Using the r-word is just bad. Democrats should have higher standards for themselves than Trump when it comes to using a slur that MANY disabled people find offensive. Looking at you, Graham Platner. New from me at @motherjones.com. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

It would be incredibly funny if Trump accidentally squished her entire future in the conservative griftocracy purely because he’s a clumsy oaf who rarely knows what he’s talking about, only that he likes to be on TV so he just says whatever.

Ugh, nobody listens to me 😭

"To me, a rape is—" let me stop you there

There’s some of this, but there are also limits to what someone CAN do about misconduct they’re hearing about second- or third-hand if the person directly affected doesn’t wish to come forward, beyond making clear they’ll be supported if they choose to.

John Stoehr at the @editorialboard.bsky.social was kind enough to give me some space to talk about Israel, antisemitism, and how we can try and address both of these topics as liberals and Americans moving forward. Part two of this conversation coming tomorrow!

More please.

“Shortly after posting a screed against Pope Leo XIV, Trump shared an AI-generated image in the style of a painting, depicting him in a long white robe. In one hand was an orb glowing with light; Trump’s other hand rested on the forehead of a man.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

- www.reuters.com/world/iran-w...

I've finished "The Infernal Triangle: How America Got this Way." Farewell to the 5-book project that consumed some 30 years, over half my life! For the nonce, writing deadline-free on this Substack. First 50 subs get signed books or personal Zoom greetings. PAY ME!!! rickperlstein.substack.com

Trump is managing by comparison to the US to make Iran seem like a reasonable country who can play the honest broker throughout the world and it is a disgrace.

Hi new followers I have a podcast @americanmedieval.bsky.social and we are weirdly relevant nowadays AmericanMedieval.com

This was over the sketch / poem for Epstein's birthday that Trump claim didn't exist. I'd imagine one issue with the lawsuit is that the sketch definitely exists:

The letter “warns that merging two of Hollywood’s major studios will result in ‘fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world.’” #$PSKY www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/b...

This is why he’s so weak. He is “tough” with friends — yes Democrats are actually friends in a global context — but helpless against a determined enemy like Iran. All he can do is perform dominance and once that fails, he has nothing left. Weak.

Once again, the Times uses a “Trump says with great force” formula for the hed and highlights the supposed intensity of how he says it in the subhed—using their tried-and-true Trumpian catchphrase, ”lashed out,” which, I noted the other day, they’ve used more than 60 times in headlines.

Has any president put himself on the other side of the pope?

“I will not shy away from announcing the message of the Gospel and inviting all people to look for ways of building bridges of peace and reconciliation, and looking for ways to avoid war any time that’s possible.” apnews.com/article/trum...

“All of Trump’s weaknesses as a negotiator are now on display: His refusal to comprehend the substance, his childish understanding of the nature of power, his inability to grasp the perspective of his opponents, and his belief that anything can be accomplished with sufficient threats and violence.”

If I'm Dems, I'm already spending 5+ million on organizing Black voters in Mississippi to try to get Presidential-year or more turnout. White voters will do what they're gonna do, but if we can push the Black share of the vote into the low 40s....

this is what the bottom falling out would look like

Vance has never “opposed” the war an Iran! He has publicly supported it from the beginning and every step along the way. The idea that he privately opposed it and that should be considered his official position is absolute garbage.

People who lived their lives enjoying the gifts of the American republican government under the great U.S. Constitution, yet became enthralled by Orban's authoritarian government, should feel profound regret and rethink some things.

Magyar: “No mercy, they will need to take responsibility for all their actions.”

He’s announced that Hungary will join the European Prosecution Office so anyone in the country can be charged.

Magyar’s speech is powered. From a contact in the audience: “He’s basically just asked all the puppets, all the supreme justices, all the heads of media, all the heads of the ministries to leave their jobs tomorrow and not wait to be fired.”

“racial entropy” is a concept which hinges on the idea that Black people in general have dysfunctional and dysgenic DNA.

Higher gas prices could extend into next year, says Trump administration energy agency ohiocapitaljournal.com/briefs/highe...

So, let’s game this out. A Chinese flagged tanker pays the toll and transits the strait. We interdict it? What if the tanker is escorted by a Chinese warship?

Don’t miss this part: Trump is threatening to interdict EVERY VESSEL in international waters who paid a toll to pass through the Strait of Hormuz—which would include CHINESE ships.

Not that I expect him to know this, but a blockade is an act of war

Sunday reading - I wrote about the coherence fallacy: The MAGA regime will continue to escalate because they are ideologically, temperamentally, and psycho-politically incapable of anything else. But there is no strategic genius at work here.

Making tenure count, for MSNOW I wrote about my employer, The University of Iowa, creating a center for intellectual freedom. It's a reactionary project built on decades of conservative propaganda about higher ed.

one reason you dont elect racists is they think “it will be so easy” to win a war in the middle east based on nothing more than what they believe is their superior dna

Quite literally the only reason to tell people this is to convince them to commit crimes

This is not winning. apnews.com/article/iran...

“We win, regardless.”

This is what i mean when i say “you are running a valueless proposition”

📣 NEW: Final 2026 #ACA Open Enrollment Report: Household income 200 - 400% FPL Short version: Several hundred thousand middle-income Americans have been forced into taking a perfectly legal but risky gamble this year... charlesgaba.substack.com/p/final-2026...

Liberals usually avoid moral judgments. We are supposed believe in the inherent goodness of the American people. We are supposed to believe that if voters had good choices, they would make the right one. That’s all propaganda. Alan is there with real talk.

When I say this, what I’m trying to get at is that breakdown in democratic society is about a lot more than voting. I don’t think any of us can escape some responsibility for a country where 50% say they feel isolated and 74% say they barely know their neighbors.

It’s been a dark week. Our president is mentally and morally deranged. But the truth is we put him there. In this moment, Americans need to face hard truths. And that’s what Jimmy Carter tried to offer back in 1979. Maybe this time, we’ll listen. My latest: www.liberalcurrents.com/after-a-dark...

I’m reminded that America is a big place. In fact, it’s not one country. It’s a federation in which freedom and oppression exist in varying degrees across the spectrum.

CBS News has a bombshell interview with a U.S. soldier who survived the deadly attack in Kuwait on the first day of the way -- he says Pete Hegseth is lying about the attack and that the base "was unprepared to provide any defense for itself." www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-wa...

When it comes to “leftists” like Hasan Piker, and there are many online, we are not talking about people involved in competing factions across the spectrum of American left-liberalism.

Fetterman’s approval isn’t in the toilet because of the animosity of his supporters toward Trump. It’s in the toilet because he didn’t mean what he said. He sold himself as a man of principle who refused to engage in bad faith. He broke his promise, resulting in lost faith.

Happy Surrender and Freedom Day! On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac. home.nps.gov/apco/planyou...

Again, the impression is that Iran is the honest good faith dealmaker while Trump and Netanyahu are not. I don’t know much about international relations but that’s gotta to be a BFD.