It's clear at this point that all actions by the Trump "Justice Department" should be presumptively treated as political, not as law enforcement. I'm open to persuasion, case by case. But they've earned a presumption that they're just acting as an authoritarian tool. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/u...

Example No. 5,345,677 why it’s a fool’s errand to ever, ever, ever try to accommodate or attempt to be reasonable with Donald Trump. Stand up to him and he’ll cave, because bullies are cowards at heart. Give an inch and he’ll take everything. This is not hard.

Only Trump and Henry Kissinger could devalue a Nobel Peace Prize. The joker is a fraud. But the world knows that. Still … pathetic, sad, profoundly stupid. Our cockwomble.

I made this video so we can talk about what ICE is actually doing in our cities. I have the details and you need to hear them. Please share this. ICE isn't targeting criminals or even people here illegally. They are just making up the law - every day. Here's what's going on.

The party is the same today as it was in 1964 - fearful, xenophobic, often hateful and full of disgust for civil rights and people not like them. My latest.

Look at Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo. He looks around the Oval Office thinking: "What a lot of gold crap in here ... "

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution

A remarkable piece of journalism here from @minnesotareformer.com ... In the car with the Minneapolis community patrols working to disrupt ICE operations minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/13/i...

Powell, showing more guts than almost any GOP legislators: "The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Fed setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President." www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

With Trump going full authoritarian on Venezuela-Greenland, ICE, and the Fed, the response has to be serious. Four Republican senators (Tillis, McConnell, Murkowski, Collins?) could announce they’ll caucus for now with the Dems to give them control of the Senate to check Trump.

Damn. This is great. And how disgusting he had to do it.

Idiot interviews Gestapo Officer.

It follows that Trump leaked the most market-moving economic numbers that exist. I have no idea how illegal this is, or if the law even matters any more. But I do know this: It's unprecedented. No White House has ever before leaked such important market-moving numbers. No serious country does this

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

I'm old enough to remember when he admitted he made up the story about Haitians eating pets ...

The eye liner is a good imperialist look.

The crazy keeps growing. In a few short months the United States has gone from undisputed global leadership to pariah status. And ... as I always say: the worst is yet to come. My latest: marccjohnson.substack.com/p/taking-on-...

Out today: "Storm at the Capitol: An Oral History of January 6th" by Mary Clare Jalonick, a longtime Congressional reporter for AP Hard to think of a more important book right now. www.amazon.com/Storm-Capito...

if we can't clearly say that a party whitewashing a coup is anti-democratic and un-American, then we've truly lost the plot

Friendly rolls over. Wallace says you mean to tell me … Safer, Mudd, Bradley rage. Cronkite says that’s not the way it is, right? What a freaking disaster. This clown shouldn’t last ten days in this job.

What a remarkably small little man.

Let's break the Internet with this today.....

My lord, Lindsey Graham. The bottom is not in sight.

Who knows what happens next in the latest U.S. Latin American escapade. You can bet Donald Trump doesn't have a clue. My latest: marccjohnson.substack.com/p/now-what-a2d

Lies are truth. Bad is good. War is peace.

When you’re super secure and in no way trying to compensate for anything.

Swalwell: He couldn't run a casino, and now he's going to run a country in South America while he fails to run a country in North America?

New Interview: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

At least we can find comfort in the fact that our military interventions in South and Central America have never gone bad or backfired on us.

What does it mean when your doctors keep insisting you redo the cognitive exam

Unprecedented corruption and grifting

Annus horribilis: a year of disaster or misfortune. Good riddance to 2025 and let's hope - and do something to make - 2026 better. Thanks for following my writing. Onward ... marccjohnson.substack.com/p/a-modest-s...

Right-wing media spent weeks in a bad faith (or deluded) effort to cast this obvious investigatory step as partisan and devious. Senators tried to award themselves half a mill for it!

Annus horribilis: a year of disaster or misfortune. Good riddance to 2025 and let's hope - and do something to make - 2026 better. Thanks for following my writing. Onward ... marccjohnson.substack.com/p/a-modest-s...

unvarnished gutter racism and Nazism from the president. a disgrace to our country.

One hundred percent

Media commentator Margaret Sullivan (@sulliview.bsky.social) on Bari Weiss of CBS News, who "isn't really a news person:" "The fact that she’s the top editor at one of the most storied newsrooms in the U.S. says a lot about media in this moment."

Trump makes Neville Chamberlain look pretty good.

He is so profoundly full of it.

Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press

James Madison on civic "virtue," a concept we could do with more of ...

I do believe this is called the urban wild land interface. Oregon north coast.

Read the whole thing.

“the early readings of GDP have been very noisy. There's an alternative measure of GDP called GDI. It's measured using different data. It's a lot weaker at 2.4%. GDP data are often revised.” First drafts of data rarely tell the whole story.

This ... Unbelievable to me that this isn't a daily story. I wrote about it, but many more need to do the same. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Democrats: Read this. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Don't pretend for a minute - even a second - that any of this is remotely normal. We're seeing the mental and physical decline of the man with the nuclear codes. Happy Holidays!

Symbolic air strikes, whether in Syria or Nigeria, will not defeat ISIS. Many of Trump’s other actions, from cutting foreign aid to trying to eliminate online moderation, are actually undermining the struggle against ISIS and other terrorist groups. As i just wrote: wapo.st/4qrV8U5

"'Reagan: His Life and Legend' is an outstanding political biography that like all good political biography helps explain the subject, but also puts Reagan in the larger context of our politics both before and after his eight years in the White House." marccjohnson.substack.com/p/a-reading-...