Mr. PRESIDENT, TEAR DOWN THIS BALLROOM

Demolition day should be a national celebration.

I hope everyone takes a good hard look at this picture. Trump’s under-construction ballroom is now bigger than the rest of the White House. Much bigger. The contrast says everything you need to know about this President and his priorities.

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— James E. Clyburn (@repjamesclyburn.bsky.social) 12 November 2026 at 00:15

Really the first test of "are you willing to do anything."

Symbolic, somewhat, but the tendency accept the current state of affairs as the new baseline is strong.

We can argue about what compromises Dems should make in dealing with Trump, but recognize that many Dems are not as interested in, say, cutting the ridiculous ICE budget as they should be.

If the next president is a Dem and they have a trifecta, there won't be any excuses . A willigness to rip Trump remnants from everything shouldn't be controversial.

Bye Bye

I admit I haven't been following the details of all of this very closely, but Jensen Huang just resigned from everything.

Morning

Thirsty Thursday

Happy Hour

get happy

Troop Disrespecters

Big balls on that guy.

wow -- CNN broadcast footage of an Arlington guard yelling at a group with Pete Hegseth to "MAINTAIN SILENCE ... PAY RESPECT!" after someone in his entourage started laughing at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 11 November 2026 at 19:55

Who's Next

Dem solidarity with Omar has been less than perfect. It is the kind of thing they should be screaming about daily, if only out of a sense of self-preservation.

Federal prosecutors filed a felony charge earlier this year against a man who briefly served as a bodyguard for Representative Ilhan Omar in what his lawyer described as an unusual gambit to obtain incriminating information about the lawmaker.

The case against the bodyguard, Abdullahi Mohamed, who was accused of lying to a government official under oath, provides new insight into the Justice Department’s efforts to build a criminal case against Ms. Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who last week won a fifth term in Congress.

"Efforts"

Mr. Mohamed’s lawyer, Bruce Rivers, said that prosecutors spent months trying to turn the bodyguard into an informant to bolster their case against Ms. Omar. In a move he described as shocking, Mr. Rivers said that prosecutors repeatedly told him and Mr. Mohamed that the investigation into Ms. Omar was “100 percent being run by 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” the address of the White House.

Not Better Off Ted

I long appreciated the Al Franken joke which went something like: I like Ted Cruz a lot more than most of my colleagues, and I fucking hate Ted Cruz.

How exactly he managed to lodge in himself in as the senior senator from Texas is a bit of a mystery, but I suspect keeping that job depends on the state being reliably Republican.

He certainly isn't going to overperform  other Republicans running for statewide offices in 2030. Maybe he won't need to, but he has to be a bit nervous!

Sure, Ted, you're the guy for the job.

Sen. Ted Cruz believes he is the person to help retake Texas for the Republican Party following historic wins by Democrats in the midterms.

Cruz announced a new Austin headquarters for Saving Texas, a nonprofit organization with ties to him, Axios reported.

Sure Dude

Stephen's gonna reunite the incel army.

Stephen Miller wants to use his new role as White House chief of staff to win back young and minority men who helped elect President Trump in 2024 but swung toward Democrats in the midterms, two people familiar with the administration's plans tell Axios.

...

His priorities will sound familiar to Trump watchers: eliminating what the administration considers "woke" policies from colleges and workplaces, lowering prescription drug prices, and rooting out government and health-care fraud.

Absolutely twitter-brained. 

Leadership

My amateur but not entirely clueless opinion is there was never any chance of stopping Jeffries from becoming Speaker, but there was/is some chance of stopping Schumer.

That isn't a comment on who deserves it more/less, just on the dynamics.

As for the merits, there is one simple case against Chuck which isn't a comment on his skills or even his age: he's been Leader for 10 years and maybe that's enough?

Morning

 Weird Wednesday.

Happy Hour

Once again.

America's Worst Humans

Bill Gates. Not just for this, of course.

Pedocons

 Gym Jordan is the next House Minority Leader.

Flashbacks

I remembered that in 2004 both Kerry and Bush did interviews with Dr. Phil, who asked both of them if they spanked their kids.

Well Okay Then

Ex-Fetterman and new centrist fake think tank guy Adam Jentlesen with Ezra Klein.

Right. So one of the things that we found in our research is that there are issues that would never pop into your average poll of top voter concerns, that nonetheless are extremely powerful signals to people that you have a heterodox point of view and that you don’t think in a rigidly ideological way.

So one example is the issue of what’s called social promotion in schools — the idea that you just promote kids to the next grade regardless of whether they failed the tests or not.

Being against that is something that people don’t expect to hear from Democrats these days. They think of Democrats as everybody-gets-a-trophy squishes.

So if you say: If kids fail the test or fail the requirements of their grade, they should not be promoted — that sends a really powerful signal to voters that you’re a different kind of Democrat.

Being against homeless encampments is a very powerful signal.

Being open to things like spanking — those issues are incredibly culturally loaded but I think connect with voters on a values basis.

So we don’t always have to be talking about trans sports or climate change or border security. There are lots of ways for people to develop these complicated appeals that reflect the complex ways that voters interact with the world beyond these four or five issues that we’re always talking about.

Out: always talking about trans sports (who was doing this?).

In: talking about spanking.

Gotta hire some consultants to tell Dems how to put spanking references into their speeches.

Workplace Collegiality

I don't know precisely what Stepehen Miller's ascension to Chief of Staff means for most of us, but I do know he's going to make life hell for everyone who remains there. That is funny, at least.

One reason all of these people are so fucked up is they are assholes surrounded by nothing but assholes. They all hate each other and they don't understand that most of us don't actually live like that.

But Stephen takes that to the next level. Have fun, MAGA deadenders!

Oh No

I think it's been forgotten, mostly, that Fetterman had delusions of running for president, not that long ago. I'm not sure if he still had those delusions before the election (doubtful), but now whatever path he had to remaining relevant is gone.

Leaving aside the specifics of the man, I do think it is much much much more difficult to be the mavericky party switcher (either direction) than it once was. Fetterman can't out-MAGA someone in a PA Republican primary, even if Republicans don't hate him.

Morning

Low T Tuesday.

Happy Hour

Get happy 

Ruh-Roh

 Vanderbilt University: