I read and I know things 🇺🇸🚀🌈🌊❤️☮️

Locus of Improbability.
Not the political party @arivalayam .
DMK என்று அழைக்கப்படும் தமிழ் அரசியல் கட்சியை நீங்கள் தேடுகிறீர்கள் என்றால், நான் அவர்கள் அல்ல!

[I read and I know things 🇺🇸🚀🌈🌊❤️☮️ @dmk]

What are 5 topics you can talk about unprepared for 5 minutes?
1-Science fiction / fantasy
2-Software design
3-Politics (social progressive & fiscal conservative), especially economics ("saltwater")
4-Medicine (thyroid cancer survivor)
5-Life, the Universe, Everything (polymath)

[I read and I know things 🇺🇸🚀🌈🌊❤️☮️ @dmk]

Unbelievable! Hegseth showed disrespect at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Veterans' Day!

[CSPAN @cspan]

"All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times!"

A Sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier yells after laughter could be heard from a group near Secretary Hegseth, who was taking posed photographs at the site.

[Roy Cooper @RoyCooperNC]

Happy Veterans Day to every American who has kept us safe at home and defended our democracy overseas.

Service members put their lives on the line to protect our freedom and we owe them a deep debt of gratitude.

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

I can't figure out if measles vaccines work or not.

Tough one

I can see why RFK Jr is hesistant

Where's Sherlock Holmes when you need him?

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

As a former commander-in-chief, I’ve had the honor of meeting with our nation’s servicemembers and military spouses over the years. Hearing their stories and seeing their courage fundamentally changes who you are, and reminds you what living your values actually looks like. Thank you to all the veterans who have bravely served our country.

[Tammy Duckworth @SenDuckworth]

For years, too many Veterans went without the care they needed after being exposed to Agent Orange, burn pits and other toxic hazards in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

We can't let our troops serving in the Iran War suffer similar consequences due to gaps in current law.

[Team Hakeem @teamhakeemhq]

Leader @HakeemJeffries: I think the fact that the minimum wage has been unchanged in 20 years and remains $7.25 an hour is unacceptable, un-American and it's unconscionable.

Raising the minimum wage is something that we will lean into in the next Congress.

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: In a stunning moment, Rep. Jamie Raskin just went on live TV and made clear that it is REPUBLICANS who have turned the government into an apparatus of retribution. Every time Republicans scream about RETRIBUTION, it's an admission. Make sure every American sees this.

[Richard Blumenthal @SenBlumenthal]

My damning new report reveals that the Trump admin has failed to award approximately $133.5 million in anti-human trafficking grant funding—about 75% of what Congress appropriated for the last 2 years—forcing programs to shut down or reduce services. 1/ https://t.co/Xve7JHt6YC

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: CALLING ALL BONE SPURS...LOL! Anonymous artists put a golden statue of Trump clutching his “bone spur” foot on the National Mall just in time for Veterans Day.

There has been no other American president as obsessed with creating grand monuments to himself as Donald Trump. Trump loves to rename existing arts centers after himself (even if they’re already named after someone else), wants to build a triumphal arch to be named after him in a place where no one else wants it, and he particularly loves golden statues of himself.

We don’t think he will love this statue created and placed on the National Mall today by the anonymous art collective The Secret Handshake.

The collective installed a gold statue on Monday called “The Foot Soldier,” showing Trump sitting down and grabbing his right foot, a reference to the bone spurs that kept him out of Vietnam. It stands near the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden and will stay up through Veterans Day.

The inscription on it is brutal. It honors Trump as “a soldier in spirit, who marched to the front lines of dodging the draft, armed with a perfect diagnosis of bone spurs.” It salutes “a leader who knows you can’t spell sacrifice without ‘I,’” and “a warrior who reminds us that sometimes when you’re called to stand up, it’s best to just sit down and rest your feet.”

The plaque also quotes something Trump himself said in 2013: “I can be very military.”

Here’s the history behind the biting satire. Trump got five deferments during the Vietnam War: four were student deferments for school, but a fifth was based on a long-disputed bone spur diagnosis. Other young men his age without a father willing to allegedly bribe a doctor for a spurious diagnosis were sent to Vietnam in his stead.

The statue also came with a mascot. A 6-foot-tall big toe named “Toey” stood next to it and mocked the president, according to The Washington Post. “Draft dodger? I hardly know her,” Toey said. Then Toey did a Trump impression: “I’m the biggest toe. The hugest toe. Huge. Hugest toe. Largest toe that anyone’s ever seen.”

The White House did not see the humor. Spokesperson Davis Ingle said, “Trump Derangement Syndrome is a sick and incurable disease that has rotted the brains of these Democrat activists.”

The artists responded: “We are honored that the White House has diagnosed us with Trump Derangement Syndrome, though we have checked and it seems like that does not qualify for us to skip out on the latest war he’s created.”

They also went straight at Iran. They said they wanted to honor “a simpler time when the President would do anything in his power to avoid military action.” Then they added: “If only his prescription for bone spurs had lasted long enough for him to consider them when invading Iran.”

That’s the part that stings. The man who found a way out of his own war has spent about nine months sending other Americans into one. At least 19 have been confirmed dead and more than 820 wounded. The Army has been practicing how to dig mass graves on the battlefield. Sailors have tried to take their own lives during deployment.

This isn’t the group’s first piece. The Secret Handshake has also previously built statues about Trump’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, and a giant sarcastic “participation” trophy for the Iran war.

This Veterans Day, honor the people who actually served. The man who sat it out with a sore foot doesn’t need any monuments to help people remember his cowardice. Please like and share if you agree.

[NoelCaslerComedy @caslernoel]

“Trump would also not think twice about throwing his own kids under the bus when the inevitable congressional investigations and hearings begin.

I know from personal experience that deep down he despises Don Jr. and laments Eric’s gangly homeliness (he and Tiffany were given the least amount of on-camera time during ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ finales because he didn’t like what their looks said about the brand).

Vanky was his favorite because he fashioned her looks to suit his own tastes beginning in her teens. Many a Manhattan plastic surgeon earned a Hampton’s summer house fashioning Vanky into Trump’s ideal blonde Barbie.

Of course, as a pederast at heart he began to lose interest as she aged.
At sixteen she was hosting ‘Miss Teen USA’ pageants, essentially serving as his wingman to find her own replacement. If you believe this is too outlandish or unseemly, read some testimonials from survivors of his sexual predation.

Many of which still continue to be ignored by the mainstream media.

The weekend before the election another brave survivor spoke out publicly and her detailed testimony matched exactly the experiences of my friend who Trump began grooming at his Central Park ice rink when she was twelve years old.

As a teenager she spent time with him in Epstein’s East 71st Street townhouse and her descriptions of the criminality match the testimony of so many other brave women who have come forward.

This is not the time for reconciliation or to play nice but to seek long overdue justice.” https://t.co/zacjcjw6hb

[John Cusack @johncusack]

The word is out about the Election Night Watch Party at the White House on Tuesday.

For weeks, Trump had been assured by Susie Wiles and his staff that all the polls were wrong, and that, once again, the Blue Wave would only be a ripple, if one even showed up at all. And the DOJ was ready to pounce on it if it did.

Trump, after all, was on the ballot. "Vote like I'm on the ballot,' he said, "Because I am."

He told every rally that. He said it on FOX. He had a 90% approval rate, he said. And $5000 checks for everybody. What could possibly go wrong?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

So the East Room was decked out with the finest crystal and china. Staffers thought it would be a fun "cheeky rebuke" to order in platters of finger food from Cheesecake Factory. Just to give a finger to Barack Obama, for his viral joke about Trump’s gaudy renovations to the White House.

EVERYONE showed up in their party clothes. His Staff. His Cabinet. Top GOP politicians. Donors.

But there was no Host or Hostess to greet them. Which was a little odd. The guests mingled among themselves, and waited to be formally welcomed and invited to sample the refreshments.

Where were Trump and Melania?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Trump waited upstairs in his residence, in order to make a grand entrance to a standing ovation with cheers, once the happy results started pouring in.

And was Melania also waiting upstairs, to march in at his side?

Nope.

Melania was not at the White House at all. On election night, the most anticipated night in politics, with the rest of her husband's term on the line, Melania was somewhere else.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Finally at 8:00 the first election results came in. But during that entire first hour, not ONE Republican was named. It was only Democrat after Democrat, starting with Jon Ossoff.

Trump never came downstairs. At all.

Marco Rubio was the first to go missing, according to the Daily Mail. Then, one by one, the rest of the party goers slipped out the door.

Only two hours later, an enormous decision was called. Democrats had flipped the House of Representatives to their control. And in most cases, the Democrats won, not by slim majorities, but by double digits.

It was 10:00, and the East Room was empty. The party goers had gone to a nearby Washington bar to drown their sorrows. The Cheesecake Factory food lay untouched on the East Room tables.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And Trump? He was upstairs watching the results on FOX News, and posting angrily on Truth Social.
He wasn't alone. No, Melania wasn't with him. But Natalie Harp was.

The Daily Mail reports that Susie Wiles, his Chief of Staff was upstairs as well. The one who had assured him day after day that Republicans would win.

By 11 pm, Trump stopped posting. “He’s watching Fox News barely uttering a word and paralyzed into silence,” a source close to the president told the Daily Mail.

“It’s very, very dark in the residence,” one senior official said of Trump’s mood. “It’s a dark scene.”
Another source said, “They were delusional right until the very end.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
From the Daily Mail

[Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder]

Things we used to know about Jim Jordan, just chosen to be minority leader, 1: He was deeply involved in the coup attempt.
https://t.co/SIyYwGqG8d

[The Shallow State @OurShallowState]

NARCISSISTIC MORTIFICATION: It's not surprising that in his recent 60 Minutes interview, Trump again began speaking about "getting into heaven" versus the alternative. I've had a week to observe his behavior following the nationwide beatdown of him during the midterms. I believe he is officially undergoing Narcissistic Mortification.
Narcissistic Mortification is when a narcissist like Trump crosses over to a place where he sees visions of his own demise (thus 'getting into heaven'). Age and ill health play a role, but it's deeper than that. It's what happens after extreme fear morphs into dread and dread morphs into terror - LOSING - and humiliation.
As Trump's polling kept tanking leading up to the midterms, his fears became extreme and then "dread." And the results were as bad as they could be for him. It's not just that the GOP lost, it's that HE was so clearly responsible. HE was at fault. HE told people to vote as if he is on the ballot, and they did. It led to a terrible reality FOR HIM, one that was forced UPON HIM, not of HIS making. He can't have that!
For a malignant narcissist, THE most extreme fear of all is ultimate irrevocable humiliation - borne of one's faults.
In more psychological terms, narcissistic mortification is when one with a rigidly grandiose pathology sees his sense of self as exposed, defective or inferior. It was coined by Freud in his book Moses and Monotheism. It's described there as deep injuries to ego/self, triggered by ONE'S OWN compulsiveness (aka insisting on Paxton as a candidate) and ONE'S OWN weaknesses (being insensitive to voter issues during rallies).
THIS is where I think he is. He's become his own worst enemy, and this squarely conflicts with his pathology of being unable to admit fault. It's a very severe and very dissonant conflict.
Because ... malignant narcissists NEED their grandiosity. For them to become exposed and weakened, is narcissistic injury - that happens. BUT - for them to become SO weakened to the extent of being able to visualize their own demise and know it's partly due to their own frailties - frailties they spend a lifetime avoiding and denying - this is irreconcilable. For a malignant narcissist like Trump, it's hell.
It causes him to become even more sensitized ("that was a stupid question"), more defensive (like he is about "crowd size" - now the symbol of his fading grandiosity), and more defiant (hiring Miller as COS). It has made him physically haggard (he looks gaunt and hunched, with swollen eyes and stiff facial muscles).
Trump lives in such a bubble, it's hard to predict how he processes things. Freud suggested that narcissistic mortification can be a precursor to panic or to narcissistic collapse.
fyi: There actually IS a wiki page for narcissistic mortification (which surprised me) and here's an interesting sentence from it, that I thought I'd echo here: Narcissistic Mortification is "the primitive terror of self-dissolution, triggered by the sudden exposure of one's sense of a defective self ... to a narcissist, it is death by embarrassment."

[Jessica Valenti @JessicaValenti]

Republicans have introduced a federal ‘catch kit’ bill that would require women to sift thru their blood to separate pregnancy remains from “other solid waste,” put it in a “brightly colored” bag labeled “HUMAN FETAL REMAINS,” and bring their doc.

It’s fucking deranged

[Team Hakeem @teamhakeemhq]

Leader @HakeemJeffries: If Justice Thomas wants to deal with bullying in America, he should start in his own home.

Have a conversation with Ginni Thomas. She refused to accept the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election because she didn't like the outcome. Instead, she tried to steal the election, overthrow the United States government and install a tyrant.

Why are you such a hater? Hate on civil rights, hate on women's rights, hate on voting rights, hate on equal protection under the law. You think you can escape public scrutiny because shamelessness is your superpower. Truth crushed to the ground will rise again, and truth will be your kryptonite.

[Machine Pun Kelly 🇺🇦 @KellyScaletta]

Matt, Matt, Matt. How can someone with a forehead that pronounced not have a brain in it?

Let's break down this claim in four parts:

1. Senators ordinarily don't put their hands on a book.

The official Senate oath is generally administered collectively. Religious books are optional, not required.

2. American officials have taken oaths without Christian Bibles since the founding era.

John Quincy Adams used a law book in 1825, Theodore Roosevelt used no Bible in 1901, and numerous Jewish members of Congress have used Jewish religious texts.

3. The Founding generation explicitly considered Muslims holding office.

In fact, it was explicitly debated and rejected.

Some opponents of the Constitution objected to that possibility.

Henry Abbot, an opponent of the proposed Constitution, worried that eliminating religious tests would allow non-Christians into government, saying:

"The exclusion of religious tests is by many thought dangerous and impolitic." warning "pagans, deists, and Mahometans (Muslims) might obtain offices among us"

William Lancaster, in defense of religious tests argued:

"In the course of four or five hundred years, I do not know how it will work. Papists (JFK anyone? How about Biden) may occupy that chair, and Mahometans may take it. I see nothing against it (meaning nothing that can prevent it.)

Luther Martin, an Anti-Federalist who had participated in the Constitutional Convention, discussed the religious-test prohibition in his published Genuine Information.

He reported that some convention delegates believed Christianity deserved special recognition in the qualifications for office.

James Irdell, defending the lack of religious tests argued: "It is apprehended that Jews, Mahometans, pagans, &c., may be elected to high offices under the government of the United States."

He explained that a non-Christian could be elected if voters respected that person's conduct and character, regardless of religion. So he clearly anticipated that possibility.

Supporters defended the prohibition on religious tests, and Article VI was adopted with that protection intact.

So while Matt Gaetz says this could have never been anticipated, it absolutely, explicitly WAS considered, and rejected.

4. A Christian Bible doesn't necessarily carry religious authority for a non-Christian.

Requiring a Muslim, Jew, Hindu, atheist, or anyone else to use one would undermine the freedom of conscience the Constitution protects.

The whole POINT of swearing in on the religious book is that that it means something to YOU. The entire argument is colossally farcical.

[Tammy Duckworth @SenDuckworth]

Hegseth is ignoring recommendations from warfighters and ending military careers over celebrating International Women's Day.

That's not "bringing back meritocracy." That's just stupid.

His obsession with culture wars is causing lasting damage to our military. He needs to go.

[Decoding Fox News @DecodingFoxNews]

CBS heavily edited Trump's interview on 60 Minutes. The black and white clips did not appear in Sunday night's broadcast. The network removed sections where Trump made false claims and fabrications. This is part of his explanation about the war in Ukraine.

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

No, Mr. President, not every president has used the power of the office to enrich himself and his family.

You are unique in many ways, including in this way.