President Lisa Simpson

This is so depressing

Democratic elected officials, here's some unsolicited advice.

People are looking for leadership. Right now. This moment.

Someone, anyone, take the konch and forcefully respond to JD Vance and Stephen Miller's promise to declare war against America.

Speak up now. Press conference today.

National park to remove photo of enslaved man’s scars The Trump administration is ordering the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of “corrosive ideology.”

donald trump and the white nationalists that run his government want you to think that slavery was just fine www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Once again it’s not that conservatives deny the existence of racism, they merely deny the existence of racism against minorities.

Alt text: Screenshot of a headline from The Ezra Klein Show in the Opinion section. The title reads: “Ben Shapiro and I Talk Political De-escalation.” Below it says, “Sept. 16, 2025, 5:05 a.m. ET.” At the bottom is a byline with a small headshot of Ezra Klein and the text, “By Ezra Klein.”

I am going to become the joker.

A win!!! We want to thank you all and celebrate this victory. Because you spoke out and made your voices heard, a harmful website that was doxxing individuals has been removed.

A screenshot of a social media post from Greg Abbott. The text says: "This is what happened to the person who was mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Texas Tech. FAFO." The attached image shows a young woman with long braids, wearing a patterned tank top and jeans, being handcuffed by two police officers in uniform. Her facial expression looks tense as she turns her head. Below, Abbott’s earlier post is quoted: "Definitely picked the wrong school to taunt the death of Charlie Kirk. Thanks Texas Tech." The post shows thousands of replies, retweets, and likes.

A screenshot of a social media post from Eric Daugherty. The text says: "🚨 UPDATE: It's being reported that this demon who danced on Charlie Kirk's grave has been expelled from Texas Tech. She said: 'f-ck y'all, yo homie dad!' They're finding out." Below is a still from a video showing a college campus walkway with students standing around. A woman with long hair, a backpack, and a tank top is at the center. On-screen text in the video reads: "Woke college student at Texas Tech mocks Charlie Kirk’s dath. 'Fck y’all... yo homie d*ad'. Make her famous." The post notes it was reshared from Gabriel and shows 3.5M views.

It may be distasteful but it is not illegal to mock someone's death and it should not warrant arrest, ever. The 1st Amendment exists specifically to protect disfavored speech and what is happening now is one of the greatest threats to free speech in the United States.

Jews were then a tiny percentage of the population of the United States–something like 2,500 souls out of almost 4 million. But Washington wanted to emphasize that the members of this small and previously persecuted minority were entitled, here in the United States, to the same rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as everyone else. Two hundred and thirty five years later, there is in this nation a minority group whose rights are under severe attack: transgender individuals. We have a presidential administration which seeks to curtail those individuals’ rights. We have a powerful political movement that wishes to make them afraid. This is wrong. It’s also un-American. Other Americans don’t have to understand or sympathize with transgender individuals. But we ought to defend their basic human rights. We ought to do so out of a simple sense of justice. But we also ought to do so out of a sense of pride that our nation exemplifies an “enlarged and liberal policy” for mankind, and that here “there shall be none to make him afraid.” One could call that American greatness.

"Bill Kristol quotes George Washington's condemnation of 18th century antisemitism to defend transgender people from scapegoating following the assassination of Charlie Kirk" is an actual sentence

I've seen this in myself. I know that I am more empathetic in person. Social media is less about being social and more about rage.

On shooters specifically, the shared aspect of the Trump PA rally shooter, Luigi the healthcare CEO shooter, and the one who killed Charlie Kirk isn't any sort of coherent political ideology, something that neatly falls along left-right lines. It's that all three were Very Online, angry but muddled.

I hate it when I slip up and accidentally call for mass executions on national television.

This is such a throwback to 1930s press normalization of Hitler, with trans community in same position, even as other parts have shifted somewhat.

it’s hard to blame people who are stuck in a media ecosystem and are unaware of it like that but it only makes it more disappointing that journalists portray him that way. The people responsible for digging up the whole picture and showing it to everyone. They will form a lot of first impressions

it's absolutely critical to understand in this moment that people aren't largely reacting to who Charlie Kirk was as a person, but who they knew him as because of what tiny pieces of him got clipped out and stuck in their newsfeeds.

I mean that is the childish simplistic way their minds work.

Same guy.

I just saw that! Insane!

NE-1 has a Cook PVI of R+6, though it actually hasn’t been close in a decade.

She was an 8th grader. He was an 18 year old senior related to the head of the Utah Senate.

She reported it to her mother. His friend reported it to the authorities. He gets a slap on the wrist, she gets trauma and everyone else wrings their hands about what a tricky case this was. 🤬

Utah’s Senate president prompted law change that helped a teen charged with child rape An 18-year-old high schooler was facing potential prison time and having to register as a sex offender until help came from a powerful ally — Senate President J. Stuart Adams.

“Two months later, prosecutors offered the 18-year-old, who is related to Adams, a plea deal. The teen would plead guilty to reduced charges, face no additional jail time beyond a week already served, and would not have to register as a sex offender.”

Pedocon Theory stays winning.

not everything that's wrong in the U.S. is the direct descendent of chattel slavery, but the resemblance to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which paid commissioners $10 for rendering alleged fugitives to the south and $5 if they found the evidence is insufficient, is kind of hard to ignore

I mean we're talking about a combined nationwide investment of less than, idk, $50 million. But indie and nonprofit media are fighting amongst ourselves for grant-scraps and begging for subscribers.

NRO? Federalist? Their ilk? Are set and are paying their staff six-figures-plus for years to come.

It's easy for right-wing donors to invest in fascist media because they know they'll get what they pay for; we have to be real that left-wing donors DON'T invest in left-wing media because they're afraid they'll get a wild card that doesn't shore up their fundamentally pro-capitalist nonsense.

14 Books on Authoritarian Rule - IGCC

Still rounding out your summer reading list? Check out these recommendations from IGCC Research Director Stephan Haggard. These selections explore the commons themes of how autocrats rise to power and, most importantly, how democracy might be preserved: bit.ly/42zZFKS

Oh and also that it could hack the political parties!

So the "report" does not say what Tulsi says it does, in fact it pretty clearly suggests Russian influence.

Perhaps she is so hung up on the specific verbiage in the emails that says Russia probably does not have the capability to manipulate voting machines. But the emails do say that Russia was engaging in other forms of cyber warfare that was meant to disrupt public confidence and divide us.

The website Tulsi mentions exists. The report is available to download. Though it's less a report and more a collection of emails. And the emails do not say what she says the report says.

The emails nearest the bottom contain the most information and while they say they don't believe Russia could essentially hack our voting machines, it could instead hack political parties and use other forms of cyber communication to disrupt public confidence.

The website exists. The report is there. I downloaded it and read the whole thing. It's less a report and more a bunch of emails using lots of abbreviations and job specific jargon. President Obama is mentioned once, not by name, and not in any way referencing his order they should take this.

Tulsi Gabbard visited Bashar Al Assad and publicly defended him.

Kash Patel has an enemies list and will target them.

Neither are qualified. Neither should be confirmed. It’s that simple.