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This is a good statement, especially since it points out that Republicans are the ONLY ones who can actually "do something".

They control the house.
They control the senate.
They control the courts.

And it's time voters stop enabling them by pretending they're immune to pressure.

They aren't.

I am not one of those who believes that history repeats, but consider the following from Herodotus: the Oracle at Delphi told the fabulously wealthy King Croesus that if he invaded Persia he would "destroy a great empire." Croesus invaded and lost--the empire he destroyed was his own.

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NYTImes calls NATO the “North American treaty organization”

It’s a real problem that our elite institutions are just much stupider now than they used to be

It is a crime to rape kids

People marching with protest signs with a US flag in the foreground

Signs: Ice in my cocktail, not Chicago streets; The accumulation of all powers executive, legislative, and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one or many, and whether hereditary, self-supported, or elective may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. -Madison 1788

No Kings in Lakeview (Chicago)

House procedure is normally a snoozefest that only insiders care about. But this one is just such a perfect distillation of the incompetence in the GOP, failure of Trump as a leader and weakness of Mike Johnson. Let's roll the video tape:

One thing that AI evangelists seem to assume, particularly legal AI evangelists assume, is that the thinking and analysis is quick, and the writing is just tedious busywork that slows us down.

But the writing IS the thinking and analysis. You work out the thinking and analysis by writing it down.

I think a lot of people get very broad ideas in their head that they're sure would make sense if they could just write them down. They don't realize that in the process of trying to write actual sentences and paragraphs, they end up discovering lots of inconsistencies and unjustified assumptions.

More Americans have died in the illegal undeclared Iran War than died during the Afghanistan withdrawal that was portrayed to the American public as a presidency-annulling catastrophe for Joe Biden.

The is the federal government telling news stations to provide favorable coverage of the war or their licenses will be pulled.

A truly extraordinary moment.

We aren't on the verge of a totalitarian takeover. WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT.

Act like it.

depressingly accurate analysis of the situation

It’s crystal clear now that Trump has lost control of this war. He badly misjudged Iran’s ability to retaliate. The region is on fire.

1/ I’m going to explain to you in this🧵what I’ve learned - in part from closed door briefings - about the four biggest current crises.

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“But, as you see, it's a beautiful day, the Strait of Hormuz is open and people are having a wonderful time.”

Someone in NYC should do interviews with middle-school kids who take the subway to and from school every day, to see if they have any advice for Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy who can't seem to go a single day without pissing himself in fear over them.

I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.

Here is your brave head of Homeland Security protecting the Capitol on J6, hiding behind the seats, while the men guard the door. While Mullin ran for his life, he went on to call that day "one of peaceful protest". He will make a fine head of Homeland Security for Private Bone Spurs.

If you’re an American service member who gets killed in a retaliatory strike, your family can take comfort in the fact that it was done in service of making the host of Celebrity Apprentice feel like a big man for a minute, before he moved on to something else and forgets about this forever

I have really come to believe that we'd be in a much better place right now if we had put Nixon away in a dingy cell for the rest of his natural life, instead of the slap on the wrist for being naughty that he actually received.

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Cartoon: If anyone in Chicago knows this school or an anti ICE organization affiliated with them I would be happy to donate this art. I only wish I could have fully Sal Buscema-ed that punch :)

Democracy dies in oligarchness

The entire press corps should walk out, not come back, & we simply shouldn’t tolerate this.

Months of “Joe Biden won’t do a press conference.” A nonstop national story. Same with Harris in Aug/Sep 2024 & interviews. Trump does this stuff & everyone shrugs. It’s appalling.

We can hope...

There are people with principled takes on the 2nd Amendment, like the 1st.

But if you ever believed that the American Right broadly supported 2nd Amendment rights, as opposed to rights for people who agreed with them, you are a fool.

It appears that this legend owns a little bookstore — and you can order books from him instead of Bezos. Link in next post.