The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.

Where are our "opposition leaders"? Here's how you can tell we don't have any. Let's do a thought exercise: if Trump decided to throw the main opposition leader out a window, Putin- style, who would it be? The fact that I can't come up with anyone is a sign there are no obvious leaders...

So we Americans can't directly recall a president, can't force new early elections, and can't immediately replace the representatives/senators that can remove him. So what do we do now? And where are our opposition leaders - not the politicians, that ones who will lead us to action of some kind?

This country desperately needs an opposition leader...and we do not have one.

Don't you think that if a Democrat - any Democrat - came out and proclaimed, "Here's how we'll fix all the toothless laws that Trump has broken, and here's how we're going to dismantle ICE and prosecute all of them - plus all of corrupt Trump lackeys", they'd be the 2028 frontrunner in seconds? 1/2

I’ve been writing Popular Information for 8 years, and this is one of the most important stories I’ve ever published. This is a humanitarian crisis that has gone unreported.

I genuinely think one thing that trips up folks on the left is that they can't imagine not sharing certain core values. Lemme explain. Here's an intuition pump: Say you're in negotiations with counterparty X. And there are two possible deals on the table ...

NEW with Cheri Jacobus AN OPEN LETTER TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes: Democrats Need a Daily Truth Briefing Plz share! thecycle.substack.com/p/a-lie-can-...

Holy F*ck. From the WSJ poll, 28% of the country doesn't think what's going on is racist and/or violent enough:

Someone needs a cape.

So, @kenwhite.bsky.social, what are the odds this administration & its' incompetent lapdog DOJ steps on its own dick trying to prosecute Maduro? I say they screw up & fail to convict, or it gets overturned on appeal, or they accidentally expose some secret sources or methods - or all of the above.

Anyone else totally sick of The Grinch at this point?...

You know how they have laws named after people, like "Megan's Law"? We need a new law that taxes the crap out of billionaires and especially trillionaires - and we can call it "Elon's Law". Nobody needs a trillion dollars...

It'd be a shame if this idea went viral....

Thinking about the billionaires and their doomsday bunkers: At work, they tell us they need to "burn the boats like Cortez" so there's no choice but to succeed. But at home they're building bunkers because they aren't committed to making society succeed if that means giving up some of their money...

This is interesting - because after almost 40 years as a professional software engineer, yesterday I used AI "vibe coding" for the first time. Frankly I was surprised how quickly it created some mostly reasonable code, and it got the boss off my case by getting the work done quickly. But... 1/x

I think Stephen Colbert or Seth Meyers should book Jimmy Kimmel as a guest ASAP...

My (not necessarily rational) fear is that The Felon knows some really bad 💩 is about to go down and he wants tons of National Guard in town to protect him. Please, please tell me I'm wrong.

Unreal. What the fuck does Pumpkin Tits have on Grassley that could possibly matter? He'll be dead soon. What does he have to lose?

She still exists? I hadn't heard from/of her in so long I'd totally forget she was there.

I doubt anyone will see me post, but this needs to be known... if you have a visible following please repost 💙🔥💙 Admitting he wants "his people... aka US " to behave like north Korea for Kim Jong Un.🤬

Is it just me, or does the Cars area in WDW's Magic Kingdom that they're going to rip The Rivers of America for seem like a knock-off of Knott's Camp Snoopy? @21royalstreet.com

The problem with America today, in one screen grab from my phone's Google News feed. Fox News are literally being fed a totally different reality:

MAGA 5 years ago: "Jill Biden isn't a real doctor; she's just a teacher!!" MAGA now: "Why couldn't Dr. Jill Biden detect Joe's cancer sooner?" 🙄

Remember when we used to think that laws and the Constitution and due process was what made America strong and great? The Felon and his administration now think those laws and courts and due process - and ultimately the Constitution - make us weak, and only by ignoring all that can we be strong...

I know people who voted for The Felon who said "He just likes to talk, he's not going to do any of that stuff." It just occurred to me not only is The Felon doing everything that he promised during the campaign, he is doing it in the stupidest way possible: DOGE, the idiotic tariff formula, etc.

In tech, when we want to replace a mission-critical system (for example, like the build system that puts out software releases or a new customer DB system) we typically stand up the new one in parallel with the old one and monitor it for a while before switching it over. My point is... 1/2

Why the f*** is Bluesky showing ancient Nancy cartoons?

Isn't there a law against doing this? Oh, yeah, "The Party of Law and Order" doesn't enforce the law on its own people...

I know we have talked about how the MAGA voters want the gov't to hurt the people "who deserve it" and we've defended why those are people who don't really deserve it. But what I find striking is that the MAGAs want a gov't that hurts certain people, not one that helps *all* people. Why??

Dude says we have to take care of our law enforcement FUCK YOU!!! YOU ASSHOLE YOU PARDONED OUR ATTACKERS

Who would have figured that 2 months into his term, the U.S. President would be waging economic war against Canada and Mexico, and making deals with and removing sanctions on Russia?

Ruminating on Thomas Piketty and wealth inequality, it occurred to me there's a simple way to understand it: 1/3

Yesterday may be a turning point against the Trump: the last straw was how they way overplayed their hand against Zelensky - and it was Trump & Vance directly so they can't blame DOGE or Musk or anyone else for it. "Shock & Awe" was supposed make everyone cower & give up, but we're fighting back!

The Washington Post refused to run this ad. Sure would be a shame if it went viral.

When people said we should run the government like a business, I'm pretty sure they didn't mean run it like Twitter...

So ... how horrible a person must Matt Gaetz be if Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. can get confirmed and he can't?

Folks: I am NOT affiliated with the group that is using my name to support an economic boycott. Please spread this post, if you would.

The Chiefs can still win if Mike Pence has the courage...

Well, I'll admit that I was wrong: I was sure that the R congress was going to impeach Biden at some point just because they could (and because they're still pissed off we impeached the Felon-in-Chief). But amazingly they didn't...

The Felon-in-Chief wouldn't know how to get the trains to run on time even if he tried. Instead, he'd write an Executive Order saying the trains are now on time, and pretend it's done. Oh, and then have his press secretary, lie and berate any reporter who questions it...

With Greenland, you notice that The World's Greatest Dealmaker™️'s only moves are military and tariff threats? Because he's a bully and he only knows how to bully and harass. I wouldn't be surprised if his next move is to threaten to sue Denmark if he doesn't get his way...

Why do I feel like I'm going to wear out the "eyes roll emoji" part of my phone screen over the next 4 years...

Seems like calling Elmo "President Musk" irks the Felon-in-Chief. That's okay, because I think Donnie should go irk himself...

Holiday hotel update: Morning 1: No shampoo. Called desk. Morning 2: Shampoo filled, but run out of TP (no extra roll!) and shower body gel. Call desk, get TP. Morning 3: Still no body gel. And no clean towels and wastebaskets still not emptied. So is there any housekeeping service at all?

As horrible as the Felon-in-Chief's cabinet picks are so far, there might be a silver lining: he randomly picked people who support him - but they all have very different agendas. So I suspect they'll spend their time fighting each other, and do less damage to the country than they might otherwise.

After reading Cory Doctorow's latest Pluralistic piece (pluralistic.net/2024/11/21/p...), I am wondering why the unlikely "They're coming for your guns!" became political rallying cry but "They're coming for your clean water, clean food and safe airplanes!" hasn't...yet.

This site definitely needs the Bookmark feature! Who's with me?