anywhere in the run-up to the Iraq War. And they took a lot of shit for it at the time. www.cato.org/commentary/q...

We saw this same issue — voting day bomb threats — in 2024. Motive could be strategic voter suppression, but in 2024 it was likely foreign interference designed to cause mayhem and further erode trust in US election. These tactics can also provide pretext for contesting elections later.

Defense is now questioning Lairmore on cross-examination. They show a video still of the sandwich and wrapper on the ground, post-throw. "Do you recognize that sandwich?" the attorney asks. Lairmore won't confirm. "I did not go back to collect it," he says.

Border Patrol agent Lairmore testifies that he was not injured by the sandwich, but he felt the impact through his ballistic vest. The sandwich came apart and "kind of exploded" on his chest upon impact, he says. "I could smell the onions and mustard."

From the standpoint of energy and behavior, the Mamdani and Cuomo campaigns are the difference between wanting it and expecting it.

In three straight elections, more voters wanted someone other than Trump to be president: 53.9% voted against him in 2016, 53.2% in 2020, and 50.2% last year. Now, 59% of Americans disapprove of the job he's doing. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

There are 12 main markers of democratic erosion into autocracy. Trump has passed five of them, and is approaching the other seven. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Trump said he was going to make the Kennedy Center “hot." Occupied seats are down 36% since last fall. Sales are the worst they’ve been in years. Trump's "actions have been worse for business at the Kennedy Center than the aftermath of a global pandemic." www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

My latest: The Trump administration has presented misleading evidence and arguments in a high-stakes asylum hearing—and it could lead to the execution of a father of two who helped the U.S. cause in Afghanistan The case may have sweeping consequences for thousands of migrants. wapo.st/433Qsun

Got a new story about a little-known HHS agency with a massive job: the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR). ASPR gave us Operation Warp Speed. Now it's being run by a conspiracy theorist who calls those vaccines “genocide.” www.msnbc.com/msnbc/meet-a...

Quite a thread/story. www.propublica.org/article/paul...

1. Russia has a slightly bigger stockpile than the U.S. 2. No one has tested nukes aboveground since 1980. 3. Since 1998 only N. Korea has tested nukes (underground). 4. Obama launched the renovation of the U.S. stockpile. It's not complete; timeline stretches into the 2040s ($ is headed for $2T).

“I am a political animal, full stop. But I’m equally a policy animal. I don’t give a fuck what else you say.” Here's what it's like to profile Rahm Emanuel. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

A growing list of senior Trump political appointees—at least six by our count—are now living in military housing, where they are shielded not just from potential violence but also from protest, via @michaelscherer.bsky.social @ashleyrparker.bsky.social Missy Ryan www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

-Putin has been touting tests of Skyfall and Poseidon this week. (The tests were of nuke-powered, nuke delivery systems-not live warhead detonations) -The Dept of War isnt responsible for nuke explosive testing. Thats DoEs job. -The "renovation of existing weapons" continues.

"It seems abundantly clear that he will hold on to the office at any cost, including America’s ruin." Judge Luttig (Reagan counsel, Scalia clerk, Bush 41 appointee): www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

“…a furloughed Labor Department employee in Texas said she had been going from room to room inside her home in a San Antonio suburb to see what she could sell to help make ends meet.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/u... This is the facade of the Labor Department headquarters in D.C.:

Social media was maybe not a good idea. wapo.st/47GwrMS

“Trump is able to dictate his own factual and legal realities, and executive branch lawyers who want to keep their jobs must treat them as settled.” Specialists in lethal-force laws have defined Trump’s “pre-meditated extrajudicial killings” as “murders.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/u...

For those who watched “A House of Dynamite” last night.

An evisceration of Karine Jean-Pierre’s new book, by Becca Rothfeld. wapo.st/477lK5X

“I’m the speaker and the president,” Trump has joked. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/u...

Don Jr. “has become part of the famed Beltway military-industrial complex, even as his father is setting policy priorities that are likely to benefit the companies he has invested in.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/u...

“Nobody has heard of” Lesotho, President Trump joked, to the laughter of lawmakers. He’d just cut aid to the country. Weeks later, he announced a 50% tariff on exports from “the denim capital of Africa.” Today, Lesotho is under a state of disaster. I recently traveled there for @bloomberg.com:

Aerial view of the demolition.

Gone.

One new press corps member, the Washington Reporter, says its coverage will remain "as tough and objective as ever" and also that Hegseth's "tenure has been nothing short of transformative," with "perfect execution," "flawless coordination" and a "steady hand" washingtonreporter.news/p/editorial-...

“It is very dangerous, very wrong, to start down that road” of inserting religion into defense matters, former DOD Secretary Chuck Hagel says, “because that road leads you to a lot of places you don’t want to go.” www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

“In the past few months, Mr. Trump has elevated multiple proponents of his fraud claims into high-level administration jobs. Now, as government insiders, these activists could wield their newfound power to discredit future results…” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/u...

“They’re wrecking it. And these are changes that can’t be undone. They’re destroying that history forever.” The East Wing is no more: wapo.st/4qi1Uwp

NEW: Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, has issued a new statement declaring that Chicago "communities are shaken by immigration raids and detentions. These actions wound the soul of our city. Let me be clear. The Church stands with migrants."

IL State Rep. Hoan Huynh says CBP agents surrounded his car and drew a gun on him on the Northwest Side of Chicago this morning

Here's the thing I don't understand. You can't as much as sneeze near a historic site in Washington without like 14 commissions, councils, and advisory boards giving you the okay. And everybody now is like...yup, fine with us? wtf?

Quick preview of numbers being released tomorrow… special for my Bluesky peeps: Alaska Survey Research October 10-15, 2025 N=2,083 adults (1,957 RV, 1,708 LV) 2026 Alaska US Senate (LV) Mary Peltola (D) 48% Dan Sullivan (R) 46% Undecided 6% Sullivan’s negative hits 50% for the first time.

SCOOP: more than a third of new recruits at the ICE training academy have failed the personal fitness test -- so many that the agency has had to start pre-screening new hires to weed out what one official called "athletically allergic candidates" www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

“Almost Famous” (2000) is on Turner Classic Movies.

Trump has begun tearing down some of the White House, for his ballroom. wapo.st/4hqBNiU

Russ Vought "has centralized decision-making power to an extent that he is the Commander-in-Chief.” www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

*Hundreds* of armed, masked men descended on the apt building. They busted doors and tossed flash bangs. They “separated residents by race and ethnicity.” They “forcibly remove a baby from its mother’s arms.” They grabbed and zip-tied dozens of citizens. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/u...

Justice Brett Kavanaugh: “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen...they promptly let the individual go." The reality: Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. A must read from the very talented @nicolefoy.bsky.social:

Caity Weaver became a Revolutionary War reenactor. So enjoyable, illuminating, and even moving. And the photos! www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

D.C. moviegoers I saw "House of Dynamite" with didn't move from their seats until two minutes into the credits. It felt like a version of the paralysis that would afflict decision makers faced with an impossible decision. @radiofreetom.bsky.social on the film: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

My latest, on a man who supported the war in Afghanistan, came to the U.S. legally, applied for asylum, had two kids, became a bookkeeper, bought an American flag bumper sticker. Then ICE arrested him. If he's deported, he expects the Taliban to kill him. wapo.st/49aGaw2