Sam Ratner

Okay but imagine how funny it would have been if they'd given it to Maria Corina Machado

Dear American Bar Association... see?!

I’m completely reassured now

As someone who had the misfortune of attending high school with Chuck, I take great joy in this.

More importantly, though, Trump corruption + Silicon Valley's increasing reliance of government (read: Pentagon) contracts is going to = many more such cases.

I often think that "x-colonialism" is an overused formulation, but this is textbook data colonialism.

This is one advantage of having the historical memory of authoritarianism, as I have from Brazil: you know that, when the regime is gone, the people who collaborated and acquiesced look terrible in retrospect. It may look reasonable and justifiable now, but believe me, it will age like milk.

This is actually a relevant factor here: it's been pretty clear SOUTHCOM, whose commander resigned, has been pushing back, at least somewhat. They're putting it under the operational command of SOCOM specifically because that's the most already rotten place you'll find people happy to do crimes.

Exhibit A for the war crimes tribunal

Killing is bad, and to that end I'd like to call attention to the dozens killed in small boats in the southern Caribbean by the Trump Administration and the estimated 600,000 who've died of preventable disease and starvation thanks to the administration's destruction of USAID.

U.S. to Press Europe and Other Allies on ‘Mass Migration,’ Document Says

It's not just that the United States has stopped trying to promote liberal democratic ideas internationally. It's that the United States is actively trying to promote the contrary. It's trying to turn more countries into Hungary.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

IDK who needs to hear this, but protesting outside a synagogue because it's a synagogue is absolutely wrong, but protesting outside a synagogue because it's hosting an info session about how U.S. Jews can buy real estate in Palestinian territories is absolutely fine and good.

“Ceasefire”

There’s a through the looking glass quality to discussions of what constitute “lawful orders” within an executive branch where POTUS asserts authority to say what the law is regardless of legal reality.

If POTUS orders it and he (or his yes men at OLC) say it is legal, then it is a “lawful order.”

Everyone Wants to Ban Congressional Stock Trades, but Some Supporters Worry Mike Johnson Is Stalling Members of Congress are getting rich trading stocks and flouting the current, toothless regulations. Will Mike Johnson stall a ban?

Everyone Wants to Ban Congressional Stock Trades, but Some Supporters Worry Mike Johnson Is Stalling
theintercept.com/2025/11/19/s...

the gulf between the swift brutality with which places like harvard treated students protesting genocide and the endless, endless latitude those same institutions have given people like larry summers tells you everything you need to know

How Golden Dome could make nuclear weapons irrelevant How Golden Dome could make nuclear weapons irrelevant

And they call us utopian! spacenews.com/how-golden-d...

“Trump’s continued abuse of our military to intimidate Americans in their own neighborhoods — the very same Americans he expects to foot the bill for these deployments — must end immediately," @duckworth.senate.gov told
@theintercept.com
theintercept.com/2025/11/11/c...

What Would Constitute Nuclear Use? The State of Tactical Nuclear Weapons Today - War on the Rocks

It was awesome to sit down with @nktpnd.bsky.social on the reemergence of tactical nuclear weapons and the various scenarios I worry are becoming more likely. Listen in and check out more from his excellent show!

Racist misogynist pieces of shit

Adding to the ever-growing file of things to show people who say, “sure, genocide is bad, but Israel has improved its strategic position!”

Oh, I see a law professor who suggested that the US maritime strikes are somehow legal also gets a mention in today’s Epstein disclosures.

On Thanksgiving in 2017 he was [checks notes] President of the United States.

Protesters gather in downtown Tyler to oppose Smith County's ICE partnership - Tyler Morning Telegraph Chants echoed downtown as people gathered with signs Thursday in Tyler to protest Smith County’s decision to accept reimbursements to fund the sheriff’s office partnership with the U.S. Immigration…

More than 50 people protested in downtown Tyler after Smith County renewed its ICE partnership under the 287(g) program. Organizers say it fuels racial profiling and fear; officials say it’s about safety, not raids.

Read more about it here: tylerpaper.com/2025/11/07/p...

So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!

Nuremburg trials is the moderate position

Bartels did a study 20+ years ago looking at how much a member of Congress' record coincided with their constituents' views, broken down by income. MCs are a lot more responsive to their wealthier constituents. Think about whom SNAP and flight delays affect. www.russellsage.org/sites/defaul...

Biden Discussed Potential Israeli War Crimes In Gaza. He Kicked The Can To Trump. New intelligence shocked officials in late 2024, spurring heightened fear of U.S. liability, HuffPost has learned. The period saw Secretary of State Antony Blinken ask if Israel’s actions constituted ...

NEW: Inside the Biden administration debates in late 2024 that could have changed the course of the Gaza war

-top intel official sought to cut support for Israel but Brett McGurk pushed back
-talk of "very likely" US liability
-Blinken spoke of "ethnic cleansing"

www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-...

I stand by everything I wrote here about Kroenig in 2020. fellowtravelersblog.com/2020/12/23/2...

Dumbest man alive finds new grift.