Whether there is a deal or not, the actual important part is fixing the fact that Vought/SCOTUS/party-line rescission have broken the appropriations process. That IMO was the actual point of this shutdown. If we get some fix there I'm fine with the GOP stupidly voting later to screw voters

every Democrat in the country should not only endorse Mamdani within three hours but they should denounce and condemn Andrew Cuomo and demand he retire from politics forever

I’ve got a take I bet many won’t like: Dem handwringing is mostly pointless. Next elections will be dominated by “do you like all this or not?” Anti-Trump wasn’t enough in 2024 because he wasn’t in office and a chunk of the electorate blamed problems on the party in the White House. That’s changed.

And I would like to challenge this person to get a real job

ordinary americans are filming ice agents and trying to save their neighbors. for all the hemming and hawing during 2024 about how democracy was an elite concern, the elites gave up far more quickly than average people.

"The liberty and security of our fellow citizens is our great object, and not the prompt execution of the laws. Indecision, delay, blunders, nay villainous actions in the administration of government, are trifles compared to legalizing the full exertion of a tyrannical disposition."

This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. I am not fearful — I am fearless. We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights..

"Please Mr. Trump don't make us answer this question"

Right, at the end of the day Miller has erotic fantasies about throwing libs out of helicopters and Vance thinks he's Sulla. The state repression is either all talk, or it isn't, and then posting doesn't matter. Panic is preemptive compliance. These scum have earned your contempt, not your fear.

elite liberals more than even right-wingers seem to believe that liberalism has no popular support or organic base and is primarily an elite imposition

when your politics are fundamentally aesthetic (per walter benjamin on fascism), but you lack the necessary thread of connection with reality to produce anything *besides* the aesthetic

Because the thing is, this is real but also, it's not real. This image reflects the reality that Trump *wants* a total state in which he is the unquestioned leader, but we do not actually live in that state, at least not yet.

i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.

This thread and its point is so unbelievably important — and why it is so absolutely essentially to accurately describe what Trump does and how he’s done it. Otherwise, you — looking primarily at journalists and lawmakers — are just making it easier for him to create that reality.

If the people fight and organize, the fascists lose. What we have right now is the fascists using spectacle and propaganda to intimidate people out of fighting, and (worse) people who are intimidated trying to persuade others that it's all over and to lie down and die.

need people to understand that accepting or conceding that he has the authority to do these things is tantamount to giving him the authority, and so your preemptive dooming is actively counterproductive

Gov. JB Pritzker letting it rip during remarks at IL Dems event this morning: On RFK Jr.: "A weird nepo baby who once stashed a dead bear in the backseat of his car" On Pete Hegseth: "A washed-up Fox TV commentator who drank too much and committed sexual assault"

If you’re reacting to Trump doing authoritarian goon stuff by being like “welp, the brave thing to do is admit we’re fucked,” you’re doing exactly what he wants and helping the enemy