RFK Jr.: Making toilet seats great again.

In an interview with Christiane Amanpour, historian Robert Kagan says all major US institutions have buckled before Trump. Only the people are resisting, he says, citing the scenes from the streets of Minneapolis which utterly infuriate Trump and his cronies, driving them to lethal violence.

America's obsession with the creepy, prurient Epstein story is a distraction from the real issues - and if that's the best we can do, it doesn't augur well for the country's future. plagueyears.ink/EpsteinIsThe...

So the Epstein files dump 1. Protected a lot of predictors 2. Created another partisan food fight. 3. Failed to create any obvious pathway for these women to get accountability. 4. Included a number of clearly unverified claims that can be used to undermine the very legit emails

The killing of Alex Pretti and the grotesque lying was an overreach by the administration. They've paid a price and had to pull back a bit. But it's when there's some disarray that the democratic opposition needs to intensify the offensive, and turn a marginal tactical success into a major victory.

Will the murder of Alex Pretti cause a government shutdown? Chuck Schumer says Senate Democrats won't vote for any budget that includes more ICE funding. It's game time. But what a price. RIP Alex Pretti. plagueyears.ink/droogs

Good advice

ICE Tells Legal Observer, 'We Have a Nice Little Database, and Now You're Considered a Domestic Terrorist'

At Salomon Brothers in the 1980s, top bond traders adopted “Big Swinging Dick(BSD)” as a self-congratulatory label for the most aggressive, high-earning traders. European leaders found their BSDs at Davos. Here's what it means. plagueyears.ink/swingingdicks

In which the English editors that Jeff Bezos hired from Rupert Murdoch to run WaPo demonstrate (1) that they don't understand the First Amendment and how it works and (2) that they're also basically illiterate.

A woman recording an ICE agent tells him "Shame on you." The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?" "Learned what?" she asks Then he knocks her phone out of her hand

Following Reza Pahlavi’s call for not just protest but control of public spaces, Tehran residents have responded. By 19:34 local time, demonstrators reportedly took full control of the streets around Farahzadi Square. Security forces pulled back.

A WSJ visual investigation found that the Minneapolis ICE killing is one of 13 incidents where federal immigration agents have used deadly force against civilians in vehicles since July www.wsj.com/us-news/vide...

"This has been obvious for the past year to all who have eyes to see, or who are willing to let their eyes do any seeing. But the last few days have provided especially clear instances of the assault on the rule of law."

I can't describe how bad Minneapolis feels right now. My neighbors are pulling kids out of school. The public schools are offering remote learning until 2/12. We are having conversations in our alleys about how to protect ourselves. It feels like a military occupation with a blockade.

So ICE and the White House have been scrambling to pump out meme videos of clashes with protesters and "epic takedowns" and then an ICE agent recording video with his phone shoots a woman dead www.washingtonpost.com/technology/i...

"Now is the time for opposition to these drastic vaccine changes. No one should have to go through an experience like mine—not when there is a safe, simple shot that can prevent it. I hope our country can step back before too much irreversible damage is done." open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Intimations of civil war as an ICE agent kills a 37-year-old mother. Hours later, ICE agents allegedly shot two people in Portland. Trump's disinformation machine kicks into overdrive. Has the U.S. crossed another Rubicon? plagueyears.ink/civilwar

"Much will depend on how the country handles the post-Trump landscape. The United States has a history of letting bygones be bygones, and in “normal” times, that hasn’t been a bad call. But these times are not normal..." New Year's Day. The Blueprint. plagueyears.ink/afterthedeluge

ARE WE RUSSIA YET? We got the 60 Minutes video. And a Pulitzer-winning journalist tells you exactly what Weiss was really doing when she blocked us from seeing it. plagueyears.ink/60Minutes

Trump may have front lobe dementia. Is it time to invoke the 25th Amendment? And why is a moral leper so popular with Lost Americans? Milton had it right in Paradise Lost. plagueyears.ink/banalityofevil

Bari Weiss waives her wand and suddenly Margaret Brennan starts babbling batshit crazy nonsense about Mifepristone...

IT'S NOT JUST BOATS. The Trump administration is blowing up the rules of war. As if you needed something else to worry about. Listen to our exclusive interview with the man who wrote the playbook for the U.S. military. plagueyears.ink/hegsethbreak...

Exactly. Perfect match.

Mike Johnson is big mad that we forced through a petition and forced a vote on releasing the Epstein files. So let’s do it again. This time to restore the ACA credits he stole from us:

Great! A chance at sanity

THREE-CARD MONTE After being dazzled by the Trump Mamdani love fest, we realized that Trump's real genius is bait and switch. Trump and Witkoff sell out Ukraine but all we could think about was The Odd Couple. Genius! journaloftheplagueyears.substack.com/p/its-queens...

We called it! open.substack.com/pub/journalo...

Fuck you, Donald: No. Trump Administration Live Updates: President Says Eliminating Filibuster Is ‘Only Way’ to End Record-Long Shutdown www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11...

"'It’s killing the business,' the manager said. The manager noted that Home Depot is emphasizing “free delivery for contractors so they don’t have to risk themselves”—a sign of how the company has had to adjust."

On the other site, an 18-year-old Zohran canvasser described the legendary Wallace Shawn as "the actor who plays Dr. Sturgis on Young Sheldon" which is honestly adorable

Bari Weiss wants a line up of wing nut allstars. But a bedrock requirement for any recruit is unquestioning fealty to he Likud Party and Benjamin Netanyahu.

It's called premeditated murder.

It’s a start

Another huge win for RFKJr: Diphtheria, a once vanquished killer of children, is resurgent, driven by growing mistrust of vaccines, as urged by HHS Sec RFKJr.

If we weren't Jewish ourselves, we wouldn't be so offended by the Islamaphobic and just plain stupid attacks on Zohran Mamdani by Jews. plagueyears.ink/timeofmonsters

Somewhere along the line, we lost our nerve. Here's how it happened, and here's what we need to channel to get it back. Will No Kings demonstrations kick start American courage? plagueyears.ink/courage

Samuel Alito preparing to raise absolutely the craziest flag you've ever seen at his Long Beach Island compound.

we’ll see how his mayoral tenure shakes out but i am convinced that Mamdani has the juice. not just the charisma to win an election but the temperament to govern and the measured pragmatism of someone who genuinely believes what they’re saying and wants to accomplish real things.

Doing some back of the napkin math on the Free Press acquisition, I've determined The Onion is worth $2 trillion.

“'The fact that we don't have money to pay journalists, but we have money to pay Bari Weiss between $100 and 200 million is indicative of what the Ellisons' true goal here is,' a network correspondent said. 'And it's not journalism.'"

Same guy who declared bankruptcy 6 times shut down the U.S. government 4 times in 5 years of being President. They wanted him to run the government like his businesses and that’s exactly what he’s doing.

🚨BREAKING: A federal judge in Nashville ruled that the Department of Justice’s criminal case against Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia may be a form of punishment against him for legally challenging his abrupt removal to an El Salvador megaprison earlier this year.

God help us but Gavin Newsom is the only Democrat who understands power. How Dems can beat Trump on the shutdown, in today's Triad from @jvl.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/democrats-...

Kristi Noem is mad they wouldn’t let her in to use the restroom in Illinois today.

Stress-Free Eric Adams Spends Day Bribing Pigeons In Central Park

It's time. Chuck and Hakeem, hang tough. Lives in the balance. plagueyears.ink/fight