Trump's dementia has grown so extreme that a select group of advisors are now running the country without his input. To find who those advisors are and what their plans are, buy my new book, which will appear in March 2029.

absolutely sickening

More association fallacy -- this time driven by racism.

tyranny of the minority

jamelle doesn't often offer up "hopecore", but when he does, it *hits*

*Not* bragging about taking/acing a test to determine if you have dementia should be the new cognitive test. Difficulty: impossible.

Pete Hegseth is violating international law the right way. by Ezra Klein

Happy Holidays!

You mean Signal group chat leak John Ratcliffe? That John Ratcliffe?

This is the scandal. Trump isn’t targeting dangerous people. He’s targeting peaceful immigrants. Almost exclusively.

It is a shame that Brazil’s judges are so activist that none of them stepped in to change the laws for Jair Bolsonaro. by John Roberts (joined by Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Barrett, and Kavanaugh)

My Star Wars ranking (someone blocked me for QTing w/ this once🫠) 1 Dune (1984) 2 Dune (2021) 3 Dune Part 2 (2024) 4 Dune (2000) 5 Children of Dune (2003) 6 Dune Part 3 (2026) 7 God Emperor of Dune (TBD) 8 Dune: Prophecy (2024) 9 Dune: Prophecy Season 2 (2026) 10 Jodorowsky's Dune 11 Jar Jar Binks

i think we're gonna have to reckon with the association fallacy (e.g. guilt by association) in the coming months. just saw someone make the point that clinton never went to the *island* but did fly on epstein's planes for supposedly professional reasons. it's a hard thing to disentangle.

The Iran-Contra affair was done in secret. Because all of Trump 2.0's corruption is out in the open, it doesn't "feel" like corruption. And so we see these headlines, blink a few times, and go about our days.

Pastors arrested and shot with chemical weapons by secret police every single week. Take a good, long look. Let it sink in. This is Trump’s America.

we're like 2 days away from the house proposing a bill to lower the age of consent, aren't we?

I’m reminded this morning of Coates’s remarks re cowardice and the Senate’s tendency to describe itself as “the greatest deliberative body in the world.” Defending this institution is using it in moral ways, ways that can demand courage.

I understand why we shut down American airspace for a few days after 9-11 to avoid a repeat attack but imagine shutting down American airspace to avoid releasing the Epstein files.

Elon Musk’s new pay package would feed all forty million Americans on SNAP for the next ten years. He wouldn’t notice the difference but the country would.

If the Democrats keep nominating charismatic candidates who actually like people, they're going to get massacred in 2026 and 2028. by Rahm Emanuel

Abigail Spanberger won Virginia's Loudoun County by 29 points — a year after Kamala Harris won by just 17 points.

COUNT I Kat Abughazaleh did, while law enforcement was in heated pursuit, paint what appeared to be the entrance to a cave on a sheer rock wall, causing law enforcement to forcibly bonk into said wall. COUNT II The same thing on a different wall, but then a train came out and ran us over???

Apparently some folks are playing real dumb about skull symbols so let’s play a little game I like to call “Nazi skull or not a Nazi skull” First up, the Jolly Roger. This is a pirate skull, not a Nazi skull. It means you might get robbed, but prolly not genocided. With me so far? 1/x

chemical warfare is bad, actually. the federal government is engaged in warfare with its citizens. that's not hyperbole.

Hate to see Snyder use such stark terms, but he's the expert. Guys wtf is going on?

i was told radical leftists destroy federal property. welcome to the resistance, donnie!

Donald Trump has destroyed the East Wing of the White House the right way. by Ezra Klein

basket of d̶e̶p̶l̶o̶r̶a̶b̶l̶e̶s̶ n*z*s

i check to see what twitter's like from time to time, and it's basically this: <insane post about someone creating a perpetual motion machine that now powers Iran's nuclear project> <someone in the comments: "grok verify this"> <grok confirms it's obviously crazy> and then some n*zi sh*t.

"WAHHHH WAHHHH BOO HOOOOO THE LOWER COURTS WON'T LET ME PLAY DICTATOR WAHHHHHHH MOMMY DO SOMETHING WAHHHHHH"

This is a page out of Anne Frank's diary.

the prophecy is fulfilled

HRC was -- perhaps rightfully -- derided for calling Trump supporters a "basket of deplorables." And I largely agree: it's dehumanizing to write off an entire group of people as not worthy of dignity/respect. And in politics, everyone should be persuadable and not written off. BUT IF THE SHOE FITS

no one was gonna tell me that Dan Deacon did the music for Task?

hey. so. wtaf?

Classssic! Reporter says, "Describe what happened to you." He says: "Oh, just tasted a little tear gas... tasted like fascism." Live reports are the best!

this is my first baseball game. do they just never end?

Obama, for a *second* time.

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

I might end up talking about this graph all day. I think one thing Dems need to realize is that "Americans" are not buying into the "cities on fire" lies of this admin. It's JUST Republicans. So if you're a governor of a solidly blue state, or a blue-city mayor, the national story is NOT YOURS.

This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States. No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate.

Since the Ezra & Ta-Nehisi discussion is still happening: the main point I think most are missing is that Klein is saying the role of the journalist-intellectual is to do strategic politics, whereas Coates says the role of the journalist-intellectual is to tell the truth

El Douchey. Fascist pig.

Pritzker: "People of Illinois, we need your help. Get our your cell phones, record and narrate what you see. Put it on social media. Peacefully ask for badge numbers and identification. Speak up for your neighbors. We need to let the world know that this is happening and that we won't stand for it."

yeah... well... *you* try to be a racist asshole after eating half a pequod's pizza and 2 chicago dogs

I thought this was the NYTPitchBot or whatever

my red line on staying/leaving this crumbling democracy is exactly this (though i have framed it in the context of the 2026 midterms): that a republican controlled congress refuses to seat newly elected democrats. hopefully rep-elect grijalva will be sworn in soon.

It's hard to understand what is meant by a "constitutional crisis" -- but this seems pretty clear cut to me. Congress has the power of the purse, not the Executive.

Whether it’s scholars writing about fascism, or Donald Trump implementing a fascist regime, both sides are guilty of bringing the topic of fascism to the forefront.