@observotron.bsky.social
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yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.
Right.
If you want a good explanation of why the American system of government worked well enough for 200 years and then suddenly stopped, it's because Republicans in Congress suddenly started letting their partisan interests COMPLETELY override their institutional interests
If you want a good explanation of why the American system of government worked well enough for 200 years and then suddenly stopped, it's because Republicans in Congress suddenly started letting their partisan interests COMPLETELY override their institutional interests
a lot of problems wouldn't exist if we had a congress with even an ounce of self interest
January 4, 2026 at 11:52 PM
yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.
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Still mind-blowing that a top admin official was revealed to have taken $50,000 in cash in a paper bag from people looking for government favors, the reaction of the administration was "Whatever losers, this is how it works now" and bigshot news media said "If you say so, we'll forget about it"
Border czar Tom Homan didn't receive a normal background check for his role while his bribery probe was still ongoing:
Justice officials felt sure Homan would not be able to obtain a security clearance based on the evidence gathered. It remains unclear how Homan was eventually granted clearance.
Justice officials felt sure Homan would not be able to obtain a security clearance based on the evidence gathered. It remains unclear how Homan was eventually granted clearance.
Border czar Tom Homan didn’t receive normal background check during bribery probe
President-elect Trump initially balked at submitting names of likely nominees to the FBI for background checks, a basic step intended to flag possible financial conflicts or ethical problems.
www.ms.now
December 30, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Still mind-blowing that a top admin official was revealed to have taken $50,000 in cash in a paper bag from people looking for government favors, the reaction of the administration was "Whatever losers, this is how it works now" and bigshot news media said "If you say so, we'll forget about it"
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Real "oh my god, she admit it" moment here. Trump is treated as an uninteresting figure without agency so we can dump endless criticism on liberals for how they react to his "natural disaster." He "doesn't participate in moral frameworks" lmfao
December 30, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Real "oh my god, she admit it" moment here. Trump is treated as an uninteresting figure without agency so we can dump endless criticism on liberals for how they react to his "natural disaster." He "doesn't participate in moral frameworks" lmfao
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I will go to my grave baffled that they built a whole cult of Trump Loves And Fights For You around a guy who has very transparently not given a single shit about another human being a day in his life
December 30, 2025 at 8:19 PM
I will go to my grave baffled that they built a whole cult of Trump Loves And Fights For You around a guy who has very transparently not given a single shit about another human being a day in his life
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@attackerman.bsky.social's destruction of Bari Weiss here is so vicious because it is so spectacularly well-informed; this one is an earner, folks
www.forever-wars.com/watching-bar...
www.forever-wars.com/watching-bar...
Watching Bari Weiss Murder Investigative Journalism at CBS
Notes from someone who's withstood White House demands to stop an explosive story—and who once even had a 60 Minutes piece spiked
www.forever-wars.com
December 31, 2025 at 2:47 AM
@attackerman.bsky.social's destruction of Bari Weiss here is so vicious because it is so spectacularly well-informed; this one is an earner, folks
www.forever-wars.com/watching-bar...
www.forever-wars.com/watching-bar...
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you may disagree with her Gleeful Bigotry policies but that doesn't mean she should be treated like some sort of gleeful bigot. it's not all about YOUR feelings. it's actually mainly about the feelings of guys like jonathan
And if you refuse to give someone credit for standing for liberal democracy just because they don’t agree with your policy preferences, you’re missing the big picture. www.thebulwark.com/p/why-marjor...
Why Marjorie Taylor Greene Gives Me Hope
People don’t change—but they can remember who they are.
www.thebulwark.com
December 30, 2025 at 2:02 PM
you may disagree with her Gleeful Bigotry policies but that doesn't mean she should be treated like some sort of gleeful bigot. it's not all about YOUR feelings. it's actually mainly about the feelings of guys like jonathan
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“Just one more thing, Ms Bondi…
… If The Epstein Files are a hoax, why the redactions?”
… If The Epstein Files are a hoax, why the redactions?”
December 28, 2025 at 11:49 PM
“Just one more thing, Ms Bondi…
… If The Epstein Files are a hoax, why the redactions?”
… If The Epstein Files are a hoax, why the redactions?”
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This, combined with "vice signaling" (taking pride in antisocial behavior) has given us the reign of the Stupid Asshole, something most people are against, but can only be remedied if we're not too polite to talk about it
An essential development over the past decade-plus is that the ignorant went from feeling chastened when their ignorance was revealed to banding together and deciding that, actually, they were right. They might disagree at times, but they agreed that ignorance itself was an indicator of trust.
December 29, 2025 at 6:46 PM
This, combined with "vice signaling" (taking pride in antisocial behavior) has given us the reign of the Stupid Asshole, something most people are against, but can only be remedied if we're not too polite to talk about it
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it's fucked that we're expected to take seriously all these guys who'd get kicked out of a clown car for being too goofy. who cares what an adult man who says Based thinks, he's stupid. he thinks George Soros stole the green M&M's sexy boots, and he thinks it a LOT. let's hear his immigration ideas
December 30, 2025 at 4:13 AM
it's fucked that we're expected to take seriously all these guys who'd get kicked out of a clown car for being too goofy. who cares what an adult man who says Based thinks, he's stupid. he thinks George Soros stole the green M&M's sexy boots, and he thinks it a LOT. let's hear his immigration ideas
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Discworld QOTD, from Snuff
"You should look for those who can’t believe that the law would ever catch them, who believe that they act out of a right that the rest of us do not have. The job of the officer of the law is to let them know that they are wrong!"
"You should look for those who can’t believe that the law would ever catch them, who believe that they act out of a right that the rest of us do not have. The job of the officer of the law is to let them know that they are wrong!"
Discworld QOTD, from I Shall Wear Midnight
"Witches knew that mysterious omens were around all the time. The world was always nearly drowning in mysterious omens. You just had to pick the one that was convenient."
"Witches knew that mysterious omens were around all the time. The world was always nearly drowning in mysterious omens. You just had to pick the one that was convenient."
Discworld QOTD, from Lords and Ladies
December 23, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Discworld QOTD, from Snuff
"You should look for those who can’t believe that the law would ever catch them, who believe that they act out of a right that the rest of us do not have. The job of the officer of the law is to let them know that they are wrong!"
"You should look for those who can’t believe that the law would ever catch them, who believe that they act out of a right that the rest of us do not have. The job of the officer of the law is to let them know that they are wrong!"
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Normal yule log? Boring. Expected. Overdone.
Lithium-ion battery yule log? Relevant. Unexpected. Educational.
youtu.be/rc6Txma85Ac?...
Lithium-ion battery yule log? Relevant. Unexpected. Educational.
youtu.be/rc6Txma85Ac?...
escooter lithium-ion battery yule log fire for your home - Fuego con batería de iones para tu casa
YouTube video by U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
youtu.be
December 22, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Normal yule log? Boring. Expected. Overdone.
Lithium-ion battery yule log? Relevant. Unexpected. Educational.
youtu.be/rc6Txma85Ac?...
Lithium-ion battery yule log? Relevant. Unexpected. Educational.
youtu.be/rc6Txma85Ac?...
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Consumers don’t know if their medications came from factories that used dirty water, were infested by insects or birds, or were outright banned from shipping drugs to the U.S.
Our new app provides answers that the FDA won’t.
Our new app provides answers that the FDA won’t.
Rx Inspector: ProPublica’s New Tool Provides Drug Info the FDA Won’t
We’ve launched a first-of-its-kind app to help you find out where your generic drugs come from and see the track records of the factories that made them.
www.propublica.org
December 21, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Consumers don’t know if their medications came from factories that used dirty water, were infested by insects or birds, or were outright banned from shipping drugs to the U.S.
Our new app provides answers that the FDA won’t.
Our new app provides answers that the FDA won’t.
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One day something will happen — a wedding, a graduation, a job promotion, Jake Paul getting knocked out, Andrew Tate getting knocked out the next day — and you’ll want the right outfit to celebrate. Buy that special outfit now, so you’re ready when that next unexpected moment arrives.
December 21, 2025 at 7:19 AM
One day something will happen — a wedding, a graduation, a job promotion, Jake Paul getting knocked out, Andrew Tate getting knocked out the next day — and you’ll want the right outfit to celebrate. Buy that special outfit now, so you’re ready when that next unexpected moment arrives.
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as of this week it has officially been 18 years since an anonymous user uploaded this bizarre image of an opossum cornered in a baby grand piano to Wikimedia Commons
December 15, 2025 at 2:45 AM
as of this week it has officially been 18 years since an anonymous user uploaded this bizarre image of an opossum cornered in a baby grand piano to Wikimedia Commons
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December 15, 2025 at 1:34 PM
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Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later.
harpers.org/archive/1941...
harpers.org/archive/1941...
Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson
harpers.org
October 1, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later.
harpers.org/archive/1941...
harpers.org/archive/1941...
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📽️ WATCH: After a bird flu outbreak tore through Midwestern barns, which led to 18 million hens being killed and a spike in egg prices, the Department of Agriculture didn’t investigate whether the virus was airborne.
But ProPublica did.
@natlash.bsky.social breaks it down: propub.li/4iVcYfD
But ProPublica did.
@natlash.bsky.social breaks it down: propub.li/4iVcYfD
December 14, 2025 at 2:43 AM
📽️ WATCH: After a bird flu outbreak tore through Midwestern barns, which led to 18 million hens being killed and a spike in egg prices, the Department of Agriculture didn’t investigate whether the virus was airborne.
But ProPublica did.
@natlash.bsky.social breaks it down: propub.li/4iVcYfD
But ProPublica did.
@natlash.bsky.social breaks it down: propub.li/4iVcYfD
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Anti-vaxxism is an ideology with maybe the dumbest combination of pointless and evil that has ever existed bsky.app/profile/nyti...
More than 250 people who were exposed to measles, including dozens of unvaccinated school-aged children, are quarantining in South Carolina as the state wrestles to contain an outbreak that has sickened more than 110 people.
Hundreds Quarantined in South Carolina as Measles Outbreak Shows No Sign of Slowing
The outbreak shows no signs of slowing, likely because of the affected area’s “lower-than-hoped-for vaccination coverage,” a state health official said.
nyti.ms
December 12, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Anti-vaxxism is an ideology with maybe the dumbest combination of pointless and evil that has ever existed bsky.app/profile/nyti...
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not exactly! *first* you consolidate your power, and *then* you purge the technocrats, and *then* you replace the bureaucrats with the loyalist flunkies, trump's trying to do it in reverse order because he let the fanatics tell him what to do, because he's slow and stupid
isn't this like, autocracy 101
December 11, 2025 at 11:32 PM
not exactly! *first* you consolidate your power, and *then* you purge the technocrats, and *then* you replace the bureaucrats with the loyalist flunkies, trump's trying to do it in reverse order because he let the fanatics tell him what to do, because he's slow and stupid
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i stand by this statement every year
December 12, 2025 at 1:27 AM
i stand by this statement every year