grew up eating dinner every night with Walter Cronkite on the little convex screen on the kitchen counter — his sign off “that’s the way it is” stands as the definition of what news should aspire to be — it sucks to watch a completely unqualified craven apparatchik trash that legacy

We’re No Longer a Democracy, episode 4,436

Going into this week, the 14 teams in playoff position included teams with the 32nd (weakest) strength of schedule (Pats) and the 31st, 30th, 29th, 28th, 27th and one of two teams tied for 25th.

Super Bowl 1 was played on January 15, 1967. This year the 4-round playoff *starts* on January 10.

Bari Weiss, the Donald J. Trump Editor in Chief of CBS News

Virginia Heffernan wrote this shortly after the 2016 election and it still holds true

Donald Trump is the worst human being in America, but in a way JD Vance is worse. Trump was born a monster and has always been one. Vance DECIDED to become this hateful abomination.

Why do I get the sense she’s not going to be embraced the way Kaitlin was?

It’s *always* ok to mock cities. But don’t you ever dare criticize rural areas, even if they’re boarded up, reliant on government welfare, a drain on state treasuries, and havens for right-wing sheriffs and militia types.

President Donald Trump came to North Carolina on Friday to talk about the economy. He ended up explaining how his wife organizes her lingerie drawer.

He thinks he’s king. Trump Takes America’s ‘Imperial Presidency’ to a New Level www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/u...

His fixation on the number between 91 and 93 has been a feature for a while. In April, Trump claimed that egg prices had fallen by 92%. (The BLS said 12.7%.) And at a rally, while railing against journalists and the media, he allowed that “not all of them” are “sick people.” Just “about 92%.”

I don’t think the law passed by Congress said that DOJ has to release less than 1% of the materials by Dec 19.

The FBI put a thousand agents (their own words) on trying to hide all the links between Trump and Epstein. They failed. When people found some additional photos of Trump in the release, the DOJ promptly DELETED THEM FROM THE DOCUMENT RELEASE. www.npr.org/2025/12/20/n...

Boo-fucking-hoo: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/u...

The vast majority of Americans read and/watch horror novels and books, so obviously they want to be chainsawed or hacked to death with cleavers by crazed killers in masks. After the requisite torture, of course. Everybody loves torture, followed by death!

I can’t prove this and not sure what polls, if any, show, but I think the Reiner comment and bulldozing WH and adding his name to everything is doing more harm to Trump than he realizes. He’s making presidency his personal prize, shitting on traditions. People notice he’s all about himself.

Holy crap chart from Gallup

Brown shooter was motivated by personal vengeance, not politics. But that didn’t stop the rabid types from immediately asserting that, because a young Republican activist was inadvertently killed, this episode was Kirk II. Opportunists lie when they know they never face any consequences.

Muting a Black woman to claim the vote was unanimous is so incredibly on the nose

Feels to me like the last quote here is more devastating and incriminating than even the birthday book and the photos and the rest.

Sen. BLUMENTHAL: Was the U.S. Capitol attacked on January 6, 2021? Trump nominee: *dodges* Trump nominee: *dodges* Trump nominee: Well, individuals entered the Capitol. Blumenthal: You are in fear—how will you have the courage to be fair and impartial?

These are the people who are willing to go on the record. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...

if this isn't stealing an election there's no such thing as stealing an election

🙃

Russia should be top of list:

One of the biggest mistakes Dems made in transition is in not having Jack Smith testify openly about Jan6 before Durbin lost his gavel.

All those words when he could’ve just said: fuck your health care and your grocery bills. Get a third job, peasant.

BREAKING: Pharmacies across the country announced they will be unable to fill Adderall prescriptions for a week because Trump used the entire national supply before tonight’s speech.

Shorter Trump speech:

Starving for a period, semicolon, or just a comma.

If I just SHOUT a bunch of superlatives it makes them true! Everything is better in every way and every leader agrees in every conversation I’ve imagined having with them.

I’m going to contact the EEOC to claim that I was passed over from my rightful job as EEOC Chair in favor of a woman.

I think of all the people of color, immigrants, and Muslims that voted for Trump... We warned and begged... www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/u...

He is so sad and insecure.

Yea, no shit! He coerced legislators and state officials, told them to lie about the results, then assembled a domestic terrorist mob in DC. It’s all recorded, reported, or on video.

Help one person help yourself just help

The most dangerous form of government is theocracy.  Because the only thing worse than a tyrant is a tyrant who thinks they're on a mission from God.

As ever, Anna is a must-read:

Making the most depressing point I can make yet again: the US media is going to treat Donald Trump with far less vitriol in response to him starting a random war in Venezuela vs the sheer level of vitriol that they hurled at Joe Biden for ENDING the War in Afghanistan.

Pundits like Nate Silver need to just go to therapy about their issues with their mother rather than subjecting us all to their bad takes.

I wrote about Yglesias “defending liberalism” by joining a right wing moral panic over critical race theory. His vision of liberalism has room for bigots, but no room for scholars concerned about structural racism.

Great interview, worth your time:

Proverbial "Why not both?" to public opinion scholars who debate which is more important. It's like the debate over voter persuasion vs, mobilization....why not both?