Davidson pioneering degrees of blitheness never thought possible. And the thing with him is that it's a genuinely Shakespearean level of conflict. Almost no one in history has been asked, "How much to make your dad's murderers chuckle?" And imagine responding unironically, "I'm glad you asked!"

I continue to think that one of the reasons this country is falling apart is the wholesale abandonment of public virtue as a broadly shared aspiration. Or even something people should be embarrassed about if they don’t have it.

like, the fact that they felt this spectacle was necessary is itself evidence that they don't have the military support that they want

the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!

HEGSETH: *points to general's ribbon bars* "What'd you get that one for? Fucking your mother?" GENERAL: *sternly* killing vietnamese children

This, for a thousand years, is the only correct take.

The reason anyone, Chris included, wants such an assessment so badly is because they looking for grounding for their state of denial, their need to say "we aren't this bad". My recommendation is to use moments like this to entertain the thought that, actually, we are this bad. And usually worse.

The way we all feel watching this is the way we all should feel, all the time.

The endgame for all of this is constructing a military that will obey orders when ordered to fire on citizens. That's the throughline to half of what Trump is doing.

This because (I think) a solid core of the Trumpists are fundamentally seeking after dominion, not trying to address concrete grievances wherein achieving some portion of them hives off segments of the movement. The thrill of experiencing submission simply feeds the high, leads to yearning for more.

NEW: Rachel Maddow drops unseen bodycam footage of feds coordinating the arrest of Newark Mayor Baraka. I REPEAT: the feds ordered his arrest even though he wasn’t breaking any laws. Federal agent: “We are arresting the mayor right now per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”

Okay, the "Polish Rashomon" joke that Ed Crasnick tells in Livia's retirement home one of the funniest things I have ever heard. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHuF...

I think the Trump admin assumed no one would try to find out who the people on the boats they blew up really were

David Cross folks.

If you know someone who has money and really loves the First Amendment you can help us ensure this ruling sticks: https://timburkelegalfund.org/

I listened and heard someone (Klein) in mourning. The dream is to be able to do your thoughtful ASMR politics pod and exist in a sort of frictionless world where the disagreements you have with your opponents are mostly trivial. That’s never been possible for Coates and it shows in his perspective.

He’s an apparent criminal who sold out the city in a rancid deal with the Trump DOJ that was so corrupt the only way out was to dismiss the charges against him.

This is the sort of thing centrist, trust-the-party-leaderships-types, really do have to answer for. BUT FOR Trump's intervention, Eric Adams would've been indicted for numerous crimes *specifically* against the city he serves and for abusing the power its voters entrusted to him.

CDC wastewater reports: Sep 14, 2025 - Sep 20, 2025 🔥 CT, DE, NV, UT 🔴 AL, AR, CA, IN, LA, MA, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, OR, RI, SD, WA 🟠 AZ, HI, IL, IA, KY, ME, NH, OH, SC, TX, VA, WI, WY 🟡 AK, CO, DC, FL, GA, ID, KS, MD, MS, NJ, NM, OK, PA, TN, VT, WV 🟢 GU, MI, MO ❔ ND, VI

Sickening behavior by this agent. The fact that Mayor Adams has rolled out the red carpet for ICE is a stain on our city.

vance really does stand out for his absolute contempt for anything that looks like forbearance and generosity. his immediate instinct is always to demagogue and issue calumnies against his fellow americans.

Iono it feels like Chotiner is kryptonite for a very particular type of person and it’s to our collective shame many of those people exist in a sphere of power and influence.

In any event, I wish both Countries well.

Catholic levels of shame are probably bad, but we're living in an era when people absolutely should feel some public shame for doing bad shit and just *don't*

What are the names of the U.S. Navy officers carrying out these orders to serially bomb civilian boats that pose no threat to their own vessels, killing everyone aboard? Surely they’ll want to take personal credit for this honorable service and perhaps wear a little campaign medal on their chest.

In reality, despite the manner of his death, Kirk was a hate monger, an absolutely vicious misogynist, and a conspirator against American democracy. Let’s not sell tickets to his “spiritual journey.”

every journalist knows they are packaging the entire Charlie Kirk story dishonestly, and they all think it is incredibly rude to point that out

trump pulling a hardboiled egg out of charlie kirks corpse on stage and shows it to the audience as they scream. he is asking them if he should take a bite of it and they are cheering

This guy just walked around the Charlie Kirk vigil in Boston, yelling Kirk quotes through a bullhorn

"Selling Out Is Bad" is a valuable concept and despite all the baggage and bullshit and elitism it could contain it's actually really good to reinforce the ideal that having integrity when it matters, especially when it hurts, is what good/cool people do. Should be adapted instead of jettisoned.

a few thoughts (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...

Hakeem Jeffries supporting Charlie Kirk before endorsing Zohran Mamdani is really fucking nasty.

something something political violence

Everything wrong with the Democratic Party in a nutshell. 95 House Democrats (including Jeffries!) just voted to honor the life & legacy of Charlie Kirk. Only 58 voted no. 38 voted present. clerk.house.gov/evs/2025/rol...

I want Patrick Deneen to lick this thing

A grim reminder: these people will never be satisfied. There’s no point at which they will say “we’ve won, let’s enjoy life.” They will always be looking for someone else to punish, to revile, to dehumanize. They’re empty without that.

We’d be in a much stronger position right now if mainstream Democrats had taken a common sense stand for First Amendment principles instead of piling on undergraduate standing up for Palestine.

that’s one option. an alternative currently being pursued by the incumbent administration is killing and deporting as many of its opponents as possible, and violently intimidating the rest into silence

what ezra doesn't seem willing to accept is that charlie kirk was part of a political movement that does not think that "we are going to have to live here with each other" and is fact very interested in the elimination and/or subjugation of many, many people

What Charlie Kirk, et al, are up to is sophistry plain and simple. The comparisons to Socrates are particularly galling in this respect. And worse, Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias—a philosophy major at Harvard, as he’s wont to mention—should know the difference.

Some news: yesterday was my last at Rolling Stone. For now, I'm going solo, doing all my TV reviewing, recapping, etc., at my newsletter. I hope you'll consider subscribing. Many more details here:

A mainstream outlet finally does more than repeat the official BS statement from ICE about the shooting of Silvero Villegas-Gonzalez. This man's death should be a national scandal. Grateful for indy journalists who questioned the official narrative that corporate outlets mindlessly echoed last week.

so are democrats really just going to remain silent as republicans target half of the country for retribution over a crime they didnt commit? im being serious, when do democrats call out this bloodthirsty rampage for what it is

True, and it gets worse. That propaganda has all but buried his actual legacy in the annals of searchable media. It takes serious effort and know-how to use Google, YouTube, TikTok, etc. to find meaningful content about him that’s older than 5 days or so and many unsavory sources have been deleted.