Anthony Albanese became the first Australian prime minister to marry while in office, wedding his longtime partner Jodie Haydon at the Lodge.

Trump loses support not in waves, but person by person. Saw the same in the first term (until it collapsed after Jan 6th but he had already lost by that point).

Jacob Zuma’s daughter resigns as MP amid accusations she sent party members to Russia for “training” only for them to be deployed to the Ukrainian invasion. https://www.news24.com/southafrica/news/duduzile-zuma-sambudla-resigns-from-mk-party-amid-russian-war-recruitment-scandal-20251128-0597

Trump will get crazier and crazier before he becomes powerless. The need to ensure that our civil service and military don’t follow illegal orders becomes more and more important in that scenario.

I hope you all have had a fantastic Thanksgiving, even if you live in one of those counties which reportedly doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving!

Former Australian deputy PM and party leader Barnaby Joyce defects from the Nationals, expected to join far-right populist One Nation.

Bubba the Christmas hippopotamus is here to celebrate Thanksgiving.

You can tell it’s Thanksgiving week in American TV news.

Um… do people not remember Ron Paul?

One thing I’ve learned over the last 30 years is that America only gets into region-destabilizing, politically devastating land wars IF the other leader has a serious mustache.

Plurality of British voters: “we want a populist right wing Trumpy party” Starmer: “we can do that!”

In a move that would make Tony Blair proud, Labour is looking to fast track criminal trials by removing jury trials from most charges. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/lammy-scraps-jury-trials-to-cut-backlog/

New polling in South Africa shows the DA within 5% of the ANC, with other parties collapsing to below 10%. Interesting that the DA’s continual leadership drama and being in coalition with the ANC nationally has not hurt it at all.

The GOP is once again in open rebellion against the president and it is refreshing, isn’t it?

Like a McLaren plank I’m also feeling worn down this morning.

I think the other aspect here is something I’ve said for a while… Trump is pretty left-wing economically. For much different reasons than Mamdani is, to be sure, but there’s a reason their biggest shared political opponents are centrist liberal economists.

Exactly. I don’t think it hurt anyone politically so no harm there but it’s icky.

We call this “doing a Sarah Palin.”

Also, Trump likes anti-establishment populists in general. Right wing or not.

I get why Mamdani felt like he had to go, but Trump wants every national leader coming to the Oval Office and treating Trump like he’s in charge. It’s exactly the dynamic he wants - he’s the King, everyone else answers to him.

While we were enjoying DA drama yesterday around Steenhuisen’s finances, in the MK Party Jacob Zuma’s daughter is being accused of tricking party activists to joining the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This looks like an AI interpretation of the Obama presidential portrait.

Thank you to my amazing wife @kelsapellettiere.com

God bless the DA, never change. The messiest mainstream political party in the democratic world. Looks like Steenhuisen’s leadership might be in real danger for once, and the canary here is that Zille doesn’t appear to be backing him.

Big break - and a return to the policy of the mainstream GOP from a decade ago before Trump.

Clay Higgins of all people was the only no vote today, and I’m trying really hard to come up with a reason to disagree with him - because he’s normally absolutely crazy. I want the facts, no matter who was involved, to come out. But bypassing the rule of law is not how we do it.

I regret to inform you all that I still hold this very unpopular opinion today. I don’t doubt the sincerity and earnestness of those who want to release the files, but that’s not typically what we do in America for a reason. And I don’t think that should change today.

The press secretary posted this like it’s something to be proud of and not a huge destructive consequence that will permanently scar and depress our economy.

Yes, I read it. Yes, this is like a collection of the worst people in Washington. It’s basically what every regular person thinks DC is like. (Also, why do people keep sleeping with Mark Sanford?)

ALTHOUGH crowns are subject to tariffs in many cases, so I’m not sure the typical supply chain for this sort of stuff but actually I might be able to blame Trump for it.

When you’re eating lunch that is very satisfying and tasty and then a crown falls out. I don’t think it’s Trump’s fault, but this is Bluesky so I’m going to go ahead and blame them anyway.

Marjorie Taylor Greene wants you to know that she’s sorry — sorry for all those god-awful things she said and did back when she was, well, Marjorie Taylor Greene. | Jeffrey Blehar https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/marjorie-taylor-greene-repents-of-her-creator/

I know you don’t want to read a Rod Dreher article on a Sunday afternoon. Neither did I. Most of this is his typical authoritarian-masquerading-as-protecting-democracy pro-Orban schtick, but he does have a unique insight into what he fears is growing fascism in right-wing youth.

Louisiana’s sales taxes are batshit insane - ranging from 10-12% already, the highest in the country in one of the poorest states.

Meanwhile in Louisiana, where the state had a bunch of local tax referendums last night, a local sheriff department covering Hammond (where I lived for years) posted this.

I do absolutely want to eliminate state-run primaries and create strong political parties. I’ve also advocated for eliminating the midterm elections.

When this is over, we should look around and consider how do we prevent this from ever happening again. I’m not sold on a fully parliamentary transition, but the presidency must be curtailed constitutionally.

I’m personally seeing a lot of my friends from the libertarian world who fell for MAGA realizing what the anti-Trump libertarians tried to warn them about - Trump was never their friend. And one thing about libertarians - when we are proved right, man we are more insufferable than usual!

Trump's people want a lot of bad things that will make America an authoritarian regime. But they haven't succeeded and it would take a while for them even to end democracy, much less build fascism. So act as if you live in a democracy - because you do. The End. /20x

The Coalition dropped this very odd ad on Facebook, days after dropping their commitment to net zero emissions. Worth noting that in the 20 years they are taking credit for they only governed for about half of that (05-07, 13-22).

Parti Québécois leader aims to calm fears about an independent Quebec currency as they look to hold another independence referendum should they win in 2026

This is a serious break and I think about as close to the brink that Trump’s ever been. I’m not crazy enough to think he’s going anywhere… but this is as close as we’ve seen yet.

To be clear, Trump could be as clearly implicated as Prince Andrew and his core MAGA people wouldn’t care. The question is do regular low info voters, for whom the Epstein stuff has actually surprisingly broken through, respond to these new allegations?

I don’t watch daytime CNN all that often but I’m working in my home office today and they have a tweet/text “thread” on the side of the screen. That’s very early 2010s.

This is the case all across corporate America right now… literally humans writing emails and then having ChatGPT or Copilot rewrite them (which makes them worse) just so they can say that they are using AI to enhance their workflow.

Keating is… Keating so you kinda have to take this skeptically, though then again I think we could absolutely see Keating telling Whitlam that. PM Albanese today also referred to the removal of Whitlam as “a calculated plot” by Australian conservatives.

Update: @kelsapellettiere.com walked and went “Kevin, what the fuck?”

And yes I am watching all four hours of the 1983 Australian miniseries that dramatized the events of that day, “The Dismissal,” in commemoration. My wife hasn’t walked in to find this out yet, but I’m sure she’ll be delighted when she does.

I would also add the prorogation of parliament in Canada in 2008 by Michaëlle Jean to save Stephen Harper’s minority government, though it’s not as well remembered. But both are why I’m really annoying whenever anyone says the British monarchy is “symbolic” and doesn’t have any “real power.”

Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the removal of Gough Whitlam as Australian prime minister by the Governor-General John Kerr. It remains one of the most controversial exercises of power by a head of state in a Westminster-based parliamentary democracy.