Playin' With the Boys Pretty Pete is more Scotch rocks than ice man, but his meeting with the military was the hottest heterosexual hoedown since the volleyball scene from Top Gun. Are the generals ready to follow him into the danger zone or have they lost that loving feeling? by Maureen Dowd

If I had more guts, I’d write about something like that, but I’m too busy keeping my head down: www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Fascism is an ideology. The government is fascist. But it's an unconsolidated competitive authoritarian regime, not a totalitarian one.

Hitler was Hitler long before 1935.

Some of you are saying that because of NSPM-7, you're blanking out your social media accounts and going to ground. Has it occurred to you that \the intent behind issuing this gigantic, unconstitutional, and unenforceable thing was to get you to do exactly that?

Uh, okay. But I don't work for NPR.

Who's telling you to "wait?" My argument is: act using the tools of democracy because *you still have them* Constantly saying that "it's over, fascism is now here" is incorrect, defeatist, and a dead-end. When did we become such a rigid and blinkered people that everything is either fine or fatal?

Notice the conflating here of "fascism" and "authoritarian." I've said, repeatedly, we're in the middle of an authoritarian assault. But going from this to "America is now fascist" is bonkers.

Vladeck: "labeling groups 'domestic terrorist organizations' is an exercise in legally empty but rhetorically dangerous symbolism...trying to coerce more and more individuals and groups to 'obey in advance,' even though there are no new substantive rules that they need to actually obey"

Well, it's been... interesting. This is now going into that cycle where new people are here and asking stuff I've answered a zillion times, so I'm going to suggest that they scroll or search around. And here's my archive of stuff that I've actually said: www.theatlantic.com/author/tom-n...

Doctor: You have cancer, it's early and we can treat it. You: It's obviously Stage 4 and in my liver, what's the point. Doctor: It's not that and it's treatable. You: Why are you so obtuse about what "cancer" means, you heartless quack

Vote for a Democrat? What kind of crazy talk is this?

I was a skeptic about the import of the Epstein files. But 3 invasions of cities, one military buildup outside Venezuela, a government shutdown, and so many other things meant to distract have me convinced whatever’s in there is the biggest presidential scandal in U.S. history.

BREAKING: Immergut has *granted* Oregon and California's motion to block the new call-up of Guard troops to Portland. She says this effort to bring CA and TX troops to Oregon is in "direct contravention" of her oroginal order.

"Well I'm not a policy maker"

I think Tom has voted for more democrats than some of the leftists I know in Cambridge and parts of Brooklyn.

Every vote can make a difference.

Sure, always some smarty pants who brings "facts" and "history" into it

👇

I agree with Josh but with one caveat: Words can demoralize people. I have political science-y disagreements with people who say "America is now fascist," but more to the point, I don't want people to internalize the idea that it's all done and dusted. Trump is far weaker than may people realize.

There are days when it can feel like it’s already over and the bad guys won. That’s how they want us to feel. But it isn’t. Not by a long shot. Let’s not make it easy for them.

👏👏👏

"The Dems pragmatic wing has been pleading to broaden the tent, ideally before the Trump administration stamps out all opposition. Party progressives seem determined to reeducate the public rather than compromise for their votes." - @jonathanbchait.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Small victory.

I can think of one or two writers *cough* who talk about the right pretty regularly. Your subscription allows you to read any of them.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From Ghislaine Maxwell, Longtime Epstein Associate www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

this is incredible

This November, voters head to the polls for crucial elections that will shape the future of democracy as we know it. There's no such thing as an "off-year" when the stakes are this high. Learn more about the races you need to watch this fall. https://bit.ly/4nzGB7J

Research reveals that those diagnosed with autism early show distinct genetic and developmental profiles from those diagnosed later. www.wired.com/story/autism...

⚡️ Ukraine claims strike on 'one of Russia's largest' explosives plants far from the front lines. The facility produces a wide range of munitions, including aircraft and artillery shells, guided air bombs, anti-tank missile warheads, and ammunition for air defense and engineering units.

EXCLUSIVE: Americans remain wary of electing a female president, per a new poll. Four in 10 Americans say they know someone who would not vote for a woman president.

National parks across the country face conflicting demands and uncertainty as a result of the ongoing federal funding dispute.

⚡️Russian drone hits maternity hospital in Sumy. Everyone managed to take shelter in time, and no casualties were reported. The fire has since been extinguished by first responders.

Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits are set to expire at the end of this year and are at the center of a funding dispute that led to a shutdown of the federal government last week.

Provocative columnist Bari Weiss publicly quit the New York Times in 2020, then cofounded The Free Press as an alternative to legacy media. Here's what to know as she takes the helm of CBS News.

Maine Rep. Jared Golden, the only Democrat in the House to vote for the Republican-led government funding bill, drew a primary challenger who accused him of consistently siding with the GOP over his own party.

"It is a choice that Israel has, whether to feed the people or whether to starve them."

BREAKING: Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi win the Nobel Prize in medicine for work on peripheral immune tolerance.

The Supreme Court just took legal status from 300,000 Venezuelans

TODAY: ⚖️ A Texas court will hear an anti-voting lawsuit challenging Harris County’s voter roll maintenance practices. ⚖️ A federal court will hear a right-wing lawsuit challenging Hawaii’s laws limiting public access to voter rolls.

⚡️Over 100,000 Western-made parts found in drones, missiles used in Russian recent mass attack, Zelensky says. The components were reportedly manufactured by companies based in the U.S., China, Taiwan, the U.K., Germany, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, and the Netherlands.

A Kansas sheriff’s deputy is charged with murdering Charles Adair, a Black man who was handcuffed in a jail cell. New details show that the officer held his knee against Adair’s back for 1 minute 26 seconds, court records say.

Ukrainian drones struck Russian-occupied Crimea overnight on Oct. 6, hitting the largest oil storage facility in Crimea, located about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Ukraine-controlled territory, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported.

Europe believes Russia is behind a spate of mysterious drone sightings across the continent but "can't prove it," Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof told the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 6.

⚡️Ukraine investigating execution of 322 POWs by Russia, prosecutors say. According to the statement, 263 Ukrainian soldiers were executed on the battlefield, while 59 others were killed in the 2022 Olenivka prison explosion in the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast.

A @chicago.suntimes.com photojournalist was hit with pepper balls and threatened with a Taser while covering an ICE protest in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26.

"They were throwing people’s medicine in the bin in front of them and laughing in their faces."

CBS News was just taken over by a Substack

Women have an evolutionary advantage when it comes to living longer. They outlive men by about five years. This gender gap is true for many mammals, but a new study shows how human males could narrow it.

“I am living with the deep pain of watching someone I once loved become the face of evil,” Miller’s cousin wrote in a July Facebook post that resurfaced over the weekend. “This is not by accident, but by design. Your design, Stephen.” trib.al/ezyLScO