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We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

Chicago, United States, 2025.

The end of federal enforcement of special ed laws. Some states - including MN - will likely be ok. But a lot of disabled kids in a lot of states are going to lose the education that federal law and decades of jurisprudence say they are owed.

A second generation nepo baby, raised by a pair of sociopaths and given every advantage in the world. I'm sure this story will end well.

This is the Hunter Biden actions that they literally set their hair on fire and crapped their pants over for 8 years

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Pop Quiz!

Every American should know the basics of our Founding, don’t you agree?

The history, and the Constitution itself?

Well, to make sure you know it, and as part of my virtual Democracy Academy, let me give you a quick pop quiz.

1/

George was just trying to get to work.

ICE pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from his car, locked him in a detention center, and placed him on suicide watch. He even missed his young daughter’s birthday in the process.

This man is a veteran and American citizen. Don't look away.

guards ignore—but are trained—that withdrawal is a life threatening condition, and ignoring someone in withdrawal is both deliberate and indifferent

the fact that they were *wrong* about this person’s emergency doesn’t make their conduct any less deliberate or indifferent

i want a "resistance ranking" for dems that grades them on how seriously they're taking this

something like support for:

1. prosecuting gop criminality
2. court reform
3. procedural agressiveness
4. end ICE
5. trans rights
6. calling this fascism

+ points for having taken personal risks

MAGA Implodes over Kristi Noem’s “Stare Down” with Man in Chicken Suit A good New York Times piece on Portland nevertheless demonstrates how the conventions of objective reporting fail to accurately capture the bad faith driving pro-Trump propaganda.

This week, MAGA figures claimed Kristi Noem "stared down" violent antifa protesters in Portland. Turns out they were talking mostly about a guy in a chicken suit.

This episode opens a window into how MAGA propaganda works and MSM failure to handle it. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/2016...

traditional news media really is dead, isn’t it?

billionaires killed it.

this is what it takes. we're here now folks, there is not a "if the nazis came" it's "they're here and your mettle will be tested now"

My god why won’t anyone ask how that’s possible

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is sparking debate with claims the earth is flat, but scientists say the evidence is lacking.”

See how bad your framing is. Do better. This is journalism not stenography.

You guys should really go read old issues of your newspaper to see just how idiotic you sound now by comparison.

Kickstarter United strikes in New York City for fairer contract The workers were joined on day one by elected officials and various union leaders.

“Management knows that the four-day, 32-hour work week that we’ve had for the past three and a half years is the right move,” said Dannel Jurado, Kickstarter United member.

www.rascal.news/kickstarter-...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Badly Needed

Thank you @nytopinion.nytimes.com for publishing this rot. Marc Rowan has run hundreds of companies into the dust to extract profits from their failure and bankruptcies. Now he wants to do the same to American higher education. Do not believe a word this man says. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems... SIMON: What? SHAPIRO: ...Or saying... SIMON: You imagine that? SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over. SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level. SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this. SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

This is wildly misleading. You should delete this.

= POLITICO By DANIEL LIPPMAN 10/09/2025 08:22 PM EDT f In late July, Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, arrived at a Ritz-Carlton in Orlando with a lower-ranking female colleague and others from their department. When the group reached the front desk, the woman learned she didn't have a hotel room. Ingrassia then informed her that she would be staying with him, according to five administration officials familiar with the episode. Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him, three of those officials said.

Paul Ingrassia, Trump’s nominee to lead the office investigating Jack Smith, has recently been investigated for harassing a colleague, Politico reports.

“Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him..”

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

Credit where credit is due. The Democrats' message that the GOP shut down the government because they want to throw millions of people off healthcare has broken through. Two of my cousins who are NOT AT ALL tuned into national politics told me that this is why the government is shut down.

At the same time: unfuckingbelievable, and par for the course

It really can't be said enough: the goal of the "anti-woke" movement was always to destroy social norms against bigotry. And it worked. And there's a whole lot of purportedly "left" thinkers & commentators who helped it -- indeed, it couldn't have been done without them.

They should feel bad.

It is pretty galling that the Supreme Court spent four years telling Biden "you can't do that without Congress" then allowed Trump to seize a once-unthinkable amount of power from Congress within nine months and concentrate law-making authority almost entirely in the executive branch.

On this MLK Day, we should remember the people who in 1989 wanted to take MLK's name off a Portland street, but for totally not-racist reasons! On Walter Huss's lifelong hatred of MLK, the many "totally not racist" Oregonians who enabled it, and the small group of antifascist activists and researchers who told the truth about it

Partially in response to Seraw's murder, Portland changed the name of Union Avenue to MLK Blvd. In 1989, the white Christian Nationalist former chair of the OR GOP immediately organized a massive movement to *take MLK's name OFF of the street.* rightlandia.ghost.io/on-this-mlk-...

C-SPAN caller to Mike Johnson: "Hearing you say that 'everyone is smiling' in cities where troops have been rolled into feels dystopian and insane watching the response to it."

Pew Survey: Only 31% Of Trans People Report Being Accepted By Their Parents The survey comes as transgender people experience a legal assault from the far-right in the United States.

One of the most perverse ideas on the anti-trans side is that trans people are instantly affirmed and celebrated by everyone when they come out and that acceptance is driving a social contagion.

It's the ultimate form of gaslighting against our community.

www.erininthemorning.com/p/pew-survey...

Donald Trump mocks transgender people in Oval Office meeting with Canadian PM, whose child is nonbinary Mark Carney sat silently as the U.S. president went on an anti-trans diatribe.

Donald Trump mocks transgender people in Oval Office meeting with Canadian PM, whose child is nonbinary

www.advocate.com/new...

#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA