As you read all that tl/dr self-pity from @CynicalPublius - this is how he and @infantrydort (and @datarepublican) showed up in my TL last winter, demanding attention.
Now they complain. But good to recall how these folks engaged before they stepped on all those rakes.
Many of you probably missed the WaPo article revealing that a group of pro-Trump influencers were quietly given civilian roles at the Pentagon.
One of them is retired Army Colonel Thomas Anderson, better known as @CynicalPublius.
In addition to promoting Pete Hegseth’s silly macho propaganda, he actively participated in anti-Ukraine rhetoric and spouted straight-up Kremlin propaganda.
@Maks_NAFO_FELLA "That is why we did not impose sanctions on Russia and why we want peace"
This isn't throwing stones at one another over a border!
This is a Invasion of Ukraine, started in 2014, & continued in 2022
There is no "fine line" found here!
And if you want "Peace" Russia has to LEAVE!
Tariffs are taxes. Full stop. When the US puts a tariff on Canadian goods, the first person paying is the American importer, not the Canadian exporter.
@RpsAgainstTrump If it's anything like Miller's, it will be an extremely dangerous speech and completely unacceptable.
It's frightening that our nation has been reduced to a bunch of violent criminals running rampant and stuffing their pockets, but here we are.
Enough is enough.
At what point do we stop pretending this is normal?
At what point do we stop allowing @realDonaldTrump to insult women, berate women, threaten women, degrade women, and then hide behind power like he is untouchable?
He has been doing this his entire life.
In business.
In politics.
In the courts.
In the Epstein circle.
And now, as president of the United States, he uses the most powerful platform in the world to attack women who speak out, women who stand up, women who dare to tell the truth.
Look at what he is doing to E. Jean Carroll. A jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her — and instead of accountability, he keeps attacking. He keeps trying to intimidate. He keeps using power as a weapon.
And that is exactly the point.
This is not just about insults. This is about control.
He takes away women’s rights.
He attacks women’s credibility.
He covers up the Epstein files.
He protects the powerful men while attacking the women who survived them.
He wants women silent. He wants survivors scared. He wants the country numb.
I’m asking a simple question:
When is enough finally enough?
When do we stand together and say no more?
No more letting the media normalize it.
No more letting politicians excuse it.
No more letting powerful men abuse women and then call themselves victims.
No more silence.
I am calling on this community — women, men, survivors, parents, citizens, everyone with a conscience — to stand together as one voice.
Protect women.
Believe survivors.
Demand the Epstein files.
Hold Trump accountable.
And stop supporting any media outlet, politician, or platform that continues to sanitize, excuse, or cover for this madness.
Because this is not politics anymore.
This is about basic decency.
This is about right and wrong.
This is about whether we are still willing to stand up for the women of this country against a man who has spent his life degrading them.
Enough is enough.
It is time to stand up.
It is time to speak out.
It is time to fight back together.
Open Letter from a Russian Citizen to the President of Russia: "I WILL SEND MY TAXES TO THE ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE!"
From Russian citizen Olga Valentinovna Kiriyenko
To Russian citizen Vladimir V. Putin
Citizen Putin,
I am an ordinary Russian citizen who has paid taxes for years, and I address you as someone whose salary comes from people like me.
The purpose of your office should be to provide security and a decent future for educated citizens who want to raise their children in a free and prosperous country. I never voted for you because I never believed you possessed the competence, vision, or integrity required to lead Russia.
Since 2012, you have consolidated power while silencing those who opposed you. I joined the protests and saw how many people rejected your rule, but fear gradually forced many of us into silence. Hatred became your substitute for leadership.
By occupying Crimea and invading eastern Ukraine in 2014, you turned millions of Russians into participants in aggression against a neighboring nation. In 2018, I permanently left Russia with my daughter because I refused to raise her in a country where attacking neighbors is presented as honorable.
My values—human rights, free speech, respect for minorities, and openness to the world—eventually made me an outsider in my own country. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian citizenship became a badge of shame for me.
My mother is Russian, my father is Ukrainian. My Ukrainian relatives suffered under Stalin's famine, and today my grandfather's native village is occupied by Russian troops. My own family's history leaves no room for your attempts to justify this war.
I want my children to live in a world where no one tells them whom to love, what to believe, or demands that they kill and die. Russian culture, to me, is represented by my grandfather, who reached Berlin as an unarmed war correspondent, my mother, a teacher who refused to falsify elections, and by people who value decency—not violence.
Your regime is unworthy of citizens like my family. You fear independent people because we are not afraid of you.
This letter serves as notice that I renounce my citizenship of the Russian Federation. Since your system makes that nearly impossible without returning to Russia, I am informing you directly.
From now on, any taxes that Russia attempts to collect in my name will instead be donated to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine 🇺🇦.
I will await the victory of Ukraine and of the civilized world over your aggression.
Olga Valentinovna Kiriyenko
My July 5th Diatribe after Returning from Europe again:
The weirdest thing about leaving America is realizing how much of America is just a sales pitch.
You spend your whole life hearing “greatest country on Earth,” then you go overseas and see clean trains, safer streets, affordable medicine, cities where people can walk without playing Frogger with an SUV, and workers who take vacations without acting like they committed treason.
And then you come home.
You come home to potholes, medical debt, school shooting drills, $17 airport sandwiches, people living in tents under highways, politicians wearing flag pins (or worse, gun pins) while doing absolutely nothing for the people standing in food bank lines, and billionaires being treated like they’re the fragile ones.
And somehow we’re all supposed to stand there, hand over heart, and pretend this is normal.
I don’t hate America. I hate what America has been taught to tolerate.
I hate that we call basic things “radical.” Healthcare? Radical. Paid leave? Radical. Clean air? Radical. Kids not getting shot in math class? Somehow political.
Meanwhile, the loudest “patriots” are usually the same people telling struggling Americans to shut up, stop complaining, and be grateful.
Grateful for what? A flag doesn’t pay rent. A bald eagle doesn’t cover insulin. Fireworks don’t fix bridges. And chanting “USA” doesn’t make a broken system less broken.
America has incredible people. That’s the tragedy. The people are better than the system they’ve been forced to defend.
So no, I’m not going to call America the greatest country on Earth just because it has the best marketing department.
Real patriotism isn’t pretending the country is perfect.
Real patriotism is being angry that it isn’t, and blaming minorities and immigrants for your own piece of shit life that you created.