Follow the Big Dirty Money, Oil edition.

Many don't realize that the most vulnerable or immune compromised depend on the rest getting vaccinated properly to keep diseases from spreading out of control. It's not just “my body, my choice” when it comes to saving lives.

Apart from debates over whether Trump II represents a difference in degree or kind wrt American authoritarianism and its racist/racialized expressions, the degree to which Trump has personalized power is to my mind unprecedented. That the GOP has tolerated it is both shameful and despicable.

Trump's threat to bomb Iran made something clear to me in a way I hadn't yet formulated: His conception of US military force, like his conception of the federal govt, is now entirely personalized. It is a power to be wielded not on behalf of US interests but on behalf of his personal whims.

Apparently Musk fears prison for several reasons. His AI, Grok, can remove clothing from women/children and/or show sexualized children. And now he says he will fully fund the GOP in 2026? Just how close is he to Trump/was he to Epstein? www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/01/... www.bbc.com/news/article...

It’s 2026 and Trump still hasn’t released the Epstein files! WHY?

This administration wants to take away people’s dreams. Think about all of those children who would look up at the stars, and imagine what was ‘up there.’ And then, we went to space, put a man on the moon — and they knew dreams do come true. All we’ll have now, is our memories. Un-American…

Why do I have to read an Irish paper for a feature about this?

So in 2026, the USPS will no longer process mail as it comes in. It will process mail when they feel like it. So they can deliver a letter or a package a month later. The Convicted FElon is doing this to prevent mail-in voting without outlawing it. He doesn't want the Democrats to win the Midterms.

Kevin Van Valkenburg on Trump ending Nat'l Links Trust's 50 yr lease on DC golf courses: "[W]hat this admin is essentially doing is taking over a nat'l park for invented reasons so that the Trump Org can run it & profit from it. Imagine if Yellowstone suddenly cost $1k but mostly served lobbyists."

They want to wipe out almost a third of the country. It’s got nothing to do with illegal immigration. It’s white nationalism pure and simple. They’re fascists, and there’s no reason to doubt it.

Yet more disenfranchisement by GOP. Vote accordingly.

They're going to *throw out* one-of-a-kind NASA archives?! Not even a year since the Inauguration & we're already at the 2nd-time-as-farce version of the burning of the Library of Alexandria.

DHS now says it's aiming for 100 million deportations. In an amazing coincidence, there are 104 million Black and Hispanic people living in the U.S. right now.

More wanton destruction of decades of institutional knowledge and research. If this happens unchecked, they will move to the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

It really is a fitting metaphor for the current decline of the United States that the Trump administration is just literally throwing away NASA materials

Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. The USDA didn’t test the theory after a disastrous Midwestern outbreak. Here’s how we did.

On Jack Smith deposition, now released: 100% obvious why GOP refused to allow this as open testimony, aired live. It's damning. Testimony from John Dean or Alex ("wiretaps") Butterfield in Watergate days would have 1/10th the impact if just in print. What Smith says is far more incriminating.

Guy convicted of felonies for falsifying his business records and then who pardoned many white collar criminals in return for millions of donations says he's sincerely concerned about what now?

Exactly. bsky.app/profile/them...

This is the impact of networked incitement. And now every other “citizen journalist” wannabe Nick Shirley is on the ground in Washington, Ohio, and I assume elsewhere trying to break/make the next viral story. There’s potential for this to spin further out of control, hoping it doesn’t

These patterns of escalation are unfortunately very predictable. I’m sure these business are also receiving harassing phone calls and threats too. It’s scary. In the fight for civil rights, numerous elementary schools were bombed by racist segregationists to protest integration.

Read former special counsel Jack Smith’s transcript before the House Committee on the Judiciary here: judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

New: The House Judiciary Committee just released (on New Year’s Eve) the transcript of Jack Smith’s testimony. As I start to read the 250 page report, this Q+A in the image below jumps out: judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

Once again, the two parties are not the same & they are covered by the news media in exactly opposite proportions to the actual scandal & lawbreaking that happen on their watches: bsky.app/profile/mcop...

Under the Biden administration, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) got private firms to pledge to hit certain memory-safety goals. This was called Secure by Design. Then Trump cut CISA's budget and Musk's goons forced out much of CISA's staff, ending Secure by Design

A reminder: This isn’t ideology This isn’t incompetence This isn’t business as usual This isn’t temporary This isn’t normal This isn’t ethical This isn’t legal This isn’t meant to be popular This isn’t meant to be good for anyone This has been a strategic attack against the U.S. Act accordingly

🤬🤬🤬 Yet another downstream consequence of 🍊🤡’s tariff mess. China and other countries turned to Brazil for soybeans, and now Brazil is returning to wanton, irreversible forest obliteration to try to keep apace with the higher demand.

Looks like super important information to share with everyone you know! Especially important regarding vote by mail and the attempts to further disenfranchise voters.

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬 USPS just codified ballot interference and disenfranchisement along with making tax filing more difficult. It’s yet another step in the “break now to excuse privatization later” method of dismantling of our previously most trusted institutions.

The shocking buffoonery of Donald Trump gets headlines around the world. He's easily deluded by Putin.

This climate action delay will cost ratepayers almost $200,000 per day! #EnergySky

And detainees are held for much long periods of time than needed so that these companies can charge more and make billions extra. It’s state sanctioned human trafficking.

This is how you know a wealth tax is the right thing to do

Just a great conversation between Jaime Harrison and Madam Vice-President. We do ourselves a great disservice when we cast aside those that bravely put their whole selves out there to serve the people.

For years now we’ve been saying that non-cooperation with ICE is essential to protect domestic violence survivors who are immigrants. That survivors won’t get help if they fear detention and deportation. And then there’s this. I shudder to think of what is happening to women in ICE custody.

“Access to the ballot box is your right has American and any attempt to deny you access is undemocratic.”   Come Hell or High Water: A conversation on the resiliency of American democracy with Secretary Fontes

Today in life under competitive authoritarianism

The U.S. government just banned five people from entering the country because it doesn’t like their speech. This ban, according to the State Department, is necessary to protect free speech. If that sounds insane to you, congratulations on your reading comprehension.

Speaks to something deeply wrong with capitalism that Lampert was allowed to annihilate the value of this company to less than nothing while still walking away with hundreds of millions in profits for himself from the saga.

Russia just bombed the main highway leading into Kharkiv - heavy traffic with families returning home after Christmas - cars are burning with people in them. And we discuss signing something with them?

This is bad. :(

Christ on a bike, this is brilliant. And disgustingly historically accurate. 10/10

The DOJ is lying when it says they *just now* received Epstein files from the Southern District of New York.

This is one of our favorites!

Former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, reports that Netanyahu tasked him with a secret plan to help him evade responsibility for the October 7th attack.

After buying it for $18.8 billion, Walgreens' new private equity owner has eliminated paid holidays for all hourly workers on Christmas and New Year's. Last year, Walgreens had a CEO-to-Worker pay gap of 410 to 1. Corporate greed that would make even Scrooge blush.

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬