The result has been something like an inverse caricature of Republican complaints about diversity, equity, and inclusion, a system in which the incompetent rise not because of their abilities but because of their sycophancy. Authoritarian regimes behave as the Trump administration is behaving—optimizing for political loyalty rather than competence. Merit, in short, has little to do with it. Hegseth is a prime example. Deeply unqualified for the job and convinced that brutality provides an easy path to victory, he has led the United States to the verge of a strategic defeat with a weaker adversary in Iran. The current cease-fire leaves Iran with a more hard-line government than before, one in total control of a shipping lane crucial to the world economy. The Islamic Republic is arguably in a stronger position today than it was when the war started, and probably in a stronger position than it was before Trump, in his first term, scrapped the Obama-era nuclear deal. On Sunday, Trump posted on his social network a refrain that he and his toadies seem to think is insightful: “If you import The Third World, you become The Third World!” This archaic social Darwinism is the ideological mortar of the Trump project. It fuses Hegseth’s disdain for diversity in the military’s senior leadership and valorization of brutality with the administration’s attack on birthright citizenship and its deployment of federal agents to occupy American cities. It is a worldview that would assume an easy victory against a country like Iran, especially with America’s new, “unwoke” military. Bigotry isn’t just inefficient, as the U.S. military discovered in the 1940s. It also makes you stupid.

Wrote about how Hegseth’s effort to resegregate the upper ranks of the US military ties into the larger MAGA project to restore hierarchies of race and gender: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The biggest story in the world right now is that the president of the United States is a demented old man who takes pleasure in torturing and killing people and is committing crimes with impunity. And yet most legacy media outlets are too cowardly to tell it like it is.

The Department of State tweets a video of Secretary Marco Rubio. In the video, Rubio says: "Imagine if instead of spending billions of dollars supporting terrorists or weapons, Iran had spent that money helping the people of Iran. They would have a much different country."

FactPost News tweets a video of Donald Trump speaking at a podium. In the video he says: "We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We're fighting wars. It's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these things."

hmm

It’s all good, JD Vance says they’re just demons.

What was that stand up comedian voice he was doing? That was bizarre.

But then what would he do all day? We truly can’t let him redecorate anywhere outside of DC, so what else is there?

“Republicans want to get their hands on kids”

Nashville journalist released from ICE detention details retaliation claims  • Tennessee Lookout Nashville journalist Estefany Rodríguez filed a first-person account in court detailing allegations her arrest was retaliation for her reporting.

Solidarity confinement for five days, prevented from talking to her lawyer, being forced to strip and doused with cleaning fluid: Nashville journalist Estefany Rodriguez details in a federal court filing allegations of her abusive treatment in ICE custody.

This is horrific.

If moral turpitude is at issue then Elon must be quaking in his boots.

And they got all the outrage they so desired from the left and the “patriotic” chest thumping from the right. My very first thought was who would sanction this and how would some rando pilot know where he even lived? It HAD to be staged to happen.
These nuts are drunk on power.

Magical thinking? Or maybe just delusional.

I can’t imagine anyone is really surprised by this outcome. There was absolutely no way those pilots weren’t given the ok to do the flyby.

You seem to be missing the point that the school wouldn’t have a list of people’s religious affiliations but that wouldn’t stop the Trump admin going after those with obvious Jewish surnames, much like the name I married into and that my 3 sons bear.

The thing is it’s not just a religious choice, it’s an ethnicity and many Jewish people can be identified by their last name alone.

Or Miller does.

It most certainly can.

❤️

I agree about Mother! Pi which is also by Aronofsky stayed with me in a way I wish it hadn’t.

BREAKING: We've joined a lawsuit defending people peacefully protesting and documenting ICE activity in Minnesota from retaliation by the Trump administration.

We have a constitutional right to protest and record law enforcement in public.

"I'm coming to Boston and I'm bringing hell with me."
--Homan in February

"Do I expect violence to escalate? Absolutely."
-- Tom Homan in March

"I actually thought about getting up and throwing that man a beating right there in the middle of the room"
-- Homan in July, referring to a D congressman

Thank you.

Oh man, that’s gorgeous! Can you let me know when they available?

Are you selling any prints of this?

GEORGIA — @ossoff.senate.gov : “This is a SEISMIC event. This should have people across 🇺🇸 absolutely shook. This is an FBI raid on the Fulton County elections office… this is a shot across the bow at the midterm elections.” (H/T @atrupar.com )

This is breathtakingly beautiful.

A poster featuring a cold, mountainous environment. A fox looks around, checking if the coast is clear before inspecting a frozen body it has found. Over it are the details for the show: Calamity - An Art Show By Jaime Margary, Thursday, November 19 at CityArts, Orlando, 39 Magnolia Avenue, Orlando Florida, 32801.

Here is the poster for 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘆, my years-in-the-making art show opening November 19.

𝙍𝙪𝙗𝙞𝙘𝙤𝙣 (acrylic on canvas, 30" x 40") is also the first-born idea from the series. All other pieces stem from this one moment... and the questions - and answers - it inspired.

Everyone critical of Trump, Stephen Miller and ICE is now a "domestic terrorist" and can be murdered.

Good luck, Republicans. You unleashed a monster that will eventually come for you and your families.

Minneapolis Police Chief O'Hara: "The video speaks for itself. We have identified this person - 37-year-old, white male, resident of the city. The only interaction that we are aware of with law enforcement has been for traffic tickets and we believe he is a lawfully gun owner with a permit to carry"

They have the impulse control and emotional regulation of five-year-olds and they're executing people on our streets.