Michael Scherer

The Last MAGA Prisoner Trump desperately wants Tina Peters released but can’t make it happen without help.

Tina Peters is beyond the reach of Donald Trump’s pardon powers. He’s trying to get her out of prison anyway, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez reports. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Read the story free here. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Read this: pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...

I asked the Pentagon about Pete Hegseth's mentor. Then the threats started. Journalism in the second Trump administration gets personal.

This is a really disturbing story on several levels and certainly anyone who interacts with the Pentagon specifically or the administration more generally should read it:

I asked the Pentagon about Pete Hegseth's mentor. Then the threats started. Journalism in the second Trump administration gets personal.

“Asian wife sharing,” Pentagon press policy, and me: Journalism in the second Trump administration gets personal. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

How a Manosphere Star Accused of Rape and Trafficking Was Freed

“I had word from The Trump admin that theyre on top of things. Ive been told ill be free soon but Trump needs to see me in Miami" www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/u...

USAID Hired the Right-Wing Influencer Responsible for Its Decimation Mike Benz was brought aboard to find evidence for his claims that the agency is secretly a spy operation.

NEW: A right-wing influencer claims USAID is a secret spy organization. He’s been brought into the agency to prove his theory, @isaacstanleybecker.bsky.social reports.

Stay with me here: It's parenting. Except you need a lot more electricity.

This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.

Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal The Trump administration has argued that Fed board member Lisa Cook may have committed mortgage fraud by declaring more than one primary residence on her loans. We found Trump once did the very thing ...

Trump hung up on a ProPublica reporter after being asked whether his Florida mortgages were similar to those of others he had accused of fraud.

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

‘For the Reinvention of Man’: How a Conservative Debating Society at Harvard Pushed Women From Its Ranks | News | The Harvard Crimson The John Adams Society began quietly excluding women from membership this semester, former and prospective affiliates told The Crimson. It is now effectively functioning as a single-sex organization.

The John Adams Society began quietly excluding women from membership this semester, former and prospective affiliates told The Crimson. It is now effectively functioning as a single-sex organization.

@abbysgerstein and @JackBReardon report.

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Trump’s Very Weird Night at the Kennedy Center Honors The president and I both got our heart’s desire. But something felt wrong.

"Why does a night that should be Donald Trump’s greatest triumph feel so much like he revived the Honors from the Pet Sematary?"

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Candace Owens and the Decay of the American Brain How can someone so delusional attract an audience of millions? What does it say about us that Owens is listened to by anyone other than a psychiatrist?

The algorithm as vision quest: "Owens doesn’t think she’s detached from reality. She thinks she’s uncovering deep hidden truths."

www.currentaffairs.org/news/candace...

Kamala Harris Isn’t Ready to Be Written Off

“You tell them I never lost my voice” Kamala Harris says as she declines to answer question after question with any clarity.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/u...

OregonvTrumpCA9AmOrd120825

JUST IN: Famous 9th Cir Judge Jay Bybee (GWBush) pens 64-page opinion on how Constitution's 'domestic violence' clause may block Trump deployment of National Guard in OR. Judge Eric Tung's (Trump) insulting response: 'A great labor producing a mouse.' Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Seeing this news is so weird for me because in 1989 when I was a baby 25-year-old corporate litigator in Manhattan, one of the first things I worked on was Warner Communications Inc.'s defense against a hostile takeover bid from Paramount Communications Inc.

(1/2)

FWIW DOJ still has not appealed the ruling disqualifying Halligan, nor have they appealed the Third Circuit ruling disqualifying Alina Habba on similar grounds (and nor did they respond to my request for comment about whether they plan to appeal)

How did a soccer federation decided to make a trophy out of hands?

Q: What did you see in the second strike?

Cotton: "I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat -- loaded with drugs, bound for the United States -- back over, so they could stay in the fight."

The poop hack cometh.

History lesson: Back in 2009, Obama created a similar tip line for "disinformation" about health reform in chain emails. Conservatives like Texas Sen. John Cornyn denounced it as "data collection" designed to chill "pure political speech."

LINK to Letter: washingtonexaminer.com/news/630458/...

Chernobyl Fungus Appears to Have Evolved an Incredible Ability The Chernobyl exclusion zone may be off-limits to humans, but ever since the Unit Four reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded nearly 40 years ago, other forms of life have not only move...

Very cool radioactive fungus news

From @chelleraiser.bsky.social

www.sciencealert.com/chernobyl-fu...

DHS’s $7,500 Self-Deportations What the Trump administration is spending to entice people to leave

SCOOP: Despite a $200M ad campaign, only about 35k have signed up to “self-deport” via CBP Home so far.

DHS claims more than 1.6 million have left since Trump took office, but the department is treating demographic estimates as enforcement data www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Officials preparing immigration operation in Minnesota that would primarily focus on Somali immigrants, AP source says.

HBOMax has started showing a 'remastered' 4K Mad Men and they’ve messed things up so during Roger’s oyster vomit scene you can now see the crew men with the vomit hose on the right

It’s the economy, fascist How to actually defeat Trump’s authoritarianism

Jesse Ferguson proposes a peace pipe between the anti-fascist and polling-focused wings of the Democratic Party.

"It's the economy, fascist."

contrarian.substack.com/p/its-the-ec...

NEW: President Trump has repeatedly threatened to bring federal agents, or even soldiers, to San Francisco to battle crime. His administration has actually done the opposite, quietly taking federal law enforcement away from the city to do immigration work instead.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

This report is based on interviews with and accounts from seven people with knowledge of the Sept. 2 strike and the overall operation. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell declined to address questions about Hegseth's order and other details of the opera jon, including Special Operations involvement. "This entire narrative is completely false," he said in a statement. "Ongoing operations to dismantle narcoterrorism and to protect the Homeland from deadly drugs have been a resounding success."

Last week: In response to WaPo’s story on the Sept. 2 boat strikes, the Pentagon says “This entire narrative is completely false.”

Today: The White House confirms that a 2nd strike happened and that “Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes”

Olivia Nuzzi’s Tell-Nothing Memoir Can "American Canto" turn scandal into literature?

Florida is where you go when you’ve done something wrong. California is where you go when you’ve done something wrong and want to be pretentious about it.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...