Allan Needell
aneedell.bsky.social
Allan Needell
@aneedell.bsky.social
Retired curator and historian of science from DC (born in Northern New Jersey) with interest in politics, culture, and aging happily.
#NBC Nightly News with Llamas has become
a TV National Enquirer. The lead story 20% of the program was repetitive account of the Oklohoma chemical spill. A little later there was scary disease from ticks spreading north. Hardly any hard news.
Huntley and Brinkley would be ashamed.
November 14, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Does anyone know if there's a way in DC to stream ABC network shows outside of Sinclair owned WJLA channel 7? Infinity "On Demand" Networks only seem to include WJLA channels. I know, tomorrow snippets will big internet news
September 23, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Is simultaneous impeachment of the president and Vice President conceivable? Now it's essential. Maybe we could survive Mike Johnson then Grassley for a year or two.
September 7, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Reposted by Allan Needell
August 29, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Allan Needell
It’s truly depraved for Trump to welcome Vladimir Putin to the US while Putin is actively wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Ukraine.

Trump calls this a peace summit but it’s just an opportunity to hang out with one of his dictator buddies. www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-a...
Trump and Putin will meet in Alaska next week, Trump says
President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are planning to meet in the United States, multiple sources tell CBS News.
www.cbsnews.com
August 8, 2025 at 10:28 PM
#putin Isn't Putin subject to arrest for war crimes as soon as he steps onto American so?
Or has Trump made an unauthorized international pardon?
August 8, 2025 at 11:10 PM
BBC news is spending big time on Hulk Hogan and the moderator seems that Trump himself wrote that coherent Truth Social. Just imagine how much eyeball bait will be devoted to fake violent gimmicks by Llamas on NBC Nightly News tonight.
July 24, 2025 at 10:01 PM
What is Llamas doing with NBC Nightly News? The A block is Ozzy Osbourne B Epstein C Trump's attack on Obama D drowning in Costa Rica of Cosby Show child star E cane sugar in Coke. ..... only then tariffs and the economy.

I think we need to support PBS.
July 22, 2025 at 11:14 PM
So, now coffee merchants and consumers have standing to create a class action lawsuit claiming the national emergency justification for Trump's tariff authority has been illegally misused and must be voided. How long will it take.
July 10, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Allan Needell
Trump on Democrats: "They hate Trump. But I hate them too. I really do. I hate them."
July 4, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Reposted by Allan Needell
"Trump Says He Hates All Democrats" should be a headline on every news post tomorrow. But it won't be because it's not Biden or Obama saying it.
July 4, 2025 at 1:25 AM
@hcrichardson.bsky.social The attack on VOA is just another side of MAGA viewing expertise as an existential threat to its power.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/u.... There's a long history of government tapping experts support for soft power.
Trump Urges Congress to ‘Kill’ Voice of America as Its Leader Defends Gutting It
www.nytimes.com
June 26, 2025 at 8:05 PM
I asked Microsoft Copilot (take it for what it is) to calculate the cost of the munitions and delivery used for the US operation and it came up with ~$500 million. Any suggestions about hoe we should think about that as we debate Congress and the allocation of fiscal resources?
June 24, 2025 at 9:44 PM
NO KINGS, but we sure have vassals.
ABC’s Jay O’Brien is reporting that republicans in Congress were briefed ahead of the strikes, but that democrats were not briefed until after the attack was underway.
June 22, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Allan Needell
And millions of people accept this as normal and not a sign of a significantly disordered personality.
Trump: "They should give me the Nobel Prize for Rwanda and if you look, the Congo, or you could say Serbia, Kosovo, you could say a lot of them. The big one is India and Pakistan. I should've gotten it four or five times."
June 20, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Reposted by Allan Needell
JD Vance refers to Senator Alex Padilla as “Jose Padilla”
June 20, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Reposted by Allan Needell
Mississippi fights fascism, let that sink in.
#nokings
June 14, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Allan Needell
Dating myself, but keep thinking there’s a Kent State feeling in the air—this shit is really real and we’re finally on our own. And brooding question is: what can possibly wind it back? What keeps the fires from raging all summer and longer?
June 14, 2025 at 4:11 PM
The analogies to 1933 are always questionable but they still have meaning and this one especially.
June 8, 2025 at 1:55 AM
I hope @hcrichardson.bsky.social will talk about today's news about the administration's plan for the VOA.

Many years ago I wrote about the context of its origins.

www.jstor.org/stable/24912....
"Truth Is Our Weapon": Project TROY, Political Warfare, and Government-Academic Relations in the National Security State on JSTOR
ALLAN A. NEEDELL, "Truth Is Our Weapon": Project TROY, Political Warfare, and Government-Academic Relations in the National Security State, Diplomatic History, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Summer 1993), pp. 399-420
www.jstor.org
May 7, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Trump/Miller have not yet gone so far as to adopt the terms: "Concentration Camp," or worse, "Immigration Final Solution," but isn’t that's what's being analogized here? I wish it were easier to explain why that's over the top.
3/4. If we accept the idea that moving a person from one place to another undoes rights and disempowers the judiciary, we are endorsing the basic Nazism practice that enabled the killing of millions.
April 15, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Actually Fetterman and Shaheen are the only Dems who voted for the CR. The list you use are DEMS who voted not to filibuster. Maybe small point, but if the concern was would Dems be blamed for the shutdown, it matters.
I'm so proud of my Georgia Senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock!
They voted against the Continuing Resolution, unlike these Democrats who let the Regime have its way:
C. Schumer
C. Cortez Masto
D. Durbin
J. Fetterman
K. Gillibrand
M. Hassan
A. King
G. Peters
B. Schatz
J. Shaheen
March 15, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Only Jean Shaheen and Angus King (1 dem and 1 caucusing Ind) actually voted for the terrible CR yesterday. So 8 dems voted to voluntarily forgo the small sliver of power still available to the MAGA cult resistence.
March 15, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Does anyone believe that the Republicans intend to authorize backpay once a shutdown is resolved?
March 10, 2025 at 8:28 PM