Jonathan M. Katz
@katz.theracket.news
Author of GANGSTERS OF CAPITALISM and THE BIG TRUCK THAT WENT BY. Subscribe to my newsletter: http://theracket.news | Signal: jmkatz.18 | @KatzOnEarth on TikTok & Insta | Avi by @mollycrabapple.bsky.social
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Jonathan M. Katz
@katz.theracket.news
· Nov 10
The Racket
Explore the unseen connections behind world affairs, politics, disaster, and more. By Jonathan M. Katz
TheRacket.news
Hello new followers and fellow Twitter refugees. I’m a journalist & author; an international and disaster correspondent turned analyst of U.S. empire and America’s fascist turn. I’m going to keep fighting from here.
Subscribe to my newsletter TheRacket.news
Books and bio: jonathanmkatz.com
Subscribe to my newsletter TheRacket.news
Books and bio: jonathanmkatz.com
It’s all happening at X, the Everything App
November 11, 2025 at 5:12 AM
It’s all happening at X, the Everything App
Have you considered kicking out the people who gave up the fight and picking a new leader who is capable of leading the same
The sooner we get past internal recriminations and back to fighting united, the better off we all are — the likelier our victory next November.
November 11, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Have you considered kicking out the people who gave up the fight and picking a new leader who is capable of leading the same
Might be a poor night’s sleep talking but I feel like we’ve done one of these Musk reacting embarrassingly after getting owned by Oates things before
November 10, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Might be a poor night’s sleep talking but I feel like we’ve done one of these Musk reacting embarrassingly after getting owned by Oates things before
Someone else handle this one
November 10, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Someone else handle this one
Reposted by Jonathan M. Katz
any time a republican brings up how bail reform is causing all the crime throw this back in their faces
What a great few weeks it’s been for people once pardoned by Trump.
@nytimes.com @nbcnews.com @npr.org @politico.com
@nytimes.com @nbcnews.com @npr.org @politico.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:47 PM
any time a republican brings up how bail reform is causing all the crime throw this back in their faces
You'd think this would be a scandal of some kind but
What a great few weeks it’s been for people once pardoned by Trump.
@nytimes.com @nbcnews.com @npr.org @politico.com
@nytimes.com @nbcnews.com @npr.org @politico.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:46 PM
You'd think this would be a scandal of some kind but
Reposted by Jonathan M. Katz
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
Please read this entire excellent piece by Caroline, which points out that a judge ordered the Feds (again) to stop doing **this exact kind of thing** and they are still continuing to do it all over Chicago
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
Please read this entire excellent piece by Caroline, which points out that a judge ordered the Feds (again) to stop doing **this exact kind of thing** and they are still continuing to do it all over Chicago
Arianna Sofia Veraza and her parents were driving to Sam's Club for milk, eggs and diapers yesterday when they heard helicopters and horns blaring yesterday. They had turned around to leave when a federal agent pepper-sprayed them through a car window.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/09/c...
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/09/c...
Pepper-sprayed Berwyn family rattled after getting caught up in federal blitz
Southwest Side politicians condemned Saturday’s pepper spraying and the federal sweep of Little Village as “state-sponsored terrorism” at a news conference Sunday.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:56 PM
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
Please read this entire excellent piece by Caroline, which points out that a judge ordered the Feds (again) to stop doing **this exact kind of thing** and they are still continuing to do it all over Chicago
THEY PEPPER SPRAYED A BABY
Please read this entire excellent piece by Caroline, which points out that a judge ordered the Feds (again) to stop doing **this exact kind of thing** and they are still continuing to do it all over Chicago
I mean not fine fine, it's actually kind of ominous (as @attackerman.bsky.social notes), but not for the reasons that Fox News would lose its shit over if it were a Democrat in the White House
www.forever-wars.com/al-qaeda-in-...
www.forever-wars.com/al-qaeda-in-...
November 10, 2025 at 6:58 PM
I mean not fine fine, it's actually kind of ominous (as @attackerman.bsky.social notes), but not for the reasons that Fox News would lose its shit over if it were a Democrat in the White House
www.forever-wars.com/al-qaeda-in-...
www.forever-wars.com/al-qaeda-in-...
Just imagining the media on Earth 2 on a day when President Harris's aides are fighting to withhold food stamps and raise healthcare prices for tens of millions of Americans while she hosts a former affiliate of al-Qaeda and ISIS in the Oval Office
November 10, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Just imagining the media on Earth 2 on a day when President Harris's aides are fighting to withhold food stamps and raise healthcare prices for tens of millions of Americans while she hosts a former affiliate of al-Qaeda and ISIS in the Oval Office
Reposted by Jonathan M. Katz
To repeat: Maybe electing a life-long criminal to an office where he can pardon other criminals wasn't such a good idea.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
To repeat: Maybe electing a life-long criminal to an office where he can pardon other criminals wasn't such a good idea.
Reposted by Jonathan M. Katz
It’s such a bad idea, when one of his crimes was calling forth an insurrection, that he’s actually forbidden from holding the office by a constitutional provision, which a unanimous Supreme Court invented a way to turn off.
To repeat: Maybe electing a life-long criminal to an office where he can pardon other criminals wasn't such a good idea.
November 10, 2025 at 1:18 PM
It’s such a bad idea, when one of his crimes was calling forth an insurrection, that he’s actually forbidden from holding the office by a constitutional provision, which a unanimous Supreme Court invented a way to turn off.
In this case, the alleged problem -- men pretending to be women so they can dominate women's sports -- does not exist, and policies to prevent even any potential abuse of the system are already in place. This leaves the policy proponents actually want: banning trans people from public life.
See, the path to victory is telling people that their bs moral panics are real. Then don't offer any solutions (because there are no real solutions, just the eliminationist politics of the con artists who promote the moral panics). Then, if you still somehow get into office, cave. People love that!
November 10, 2025 at 3:43 PM
In this case, the alleged problem -- men pretending to be women so they can dominate women's sports -- does not exist, and policies to prevent even any potential abuse of the system are already in place. This leaves the policy proponents actually want: banning trans people from public life.
I have given up caring about what the Substack class argues out of ignorance and what it argues out of bad faith
Do you think matty knows that John Bel beat David Vitter
November 10, 2025 at 3:33 PM
I have given up caring about what the Substack class argues out of ignorance and what it argues out of bad faith
The hard part is convincing people to stop listening to Matt Yglesias
November 10, 2025 at 3:23 PM
The hard part is convincing people to stop listening to Matt Yglesias
This is incorrect. I’d rank Trump way behind Wilson and Coolidge. Interested in learning more about this President McKinney however.
November 10, 2025 at 5:12 AM
This is incorrect. I’d rank Trump way behind Wilson and Coolidge. Interested in learning more about this President McKinney however.
Reposted by Jonathan M. Katz
Trump’s pardon attorney Ed Martin claims Trump is pardoning his Georgia co-defendants and other “alternate electors.”
Note: Trump’s Georgia co-defendants are charged under state law. The president can’t pardon people for state crimes.
Note: Trump’s Georgia co-defendants are charged under state law. The president can’t pardon people for state crimes.
November 10, 2025 at 4:44 AM
Trump’s pardon attorney Ed Martin claims Trump is pardoning his Georgia co-defendants and other “alternate electors.”
Note: Trump’s Georgia co-defendants are charged under state law. The president can’t pardon people for state crimes.
Note: Trump’s Georgia co-defendants are charged under state law. The president can’t pardon people for state crimes.
Reposted by Jonathan M. Katz
I don't understand the assumption that the administration will stop trying to defund SNAP, a program the USDA chief calls "corrupt," given how often the WH has ignored Congressional jurisdiction over funding. I don't know why the WH would stop pursuing something it's fighting in court right now...
November 10, 2025 at 4:39 AM
I don't understand the assumption that the administration will stop trying to defund SNAP, a program the USDA chief calls "corrupt," given how often the WH has ignored Congressional jurisdiction over funding. I don't know why the WH would stop pursuing something it's fighting in court right now...
Preferably with someone who won’t be 77 at the end of the next term
Indivisible is not playing. Warner thinks his constituents are rubes. It's time to replace him with someone who actually opposes fascism.
Warner is up for reelection. He was widely seen driving towards surrender behind the scenes, but he's voting no in public because it's unpopular. The real question is whether he supports a senate leadership change. If not, someone who supports senate leadership change should primary him.
November 10, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Preferably with someone who won’t be 77 at the end of the next term
Reposted by Jonathan M. Katz
And then their response is to scold people who didn't show up rather than giving those people a reason to show up.
They can't be this stupid. It's malicious.
They can't be this stupid. It's malicious.
the Dems keep operating like this cynical shit has no effect. It’s why their core voters don’t fucking show up. When they say “we fight for you” nobody believes them, because they constantly pull shit like this and say “what else are you gonna vote for.” But then people STAY HOME.
November 10, 2025 at 4:50 AM
And then their response is to scold people who didn't show up rather than giving those people a reason to show up.
They can't be this stupid. It's malicious.
They can't be this stupid. It's malicious.
So I understand (and I haven’t seen the clip), all of this is because they edited together two different parts of Trump using his Ellipse speech to urge his followers to storm the Capitol?
Bulletin: BBC director general Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness are resigning "following criticism that a BBC Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by US President Donald Trump."
November 10, 2025 at 4:52 AM
So I understand (and I haven’t seen the clip), all of this is because they edited together two different parts of Trump using his Ellipse speech to urge his followers to storm the Capitol?
Reposted by Jonathan M. Katz
BBC demands Harris stage insurrection
Michael Prescott was ‘“shocked” that after an hour-long Panorama documentary dealing with Trump and the January 6 insurgency, there was no “similar, balancing” programme about Kamala Harris.’
More read about the machinations between the BBC resignations, the more worrying it becomes
More read about the machinations between the BBC resignations, the more worrying it becomes
The departure of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness means the BBC is leaderless when it needs leadership more than ever. Where are the people at the head of the BBC standing up for it?
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 9, 2025 at 10:37 PM
BBC demands Harris stage insurrection
Once they were in the shutdown though they could have made it about anything. Put clips of ICE abducting children on endless loop and say “do we keep funding a govt that does *that*?” Then you might get federal workers clamoring not for concessions but a strike.
Again, requires believing in things.
Again, requires believing in things.
This was a doomed exercise from the outset. They picked a fight to give the GOP something they thought they would want anyway, and have now been embarrassed into capitulating on even that. Beyond pathetic.
November 10, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Once they were in the shutdown though they could have made it about anything. Put clips of ICE abducting children on endless loop and say “do we keep funding a govt that does *that*?” Then you might get federal workers clamoring not for concessions but a strike.
Again, requires believing in things.
Again, requires believing in things.
The most Democrat consultant-brained piece of this was making it a procedural fight about ACA subsidies — that, if extended for a year, would help the GOP in the 2026 midterms anyway — instead of making it stand against Trump’s lawlessness and corruption.
But that would require believing in things.
But that would require believing in things.
Major concession from Democrats here is enhanced ACA funds aren’t extended. Preserving them was Dems’ central demand in this fight. They secured a promise of a vote (which Thune has been offering for weeks), but that could still fail. Even if it passes, Johnson has made no promise of a House vote.
Tentative Senate deal to end shutdown, multiple sources tell me & @frankthorp.bsky.social:
—CR through Jan 30
—Approps minibus
—Fully funds SNAP
—Reverses Trump’s shutdown RIFs
—Promise of Senate vote on ACA subsidies by Dec second week (details/outcome uncertain)
—Led by King/Shaheen/Hassan
—CR through Jan 30
—Approps minibus
—Fully funds SNAP
—Reverses Trump’s shutdown RIFs
—Promise of Senate vote on ACA subsidies by Dec second week (details/outcome uncertain)
—Led by King/Shaheen/Hassan
November 10, 2025 at 2:30 AM
The most Democrat consultant-brained piece of this was making it a procedural fight about ACA subsidies — that, if extended for a year, would help the GOP in the 2026 midterms anyway — instead of making it stand against Trump’s lawlessness and corruption.
But that would require believing in things.
But that would require believing in things.
Reposted by Jonathan M. Katz
Should be pretty clear that without House commitment on a vote on ACA extensions, it is purely symbolic as part of the Senate deal
Q: Will you assure House Democrats they'll get a vote on ACA subsidies by a date certain?
MIKE JOHNSON: Ah -- no. I'm not promising anyone anything.
MIKE JOHNSON: Ah -- no. I'm not promising anyone anything.
November 10, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Should be pretty clear that without House commitment on a vote on ACA extensions, it is purely symbolic as part of the Senate deal
Reposted by Jonathan M. Katz
I think Senate folders are significantly underestimating how fucking angry Democratic voters are at them
November 10, 2025 at 12:40 AM
I think Senate folders are significantly underestimating how fucking angry Democratic voters are at them