The president is using this apparent family tragedy, which as far as we know had absolutely nothing to do with him, to convey the message that if his fans brutally murder his critics, they will receive his support and approval.

Today's newsletter: The same machine that destroyed 600 lives over Charlie Kirk has nothing to say about Trump mocking Rob Reiner. www.readtpa.com/p/the-rules-...

ICE and CBP, among others, have violently retaliated against ICE Watch in part because the agencies correctly understand what many do not: Organized neighbors are mounting an effective defense, and an organized movement is a formidable adversary. My new feature: newrepublic.com/article/2042...

the right attitude

I’ll die on this hill: People who want big trucks generally don’t want EVs. People who want EVs generally don’t want big trucks. Whatever tax or other public policy was incentivizing Ford to make big truck EVs was messed up.

Today in the casual media normalization of personalist, nepotistic authoritarianism. Jared Kushner holds no senior Senate-confirmed post in the US government. He is the son-in-law & business partner of the president. This is unprecedented, massive corruption & media outlets should treat it as such.

ICE pepper-sprayed this 1-year-old girl. Once at the hospital, the doctor had to call in a poison control specialist. They had never seen anyone that young pepper sprayed. Another horrific story. More details below.

Who wore it better?

Armed ICE agents trapped US citizens in a restaurant and demanded their papers. Federal agents walked into East African restaurants in Cedar-Riverside, MN. They closed and blocked the doors. Then they demanded to see everyone’s papers. Every person present was a US citizen.

Ahmed al Ahmed, 43, has been identified as the man who disarmed one of the Sydney attackers. Ahmed was shot by the second shooter, who was firing from a bridge. He suffered 2 gunshot wounds and is undergoing surgery.

Extraordinary courage from Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim, 43-year-old father of two, who bravely risked his life to save his neighbors celebrating Hanukkah. Praying for his full & speedy recovery. And so deeply inspired by his example.

American Evangelical Christianity in a nutshell: You can abuse the people that Jesus told you to care for, but you better not abuse our sacred imagery.

Today in “every accusation is a confession”…

When Scalia rewrote the Second Amendment in Heller, I warned that he would have “blood on his hands” from the carnage he was enabling. The Second Amendment protects a “militia” right, which was the understanding of the courts for 200 years. The “individual right” rewrite is a suicide pact.

The problem, as always, is the guns.

URGENT: I need a Minneapolis immigration attorney for a client in the hospital and likely detained by ICE. If anyone here has contacts with someone, or better yet practices in this area, please reach out to me via DM.

Almost certainly the best thing I was ever told about owls was when I met an owl handler at an owl sanctuary and he told me that the wild owls who lived near the sanctuary worried about the tame show owls there and sometimes stopped by to leave them shrews and mice as presents.

Oklahoma joins FL, TX, LA etc. in the "make our state dumber and poorer" sweepstakes. OU faculty & research staff w. options R looking. Smart, ambitious OK high schoolers will too, as the effect on OU becomes clear. OK will lose the econ. impact of a thriving R1, while its best young folk leave.

The president of the United States has decreed that the country’s most important cable news station must be sold to a conservative. Here’s why my US-based free speech organization will spend the next few years focusing on AI regulations and free speech in Europe.

Pam Bondi on how she—accidentally & utterly without any inappropriate, unfeminine career ambition at any point in her life—ended up being the US Attorney General: “I’ve always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom with five kids and have a basketball team of my own, but life doesn’t work out that way.”

Families too frightened to shop for groceries. In America.

Everyone who thinks feminists have gone too far winds up going full fascist crazy. Many such cases.

The destruction of the enterprise of US academic science has been one of the most confounding aspects of a hugely confounding year. My @statnews.com colleagues are writing about the consequences for individuals & the country. You want to read this series. www.statnews.com/american-sci...

Whew, this archival clipping about Greg Bovino’s father

Longtime member, first-time fan skeeter. wapo.st/4oRY378

A large national trial of about 46,000 women, 40 to 74 years old, found that screening women according to their level of risk was as effective in detecting tumors as the one-size-fits-most screening currently recommended.

“The Justice Department will be switching to Comic Sans because current fonts have a veneer of professionalism that feels out of place in communications written by Lindsey Halligan.” Bravo @petridishes.bsky.social! www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Brutalist Residence in Oosterzele, East-Flanders by ABS Bouwteam (2023) r/brutalism

Everyone: Do something about our healthcare premiums. Senate Dems: Here is legislation that's going to fuck up the internet.

I'm searching Getty Images and found some photos credited to the Boston Herald that redact the faces of ICE/federal agents. They don't redact the face of the guy they're arresting. I'm curious about the ethics of doing this. I don't think I've ever seen this on Getty before.

Seems to me that preemptive pardons are just...not a thing.

Get a heated toilet seat they said. It's the best thing ever they said. #FridayVibes 😼 #Caturday #CatsOfBluesky

"Regardless of this administration, I believe that this is a country of laws." If KAG can say that after all he's been through, then I never want to hear another goddamn peep out of the doomers.

This fits into my theory that reality television was the beginning of the end of Western Civilisation

America is a mafia state running a protection racket in the interest of the boss, not the people www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1... bsky.app/profile/john...

How long until Trump pardons this crypto prince? “Fraud on an epic scale.” What could be more pardon-worthy? giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Worth recalling that after Charlie Kirk's assassination, Trump and the administration threatened to unleash a broad persecution campaign directed at the left. A big tool they have at their disposal is immigration law, which can be weaponized in all kinds of malicious ways. With @swin24.bsky.social:

In many ways, I could make the argument that Van Hollen ought to have been Time Magazine's person of the year. Less for what he's done -- which is not nothing, of course -- but for what he has represented this past year. He "got the memo," you might say. He understands what we're up against.

The mission was and is unlawful. We know it now. The families will not get an apology from any responsible officials. We know that now, too. And even if they did, it would be profoundly not enough. We also know that. The question is what Senate Dems are actually planning to do about any of it.

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?

If you make a billion dollars — or $500 million or even $100 million dollars — and you keep trying to make more, then there is something seriously wrong with you. It's a mental illness akin to hoarding or drug addiction.

Democratic leadership didn’t want to stick their necks out for him. The GOP didn’t want him even referred to as a “Maryland man.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, his congressional representative fought for him. And we should never forget any of this. apnews.com/article/abre...

Orla of the bluest eyes, looking a little chonky.

Pretty remarkable how Virginia Dems plowed through redistricting referendum before election Had bare majorities of 21-19 in State Senate and 51-49 in House or Delegates Couldn’t lose a single vote We’ll see if they have to pass a map, but everyone was on board for principle

NEW: The Trump-Vance White House has falsely accused an ally of Pope Leo — Sr. Norma Pimentel — of illegal activity tied to migrant aid, and cut off all federal funding to Catholic Charities in Texas. Church leaders say it’s a targeted, political reprisal against Pope Leo and the Catholic Church.