if you abandon a principle the first time it under performs electorally, it was never a principle in the first place, it was just a pose.

There are no more constraints on a president’s ability to use military force, and this president is using all that power to target civilians. All Americans should be extremely alarmed. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

"It was not clear how these schools were selected or why." Pretty clear to me why Brown was chosen. It already bent a knee to Trump the first time he decided to extort the university. It's why I asked them to nullify my degree, bc I don't want any association with their new authoritarian project.

This troll knows nothing about education. The worst schools are in Republican run states. Personally I don't care what ppl think who wanted more children and teachers to die of Covid in 2020.

1/ My Jane Goodall story: I had heard speak when I was a kid; I don't remember if my parents took me up to meet her after the talk. A few years later I was 14 and we were visiting my uncle at his farm on Salisbury plain in Hampshire. One afternoon we were summoned into the sitting room for tea...

Hegseth defends soldiers who didn't want to get the COVID vaccine, which reminds me of this: www.reuters.com/article/worl...

Working on my dissertation in Athens, I'd sometimes run into a manipulative creep who never missed an opportunity to suck up to my thesis adviser. He always urged me to say hello for him as if I were his go-between. Worse, he'd brag at length abt how important he was & tell me to relay all of that.

"The cruelty is not incidental. It’s baked into the business model. Private detention centers are rewarded not for efficiency or fairness, but for how long they can hold bodies inside A phone call home is not a right, but a revenue stream. A delay in legal mail is not a mistake, but an opportunity"

This is such weird GWOT cosplay. What is normal about masked agents with long guns patrolling BY BOAT a major American city!? Authoritarianism amok.

This is an older clip, but if you listen closely, you can hear @smith.senate.gov say "Oh my goodness" in this one after Kennedy makes his accusations.

If the scriptwriter for a dystopian comedy set far in the future came back with this idea it would be rejected as too implausible.

I keep watching this lawless, vicious attack w/ pleasure. Notice the balaclava buffalo charging across the street who, when almost w/in reach of his victim, starts to slow up rather than risk his own safety. Reminds me of the pathetic bullies I fended off in my youth, all of them cowering in gangs.

If your strategy revolves around fouling your own nest, then you're a squirrel not a political strategist.

Me almost a decade ago www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

"Despite the university requiring students to undergo the training, the Trump administration still cut $790m in research funding."

Sunday morning film quiz: What NPR reporter earlier in life had appeared in a (pretty good) movie starring Burt Lancaster?

It's characteristic of dementia that ppl become incapable of evaluating what they see on a screen, and even conversations on the phone. The reactions to movies she had watched from a relative with dementia would often astound us - like treating animated movies characters as if they were actors.

Trump has finally unveiled his long-awaited healthcare plan. “Every American will soon receive their own MedBed card.” — DJT

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if all of Martha's Vineyard suddenly awoke and read Bloomberg News.

Some good work here: “The Norwegian owners of Oslo Carrier 3, one of the ships suspected of being involved in the Copenhagen Airport hybrid attack, have direct ties to Russian PMC RSB Group, which works closely with the FSB.”

Like the time my American classmate in Bologna was explaining to some of our Italian friends why our bread stays fresh longer than theirs. “Noi usiamo preservativi,” he said. Noi = we. Usiamo=use. So far, so good. Preservativi = condoms.

I'm re-upping an old post in light of deployment of troops w/ authorization for "full force" to Portland. Here's Hegseth talking about Portland in his 2024 book, where he elsewhere describes such cities as enemy territory. slowcivilwar.substack.com/p/the-pentag...

"And you're surprised?" will be the epitaph on their gravestone.

Release the Baby Lindbergh files!

Trump wants to nullify the part of the Constitution that explicitly guarantees your citizenship against would-be political agitators.

Relax it's going to turn out to be just a Police Call. Albeit a worldwide one. Nothing too irksome or time wasting.

"DON'T GIVE GUNS TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON." Pro-lifer: No that's communism you commie lib!

This is excellent advice. Among other things, it applies to how you finish any long term project *well*. Working in short spurts with regular breaks to socialize or walk outdoors supercharged and sustained years of complex analysis as I wrote my doctoral dissertation.

But it’s totally cool to constantly say that your opponents are baby-killers.

We’re sending $20 billion to prop up the Argentinian Elvis impersonator while shaking Americans down for their medications and ikea furniture.

There are times when you have to reach beyond English to find the mot juste: in this case, #Reichstagsbrandverordnung

Bathroom Vanities and Upholstered Furniture are national security issues in Trump's mind, but not the continued existence of NATO, the rise of fascism, or Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Very much agree. American farmers voted for Trump with eyes wide open, believing they would make out like bandits under his brand of incompetence, chaos and corruption. In particular they expected handouts from the damage he would inevitably cause to US agriculture. Farmers should not get handouts.

Based on what little we know about her 'involvement' in this cheating scandal, Ciattarelli is grasping for straws. Based on what I know about it, Ciattarelli is setting his straw alight & blowing smoke with it. I was at USNA while it played out. Academy leadership wanted this to be complicated. 🧵

some language that actually incited violence

"The Roman citizens who took the soldier's oath of obedience to me numbered about 500,000." The Achievements of the Divine Augustus

The exact same people who think government is the problem, not the solution, also think there will be a nice orderly process of ethnic cleansing, no bruises, or chases, or "mistakes." Idiots.

A truly sublime self-parody. Real dedication to the bit here. “well done, good and faithful servant” So spoke the sentimental farmer, tears welling in his eyes, as he walked the aged plowhorse up into the van.

The right has spent decades telling Americans that immigrants are murdering, marauding rapists coming to kill their families and destroy their communities. They encouraged and supported vigilante posses in border towns. They suggested letting Border Patrol shoot on sight. Their brand is violence.

Always has to be the biggest dick.

"Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative.” Bowing down to a bully never works. And we can’t become numb to this corruption in plain sight.

Claudia Cardinale made a series of memorable films in the early '60s. For me her most affecting performance was in The Girl with the Suitcase. The conflicted final scene reminds me strongly of the more famous conclusion of The Third Man.

Either my cactus was trying to warn me about something or it’s rooting for Kelce’s and Taylor’s team

Health and science reporters should lead the coverage of all these health-related conspiracy theories & newsroom leaders should keep their both-sides political reporters out of their way.

We can see why the framers of the Constitution thought it would be sheer madness to allow political parties to develop and threaten the integrity of Congress. The existence of the Republican Party is why Trump and Vance each have not been removed from office.

The United States' soft power? What soft power?

The few parts of Trump's speech to the UN that aren't lies are confessions.

The Monongahela Metal Roofing & Tar Paper Co. today released a scientific study linking asphalt shingles to autism. "Shingle experts don't agree of course. And they could be right, but why take a chance and use them at all when you don't have to?" said Bob Builder Jr., CEO of MMRTP.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, it is a hard thing to please all of the people all of the time."