Rachel Larris
@rachellarris.bsky.social
I'm about studying & explaining all things Communications, Culture & Technology because that was my graduate degree. A media expert/disinformation type who will always rant about Aaron Sorkin’s impact on American politics. More Ohioan than JD. she/her.
Pinned
The long back story of Aaron Sorkin, West Wing, Televisionwithoutpity and the "U.S. Poet Laureate" episode
Note added 10/16/2010: I originally wrote this post back in 2006. It remains the most read post on this blog, often linked to when someone ...
bitchkittie.blogspot.com
If I accomplish nothing else in my career: this blog post is my legacy at least bitchkittie.blogspot.com/2006/02/long...
Reposted by Rachel Larris
The Supreme Court is basically coin-flip odds away from effectively undermining the citizenship status of MOST Americans.
December 5, 2025 at 11:13 PM
The Supreme Court is basically coin-flip odds away from effectively undermining the citizenship status of MOST Americans.
Reposted by Rachel Larris
I think @joshtpm.bsky.social was the first person who I heard point this out but it really cannot be stressed enough.
If you were born in the U.S., you have birthright citizenship. Your proof of citizenship is the address you were born. Likely true for your parents. We either have it or we don’t.
If you were born in the U.S., you have birthright citizenship. Your proof of citizenship is the address you were born. Likely true for your parents. We either have it or we don’t.
The Supreme Court is set to decide on Trump's order to end birthright citizenship next year after a federal court blocked it. Here's what to know.
Supreme Court considers Trump bid to end birthright citizenship: what to know
If the justices agree with Trump, the court could overrule a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
www.axios.com
December 5, 2025 at 11:12 PM
I think @joshtpm.bsky.social was the first person who I heard point this out but it really cannot be stressed enough.
If you were born in the U.S., you have birthright citizenship. Your proof of citizenship is the address you were born. Likely true for your parents. We either have it or we don’t.
If you were born in the U.S., you have birthright citizenship. Your proof of citizenship is the address you were born. Likely true for your parents. We either have it or we don’t.
Reposted by Rachel Larris
Counterpoint:
The Supreme Court lacks the authority to change the text of the Constitution.
So either it affirms the text or (further, and more completely) nukes its authority as Constitutional arbiter.
There’s no third option. Art III (courts) can’t just usurp Art V (amendments).
The Supreme Court lacks the authority to change the text of the Constitution.
So either it affirms the text or (further, and more completely) nukes its authority as Constitutional arbiter.
There’s no third option. Art III (courts) can’t just usurp Art V (amendments).
The Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether to uphold the longstanding principle that grants citizenship to the children of non-citizens born in the U.S., following a legal challenge by the Trump administration. n.pr/48E1oko
Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments in birthright citizenship challenge
The Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether to uphold the longstanding principle that grants citizenship to the children of non-citizens born in the U.S., following a legal challenge by the Trump administration.
n.pr
December 5, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Counterpoint:
The Supreme Court lacks the authority to change the text of the Constitution.
So either it affirms the text or (further, and more completely) nukes its authority as Constitutional arbiter.
There’s no third option. Art III (courts) can’t just usurp Art V (amendments).
The Supreme Court lacks the authority to change the text of the Constitution.
So either it affirms the text or (further, and more completely) nukes its authority as Constitutional arbiter.
There’s no third option. Art III (courts) can’t just usurp Art V (amendments).
Reposted by Rachel Larris
Fuck them.
Four of the Supreme Court justices need to be impeached, before being crowded off an expanded bench:
1. Thomas—sedition, corruption, moral turpitude;
2. Alito—corruption;
3. Kavanaugh—perjury, moral turpitude, bigotry;
4. Roberts—obstruction of justice, seditious conspiracy.
Four of the Supreme Court justices need to be impeached, before being crowded off an expanded bench:
1. Thomas—sedition, corruption, moral turpitude;
2. Alito—corruption;
3. Kavanaugh—perjury, moral turpitude, bigotry;
4. Roberts—obstruction of justice, seditious conspiracy.
December 5, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Fuck them.
Four of the Supreme Court justices need to be impeached, before being crowded off an expanded bench:
1. Thomas—sedition, corruption, moral turpitude;
2. Alito—corruption;
3. Kavanaugh—perjury, moral turpitude, bigotry;
4. Roberts—obstruction of justice, seditious conspiracy.
Four of the Supreme Court justices need to be impeached, before being crowded off an expanded bench:
1. Thomas—sedition, corruption, moral turpitude;
2. Alito—corruption;
3. Kavanaugh—perjury, moral turpitude, bigotry;
4. Roberts—obstruction of justice, seditious conspiracy.
Reposted by Rachel Larris
FBI Director Kash Patel has — on more than one occasion — ordered that the security detail protecting his girlfriend escort one of her allegedly inebriated friends home after a night of partying in Nashville, according to three people with knowledge of the incidents.
www.ms.now/news/kash-pa...
www.ms.now/news/kash-pa...
December 5, 2025 at 4:18 PM
FBI Director Kash Patel has — on more than one occasion — ordered that the security detail protecting his girlfriend escort one of her allegedly inebriated friends home after a night of partying in Nashville, according to three people with knowledge of the incidents.
www.ms.now/news/kash-pa...
www.ms.now/news/kash-pa...
This worries me that the East Wing will never be finished, amongst other concerns www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Trump hires new White House ballroom architect
Although the two had clashed over the size of the project, the decisive factor was the small firm’s limited capacity to handle such an enormous project.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 4, 2025 at 10:41 PM
This worries me that the East Wing will never be finished, amongst other concerns www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Rachel Larris
NEW: Donald Trump’s sweeping 2020 election pardon was unprecedented not just because it covered his alleged coconspirators. The language was so vague that it could cover an enormous range of activity — and he left it to his subordinates to sort out.
www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
Trump stretches the pardon power in ways we’ve never seen
The Justice Department is deciding who's covered by extremely vague pardons.
www.politico.com
December 4, 2025 at 10:25 PM
NEW: Donald Trump’s sweeping 2020 election pardon was unprecedented not just because it covered his alleged coconspirators. The language was so vague that it could cover an enormous range of activity — and he left it to his subordinates to sort out.
www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
Reposted by Rachel Larris
Grim called me “insane” for saying Democrats shouldn’t recruit candidates with Nazi tattoos and now that I see who he takes seriously, that take makes a lot of sense
Ryan Grim: I think the posse will find a lot useful there.
Steve Bannon: You’re an intrepid reporter, sir, and a voice of truth. Sometimes people love it and sometimes people love it less, but you’re you’re a warrior.
Grim: No doubt about it.
Bannon: Let's welcome on Raw Egg Nationalist!
Steve Bannon: You’re an intrepid reporter, sir, and a voice of truth. Sometimes people love it and sometimes people love it less, but you’re you’re a warrior.
Grim: No doubt about it.
Bannon: Let's welcome on Raw Egg Nationalist!
December 4, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Grim called me “insane” for saying Democrats shouldn’t recruit candidates with Nazi tattoos and now that I see who he takes seriously, that take makes a lot of sense
Reposted by Rachel Larris
Public smoking bans just got in under the wire, too. Younger folks might not realize how rare they used to be and how hard they were to enact.
it is MIRACULOUS that we got rid of lead paint and asbestos when we did. if we had tried that today, there would be people whining about how we're restricting their rights.
Bring back residential-use lead paint, you cowards.
December 4, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Public smoking bans just got in under the wire, too. Younger folks might not realize how rare they used to be and how hard they were to enact.
Reposted by Rachel Larris
I've been teaching on the college level for almost 26 years now, and I have never had a student confront me after a class like one of my students did today. It was as if she wanted to start a fight--like, an actual fight. It was absolutely bizarre, and really disturbing.
December 4, 2025 at 4:35 PM
I've been teaching on the college level for almost 26 years now, and I have never had a student confront me after a class like one of my students did today. It was as if she wanted to start a fight--like, an actual fight. It was absolutely bizarre, and really disturbing.
Reposted by Rachel Larris
Holy shit.
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
December 4, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Holy shit.
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Holy moly the Comet Ping Pong shooter was killed by police in January! I always wondered if he ever realized how deeply he’d been misled. Seems like maybe not www.bbc.com/news/article...
'Pizzagate' gunman fatally shot by police during traffic stop in North Carolina
In 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch opened fire at a Washington DC pizzeria he believed was running a child sex-trafficking ring.
www.bbc.com
December 4, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Holy moly the Comet Ping Pong shooter was killed by police in January! I always wondered if he ever realized how deeply he’d been misled. Seems like maybe not www.bbc.com/news/article...
Not for nothing Alex Jones made a pro-Pizzagate statement recently (per Knowledge Fight podcast) and that’s after denying Epstein information involving Trump
the Comet Ping Pong attack was nine years ago today—weeks after Trump’s 2016 win—and inspired by a conspiracy theory promoted by Jack Posobiec, who was recently invited to the White House, demands antifa be designated a terrorist group, and asked questions as “press” at the Pentagon this week
December 4, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Not for nothing Alex Jones made a pro-Pizzagate statement recently (per Knowledge Fight podcast) and that’s after denying Epstein information involving Trump
Reposted by Rachel Larris
Unless you take the trouble to look into it, you will have NO IDEA how close "mainstream" science was to the basic assumptions of Nazism until conscious, political decisions to reject that were taken after 1945.
1. Historically, eugenics was not a pseudoscience. It was *science* Almost every scientist, social scientist, academic, etc. believed in the validity of eugenics. You would have to search far & wide to find a scientist that didn't believe in some form of it. They taught it in college!
December 4, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Unless you take the trouble to look into it, you will have NO IDEA how close "mainstream" science was to the basic assumptions of Nazism until conscious, political decisions to reject that were taken after 1945.
Reposted by Rachel Larris
This Pluribus ad on a fridge caused a schizophrenic woman named Carol to be hospitalized.
December 4, 2025 at 3:08 AM
This Pluribus ad on a fridge caused a schizophrenic woman named Carol to be hospitalized.
Reposted by Rachel Larris
Kind of hilarious that Milo's job title now is just "gay"
Tucker Carlson is promoting his interview with Milo Yiannopoulos as one with an "experienced gay person."
December 4, 2025 at 1:08 AM
Kind of hilarious that Milo's job title now is just "gay"
Reposted by Rachel Larris
It's fucking crazy to me that Keith Olbermann is out here posting about Olivia Nuzzi like "haha funny thing, I used to date her, it's crazy" as if this current shitshow has nothing to do with him. Here's Nuzzi in 2013 glazing Olbermann in writing while dating him www.huffpost.com/entry/msnbc-...
MSNBC: 'All In' or 'All Over'?
As in polling, you can get television numbers to tell you anything you want to hear. But even in that context, when ratings changes are as profound as MSNBC's, they tell a story that can be relied upo...
www.huffpost.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:15 PM
It's fucking crazy to me that Keith Olbermann is out here posting about Olivia Nuzzi like "haha funny thing, I used to date her, it's crazy" as if this current shitshow has nothing to do with him. Here's Nuzzi in 2013 glazing Olbermann in writing while dating him www.huffpost.com/entry/msnbc-...
Reposted by Rachel Larris
What pisses me off is I’ve written better and longer memos than this that people tell me were “unpolished” mean while she’s making six figures for simple shit
And people fall for this EVERY SINGLE TIME
And people fall for this EVERY SINGLE TIME
December 3, 2025 at 8:53 PM
What pisses me off is I’ve written better and longer memos than this that people tell me were “unpolished” mean while she’s making six figures for simple shit
And people fall for this EVERY SINGLE TIME
And people fall for this EVERY SINGLE TIME
Reposted by Rachel Larris
This news story reveals that the CIA was, and probably still is, recruiting child soldiers to train into killers and assassins. This has been available for days and I haven't heard anything about it.
No WONDER this guy is mentally unstable. But no, let's just focus on his fucking skin color, huh.
No WONDER this guy is mentally unstable. But no, let's just focus on his fucking skin color, huh.
December 2, 2025 at 4:30 PM
This news story reveals that the CIA was, and probably still is, recruiting child soldiers to train into killers and assassins. This has been available for days and I haven't heard anything about it.
No WONDER this guy is mentally unstable. But no, let's just focus on his fucking skin color, huh.
No WONDER this guy is mentally unstable. But no, let's just focus on his fucking skin color, huh.
Reposted by Rachel Larris
and it appears to be their only growth strategy
it feels gross that Substack does auto/non-consensual sign-ups. It’s a pretty schlocky growth strategy.
December 3, 2025 at 2:45 PM
and it appears to be their only growth strategy
Finally a Pearl of great price
December 3, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Finally a Pearl of great price
Reposted by Rachel Larris
yes, it’s really that bad.
If new proposals detailed in an FDA memo are put into place, experts told me it would mean the end of annual flu shots. And end of most vaccines for pregnant people. And maybe the end of updates to pneumonia vaccines. And more.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...
www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...
FDA official proposes ‘impossible’ standards for vaccine testing that could curtail access to immunizations
www.cidrap.umn.edu
December 3, 2025 at 2:30 PM
yes, it’s really that bad.
Reposted by Rachel Larris
We witness in Trump an old man so decrepit that basically racism’s the only thing left of him that works.
NYT: Is the President tired?
Ms. Leavitt: Would a weary President be able to deliver a racist rant like that one?
Ms. Leavitt: Would a weary President be able to deliver a racist rant like that one?
December 3, 2025 at 12:48 PM
We witness in Trump an old man so decrepit that basically racism’s the only thing left of him that works.
Reposted by Rachel Larris
Thinking a lot about this moment from literally the first chapter of "1984."
December 2, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Thinking a lot about this moment from literally the first chapter of "1984."
Reposted by Rachel Larris
Dedham Priest pissing off all the right people by removing Jesus from the church's nativity scene and putting up an ICE WAS HERE sign in His place.
www.boston25news.com/news/local/i...
www.boston25news.com/news/local/i...
‘ICE was here’: Dedham church sparks outrage over nativity scene with political message
A Dedham church is causing controversy over another political statement in their Nativity scene this holiday season.
www.boston25news.com
December 2, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Dedham Priest pissing off all the right people by removing Jesus from the church's nativity scene and putting up an ICE WAS HERE sign in His place.
www.boston25news.com/news/local/i...
www.boston25news.com/news/local/i...