If there is a word that describes the second Trump administration, it’s brazen. While I certainly hold open the possibility that dark deeds are being done in secret, one thing that is remarkable is how open and obvious he is with his self-dealing. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/o...

“Who can’t he kill?” Thanks @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social youtu.be/2ZhMgO3Bhk4?...

@davidfrenchjag.bsky.social David French (on MSNBC just now), in one sentence, reminds us that human beings are not naturally equipped to confront authoritarians, and what is now needed from us all: "Courage is going to preserve this republic - - and 'only' courage."

The evidence is now in. The explosive growth in sports gambling is bad for sports, and it has proved to be bad for the millions of Americans who gamble past the point of prudence and directly to the point of pain. The sports gambling revolution needs more regulation. It may even need termination.

“There are villains in every new right story, and in this case the villains are women, and the crime they commit is … being themselves.” @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/o...

The new right groans under the weight of its nostalgia for a nation that did not exist. And in writing about a false enemy that destroyed a fake past, Andrews and the many other architects of the right-wing gender wars are committing the very sins they attribute to the enemies they detest.

What happens when the most successful politician of the last decade is cruel, immoral, and corrupt? It creates a push-pull dynamic that pushes good people out of the party and pulls in new people who share the leader’s ethos. Decency becomes rarer, and decent people feel more isolated.

True revival begins with the people proclaiming, by word and deed, “I have sinned.” MAGA Christianity has a different message. It looks at American culture and declares, “You have sinned.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/o...

“Earlier this month, a federal judge appointed by President Trump in 2019, did the worst thing you can do to Trump in a court of law: She took him seriously. She read his words, found them disconnected from reality and acted accordingly.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/o...

@davidfrenchjag.bsky.social and I would likely disagree on many points of theology (I'm a mainline Protestant, he's an Evangelical); I agree with him fully that we've seen some remarkable displays of genuine Christlike behavior in the last couple of weeks.

“Last Sunday, the shadow came for the men, women and children of a church in Michigan. But there is still light and high beauty, and last week the light that flooded America came from people of faith who were determined to demonstrate the character of the Savior they love.”

Countless Americans are enduring Trump’s vengeance. Far too few experience Christian kindness. It is a great tragedy of our time that so many Christians see Trump’s malice as an instrument of God’s divine plan. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/o...

If our laws depend on Trump’s voluntary compliance — and Congress won’t lift a finger to defend the laws it has passed — then the president is unleashed. We are left to the whims of a man who cares about only himself, a man who is willing to discard any law or standard to satisfy his lust for power.

This doesn't happen every day. Free speech isn't and shouldn't be a matter of left v. right. It's among the most fundamental of American values.

We've never seen a comprehensive attack on free speech like this in our lifetimes. The assassin's attack on Charlie Kirk was also an attack on free speech. Thea administration's crackdown on speech is egregious. And more people support political violence. It's all so bad.

If we accurately understand that America has an immense problem with violent extremism on both sides of the ideological aisle, then the answer lies in reconciliation, not domination. In fact, it’s the will to dominate that magnifies the crisis and radicalizes our opponents.

"What starts as a political difference becomes a blood feud the instant someone is hurt or killed. And so each act of political violence has a double consequence. It shatters families, and — over time — it breaks nations." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/o...

Political violence is evil. I don't care how angry you are at your opponents. We have a ballot box. We have courts. We have free speech. I'm sick with grief for Charlie and his family. I'm sick with concern for this country.

Every person who pumped his fist at Trump’s news conference should pause and think very hard about letting him — or any president — expand the definition of war until due process dies, blotted out by the flame and smoke of a missile strike. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/o...

There's lots of nostalgia for Gen X childhoods. I share it! But there's a disconnect. If our childhoods were that wonderful, why didn’t Generation X replicate our own experiences for our children? Why did so many millions of free-range kids grow up to become helicopter parents?

"Constant outrage is energizing, at least for a while, for partisans and activists. It’s exhausting for everyone else. The more that MAGA tries to bully America, the more resentment it will build. Bullies only win for a while, and when the backlash comes, MAGA will have only itself to blame."

We are watching Donald Trump break the Department of Justice right before our eyes. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/o...

"A decent society should do all it reasonably can to reduce human suffering. It should not, however, do so by extinguishing the lives of those who suffer or the lives of those whom we believe might suffer in the future." Why we should choose life: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...

Yet another damaging and dangerous blurring of the line and the law to give this kind of political derision in the presence of troops. Secretary of Defense should be preventing it, instead is encouraging it.

Executive power is out of control. Trump is turning our constitutional order upside down -- empowered by a "vague and inexplicit" sentence in the Constitution that is the source of much mischief. Should it be changed? I think so: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/o...

"If the president uses the military against his domestic foes, he risks fracturing its bond with the American public and diminishing its ability to recruit young Americans from all of our political factions.” Exactly right, @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social

Donald Trump "isn’t just deploying America’s military into the streets; he’s deploying it into the American culture war." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/o...

“We’re creating a generation of public servants who can’t feel completely secure when they’re out in public, who wonder if they’re safe in their own homes and who fret constantly about their siblings, spouses and children.”

For many years, @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social has countered the spin of Trumpers — and, even more, “anti-anti-Trumpers” — concerning Trump, Russia, and 2016. Whether he makes a dent, I don’t know. People seem immovable. But I appreciate him a great deal. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/o...

"So, yes, I consider myself a friend of Israel. But now its friends need to stage an intervention. The Israeli government has gone too far. It has engineered a staggering humanitarian crisis, and that crisis is both a moral atrocity and a long-term threat to Israel itself."

@davidfrenchjag.bsky.social explores the ins and outs of the true "Russia hoax"--the lies of Trump and his minions designed to distract from "Epstein, Epstein, Epstein". www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/o...

"President Trump isn’t just trying to change the subject; he’s also trying to rewrite history — or maybe I should say reality." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/o...

Great essay on regret vs repentence via "The Bear" @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social Regret is the sorrow we feel for the pain we cause or the consequences we experience. Repentance is active. It happens when we turn away from the behaviors that caused our regret. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/o...

At a time of extraordinary fury, we all live in a degree of pain. We all live with regrets. But hope can come from unexpected places — and perhaps a show that features scallops, pastries and Chicago beef can also teach us that only repentance can heal our broken hearts.

On today's #DalyExpress podcast, @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social and I talk about all kinds of things, including the Epstein Files fallout. Full episode: www.bernardgoldberg.com/p/david-fren...

The application of the Golden Rule should be clear in this case. If Christians want the freedom to participate in the American marketplace without facing reprisals for their faith or their beliefs about God’s design for the family, shouldn’t they extend that same courtesy to those who disagree?

"It’s hard to describe how thoroughly Trump is disrupting and corrupting our system of justice. At every turn, the pattern is the same. His friends catch a break, and his foes get the boot."

"Donald Trump is determined to transform America’s system of justice into his personal political weapon, and now Breonna Taylor’s family bears the fresh pain of a new and terrible miscarriage of justice." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/o...

"He’s disrupting the very reason that a lot of people supported him." Why so many in MAGA are so mad about Epstein: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/19/o...

Woke Superman? When I watched it, and the credits rolled, I had a single dominant thought: “Superman” is a movie about adoption, and if adoption is woke, then consider me woke. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/o...

David French succinctly explains why the Epstein issue is non-negotiable to large parts of Trump's base, starting around 5:55. We are living through a slow-burn satanic panic where a large percentage of evangelicals believe that child traffickers run the United States of America.

Want to understand the MAGA crackup over Epstein? After stoking years of speculation, some of MAGA’s most trusted voices — including Patel, Bondi, Bongino and Trump himself — are telling their movement: Move along, there’s nothing to see here. But MAGA does not want to hear what they have to say.

"Limiting access to pornography doesn’t simply provide a legal barrier; it helps grant parents and teachers breathing space to replace the depravity of pornography with a different and far superior moral message: a woman is a person to be loved, not an object of gratification."

it looks like the entire city of Chicago is shooting fireworks tonight. You love to see it. Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth! I love these words from Washington Square in Philadelphia: "Freedom is a light, for which many men have died in darkness."

"Just as he wants sycophants and yes men staffing his administration, he’s now moving toward staffing the judiciary with the same kind of person: judges who will do whatever it takes to curry favor with a president who values fealty above all." www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/o...

"The collapse of Iran’s power is what’s fundamentally different now." My conversation with @kschake.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/o...

Christian churches should be a source of healing, but powerful Christians with millions of followers choose to fuel the fires of hatred instead. Given that reality, it's no surprise that some Christians will put down their Bibles, pick up their guns, and kill the people they're taught to hate:

This gap between approval for Trump’s goals and disapproval of Trump’s methods helps explain why he’s been elected twice and why his approval sagged so quickly at the beginning of both terms. It also demonstrates why Democrats haven’t built an enduring majority, even when Trump goes too far.

"The combination of Iran’s weakness and the catastrophic consequences of an Iranian bomb mean that Israel’s strikes are both more justifiable — and more likely to succeed — than at any time in the recent past." www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/o...