Mike Orren

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

All the journalists who rushed to lionize Kirk and decry political violence are gonna get right on this, right?

Right?

An image of a vitriolic press release from the White House showing up in Google News feed.

Will @googlenews.bsky.social please take the freakin White House out of the Google News feed? It’s not a news source and shows up in feeds every day.

So much for the new rules stopping Pentagon insiders from talking to the press against the official line

No

song.link/us/i/414285058

Three days later:

THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON November 9, 1968 Dear Messrs. Smothers: I am very grateful for your kind and thoughtful letter. To be genuinely furiny at a time when the world is in crisis is a task that would tax the talents of a genius; to be consistently fair when stand-ards of fair play are constantly questioned de-mands the wisdom of a saint. It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives. If ever an Emmy is awarded for graciousness, I will cast my vote for you. THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS Sincerely, Lyndon B. Johnson

Letter from Lyndon Johnson to the Smothers Brothers, 1968

I don’t think any country in the history of the world has ever done anything as stupidly self destructive as what Trump and RFK jr are doing with vaccines.

It's not just the authoritarianism — it's how shameless, how *gleeful* this administration is about it

You’d think someone would say something.

@wsj.com @jeffsonnenfeld.bsky.social
www.wsj.com/business/ins...

idk i read in the free press that the real risk to free speech is three oberlin undergraduates who say geometry is ableist. this is pretty confusing to me.

the kimmel thing is bad but as long as they arent rounding people up indiscriminately based on race, building concentration camps and talking about eradicating those they deem sexual deviants, i think we’ll be ok

Exactly this

Weird that the FCC Chair had no issue with Kilmeade wanting to euthanize homeless people.

God bless @jeffjarvis.bsky.social

“Mourning”

Freudian slip?

Silly Jimmy Kimmel. He should have just called for all homeless people to be killed and he’d still have a job.

David Frum on Jimmy Kimmel: "This is not cancel culture because it's not culture. It's state repression. It's an order from the government. Here is the script, you must read, if you do not read it, you will be taken off the air."

While you still can, if you’re asking “who’s Sinclair?” John Oliver has you covered:

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

By the head of the Federal Communications Commission, in 2022:

I will say, turning a couple of the country’s most famous comedians into free speech martyrs seems like you’re basically fast-tracking your way into a color revolution

"…and Magda Goebbels made a great strudel.”

These are calls for mass political violence, against all Democrats. They openly call for the bombing of "Democrat" cities and for the jailing or killing of Democratic politicians. They are from some of the most influential voices in right-wing politics. Will anyone say anything?

Sharing info about Charlie Kirk and the search for the shooter? Please

✅Check timestamps. RTing old info adds to the fog.
✅ Check original sourcing. Trusting the person who shared it isn’t enough.
✅ Check image credits.
✅ Check your impulses.
🛑 Don’t share unsourced, undated images/video/graphics

"Harvard can't use race as a factor in admissions, but ICE can use race as a factor in detentions" is a retrenchment essentially to a pre-Civil War understanding of the Constitution. It's vanishingly few steps removed from "Latinos have no rights which the white man is bound to respect."

Opinion | The Mind-Boggling Intrusiveness of Donald J. Trump The president is driving the tentacles of the federal government deep into the nation’s economy, culture and legal system.

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

Donald Trump’s interventions and intrusions “reveal a presidency determined to expand executive reach into virtually every sphere of national life,” Thomas Edsall writes.