Ed Burmila
@edburmila.bsky.social
Ex- lots of things.
Podcast is Mass for Shut-ins. Subscribe for good stuff on Patreon.com/ginandtacos.
Podcast is Mass for Shut-ins. Subscribe for good stuff on Patreon.com/ginandtacos.
With our national commitment to never remembering or learning anything, I’m not surprised that everyone has already already forgotten those Iraqi defectors in 2002 who went on TV every day promising how much the people of Iraq would love it if daddy America invaded.
The funniest part of Machado’s desperate offer to give Trump her peace prize is if she does it, it will probably work. Not her becoming president of Venezuela; I mean within six months everyone will simply say that Trump won a Nobel peace prize and that’s all that matters to him and his supporters
January 6, 2026 at 2:06 PM
With our national commitment to never remembering or learning anything, I’m not surprised that everyone has already already forgotten those Iraqi defectors in 2002 who went on TV every day promising how much the people of Iraq would love it if daddy America invaded.
Reposted by Ed Burmila
Trump is a morality test and integrity test and courage test and it's stunning how many people fail all three so miserably.
Marina Corina Machado was just on Hannity's show effusively kissing up to Trump, including offering to share the Nobel Prize with him
January 6, 2026 at 11:42 AM
Trump is a morality test and integrity test and courage test and it's stunning how many people fail all three so miserably.
It's incredible to watch people continue to do the "Wow, I guess you don't understand how the system works!" routine when every single day we are shown incontrovertible evidence that the way the system works is apparently that the president gets to do literally whatever he wants.
it's so weird that there are still people who defend chuck schumer on here
so many "we don't have any power, what do you expect him to do" and "we've tried absolutely nothing strategically unique and are all out of ideas" type of folks who seem extremely happy to wallow in powerlessness
so many "we don't have any power, what do you expect him to do" and "we've tried absolutely nothing strategically unique and are all out of ideas" type of folks who seem extremely happy to wallow in powerlessness
January 6, 2026 at 1:21 AM
It's incredible to watch people continue to do the "Wow, I guess you don't understand how the system works!" routine when every single day we are shown incontrovertible evidence that the way the system works is apparently that the president gets to do literally whatever he wants.
Reposted by Ed Burmila
This is objectively untrue. Shutdown starts Jan 30. That doesn't change w/o Dem votes. Nor any non-reconciliation legislation. Also other kinds of obstruction and forcing votes.
The minority party is not completely powerless, esp. in the Senate. If they pretend to be, that is a choice, not reality.
The minority party is not completely powerless, esp. in the Senate. If they pretend to be, that is a choice, not reality.
They don't have any power to do anything. They have none. Zero. Zilch. Everything else is virtue signaling. It's futile gestures.
January 5, 2026 at 5:44 PM
This is objectively untrue. Shutdown starts Jan 30. That doesn't change w/o Dem votes. Nor any non-reconciliation legislation. Also other kinds of obstruction and forcing votes.
The minority party is not completely powerless, esp. in the Senate. If they pretend to be, that is a choice, not reality.
The minority party is not completely powerless, esp. in the Senate. If they pretend to be, that is a choice, not reality.
Waiting for every elected official who backed a thinly-veiled anti-trans bill called the "Kids Online Safety Act" to say anything about the fact that formerly-twitter is now offering its users a literal child p**n generator. I mean you are all deeply worried about the safety of kids, right?
January 5, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Waiting for every elected official who backed a thinly-veiled anti-trans bill called the "Kids Online Safety Act" to say anything about the fact that formerly-twitter is now offering its users a literal child p**n generator. I mean you are all deeply worried about the safety of kids, right?
One of my least favorite genres of post is “aha, look, the stock prices of oil companies/defense contractors/whatever have all gone up“ and they’ve gone up like 2%.
January 5, 2026 at 3:02 PM
One of my least favorite genres of post is “aha, look, the stock prices of oil companies/defense contractors/whatever have all gone up“ and they’ve gone up like 2%.
Excuse me whilst I kiss* the sky**
*watch
** the criterion 4K of Barry Lyndon with the uncompressed mono soundtrack on an OLED
*watch
** the criterion 4K of Barry Lyndon with the uncompressed mono soundtrack on an OLED
January 4, 2026 at 11:10 PM
Excuse me whilst I kiss* the sky**
*watch
** the criterion 4K of Barry Lyndon with the uncompressed mono soundtrack on an OLED
*watch
** the criterion 4K of Barry Lyndon with the uncompressed mono soundtrack on an OLED
Reposted by Ed Burmila
Whenever I see someone getting out over their skis on a foreign policy take I remember Caitlin Flanagan confusing Ayatollah Khamenei with Ayatollah Khomeini and then claiming she was actually expressing a profound truth.
January 4, 2026 at 10:26 PM
Whenever I see someone getting out over their skis on a foreign policy take I remember Caitlin Flanagan confusing Ayatollah Khamenei with Ayatollah Khomeini and then claiming she was actually expressing a profound truth.
The facial tic I’m developing from seeing people post that graphic showing Venezuela having the world’s largest oil reserves…
The truly wild thing is this isn’t even true, a shit-ton of their oil reserves on paper are heavy tar sands and every US oil company will take one look at that at $80/bbl and walk away because it isn’t close to economically viable.
Rep. Salazar on Venezuela: "We're about to go in ... we need to go in ... Venezuela for the American oil companies will be a field day"
January 4, 2026 at 4:10 PM
The facial tic I’m developing from seeing people post that graphic showing Venezuela having the world’s largest oil reserves…
Reposted by Ed Burmila
Yeah I’m one of those political scientists and I published one of those (many) papers. Term limits are just bad. It’s all bad. There’s nothing good about them. They don’t do anything their proponents say they do & have many malign side effects.
January 4, 2026 at 6:00 AM
Yeah I’m one of those political scientists and I published one of those (many) papers. Term limits are just bad. It’s all bad. There’s nothing good about them. They don’t do anything their proponents say they do & have many malign side effects.
Wonder why journalists, like elected officials and their hangers-on, don’t want to see predictions markets regulated. Insider “trading” must be pretty sweet on the side!
NYT, WaPo learned of the secret US raid on Venezuela soon before it was scheduled to begin but held off publishing what they had at the administration's request to avoid endangering US troops
January 4, 2026 at 3:58 AM
Wonder why journalists, like elected officials and their hangers-on, don’t want to see predictions markets regulated. Insider “trading” must be pretty sweet on the side!
The reason you feel so overwhelmed and hopeless is exactly this; part of you realizes that absolutely everything needs to be torn down to the studs and rebuilt from scratch.
Which is, you know, daunting. But here we are.
Which is, you know, daunting. But here we are.
The amount of after-the-fact consent manufacturing, shameless regime stenography, and gutless both-sidesing on every single media outlet right now is genuinely worse than 2001-2002. Absolutely pathetic. We have no journalists. We have no opposition party.
January 3, 2026 at 11:10 PM
The reason you feel so overwhelmed and hopeless is exactly this; part of you realizes that absolutely everything needs to be torn down to the studs and rebuilt from scratch.
Which is, you know, daunting. But here we are.
Which is, you know, daunting. But here we are.
By Wednesday Trump is going to be visibly irritated if reporters are still asking him questions about Venezuela.
January 3, 2026 at 6:56 PM
By Wednesday Trump is going to be visibly irritated if reporters are still asking him questions about Venezuela.
Reposted by Ed Burmila
Mark Kelly puts out a statement saying "The President of the United States just overthrew a foreign ruler and explained to the American people that this is about taking control of the oil reserves of a foreign nation." This is probably the strongest statement alongside Gallego's I've read.
January 3, 2026 at 6:16 PM
Mark Kelly puts out a statement saying "The President of the United States just overthrew a foreign ruler and explained to the American people that this is about taking control of the oil reserves of a foreign nation." This is probably the strongest statement alongside Gallego's I've read.
“The problem here is that he didn’t follow the rules” is the only argument you can really make when almost no one in your coalition is anti-war in any meaningful sense.
January 3, 2026 at 6:12 PM
“The problem here is that he didn’t follow the rules” is the only argument you can really make when almost no one in your coalition is anti-war in any meaningful sense.
The thing about following this stuff in real time is that nothing Trump or anyone around him says means anything. They’re just vomiting words and they forget everything they say 3 seconds after they say it, with zero follow through. In a week the story will be different or they’ll be bored with it.
Pete Hegseth, "Finally a Commander and Chief the world respects and Americans deserve"
"President Trump is deadly serious about getting back the oil that was stolen from us"
"This is America first"
"This is peace through strength"
"President Trump is deadly serious about getting back the oil that was stolen from us"
"This is America first"
"This is peace through strength"
January 3, 2026 at 5:54 PM
The thing about following this stuff in real time is that nothing Trump or anyone around him says means anything. They’re just vomiting words and they forget everything they say 3 seconds after they say it, with zero follow through. In a week the story will be different or they’ll be bored with it.
Reposted by Ed Burmila
A lot of people forget how in 2004 the Bush regime kidnapped the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and dumped him in Africa.
Is there any modern precedent for abducting a head of state?
Plenty of examples of coups, assassinations and domestic trials, including show trials, but this is like a Crusader Kings plot.
Plenty of examples of coups, assassinations and domestic trials, including show trials, but this is like a Crusader Kings plot.
January 3, 2026 at 2:36 PM
A lot of people forget how in 2004 the Bush regime kidnapped the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and dumped him in Africa.
To get the support to last more than one brief news cycle you need to feed people the lines, like they did in 2002-03. “WMD! Hans Blix! The UN inspectors! Atta in Prague!”
If you skip this part, people won’t have the thought-terminating cliches they need to easily, lazily justify their support.
If you skip this part, people won’t have the thought-terminating cliches they need to easily, lazily justify their support.
The problem with skipping the whole “manufacturing consent” part it was that without even a vague sense of what this is about, the little spike in support will disappear in about 48 hours. By the middle of the week people will just assume it’s over and get mad if it isn’t.
January 3, 2026 at 3:39 PM
To get the support to last more than one brief news cycle you need to feed people the lines, like they did in 2002-03. “WMD! Hans Blix! The UN inspectors! Atta in Prague!”
If you skip this part, people won’t have the thought-terminating cliches they need to easily, lazily justify their support.
If you skip this part, people won’t have the thought-terminating cliches they need to easily, lazily justify their support.
Entering our Too Lazy to Manufacture Consent era
I feel like I haven’t even been properly lied to about the purposes of this war
January 3, 2026 at 1:44 PM
Entering our Too Lazy to Manufacture Consent era
Why is that Aussie-themed male strip revue called Thunder Down Under when Penile Colony was right there.
January 3, 2026 at 12:35 AM
Why is that Aussie-themed male strip revue called Thunder Down Under when Penile Colony was right there.
Pouring one out for the Bulgarian Lev (1880 - yesterday)
January 2, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Pouring one out for the Bulgarian Lev (1880 - yesterday)
Reposted by Ed Burmila
And thus began our decade of white men openly, brazenly and vigorously doing crimes and getting away with it.
“The refuge occupation was a rash before a fever, a symptom of our approaching political chaos.”
H/T @leahsottile.bsky.social
“The refuge occupation was a rash before a fever, a symptom of our approaching political chaos.”
H/T @leahsottile.bsky.social
The Takeover of Malheur Kicked Off a Decade of Lawlessness
The wildlife refuge occupation set the stage for Trump, January 6, and so much more.
www.pdxmonthly.com
January 2, 2026 at 5:03 PM
And thus began our decade of white men openly, brazenly and vigorously doing crimes and getting away with it.
“The refuge occupation was a rash before a fever, a symptom of our approaching political chaos.”
H/T @leahsottile.bsky.social
“The refuge occupation was a rash before a fever, a symptom of our approaching political chaos.”
H/T @leahsottile.bsky.social
Reposted by Ed Burmila
There have been no good reasons for staying on Twitter for years now, but at this point you will have to follow up any of your remaining excuses with “…and I don’t care about the child pornography.”
This does seem just a little bit bad! Idk the sort of thing you’d think politicians might distance themselves from or something!
January 2, 2026 at 2:04 PM
There have been no good reasons for staying on Twitter for years now, but at this point you will have to follow up any of your remaining excuses with “…and I don’t care about the child pornography.”
Reposted by Ed Burmila
Cover reveal. It's about how & why colonies/states controlled international & domestic migration until 1888, why in the late 19th c the feds took over, & what it was like for politically disfavored groups to live under that arrangement of power. You can't understand voluntary migration history 1/
January 2, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Cover reveal. It's about how & why colonies/states controlled international & domestic migration until 1888, why in the late 19th c the feds took over, & what it was like for politically disfavored groups to live under that arrangement of power. You can't understand voluntary migration history 1/