Chris Ott

Trump signs up along rural Wisconsin roads for most of the last 10 years are completely gone now. Over the last two months, I’ve driven hundreds of miles along these roads, and literally the only thing I’ve seen about him was this the other day: #TACO on the tile of a gas station bathroom.

Where the separate divisions of ANTIFA landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944:

I'm Kat Abughazaleh and I'm running for Congress.

Thank you! Next time I’m there…

I’ve never found the unfilled ones anywhere else. They’re enough. Why gild the lily? :)

I struggle with something related. When I was a kid, we lived below a Polish aunt who included me in the large-scale making of pączki—from buying A&P lard by the tub, to dozens of the delicious finished product. But she made them unfilled. As an adult, jelly filling disappoints me. Why fill them?

If you had a time machine and went back to tell American conservatives that the U.S.S.R. was going to break up, but one of the republics would need help to keep its independence from Moscow, they would have been so excited!

One bright light in the sky shortly after sunset.

I’m your Venus.

Kids these days will never have the experience of buying a CD, and suffering the scorn of the cool music people working in the store.

Travis, thanks for this story and your other coverage of California HSR. Could I get your contact information? I work for the national, nonprofit High Speed Rail Alliance. We occasionally release new material that might be of interest, and would be glad to help with future coverage you do.

We need dozens or hundreds more like this rep!

Gulf of Mexico Has a Much Better President Than We Do Check out my custom Gulf of Mexico Has a Much Better President Than We Do map created with MapQuest!

Mapquest lets YOU decide what to call it.

Wearing a blue suit, red white and blue pocket square, an American flag belt buckle, and hair product, the Secretary of Defense points a finger.

Does he think he's Uncle Sam?

I look forward as well to the increase in the chocolate ration.

A US Treasury Threat Intelligence Analysis Designates DOGE Staff as ‘Insider Threat’ An internal email reviewed by WIRED calls DOGE staff's access to federal payments systems “the single biggest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”

@wired.com is doing really important reporting on this huge threat to taxpayer dollars and democratic control of the U.S. government. To support this, I’ve now subscribed, for the first time.

25-year-old employed by Elon Musk’s DOGE who posted he was ‘racist before it was cool’ resigns after being linked to deleted social-media account Marco Elez was part of a team of young, tech-savvy DOGE workers that have been tearing through government agencies.

A member of EM's crew has already been forced out. Exposure, pressure, and push-back are helping, at least a little. As the consequences of what they're trying to get away with speed up, there will be chances to bring down more of them, and hopefully all of them. fortune.com/2025/02/07/2...

Photo of ICE Agents Arresting Man Wearing 'Latinos for Trump' T-Shirt Is Fake A photographer for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) captured the original, unaltered picture during arrests made in Ohio in 2018.

Wondered about this too-perfect photo, and it does turn out to be altered. Let’s not fall for the same kind of bullshit his followers have. We don’t need fakes when the belligerence, selfishness, and dishonesty are so real.

Wow!

Thanks @janannc.bsky.social for sharing this elsewhere. I first saw it thanks to you.

Trump Will Overplay His Hand. Here’s How to Be Ready. I lived through the rise of authoritarianism in Turkey. Here’s what I learned.

Good recent article by a Turkish journalist sharing her perspective: “America will survive the next four years if Democrats pick themselves up and start learning from the successes of opponents of autocracy across the globe.”

www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Is AI the new BS?

Hope you’re doing OK and government of, by, for the people hasn’t perished from the earth.

Sunlight yesterday made Wisconsin’s capitol especially pretty.

Patience

YouTube video by High Speed Rail Alliance Fix Chicago Union Station and Build a High Speed Rail Hub

It should be possible to travel by train between most cities in the Midwest within just a few hours. This video shows five fixes at Chicago Union Station that would open the way for this. youtu.be/SNIqCLR6rMs

He has no mandate for big changes. Instead of 47, let’s call him 49.9, for the percentage of the vote he scraped in with.

Wow

Hard lessons might be coming, and there might not be much that any of us alone can do about it for now. But, as the saying goes, we can try to be the change we want to see in the world. That can include trying not to be anything like such a selfish, ignorant man.