"Things happen" sometimes, like when you walk into an embassy to apply for your marriage license while your bride-to-be waits outside, but then you get bonesawed to pieces for having exercised freedom of speech as an US-based journalist and have to be carried out in a series of suitcases.

A dignified #caturday

Laptop has found its highest and best use.

Why is it that every disappeared US citizen is not front page news? At the very least we should have a little box with a count of the number of citizens who have been taken away and are not locatable and a link to a story with photos & min-bios, just as we used to do with military casually figures.

Camara and Deni are so fun. Glad they're both locked up for a while.

Scrutiny grows over Trump competence – but can an unfit president be removed?

CNN: Large crowds at protests ABC: What to know about the protests NBC: Protests underway Fox: Unrest looms at protests Bari-era CBS: Trump meets with Zelenskyy

I wrote about David Brooks discovering mass movements. www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/shift-chan...

ICE agents blocked an ambulance that was trying to take an injured protester to hospital. "We are still not being allowed to leave by ICE officers.” an EMT said on radio When driver tried to get out, an agent yelled, "DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN, I WILL SHOOT YOU" www.wweek.com/news/2025/10...

Sunday reading: I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves. This week’s piece:

Everything is shit, but pretty fun to have lived to see Indiana ranked in the top 5 in football

I like how the news will be like “while the President claiming Portland was ruled by a giant skeleton named Mr Nibbles is not strictly true, it does speak to the anxiety of many Americans”

Breaking: Some guy now aware of most revered country artist who ever lived defector.com/breaking-som...

Pretty instructive to compare the Oregonian's comprehensive coverage of the federal threats against Portland versus the NY Times' superficial work. It's not exactly news that the major media institutions have failed the moment, but still a bummer to see.

The president said, in a televised speech, that he's sending his new, less restrained, more violent military into US cities to practice their brutality on immigrants and minorities, to better train them to apply that brutality to other countries. He said this out loud.

War-ravaged Portland

Saw these guys yesterday-- cuteness expectations satisfied.

James Dobson dedicated his life to evil and the world is worse because he made it so on purpose. defector.com/james-dobson...

The core problem appears to be that the NYT decided to double down on "we must be perceived as objective" rather than "we must report the truth." It's a losing game! The only way to be perceived as credible by the right is to amplify their lies and moral panics.

New kitty! Trying to get her to coexist with old kittens may be a summer-long project.

Ex-FBI agent on ICE masking: “Masking has always been associated with police states. I think the masking symbolizes the drift of law enforcement away from democratic controls.”

Federal and local law enforcement wearing masks is just plain unamerican. It’s a cowards move, and shows the fact that the kinds of deportations happening and the methods are, shameful and unpopular. adamkinzinger.substack.com/p/why-are-fe...

Ghastly draft. #blazers

This Simons-Holiday trade is real monkey's paw territory for Blazers fans who have been eager for an Ant trade the last two years.

Andrew Cuomo and RFK Jr are symptoms of the same disease -- both only got to where they are by trading on their family names, both deeply resent it, and both have taken out that resentment through a career of contempt for the public and terrible policy choices.

“I have written on so many grim subjects, but here’s a funny thing: no one I’ve ever reported on has given me nightmares like Cuomo and his team.” Sharply written piece by @rtraister.bsky.social substack.com/inbox/post/1...

We need to build some real social stigma around being afraid of cities. You don't have to like them or live there, but a politics built this strongly around watching TV and going "ewww" is embarrassing, and people should be embarrassed by it. It's like "fear of werewolves" being your top issue.

The situation in Los Angeles looks so bad Oklahoma has already banned it from being taught in schools.

When the story of troops sleeping on the floor in California after Trump sent them with no plan went viral… Musk’s Grok quickly sprang into action and told people the SF Chronicle pics were actually from Afghanistan in 2021. BBC Verify: Grok lied.

Yesterday was the 8th anniversary of this charmer showing up on our doorstep. Still pretty cranky after all these years! #caturday

Good day for folks who hate both scorpions and frogs.

I think it's great to want to win elections. But if you aren't starting from a place guided by some kind of principles capable of inspiring people, it's going to be very hard to do that. AOC seems to understand that. Not sure the WelcomePac centerists do.

You don’t have stories like this in countries with national healthcare systems

Musk should be asked about this in every interview he does now and forever. To ignore it is a dereliction of duty. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...

What's left to say? This is vindictive, counterproductive, un-American, unlawful, self-defeating, unprovoked, unnecessary, harmful, and so, so sad.

It's a tough competition, but this guy may be the biggest buffoon in this clownshow of a cabinet.

We sent Chris Hooks to Greenland and he wrote the best piece I've read about how Donald Trump sees the world newrepublic.com/article/1947...

Good hike

Cato Institute’s Director of immigration studies 👇🏽

There it is…

Hmm -- give Milwaukee its picks/swaps back, throw in another first, give them some guys and take Dame's contract back. Might work? #ripcity

This should be the top story in Axios’s morning read. But it isn’t. It’s the FIFTH top story. @axios.com www.axios.com/2025/04/23/t...

important context about the concentration camps in el salvador:

I had been doubtful that we were going to have a "this is the crisis moment" with Trump, as opposed to "everything about this is a destructive catastrophe." But the Abrego Garcia case is the crisis moment. 1/

I wrote about the tariffs.

This is an objectively pro crime, pro criminal administration.

Hmm @bencollins.bsky.social

A tragedy is unfolding in the United States with shocking rapidity. Academic freedom, judicial independence, investigative journalism and civil society are dying. The lifeblood of a culture is draining away and the spirit of a nation is evaporating. The American Dream is gone.