we are currently watching an entire political party run cover for the most notorious sex trafficking ring in modern human history

Stephen Colbert is a profoundly good and deeply talented man with a great staff and an excellent show. They all deserve better.

It’s pretty impressive how bad this bill is, honestly.

Gigawatts of projected energy shortage. Starving kids. Massive deficit increase.

But at least Trump’s rich friends get their tax break!

The test of a successful president has nothing to do with how much he gets done in 100 days or how much power he accumulates.

The real test is how much better off are the people, and how much stronger is our democracy.

By these measures, the second term of Trump is a travesty.

🎶 Because the list (the list) does not exist
Because the list does not exist 🎶

~ Hall and Oates on tariff deals

big lesson for america here: one reason you dont elect people who believe bull shit like "theyre eating the pets" or "theyre putting kitty litter boxes in the classrooms" is bc if they get in power theyll believe bull shit like "tariffs are a tax cut actually"

In just two months, DOGE has —lost— the government an estimated half a trillion dollars. I propose that Musk pay it back personally.

Again, worth at the last considering the possibility that he’s a malevolent idiot who has no idea what he’s doing.

The “methods for doing so” are (1) getting two thirds of Congress and three fourths of the states to repeal the 22nd Amendment and (2) declaring himself king.

That’s it.

Stop treating this despotic bullshit as if it’s some worthwhile thought experiment we have to consider as legitimate.

Here is my best guidance for action, rendered beautifully by the great John Lithgow. I first published these lessons more than eight years ago, in late 2016. They open the twenty chapters of "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century."
snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...

If you accept that non-citizens have no right to due process, you are accepting that citizens have no right to due process. All the government has to do is claim that you are not a citizen; without due process you have no chance to prove the contrary.

Trump's pick to run Social Security was once the second highest-paid CEO in the country.

Do you think a millionaire ex-banker will defend one of our most important social safety nets?

Or will he act on behalf of corporate interests that want to see the program gutted?

Hello?

This is the wildest story I have literally ever read. In any normal circumstances, a half-dozen senior officials would be forced to resign over this—starting with the National Security Advisor. And I doubt anyone will face any accountability at all.

Socialism is what they called public power. 

Socialism is what they called social security. 
 
Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.
 
Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.

—Harry Truman, 1952

Aside from the obvious direct harm, what's so irritating is that a handful of spoiled ignorant assholes are breaking things that we all built together. They weren't content to own almost everything, they had to wreck what little they didn't own. It's vandalism on a mass scale and has to be punished

The richest man in the world calls people who get help from government programs the “parasite class.”

But Medicaid’s beneficiaries aren’t parasites. Half of them are children.

If we’re talking about people who depend on government, Elon Musk is the biggest “parasite” of all.

I want to address a related point to the one I raised in this thread. A couple years ago the Times did a really strong package about the power of SpaceX. Not only is SpaceX. Not only is it now one if not the preemptive orbital delivery company in the world it also has a fleet of ...

It’s remarkable how quickly the Trump team has sabotaged all the things that actually made the U.S. influential on the global stage.

Free trade economics, strong diplomatic networks and alliances, the soft power of democratic culture and values, the hard power of a competent military …