😱Scary AF read, however, we must remember this Vaclav Havel quote, from the end: "I don’t know whether I’ll be able to change certain things for the better, or not at all. Both outcomes are possible. There is only one thing I will not concede: that it might be meaningless to strive in a good cause.”
💯 "It’s as if he had reversed the old saying 'It’s not the crime; it’s the cover-up' into something entirely new. If there is no cover-up, then there must not have been a crime. ... Trump’s defenders have a different — and telling — term for his misconduct. He’s not brazen, he’s 'transparent.'"
😱😱 "Countries that slide from democracy toward autocracy tend to follow similar patterns. To measure what is happening in the US, the NYT editorial board has compiled a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion...the sobering reality is that the US has regressed, to different degrees, on all 12."
💯"To Trump, and to the media environment in which he thrives, Reagan’s composed performance, with its affirmation of consensus, is almost intolerable. It must be discredited not because it is inaccurate but because it represents an entirely different model of what presidential authority looks like."
Love it, Trump claims to be an admirer of Jackson and yet he does this: "He cut down the White House’s historic magnolia tree, which President Andrew Jackson planted in 1829 in memory of his wife, Rachel."
Gross!! 🤢🤮 It's a nonprofit so donate! "A spokesman for the North Carolina Republican Party appeared to threaten the news outlet ProPublica — citing “connections” to the Trump administration — over a story it reported and ultimately published on a prominent conservative state Supreme Court judge."
Our culture is built to eternally forgive men, generally, and white men of means, especially, for their mistakes. Every single time, they were young and immature and it would be a shame to hold them accountable for anything they did wrong.The rest of us just need to be strong-armed into...forgiving
Big surprise!! 🙄🙄 "Now we’re getting the first reports from the front lines of ICE’s recruiting and hiring drive — and it’s going precisely as poorly as predicted. As CNN quoted an administration official last week, 'It’s a shit show.'"
Draining the swamp, eh? "Lobbying expenditures overall have been up 21% this year compared with the same period in 2024, according to a Washington Post analysis... If the pace continues through year-end, it would be the largest annual increase since at least 1998, according to OpenSecrets data."
Huge surprise here, the Trumps are now getting in on the biggest grift of them all: defense contracting. Don't worry though, I'm sure these drones will all be "perfect." 🤑🤑 DISGUSTING!!
"...two reactive forces to modern pluralism have developed: a hard nationalist right and a radical illiberal left. They present themselves as opposites but are united in their obsession with identity politics and a dream of sameness, in which alternative ideas and cultures are seen as threats." 🤔
Wow, wasn't aware of THIS level of anti-Semitism among such prominent right-wing podcasters. Think that I'm already boycotting any of their advertisers, but if I was Jewish, I would be ringing some SERIOUS alarm bells about this... 😱😱🔔
"Whatever the cause...the potential effect is alarming. This media system promotes mental degeneration and a sense of learned helplessness that can only yield destructive politics. People convinced that an amorphous they controls events are ...far more likely to fall in thrall to demagogues..."
"When [Trump] has to answer for his actions in court, he demands that he be treated as a president like any other. In Portland, Ore., however, a Trump appointee said no. ... There is no deference due to a president who refuses to operate in good faith." 👏👏
Timothy Snyder on what it means for an administration ally to call those who fought the rise of the Nazis as -- get this -- the original antifa. So if antifa is now your enemy wouldn't that make you modern-day Nazis? 🤔
Ridiculous! "The National Guard’s mostly quiet walks through Washington, D.C., are expected to cost a little more than $200 million, USA Today reported, and that’s the figure just for the D.C. National Guard, not for the eight states that have sent troops. Those likely more than double that cost..."
"If politics continues to promise endless improvement, it will ...strengthen populisms that thrive on betrayed expectations. But if democracies learn to articulate a...narrative...that acknowledges loss, confronts vulnerability, redefines progress and pursues resilience, they may renew themselves."
Have fun flying thanks to Trump! "The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to scale back or eliminate some airline passenger protection rules that were enacted or proposed under the Biden administration and earlier, siding with the airline industry in its push for fewer regulations."
Very good analysis here: “Trump has a shrewd instinct for survival. He must sense that if he does not act now to prevent free and fair elections in 2026, he will lose much of his power—and all of his impunity. That’s why he is squeezing Bondi.”
🤯🤯 “Several of Fox News’s most prominent on-air news personalities made clear their desire to help Mr. Trump shortly before and after the 2020 presidential election, according to…court documents released on Tuesday in a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox Corporation filed by Smartmatic”
