The drafters fittingly named our simple satisfactions the “pursuit of happiness.” Not least of this Administration’s abuse is making—almost every day—some emergency more urgent to talk about. Our pursuit of happiness has had a pillow forced over its face, and it is not healthy, and not fair.

What half of social media posts feel like, right now: “Everyone is about to be dishonored, profaned, swindled, abused, or left for dead, in a dramatic fashion which will, in some twisted sense, be novel. Grab the popcorn.”

The GOP in 2017: “It’s unfair to count the cost Trump’s 2017 tax cuts in calculating the deficit, because they are only temporary cuts.” The GOP in 2025: “It’s unfair to count the cost of making Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent, because the tax cuts already exist.”

The Trump administration attitude is that if you receive any taxpayer dollars, you are an employee of Trump Enterprises

Treating a new Covid strain like a crime and not a public health issue is deranged.

“Donald Trump has repeatedly said he could settle the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day if he’s elected president again.” apnews.com/article/trum...

So—if you’ve been fortunate enough to have lived a long time, without having criminals break in and burglarize your house, have you spent all this time disappointed, believing that the only reason for this is that there haven’t been burglars manly enough to do it?

Ah yes, Habeas Corpus. Latin for, "Deport first, Google later."

The air traffic controllers‘ radar screens have again just gone dark again at Newark International Airport. Which means there’s only one thing to do. Devote still more resources and personnel to discourage crossings at the Southern border.

NPR thinks protests aren’t really worth covering and the only newsworthy aspect is the crowd size, you say?

'If Your Church Won't Speak Out About a Deported Father (and Thousands More Like Him)—It May as Well Cancel Easter' johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/if-your-ch...

Isn’t it horrifying that there has been (at least, since 2021) no insurrection, and no sign whatever of an insurrection, and yet we pretty much already know that this president will almost certainly invoke the Insurrection Act, and may do so soon?

Hi folks: Facebook appears to be taking down my posts. Please remember they are available for free here (no paywall), and can be received by email (also free-- just don't put in your credit card information). I guess if I'm being banned I'm doing something right?

Cory Booker. 👇👇👇

Pathetic. Shameful. Cowardly. Disgusting. Trump and JD Vance showed the world they will enthusiastically reward the aggression of dictators and don't think freedom is worth fighting for. They are setting fire to Reagan's "City Upon A Hill."

Everyone knows what happened here. Trump can only exist around people he can causally humiliate. Guys lie JD and Rubio. He wanted to do a ritual humiliation of Zelensky and Ukraine but Zelensky wouldn’t accept that and so Trump reacted like a stung bitch.

liz Cheney: Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to defend. But today, Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine...

This morning at Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HQ in DC as mandatory return to office began, this video played on loop for ~5 mins on screens throughout the building, per agency source. Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs.

So, basically: Ukraine knew perfectly well not to leave the house dressed like that.

This. Especially Senate Republicans.

The author of this piece was an associate WH counsel under Reagan. He has a very polite way of explaining that what Trump is doing with DOGE is a coup. wapo.st/4hSE7Ox

“Any hint of the selective suspension of congressionally authorized payments will be a breach of trust and ultimately, a form of default,” five former U.S. Treasury secretaries write. “And our credibility, once lost, will prove difficult to regain.”

JD Vance - If you believe any of the multiple federal courts that have ruled against you so far are exceeding their statutory or Constitutional authority, your recourse is to appeal. You don’t get to rage-quit the Republic just because you are losing. That’s tyranny.

The struggle of our time is already, and will be, exhausting. Saving our nation and soul will not be the work of a day or a week. We must stay informed; hold, manage, and wisely deploy our outrage, equal to our strength, so that we may live another day to do it some more.

While I’ve gratefully watched Bishop Budde's act of bravery remind us of the power of a single voice, my greatest fear is that she will be the only one of her kind; that in a few days she will prove to be an outlier, just a beautiful aberration. johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/dont-let-b...

AOC: "We stand here just two days after President Trump gave unconditional pardons to violenct criminals who attacked the Capitol, and these are the people who want you to believe they're 'keeping criminals off the streets.'"

Jules Feiffer: rest in peace. ❤️

Elon Musk doing the Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration rally. Did it twice, actually. Don’t waste time arguing with the people telling us that’s not what happened. They’re not mistaken, they are engaged in propaganda. Faced with authoritarianism in power, it is crucial we trust our own eyes.

Cannot seem to bring myself (and why need I?) to watch or hear anything that man does in real time. Reading the facts in the paper later will do, and is calmer—like waiting for blood results to come back.

a functioning opposition party that represented the working class could spike this photo in the end zone basically forever

ABC News had a very strong case on the merits (“we just used the same word the presiding judge used”) They have the in-house lawyers and deep pockets to fight it. They folded anyway. They didn’t need to announce the settlement sum. But apparently they wanted everyone to see their capitulation.

Trump’s first term was a study in the capitulation of the Republican Party and conservative movement. Apparently Trump’s second term will be a study in the capitulation of…everyone else.

“Over the weekend, the folks who run ABC surrendered to Donald Trump, because, we are told, ‘this problem needed to go away.’ But the ‘problem’ won’t go away. In fact, they just made it far worse.” open.substack.com/pub/charlies...

And the new era begins. My Substack is alive again, and here's my first post paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-fraudu...

Hamlet would be a lot funnier if (after the duel) it turned out his dad was alive the whole time.

Just to be clear, Trump is talking about deporting American citizens. So, under a scenario in which Elon Musk was shown to have lied about his student status during his naturalization process - as reported - and was deported, then Musk's children would be sent back to South Africa?

Rep Cheney's statement is both a vivid reminder of Trump's lies and lies to come, and a response to Trump's frightening call JUST TODAY to send Jan 6 committee members to jail. Threatened With Jail, Cheney Condemns Trump’s ‘Assault on the Rule of Law’ www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/u...

First Bluesky post. Some feeling here, yet, of: if-you-build-it-they-will-come (with maybe a dash of: waiting for the rest of your party to arrive at the restaurant). Hello to friends already here, and to friends arriving. ❤️