Did the United States really spend trillions of dollars on winning the Cold War, only for its president in 2025 take orders from a Russian dictator? This is an earth-shattering humiliation for America of which its reputation may never recover.

Julie K. Brown is a reporter for the Miami Herald who did groundbreaking work on Epstein beginning in 2018, including groundbreaking work on the disgusting coverup by Alex Acosta. Her travel itinerary was released with some of the Epstein files. It appears the DOJ was monitoring her in 2019.

First attempt at orange chicken, Panda Express style. One goal for 2026 is to use my wok more.

Issa Rae has canceled her sold out performance at the Kennedy Center. Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens, Peter Wolf, Low Cut Connie, and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., have also canceled. Lin-Manuel Miranda has canceled the entire Kennedy Center run of Hamilton.

evangelicals might be the largest grifters to ever exist in human history lol

Yes, Biden and Garland should have done this, aggressively & fast. I just don’t know what anyone has seen since 2021 to make them believe this was going to work. SCOTUS ruled that Trump is a king. The only definitive solution was impeachment & a lifetime ban from office.

Tuna melt is the weirdest sandwich. Every element is gross on its face (canned fish mixed with mayonnaise, topped with cheese and then heated) and yet the final product is delightful.

mynbc15.com/news/nation-... His plan is to turn Gaza into a Trump Company Town. Any Palestinians that wish to remain home will basically have to become Trump's indentured servants.

👇👇

yes. because what MAGA extremists believe and advocate is fundamentally unamerican. not conservative. not even reactionary. unamerican. these are foreign ideas that failed at enormous human cost within living memory. these are not serious people. they are maladjusted wreckers. symptomatic.

It is not the morally worst thing he has done, but I think the Founders would have impeached Trump for even attempting to pardon Tina Peters. It is so fundamentally at odds with their understanding of the structure of the Union.

For the record, I am opting out of Mutual Aid Discourse, going to touch grass instead

The U.S. government just banned five people from entering the country because it doesn’t like their speech. This ban, according to the State Department, is necessary to protect free speech. If that sounds insane to you, congratulations on your reading comprehension.

Here’s yet another poll, this time out of the U of Chicago, showing that the majority of Americans oppose expanding fossil fuel production. Yet this is the policy recommended by @mattyglesias.bsky.social & @jessedjenkins.com due to its supposed political popularity? 🤔

Recession watch: theft of copper

In some ways, I can see Pluribus as a metaphor for Covid or whatever. But more fundamentally, it is about being an individual in a society that finds your individuality an impediment. It is about the agony and glory of being yourself.

I love the smell of panic in the evening. Smells like…victory

Like white supremacy, at its core Christian Nationalism is a panicked response to cultural irrelevance.

Fascinatingly, the tree is entirely hollow inside but still alive in this corkscrew shape

Dean Martin, born Dino Paul Crocetti, son of Italian immigrant Gaetano Crocetti Frank Sinatra, son of Italian immigrants Antonino Sinatra and Natalina Garavanta Merry Christmas to everyone except Stephen Miller and his enablers and handlers

What did Train Kids do before trains were invented?

Having watched Die Hard and Home Alone in sequence, I say forget about all that Christmas stuff, the real message of both movies is about the importance of wearing shoes

some good climate/energy news: * 96% of new US power capacity was carbon-free in 2024 (56 gigawatts!) * 2025 included the first month ever when 51% of power on the U.S. grid was carbon-free * The golbal trend is overwhelming: The world is now investing more $ in clean energy than fossil fuels

After struggling with it for several months, I have finished reading Dhalgren and would love for someone smarter than me to help me understand it

Watching Home Alone and contemplating the kind of sick person who would put red and green wallpaper in every room of their house

Youngest is 2 and doesn't really understand what Christmas is. Older kids are too old for Santa stuff. We are in kind of a weird place in terms of how much of a "thing" to make it but everyone seems happy so I guess it worked out.

SCOTUS could have limited immunity to non-corrupt official acts, but it chose the broader protection for Trump. So, taking a bribe in exchange for an official act cannot be criminally prosecuted. No American has ever received this form of immunity. The opinion is an abomination.

Sorry to have to be the one to tell y'all this, but ACAB includes John McClane

This must be what living in Iran is like for a lot of people.

Watching Die Hard and realizing that the problem with the world today is that everyone decided to put Ellis in charge of everything important

and on the question of a billionaire tax, you could get a real big one off lump sum but the point is to make being a billionaire illegal. allowing anyone to accumulate that much is a threat to national security

"If you don't fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition.” -James Mattis as Secretary of Defense testifying before Congress in 2017. Succeeding with soft power is greatly preferable—and a lot cheaper—than having to address something with hard power.

Not 100% sure, but I believe this is a raccoon that I found sleeping under a stream bank

"Like Amazon Prime, but with human beings."

“Like prime, but with human beings”

I just need to remind everyone that this evil dipshit is an alumnus of Duke University. #GoHeels

Big win for whistleblower attorney Mark Zaid Big loss for Trump Admin Here's the judge's ruling: ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

Leaf litter provides the same function as coral reefs

My city (Chapel Hill, NC) prides itself on being bicycle and pedestrian friendly. However, in the neighborhood where I live, there are hardly any sidewalks and the few fragments are disused and overgrown. This week I submitted a petition to the town council to get them to add usable sidewalks.

Officially off work until January 5

If incomes aren't a proxy for merit, a lot of other assumptions break down. Preserving those assumptions by treating the poor as deficient or abject is worth the price of less effective solutions

Courtrooms are locked, names are redacted from daily dockets, reporters are being expelled and having their phones searched. Government watchdogs are turned away at the door.

House Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia: "The new documents that Congress has forced the Department of Justice to release make one thing clear: we are witnessing a criminal White House cover-up."

The DOJ identified at least 10 co-conspirators who worked with Epstein and Maxwell. It’s obvious to anyone with two eyes that Epstein and Maxwell were engaged in organized crime, yet NO ONE ELSE involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring has faced criminal charges. Why?

Worth repeating this with every new Epstein document drop. The party of Denny Hastert is the party of Jim Jordan is the party of Matt Gaetz is the party of Donald Trump. Looking the other way and protecting child predators from the law is their brand.

The WSJ also has the clearest conceptual and even physical (in print) demarcation between its “things you need to know” and “things you want to hear” sections.

Instead we are treated to this horror show of the worst people ever being in charge of publicizing information they all have a vested interest in weaponizing for their own twisted ends. And not a single member our Congress is willing to pump the brakes and try to deliver some actual justice.

That was considered in the initial permit awarded, and was also a claim in the case Trump lost and didn’t appeal. There is no reason to believe this claim is in good faith.