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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 26m

“Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature for this,” says Howard Lutnick.

Raw Story @rawstory.com · 2d

Donald Trump at just after midnight on Sunday morning released onto Truth Social a screed in which he claimed the "Biden FBI" placed "274" agents in the crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump himself was still president.

'Do something!': Trump makes bizarre claim about Biden and Jan. 6 in midnight rant

Donald Trump at just after midnight on Sunday morning released onto Truth Social a screed in which he claimed the "Biden FBI" placed "274" agents in the crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump himself was still president.The president took his social media site in the dead of night to write, "THE BIDEN FB...

bit.ly

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 1h

Lawrence: Nixon was driven by an enemies list and a quest for revenge. In the end, it crushed him. Now we have a president who thrives on hate and vengeance, whose enemies list extends beyond individuals to entire blue states and cities filled with Democrats.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 8h

If Republicans are going to label you a terrorist for peacefully protesting Trump's failing presidency, abuses of power, and treatment of blue America as an enemy nation, let's turn out in even bigger numbers.

On the pod, @jilldlawrence.bsky.social and me on this:
newrepublic.com/article/2016...

MAGA Rage at “No Kings” Boils Over—and It Quickly Backfires on Trump

As Trump allies smear the coming protests, a good writer on MAGA skewers the absurdity of these attacks on large swaths of Americans—and explains why our best recourse will be to turn out in force.

newrepublic.com

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John Pavlovitz @johnpavlovitz.bsky.social · 3d

Congrats, MAGA, you’ve owned the Libs—and all it’s cost you is a functioning government, a working democracy, human rights, national peace, economic stability, affordable groceries, affordable healthcare, qualified leaders, and global standing.

johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/congratula...

Congratulations, Trump Supporters, You've Owned the Libs

Well, Trump Supporters, as a member of the woke radical Left, it kills me to say this, but you win.

johnpavlovitz.substack.com

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 8h

“Self-aggrandizing B.S.”

Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight

youtu.be

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 9d

Doocy: "So the Democratic position is that illegal immigrants should not have any access to taxpayer-funded health insurance?"

Sen. Mark Kelly: "Federal law is that undocumented individuals do not have access to medicare, medicaid, food stamps, or the ACA. That's the law."

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StrictlyChristo 🇺🇦🌻❌👑 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · Dec 5

This doctor’s letter to United Heathcare for denying nausea medication to a child on chemotherapy.

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 21h

Trump inciting and encouraging a violent response to justify invoking the Insurrection Act.

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 22h

“It is no longer shameful to be a dissembler…in our present society the hypocrite’s profession has extraordinary advantages. It makes no difference if their intrigues are sometimes exposed and their true natures laid bare.”
“Don Juan,” by Moliere (via Richard Wilbur)

Atti 17.11 @atti1711.bsky.social · 1d

This is Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY). He wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Over 63,000 of his constituents to lose health insurance, if the ACA was repealed.

RETWEET to let New York know that RepMikeLawler wants to take away their health care!
👇👇👇👇

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 1d

Blanch: To become pale or whiten from fear or shock.
Seems appropriate for the man too cowardly to stand up to Trump

Part Enabler, Part Buffer: The Bind of the Justice Dept.’s No. 2

www.nytimes.com

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 1d

“A benchmark of any authoritarian movement is the delegitimization of political opposition. Insisting that patriots gathering to express concern about their nation’s future are attending a ‘hate-America rally’ checks all the wrong boxes.”

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 1d

The more Republican rhetoric about No Kings events turns hysterical, the easier it is to believe that the party is increasingly worried about the growing public backlash to the GOP agenda. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Ahead of No Kings events, Republicans’ anti-protest rhetoric takes an ugly turn

GOP leaders appear so concerned about a scheduled protest that they're falsely labeling a No Kings gathering as a “hate-America rally.”

www.msnbc.com

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Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 4d

Trump obviously didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize he spent months begging for — but there’s always next year.

To be helpful, I put together a Top 10 list of steps he should take (but almost certainly won’t) if wants to compete for the 2026 honor. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

The top 10 things Trump should consider doing if he wants a Nobel Peace Prize next year

The president begged for the honor but didn’t get it. If he wants to try again next year, there are a variety of steps he can and should take.

www.msnbc.com

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 1d

Whose got time—or budget—for fact-checking? “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 1d

Did you know that the New York Times reporter who wrote the first fawning profile of Trump in 1976 also promoted the hoax about poisoned Halloween candy?
Misinformation is contagious. The media helped build the Trump myth, and we're all suffering now.
I wrote about it in my free newsletter.

The media’s kissing up to Trump started early

How lazy journalism helped us get to where we are today

www.stopthepresses.news

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John Pettus @johngpettus.bsky.social · 1d

They WANT a massacre.

Trump, Miller and the whole Republican Party is cycling through pretextual reasons to use violence against Americans. They are just waiting for a spark to catch.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

"If you keep pushing the envelope and keep militarizing the streets, sooner or later, you could have a massacre."

Watch the latest George Explains with @gtconway.bsky.social and @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social now.

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 1d

Pope Leo cites Hannah Arendt on the need for free and objective information: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

Pope Leo calls for news agencies to stand as bulwark against "post-truths," lies and manipulation

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

www.cbsnews.com

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 1d

A press corps of stenographers and sideline “reporters” is not competent enough to cover today’s MAGA politics.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 3d

The conventions of political reporting today are not well equipped to handle this concerted use of pretexts for instrumental purposes and the bottomless bad faith they employ. Grasping the industrial-scale deception at the core of MAGA politics is essential. 6/

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 1d

Trump orders Lindsey Halligan to indict Alfred Nobel.

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 2d

The Nobel Peace Prize committee says they've awarded this year's honor to María Machado of Venezuela. But an AI video posted on the MAGA MOMS 4 LIBERTY Facebook page clearly shows that the prize was awarded to Donald Trump. For busy MAGA moms for liberty, it can be hard to know who to trust.

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 2d

“Gaze on, and grovel on thy face.”
#ShakespeareSunday

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Rep. Derrick Van Orden: "I'm disgusted with the Nobel Peace guys. They gave Barack Obama the Nobel Participation Trophy and they refused to give this to Donald Trump with his amazing accomplishments."

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 2d

Grown Nobel Peace Prize winners, with tears in their eyes, call me up and say, “Sir, you do so much and deserve the award.”

Ned Wilcox @nedwilcox.bsky.social · 2d

Update:
Turns out even as poor woman felt the need to knuckle under to the criminal.

"María Corina Machado stated that she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in honor of President Donald Trump, expressing gratitude for his support in her fight for democracy in Venezuela."
-AI

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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 4d

They didn’t just NOT give Trump the Nobel Peace Prize, they wrote a citation that reads like an anti-Trump rallying cry.

(He’s gonna extra-tariff Norway now, isn’t he?)

Reuters @reuters.com · 4d

'When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,' the Norwegian Nobel Committee said as it announced Maria Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 2d

Trump will continue to incite violence and then to declare the Insurrection Act as righteous:
“Never yet did insurrection want / Such water-colours to impaint his cause.”
“Henry IV, Part 1”
#ShakespeareSunday

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 2d

Gov. Pritzker: "The Insurrection Act is called the Insurrection Act for a reason — there has to be an insurrection in order for [Trump] to be allowed to invoke it. He can say anything he wants, but if the Constitution means anything...the Insurrection Act cannot be invoked."

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 2d

“Fear and anguish over transformation of the [DOJ] into a tool of the White House. Just as chillingly, the new survey reflects near consensus that most of the guardrails inside and outside the Justice Department, which in the past counterbalanced executive power, have all but fallen away.”

‘Bow to the Emperor’: We Asked 50 Legal Experts About the Trump Presidency

www.nytimes.com

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 2d

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/b...

The Pleasures of Reading Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Master of Doom

www.nytimes.com

jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 3d

“Transporting us to the past to learn the lessons of history, and forward to idealized or dystopian futures..to distant parts of the universes for stories of men & women we will never meet to illuminate the discoveries made by great minds, and allow us access to the wisdom of earlier generations.”

Michiko Kakutani on Why We Love Books

Below is an excerpt from the introduction of Kakutani’s new book EX LIBRIS: 100 Books to Read and Reread and from an essay on Hannah Arendt. As a child, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August…

lithub.com

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 3d

“Grasping how committed MAGA is to such industrial-scale deceptions is critical to getting this broader moment right.”
“Mein Kampf”: “All propaganda had to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perceptions of the least intelligent of those towards whom it intends to direct itself.”

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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 3d

“Deliberate propaganda…geared toward establishing unlimited discretion for Trump to simply invent emergencies with an eye toward vastly expanding presidential power [including] invok[ing] the Insurrection Act if necessary to circumvent judicial checks on these authorities.”

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 3d

The conventions of political reporting today are not well equipped to handle this concerted use of pretexts for instrumental purposes and the bottomless bad faith they employ. Grasping the industrial-scale deception at the core of MAGA politics is essential. 6/

newrepublic.com/article/2016...