Nico B.

In a year Trump has converted cabinet positions into little dukedoms, where you don’t do any real work but are rewarded with luxury jets and exotic vacations and VIP accommodations at major events, partying with the stars.

Every stage of this process - his arrest, spending a year in jail, being dumped on the streets to die - would be deeply shameful in a society that actually valued human life.

Melania Trump, who we actually know met Epstein on several occasions because there are pictures of her with him, would make more sense.

What Elon Has Done Elon Musk's destruction of USAID has faded from public consciousness in America, despite leaving death and destruction in its wake.

"the largest act of mass murder of this decade, and of this century so far, was not perpetrated by militaries or militias, but by the world's richest man in Washington D.C.'s Eisenhower Executive Office Building."

www.liberalcurrents.com/what-elon-ha...

democrats should internalize that this is what their colleagues think of them and act accordingly

Court expansion at +37 with democrats and +3 with independents means we should absolutely do it. Republicans wouldn't think twice about something with that much intraparty support.

Epstein Files Are Missing Records About Woman Who Made Claim Against Trump

DOJ said to The Times on Monday that “the only materials that have been withheld were either privileged or duplicates.” In a new statement on Tuesday, the department also noted that documents could have been withheld because of “an ongoing federal investigation.”

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/u...

I'm constantly trying (/failing) to get this point across.

If you're a trained expert in a field, then it may be worthwhile to question the scientific consensus of your peers.

If you're not, the scientific consensus is absolutely the best you can do and it's arbitrary foolishness to disregard it.

One of the things we’re going to see even more from the NYT as Democrats take back power is a hysterical insistence that they aren’t betraying trans people enough. The editorial leadership is fully brain broken on this and mad that the Democrats aren’t doing a Labour.

Largely fears over cancel culture among elites are likely motivated by the fact that they truly believe that their status and wealth should shield them from certain moral or ethical standards. Pretending it is anything else is delusional at this point.

The fact that construction of new "luxury" apartments frees up less expensive rentals elsewhere—a good thing for everyone—is both obvious as a matter of logic and well-established as a matter of observable reality. Yet left-NIMBYs continue to deny it for reasons I don't think I will ever understand.

The way right wingers have internalized the fantasy that they are a powerless minority with the deck stacked against them when they control all three branches of government is quite something:

Sources: scottaclifford.com/wp-content/u... www.tessexperiments.org/study/cliffo... electionstudies.org/data-tools/a... www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Clifford & Simas found voters trust candidates who frame positions as moral convictions, even ones they disagree with, over those who hedge. ANES data re “strong leadership” perceptions since 1980 consistently shows it’s one of the strongest predictors of vote choice, outweighing policy agreement

Politicians need to project sincerity. A recent Texas A&M study suggests that one common strategy works – and another does not Extreme policy positions undermine public trust, while voters appear to respect politicians who talk in terms of right and wrong

Yep yep this phenomenon is actually incredibly well documented and consistent beyond just politics! See e.g. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... bush.tamu.edu/news/politic..., www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Sure thing: George Lakoff writes a lot about the source of perceived inauthencitiy and its impact. With respect to “weakness” these cover the broader social science literature pretty well ccare.stanford.edu/wp-content/u..., culturalq.com/wp-content/u...

The lack of self-respect you are exhibiting by just sitting there and taking this shit.

What baffles me is Dems have convinced themselves this is the savvy move, when research consistently shows perceived weakness generates contempt and reinforces perceptions of inauthenticity — each of which repels (even like-minded) individuals generally and voters specifically

My friend who’s loudly proudly “an independent voter” wants “danish style universal healthcare” and is really into animal
rights which has curdled into being rabidly anti-immigrant because he says “they **all** torture animals for fun.” Demographically he is under 30, gay, and not white.

Biggest thing dems could do for their current position imo is have true moral convictions. They love to wait till the poll tells them something is confirmed Okay and by that time it’s too late. You should try believing in something, anything, the first time - even at pt of risk

the Bonica-Grumbach thesis is doing an amazing job and is being recognized more and more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture_Memos

there is absolutely no good reason to omit to mention that John Yoo is one of the principal authors of some of the most infamous legal advice ever offered from within the executive branch, in the service of an extreme view of executive power

A Law School Dean Signed a Brief Defending Trans Rights. She Lost Her Job Because of It The revocation of Emily Suski’s job offer at the University of Arkansas sends a chilling message to law professors everywhere.

Earlier this month, the University of Arkansas hired Emily Suski as its next law school dean, praising her as an "accomplished scholar." But then, Republican politicians found out she'd signed a Supreme Court amicus brief defending trans rights. A week later, university leadership pulled her offer.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, appears to have deleted his tweet after these Democrats responded

The FBI Director, everyone. You paid for it.

The reason we're here is that tens of millions of people will punch a hole in a wall if they hear someone used food stamps to buy soda but they're fine if the right-wing podcaster turned fbi director uses his taxpayer funded private jet to go party whenever he feels like it bsky.app/profile/thed...

One thing I've watched the right do over the last several decades is take previously marginal or unthinkable ideas & mainstream them through sheer, relentless focus & repetition.

The left could do the same with the reform ideas in this thread.

Attention and mental wellbeing, dramatically improve after RCT limited smartphone access cc @paulgp.com

academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

I was wrong, it’s in the part of the book discussing PRE CONQUEST England up to 1275. What does this add to anything?

subjects for the state has a right to expect more favour from it than the man who chooses to live for himself alone.* Every thing tending to depopulate a country is a defect in a state not overstocked with inhabitants. We have already spoken of convents and the celbacy of priests. It is strange that establishments so directly repugnant to the duties of a man and citizen, as well as to the advantage and safety of society, should have found such favour, and that princes, instead of opposing them, as it was their duty to do, should have protected and enriched them. A system of policy, that dex-trously took advantage of superstition to extend its own power,

Thomas keeps citing a 17th century treatise, Vattel, and I went to find it, and it definitely has some interesting commentary, such as this explanation that maybe priests violate the law of nations by not being fecund.