"I am also on TikTok and am a menace to my Republican politician dad lol" Interesting questions from @maddieblock.bsky.social about the delegation of approximately 250 American state legislators who visited Israel for the "50 States One Israel" conference on September 15.

Or careful? "The Savant’s subject matter is believed to be behind it, with...imagery considered possibly triggering following the Sept. 10 assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk. The series includes a sniper in action...bombing of a government building...other acts of violence."

Have never traveled to a country outside their own India 95% Indonesia 92% Nigeria 90% Brazil 87% Mexico 79% S Africa 77% Japan 34% Poland 32% US 23% S Korea 21% Greece 21% Spain 15% Italy 14% Australia 10% France 10% UK 4% Germany 3%

Have traveled to 10 or more countries outside their own Sweden 57% Netherlands 48% UK 43% Germany 36% Australia 32% France 26% Italy 25% Canada 22% Spain 20% Greece 19% S Korea 15% Israel 14% US 11% Hungary 8% Japan 8% Poland 4% www.pewresearch.org/global/2023/...

Yeah, this is the key point: These bedrock principles -- free speech, reflexive aversion to sniveling authoritarian censorship -- still carry tremendous force deep in the culture, and Trump can't make that disappear with his Sharpie and its magical reality-bending powers.

"It’s telling that some MAGA propagandists are now rewriting this whole story to erase any role that Trump’s corrupt pressure played in Kimmel’s original suspension....The truth about this sleazy little game is that MAGA wants the best of both worlds."

"Rather than get serious about reducing gun violence through common-sense reforms that limit access to firearms...some legislators believe posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms will magically reduce school shootings." Interesting review of "The Bible According to Christian Nationalists."

"One couple said they were federal employees who had taken early retirement. They liked the statue’s message but said they didn’t want to attach their names to a quote, just in case it would jeopardize their retirement agreement." 🎁 Gift article wapo.st/4gFthvN

This is journalism at its best: informative, riveting, engaging. "Visitors to the archive can find a Bowie for them."

Even if we somehow survive the rest of the Trump era, our problem is that the entire rest of the world thinks we’re stupid now. The 2024 election was a national IQ test. And we failed it. The world watched closely as we did a coin flip. And then they watched as we swallowed the coin.

"Gardner points out that pregnant women needing to take Tylenol are more likely to have pain, fevers, and prenatal infections, which are themselves risk factors for autism....The painkiller use, she says, is a red herring."

In the Moment: 40 Years of Reuters Photojournalism reut.rs/3IBANv3

This is for a good cause: #ALS Therapy Development @alstdi.bsky.social Win a Dream Dinner for Two Anywhere in the World! fundraise.als.net/worldraffle/

"...what’s most striking about the speech is the fantasy world in which Trump has cocooned himself — with no modesty, he depicts himself as a brilliant peacemaker worthy of a Nobel Prize (or maybe seven), an economic genius and someone who is right about everything." He's a vainglorious buffoon.

"Trump’s America is swapping the New Testament for the Old." Contender for the best summary so far of this baffling, terrifying process of unilateral Endarkenment. Excellent from @edwardluce.bsky.social

The Triad is, by itself, worth a subscription to @thebulwark.com JVL is writing the best daily newsletter there is.

“Another impulse that is ingrained: to assign blame for the existence of discomfort. If someone is autistic, then there must be a fault. Some person or thing who caused it. Like Tylenol. Or weak mothers…” @jvl.bsky.social offers a must-read on MAHA’s eugenics. www.thebulwark.com/p/autism-mah...

A good ad on the DC Metro

Isaac Chotiner interviews Cass Sunstein. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

Kate is referring to the wild ride that is this Isaac Chotiner interview with Cass Sunstein. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a... That kicker - wow.

It’s like the Kardashians hooked up with the Squid Game, gave birth to a Sopranos reboot and we’re supposed to pretend it’s the West Wing.

"...the system is failing us. At every level - executive, judicial, legislative, corporate, institutional, media - every single guardrail that is supposed to protect our democracy is buckling. I thought those guardrails would be stronger. I was wrong." ~ Kamala Harris in #107Days (read on #maddow)

When an authoritarian tries to overthrow an election, and you put him back in power anyway, he resumes his authoritarianism. When a quack peddles scientific idiocy during a pandemic, and you put him back in power anyway, he resumes his quackery. With full warning, Americans did this to themselves.

Nice pre-Rapture view from my balcony tonight 😉 🌈

Several years ago I said something like this to a friend: “The MAGA movement is against the Enlightenment itself”, meaning that MAGA seeks to take us away from reason and backward into superstition. Powerful evidence of that coming true today.

Blind squirrel finds a nut.

That’s the governor of a major state quoting a Rebel manifesto from a space opera television series on a streaming service owned by the same parent company that cancelled the late night host to celebrate the return of that same host. I fear the history of this era will be largely incomprehensible.

Oh sure. After the rapture.

Disney reverses course on Kimmel. Lessons: -Trump's anti-Constitutional stances, anti-1A in this case, are unpopular -Popular resistance via expression and spending choices can have an impact -Many corporate leaders are weak, amoral people who'll bow to threats unless they face countervailing ones

Our story: usa.streetsblog.org/2025/09/22/h...

"your project proposes to reprioritize the street layout to focus on walking, biking and transit, as opposed to the current auto-centric configuration" "several elements that impede vehicle capacity and speed" "counter to DOT's priority of focusing... on projects that promote vehicular travel"

"...the department seemed to be taking particular aim at programs that were designed to make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists in a period of elevated traffic injuries and deaths." *sigh* cc: @brenttoderian.bsky.social

Just a reminder before the “big announcement” today. Autism was discovered in 1911 and the modern definition of Autism came in 1943. Tylenol wasn’t widely used until the 1950s. Anyone trying to tell you that Tylenol causes Autism isn’t someone that should be taken seriously.

Free-market reformer needs a bailout.

File under things I’m doing instead of sleeping.

Reposting with a profanity alert. This @lastweektonight.com John Oliver monologue is worth the lengthy watch about "how bad it could get" - and for inspiration to fight back. "Make me!"

Not sure it's possible to find a more canonical example of this meme

From Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute: "This widespread sentiment is directly counter to the heavily trumpeted 'Dear Leader' tributes of just a handful of tech titans, who are decidedly not representative of the leadership class." These top CEOs need to speak directly before it's too late.

"Calls for morality fall upon deaf ears" hit me like a gut punch. It may be the saddest sentence I've read about our American decline.

Oxford historian: "...during seven weeks in the US this summer, I was shaken every day by the speed and executive brutality of President Trump’s assault on what had seemed settled norms of US democracy and by the desperate weakness of resistance to that assault." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

#WickedForGood hits theaters in 2️⃣ months! Are you excited? 💭

"The question isn’t: Is this one thing, or any number of things, going to fracture Trump and fracture his base? The question is: Is this one thing, or any combination of things, going to unite the majority of Americans who are dissatisfied with Trump?" Good read with gift link below. 🎁

Do YOU remember “the 21st night of September?” Earth Wind & Fire’s co-writer Allee Willis said she told the band: “We can’t leave ‘baa-dee-ya’ in the chorus. That has to mean something.’” Maurice White replied: “No, that feels great. That’s what people are going to remember. We’re leaving it.”

I assume Tylenol is prepared for this as they had to know it was coming. In public relations, their handling of the Tylenol poisoning murders is still studied as a textbook case in crisis communications, so from a professional standpoint, I’m very interested to see how they respond.

Trump Might Be Losing His Race Against Time - The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

All headlines just from today 🇺🇸

If our laws depend on Trump’s voluntary compliance — and Congress won’t lift a finger to defend the laws it has passed — then the president is unleashed. We are left to the whims of a man who cares about only himself, a man who is willing to discard any law or standard to satisfy his lust for power.

James Baldwin put it best: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” It begins with the courage to call fascism by its name.

Fantastic, sober, realistic thread. The James Baldwin quote deep in the thread is on point.

"You might sit alone at home with a needle and thread, but you learnt from somebody, and you’ll probably teach somebody else. Making things teaches you, above all, about the interconnectedness of it all. Which is, of course, the opposite of Brexit, and the current US administration." ❤️