Think of it this way. Trump came into office with a “no scalps rule” Meaning that he wasn’t gonna fire anybody just because the libs and the media wanted them fired. That rule is now being pushed away.

I know that the people who need to read this aren’t here, but here goes: Rules of engagement aren’t for the enemy. They’re for you. They’re for your soldiers when they’re captured or wounded. They’re for your civilians when they’re in range of the enemy. They’re for your allies, to reassure.

This is a distressing story about Trump’s attempts to impede Thomas Massie’s efforts to release the Epstein files. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

For all the (justified) criticisms of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the emergency airlift was ultimately a pretty extraordinary logistical feat under pressure. By contrast, Trump II can't even arrange the repatriation of Americans in friendly states around the region.

The grace and ease with which a Great Grey Owl moves is a sight to behold. Here a Great Grey uses her wings to slow down as she approaches a post to land on. And check out those talons! #wildlife #birds #owls

Jesus Christ these people are monsters.

This is re: TikTok and X — and Meta, having long employed former Republican operative and Kavanaugh pal Joel Kaplan, just hired right-wing influencer Robby Starbuck to help it ferret out bias in its AI systems. Neat.

To give a sense of how different America is, in 1933 the Nazis felt the need to purge only 6% of judges and prosecutors. The rest conformed to the dictates of the regime. Without the veneer of legality, the Trump administration must accept limits to its power or risk open oppression.

My warning back in late 2024 that Tulsi Gabbard was a national security risk: www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

I'm calling bullshit on the media narrative that Trump is "pivoting" and "deescalating" on his ICE raids. The threshold is this: As long as the military occupations and the treatment of US cities as enemy territory continue, there's no pivot. ICE out. 1/ (New piece) newrepublic.com/article/2057...

“The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0... Good @adamserwer.bsky.social. Trump banded the morally depraved together, but they’re still badly outnumbered.

There is a child across the street who was out shoveling snow & I was kind of impressed, until I realized she was dumping the snow from her sidewalk *onto the house's front porch and stairs* to construct a massive sled run from the front door. Now I am like "get that kid an engineering scholarship"

I advised a US senator during a war, but it probably wasn't like the problems of going to veterinary school, no. (wtf)

The problem is not the pardon power. The problem is us. We weren't supposed to elect a crook as POTUS. If we did, the people we elected in Congress are supposed to do something about it. We're idiots, so we've elected crooks & cowards all the way up the line. The problem is us. We need to fix us.

My daughter is flying Ryan Air from Edinburgh to London for £19. A bag bigger than 24cm is £70, so she is packing light. There is no expectation of luxury. Tom is correct. We want disposable luxury here. All of the benefits; none of the restrictions

@radiofreetom.bsky.social for a moment I thought you had penned this... thehill.com/homenews/nex...

“A democracy whose citizens operate with fundamentally different understandings of the past and its implications cannot sustain itself,” @clintsmithiii.bsky.social writes:

"Bongino will be the guy responsible for signing off on FISA applications" is something so insane that if you'd said it to anyone in natsec in 2014 they would have had an immediate stroke

“We just like that he makes the right people mad. He hates the people we hate.” — Tom Nichols describes a significant portion of Trump voters who like Trump for his vengefulness, who see in Trump’s anger a reflection of their own anger. @radiofreetom.bsky.social

The longevity of the Mafia in Italy serves as a warning that, once this style of rule embeds itself in the state, it is “very difficult to extract,” @adamserwer.bsky.social argues.

Nah that is not what is happening. People will very specifically claim that average Americans have less purchasing power and are more financially squeezed than in the 80s. I promise: these are just INCORRECT BELIEFS. It’s the progressive equivalent of the people who think crime is always increasing

This is objectively nonsense but people believe it because nostalgia is one of the most powerful political forces on earth - especially if it's imagined nostalgia on the part of people who never experienced the times they claim to miss. /1

MONKEYTRUCK (2025)

"As comical as many of Trump’s comments were, the president’s nakedly partisan appeal to U.S. military officers was a violation of every standard of American civil-military relations, and exactly what George Washington feared could happen with an unscrupulous commander in chief."

Yes. And stop thumb-sucking about how you're really living in 1925 or 1933 or 1942 and you're the oppressed hero of your own anti-fascist adventure movie.

If I ever have a podcast or show I'm gonna call it "The Fairness Doctrine, with Tom Nichols"

Unintended consequences or something....

Womp-womp....an unserious society for sure.

"The number of Americans missing work for National Guard deployments or other military or civic duty is at a 19-year high, adding disruption to a labor market that’s already under strain." Pretty remarkable when we're not at war—except against our own people. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Too bad the GOP effectively criminalized studying how information moves online and news orgs laid off and demonized all the reporters who covered the burgeoning online accelerationist performative death cults. All of that work was somehow "censorship" that needed to be stopped. Now we're here.

Wrote about the week. How the shooter's ID didn't appear to matter to ppl. How the discourse takes place in very same spaces that incubate/perpetuate hate & violence. How shooters now know that their acts will be flattened, analyzed, argued over & amplified. How all of this feels so dark & poisonous

Thank you to people who are explaining groypers to me by (unknowingly) sending my own writing to me.

You might think, "why would some working-class schmuck who's near the bottom of the hierarchy *support* this?" The answer is that even the lowest white man is promised domination over his family, over women, and over other races. They get shit on from above, but are allowed shit on those below.

The Trump administration’s decision to grant military-funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt is the latest move to turn the perpetrators of one of America’s darkest days into heroes, @dgraham.bsky.social argues in The Atlantic Daily:

This tactic - pressuring corporations financially until they put a regime friendly voice in charge - is exactly how Orbán took over the free press in Hungary

Just popping over here to see how @radiofreetom.bsky.social feels about Travis Kelce proposing in shorts to Taylor Swift

Oprah did an episode like this and when I came home my grandparents had taken all of my art supplies out of my bedroom. I still blame her for me failing Studio Art.

If you listen and read carefully you can tell that the Republicans never liked Barack Obama

Socialist favors government control of industry. Big shock.

laura loomer serving as president along with stephen miller and russell vought

In fairness, Putin thinks he’s hosting Trump on Russian soil

they want to be accepted as mainstream so badly. people like gutfeld, hannity, glen beck, limbaugh (still dead) wanted to be comedians but couldnt hack it so they took the easier course - be a right wing media asshole. but in their hearts they want to be in the mainstream circle.

Being awful to Americans who honorably served the country for nearly two decades, just to be bigots.

lol

Every day on social media, more and more of us look like ignorant, entitled brats who are just too goddamn lazy to do the work. Until you’ve read the article… shhhhhhh. (And if there’s a paywall in your way… double shhhhhh.)

‘But have you read Chomsky?’ is a surefire sign the poster is: A. 16 years old. B. Intellectually 16 years old.

Paramount's capitulating cowardice is being cheered on from the Oval Office:

It’ll be hard in the future to convince people who are looking back on this awful period that the perpetrators didn’t pull off some dastardly scheme, they were open about it in advance, and chosen by people who -liked it -assumed it wouldn’t happen but liked that it bothered others -were kinda bored