Ted S Raicer

There is a common belief that great events must have great foundational causes and often they do. But I think the history of the 21st Century-and not just US history-owes more to a badly designed ballot in Florida than any other single cause. For want of a nail indeed.

This is where I say, Who is Nick Shirley?

A lot of dictatorships try to make these kind of arrangements when things go south. Important to remember there are other kinds of criminal, civil and reputational accountability pardons can’t touch. And if you’re pardoned you have no 5th amendment rights.

💯

I think the history of this era will state that American democracy was saved by their stupidity and impatience. They came in and trashed the place before they could consolidate power. And it turned out not to be popular. We got lucky.

True, but even the Nazis were intelligent enough to bide their time with much of their policies. They waited a year and a half for the purge, waited until Hindenburg died to create the dictatorship, waited two and a half years to enact the Nuremberg laws, 5 years until the Anschluss, etc.

Aside from the crimes throughput the DJT administration, this gives you insight into the treachery of Heritage, American Moment, and others on the right. If Nixon had gone to jail, or if DJT had been prosecuted (and convicted) in DC, it would have stopped a lot of this bullshit.

In Putin's case not prison but a fall out of a window.

I've worked w/ state AGs for years & have never seen them this prepared to fight election sabotage Trump is up against an unprecedented legal wall—and all of you More from the front lines, in this week's publisher's note 👇 -TN

Putting aside how much of that is pure fiction, the We does not include Us.

GOP does nothing but gin up culture wars. Meanwhile: — GOP slashed SNAP benefits to 5+ million Americans, forcing them to turn to food banks. — Trump's tariffs and war spurred inflation, making it more expensive to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. Prices are now ~13% higher than when he took office.

And a guy, ironically running as the environmental party candidate, torpedoes the most environmentally friendly candidate we were ever going to get

NEW: A bird flu outbreak has been raging uncontrolled on a Utah mink farm for two months. Flu experts fear it could spark a devastating human pandemic. But officials haven’t acted — instead prioritizing the financial interests of the fur trade.

Calling him a "longtime confidant" really undersells it. Central cog in BN's and the Israeli right's hold across the institutional apparatus of American Jewry. Quite a statement. www.timesofisrael.com/former-netan...

96yr old "Addams Family" star — JOHN ASTIN — with his son, SEAN ASTIN (Lord Of The Rings) 55.

This 👇

“I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I’ve come close to defining it: a lack of empathy.... Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.” — Dr. Gustave Gilbert, U.S. Military Chief Psychologist in the Nuremberg Trials, Nuremberg Diary

Writing tie-ins is *a real fucking skill* and anyone who sneers at the people who do it can go piss up a rope. You think it's easy to write an entire novel to very specific order on an almost impossibly tight deadline? And have it be satisfying to read? Motherfucker, *you* try it. See how you do.

One of the funniest books you will ever read-if you can somehow get hold of a copy-is the novelization of the movie Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies or Monte Carlo or Bust. Seriously.

Except Bond villains are generally interesting.

I am so entirely thrilled to have When the Moon Hits Your Eye as a Thurber Prize for American Humor semi-finalist this year that I find it difficult to form coherent sentences about it, and YET I HAVE, many in fact, over on my site today: whatever.scalzi.com/2026/10/21/w...

By God she means Putin.

Hegseth’s staff broke Eisenhower’s globe. The symbolism is too much to bear. (And of course, they ignored the TRAINED EXPERTS WHO HANDLE HISTORICAL ITEMS. Because EDUCATION? EXPERTISE? WHO NEEDS IT?….im going to get some coffee…)

You love to see it.

So, a *state-issued* student ID cannot be used to vote in that state. Think about that. The SCOTUS is anti-American. Court reform is job #1.

New — I wrote about Vivek Ramaswamy’s weaponization of Amy Acton’s childhood sexual abuse and how it’s only the latest symptom of a Republican party flush with rape apologists, led by an adjudicated rapist:

next time you have impostor syndrome just remember someone pays this guy to make words fall outta his mouth hole

I only say a SUCCESSFUL coup attempt is unlikely.

Found some voter fraud. Surely Blanche will make arrests.

The odds Bibi will lose have gone up thanks to a racist attack on his leading opponent. (And a reminder to those who say Israelis should "Go back to Europe" that a majority are not from there.)

Michigan senate polls show Abdul El-Sayed in the lead, but they are under-sampling Free Press subscribers in New York, Austin, and Washington, DC. by Jeremy Peters and Bari Weiss

This week a white nationalist tried to assassinate a member of Congress and you probably didn’t even hear about it—and a reminder that being an elementary school student in the US is more deadly than being an ICE officer: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/three-shoo...

And thereby provided better publicity than it could ever get on TikTok.

Not by the MSM, no.

Name a non-fascist player.

Emphasizing again that we cannot treat this as just business as usual. This is the President of the United States openly attacking an entire ethnic group.

"We are not impressed by their case, we are not impressed by their position. Our north start is the law and the facts and they have neither on their side," California AG Rob Bonta said.

She done lost her damn mind.

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Every society requires police. We don't require THESE police.

The Iran War has drained America’s strategic petroleum reserve to its lowest level since 1982.

Have to be clear just how dangerous this is. If it continues, it effectively removes constitutional rights from an entire class of people. Imagine you had to fear that if you criticize the regime, any error on paperwork filled out by your family decades ago could be used to strip your citizenship.

As usual, the same cluster of groups targeted talkingpointsmemo.com?p=1560475&ut...

NEW: ICE is trying to deport a mother of 4 while her husband is at Fort Benning in Army basic training. When she went to pick up the family's military IDs, Navy personnel turned her over to ICE. She's been in the US since age six. With @nancyayoussef.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Taylor: He has turned the presidency into a side hustle. He has turned the White House into a deposit box for bribes, and he has turned your government into, forgive my words, a fucking ATM machine. So no, we don't want his name on the buildings.