shep
@shepherdone.bsky.social
It's a class war and the GOP is the tip of the spear, train your fire.
[Warning] May contain words the New York Times is afraid to print.
[Warning] May contain words the New York Times is afraid to print.
Four of the biggest stories of the Trump era were either spiked or badly mischaracterized by the MSM: Trump’s alliance with Vladimir Putin, his psychopathy diagnosis, seditious conspiracy, (I.e., “The Big Lie,”), by the Republican Party against the United States, and deliberate COVID pandemicide.
December 29, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Four of the biggest stories of the Trump era were either spiked or badly mischaracterized by the MSM: Trump’s alliance with Vladimir Putin, his psychopathy diagnosis, seditious conspiracy, (I.e., “The Big Lie,”), by the Republican Party against the United States, and deliberate COVID pandemicide.
This is civil war.
🧨 “Smile! You’re a Domestic Terrorist Now.”
Or: When the Justice Department Mistakes iPhones for IEDs.
Or: When the Justice Department Mistakes iPhones for IEDs.
Justice Department says filming immigration raids is 'domestic terrorism'
A leaked Justice Department memo directs federal prosecutors to press “domestic terrorism” charges against individuals who record immigration operations.
reason.com
December 29, 2025 at 5:06 AM
This is civil war.
If you have a shred of optimism left, you hope our current nightmare will lead to popular rejection of Republican oligarchy after decades of class warfare against working people. A new New Deal.
"...over the last 40 years, starting with Reagan, America went off the rails..." shorturl.at/JOMJr
"...over the last 40 years, starting with Reagan, America went off the rails..." shorturl.at/JOMJr
Sunday thought: The reckoning
Friends,
shorturl.at
December 28, 2025 at 7:46 PM
If you have a shred of optimism left, you hope our current nightmare will lead to popular rejection of Republican oligarchy after decades of class warfare against working people. A new New Deal.
"...over the last 40 years, starting with Reagan, America went off the rails..." shorturl.at/JOMJr
"...over the last 40 years, starting with Reagan, America went off the rails..." shorturl.at/JOMJr
AI is just trolling us now.
December 27, 2025 at 11:40 PM
AI is just trolling us now.
The "thrill of feeling superior" did not come cheap but it is key to understanding MAGA's relentless sociopathy. The "deplorables" know what liberals think of them but were also fed decades of Republican bullshit about their moral superiority to the left. Repressed guilt is a helluva drug.
December 27, 2025 at 11:34 PM
The "thrill of feeling superior" did not come cheap but it is key to understanding MAGA's relentless sociopathy. The "deplorables" know what liberals think of them but were also fed decades of Republican bullshit about their moral superiority to the left. Repressed guilt is a helluva drug.
This is civil war.
NEW: Ohio has just restricted mail voting, banning the so-called 'grace period' that allows mail ballots to come in the day after Election Day as long as they've been postmarked in time.
This is likely to lead to thousands of Dem-leaning ballots to be rejected.
Ohio is following Trump's demands.
This is likely to lead to thousands of Dem-leaning ballots to be rejected.
Ohio is following Trump's demands.
Ohio Bans Grace Periods for Mail Ballots, Fulfilling Trump’s Wishes - Bolts
Ohio is the fourth GOP-run state this year to ban ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive after. A Supreme Court case could force that policy nationwide next year.
boltsmag.org
December 23, 2025 at 7:58 PM
This is civil war.
For those in the back, Republicans do not and have never cared about government spending, debt, or deficits. What they hate is government spending which even slightly levels the playing field for workers and/or regulates what corporate owners can and cannot do. That's what DOGE was built to kill.
December 23, 2025 at 6:21 PM
For those in the back, Republicans do not and have never cared about government spending, debt, or deficits. What they hate is government spending which even slightly levels the playing field for workers and/or regulates what corporate owners can and cannot do. That's what DOGE was built to kill.
Slagging journalists is almost as popular as slagging Democrats in the topsy-turvy social media political blame-game, but the truth is that journalists themselves have limited roles in the determining the final product and you don't need a conspiracy of actors to understand how the sausage is made.
From @parkermolloy.com at New Republic. newrepublic.com/article/2047...
I'd go a bit further. The system needs no conspiracy to function. It just needs everyone to understand the direction things are going in. Bari Weiss was put there not to protect a legacy, but to align its politics differently.
I'd go a bit further. The system needs no conspiracy to function. It just needs everyone to understand the direction things are going in. Bari Weiss was put there not to protect a legacy, but to align its politics differently.
December 23, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Slagging journalists is almost as popular as slagging Democrats in the topsy-turvy social media political blame-game, but the truth is that journalists themselves have limited roles in the determining the final product and you don't need a conspiracy of actors to understand how the sausage is made.
This is civil war.
Sean Duffy on blue states: "What I can do is I can pull their money. That's the leverage I do have ... I guarantee you that the federal taxpayer is not going to fund their roads and bridges and their systems when they are putting illegals on the roads."
December 23, 2025 at 3:31 PM
This is civil war.
The least they can do.
December 22, 2025 at 7:29 PM
The least they can do.
Amazing that the entire pundit brain trust has failed to identify one reason the files are not being revealed to the public. The files have been used for years to blackmail the powerful, sometimes steering the foreign policy of nations, once they are made public they become worthless to the owners.
Breaking: The Trump administration announces that they will not be complying with today’s deadline to release the full Epstein Files.
They insist the files will be released in the next “couple weeks.”
They insist the files will be released in the next “couple weeks.”
December 19, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Amazing that the entire pundit brain trust has failed to identify one reason the files are not being revealed to the public. The files have been used for years to blackmail the powerful, sometimes steering the foreign policy of nations, once they are made public they become worthless to the owners.
The people are much smarter and more woke than our political class or what the crappy polling they use to justify expanding the police state tell us. Pick a hyperbolic activist slogan like, "Defund the Police," poll it as if it's a real policy, and wham, manufactured consent. shorturl.at/IpLoH
Conventional Wisdom and "Popularity"
And a weird debate I just had.
open.substack.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:15 PM
The people are much smarter and more woke than our political class or what the crappy polling they use to justify expanding the police state tell us. Pick a hyperbolic activist slogan like, "Defund the Police," poll it as if it's a real policy, and wham, manufactured consent. shorturl.at/IpLoH
It took 8 years for the Republican base to coalesce around a new authoritarian figure to worship and, without a doubt, Trump has personified the autocrat in venality, mendacity, cruelty, and greed, which no mere mortal could match, no one to whom MAGA could now give their hearts, minds, and souls.
Vance won’t last even if he did end up as President. Nobody likes him, not even Republicans! He doesn’t attract the loyalty Trump does. He’s extremely condescending towards women. He comes off as a pompous fool.
December 18, 2025 at 11:08 PM
It took 8 years for the Republican base to coalesce around a new authoritarian figure to worship and, without a doubt, Trump has personified the autocrat in venality, mendacity, cruelty, and greed, which no mere mortal could match, no one to whom MAGA could now give their hearts, minds, and souls.
Why can't Democrats win elections?
"The networks have declined to air prime time speeches from the last two Democratic presidents, claiming they were too political."
shorturl.at/QXviZ
"The networks have declined to air prime time speeches from the last two Democratic presidents, claiming they were too political."
shorturl.at/QXviZ
Breaking precedent, networks interrupt prime time for Trump political diatribe
On Wednesday night at 9 PM Eastern, President Trump delivered a prime time address to the nation that was aired by all major broadcast networks.
open.substack.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Why can't Democrats win elections?
"The networks have declined to air prime time speeches from the last two Democratic presidents, claiming they were too political."
shorturl.at/QXviZ
"The networks have declined to air prime time speeches from the last two Democratic presidents, claiming they were too political."
shorturl.at/QXviZ
The pundit class never seems to tire of blaming Democrats for the Republican ability to lie and cheat their way into political power. The two groups most to blame for this nightmare are voters who chose it out of blind hatred and self-absorbed voters who can't be bothered to even pay attention.
BREAKING: The Democratic National Committee will NOT release its long-awaited autopsy on Trump's 2024 win. The report is completed but Dem leaders decided it could distract from their winning streak, so it will remain secret. Not good.
Details here:
newrepublic.com/article/2045...
Details here:
newrepublic.com/article/2045...
Dem Leaders Decide to Bury Damning Report on Why Trump Won in 2024
The Democratic National Committee has completed its long-awaited analysis on what went wrong in the 2024 campaign. But in a move that will attract intense criticism, it’s keeping the findings secret.
newrepublic.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:52 PM
The pundit class never seems to tire of blaming Democrats for the Republican ability to lie and cheat their way into political power. The two groups most to blame for this nightmare are voters who chose it out of blind hatred and self-absorbed voters who can't be bothered to even pay attention.
This is civil war. The Republican Party is completing its decades-long campaign to destroy Americans' faith in government by killing government's capacity to do anything other than build a fascist police state to maintain control, as our political press sleepwalks us into the abyss.
December 18, 2025 at 5:21 PM
This is civil war. The Republican Party is completing its decades-long campaign to destroy Americans' faith in government by killing government's capacity to do anything other than build a fascist police state to maintain control, as our political press sleepwalks us into the abyss.
Many experts on civil conflict seem willing to wait for a mass casualty event to say that the GOP is waging war against the rest of America and that's a damned shame.
December 18, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Many experts on civil conflict seem willing to wait for a mass casualty event to say that the GOP is waging war against the rest of America and that's a damned shame.
Societies, and even cultures, can make dramatic change in a surprisingly short amount of time with inspired political leadership and the investment of popular media in an outcome. But the US is crippled by a political party and mainstream media devoted only to unbridled oligarchy at any cost.
Remember "smokers' rights"? LOL! 🙄🙄🙄
I lived thru the end of public smoking. Early in my career I presented to city councils who were smoking, in front of audiences who were smoking.
Smoking in restaurants, airplanes, hospitals…
All of that seems insane now, but it was very controversial when we DID change it.
We CAN change things.
Smoking in restaurants, airplanes, hospitals…
All of that seems insane now, but it was very controversial when we DID change it.
We CAN change things.
December 16, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Societies, and even cultures, can make dramatic change in a surprisingly short amount of time with inspired political leadership and the investment of popular media in an outcome. But the US is crippled by a political party and mainstream media devoted only to unbridled oligarchy at any cost.
If it's an annoyance contest, it's hard to imagine how MAGA could possibly lose. The reason journalists find the left more annoying is because it is more demanding, insisting on a more rigorous work product, rather than hurling clownish insults and partisan claptrap which are easier to ignore.
I think the best way to explain the X vs Bluesky preference is whether a person thinks the left is more annoying than the right is dangerous.
The reason so many Noah Smiths end up on the X side of that equation is that while the left annoys them personally, the right mostly endangers other people.
The reason so many Noah Smiths end up on the X side of that equation is that while the left annoys them personally, the right mostly endangers other people.
December 15, 2025 at 10:17 PM
If it's an annoyance contest, it's hard to imagine how MAGA could possibly lose. The reason journalists find the left more annoying is because it is more demanding, insisting on a more rigorous work product, rather than hurling clownish insults and partisan claptrap which are easier to ignore.
This is civil war. open.substack.com/pub/readtpa/...?
December 15, 2025 at 8:34 PM
This is civil war. open.substack.com/pub/readtpa/...?
No one wants to be the bad guy, even psychopaths rationalize the harm they do. MAGA's partisan sociopathy likely persists because facing the fact that they are the evil in America is unbearable, making it easy to get them to double-down on blaming and hating others.
December 15, 2025 at 4:56 PM
No one wants to be the bad guy, even psychopaths rationalize the harm they do. MAGA's partisan sociopathy likely persists because facing the fact that they are the evil in America is unbearable, making it easy to get them to double-down on blaming and hating others.
Sad but true, the GOP has always been a test of us, how much racism and cruelty would we tolerate and support. This is yet another failing grade.
December 15, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Sad but true, the GOP has always been a test of us, how much racism and cruelty would we tolerate and support. This is yet another failing grade.
This is civil war.
WALKINSHAW: Are you familiar with the Proud Boys?
GLASHEEN: I'm familiar with the name
WALKINSHAW: Does the FBI still designate them as an extremist organization? They did during Trump's first term
GLASHEEN: We are in the process right now of changing our, uh, categories for domestic terrorism
GLASHEEN: I'm familiar with the name
WALKINSHAW: Does the FBI still designate them as an extremist organization? They did during Trump's first term
GLASHEEN: We are in the process right now of changing our, uh, categories for domestic terrorism
December 12, 2025 at 11:37 PM
This is civil war.
There still seems to be some confusion.
December 12, 2025 at 11:21 PM
There still seems to be some confusion.