Alan Neff

White House Begins Christmas Season With Ceremonial Lighting Of Cross

White House Begins Christmas Season With Ceremonial Lighting Of Cross

I support paywalls for news sources, because I support journalism.

Those media site agreement-screens about allowing cookies? I click away from such sites immediately (unless I need to access them for work), because the message I take from them is that such sites actually DON'T "value my privacy."

New York Times editor Joe Kahn misunderstands what the readers want | Press Watch They want the Times to be more honest, not more partisan

"Readers are not asking the Times to print propaganda or stump for Democrats. In my view, they simply want the Times to be more clear-eyed and honest about the depth of the crisis this country currently faces." — @froomkin.bsky.social

Sad but accurate, Dan.
presswatchers.org/2025/12/new-...

Microdosing Democracy My name is Jess and I was a high school Literature teacher for 16 years until I decided to run as a Democrat in a rural, red district in Missouri. I bring you news and politics from Missouri and beyon...

Missouri Republican lawmakers do not respect Missouri voters. The only way to undo the damage is to kick them out of office.

The only way to get them out is to win races across the state.

The only way to win races is to contest every race on every ballot. open.substack.com/pub/jesspipe...

"I can't afford to support my favorite author right now, I—"

Reviews.

Reviews are free AND they are a gift to authors that can keep on giving (i.e., exposure, marketing, algo boosts, etc.)

Please, give the gift of reviews to your authors this holiday season. It really can make a difference!

No, but it contains multitudes.

The employees' morale seemed much improved. I only worry about people who need to go there and don't have online access, but our DMV has locations where you don't need an appointment.

I recently went to my local DMV office to renew my license. I had to make an appointment online. The place was quiet and efficient. I was in and out in under an hour. Best experience I've ever had there. I asked every staff person I interacted with about the appointment system. They love it.

HFS.

Em dashes rule.

CBS NEWS News the White House can trust

Once again, the ads in the print edition of @theonion.com are worth the price alone

Pencils, avocados, what luxuries will people want next? Water? Air? Exposé at 11.

the united states is currently being led by a bunch of little david dukes with a senescent outer-borough grand dragon at the top

IOW, a bonkers abbondanza.

Temporarily, I've put Big Wordle on its back foot.

I've got Big Wordle on the run.

On my more conspiratorial days, I think the Venezuelan sabre-rattling is about handing control of that country's oil to the Saudis and Kushner.

This does not convince me otherwise.

Although the pretense of adhering to democratic values has been abandoned by an administration that disdains democracy, free speech, and the rule of law, the theory is nonetheless the same: Unless America defends ethno-nationalism against the forces of multiracial democracy elsewhere, ethno-nationalism will not be safe here. The Trump administration’s rabid hostility toward the “Rainbow Nation” of South Africa, with its history all Americans can recognize, makes more sense in this context.

Trump’s foreign policy isn’t “noninterventionism,” it is a kind of neo neo conservatism devoted to imposing authoritarian ethnonationalism abroad instead of democracy (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

2/ “Defendants confirmed their position that, after an initial federalization, all extensions of federalization orders are utterly unreviewable, forever.

That is shocking. Adopting Defendants’ interpretation ... would permit a president to create a perpetual police force comprised of state troops"

I count at least nine years of promising to "repeal and replace."

@taniel.bsky.social is great. Here's another informative piece from him.

Highly recommended reading.

This is exactly why I wouldn't want to transport the Ark of the Covenant ANYWHERE.

This checks out: it matches my seating on the last G train I rode.

Elon Musk is furious that people who were not born in America are able to cast a vote in American elections.

I wonder what his attitude is about people who were not born in America but spend billions of dollars influencing American elections.

the defensiveness and incredulity of a good chunk of the commentary class toward arguments about trump’s racism is, imho, downstream of the same impulse behind the endless trump voter safaris and self-flagellation about being out of touch with the heartland

When it comes to healthcare, the Republican Big Brain Caucus is large and in charge.

Jesus Christ, public opinion is not some static thing that has to be “respected” by politicians.

Politicians should work to shape it, to make the case for their priorities and positions, to win over voters to *their* ideas not convince voters that they agree with them.

As a regulatory litigator representing a city government's residents, I spent 22 years immersed in accounting, finance, civil engineering, environmental science, nuclear security, and project management so I could cross-examine experts.

A very valuable education, useful to this day.

The right’s preferred gender ideology—one of male supremacy, women’s exclusion from dignity, citizenship, and vast spheres of public life, and an enforced heterosexuality of eroticized domination—is much more prescriptive, aggressive, and ubiquitously pushed than anything coming from trans people.