johnturing.bsky.social

Major press failure: treating Jared Kushner taking foreign bribes and shaping US foreign policy as less relevant than Hunter Biden not taking bribes nor influencing policy. Covering Kushner accurately was considered partisan, biased. Lies about Hunter or his minor actions treated as more important.

The US is not about to have a free and fair election. The state has put its thumb on the scale to favor the ruling party in multiple ways. It's a mostly free, somewhat unfair election. But still one where the ruling party can be overwhelmed by numbers. Hence the term "competitive authoritarianism."

Congrats to Lula on overcoming Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump to defeat Hospital Pervert Jr., even as his opposition literally blocked off roads and turned off bus service during election day. Fascists are scary but they are always, 100% of the time, ultimately gigantic fucking losers.

Brazil is… wow. Nationally, regionally, hemispherically, globally important election result. A choice against democratic backsliding. May it be a significant point in an international trend.

Background here: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Elon Musk is spending hundreds of millions to elect Republicans, an unprecedentedly huge amount from one person, and it’s a lot less than the value of contracts his companies got from this government he paid to elect and worked in. Many reports say “his own money,” few note unprecedentedly corrupt.

Many called Jared Kushner corrupt Many noted he took bribes from Middle Eastern autocrats, especially Saudi Arabia, skewing US foreign policy And they were right But as this reveals, he's even more corrupt and took even more money from Middle Eastern autocrats that many, even strong critics, knew

Admirer of Orban how? Admire what, exactly? The corruption enriching himself, his family, and cronies? The state’s forced takeover of media? Getting rid of the country’s top ranked university? Anti-LGBT bigotry? Abusing power to render elections no longer free or fair? The pro-Putin foreign policy?

A cartoonishly evil, openly bigoted, serially lying, highly unlikeable enemy of democracy. Almost certainly a criminal many times over. Way-too-deeply embedded in the US government and national security architecture. And with none of the protections of elected office. Bring it hard and do not stop.

My brain cannot process this level of corruption. She was being paid $50 million to engineer a pardon from Trump *while working at the Justice Department* as a "Special Government Employee." And it worked. He got the pardon, and she got the money. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/u...

They both did it, it was a joint effort, it’s one of the crazier things to happen in the national security space (which is really saying something) and every government should be scrambling to reduce dependence on—and as soon as possible get off—Starlink/shield or any Musk product, including the US.

Invasion, mass murder, rape, kidnapping of children - all fine

The leader of the Republican Party supports murderous anti-American war criminal Vladimir Putin. Will Republican candidates be repeatedly asked if they denounce Putin? The Republican Party's biggest donor also boosts a German Neo-Nazi party. Will Republican candidates be asked if they denounce AfD?

AI slop is the medium of post-truth. It’s for people who reject the value of factual reality, can’t appeal to the public based on the truth, and want everyone to live inside a lie. Unsurprisingly, Republicans are using it much more in campaigns.

Can the denial and wishful thinking about Trump and Russia finally stop now? But he’s trying for peace! (Telling Ukraine to surrender, trying to enrich his cronies) But he told others to sanction Russia! (Just a show—no follow up) But he’s sanctioning Russia! (No, Congress did and he removed it)

Bovino got fired in March, attended a neo-Nazi rally in May, appeared on a white nat podcast in June and a podcast hosted by J6er and Proud Boys this week. Bovino is now working with another J6er who hosted a rally in Minneapolis named after a racial slur.

He's with the Angles now

David Brooks pearl-clutching over John Ossoff calling a white nationalist a “white nationalist,” as if the problem with violent white nationalism is people objecting to it, illustrates this point as well as humanly possible.

If you praise the Confederacy, everyone knows what you're doing. If you praise Rhodesia, though, you still get that little frisson of naughtiness, the little tingle of rebelliousness that can power you through the drudgery of your eight-hour shift at your dad's car dealership.

NEW: Prime Minister Andy Burnham finally breaks a decade of UK govt silence…& reveals there was ‘clear’ Russian interference in the Brexit vote. 1/

The "Party of Reagan" has the United States siding with Russian aggression against NATO allies and a brutal war on a European democratic US partner. Yes, the whole party. If they didn't, they would impeach and remove the president who is blatantly breaking US law to help fund Russia's war effort.

Trump is openly siding with Putin, blaming Ukraine's self-defense rather than Russia's aggression for the war, and telling Ukraine to surrender. Worth calling it out every time. But hardly new. Ambushing Zelensky in DC, aping Russian propaganda, and insisting it's Ukraine's fault was March 2025.

Downside: The US now has government goon squads, and deploys them to try to intimidate voters into voting the way the president wants. Upside: They don’t have nearly enough goons. Not even close. They’re hoping fear will make up for that big shortfall, but it won’t.

Putin apologists want you to buy that: -An alleged off-the-books 1991 verbal promise outweighs a signed 1994 treaty -Democratic countries formerly occupied by Russia asked to join an anti-Russia alliance for no reason -Ukrainians don't want freedom, an American tricked them into it with cookies

90 Year Anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. ¡No pasarán! www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/...

Impossible to understand how anyone could look at Rufo's career and conclude he was someone engaged in a "forthright defense of meritocracy." Rufo's entire career is built on the idea of purging people who don't think or look like him from positions of power.

new wolfenstein looks like shit

“No NEW wars” was the trick, and I can’t believe people fell for it, but many did (including most media). If Americans have to hear about war in a new location, that is bad and the US president’s fault (Libya, Ukraine). Trump Term 1 worsened Syria, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, but that doesn’t count.

A clear example of bad faith, and why it’s a mistake to indulge bad faith. “Weaponization of DOJ” was always a blatant lie, a made up accusation from people who were eager to do the very thing they were pretending to oppose. Indulging that helped the liars, and empowered them to end rule of law.

Laugh at Eric Schmitt and Co. for Hawkeyes/Hawks, sure. Their screw up is funny and they deserve the mockery. But also, this was the GOP and allied media geared up to defend a coup attempt with lies and jail a prosecutor because he tried to enforce the law against a criminal. How far we've fallen.

"In the Donald Trump White House, summits are hazardous excursions during which the interests of the United States are shoved aside by a president whose cringe-inducing admiration of dictators makes these meetings into rituals of American humiliation." Well, I can't disagree there. Alas.

Oligarchs. The word for very rich businesspeople directly connected to the top of the government and playing a role in high-level government functions is “oligarchs.” Way beyond lobbying, donating, and advisory councils. Trump brought them on his trip to China too. America has oligarchs now.

Wild stuff. Sheri Mecklenberg, career prosecutor accused of misconduct in Broadview 6 case, resigns from DOJ. The NYT obtained her scathing resignation letter, in which she says the U.S. attorney directed her to bring felony charges over her objection. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

We’re at the “shipping container courts” stage of ICE’s mass expansion of the enforcement system.

Incredible. First Secretary Mullin claimed that DHS had identified 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter roll. Then DHS officials told a skeptical Nevada, no no no, that’s just people we flagged. Here are the names of 185 people we KNOW aren’t citizens. All 185 were citizens. DHS got 100% wrong.