David Dark

Volunteer to phone bank for Aftyn Behn from anywhere here:

It’s hilarious to watch Trumpworld tell poor people to stop complaining Trump has made everything more expensive.

Here Hassett tells poor people to be cool with less and lower quality food - while he and other MAGA millionaires and billionaires eat like kings.

THE THING is a movie for the depths of January, when a series of below-freezing cold fronts and fully unwelcome snowstorms has left you stuck inside for days with no end in sight.

Trump Angrily Threatened to Sue BBC. Then Things Took a Darker Turn. First, British Broadcasting Corporation execs resigned after Trump complained about a segment. Now the BBC edited out a line from a historian that was critical of Trump. Where does this end?

In case you missed this, the BBC edited a historian's speech about Trump to remove the claim that he's "the most openly corrupt president in US history." This came after Trump had threatened a $1 billion lawsuit.

Elite capitulation continues.

Read all about it here:
newrepublic.com/article/2036...

Gotta admit that "Dim Philby" is an excellent insult.

This has been such a crazy foreign policy whirlwind...

As usual, Trump loses to Putin.

The Dim Philby Leaks - emptywheel The release of transcripts showing that the Ukraine "piece" plan that Trump claimed to be his own was in fact simply the Russian plan could have the same effect the discovery of Mike Flynn's back chan...

"Dmitriev succeeded, as he told Ushakov he would do, in getting the White House to pass off the Russian plan as their own." @emptywheel.bsky.social www.emptywheel.net/2025/11/26/t...

Ivan Karamazov Yes, I know what he is like : a kind of impossible robot you insert your prayers into like tickets, that after a while are returned to you with the words 'Not granted' written upon them. I repudiate such a god. But if, as you say, he exists, and what I do is an offence to him, let him punish me: I shall not squeal; to be proved right is worth a lifetime's chastisement. And to have God avenging himself is to have the advantage, till the earth opens to receive one into a dark cleft, where, safer than Elijah, one will know him trumpeting in the wind and the fire and the roar of the earthquake, but not in the still, small voice of the worms that deliver one for ever out of the tyranny of his self-love.

Now Men, who in their day went down acknowledging defeat, what would they say now, where no superlatives have meaning? What was failure to them, our abandonment of an ideal has turned into high art. Could they with foreknowledge have been happy? Can we, because there are levels not yet descended to, take comfort? Is it sufficient for us that we, like that minority of our fellows in the hurrying centuries, turning aside re-enter the garden? What is the serenity of art worth without the angels at the hot gates, whose sword is time and our uneasy conscience?

Somewhere Something to bring back to show you have been there: a lock of God's hair, stolen from him while he was asleep; a photograph of the garden of the spirit. As has been said, the point of travelling is not to arrive, but to return home laden with pollen you shall work up into the honey the mind feeds on. What are our lives but harbours we are continually setting out from, airports at which we touch down and remain in too briefly to recognise what it is they remind us of? And always in one another we seek the proof of experiences it would be worth dying for. Surely there is a shirt of fire this one wore, that is hung up now like some rare fleece in the hall of heroes? Surely these husbands and wives have dipped their marriages in a fast spring? Surely there exists somewhere, as the justification for our looking for it, the one light that can cast such shadows?

Three poems by RS Thomas for your Wednesday

“Now” is…prescient let’s say

And “Ivan Karamazov” is one of my favorite poems & also of course connected to my favorite book

Being among the first interrogated and ultimately fired by DOGE, I certainly felt we were facing the business end of a right-wing conspiracy theory 🧵

Violating the First Amendment to hide the record of all their violations of the Fourth Amendment.

Email says We are prepared to receive boxes tomorrow, as NY agents are travelling to WFO in the morning, and vill arrive to Winchester where they will start photographing and we will start scanning and processing the physical files. Once I see the volume, I'|l have a better estimate of processing times, although 1 suggest we do a rolling delivery to further demonstrate the FBIls commitment to delivery and transparency.

🚨 NEW/EXCLUSIVE: The FBI turned over dozens of emails to me in response to my #FOIA request that provides a behind-the-scenes look at discussions involving the review and redaction of the Epstein files

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Murderers

SKULDUGGERY!!!!!!!!

It’s wild that up until six months ago people would call any of us on the academic and research side talking about the fact that the fascist movement was a transnational criminal organization as much as a fascist organization conspiracy theorists and now they are acting like they just found out

True.

Y’all.

I imagine that people who reliably have their social media presence amplified by bots and algorithms engineered to their advantage don’t perceive much problem with forging signatures. It’s the paper version of the same game.

Y’all.

A screenshot from The Masked Singer. The contestant's costume head has been removed, but there's no head underneath! Just two little green hands poking out from below! What is it?

Masked Singer judge and known cretin Robin Thicke's breath appears to be caught in his throat. Does he know? Or does he merely suspect? Does he dare to hope?

It is! The Masked Singer was Kermit the Frog, which the caption describes as Movie Star, Oscar Winner and A-List Amphibian!

The judges are actively losing their shit, high-fiving each other, screaming, virtually catatonic with joy. Who wouldn't be? It's Kermit the Frog!

just look at this reaction when Kermit popped out on The Masked Singer, dude.

You go to Disney World and see someone dressed up as Mickey Mouse and you're like "ok, a guy in a Mickey Mouse costume." You see someone puppeteering Kermit and you're like "holy shit. It's him. It's Kermit the Frog."

A national bond that transcends race, religion, politics and class is our shared agreement that the Muppets are real. They are real people with jobs and lives. Listen to that crowd screaming. They know they're seeing a celebrity.

More Evidence Submitted to Dismiss the Charges Against Kilmar Abrego Friday night, we learned that the DOJ lied about the door being closed to Costa Rica. Mr. Abrego's lawyers feel that's enough to immediately dismiss on vindictive and selective prosecution grounds.

NEW: Mr. Abrego's lawyers believe that the lies DOJ told in the civil case warrant immediate dismissal in his criminal case. My latest: www.muellershewrote.com/p/more-evide...

Buh Bye Lindsey! - emptywheel Judge Cameron Currie has ruled that Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully appointed, dismissed both the Jim Comey and Letitia James indictments without prejudice, and put the EDVA judges in charge of pickin...

Buh Bye Lindsey!

www.emptywheel.net/2025/11/24/b...

Terror marketed as tech is still terror.

Watching all of this unfold has been dizzying. On Sunday I encountered a post claiming that, according to the “About” feature, a popular and verified Islamaphobic, pro-Israel account (that posts aggressively about American politics, including calling for Zohran Mamdani’s deportation) was based in “South Asia” and had changed its user name 15 times. When I went to X to verify, I noticed that this same account had spent Saturday posting screenshots of other political accounts, accusing them of being fake “Pakistani Garbage.” This is X in 2025: potentially fake accounts crying at other potentially fake accounts that they aren’t real, all while refusing to acknowledge that they themselves aren’t who they say they are—a Russian nesting doll of bullshit.

genuinely: a russian nesting doll of bullshit that bad actors are using to cast aspersions on basically anything they want

Terror marketed as tech is still terror.

"Holy hell" is right. The door is locked from the inside.

Elon's "Rosebud" is posting. His deepest desire is for everyone to tell him what a hilarious and clever poster he is. The problem is that he isn't funny. And it kills him.

It explains why he bought Twitter. It's why Grok is the way it is. And it explains . . . whatever the holy hell this is.