Even if he does nothing, invoking Allah like that is something an awful lot of people don't take lightly, and certain people really don't take lightly, if you follow.

A big touch-the-stove problem is that a lot of people came to believe that assholery is the key to success, but also see the appeal of acting like an asshole as an end in itself and vicariously enjoy seeing it at the highest levels. I'm not sure if seeing the biggest asshole fail can fix that.

When people meet with us they are briefed, I think, that I am fond of baseball and football metaphors. A lawyer appearing before Gorsuch might be briefed that in a citizenship case he'll probably bring in Indians. And yet ...

Mamdani, unknown less than a year before the election, got 50.78% against an opponent who admittedly made every mistake in the book, but had universal name recognition and was swimming in outside money. I don't know what you're talking about.

Pastor tells congregation to bring him their tax returns to ensure their tithes reflect with their income. This would be the time I stand up, tell the ‘pastor’ to go fuck himself and escort myself out. But that’s just me…

Americans love blaming any increase in gas prices on the president, and it’s usually not the president’s fault—because no one controls gas prices—but this time the increase in gas prices really is the president’s fault, directly caused by his entirely unnecessary policy choice.

They are still writing thousands of words about him being a serious man who prostitutes himself and so forth, when for damn near fifteen years I’ve shown you left, right, and sideways he’s a clown without an original thought in his head.

Late in his life, Michael Collins, the Apollo astronaut, said he didn’t think of going to the Moon every day. “Maybe once a month.” Bill Mazeroski, on ‘60: “Every day I think of that home run. Wouldn’t you?” You understand both, of course.

Of course Trump is confused. The Supreme Court told everyone that the Constitution doesn’t apply to him and he can break laws without consequence if he feels like it. They effectively rewrote the Constitution just for him. More than once! Why would he expect the law to suddenly matter for tariffs?

The rules clearly say we act in bad faith, manipulating the system to give ourselves disproportionate power, and you pretend it's good faith, letting it happen while unilaterally restricting yourself in adherence to standards we say must be honored when it helps us and violate otherwise. No fair!

For real opposition, do less “can we be confident if we fight on this we’ll win?,” and more “will fighting on this be a headache for them, tying up some of their limited resources?”

ICE Agents Wait At Edge Of Delivery Table To Deport Newborn

Bari Weiss just sent this Christmas Eve email to the CBS News staff about "building trust," which includes her tripling down on spiking the CECOT piece "to make sure it's comprehensive and fair." One CBS staffer tells me: "She really has no idea how insulting she comes across."

I’m writing an obituary. Is butt plug one word or two

I will give Marjorie Taylor Greene credit for one thing: deciding she’s had enough and getting out, rather than thinking nothing matters more than staying in Congress and doing anything to get along. On that specifically, it would be better if more politicians were like her.

Most people think the President of the United States can snap his fingers and do what he wants. Trump is eager to reinforce this, in principle and practice. If you fold now, he gets the credit. Go back on your terms or not at all. Sometimes politics is a slow bleed.

The replies write themselves

I’d like to hear more about this intriguing theory, actually.

Today’s Randy Newman-centric episode of Testify! is in the archives at wfmu.org/playlists/TG #radio #freeform @wfmu.bsky.social @gtdradio.bsky.social

WFMU's Hellraiser Fundraiser starts today, and runs through October! There will be many DJ specials, new swag, and events throughout the month celebrating WFMU. If you can, help us out with a donation and grab one of two new Hellraiser T-shirts. Pledge here: pledge.wfmu.org

60 years old today. Doesn’t hurt as bad as I thought it might.

How quickly they forget how they’ve contributed to the actual thing they’re condemning.

Sad thing recent events have made me accept: a lot of US elites are weak, amoral people, whose guiding star is "what does power want?" mixed with "what's easiest for me in the short-term?" And that unfortunately means we can't appeal to principle or patriotism, we need to structure their incentives.

This is an absolute must read by Lawrence Hurley @lawrencehurley.bsky.social - federal judges spoke to him about their frustrations with the Supreme Court (how it's enabling Trump's attacks on them, how it's making a hash of the law on the shadow docket, etc.) www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...

Mussolini didn’t actually make the trains run on time. That’s propaganda. 20th century fascists did “sheer vandalism” and elevated superstitions above science, often in self-harming ways. The competence of fascists is another of their self-aggrandizing myths. It’s just that destroying is easy.

Every time anybody calls any politically charged event or decision "a distraction" from some other thing, a jack in the box should pop up and punch them in the mouth

Justice Jackson used “Calvinball” in an official Supreme Court dissent. It really is the best term for the unprincipled, inconsistent, sometimes contradictory, frequently un-American bullshit the Roberts court has foisted upon us, unsubtly putting ideology and partisan outcomes over facts and law.

Picked this up at a used bookstore today. It was published in 2012 and now we know that it’s even worse than It’s Even Worse Than it Looks.

Look what you made me do, explained the secret police as they violently violated someone's rights.

"This is considered impolite to point out in many mainstream venues, but to be a Republican in good standing today, you have to believe, or at least go along with, an insane amount of lies." Firing the BLS Director for reporting monthly jobs data institutionalizes that lying, imposing it on others.

I am old enough to remember cigarette machines that took (lots of) quarters & sound it made when you pulled the knob towards you & it snapped back into place and the pack landed in the little trough I've heard that these still exist, but I can't remember the last time I saw one in the wild

Silhouette of dead tree with green heron.

SecState Rubio’s explanation for why the US must use economic and other means to punish Brazil for following its own laws to prosecute a coup attempt is cancel culture. I’m not kidding. He claims that Brazil, by acting in Brazil, has somehow censored Americans. And that this requires drastic action.

#GGACP celebrates the 50th anniversary of the #1 record of 1975, "Love Will Keep Us Together" with this LIVE singalong episode (from Sid Gold’s Request Room in NYC) and tribute to songwriter/guest NEIL SEDAKA (and others)! Hear it NOW at gilbertpodcast.com! @franksantopadre.bsky.social

Now when your Tesla autopilot crashes your car, you'll hear a helpful reminder to blame the Jews. And not just any accusation, but one tailored by AI to your specific crash circumstances. Order are coming in fast, so goose-step your way to the dealer and get a brand new Tesla Blood Libel today!

My question exactly.

If the Supreme Court thinks universal injunctions are unconstitutional, to wait until *now* to say that, in this of all cases, with this of all presidents, is a devastating indictment of both its impartiality and its prudence.

The capacity to not admit you were wrong is inexhaustible. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Moe: What are you telling us, we're trapped like rats? Russ Cargill: No, rats can't be trapped this easily, you're trapped like...carrots. -- The Simpsons Movie

Christ Getting In Shape For Second Coming theonion.com/christ-...

The perfect bird feeder doesn't exi--

FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS to oppose the Trump administration...there is a strategy worth pursuing, one familiar to underdogs the world over: Push the aggressor beyond their limits. My latest, on Columbia, Harvard, immigration, Abrego Garcia, the Supreme Court, and why appeasing fascists does not work.

"Not even the worst cancellations were remotely comparable to being deported to a foreign gulag or denied access to lifesaving medicine" From @cathyyoung63.bsky.social, a long-time critic of cancel culture. I highlight this sentence to show it really is possible to keep these things in perspective.

If the U.S. government is going to take the position that, once removed from the United States, folks can’t be brought back, then it sure seems to me that federal courts should be reflexively and categorically barring *all* removals until they’re 100 percent certain that the removals are lawful.

The sheer absurdity of claiming the US can't get something from El Salvador as the Salvadoran president visits a White House that claims it can and will get things from more powerful countries is spitting in everyone's faces. Anyone who repeats that BS as if it has any validity is helping that spit.