Tuesday, September 30, 2025
All Grown Up
At a moment when Democrats in Congress are under pressure to oppose President Trump at every turn, a liberal advocacy group that fought his first-term efforts to remake the federal judiciary is back, with the intent to pile on.
The organization, Demand Justice, went dormant at the tail end of the Biden administration. It was revived recently by Josh Orton, whose career in Democratic politics has included working with Senators Russ Feingold and Harry Reid and serving as policy director to the 2020 Bernie Sanders campaign and as a senior aide to Kamala Harris during her vice presidency.
Mr. Orton, 44, intends to use the Demand Justice megaphone to push Democrats to not just oppose Mr. Trump’s judicial nominees, but “demonstrate steadfast opposition to the dismantling and corruption of our legal system, courts and the rule of law,” according to a memo from Mr. Orton to the group’s board of directors.
Is This Good, Chat
The defense secretary—who prefers the moniker “Secretary of War”—is being described by staffers as “manic,” erupting into fits of rage and tumultuous tirades, the Daily Mail reported on Monday.
While he has reportedly always been temperamental, two staffers claim the former Fox News star’s mental state has reached new, frenzied heights after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this month.
They said Hegseth is becoming increasingly “obsessed” with his own security and exhibits frantic behavior, such as fidgeting and pacing during meetings.
“There’s a manic quality about him. Or let me rephrase, an even more manic quality, which is really saying something,” an insider told the outlet.
MAHA
Listeria outbreak from recalled frozen meals sold at Trader Joe's and Walmart leaves 4 dead, 19 in hospitalToo many participants in the system do not understand that while it would be great if I could do fraud and avoid regulation, it is a problem if that applies to everyone.
If The President Posts Something, It's News
This is extra notable, as the newspaper has covered Medbeds previously. The subject alone makes it notable, even without the fact that the president quite likely didn't realize a video starring himself was fake. But also that.
Monday, September 29, 2025
Make Sure All Your Friends Know, And Know Not To Say Anything
Jury nullification is an old weapon against tyranny. America’s founding generation saw juries as charged with determining not just fact but also law—that is, jurors could decide to acquit the accused, even those who seemed guilty of what they were charged with, if jurors believed that the law itself was unjust. An 1895 Supreme Court case, U.S. v. Sparf, involving a murder at sea, officially stripped juries of the right to decide the law, ruling that they could consider only the facts of the case and how those facts relate to the law. Juries can still nullify, however, because judges have no authority to review a verdict of “not guilty.”
Jury nullification has long had a bad reputation because of the crime it was frequently used to cover up: lynching. For generations in the South, all-white juries nullified accusations of murder involving lynchings, many of which were carried out with the participation of a town’s politicians, law enforcement, and leading businessmen. Unable or unwilling to point to the culprits, coroners would describe the murders with the haunting phrase “death at the hands of persons unknown.” Whether out of fear for their own safety or in solidarity with the murderers, jurors who refused to indict ensured that extrajudicial killings in the South were rarely punished. A tool meant to prevent tyranny was instead used to enforce it.
Yet as the Morris case shows, the tool itself is not inherently evil. Jury nullification is neutral, its morality defined by the cause for which it is employed. Now that President Donald Trump is perverting the Justice Department into an instrument of political persecution, jury nullification may be one of the only mechanisms that everyday Americans have to protect the rule of law.
What Is Happening
WASHINGTON (AP) — Netanyahu calls Qatari prime minister to apologize for Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Doha, AP sources say.
— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) September 29, 2025
You Can't Make Jokes Like That Anymore
Comedian Tim Dillon said on his podcast last month that he signed up for financial reasons. He said he had been offered "a large sum of money" — $375,000 for one performance — and said that other comedians had been offered as much as $1.6 million. He told his detractors to "get over it," adding, "So what if they have slaves, they're paying me enough to look the other way."But in an episode of the Tim Dillon Podcast last week, the comedian announced he'd been removed from the lineup for the comments he made about the country's record on slavery. (NPR reached out to Saudi's General Entertainment Authority for verification, but has not yet heard back.) "I addressed it in a funny way and they fired me," Dillon said on his podcast. "I certainly wasn't gonna show up in your country and insult the people that are paying me the money."
"Kavanaugh Stops"
That term has been added to the official Eschaton World Industries style guide, referring to ICE attempts to kidnap people in public, especially when the apparent probable cause is existing while brown.
EXCLUSIVE: Earlier today ICE agents chase after a man in downtown Chicago after he made verbal comments but no physical or threatening contact. The man was able to get away. pic.twitter.com/uOiHXSmQny
— Christopher Sweat (@SweatEm) September 28, 2025
Sunday, September 28, 2025
The Man Has A Point
You can't host the United Nations while refusing visas to heads of government/state and other relevant people. (google translate):
Colombian President Gustavo Petro responded to the United States on Saturday by saying that the revocation of his visa, announced Friday by the State Department , violates international law and diplomatic immunity, and therefore he believes the UN headquarters cannot remain in New York.
"What the US government is doing to me breaks all the immunity rules on which the United Nations and its General Assembly are based. There is total immunity for presidents who attend the Assembly and the US government cannot influence the opinion of the US," Petro wrote on his X account.
Probably Plotting His Presidential Run With Nate Silver
Eric Adams drops out of the NY mayoral race.
... I think he will almost certainly remain on the ballot.
A Brief History Of The Presidency (1981-present)
Reagan - senileYou can debate the nuances of "senile" as applying to each one,* but it isn't a great record!
Bush I - not senile
Clinton - not senile
Bush II - not senile
Obama - not senile
Trump - brain worms
Biden - senile
Trump II - brain worms and senile
Pedophile DemonRats And Big Pharma Are Suppressing The Medbed Technology
I was never a full Qanonologist and I never heard about medbeds before, but apparently they're the secret technology that is going to be installed in hospitals everywhere and we will all be cured of everything for free. Good news for my plantar fasciitis!
Anyhoo... [ post taken down now, i'll link to someone who posted some pictures when I get a chance ]
A fun challenge for reporters, at least! "Some experts say medbed technology is unlikely to be ready any time soon" might be a line in a Peter Baker article soon.Saturday, September 27, 2025
Troop Defender, AWOL
Troop Defender Jake Tapper still has not covered this story on TV. I wonder why.
Sure Why Not
Generation Lead
Friday, September 26, 2025
What Happened, Jake?
America's Troop Defender, Jake Tapper, did not cover this story yesterday.
I'm pretty sure CNN didn't cover it at all (I say pretty sure because I could've accidentally missed it while searching transcripts) on TV yesterday.
Warrior Ethos
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered hundreds of generals to travel on short notice from around the world to hear him make a short speech on military standards and the “warrior ethos,” multiple people familiar with the event told The Washington Post.
Fuck You, Pay Me
The speculation about Taylor Swift’s possible performance at the Super Bowl has now reportedly come to an abrupt end. Industry insiders claimed that Swift made some demands to perform for the halftime show. However, the NFL refused to meet her terms, and the deal has thus fallen through. In that, the NFL reportedly wanted her to do the show for “exposure,” but as an insider bluntly stated, “Taylor Swift doesn’t need exposure.”At least for me it was sometimes from people who didn't have an infinite amount of money.
Logistics, How The Fuck Does It Work
US President Donald Trump says he will move matches at the 2026 World Cup from any cities he thinks are unsafe.I can't believe Mr. Trump has such a negative view of our fine boys in blue, the thin blue line, suggesting they can't handle this!
"It will be safe for the World Cup," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "If I think it isn't safe, we'll move it into a different city."
Seems Bad
Measles infections in the United States have reached a new high since the disease was declared eradicated in 2000, surpassing 1,500 cases on Sept. 24 with outbreaks growing in parts of Utah and Arizona, public health officials said.No he hasn't been in charge long, yes he has been an influential anti-vaxxer for a long time.
It's Tariff Week, Again
President Trump on Thursday announced a slew of steep tariffs on pharmaceuticals, semi trucks, kitchen cabinets and furniture, saying import taxes on those products would go into effect on Oct. 1.Have we learned we can't make deals with President Deals yet?
The effects of the new tariffs are likely to be felt across sectors of the economy, from housing and health care to logistics. The tariffs range from 25 percent to 100 percent, with the highest levies applying to “any branded or patented” pharmaceutical product coming into the United States.
The president also said the United States would begin imposing a 50 percent tariff on imported kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and associated products, along with a 30 percent tariff on imported upholstered furniture and a 25 percent tariff on foreign semi trucks.
I suspect not!
Thursday, September 25, 2025
Ageing Disgracefully
I'm sure everyone has well-intentioned recommendations, but, really, I've seen them all...
Just For Lolz
Did He Just Accidentally Hit Reply All
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of the U.S. military’s generals and admirals to gather on short notice — and without a stated reason — at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week, sowing confusion and alarm after the Trump administration’s firing of numerous senior leaders this year.
...
Top commanders in conflict zones and senior military leaders stationed throughout Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region are among those expected to attend Hegseth’s meeting, said people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to publicly discuss the issue. The order does not apply to top military officers who hold staff positions.
None of the people who spoke with The Post could recall a defense secretary ever ordering so many of the military’s generals and admirals to assemble like this. Several said it raised security concerns.
“People are very concerned. They have no idea what it means,” one person said.
I don't know if my kneejerk response is "this is scary" or "for obvious reasons this is the dumbest fucking idea I've heard about this week."
We Came, We Saw, He Died
The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a trial in which he and aides were accused of making a corruption pact with the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to receive funding for the 2007 French presidential election campaign.Heckuva job, everyone, including all the usual suspects who briefly pretended to care deeply about the people of Libya, and who screamed at everyone who was skeptical of this sudden humanitarian concern.
Trump vs. Trumpsim
President Trump accused the United Nations of "sabotage" and demanded an investigation Wednesday after an escalator and teleprompter malfunctioned during his visit to U.N. headquarters — though the U.N. says a videographer from Mr. Trump's delegation may have triggered the escalator's safety shutoff.A physical challenge unmatched since Erik Erikson walked .75 miles.
Shortly after Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump entered U.N. headquarters in New York City on Tuesday to address world leaders at this year's General Assembly session, they stepped onto an escalator. But the machine ground to a halt almost immediately, forcing both Trumps to start climbing the stairs on their own, videos of his arrival show.
Though I am impressed that the man lives in an area of walkable urbanism unavailable for most Americans.
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Heckuva Job, Elon
Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.Heckuva job to everyone who did, or pretended to, take Elon seriously.
The General Services Administration has given the employees — who managed government workspaces — until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press.
Those who accept must report for duty on October 6 after what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation, during which time the GSA in some cases racked up high costs — passed along to taxpayers — to stay in dozens of properties whose leases it had slated for termination or were allowed to expire.
Vive la Résistance
More than a million people had canceled Disney streaming subscriptions as of Monday, the Disney source told me, and the company likely knew that trend would only continue the longer they kept Kimmel silenced.The unruly mob can be powerful. Much to think about.
Inflicting Pain
This is certainly true insitutionally. There are good people at the New York Times, for example, but the institutional line is that it is inerrant.
My assertion was humored (with hindsight I see more clearly how often I was humored, back in those days) but not appreciated. Surely those fine people with fancy jobs and good pedigress aren't like that?
How is my take holding up these days?
We Are All The Dixie Chicks Now
The Dixie Chicks incident was more exception than rule, and while it was bad, they were famous public figures, not relative nobodies.
Also 9/11 was a genuine national emergency, which doesn't excuse any overreactions to it, but does provide a context for them. Now the national emergency is that this fucking guy is president.
And, yes, I know, by March, 2003, somehow 9/11 had morphed into Iraq, with none of our fearless celebrity journalists noticing. The actual national emergency was transformed into something it wasn't. Still, context.
Marks
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Famous Last Words
Chotiner's interview of Cass Sunstein ends with this, so you can guess how it goes.
Professor, thank you so much for doing this.
Great, thanks. If we go light on the Kissinger part, I wouldn’t complain, because it could dwarf everything else.
Coverage From Abroad
Occasionally the UK tabs can be good (though the British press is, on the whole, awful).
Trump stood between TV quack Dr Oz and croaky boomer nepobaby RFK Jr and dished out manifestly untrue medical advice for the first time since the infamous 'inject Covid patients with disinfectant' incident
You Were Vice President!
Harris acknowledges becoming frustrated with left-wing Gaza protesters.
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) September 22, 2025
"The threat to withhold their vote got to me. It felt reckless. The issue was not binary, but the outcome of this election certainly was. Why weren't they protesting at Trump rallies? I wondered."
The Spanish PM Has Been Expelled From Columbia University
The Spanish PM said this at Columbia University yesterday: “Defending your country is one thing. But killing 60,000 civilians, bombing hospitals, and starving children to death is something else entirely.” “We are witnessing one of the darkest tragedies of the 21st century unfold before our eyes.”
— Jesse Myerson (@jessemyerson.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Diplomacy
Going great at the UN.
Which Way, Democrats
President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to cancel a planned meeting this week with the two top Democrats in Congress, just days before the federal government is set to shut down.
Trump had been scheduled to meet with Senate and House Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries sometime this week, CNBC and other news outlets reported.
“After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Normies Revolt
Monday, September 22, 2025
Selling Out
There is a bit of a structural problem in that many of the people who go into politics to be dogooders eventually, understandably, give up on that. It's a bit hard to keep going on that path after watching your more evil colleagues thrive and get rich.
What Are We Saying Here
But during a week when much of the Democratic establishment seemed to be slowly getting on board with Mr. Mamdani’s candidacy, Mr. Schumer, people familiar with his thinking on the matter said, still has not made up his mind.Polls have Mamdani leading with Jewish voters.
His hesitance reflects the complicated calculus of a leader facing unique political challenges of his own, including an approval rating at a 20-year low, and who is single-mindedly focused on leading his party back to the Senate majority next year — a task that will require victories in competitive states with little appetite for a democratic socialist who is deeply critical of Israel. It also springs from Mr. Schumer’s sense of responsibility to Jewish voters, and the influence of donors and Democrats in New York City, particularly in the real estate industry, many of whom are vocal with their concerns about a Mamdani mayoralty.
He is also aware that traditional Jewish donors were furious about Ms. Hochul’s endorsement of Mr. Mamdani."Traditional Jewish donors."
I dunno, man, suggesting that "traditional Jewish donors" have disproportionate influence over the Senate minority leader is, um, problematic, for various reasons.
Leaving aside the "Jewish" aspect, I think it's a problem that the Senate minority leader does unpopular things because the people who write the big checks have his phone number. That's a pretty big story!
Though, really, donor influence on any issue mostly isn't about money. Chuck Schumer doesn't actually worry about raising money, not in the way people imagine, anyway. It is more that there is a little private social club with an entrance fee, and the people in that social club are people Chuck Schumer likes and respects, people he talks to. You are not in that club and Mamdani will never be in that club.
One For The Museum
Easton is VP of "public policy" for the new centrist dipshit "think tank."
I generally don't lean too much into credentialing, but maybe your public policy VP should have more than a BA.
Fetterman alum, of course, like the president of it. They never broke with Fetterman, they just couldn't stand working for him.
Solidarity
Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani will announce Monday that he is cancelling a televised town hall with WABC News planned for Sept. 25 in the wake of the network suspending comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show last week, amNewYork has learned.Republicans always know to jump on the latest issue/cause of the day, and Dems just... don't.
The Libertarian President Of Argentina
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said “all options” are on the table for the Trump administration to support Argentina through a bout of severe market volatility, throwing a lifeline to libertarian president Javier Milei.
In comments on X, Bessent said that financial assistance could include purchases of Argentina’s currency or sovereign debt by a fund controlled by the US Treasury.
I Suppose It Would
The repeated and regular statements of top Israeli officials, including the Prime Minister, have also raised concerns.Israel’s demolition of Gaza City’s high rises has raised residents’ concerns that the intent is to permanently displace them https://t.co/RcgBRSmyuO pic.twitter.com/yOrp0S2f8E
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 20, 2025
Sunday, September 21, 2025
The Worst Candidate Intake Since 2006
I scream about the Dems, in part, so we can prevent them from doing dumb things before it's too late.
All signs are that the they will follow an updated Rahm Emanuel strategy from 2008, probably recruit a bunch of DHS managers who think that the mission of ICE is incredibly important, but they just need to do it more effectively. Torturing and imprisoning children is bad not because it's wrong, you see, but because it's ineffective.
I'm being hyperbolic (I hope) and hopefully you can yell at me and correctly tell me that I am wrong! I am not right about everything, but I have been here for awhile. When a bunch of the top people start talking about the need to recruit "conservative candidates," I know exactly what they're talking about.
The worst part is the pretense - expressed by Ezra and many others currently, the memo went out - that someone has been stopping them from doing this! That they don't run the "blows up in our face" conservative candidate plan almost every time! Every fucking time there is a mildly contested primary, the DCCC and DSCC line up behind the more conservative candidate, the person they put up in the first place.
(Line up doesn't mean "directly fund," but who the powers that be are backing is always made clear).
They'll say they need to appeal to "conservative rural voters," or whatever, but their efforts to do so will be to parachute in some guy who has worked in finance for 30 years, who had a vacation home in the district once, spouting some talking points from a focus group about how he isn't like those other Democrats.
Our hospital just closed down, sir, what will you do about it? I will make sure trans girls aren't allowed to play in sports and continue to support the bipartisan effort to renew the expanded tax credits for the Affordable Care Act marketplace plans.
They won't actually do the work. They won't actually focus on rural concerns.
They will also yell at you if you suggest genocide is anything but a niche concern of lefty weirdos.
Accidentally Posting Your DMs
Sure Why Not
Dude had an Adamantium skeleton.'MAN OF STEEL': Charlie Kirk's body stopped a bullet that would typically "just go through everything" and it was an "absolute miracle" nobody else was killed, his surgeon told TPUSA. pic.twitter.com/1Ubx519ax6
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 21, 2025
As Soon As The Hyperloop Is Done
He'll get serious about this moon shit.
PARIS — NASA safety advisers say they doubt the lunar lander version of SpaceX’s Starship will be ready to support the Artemis 3 mission as planned in 2027.
When Elon bought twitter, and so many people wrote their hagiographical pieces of him, it was quite clear that, sadly, nobody listens to Atrios. Despite Elon's long record, none of the extremely bright pundits were aware of what a lying dumbass he was.
Elon wasn't a niche, obscure subject at the time. Plenty of good journalists had actually been covering his shenanigans - it wasn't just me opining on the blog - and I know some of them were enraged that their colleagues didn't bother to read their reporting on him.
And then the numerous politicians who thought there was any chance DOGE could be anything good.
Some of his worst traits might have been less obvious, but that he was complete dumbass and not the "real life Tony Stark" was clear.
Who are the marks?
Saturday, September 20, 2025
The Vibes Economy
The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday postponed the release of a key annual report central to future inflation data.I think technocrats think things will fall apart quickly if the data is bad or Fed independence is eroded, and I suspect this not true! But, again, I am not saying it doesn't matter, just that it might not matter in the way they imagine.
Short version: we already have an economy which largely floats on scams. I'm not sure how important accurate and timely inflation data really is!
You Started It
When people eventually stop denying that the worms in Trump's brain have made a lot of progress, the excuse will be that Dems covered up Biden, too.
Schoolyard logic, but not entirely wrong.
It's Always 2003 To These Fucking People
Being mealy-mouthed just makes you seem like a loser who doesn't believe in anything! Which, I guess, is why mealy-mouthed losers love it!This is something people really have to take seriously. We need to expand the tent. https://t.co/4mbFS2vuin
— Neera Tanden🌻 (@neeratanden) September 20, 2025
And it isn't new! Dems run anti-choice and wishywishy-on-abortion candidates all the time!
All they are doing there is their favorite thing - lecturing the left on how it's big boy grownup politics to be horrible at politics. It's just trolling!
Neera runs the premier Dem think tank, which includes genocide architect Anthony Blinken on its board!
Friday, September 19, 2025
We Don't Worry About Outdated Concepts Like "Revenue" and "Profit"
Nearly three years after the start of the artificial intelligence boom, business technology leaders are starting to change their thinking on return on investment. The new wisdom? Don’t worry so much about AI’s ROI.We embrace new metrics like "vibes."
Return on investment has evaded chief information officers since AI started moving from early experimentation to more mature implementations last year. But while AI is still rapidly evolving, CIOs are recognizing that traditional ways of recognizing gains from the technology aren’t cutting it.
Welp
She did say that she would appoint a republican, just not then [the View interview]
Still, Harris defends her actions against her critics who said she should have done more to distance herself from Biden, saying she did not “want to embrace the cruelty of my opponent.” She also argues that naming one specific policy difference would have created a “backward-looking rather than forward-looking” conversation and “would have limited the definition of the difference between us to that one thing, rather than my unique perspective on a variety of issues.”
In hindsight, Harris writes, she wishes she’d said that, unlike Biden, she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet.
I'm not interested in second-guessing the campaign, but rather highlighting the thinking that is still driving them.
They all (leadership, the cool kids of the caucus, the centrist dipshit pundits and consultants) believe that her problem is that she wasn't Republican-friendly enough, that Biden himself was too left wing, and when they imagine "Republican" they think "Liz Cheney fan." The white suburban soccer moms from 2004, only now they are soccer grandmas.
If those Sensible Republicans were still Trump-curious in 2024, they weren't Sensible Republicans, were they? That model voter does not exist in any quantity.
They dedicated the campaign to chasing those voters, and they think they just didn't do it well enough.
Look to the UK for the popularity of Starmerism. Labour did manage to get elected due to the conservative vote being split across two parties, and the associated collapse of the Tories, but they are currently at syphilis levels of popularity.
Unpopular President
Overall, 39% of adults approve of the way Trump is handing his job as president and 60% disapprove.Also, too:
We'll Get Right On That
Previously, the South Korean government pledged to establish a US$350 billion fund for US investment on the condition that the US lower its tariffs on Korean imports from 25% to 15%. The expressions of disgruntlement come amid US pressures so unilateral that the situation could scarcely be described as a “negotiation” between the two sides.
In the follow-up negotiations that have been taking place over how the investment is to be carried out and how the profits are to be distributed, Washington has been pressing for direct cash investment, while Seoul has been arguing for investment in the form of financial guarantees instead.
In terms of profit distribution, the US has been insisting on a system where it claims 90% of the profits once the principal investment has been recouped, while South Korea gets 10%.
Sure Why Not
“The reason xAI is here is because Tesla is right across the road,” he said. “My prediction is: Optimus will be more productive than the entire global economy. That the output of goods and services from Optimus will far exceed the global economy, of everyone on Earth.”
Rich People Have More To Lose
Just as you can't have An Exchange Of Ideas And Good Faith Arguments with people who believe in racial hierarchies and believe that some people aren't really people, you can't do that with those who think the rich are more valuable than the rest of us.
This is the elite consensus.
Thursday, September 18, 2025
Donald The Dove
President Donald Trump has been quietly pushing his national security officials for months to find a way to get Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan back from the Taliban, three people familiar with the matter told CNN.
Trump hinted at those discussions publicly for the first time on Thursday, telling reporters that his administration is working to regain control of the base, which lies an hour north of Kabul. The Taliban took it over following the collapse of the Afghan government and the US military withdrawal in 2021.
Sure Why Not
WASHINGTON — Pentagon leaders are considering a new recruiting campaign that would encourage young people to honor the legacy of assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk by joining the military, according to two officials familiar with the planning.Kirk did not get into West Point as he wanted. He then did not enlist.
The idea would be to frame the recruiting campaign as a national call to service, the officials said. Possible slogans that Pentagon leaders have discussed include “Charlie has awakened a generation of warriors,” according to the officials.
Wow Didn't See That One Coming
The U.S. president had cheered ABC for “finally having the courage to do what had to be done” in a late-night Sept. 17 post on Truth Social that also called for NBC to cancel late-night shows of comedians Seth Myers and Jimmy Fallon. “Do it NBC!!!” Trump wrote....It isn't quite as serious as the Oberlin Banh Mi scandal of 2015, but worrying!
Headlines on the Bloomberg Terminal from Air Force One: *TRUMP: TV LICENSES SHOULD BE TAKEN AWAY IF BAD PUBLICITY FOR ME *TRUMP: IF TV SHOWS 'HIT TRUMP' SHOULD BE DISCUSSED ON LICENSES *TRUMP ON TV SHOWS CRITICIZING HIM: THEY'RE NOT ALLOWED TO
— Thomas Seal (@twseal.bsky.social) September 18, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Welp
Literally none of this is true and this woman needs to get help. We have to stop allowing members who are experiencing mental breakdown to continue to work without getting them the help they need. This is an emergency, let’s help her before she hurts herself or one of us. https://t.co/4DDeIm8QyU
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) September 18, 2025
Fuck You Money
You would think people would appreciate that one big benefit of having money - even "I can retire young, comfortably" money, not super yacht money - is that, at worst, you can just nope out and go enjoy your life.
Well, I would have thought, anyway.
Watching videos of people protesting ICE contrasted with Ezra Klein "can't we all just get along" videos has certainly been educational!
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Forgotten Subplots
Denmark’s military spending spree was announced in January this year, shortly after US President Donald Trump began expressing renewed interest in controlling Greenland, insisting last December ahead of taking office that “the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”Subsequent remarks, in which Trump refused to rule out taking Greenland by force, stirred further alarm.But while the issue appears to have dropped off the agenda of the mercurial US leader, along with his threats to annex Canada and to take over the Panama Canal, many Danes still see it as their most pressing – and worrying – diplomatic challenge.
Pariah Nation
It most likely won't happen quickly, but if there are any big outbreaks, get ready to have your vaccine records ready if you want to travel anywhere outside the country.
In a much anticipated public appearance, Susan Monarez, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, defended her short tenure at the embattled public health agency. She testified that she was ousted last month because she refused to follow Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s demands to pre-approve vaccine recommendations for the public and fire career scientists.
No worries, politics is all just debate club for disgusting debate club perverts. Nothing really matters!
Seems Bad
The important thing to remember is we treat "everybody" like this, but some of these Koreans might be people who matter.
We got a vivid glimpse of what it looks like for harsh immigration policies to undermine growth and investment earlier this month, in Georgia, when immigration officials detained hundreds of South Korean nationals working at a battery plant in a small town outside Savannah. On Sept. 4, a large detachment of federal, state and local law enforcement descended on an electric vehicle battery plant operated by Hyundai and LG Electronics. The raid, which the administration described as one of the largest-ever single-location enforcement operations conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, was aimed at just four people. Officials detained nearly 500, the large majority of whom were South Korean workers brought to the plant to assist with its construction.All lawlessness and lies.
While it appears that some of the workers had entered the United States illegally or were present on expired visas, lawyers for others say that their clients had the legal right to work in the United States. The workers, who were held for more than a week, described terrible conditions.
“Their waists and hands were tied together, forcing them to bend down and lick water to drink,” The Hankyoreh, a daily newspaper in South Korea reported. “The unscreened bathrooms contained only a single sheet to cover their lower bodies. Sunlight barely penetrated through a fist-sized hole, and they were only allowed access to the small yard for two hours.”
On August 31, 2025, U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Ray issued a warrant to allow ICE to search the Georgia battery plant, a joint venture of Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, naming four Mexican nationals as “targeted persons.” (The Savannah Morning News obtained a copy of the search warrant.) Nothing in the warrant indicated ICE intended to arrest South Korean workers helping to set up a battery plant for electric vehicles slated to employ 2,000 U.S. workers.An important thing here - which "everyone" seems to be forgetting - is that even if people have real immigration violations, you don't have treat them like this, or anything close to like this. Just tell them to stop working and go home.
On September 4, 2025, approximately 400 state and federal law enforcement personnel raided the battery plant. While they came upon 175 to 200 Latino workers, not all of them working unlawfully, ICE agents also encountered hundreds of South Korean workers.
Charles Kuck, an immigration attorney at Kuck Baxter in Atlanta, represents 11 individuals arrested in the raid and pieced together what happened at the facility. ICE did not bring Korean language interpreters—proof Koreans were not the intended target—but managed to determine that the South Koreans at the facility entered on B-1 visas or the Electronic System for Travel Authorization known as ESTA.
“Not thinking that B-1 and ESTA allow ‘after-sales service and installation,’ which is what the Koreans were doing in setting up the equipment to make the batteries at the facility, ICE agents decided on the spot to arrest all the South Korean workers,” said Kuck in an interview. One of Kuck’s South Korean clients had just arrived the night before and was sitting in a conference room in a business suit, attending a meeting, when arrested by ICE.
A New Group Forms To Oppose Groups
What does your think tank support? Bigotry, pushing people who are mean to us on social media out of public life, and, I dunno, some stuff we will figure out on a game show. Voters like game show hosts, right? We'll get our own!
They Know Even Less Than What They Say
What are we to make of a man who called for the execution of the American president, and then was executed himself? What are we to make of an NFL that, on one hand, encourages us to “End Racism,” and, on the other, urges us to commemorate an unreconstructed white supremacist? And what of the writers, the thinkers, and the pundits who cannot separate the great crime of Kirk’s death from the malignancy of his public life? Can they truly be so ignorant to the words of a man they have so rushed to memorialize? I don’t know. But the most telling detail in Klein’s column was that, for all his praise, there was not a single word in the piece from Kirk himself.What can we make of most of our pundits?
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Nobody Could Have Predicted
The U.S. normally ships most of its soybeans to China between September and January, before Brazil's harvest hits the market, but Chinese buyers have yet to book any U.S. cargoes for the new crop year, according to traders tracking shipments.Zero.
The Pundit Credo
go ahead. keep screaming "Shut The Fuck Up " at me. it only makes my opinions Worse
— wint (@dril) March 10, 2018
After All They Did For Him
President Donald Trump reportedly skipped a prayer vigil for slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk Sunday at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.The president’s public events schedule was blank for Sunday, The Daily Beast reported, and his press schedule indicated he was spending the weekend at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
NYT, earlier:
Sure Why Not
Charlie Kirk weighs in at the link, too. Hope I don't get arrested!
Plot Twist
...still faces second degree, to be clear. All terrorism charges dropped.BREAKING: Justice Gregory Carro has dismissed the first degree murder charge against Luigi Mangione in his state case, finding the DA put legally insufficient evidence before the grand jury. More TK.
— Molly Crane-Newman (@mollycranenewman.bsky.social) September 16, 2025 at 2:38 PM
...Ah I see New York's first degree murder charge does require an extreme "enhancement," like terrorism, so this isn't so weird.
Solidarity
President Donald Trump announced Monday he will file a $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times, alleging defamation and libel, and accusing the outlet of being a “virtual mouthpiece” for the Democrat party.Is it bad? Yes. Is it very funny? Also yes.
Few elite journalists saw what Mo Ryan did when Thiel destroyed Gawker.
This is about one of the fundamental pillars of democracy being threatened by entities with almost infinite power and resources. You know those superhero films in which unstoppable, power-mad villains in the midst of meltdowns decide to threaten entire planets? Yeah, that scenario doesn’t feel all that far-fetched, especially if you’ve spent a decade or two or three working in the media industry.That was 9 years ago.
There have always been rich people who’ve gone after the media, sometimes for frivolous reasons, sometimes for good ones. But the fact is, there are more billionaires in this country than ever. If they all decide to go scorched-earth on journalism outlets they don’t like, well, say goodbye to a free press.
A thriving media ecosystem in which journalists and critics can speak truth to power on a regular basis is one of the foundations of a civil society. “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, as long as the press doesn’t make rich and powerful people angry.” Wait, I may have that excerpt from the Constitution wrong. Or do I?
If you think I’m being hyperbolic, I’m not. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos now owns the Washington Post. Magnate Sheldon Adelson is the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which he appears to be gutting like a fish. And as many commentators have pointed out, Thiel has the ear of the most powerful man at any media company on Earth: Mark Zuckerberg.
Thiel is friends with Zuckerberg and is on the board of Facebook, which, in case you weren’t aware, holds the fate of many media firms in its clammy, data-driven hands. You haven’t seen frenzy behind the scenes at a media company until you’ve lived through a week in which Facebook changes its cryptic algorithms. Few things cause more newsroom ulcers than Facebook or Google altering the the ways in which their users engage with news content. Forget Oprah and Time, Inc: A small array of tech firms hold the keys to the media kingdom, they move in mysterious ways and they answer to no one.
And many of these tech firms believe it’s their mission to fundamentally change our society, which isn’t necessarily a bad impulse, but they’re coming from a culture in which secrecy is an ingrained survival instinct. They don’t like scrutiny and they think pulling back the curtain means giving away trade secrets. In short, many of these companies and the titans they’ve spawned want to build the future without being transparent about their motives, methods or endgames.
And the press? That’s merely something to be controlled. Not so much a pillar but a pet.
Monday, September 15, 2025
America's Worst Newspaper
I don't think this was true even 5 years ago, but now we have reached the point where the influence of legacy media outlets is almost entirely through their influence of, and amplification by, other powerful people. The problem with Morning Joseph is that members of Congress watch him. Almost nobody else does.
The problem with CNN and MSNBC is that they are on in congressional offices all day. Nobody else watches them.
During total day, MSNBC averaged 466,000 total viewers and 37,000 demo [25-54] viewers. This represented a -6% loss in total viewers and a -21% fall in the demo compared to the network’s average the week prior.
...
In total day, the network [CNN] had 366,000 total viewers and 54,000 viewers in the demo [25-54]. This resulted in a 17% increase in total viewers and an 8% increase in the demo during this daypart.
The only reason to care about what's in the WaPo opinion page is that Chuck Schumer probably does.
Sure Why Not
I have no idea if this makes sense. It might!* TRUMP: COMPANIES AND CORPORATIONS SHOULD NO LONGER BE FORCED TO "REPORT" ON A QUARTERLY BASIS @reuters.com #StopTheCount
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 1:01 PM
I Found The Note
It wasn't destroyed, it was just mailed to me somehow.Kash Patel says Charlie Kirk shooting suspect had written a note about the attack that has since been destroyed, but the FBI has “confirmed” what the note said “because of our aggressive interview posture” pic.twitter.com/bq8DppBuTc
— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) September 15, 2025
The Yglesias/Jeffries/Barro/Schumer Wing Of The Democratic Party
The primary intra-caucus argument, right now, is whether to oppose Trump on ICE terrorizing the country or whether not to. The secondary one, with about the same groupings, is disagreement over Israel. Continued rejection of Mamdani (immigrant, critical of Israel) by leadership is, in part, a proxy battle.
Leadership (Schumer, Jeffries) is one camp, some extreme lefty weirdos like [checks notes] Chris Van Hollen are in another.
A spox for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who was criticized by Chris Van Hollen yesterday for not endorsing Mamdani yet and for making vague and unsatisfiable demands of him, said: “Confused New Yorkers are asking themselves the question: Chris Van Who?”
— Emissary Of Night | ليلى (@diplomatofnight.com) September 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
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Our dumbshit pig-people voters have never even heard of another senator!
Josh Barro, resident of New York, the gravitational center of the Hot Takes Industry, has invented a new rule about who is allowed to have Takes. The "don't comment on elections outside of your place of residency" rule is one I will accept, as long as it applies to New Yorkers and shuts down most of the Hot Take business. It will also apply to Jeffries and Schumer, interestingly!
A Follow Up Question, Mr. President
The drug stuff is extra "funny" because it's quite obvious - and Trump knows it - that the MAGA extended universe is filled with people who are perpetually blasted on various substances.Reporter: The president of Venezuela called the strike on the boat illegal Trump: What’s illegal is the fact that 300 million people died last year from drugs
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Violence
How many opinion pieces has the NYT run against ongoing ICE (broadly defined) activities?
Yes the Charlie Kirk murder was actual violence, but the meta-conversation quickly turned, as it often does, to how everyone was supposed perform in response to it.
I saw a joke about how everyone is trained to be press secretaries for their own personal nations, issuing statements and communications about this and that, instead of just shooting the shit on the internet.
Have you ritually condemned this? Is your flag icon in your bio at half mast?
Sunday, September 14, 2025
"New Visa Category"
We pinky swear this one gives you the right to do things we said you could do with the other visa category, and our extremely well-trained ICE agents will totally respect this.
A top U.S. diplomat expressed regret on Sunday over an immigration raid in the state of Georgia that detained hundreds of South Korean workers and proposed making the event a turning point to strengthen bilateral relations, South Korea said.
In a meeting in Seoul, First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo urged Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau to push forward bilateral discussions on follow-up measures, including a new visa category, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Apparently There Is A Line
“I wrongly said [homeless persons] should get lethal injections. I apologize for that extremely callous remark,” Brian Kilmeade says
— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) September 14, 2025 at 2:57 PM
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Flashback
For all the tolerance and enlightenment that modern society claims, Americans are losing hold of a fundamental right as citizens of a free country: the right to speak their minds and voice their opinions in public without fear of being shamed or shunned.This social silencing, this depluralizing of America, has been evident for years, but dealing with it stirs yet more fear. It feels like a third rail, dangerous. For a strong nation and open society, that is dangerous.
Of course they meant the right of important people - and people they agree with - to say what they want without fear, while the rest of us should be stomped on, often by the newspaper itself!
That Charlie Kirk was a free speech advocate despite, for example, making lists of professors to terrorize, makes perfect sense to all of these people! He was terrorizing the right professors! You know the ones!
Doing Politics The Right Way
Still Going
As I'm typing this, this is the top of the NYT web page:
In addition, there are 4 op-eds about it and even a sports story!
Saturday, September 13, 2025
Late Entry
NYT did let Bouie write this.
On his podcast, Kirk called on authorities to create a “citizen force” on the border to protect “white demographics” from “the invasion of the country.” He embraced the rhetoric of white pride and warned of “a great replacement” of rural white Americans.
“The great replacement strategy, which is well underway every single day in our southern border, is a strategy to replace white rural America with something different,” he said last year. “You believe in God, country, family, faith, and freedom, and they won’t stop until you and your children and your children’s children are eliminated.”
Kirk also targeted Black Americans for contempt. “Prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people — that’s a fact,” he said in 2023. Kirk was preoccupied with the idea of “Black crime,” and on the last episode of his show before he was killed, he devoted a segment to “the ever-increasing amount of Black crime,” telling his audience, falsely, that “one in 22 Black men will be a murderer in their lifetime” and that “by age of 23, half of all Black males have been arrested and not enough of them have been arrested.”
Kirk told his listeners that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson of the Supreme Court “is what your country looks like on critical race theory,” that former Vice President Kamala Harris was “the jive speaking spokesperson of equity,” and that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “was awful.”
“I have a very, very radical view on this, but I can defend it, and I’ve thought about it,” Kirk said at a 2023 event. “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.”
Work Ethic
I don't want to run the FBI, but if I did accept the job I probably would show up to the office occasionally.
Party Like It's 2003
They have spent days maintaining a fictional version of Charlie Kirk, a fictional version of his critics, and a fictional version of his assassin, all while trying to hound his critics out of public life. A lot can be achieved if everyone who matters is screaming the same thing into most of the available microphones. We see just how willing and eager they are to do just that.
What a dumb fucking thing to destroy your reputation about, Ezra Klein. Fucking hell.
Is It That Easy
President Donald Trump shelved his plans to target Chicago as the next city for his domestic crime push after advisers warned him that sending in troops to help with local law enforcement without buy-in from the state’s governor could create legal headaches they want to avoid, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Honoring Him Accurately
Charles James Kirk, 31, died on Wednesday from a gunshot to the neck at a Utah Valley University campus event just as he was trying to deflect a question about mass shootings by suggesting they were largely a function of gang violence. He died with a net worth of $12 million, which he made by espousing horrific and bigoted views in the name of advancing Christian nationalism. The foundation of his empire was the group he cofounded and led, Turning Point USA, which is a key youth-recruitment arm of the MAGA movement. Kirk was able to launch Turning Point at the age of 18 because he received money from Tea Party member Bill Montgomery, right-wing donor Foster Feiss, and his own father, also a prolific right-wing donor. He was an unrepentant racist, transphobe, homophobe, and misogynist who often wrapped his bigotry in Bible verses because there was no other way to pretend that it was morally correct. He had children, as do many vile people.
Friday, September 12, 2025
You Know Who Else Is Complicit?
Two Democratic senators claim they have reached the “inescapable conclusion” that Israel is acting on a systematic plan to destroy and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza to force local people to leave, and they say the US is complicit.Certainly the House and Senate leaders are.
Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, both members of the Senate foreign relations committee, released their findings in a report on Thursday after returning from a congressional delegation to the Middle East where, they note, the destruction goes beyond bombs and bullets. They say they also found a systematic campaign to strangle humanitarian aid, which they call “using food as a weapon of war”.