Paddy O'Mugwump ⚠️ (Patrick Downs)

Hello journalists. If you report this you gotta say that under the Constitution he has no power to do it. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Prof. Wurman has found another place where a dissenting interpretation favors absolute government power and disfavors immigrants, wow what a weird coincidence, he sure is concerned about academic discourse, thanks to all the profs here telling me to take him very seriously

Here's an idea: Trump's fight with Harvard is a proxy for his fight with elite universities everywhere. He thinks (probably correctly) that if he can beat Harvard into submission then all the rest will fall into line. So Harvard's victory is essential, not just for Harvard but also for /1

Our strategy of mild, triangulated, focus group-tested talking points got us within 2 points of defeating the most dangerous man to ever hold the presidency. Why on earth would we change tactics?

by Chuck Schumer, Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and David Plouffe

The Pentagon has hired yet another openly antisemitic staffer. Remember, liberals, it takes an antisemite to stop an antisemite.

Feeling like your civilization is about to collapse? This sheet-pan beer bread will make you feel like you're in late Bronze Age Egypt.

This is a senior Justice Department official.

Who is in charge of pardons.

And also in charge of investigating the “politicization” of the Justice Department.

Staggering: Trump lost 96% of federal court cases in May. Even GOP-appointed judges ruled against him 72% of the time.

Signal Chat Leak Angers U.S. Military Pilots Men and women who have taken to the air on behalf of the United States expressed bewilderment after the leak of attack plans. “You’re going to kill somebody,” one pilot said.

Current and former U.S. military pilots expressed bewilderment after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to acknowledge that he should not have disclosed sensitive information in an unsecured group chat.

“If you can’t admit when you’re wrong, you’re going to kill somebody,” one pilot said.

DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase In Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.

BREAKING: DOGE is starting to put together a team to migrate the SSA's computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

An advance look at Barry Blitt’s “Left to Their Own Devices,” the cover for next week’s issue. #NewYorkerCovers

DOGE “seemed unsure” of what USAID programs they cut and is now attempting to reverse some of the cuts, says @propublica.org reporter Brett Murphy. “This is the opposite of a careful review."

With his permission, I'm sharing Dean Treanor's response to Ed Martin's letter:

A Whole Bunch of Bad Stuff Is Coming When things are dark, the only way through is together.

A Whole Bunch of Bad Stuff Is Coming

When things are dark, the only way through is together.

By Jonathan V. Last

www.thebulwark.com/p/a-whole-bu...

🔊 Listen Now: A landlord and man seeking Section 8 housing have an unexpected moment of connection Morning Edition on NPR One | 5:06

GOOD CONVERSATION!
Listen to: A landlord and man seeking Section 8 housing have an unexpected moment of connection - one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5252...

@picskelton.bsky.social
Hey! 😎

Special Counsel Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case (Gift Article) The report, which said the special counsel’s office stood “fully behind” the merits of the prosecution, amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of the president-elect.

GIFT ARTICLE 🎁

Special Counsel Jack Smith's Report Says Trump Would Have Been CONVICTED in Election Case

The report, which said the special counsel’s office stood “fully behind” merits of the prosecution, amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of the president-elect.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/u...

Special Counsel Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case “But for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” the report said.

Donald Trump would have been convicted in his election case if his re-election had not made a trial impossible, the special counsel report said.

sometimes a picture (or magazine cover) is all you need

Donald Trump would have been convicted over 2020 election, special counsel report says Newly released report by Jack Smith states the ‘evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction’ of Trump had he not been elected in 2024

In any other democratic country, including the UK, Donald Trump would have been convicted in 2020 or soon after.

It would not have taken over four years for a functioning justice system to find he encouraged a violent riot.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Pete Hegseth isn't just a Christian nationalist, he's FAR to the theological right of anybody even close to national power in modern history. Ted Cruz is Ned Flanders next to Hegseth. I've been reporting on the Christian Right for 20+ years. This isn't just "another one"; this is new & worse.

Scoop: Trump team sets red line on Hegseth's FBI background check That means no FBI file access for rank-and-file senators.

Trump team apparentrly saying Hegseth FBI file too terrifying to let all but a couple of senators see it

www.axios.com/2025/01/14/t...

Let me be clear. Barring a last minute injunction, Merrick Garland should post the Smith Report (vol. 1) tonight at 12:01 a.m.--not one minute later.

Do not wait until tomorrow morning.

Elon Musk and the Decline of Western Civilization Silvio Berlusconi invented the modern oligarchy. Musk is expanding it.

Elon Musk and the Decline of Western Civilization

Silvio Berlusconi invented the modern oligarchy. Musk is expanding it.

by FRANCIS FUKUYAMA

www.persuasion.community/p/elon-musk-...

Anderson Cooper has a special broadcast on LA burning, on CNN right now (Sunday, started 8:30pm PST). This is a screenshot of a thermal image satellite photo of the Altadena CA fire and every one of those dots is a building burning. Astonishing. I've never seen anything like this.

The Army of God Comes Out of the Shadows Tens of millions of American Christians are embracing a charismatic movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation, which seeks to destroy the secular state.

GIFT ARTICLE 🎁

The Army of God Comes Out of the Shadows

Tens of millions of American Christians are embracing a charismatic movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation, which seeks to destroy the secular state.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

California insurer canceled policies months before Los Angeles wildfires Residents in one of the neighborhoods currently being ravaged by fire, were left scrambling for coverage.

State Farm, one of the biggest insurers in California, canceled hundreds of homeowners' policies last summer in Pacific Palisades—the same area which is now being ravaged by a devastating wildfire.
www.newsweek.com/california-i...

Pacific Palisades fire explodes as thousands of residents flee, homes are lost A fast-moving fire in Pacific Palisades grew to more than 700 acres Tuesday amid dangerous winds that officials had described as potentially life-threatening and destructive. Thousands were forced to ...

VERY BAD
Pacific Palisades fire explodes as thousands of residents flee, homes are lost
www.latimes.com/california/s...

The Internet Is Worse Than a Brainwashing Machine A rationale is always just a scroll or a click away.

GIFT ARTICLE 🎁
The Internet Is Worse Than a Brainwashing Machine

In recent years, experts have worried over an online crisis of “misinformation,” Charlie Warzel and Mike Caulfield write. But that term doesn’t begin to describe what’s really happening. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...