This is called “strategic defeat.” You have ended up in a worse position than before you began, with your adversary, while battered, emerging in a stronger position than before.

I mean there it is.

One of the things that comes through in this excellent profile of CBS's Tony Dokoupil is the extent to which some very talented people make personal and professional compromises to advance their careers. Via Amos Barshad / @columjournreview.bsky.social www.cjr.org/feature/what...

So I keep hearing that boomers are all brainwashed MAGA freaks but also that the No Kings protest are useless because it's nothing but ridiculous old boomers. Weird.

This is what I wondered! WTF is this all about? Either billionaires are funding an expensive military bunker which is inappropriate or they're only paying for the hideous monstrosity on top & we're footing the bill for the underground bunker through the exorbitant military budget, also inappropriate

The good news is we don't have a hard line theocratic government like Iran. Very relieved about that.

It's absolutely a winning strategy. A fascist is running amok. We need to stop or at least restrain him.

Fucking looney tunes megalomaniac: “To be honest with you, my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people,” Trump told the Financial Times>

Also, treating MAGA like it’s a stable political ideology (akin to liberal, moderate, libertarian, etc) leads to conceptual problems. If someone decides that they don’t approve of Trump, they’re much more likely to decide that they’re not MAGA than to be a Trump disapproving MAGA voter.

The media doesn't pay attention to left protests unless someone gets hurt. Peaceful protests against the right wing bore them. Right protests, on the other hand, are homespun, grassroots demonstrations of America's finest traditions & deserve blanket coverage

Here’s where NYT put No Kings coverage on the home page of its iOS app

No Kings in Utqiaġvik (Barrow) Alaska!

Great timing. Let’s start working on this now.

In this Ohio diner, Houthi still means Darius Rucker. But they do know this: if a blockage of the Bab al-Mandab Strait causes oil prices to soar, the Democrats who released the Epstein files will pay at the polls in November.

LONDON #NoKings

If the estimates were right, there were about 9 million people at No Kings rallies today. That would mean this protest was THIRTY TIMES AS LARGE AS THE TEA PARTY PROTEST which we were told, over and over again, was a massively important sign that US politics had shifted dramatically to the right

“The fact that organized protest can break the spiral of silence, and correct our impressions of what other Americans think, is one of the most immediate and important values of protesting in the first place. Scientists have [shown] protests update our impressions of what other citizens believe.”

Maybe instead of running around filming workout videos for social media, renaming bases, hunting DEI, firing outstanding officers, and fighting to restrict press access, Pete Hegseth should’ve been studying the war in Ukraine to learn something about modern drone warfare.

FFS.Remember the ecstatic coverage of that pathetic astroturfed Tea Party Bus that went on for weeks and weeks? The left is always the object of derision with these people.

I wonder if Trump will make another fake video of himself dumping thousands of gallons of shit on the heads of American citizens.

At least he’s consistent.

No Kings protesters in Spain give Donald Trump a piece of their mind. 🔥

For Michael Flynn, the corrupt pardon he received wasn’t enough. He wanted a payout, too, claiming federal law enforcement subjected him to malicious prosecution when they charged him with crimes he’d twice pleaded guilty to. Thanks to Trump’s DOJ, he’ll now get a taxpayer-financed check.

These House Republican nutcases...they refuse to take yes for an answer every fucking time.

The media covering this appears to be making the same bet, asking him every day anew what his military objectives are and giving him carte blanche to redefine what’s true & what he’s doing, and as long as Trump doesn’t literally ***destroy the global economy*** we just go on more or less as normal

Talked to an HVAC guy who's working two jobs to pay rent. He has no savings and worries about retirement. Tariffs have made it hard for him to import parts. Then this big strong guy who never cries, he said, he said to me, "I just wish Trump's signature was on the dollar." Then he burst out crying.

This is true and I'm tired already just thinking about it.

I'm expecting a wheelbarrow-full of pardons for insider trading on January 19, 2029. Note that the prospect of those pardons helps to keep subordinates in line. Corrupt-cop style, make sure that lots of people get a little taste, then make clear that the pardon depends on continued loyalty.

Trump can barely stay awake unless he's talking. Even when he's standing up. On camera. I wonder if the sleuths who diligently tracked Biden's shoe wear are trying to find out what's happening when the cameras aren't there.

This is true. Trump is no longer living in the present. He's an old man playing for history and being a malignant narcissist he believes that *any decision he makes* will always be the right one in the long run.

The ancient scrolls tell us that, in the Before Time, a president's admission that his administration had not considered the obvious likelihood of the war widening when they first attacked Iran would lead to immediate congressional hearings.

Jesus H. Christ: “Iran proposed making me Supreme Leader.” “I said no… they were insisting.” “They want a deal so badly—but they’re afraid to say it.” “Afraid of their own people. Afraid of the United States.” “We are winning so big.”

“It makes no sense for the NATO secretary-general to support an argument and a war that 31 other countries think is stupid, illegal, unnecessary and deeply destructive of the main goal, to weaken Russia.” - @ivodaalder.bsky.social, former US Ambassador to NATO

this goes for so much of the right wing ecosystem. the same guys who scream “DEI hire” would sink to the ocean if they weren’t kept afloat by their far right sugar daddies

absolutely incredible. Trump might have done more damage to American imperial power than anyone ... ever?

Trump says "we can't foolish, we're going back to fossil fuels"

Having read a lot about some of these folks I truly believe they've managed to convince themselves there's a critical mass who thinks just like them. Bari helped them do that. In reality, the reactionary oligarchic brunchlord actually doesn't have a popular perspective. Imagine that!

What’s more, the Pentagon’s proposed $200 billion for Iran could fund ACA tax credit extensions for *more than six years.* bit.ly/4rK16jk

Does Trump think non-citizens have been voting in huge numbers in all these special elections? Is that why he thinks the GOP keeps losing, even in his own district? Man, those immigrants will stop at nothing, risking all to vote in off year and special elections for obscure state offices.

So far in 2026, Democrats have flipped legislative seats in: Arkansas New Hampshire Texas Florida (today) That adds to their 2025 gains: Dems flipped seats in Iowa, Mississippi, & Pennsylvania specials, plus in New Jersey and Virginia's regular elections. GOP has flipped 0 seats over that period.

BREAKING: Democrat projected to turn Mar-a-Lago blue. Emily Gregory is projected to win the special election for the Florida State House—in Trump's own district.

So Israel is now Gaza-ing Lebanon. Oy vey.

Oopsie

So the war is over but it's not really a war, it's a "military operation" and we're bombing them back to the stone age and also negotiating a peace deal but it may not happen? Ok.

As time has gone on I've realized there is a still quite small but now non-trivial chance that the entire Iran War is simply an insider trading operation, creating repeated black swan moments and relying on markets continued willingness to gyrate wildly in the face of absurd and predictably ...

the markets are basically one big prayer circle of folks closing their eyes and chanting “everything is going to be okay”

Trump is out