counterpoint to Miller: The post-WWII outreach to the rest of the world made the US immensely safer and wealthier than if it had not done so. And part of the post-WWII openness is the huge US public investment in science. Which has depended on global exchange of ideas, and …

Broken record: The obsession with "kitchen table issues" imagines an electorate too obtuse or amoral to be reached by any appeal to abstract principle, morality, or any longer-term consideration than the immediate health of their bank account. If that's accurate, the game's already over.

Real free country we've got here, where business decisions center around pleasing / not angering the mad king (and in this case, assuring him that it was good, very good that he invaded another country and kidnapped their leader). www.wired.com/story/trump-...

If the DEA had killed 80 innocent Americans in the course of apprehending one drug dealer, there would be riots. But we are so ghoulishly indifferent to the lives and humanity of people abroad that it's barely even part of the conversation.

Thank you, @captmarkkelly.bsky.social I only wish that every other person or institution w money & power whom Trump tries to gag would fight back in the same way. (Looking at you, universities & law firms) B/c Kelly is correct, this is about all of us, defending each other and our right to speak.

Yeah, it has long been the case that adult-oriented businesses have to be careful or risk the wrath of everyone from prosecutors to payment-processing companies, but "prominent social media company owned by world's richest person swiftly became world's largest CSAM producer" produces no reaction.

Reached out to the White House and the Pentagon to ask what they know about the death toll of their strikes in Venezuela. The White House referred us to the Pentagon. And the Pentagon referred us to the White House.

This is correct, and part of why Senator Kelly needs to fight it, in courts of law and courts of public opinion alike--not just for himself, but so other vets aren't intimidated out of speaking up

Among other things, this is yet another example of how Trump has been using federal funds as leverage to stifle dissent. This is illegal, and it’s also wrong.

This is just terrible. So many ways, big and small, in which Trump and his minions are making people afraid to dissent from the party line.

This is designed to have a chilling effect on all retired service members. The message is that if you speak out, you risk your retirement pay.

The media need to stop beating their chests about how powerful our military is. It's a point of pride when your country has a strong military that keeps the peace. It's a source of shame when politicians turn your strong military into an international armed robbery gang.

How can this be real life? Determining the fate of a foreign country’s government because you didn’t get a prize? The foreign policy of a personalist dictatorship.

Reporter: Did you speak with the oil companies before the operation? Did you tip them off? Trump: Before and after. They want to go in and they’re going to do a great job.

Don't worry, they're considering putting Stephen Miller in charge.... www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

WH sources say Venezuela's opposition leader committed the "ultimate sin": She accepted the Nobel Peace prize. “If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one said. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Cannot be emphasized enough how clairvoyant @swin24.bsky.social’s reporting has been on many of the horrors unfolding today — before any others had picked up on them. Please do support our work @zeteo.com

All of this is nauseating and profoundly embarrassing. Americans who can watch this without feeling shame and horror are inhabiting an alien moral universe I do not understand.

Trump was crystal clear about his intentions to exploit Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. But exactly what does that entail — and are U.S. oil companies even interested? The smartest piece you’ll read on the subject (while 2/3 of media ignores the whole “oil thing” altogether) from @mollytaft.com

A deluge of work on regime change after the 2003 invasion of Iraq yielded strong (and rare) agreement in IR: it doesn't work & has terrible consequences. @profdownes.bsky.social's book Catastrophic Success lays it out, but it's right there in the title. www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

So for months they have tried to blame the entire fentanyl crisis on Venezuela and the indictment only mentions cocaine, which they pardoned a different guy for weeks ago

During Fiona Hill's testimony to Congress on Oct 14, 2019, she described how Trump and Putin discussed exchanging Ukraine for Venezuela. The quid pro quo was if Trump refuses to help Ukraine fight off a Russian invasion, Putin would not help Venezuela (a Russian ally) resist a US takeover.

A CBS News staffer told me this after Tony Dokoupil kicked off his CBS Evening News tenure tonight with a lengthy Pete Hegseth interview: "If this is what Bari and Tony’s CBS Evening News is going to look like, then the we may as well just call ourselves Trump Administration State TV. Pathetic."

It was amazing to watch the journalists who built this tool at work. Months and months of painstaking effort, careful reporting behind every decision. It's the kind of work that ProPublica does best.

"Look, the U.S. has not got a perfect record. There’s no doubt about that, and it has betrayed its values many times, but this is of a different order. This is just a blatant throwing-the-whole-thing-out and making a claim to be able to use force whenever it wants." - @oonahathaway.bsky.social

Time to reup the real National Security Strategy:

Looks like the Trump administration is going to force the oil companies to rebuild Venezuela's oil infrastructure so they can seize the country's reserves, which the companies neither want nor need. Let's hear it for free enterprise! www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

Terrific interview. Well worth a read. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

My latest with @ichotiner.bsky.social.

This right here: “Not introducing articles of impeachment is a message that Trump hasn't committed impeachable offenses.”

Young boy reading book in a ruined bookshop in London devastated by an air raid - 1940

the point is not that this draft, or any draft, will be adopted. the point is to force the discussion that trump/rubio/vance don't want us to have. the point is to take charge of the conversation. the point is to assert the rule of law over the rule of corruption and monarchy.

democrats need to introduce a resolution disapproving trump's aggression and directing him to withdraw US forces. here's a draft. it's not rocket science.

The Organization of American Historians is conducting an oral history open to those who worked for the federal government or were contractors. This includes those who retired or were forced to leave because of changes since January. www.fecohp.org

I instinctively want to think "blood for oil" is just a conspiracy theory, but he's saying it right out loud. Practically screaming it.

Specifically, a protest song about how the sons of the rich were able to avoid fighting, like fighting-age Donald Trump who got four deferments for being in college and another for bone spurs.

The House Armed Services Committee also was not briefed, I've confirmed.

Cancer research costs too much but we have the money to run Venezuela

My favorite part is, “Thank you, SecRubio, for keeping me apprised!” Like it’s a thoughtful courtesy to keep a member of Congress informed, not an infinitesimal fraction of what’s constitutionally and statutorily required!

It's crystal clear: a pending criminal indictment does NOT cure the clear illegality of this attack under int'l law. It violated the UN Charter in just the same way Russia's attack on Ukraine did. And unlike our 1989 Panama invasion, there seems not even a pretense of a threat to Americans there.

this isn't like some magic wand that legalizes an illegal war and extrajudicial kidnapping. it's a weaponized DoJ deepening the propaganda.

Partly a distraction from Epstein (and many other failures). Partly for oil. Partly bc Trump is a pathetic man child who wants nothing more than to feel like a tough guy. And mostly bc he is surrounded by enablers who let this happen.

News: Gang of Eight in Congress were only notified about Trump's Venezuela operation after it began, source familiar tells me. That means the heads of the Intelligence Committees in Senate and House were *not* consulted. Just crazy.

Important distinction. Trump will say he relied on the 1989 Noriega precedent, and he's not wrong. But as @andykimnj.bsky.social has been saying, just weeks ago Rubio and Hegseth said this was not about regime change. It's not clear Gang of Eight was consulted.

I long for the headline, "American Jews accuse the Israeli Government of anti-Semitism" or "American Jews accuse the Israeli Government of Being the Gravest Threat Globally to the Moral Integrity of Judaism." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/n...

@durbin.senate.gov Are you okay with what Trump is doing in Venezuela? Your constituents are not. You're already on your way out; have some courage, stand up for what's right.

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

As I was saying, his foreign policy is entirely personalist and with no constraints. Also, this regime change brought to you by the Acting Archivist of the United States, Marco Rubio, the nation's top diplomat.

Suffice it to say, this is an impeachable offense, but so was January 6, and the Republicans have danced with this Mad President to get their petty, petty small wins over Woke.

One thing I remember well from watching this movie in 1995: the intense anxiety of the scene in which she raced to download something to a floppy disk before the bad guys got to her! 💾