Is this why they're pivoting back toward Greenland?

This also applies to crime. Every time actual comic-book supervillainy makes the news, the perps in question are either a) ludicrously petty (John Birges) b) deeply crazy (Luke Helder) c) a mixture of both (the pizza bombers) and d) almost always bombers

On the occasions you DO get a hypercompetent evil genius in government, it’s a rare figure indeed who doesn’t OD at least once on their own supply (*cough* Napoleon *coughcough* Stalin)

"A Miami Herald reporter witnessed the agents forcefully removing Dayana — who is 4-feet, 11-inches tall and weighs 85 pounds... The footage shows Dayana yelling at the reporter to help her and that she was a United States citizen." This was her third time being stopped in a month. #Pinks #Resist

I just made a map of Chicagoland indie bookstores to go along with the main Nerdy Chicago map. Check it out at books.nerdychicago.com

did you get clearance from Hegseth to say this before you tweeted it? after all you should really try harder to get comment from the administration

God bless labelers

The Tu-136 Zvezda rocketplane, a 50s concept for a small reusbale orbital shuttle carried by a Tu-135 supersonic bomber to high altitude for a Mach 3 drop. It would also have unmanned cargo versions of 10-20 tons, or simply deliver a warhead anywhere in the world.

"Kavanaugh Stop" went from a skeet on here to Bluesky meme to crosspollinating over on X to Brett Kavanaugh's burner account seeing it there to a whiny defensive footnote about it in a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. Juice.

NEW: A passenger who was contagious with measles passed through Denver International Airport’s B concourse on Dec. 12. The traveler, on an unspecified airline, arrived at gate B45 at about 7:24 p.m. and departed from gate B84 at about 9:41 p.m. that same night

Wrote this re SCOTUS’s inevitably siding against Trump on birthright citizenship, but it also applies to tariffs and National Guard

I foolishly thought that it becoming clear that Bari Weiss was being a corrupt ham-fisted idiot would stop everyone you would expect from rushing to her defense, but

In case you missed it, you can still check out my newest video on the Roman conquest of Ireland (which includes a special announcement regarding yours truly).

People who think evil, corrupt, and incompetent don’t go together have it backwards. Instead of looking to Hollywood to explain real world evil, look to Hannah Arendt. Uncorrupt people of integrity won’t do evil. And evil leaders work to elevate incompetents because that helps ensure their loyalty.

250,000 civilians were killed during the Philippine–American War.

The regime’s desire for authoritarian domination is infinite, but its capacity is not. Every act of resistance, every time anyone says no, makes them spend more of their limited resources. It bogs them down, tying up resources they’d use to hurt other people. Enough of that and the regime breaks.

Serious credit to Gov. Pritzker, Mayor Johnson, and a bunch of people in and around Chicago who stood up to illegal, unjust, un-American, rights-violating anti-immigrant (or sometimes just anti-brown-people) federal operations. If they weakly acquiesce like some others did, courts don’t take it up.

The thing about SCOTUS justices is that even the real fire-breathing ideologues aren't idiots. Kavanaugh knows that it might already be too late to avoid having "Kavanaugh Stop" become a permanent term in constitutional parlance, even if the decision is overturned. He's terrified for his legacy.

to write this hypothetical after Jan 6 is absurd.

Suppose - and this is very critical to Kavanaugh - that the imaginary mob is a left wing one not a right wing one. Because all the mobs storming US governments in my lifetime have been right wing.

I think the phrase "Kavanaugh Stop" has both reached and bothered the Justice

Abso-fucking-lutely, Election Day, I was at a volunteer desk when a man came up to my face saying “I’m voting for democracy that’s why I’m voting for Trump! What do you think about that!” told him to fuck off and then he goes “what!?! this is why people don’t like the democrats!” Some people man..

Been frustrated - as we all have - with this court, but this seems like a pretty remarkable ruling. I rather suspect the court does not rule this way without the collapsing approval numbers, without No Kings, without the Dems sweeping special elections.

I think one way to understand the Roberts Court is they don't think Trump will be around forever and absolutely don't want to risk giving a Democrat something they can use against the right in the future.

OK all this Epstein and Trump stuff sounds bad, but you have to remember the other option was a black woman with a weird laugh, so can you really get that upset with the voters?

Neat. Now instead of turning to drink in despair, I will turn to it in celebration.

That seems bad.

Faith in the US amongst its allies is collapsing. The majority in Canada & pluralities in Germany & France, see the US as a negative force in the world. This comes as the Trump administration has threatened to invade its allies Denmark & Canada & called for breaking up the EU.

Fictional villain: they used to laugh at me, but now I am all powerful! I will get even with those who tormented me! Real villain: I have more money than anyone could ever need, so I will amuse myself by tormenting trans people!

In case you missed it, you can still check out my newest video on the Roman conquest of Ireland (which includes a special announcement regarding yours truly).

Darkseid's not not hiding 100s of glowing Omega symbol trophies for Batman to find. When he's doing that then he'll be tougher for Batman than The Riddler. 😘

It also dissolves the argument " he can't fix Gotham". He's got a billion dollars and fights space gods. I'm pretty sure he could figure out UBI

Thinking about a "Villain's Journey" as I listened to The Daily's Epstein Origins episode. It seems a story of imitating bad people, learning you can get away with it the more brazen you are, perfecting your game, and reaping ridiculous rewards. He just adapted to an existing ecosystem.

The main difference between reality and fiction is that the latter must be interesting.

I want a joker story now where he doesn’t have a tragic backstory and that he was always just an objectively awful person and his “one bad day” is just an excuse to do evil.

I just like how real life can be dumber than fiction

Meanwhile Trump just signed the “Ban Bread” and “Make Circuses Illegal” executive orders.

I was thinking this the other day with a sense of encroaching depression: I have written fictional villains whose inner landscapes are magnitudes more complex and sympathetic than some of the world's richest people. Why, yes, I *am* equating billionaires with villainy. Well spotted.

NYT shows how Bari Weiss really screwed this up. She didn't attend any of the 5 screenings of the story, which began on Dec. 12. She only first weighed in on Thursday, and the show incorporated her suggestions. She then waited until weekend to ask for more edits. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/b...

The Atlantic had to get the "it was OK for Harlan Crow to have Nazi memorabilia" guy off the bench for this one

Stationforge (makers of some excellent 3d Printed 3rd party 40k minis) have done the "freeguard" which is basically WW2 Americans, and the russ proxy is just a sherman with laser cannons and sponsons. If I had any money I'd get it (I've reached my budget limit, taking donations of piles of shame)

Something tells me that in fiction over the next decade we're going to stop having complex villains that represent actual social issues, or villains that are Literally Just Your Parents™, and go back to the most one dimensional evil villains anyone has ever seen.

Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.

And she seems quite pleased with herself that for not even trying, she got a TA fired, and herself on TV. The OU administration says yes, her getting a good grade is the correct academic outcome, and has made it policy that any student complaint results in an automatic suspension of the professor

Half the DC and Marvel rogues galleries these days are a billionaire's twisted interpretation of left-wing activists.

a suicide note whose existence and content federal authorities appear to have concealed for years while conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death in their custody raged out of control

My hottest take is that Weiss fucked up the story less out of direct political motivation than out of the pattern of incompetent management everywhere: insisting on changes to something at the last minute in order to demonstrate your authority and make it seem as if you have something to contribute.

The CEO of Victoria's Secret being friends with Epstein seems too obvious. Our villains need more nuance.

lol i cannot express how unpopular this is going to be