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dougmuder.bsky.social
@dougmuder.bsky.social
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This week: Trump’s latest outrages, MTG’s resignation, Ukraine proposal, the regime’s bad week in court, Mamdani in the Oval, and a Thanksgiving playlist. weeklysift.com/2025/11/24/d...
Don’t Believe It
At some point, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe almost anything that Defendants represent. – US District Judge Sara Ellis,commenting on ICE and Border Patrol testimony cont…
weeklysift.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:43 PM
The disconnect between consumers and investors keeps getting worse. weeklysift.com/2025/11/24/t...
The Vibecession and the AI bubble
Depressed consumers and record-setting stock markets don’t usually go together. Why are they both happening now? I recently came across these two facts: The stock market hit an all-time high …
weeklysift.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:54 PM
This week: Paper Girl, aftermath, Epstein, and a few cracks in Trump’s support. weeklysift.com/2025/11/17/o...
Obliviousness
Urbana is basically the country club and the ghetto, and neither group has any idea that the other group exists. – Beth Macy, Paper Girl,on returning to the Ohio town where she grew up This w…
weeklysift.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:56 PM
"Paper Girl" is a compassionate look at the forgotten America. weeklysift.com/2025/11/17/b...
Beth Macy Goes Home Again
The author of Dopesick goes back to her small Ohio home town and wonders: Could a troubled teen do today what she did decades ago? Maybe. But the hurdles to jump are higher now. In the Broadway mus…
weeklysift.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:30 PM
This week: elections, shutdown ending, federal thugs in Chicago, tariff arguments, Pelosi, Cheney, and a penguin with a lot of fish. weeklysift.com/2025/11/10/l...
Law and Order
Our residents have been attacked by a lawless entity, and we can’t just stand by and pretend this is acceptable. – Mayor Daniel Biss of Evanston,commenting on Border Patrol attacks on E…
weeklysift.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Let's take seriously Mike Johnson's claim that Republicans really do have ideas that will lead to a healthcare reform proposal. What would Johnson's system look like? weeklysift.com/2025/11/10/w...
What would a Republican healthcare plan look like?
The government can cut healthcare spending if it tempts people into gambling with their lives. The longest government shutdown in American history came down to one issue: healthcare. Republicans ha…
weeklysift.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:07 PM
This week: SNAP, shutdown, tariffs, elections, and a parody of a Paul Simon classic. weeklysift.com/2025/11/03/d...
Despotic Encroachment
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutio…
weeklysift.com
November 3, 2025 at 5:43 PM
It's all a political game until children start missing meals.
weeklysift.com/2025/11/03/t...
The Shutdown Gets Serious
If you’re poor in America, food and healthcare just got way more expensive. Up until Saturday, most Americans had been able ignore the government shutdown. If you didn’t work for the fe…
weeklysift.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:54 PM
It's unconstitutional. Or is it? weeklysift.com/2025/11/03/c...
Could a Third Term Happen?
It’s far-fetched but not impossible. For months Trump has alternately encouraged and then tamped down speculation that he might seek a third term. Wednesday, he acknowledged the constitutiona…
weeklysift.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:57 PM
This week: No Kings, shutdown, Gaza, voting rights, Montana Plan, and the greatest performance in baseball history. weeklysift.com/2025/10/20/i...
In Free Countries
For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other. – Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776) No Sift next week. The next …
weeklysift.com
October 20, 2025 at 5:15 PM
The Trump-invincibility narrative hit a few bumps this week. weeklysift.com/2025/10/20/t...
The Resistance Stiffens
Chicago on Saturday. The No Kings rallies were the most obvious signs of resistance to Trump’s authoritarian rule, but congressional Democrats, Pentagon reporters, major universities, and an …
weeklysift.com
October 20, 2025 at 3:34 PM
This week: Gaza peace, attack on Chicago and Portland, shutdown deadlock, Trump’s dementia, and some dancing frogs. weeklysift.com/2025/10/13/w...
Who will protect us from our protectors?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? – Juvenal, 2nd century AD This week’s featured posts are “Only Trump represents the People” and “Fantasies of a vast, violent left-wing …
weeklysift.com
October 13, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Fascists believe in a mystical union between their Leader and the People. weeklysift.com/2025/10/13/o...
Only Trump represents the People
Pam Bondi’s disrespect of the Senate is only one example of a larger principle. If you watched Pam Bondi’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, you saw a number of t…
weeklysift.com
October 13, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Trump fears his reflection in the mirror.
weeklysift.com/2025/10/13/f...
Fantasies of a vast, violent left-wing conspiracy
Trump’s security memorandum projects his friends’ behavior onto his enemies. Executive Order NPSM-7 got past my attention when it was first released on September 25. Seeking to exploit …
weeklysift.com
October 13, 2025 at 1:17 PM
This week: Trump and the generals, Chicago, shutdown, Gaza, dementia, Argentina, and 20 great dances. weeklysift.com/2025/10/06/c...
Companions and Instruments
A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive, will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence [against] foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at ho…
weeklysift.com
October 6, 2025 at 5:18 PM
The regime’s invasion of Chicago cuts deeper if you know something about the city. weeklysift.com/2025/10/06/t...
Trump Comes for Chicago
Whatever this is about, it’s not public safety. I went to graduate school in Chicago during the 80s and lived there for six years. I’ve been back many times since and marveled at how mu…
weeklysift.com
October 6, 2025 at 4:13 PM
We can only imagine what the generals and admirals were thinking as they heard Trump describe his fantasy world.
weeklysift.com/2025/10/06/t...
The Silence of the Generals
Lack of response leaves a lot of room for projection. Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hosted an unusual meeting: America’s top generals and admirals, 800 or so of them, were called to…
weeklysift.com
October 6, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Due to a vacation, I haven't posted a summary for three weeks. Has anything happened? weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/t...
The Show Must Go On
This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this. – Jimmy Kimmel This week’s featured posts are “What to M…
weeklysift.com
September 29, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Due to a vacation, I haven't posted a summary for three weeks. Has anything happened? weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/t...
The Show Must Go On
This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this. – Jimmy Kimmel This week’s featured posts are “What to M…
weeklysift.com
September 29, 2025 at 5:43 PM
I’m catching up on the news of the last three weeks. Most of what I’ve seen about Kirk is way too shallow, so I thought I’d give my own impression. weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/w...
September 29, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Can we read anything more into Jimmy Kimmel’s victory over Trump? weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/i...
Is Kimmel’s return a turning point?
For the first time, Trump used autocratic power in a way that the public couldn’t ignore, and a popular pushback forced a big corporation to stand up to him. Is that an anomaly or the start o…
weeklysift.com
September 29, 2025 at 2:41 PM
This week: Trump loses in court, the Epstein story is back, invading Chicago, blowing boats out of the water, RFK, and some baby animals.
weeklysift.com/2025/09/08/s...
Speed without rigor
No Sift for the next two weeks. New articles will appear September 29. Judges in the trenches need, and deserve, well-reasoned, bright-line guidance. Too often today, sweeping [Supreme Court] rulin…
weeklysift.com
September 8, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Trump's lower-court defeats will only matter if the Supreme Court backs up the lower-court judges. weeklysift.com/2025/09/08/w...
Will the courts hold the line?
The Trump administration has suffered a series of defeats in court recently. Will that matter? It’s been a bad week or two for Trump in court. Jay Kuo counts the ways: A major ruling from the…
weeklysift.com
September 8, 2025 at 2:38 PM
It's not to soon to start planning for the looming crisis at the end of the fiscal year. weeklysift.com/2025/09/08/t...
The Democrats’ Shutdown Strategy
The government runs out of money again on October 1. That gives the Democratic minorities in Congress some rare leverage. What should they do with it? The 2026 fiscal year starts in less than a mon…
weeklysift.com
September 8, 2025 at 1:01 PM
This week: Lysenkoism, Chicago resists occupation, Trump's post-Palestinian Gaza fantasy, illegal tariffs, Fed firing, and a far-out view.
weeklysift.com/2025/09/01/w...
Waking up to the difference
I think many Americans wrongly believe there would be one clear unambiguous moment where we go from “democracy” to “authoritarianism.” Instead, this is exactly how it happens — a blurring here, a n…
weeklysift.com
September 1, 2025 at 5:01 PM