It’s not about making a coherent theological argument it’s about building a coherent ideological argument that American violence, as wielded by the Trump administration, is sacred. If violence is sacred, holy it also cannot be questioned. To do so is heretical, sacrilegious.

Truly excellent

It's hard to overstate how impossible this demand is from Purdue's administration to implement these AI requirements by next fall. We are nowhere close to understanding what AI proficiency means or what it looks like in education. www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

Inspired by an exchange here yesterday, I wrote up a short piece at CAMPAIGN TRAILS about an infamous Lee Atwater quotation that just about everyone gets wrong.

so much of the conservative legal revolution seems to outright reject the idea that democratic publics legitimately constituted can fix the meaning of the constitution without formal amendment.

the birthright clause was not just written to wipe dred scott off of the books, it was written to repudiate the *idea* behind dred scott, you might say the larger *ideological project* of dred scott. and the whole of section 1 of the 14th amendment is a constitutional statement of political equality

The desperate hands of the global south seek to take back an overheated world. Seriously, what's next? The McHamburglar trophy in gourmet cooking? The Pol Pot Human Rights medal? The Jeffrey Epstein childcare grant? The Vladimir Putin democracy fellowship? The Weinstein-Cosby feminism prize?

Troops are on the Ground in Venezuela. This is not going to end well. Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/malcolmn...

“Every day, professional cultural commentary seems closer and closer to marketing copy, as we slouch deeper and deeper into an era defined by our collective decision that life is too hard and we all should just slip into a warm bath of low standards and perpetual excuses.”

The incident mirrors similar drone incursions in Europe in recent months which led to the closure of airports in Brussels and Denmark and caused significant security tensions.

When you have a pocket pardon you can do anything you want.

There are specific reasons Trumpists want war on Venezuela, but there‘s a generic one: they crave power to make war on anyone, any time, for completely fabricated reasons, and then to use the guise of war to increase violence and repression everywhere, including home. They are lawless bestial scum.

What’s fun is this is the sort of thing that historically is only discovered decades later, via deathbed confessions, etc.

Amen

“That rot appears in journalists in different forms: debasing themselves at the feet of power because it’s rewarded; allowing themselves to be debased by the powerful to maintain status and access; and identifying more with their powerful subjects than regular people“

At the same time the NY Times was hyping Hillary Clinton's emails, it had a reporter with emails from Jeffrey Epstein that were highly damaging to Trump. The more NYT apologists try to minimize this the clearer it becomes that they don't understand why much of the public doesn't trust legacy media.

"FBI Warns Of Tomatoes Posing As Tomahtoes"

More people voted in New York City’s election this year than they have in 50 years. That’s a win for democracy, and a testament to @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social's inspiring campaign. Congratulations to the next mayor of the greatest city in the world. 🗽

In any case, his slight tax increase on rich people, free buses, and city-run grocery stores are pretty far from a communist revolution. But that’s not how it appears to rich people, surrounded on all sides by yes-men and toadies, who spend several hours a day marinating in an online Nazi sewer.

“The regime likes what’s happening to us, and the opposition party isn’t an opposition party at all. We are tradespeople in a dying trade, fighting the Fat Cat media execs and each other for scraps while still trying to do this job…”

Remember when Paul Krugman’s columns were soooo wonky. “It sounds crazy to say that Republicans are making children go hungry to protect pedophiles, but it’s actually a reasonable interpretation of the situation.” - Paul Krugman

Even better than Canada's ad, put out by Ontario's center-right leader, Doug Ford: Reagan's full speech on trade and tariffs. The savior of conservative politics was 100% against the tariff wars that are the centerpiece of Trump's second term and that threaten to take down our entire economy.

Timothy Mellon, a doofus of long standing, is the quintessential argument for sensible estate taxes. He's never worked an honest day in his life and shouldn't have this kind of money to throw around.

BREAKING. . . Iran forced to cancel plans to blow up East Wing

Jesus

"Who was president" part 7361872 www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

The right to protest is covered under the 1st and 14th amendments. Republicans are spreading lies about the No Kings protests because they want to scare you into silence and get you to support their attacks on your rights, our Constitution, and our communities. Don’t be silent.

white house has joined bluesky click here to block all official us government accounts instantly bsky.app/profile/did:...

You gotta just block these accounts without interacting. They're doing this the night before No Kings so they can selectively grab quote posts and replies about how nasty people are being. It's extremely transparent. Just block and move on.

“a media conglomerate as a surveillance agency… which will likely persist, after the near-term political turmoil, whether as a parallel media infrastructure serving the jilted broligarchy or as the paragovernmental arm of a post-democratic dynasty.”

Vought is at war with large swaths of the population, with the very idea of a society defined by democratic pluralism. If you have correctly identified that this guy is now in a really powerful position, that people like him are in control of the government, how is that not the main story?

🧵

🇪🇪 #Estonia has temporarily closed the Saatse border crossing due to heightened Russian military activity in the area, the Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported on Oct. 10. kyivindependent.com/estonia-clos... #Russia

How this isn't a bigger story or at least a part of the story of this curiously violent "peace" deal is a really shameful display by the msm. This is a media colleague..... doing the work they refuse or are scared to do. Not exactly a crew of @washingtonpost.com reporters on the flotilla.

There are problems with your Constitution, but I don't think this is one of them. This is more a "the Constitution is a piece of paper and needs people, who believe that it has meaning, to enforce it" issue. It doesn't matter how well the enforcement mechanisms are spelled out, if they're ignored.

Is it bad if the president inhabits a realm of pure fiction

🧵

for every year of peace there have been four hundred years of war.

Seriously

“What I’ve observed are traces of deep fear. Fear of death, fear of terrorism.” It all comes down to a lack of trust and a craving for security… There are so many cases where he expresses fears and concerns and a need for protection. And if your main thing is seeking protection, you play with fire.”

the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!

“The “imperial boomerang” is the concept that all of the methods of oppression that a mighty nation visits upon its far-flung imperial subjects will one day be turned back upon its own population. And here we are.”

Good propaganda and good economic stewardship are both important, but neither is going to rescue liberal democracy on its own. We need to figure out how to rebuild mass politics and IRL civic life.

Russia

Disney paid $16 million to Trump to settle a bogus lawsuit involving George Stephanopoulos. Disney fired Terry Moran for calling Stephen Miller a “world-class hater.” Disney suspended Jimmy Kimmel. That Disney has walked back one of those after immense public pressure doesn't change who they are.

The Roberts court has failed. The United States is less democratic, less self-governing, more dysfunctional, and more corrupt than it was 20 years ago, thanks in large part to the Supreme Court’s rulings. Many of its most important decisions—

Toxicology principle that needs to be mainstream: The dose makes the poison. That’s true of everything. Water. Oxygen. Vitamin A. Vitamin D. Aspartame. Formaldehyde. A single pear contains 120 times MORE formaldehyde than what might be in a vaccine. 1/