Eric Dirnbach

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

The myth that rich folks have special smart insights is contradicted by their nonsense word cloud musings.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

MAGA Implodes over Kristi Noem’s “Stare Down” with Man in Chicken Suit A good New York Times piece on Portland nevertheless demonstrates how the conventions of objective reporting fail to accurately capture the bad faith driving pro-Trump propaganda.

"Mainstream news outlets appear uncomfortable wrestling with the degree to which pro-Trump media figures practice propaganda undertaken in bad faith toward expressly instrumental ends. We need them to get past that."
newrepublic.com/article/2016...

"Facebook Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation Settlement Administrator paid you $35.91"

This is the future - corporations do wild, terrible stuff, and then 10 years later some folks get a random payout of between $5 and $50.

"Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty."
- Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

This is good.

Ok good, but then their political judgment was terrible, and it was obvious to most of us.

When Stephen Miller hijacks the Major League Baseball social media account

MAHA Slams “Corporate Capture” by Food and Pharma Giants — While Trump Strips Regulations RFK Jr.’s rhetoric can appeal to desperate parents in a broken health system. But experts say his policies only hurt children.

MAHA remains a cruel joke that will only do harm. But there's a lesson here. Dems allowed MAGA to outflank them with a few good sound bites about unhealthy food. As usual MAGA takes advantage of Dem risk aversion.
theintercept.com/2025/10/02/r...

The Debate Style That Propelled Charlie Kirk’s Movement A close read of some of Mr. Kirk’s most viral exchanges shows an approach that was polished and skillful — if not always fair.

Ok I'm glad his "debate" style is being analyzed, and it appears to consist of deploying lies and dishonest rhetorical tricks against inexperienced students, packaged into deceptive, gotcha videos. What a warrior for free speech!
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Love overhearing folks learn obviously wrong lessons. A bro was saying it was great back in the day when fewer teams made the playoffs, and now with wildcard, "everyone gets a trophy." Bro, this is not wokeness, it's capitalism, more playoff games means more money, how is that not obvious?

Once again, MAGA is ruling as if they will never have to face a genuine election again.

2 million rally in Italy for Gaza as general strike halts key services Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.

Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.

Opinion | Why Are My Fellow Baristas Being Used as Props in a Dangerous Culture War Stunt?

"This is a manifestation of what I call effigy politics. It eschews the work of democracy in favor of highly visible moments of symbolic dominance. It builds nothing. It only burns down. Mr. Kirk was an expert practitioner."
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/o...

Reporting Reality? That’s Partisan Now For reporting on Trump’s authoritarian tendencies and the master plan to sell our democracy, NewsGuard’s media rating system has deemed us misleadingly liberal.

"...we have reached the Orwellian stage in which stating the truth is now considered partisan, ideological — and therefore suspect."
www.levernews.com/reporting-re...

Everything is terrorism in Trump’s America But don’t call that fascism. That would be bad.

"The plain intent of the memo is to make Americans afraid to call fascism what it is — or worse, to say fascism is bad."
www.theverge.com/policy/79051...

Trump and Hegseth Gathered U.S. Military Leaders for an “Embarrassing” Rant Defense officials were shocked at the cost and danger of assembling the military’s top officers to listen to meandering tirades.

Definitely do many more of these dumb meetings, looks like it was great for morale!
"Defense officials were shocked at the cost and danger of assembling the military’s top officers to listen to meandering tirades."
theintercept.com/2025/09/30/t...

I think the Trump admin assumed no one would try to find out who the people on the boats they blew up really were

She Was Fired for a Comment on Her Private Facebook Account

Part of what this reveals is what US labor has been arguing since the late 19th C. At will employment impedes political democracy. If u can lose ur livelihood for ur (non violent & non harassing) beliefs, then being an engaged citizen is all but impossible.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/u...

Lower Than Cowards The surrender of America’s elites

One argument sometimes made in support of having very wealthy people is that they have the resources to resist state tyranny, and we can see how that's going. Wealth can also make you risk averse and compliant.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

We Are All Domestic Terrorists Now Here comes the iron fist.

The imperial boomerang goes "thwack."
www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/we-are-all...

Imagine how hard Democratic leaders have had to work to now be perceived as less trustworthy than Donald Trump on the issue of fighting corruption.

MAHA folks fighting over different ways to be stupid.

If only we’d known in 2015 that we could just turn off the escalator.

All right, let's do this.

I have no inside info on @karenattiah.bsky.social's case. But I know Post employees are part of @postguild.bsky.social, and their contract allows the union to challenge "disciplinary action on the basis that is was taken without just cause."

So what's just cause?

1/

Photo of a real book, like with pages and a cover and everything, called “Who’s Got the Power? The Resurgence of American Unions” by Dave Kamper, with a foreword by Sara Nelson.

Omigodomigodomigod it’s a real book and everything.

On sale October 14th!

Chimps Consume the Equivalent of 2.5 Alcoholic Drinks per Day by Eating Fermented Fruit, Study Finds

Chimps, I totally understand.

🦅🦅🦅

I totally am, it's ridiculous.

Anti-Religious Politics One party needs to stand against god in public policy.

If one party is not brave enough to truly say that religion has no place in public policy, we are going to be fighting a losing battle against theocracy.
www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/anti-relig...