Ben in L.A.

It sometimes feels like we're living in a ridiculously exaggerated folk tale with wildly implausible villains. For example, as the president takes billions for himself and his family and *coats his things in gold,* the soldiers fighting his war can't get toothpaste, hot water, or a clean toilet.

Dave is loving life.

Love this: a "universal basic neighborhood."

The most pathetic thing you'll see today. Here's President Bone Spurs trying to pretend he went to one of the military academies. I've no doubt millions of his followers will believe it.

I mean they kicked off a war with the largest and most heavily armed hostile country in the Middle East and figured they could win in 5 days with nothing but air strikes, after which Iran would... be our vassal, I guess? And no plan B if anything else happened? It's so dumb it defies comprehension.

There's something deeply obscene and broken about the fact that Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are bombing elementary schools in an illegal war of aggression, and there's still a sense among the opposition that it has to be explained in terms of gas prices in order to get American voters to care.

"You can only be decent because we are horrible" is a very, very popular line of thinking among horrible people.

‘Good news! You’re going to be Special Envoy for the *spins dial* Trebuchet of *throws dart at map* the Great Lakes’

Footage of French Navy helicopters seizing a Russian shadow fleet tanker overnight.

Just a quick reminder that Trump ostensibly launched this war because he was unable to negotiate a deal very much like the one he blew up just to spite Obama.

The State of the Union: the president is a corrupt demented sex criminal who tried to overthrow the constitution.

🇺🇦🇳🇱 Ukrainian soldiers undergoing rehabilitation in the Netherlands took part in a march in Amsterdam carrying banners reading "This is who we protect!"

Ossoff: "Among today's false prophets are the election deniers who indulge this president's obsession with overturning the 2020 election. Hear me when I say this -- they tell a lie so absurd, and therefore so debasing, that the act of telling it proves the teller's total and humiliating submission."

We are going to have the house, senate, and presidency soon. It will be a generational opportunity to rein in tech companies, break up monopolies, throw Trump regime in prison, create strong social safety nets, get back to valuing education, science, the environment, etc We can’t fuck it up.

This is why the people who show up to protests ready to burn things down aren’t “allies” with “different tactics.” Overwhelmingly they’re there for the thrill of rationalized violence; they will find some way to commit some violence against somebody if they have the thinnest excuse.

Ocasio gang rise up 🙌🏽🇵🇷

This cannot be something a civilian law enforcement agent is allowed to wear in the US — and an agency that has a culture that tolerates this cannot be saved.

Next time someone asks you about energy and land use, maybe remind them that the ~35 million acres that currently grow corn for ethanol in the US could produce ~15 PWh per year of electricity from solar photovoltaics. That's ~3.5 times more than *total annual generation from all US power plants*.

10/10 ICE protest sign

Dems coalescing around 5 restrictions on ICE, I'm told: DHS required to cooperate with state probes (big) CBP stays at border warrants for arrests IDs, bodycams ICE out of churches, schools "That package unites a lot of Dems," Sen Chris Murphy tells me on the pod: newrepublic.com/article/2057...

White House Terror Tactics Are Pushing Blue State Leaders to Active Resistance talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/white...

Imagine how much they’d be lying about what happened without all the videos showing it from multiple angles.

🇺🇦🎥 Kyiv residents react to lights being turned on in -11°C. Some homes have been without power for over a day 3,300 high-rise buildings in Kyiv are still without heat after the enemy attacked the capital. In the morning, almost 6,000 homes in Kyiv were again without heat.

If only we could find the people responsible for this !!!

There are many many good people out there. Be clear-eyed about what is happening, but don't let the cruelty and cynicism overwhelm you.

Leah doesn’t like slow songs but I dig this. You decide.

Oh yeah for sure. Definitley try to get non-insured individual pricing at your local hospital. Definitely a Good Idea.

this is all happening because 80,000 people in the 6 states where votes actually count googled "joe bidon still presdinant?" on election day morning

Trump and Stephen Miller are actually failing in crucial ways. Deportations are lagging behind their goals, courts are mostly functioning, and their fascist, ethnonationalist cruelties have unleashed a countermobilization of unexpected scope and power. New from me: newrepublic.com/article/2046...

European Union leaders agree to provide a massive interest-free loan to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years, EU Council President Antonio Costa says.

One possible reason that fewer people are dying in motor vehicle accidents: fewer cars are being stolen.

this is extraordinary. too many people in my profession have circled the wagons around someone who lacks the moral sense of a child

Well if it isn't the almost-Attorney General, folks.

"the combat decisions he has made" is the key phrase here -- Hegseth is making it clear he's distancing himself from the strike

This is identical to Russia invading Ukraine. Illegally invading a country for their resources and likely killing thousands—if not more—is immoral and should not be supported by anyone with any shred of moral conscience.

I do think yesterday’s results reinforced the dynamic that while much of the American leadership class is chickenshit, most of the electorate is not

On-field reactions with the Champs. 🥹 #WorldSeries

Shohei, it is completely unfair to ask this of you again, but I need you to engage God Mode again for one game.

#WALKOFF!!!!!! FINAL (18): #Dodgers 6, Blue Jays 5

MAN I LOVE FREDDIE. #WORLDSERIES

The Jays and Dodgers will break for Christmas Eve to share a drink in no man’s land, show each other photos of the family they left back home, before heading back to their respective trenches.