Great article. Regarding the 600,000 armed forces limit, I believe Mark Galeotti cited an unnamed British source that Ukraine can’t afford that large an army in peacetime.

You got it.

Because using people with no experience or knowledge of the issues as high level contacts with Russia has been working so well for Team Trump ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

More evidence the Dmitriev plan isn’t happening, which means Team Trump is going to look like the amateurs they are. I can only guess that the reason Witkoff is still tolerated as lead negotiator is because Rubio and State see his amateurism as a circuit breaker.

That a boy Lindsey, but come on find your the spirit of John McCain and put aside “problematic” and call it the. betrayal it is in so many words.

So the full court press is on. Putin clearly seeing his window for using Trump to strong arm Ukraine is closing. Can Europe finally do what is needed to be done?

Coming from a world of back room deals and power plays, Trump just cannot grasp how limited his leverage is regarding Ukraine, not just because Ukraine and Europe are interested parties but selling out Ukraine is deeply unpopular among Americans and much of the GOP.

More if this GOP

This may be the first time I have laughed at something Trump said intentionally.

Worth noting Trump seems okay with Zelensky deciding to keep fighting. No threats, which isn’t a guarantee, but seems like Rubio has got Elbridge Colby in his cage.

Well this is interesting. So Dmitriev, not a panicked US official set the ball rolling. That said it certainly looks like we will be back to the less than satisfactory status quo of Trump administration ambivalence about supporting Ukraine but not able to dump Ukraine much as Trump might want to.

Typically for Vance this drips contempt for facts and the historical record. As if the war just happened because of a lack of constructive engagement.

AOC: Should this AI bubble pop, we should not be entertaining a bailout of these corporations while healthcare is being denied to Americans and SNAP is being denied to Americans —

Reupping this, having seen news that the Senate has declared the Epstein release passed. Still a ways to go, but we closer to this coming to pass than we were. Pretty clear the GOP has finally determined Trump gets them nothing but grief, but the party leaders still fear MAGA.

This man, Rev. Michael Woolf, wrote this for us earlier this month: "It is up to us to keep our communities safe from this terror, and scripture tells us that God will meet us there—at the picket line, amid the tear gas." sojo.net/articles/opi...

Odds are slim, but I’m just going to put this out there just it happens. The Epstein files may prove to be the life raft the GOP will find to turn on Trump. They fear a bloodbath 11/26. Epstein has split Trump’s base, and Pedo yuck can be used to leave Trump w/o turning on MAGA program.

Odds are slim, but I’m just going to put this out there just it happens. The Epstein files may prove to be the life raft the GOP will find to turn on Trump. They fear a bloodbath 11/26. Epstein has split Trump’s base, and Pedo yuck can be used to leave Trump w/o turning on MAGA program.

👇👇

This is a better answer than I gave on The Source to @kaitlancollins.bsky.social last night.

“Housing shortage – Jews to blame," letter sticker, German Reich, 1938 zwangsraeume.berlin/en/context

If American fertility rate was when Vance wants and we had highly restrictive immigration housing prices would still be a problem. Immigration that has allowed economic growth isn’t the problem.

Delivery is so important. Glad to see a vote of confidence like this.

SCOTUS refines its stance on the unitary executive and settled law to include a libertarian stance on culture war issues that no longer move the needle towards the GOP.

After sleeping on it, I’m less disgusted than I was last night. The 8 did not cave to the House bill. There will be changes finding SNAP, so Johnson will have to call in the House, and presumably he will have to swearing Grijalva. Emptywheel provides a lot more insight. Thanks!

This is Juat depressing. Fetterman I get, and maybe King, who isn’t a Democrat, but this certainly seems like handing Trump a win for absolutely nothing.

Rosalind Franklin died at 37 of ovarian cancer attributed to radiation exposure from the methods she & her assistant used to photograph a cross-section of the DNA double helix. Meanwhile, Watson won a Nobel off that work & survived to the ripe old age of 97 by simply: stealing those notes!

Steve Bannon is wedded to the misperception that MAGA's driving force is a working class base, when in fact its core is private equity and family businesses whose aim is to capture as much public money as possible before the whole thing collapses. My latest at @mmfa.bsky.social

Okay, so I did it. In honor of Sandwich Guy, on what should be the last day of his trial, I figured out the chords. And so, with apologies to the late and great Bob Marley, I banged out this quick and (very) rough rendition of "I Threw the Sandwich." 🤣

AOC: I have to tell you, in my traveling across the country, I am hearing and have been seeing consistent things from everyday people. And it is that they are terrified, they are frustrated, they are angry, and they are shocked by a president violating the values that we hold dear

AOC: I think what this night is starting and shaping up to represent is that Americans everywhere are not going to be scared. We will not be intimidated by an administration that is violating the rights and making life hard and unaffordable for every single American in this country.

PHILLIP: Republicans are saying that Chuck Schumer is afraid of you. Is he? AOC: I don't think so. Sen. Schumer and I have worked together. I think Republicans are afraid of me and they project their fear onto him. So they're just telling on themselves when they say that.

AOC: We have a future to fight for, and we're either going to do that together or you're going to be left behind. It's not about Progressive. It's not moderate, it's not liberal. This is about do you understand the assignment of fighting fascism right now? And the assignment is you come together…

Reupping this

The Cuomo Campaign now showing its class by calling the genuine Republican candidate a spoiler in video billboards in Queens.

Just the clearest evidence yet vote Cuomo and you get Cuomo who will do anything to get power except actually serve the people’s interests. If you don’t like Trump and you think Cuomo is for you, pay attention to this.

Radically new increasing food insecurity did great for “small government conservatives” the last time they pushed the envelope. Just ask Herbert Hoover.

Mamdani: "There are 12 days remaining until Election Day. I will be a Muslim man in NYC each of those 12 days and every day that follows after that. I will not change who I am, how I eat, or the faith that I am proud to call my own."

So they didn’t like the ad. Let’s just post Reagan’s 5 min speech against tariffs as it appears on YouTube. Over and over. On all platforms (some of y’all are still on X). *1981 Sherrilyn horrified by 2025 Sherrilyn saying “let’s post Reagan’s speech.” youtu.be/5t5QK03KXPc

Brian Schatz: "This is not about money. There is enough money to bail out Argentina with $20b. There is enough money to purchase a brand new aircraft for $173m for Noem. There is enough money to renovate the WH ballroom. What there isn't enough money for under this Republican government is you."

This Brecht Poem speaks to the moment The Solution After the uprising of the 17th June The Secretary of the Writers Union Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee Stating that the people Had forfeited the confidence of the government And could win it back only By redoubled efforts 1/2

One of perverse dynamics of Trumpism, how a frequently toadyish establishment press undergirds a system in which Trumpists regularly accuse Democrats of being “the Nazis” and we have frequent revelations in which Trump insiders tell each other “we’re the Nazis”

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo has written cogently about how the Gaza Crisis was tailored-made for Trump’s corrupt skill set. The quote below illustrates this conversely. Trump just cannot grasp that this rewards Putin nor that there is no constituency beyond Trump himself.

Ah yes, Trump looking weak and entirely beholden to to getting approval from a corrupt autocrat. I don’t think anyone, even among Trump’s base voted for that, apart from Elon Musk.

Cuomo may be a sitting duck of a target, but Mamdani is still on fire.

“You lost your own primary. You were rejected by your own Democrats.” - Sliwa to Cuomo

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 3: Earl Manigault When he stepped onto the court, the world watched. No one dunked harder or jumped higher. But the GOAT never made it pro. There are countless NYC stories like his. Brilliant talents lost to drugs or crime. It doesn’t have to be this way.

It’s about equality

For people who keep talking about making America great again, these folks seem to hate what has made America great for almost 250 years.

The message of the moment