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jkavanagh.bsky.social @jkavanagh.bsky.social · 10h

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

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 1d

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 · 11h

Trump orders Lindsey Halligan to indict Alfred Nobel.

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 16h

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 · 12h

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

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 13h

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 · 12h

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 · 16h

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 · 2d

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 · 2d

'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 · 14h

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 · 15h

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 · 18h

“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 · 1d

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 · 1d

“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 · 1d

“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 · 1d

“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 · 1d

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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Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 2d

What a despicable little man who is lying through his teeth to try to incite violence against Americans who will be peacefully assembling to protest the Trump regime’s anti-democratic rule.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Mike Johnson: "We're so angry about it. I mean, I'm a very patient guy, but I've had it with these people. The theory we have right now -- they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people ... "

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

“It cannot be this weak and writhled shrimp should strike such terror...”
“Henry VI, Part 1”

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 2d

Not to be outdone, Fox News has produced another master class in journalistic integrity. The text is even more emotionally evocative if you read it in the voice of someone who has their tongue super glued to a boot.

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

“Gaze on, and grovel on thy face.”

#TuckFrump @realtuckfrumper.bsky.social · 2d

Huh? GOP Congressman Tells Fox He’s Introducing Resolution to Award Trump the Nobel Peace Prize

www.mediaite.com

Huh? GOP Congressman Tells Fox He’s Introducing Resolution to Award Trump the Nobel Peace Prize

twp.ai

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

Rise up, America, says Illinois governor JB Pritzker (echoing “Hamilton”), before it’s too late:
“I'm past patiently waitin'.
I'm passionately smashin’ every expectation.
Every action's an act of creation!
We're gonna rise up…”
Don’t throw away this shot.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 2d

By contrast, JB Pritzker told me that people should flood the No Kings protests precisely in order to let the American people know that something is deeply amiss.

More Dems should be doing this, to send the message widely that we are in real trouble right now.

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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

“Congressional leadership to rally the country in opposition is a predicate for national resistance [plus] all elements of resistance—liberal leaders, deep-pocketed democracy defenders, protest organizers, labor-unions, Dem committee heads—to be more formally linked & committed to mutual defense.”

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 2d

A reader recently emailed me a question I've been asked 100 times: How do we—the little guys—turn the tide. It got me thinking about a related but in some sense more challenging question: What would a national resistance that we could place our faith in look like? www.offmessage.net/p/how-to-rev...

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

“When societies are descending into fascism, it can be hard to notice it in real time. We are noticing: When Congress, controlled by the president’s party, refuses to do a thing about his rancid, dictator-level corruption, and when the SC has sold its soul to this barbarity, it’s no longer America.”

Michael Tomasky @mjtoma.bsky.social · 2d

New Column: You know how some historians wonder if people recognize the onslaught in real time? Well, I'm here to tell you that millions of us do. And we're fighting it. newrepublic.com/post/201625/... via @newrepublic.com

Memo to Future Historians: This Is Fascism, and Millions of Us See It

From Chicago to Portland, James Comey to Letitia James, and so much else—this is no longer America.

newrepublic.com

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

1971 vs now:
•SC ruled to allow publication of Pentagon Papers
•Congress investigated Nixon’s weaponization of govt
•Senators urged Nixon to resign before the Senate convicted him in an impeachment trial
The WaPost and NYT understood their role was to inform the public, not protect the powerful

Jill Lawrence @jilldlawrence.bsky.social · 2d

Watching this film at this moment in history was a gut punch. New from me at @thebulwark.com www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-nixo...

Trump’s Abuses of Power Show We Didn’t Learn Much From the Nixon Era

That failure is implicit in nearly every frame of a new documentary about Katharine Graham.

www.thebulwark.com

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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 2d

House Oversight's Robert Garcia is calling on Chairman Comer to "immediately schedule a date for Ghislaine Maxwell to testify" before the Committee.

The panel had postponed its deposition with Maxwell until the Supreme Court decided whether to take up her appeal (it did not). tinyurl.com/bpasrhvz

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 2d

Here's Jennifer Schulze with a reality-based view of Chicago.

@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 2d

Chicago is safe, beautiful and vibrant. In fact, it was just voted the best big city in America for the ninth year in a row. If the jaw dropping images you’ve seen recently on TV or social media make it look like a war zone, that’s on Donald Trump. My latest:
open.substack.com/pub/jennifer...

Fearless journalists & vigilant residents tell Chicago's story

The abuses of federal power are far worse here in Chicago. Don't look away.

open.substack.com

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Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 2d

The Letitia James and James Comey cases are two sides of the same coin:

Trump isn’t hiding his weaponization of the criminal justice system, he’s *flaunting* it, hoping to instill fear in critics and prosecutors.

The corruption is the point. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

The one thing the Letitia James and James Comey indictments have in common

Both cases are brazenly and transparently corrupt, for the sake of brazen and transparent corruption.

www.msnbc.com

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Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 2d

Remember when several Republicans launched impeachment efforts against federal judges in response to rulings the White House didn’t like?

Jim Jordan — the chair of the House Judiciary Committee — isn’t ready to walk away from the idea. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

GOP’s Jim Jordan on judges: ‘I don’t think you should rule out impeachment’

Most Americans don’t want to see judges impeached over anti-Trump rulings. A key House Republican said it’s “on the table” anyway.

www.msnbc.com

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Jamison Foser @jamisonfoser.bsky.social · 3d

this is table stakes for anyone who enjoys seeing themselves as a leader of a political party or movement

you do not want to be running in a Democratic primary as the guy who was like "sure Trump has his flaws but let's not go overboard with our criticism." Not next year, not in 2028, not ever.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 3d

This is good, from Hakeem Jeffries. More of this please, in every conceivable forum:

"Sycophants who aid and abet the President’s vengeful schemes will not be able to hide from the serious legal consequences of their behavior. They will be held accountable."

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

If only the Senators had called her out

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

“You fight in justice: then, in God’s name, lords, be valiant.”
“Henry VI, Part 3”

Adam Parkhomenko @adamparkhomenko.bsky.social · 5d

This is not going well for Pam Bondi

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