The Trump ordeal has made one thing clear.

Too many of our checks and balances rely on norms, traditions and the honor code.

It works when those elected into power are people of honor and integrity who respect our norms and traditions.

Elect a lifelong criminal and it all goes sideways.

I'm going to post this video every day so we never forget

this sounds like the primordial soup of a toxic planet with evolving sulfuric-acid-based life forms

Difficult to describe what a dangerous moment we are in.

The owner of Twitter/richest man in the world/closest adviser to the next US president is promoting a far-right Tommy Robinson (!) documentary to his 200 million followers.

This is the mainstreaming of violent, Islamophobic fascism.

Normally these days I would just have posted this here. But I ventured back on X for two short minutes just so I could tag Nikki.

The full low-down on RFK Jr.’s connection to a deadly measles outbreak in Samoa and, just as important, how he lied about it. That’s key. Kennedy is an inveterate liar. He makes up facts & plots, and he lies about what he himself has said. Another con man.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

"These people [the disabled], the cost, they should just die... William doesn't recognize you, he should just die."

Donald Trump, speaking to his nephew Fred Trump, about Fred's disabled son, as well as about disabled people in general!

From my interview with Fred Trump: zeteo.com/p/disabled-p...

Idiocracy Update: The dude from "Road Rules" has been nominated for Secretary of Transportation.

I'm not joking.

The incoming administration may or may not reduce the size or scope of government.

But it will absolutely become the biggest protection racket the world has ever seen.

Last year, when I was at MSNBC, I did a 10-minute deep-dive into RFK Jr's anti-vaxxer role in the measles outbreak that killed dozens and dozens of kids in Samoa.

I hope every Senator voting in his confirmation process for HHS knows about this crucial and awful story:

Many of us are echoing @timothysnyder.bsky.social's lesson in On Tyranny, "Do not obey in advance.”

A no less vital admonition that deserves attn:

STAND OUT

“...without that unease, there is no freedom. The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow."

Please don't call what RFK Jr. and Jay Bhattacharya are going to do medieval. It's not medieval. It's nothing like the Middle Ages. People in the Middle Ages were happy to try all kinds of things to not die of the plague and if you'd given them antibiotics and vaccines they would have loved it.