This should rank as one of the most serious corruption scandals in history- the White House sharing top secret military information with oil company executives but not with Congress, creating massive opportunities for insider trading and other corrupt deals.

THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS MEANS! We are being governed by people stuck in the distant past, without a clue about today's reality or tomorrow's probabilities.

This video, viewed millions of times on TikTok, Facebook and X, claims to show Venezuelans taking to the street to thank the US for detaining Maduro. But the video is a combination of four AI-generated clips and was first posted on TikTok by a user who frequently shares AI videos. It's not real.

June 5, 2025: Trump is in the Epstein files! Jan. 4, 2026: It was great having dinner with that guy from the Epstein files!

Share of spending by consumers in top 10% of income distribution... all-time high Cembalest, JPMAM

“Children were present at all sites except for one — that site, was not yet open for families for the day when inspectors arrived.” www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

“The only thing the elite Washington press corps likes more than a bipartisan commission on debt reduction is a stack of flag-draped coffins.” web.archive.org/web/20200103...

Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, and Spain have issued a joint statement about the US's military intervention in Venezuela. elpais.com/america/2026...

There's been various attempts to force this stuff into a coherent theory of "Trumpism" as a philosophy of government, but far more cleanly it fits into a theory of wholesale rejection of expertise, and an ongoing collapse of governance.

the news story that associated zohran mamdani with nicolas maduro because they both identify as socialists appears to have been edited to be slightly less insane www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/w...

The War Powers Resolution as Congress designed it requires withdrawal if both houses pass a concurrent resolution. SCOTUS gutted that with Chadha, so now it's subject to an inevitable veto. Instead of affirmative approval, presidents in effect only need at least one third in at least one house.

ugh I'm reminded that the origins of the clothing company are even more bizarre and problematic than most people remember "Banana Republic Travel & Safari Clothing Company" www.seamwork.com/craft-projec...

This is SO revealing about the "access journalism" media thinks. And it's not good - at all. bluevirginia.us/2026/01/sund... h/t @larryglickman.bsky.social

Damn it Qatar I was enjoying this one not being about the Middle East

"there is a risk that the army splits. Some factions may back Ms Rodríguez; others may want power for themselves or Mr Padrino; a few, perhaps joining with dissident soldiers who have already fled... could push for Ms Machado’s return." www.economist.com/the-americas...

I didn't even consider this part, that they weren't just silent but actively misleading their own readers

Compare this to Biden leaving Afghanistan & think about what the incentives are for every American politician

So we conducted a highly sophisticated snatch-and-grab of their head of state, with the express intent of just leaving the rest of the actual regime, still in charge, perhaps even more consolidated now that the US has firmed up their image as the regional bad guy?

I bet he switches to the GOP this year.

Chairman JCOS: “Months of planning…” soooo not an imminent threat justifying self-defense

Small consolation right now, but really nice to have a representative who's not a useless squib.

yes bsky.app/profile/10-5...

OK, crash course in oil. Oil has two main gradings, viscosity (light or heavy) and sulfur (sweet or sour). A light (low viscosity) and sweet (low sulfur) oil is easier to process into gasoline and other products than a heavy and sour one, so the light & sweet oil commands a premium price.

I distinctly remember in the first Trump years when people would be like “no, you can’t call them fascist”

every person in the administration -- Miller and Rubio especially -- just speedrunning their agenda while the President picks out ballroom chandeliers.

Will Stancil deleted his dumb post about this, but obviously this isn't a call to "get rid of" the constitution, it's an acknowledgment that it's just a piece of paper that is only as real as the compact it represents among all the people who live under it, which is clearly in great decline

The toppling of Saddam's statue was deliberately orchestrated by a psychological operations group. In a document it said "our TPT (tactical psyop team) saw the statue of Saddam as a target of opportunity and decided that the statue must come down. 1/2 www.latimes.com/archives/la-...

I regularly point out Trump’s total inability to think even one move down the game tree but somehow this is still shocking.

Does seem like Chile's election of Kast could reverberate in complicated ways.

this isn’t a bad editorial board piece but—no they are not. Law is often quite bad and never coextensive with political morality. You shouldn’t turn your moral sense off because someone found a plausibly relevant OLC opinion. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/o...

Everything doesn't need to be a distraction, this is a foreign policy act, in its essence.

Meanwhile, as IR research since Iraq shows, regime change unleashes unpredictable forces with terrible consequences. What will this mean for the region, for migration, for Chinese interests in Latin America, and how mad is Xi? 5/ bsky.app/profile/did:...

Evergreen tweet

all this probably feels like a thought exercise to much of the US pundit class, but the rest of the world is taking this shit dead serious

Needless to say, Congress did not authorize the US military intervention in Venezuela.

I do love how well our political system functions in the modern world.

Incredible to wake up to the news that the government can prosecute presidents AND enforce gun laws? What a new year.

Pam Bondi fires DOJ ethics lawyer for insisting on adherence to DOJ ethics rules. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

It's not even like Rubio being a Venezuela hawk is some new development. It's been one of his signature obsessions for many years. Every Democratic senator who voted to confirm him, which is all of them, has no excuse to now pretend it's a surprise.

this is basically what makes me concerned about a Yoon moment after the 2026 midterms with a D victory. when the lines haven't been drawn for other things, what sort of muscle exists to prevent an executive self-coup?

Below table is from UBS wealth report. Thoughts?

The One Big Beautiful Bill ratchets up work requirements for Medicaid. In the process it will force states to pay millions more to Equifax to verify that residents qualify for the program. Wild story by @sangerkatz.bsky.social @asmaaelk.bsky.social and Sarah Kliff www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/h...

I think people did not want to believe the obvious truth: that January 6th was an attempted coup that was abetted by the highest levels of the Republican Party. It would’ve meant arresting, trying, and possibly imprisoning many of America’s most powerful politicians.

Chicago’s Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability is holding a special meeting next Thursday, January 8. This is in response to a 2000+ signature petition asking CCPSA to hold a public hearing to “understand the extent of CPD's interactions with federal immigration authorities.”

Because I am older than one year old, I remember when Republicans did the exact same thing to Haitians in Ohio. When your voters and the dumbest and most despicable people in America, this is how you keep them entertained.

I know I’ve said this many times before, but it’s my contention that buses have benefited *far* more from the advent of digital rider tools than trains have.

This Upton Sinclair quote never misses “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

Typical @theatlantic.com writer moment.

Another way that the USA is a global backwater in transportation. After bicycles, elevators are the most energy- and space-efficient form of transport on earth; when you use them you gain all kinds of second-order public health and environmental benefits. So naturally, we mostly ban them.