Firing the entire army corps of engineers because they lack tv ready abs

I can't get over how the right-wing doesn't understand modern militaries, with the majority serving non-combat roles. You think the best IT security & logistics personnel spends two hours in the gym every day to look like the cast of 300? They're at furry conventions and model train shows.

I didn't think that's what you were saying. I think what you were saying is incredibly true: that thinking that fascists are too stupid to take full control is one of the things that helps foster a sense of complacency, which allows fascists to take full control.

The flew the entire military leadership in so they could see for themselves that the Secretary of Defense is a mouthbreathing dipshit and the Commander in Chief is a senile, weak old man who might keel over at any moment.

The endgame for all of this is constructing a military that will obey orders when ordered to fire on citizens. That's the throughline to half of what Trump is doing.

This is one of the things people mean when they say equality doesn't mean equity.

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

i think this speech, more than any other public speech he has given—Jan 6th included—contains more criminal acts and statements unbefitting of the office of the presidency. That if this country had any accountability, which it doesn’t, he would gone by tomorrow because of it.

The reason we have rules of engagement isn’t to keep warfighters from killing our enemies. It’s to keep them from killing a farmer with a shovel bc they thought it was a rifle and didn’t bother to wait to check. Or a family in a car bc the driver looked nervous. Or a boat full of fishermen.

this shit is so cringe. Pete Hegseth took us from “speak softly and carry a big stick” to “boast drunkenly and hit your wife”

America’s military leadership has more important things to do than listen to lectures on character from an unqualified drunk who assaults women. Any soldier who was as careless as Hegseth was with war plans would be fired if not prosecuted. And everyone in that room knows it.

In 1999, John Peel made a list of 400 recorded musical tracks from the 20th century, four from each year. Here is track #85 (1921).

the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!

The left is built on protecting the rights of individuals to be themselves and live their own lives without having to conform. Kirk offered unity (lifestyle) thru conformity.

Says a lot about the state of popular science reporting that some techbro doofus can pretend he's going to be immortal and that will grab more headlines than "Hey we have a gene therapy that slows the advance of Huntington's by 75%," or "We gengineered a pothos into a living air purifier."

Some of you have fantasies of bravely going out into uncomfortable zones to have conversations, and I can tell you wouldn't survive the discomfort of living even an hour in an ordinary Black person's body in America.

Just a reminder that the Commander-in-Chief of the Louisiana National Guard, who can call them out all by himself if they were actually needed, is … Governor Landry.

Meanwhile at the Riyadh comedy festival

the sinclair charlie kirk tribute has 71K views nine days after it was supposed to preempt jimmy kimmel by comparison, this antique toaster restoration video has 102K views after one day

PDX Real didn’t even notice that this is a photo of Portland, Maine

as a christian, one thing i love about trump is that he explicitly rejects the teachings of jesus

Their whole point is to smash up functioning government and use the spoils to terrorize everyone, while installing a state based on mafia-style patronage. Don't give them more tools. Don't fund the terror.

Twenty-five-year-old me would have been blown away by this news. (I was one of *those* converts, @derparrot.bsky.social...we can be saved, given enough time!)

Portland: where ordinary Americans exercise their first amendment rights while unhinged unskilled hired thugs with no self control attempt to start shit as they waste millions of our tax dollars. Photo by reddit.com/u/Justcoffeeforme/s/1PHaNDKGms

Crazy that having the cabinet meetings be 80% lavish praise of trump and 20% trump talking about decorations isn't facilitating coordination

Wonder why the right is so silent on this guy who murdered a bunch of people at the LDS church 🤔

If you're wondering why they don't go to court with their high paid lawyers for an easy win, it's because this allows Google to bribe Trump. All the big players are way over their skis on AI investment and are sure they will need a bailout at some point. It's 2009 but for tech instead of housing

In the past week or so, President Dementia has posted to social media (1) what seemed to be a DM ordering his attorney general to prosecute his enemies, (2) an obviously fake AI video of him announcing "medbeds" are real, and (3) this video sent by a company lobbying him on medicinal weed.

I received a fundraising request from Hakeem Jeffries. In my ensuing Unsubscribe request, I explained that I had no interest in hearing from a Democratic "leader" who won't support Zohran Mamdani.

Just got my COVID vaccine shot, so if you worry about “shedding”, you will want to stay away from me, especially since *I* certainly want you to stay away from me.

Says CSIS, "the sudden decline in right-wing terrorism is both more striking and harder to explain" but actually it's not; right-wing kidnappings and attacks on civilian transports have increased dramatically but aren't categorized as "terrorism" because they now occur under the aegis of the state.

So exhausting..

One reason that so many Dems are frustrated with their leaders is that they simply lack much formal power. That is the reality. And so they look weak compared to the havoc Trump is engaging in. This makes the shutdown a big deal since it is one of their few veto points.

First time this guy has ever made me laugh

It is really funny that Jimmy Kimmel Live showed more moral fortitude and adherence to a system of values than Columbia University

With Pete Davidson getting a big check to do the Riyadh Comedy Festival, the Saudis are finally paying reparations for 9/11. And jokes like that aren’t allowed at the Riyadh Comedy Festival.

Taken just a few minutes ago outside the ICE facility in Portland that Trump claims is under siege. My message to Donald Trump is this: we don’t need you here. Stay the hell out of our city.

A huge problem the Republicans face in their authoritarian project is that a lot of American judges, a lot of *conservative* American judges are pro-constitution.

It's the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, so the Gospel today is Luke 16:19-31. It is the only passage where Christ describes Hell in any kind of detail. If you don't know this one, it goes like this: Once there was a rich man who lived in a mansion, wore expensive clothes, and ate well. (1)

The difference between these people and me is that when 8 imagine a close knit community, I'm on the outside

RFK: we’re making America healthy again AMERICA: omg are we finally getting healthcare?! RFK: we’re replacing the fluoride in your water with horse dewormer AMERICA: oh okay

Listen friends if you lionize a liar… you are also a liar The best response for the memory of a person whose hallmark is disinformation… is silence

That's exactly the part we always miss. Republicans get really good at talking about voters top concerns right before the election because they invented that issue over the last 2-4 years.

Why do some people seem to genuinely think a war is just memes

The medbed thing is funny but maybe it’s bad that the press has no interest in evaluating whether the president has functioning reality-testing

I genuinely don't know how you extract meaningful concessions if the executive branch can choose to spend money or not regardless of what's in the CR, apparently with SCOTUS's shadowy blessing. That and all the rest of the rampant lying and lawlessness, of course.

We have to stop dehumanizing ICE agents while they are doing their important job of dehumanizing us

Both guys with extremely in-character views on what growing up in Irvine was like:

“The president should be removed from office because he is plainly insane.” I mean, there is no war in Portland. There just isn’t. You can’t & won’t avoid reporting this story. But you’ll still find a way to try to report it in a way that gives him the benefit of the doubt. And that’s wrong.