House Republicans are going on vacation and letting your health care subsidies lapse.

The American people deserve to hear, directly from Jack Smith, what his investigation into Trump found. Instead of that transparency, today Republicans brought him in for a closed door deposition, all in an effort to cover up Trump’s attempt to overturn a free and fair election.

incredible that the oldest scam in the book — “look away from the greed and poor leadership that destroy your chance to make a career, it is the [blanks] that stole your job!” — still works

Told you the “pivot” to only go after the “worst of the worst” touted on Fox News a couple of days ago was bullshit.

How many of these armed murderers are still running loose? I'm losing count.

You can take the man out of the podcast studio, but you can't take the podcast studio out of the man

218 members signed the discharge petition to force a vote to extend ACA tax credits. If Speaker Johnson refuses to bring forth the vote, he’s telling the American people loud and clear that rising health care costs are acceptable to him.

He'll start a war to: 1. Distract from the Epstein Files 2. Steal oil 3. Justify emergency powers 4. Justify use of the AEA for deportation/internment 5. Help the drug lord he just pardoned

My latest thoughts on Wisconsin and national politics and the body politic. open.substack.com/pub/verbostr...

I believe @wajali.bsky.social predicted we'd be officially in a war with Venezuela the day before the release of the Epstein files.

I mean everyone voted for fewer jobs, more war and more expensive healthcare, right?

BREAKING: The House of Representatives just passed a bill that would subject immigrant children to invasive bodily searches and keep them in detention instead of releasing them to their families. The Senate must vote no on this horrific bill.

Good. Other big states should follow suit since Congress under the GOP won't protect our rights here.

AOC: I want to remind you where the real crime is. It's in the oligarchs taking $170 billion of our money from health care and food assistance and public programs and taking that and funneling it into a secret police program.

In a world of Bob Rumsons We can all be Andrew Shepherds if we want to.

Usually, when I need an appointment at the VA, I can get one within 2 weeks. Today, I called for an appointment and the next available is in May, 2026. Firing 35K people will do that. The Trump administration hates veterans.

@hcrichardson.bsky.social Look at Budapest right now!! bsky.app/profile/vict...

This is from the prosecutors opening statement in the judge Dugan trial, but under cross, the investigating agent just admitted they have no idea what “business as usual” looks like in the Milwaukee courthouse. Not going well for the government here.

They don't have any internal ability to say this is a bad idea, so they're doing it even though it's a bad idea & most of them know it. A study in organizational dysfunction

Someday he will be gone. But we will never forgive or forget the people who supported him.

Release the Epstein files.

The Freudian slip there.

😳🇺🇸

To paraphrase the Greek statesman, Pericles: "You may not be interested in politics, but politics may be interested in you."

State-sponsored dehumanization, wrapped in a Christmas bow.

December 13, 2025

I refuse to confuse dominance with strength. I refuse to confuse cynicism with realism. I refuse to abandon either compassion or accountability.

We just received a notice from Nationwide Insurance that inflation and rising healthcare costs are forcing them to stop the pet insurance policy we have on our cat. Oh, child. That's only the beginning.

This is because Nate Silver has 300K subscribers on Substack and Heather Cox Richardson has 2.7M. Mediocre men CAN'T STAND successful women, and even blame them for their own failures. Pathetic.

Oligarchy (noun): A government of and by a few at the top, who exercise power for their own benefit. Their power and wealth increase as they make laws that favor themselves, manipulate financial markets, and create monopolies that put more wealth into their pockets.

What Comes After MAGA Will Be Even Worse If Democrats and the majority aren't smart or careful, America might welcome its first Nazi president in 2032. Even though MAGA is fracturing, white supremacists are waiting in the wings to rebuild. thelefthook.substack.com/p/what-comes...

Normalized. Not necessary.

So much has changed looking back. A Trump speaking sentences No gold Promoting dollars, not crypto No bruises What hasn't changed? Always a blame game.

Kristi Noem claimed a few months ago that they arrested the girlfriend of the leader of Antifa and that was going to lead to the prosecution of the entire “organization.” What happened with that? Any updates?

Caring is an act of resistance in a system that thrives on indifference.

I can't believe how long I've been writing! 😅 I was looking back while listening to @jbf1755.bsky.social and @hcrichardson.bsky.social's weekly chat and Joanne's observations really clicked into what I wanted to say. P.S. Old tweets from 2017...wow. The days. open.substack.com/pub/verbostr...

I'm sitting with this sentence: Humans are context-switchers, not ideological purists. ❤️

I stayed on that other platform longer than I probably should have, mostly to observe and try to influence. That was years ago. Funny how, heading into our peak holiday season w family & friends, some familiar dynamics resurface. Corollaries are… instructive. 😅 Talk. Debate. Repeat.

Three U.S. bishops: Racially profiling migrants (and Americans) is a betrayal of the Gospel. www.americamagazine.org/short-take/2...

Posted by the Tax Foundation — the world's leading nonpartisan tax policy nonprofit organization.

What struck me: this runs counter to the zero-sum framing in Trump’s 2025 NSS, where tech power is about control rather than coordination. Curious how others see this. Does AI security depend more on trusted ecosystems than national supremacy? I know which I lean heavily toward.

Folks in Wisconsin, we can make politically gerrymandered districts a thing of our past if we can convince our legislature to vote for a permanent plan. The WI Fair Maps Coalition has been building one based on our needs. www.fairmapswi.com

"Do not, for the sake of this short life, do all sorts of things that create bad karma." - The Gyalwang Drukpa Indeed.

Yesterday, Spc Sarah Becstrom was laid to rest in West Virginia at a VA National Cemetery. Surprisingly none of the major major news media mention it. No flags were lower to half staff. Well the Convicted FElon keeps the news focus on him. www.wvva.com/2025/12/10/s...

Phang: Bove knows he’s not a regular citizen anymore. Judges are bound by different rules of conduct than an average Joe or Jane citizen. So for Bove to say that he was there in his “private capacity” or even his “public citizen” capacity is bunk and bullshit.

It wasn’t even close.

Their closing message to Indiana: change your maps to artificially benefit the President's political party or 'roads will not be paved' as punishment. They are openly saying this. Who would want to live in a country that works like that?

Do I regret the energy wasted?

We didn't need more proof they have no bottom, but here we are. Let's be clear: preemptively trying to get free passes for everyone involved. www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...