Sam Begley

I am an attorney in private practice in the city of Jackson. I am married to Karen.

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Dear Joe,
I wish I could sit down with you face to face and explain why so many of us were offended by the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House.
For me, it had nothing to do with the UFC or who showed up for the fights. The brand you and Dana have built is a bona fide American success story. More power to you. As for the fighters, in my book, anyone brave enough to put it all on the line in the arena is remarkable to witness. Their dedication and discipline inspire me. I don’t understand anyone who can’t admire that.
And as for the people who attended, I, for one, love Shane Gillis. I think he’s hilarious and brilliant. It was a show. A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. I can’t blame anyone for wanting to witness it firsthand.
My problem is that I believe some of our public spaces are sacred. And unlike many of the great powers that came before us, these American monuments belong to all of us. Not to whoever happens to hold power at the moment.
The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to any President. It belongs to the people. To treat it as Caesar treated the Colosseum is antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for.
This is not Rome. Presidents are not emperors doling out bread and circuses for the peasants. The White House is the People’s House. This “celebration” could have happened in any stadium within a stone’s throw of the South Lawn. No one would have had an issue with it.
But that was obviously Donald Trump’s whole point. By holding the event on the South Lawn, what he was saying to the rest of us is:
“This is my house. I own it. I will do with it what I please. I’ll build a colosseum and have the gladiators fight under my gaze. I’ll tear down the East Wing. I’ll pave over the Rose Garden. I’ll cover everything in gold and marble. I’ll erase the names of all the men who came before me.”
The fights were an exhibition of imperial domination, not a celebration of our 250th anniversary as a democracy.
The White House is not Buckingham Palace. It is not the Palace of Versailles. It is not the Forbidden City of Beijing. It does not belong to an emperor, or a king, or a commissar.
The White House belongs to us. All of us. The person who sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is nothing more than an honored guest. A temporary caretaker.
The President is our servant. Not our Caesar.
Respectfully, Hunter

P.S. Cage match between me and Don Jr.? Your call on the venue. Anywhere but the South Lawn.

[Phillips P. OBrien @PhillipsPOBrien]

This might be hard for Americans to hear, but the USA getting humiliated by its abject failure as a power during this Iran War might be the best thing possible at this time. The country needs to understand there are consequences for electing a crook.

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Hunter Biden on Graham Platner: “I have not heard anything in any way that would say to me that he’s an abusive, misogynistic, antisemitic or racist person. I have heard this from Graham Platner: he thinks we should have free healthcare, we have to radically change our politics, working people are getting fucking screwed, they have us at each other’s throats and we should be at their throats, the oligarchs and our tech overlords and billionaires are really making the playing field unfair for working class people”

[Acyn @Acyn]

Hunter Biden on Graham Platner: I always say to people: show me your phone. Give me access to your iCloud. Let’s go through it and pull everything we can find that’s inappropriate.

And if that’s the standard by which we’re going to judge people, particularly people in elected office, then I don’t think we’re going to have many people in elected office.

And so, as it relates to Graham Platner, I focus on this: I have not heard anything, in any way, that would lead me to believe he is an abusive, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, or racist person.

I have heard this from Graham Platner: that he thinks we should all have free health care.

I have also heard this from Graham Platner: that he thinks we have to radically change our politics.

I have heard this from Graham Platner: that working people are getting fucking screwed.

[Amit @HeyAmit_]

The Notes app on your iPhone is one of the most powerful tools available.

But 99% of people don’t know its true potential.

Here are 15 amazing features you must know:

[Scott Colom @scott_colom]

Thanks to @PodSaveAmerica for having me on. We covered the state of the race, the issues impacting Mississippi communities, and what voters are talking about across the state.

[Alex Ward @alexbward]

Lincoln’s letter to Mrs. Bixby, always worth a read on Memorial Day

[LoLNothingMatters @DastDn]

Tactically (in GA), shackling himself to KLB and trying to drag her dead-weight to a win costs Ossoff more political capital than he gets in return.

But nationally, it scores him points with the Black voting machines of the party that he'll need is he runs against Harris

[Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom]

As this war stumbles to a close, it is clear that the president is lost: He didn’t know what he was doing when he began it, and now he doesn’t know how to get out of it.
https://t.co/WtiJcw7PUO

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

The Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015 by multiple countries advanced the security interests of the United States more effectively and less costly to lives and treasure than the Trump agreement being floated /leaked right now. Not even close.

[Meanwhile in Ukraine @MeanwhileInUA]

Putin didn't invade Ukraine because of NATO. He invaded because Ukrainians were proving democracy works.

Historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum puts it plainly: Putin looked at Ukraine's democratic movement and thought, "If they can do it in Ukraine, then people could do it in Russia. So I need to crush this."

That's the real threat Ukraine posed. Not missiles. Not borders. A working democracy next door.

Applebaum frames the war as a fault line between the democratic and autocratic worlds. Russia isn't just trying to take territory. It's trying to erase Ukraine as a nation, reduce it to a colony, and send a message to every country that the post-1945 rules of Europe no longer apply.

Those rules were simple: no invasions, no wars, borders don't change by force. Russia understood exactly what it was breaking when it crossed into Ukraine.

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

Arms sales to Taiwan should never be used as a bargaining chip with Beijing.

[Tom Wright @thomaswright08]

Trump’s China strategy offers the illusion of stability but in reality it fails to advance US interests.

My latest for @TheAtlantic : Donald Trump’s Nixon Moment that Wasn’t

https://t.co/pXlhFhZSMo

[Jonathan Lemire @JonLemire]

“Trump abandoned the strategy of managed competition and replace it with a leader-to-leader bond. His posture is one that strengthens America’s top rival, leaves its vulnerabilities unaddressed, and makes a U.S.-China crisis more likely rather than less” https://t.co/sibYDtoAnG

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: In a stunning moment, Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand led a crowd in singing “America the Beautiful” instead of feeding the usual partisan bickering. This is what politics should look like: hopeful, unifying, and rooted in love of country.

[Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz ,داني سيترينوفيتش @citrinowicz]

I hope these messages sink in within the administration:

A. Iran does not believe it lost this confrontation. On the contrary, from Tehran’s perspective, it proved resilience and strategic staying power.

B. Iran has no intention of capitulating or accepting Washington’s demands, not now, and not in the foreseeable future.

C. No matter how much Trump threatens “the end of civilization,” Iran is unlikely to back down. Even if military confrontation resumes, Tehran is not expected to reverse course under pressure alone.

D. The only realistic paths to an agreement are either:
compromising on key Iranian demands, or pursuing regime change in Iran.

If the administration is unwilling to commit the enormous military, political, and economic resources required for regime change, then it likely lacks the leverage to force Tehran to accept maximalist terms.

E. Neither sanctions, blockades, nor other “silver bullet” pressure tactics are likely to compel Iran to fundamentally alter its negotiating position. Claims otherwise are increasingly detached from reality.

F. Iran and its regional proxies retain significant capacity to inflict economic and strategic pain on Gulf states, particularly in the energy and maritime domains.

G. Any agreement with Iran is unlikely to include meaningful restrictions on its missile program or regional proxy network, and will almost certainly acknowledge, at least implicitly:
Iran’s right to enrich uranium, and its Hormuz straits control.

H. Most Gulf states are deeply concerned about escalation and understand that toppling the Iranian regime would be extraordinarily difficult and destabilizing.

I. The United States did not achieve a decisive strategic victory. Despite operational successes by both the U.S. and Israel, the broader strategic balance in the region has not fundamentally changed.

J. Iran is not Venezuela. It is a far larger, more institutionalized, ideologically committed, and strategically resilient state with deep regional networks and a much higher tolerance for prolonged confrontation.

The bottom line us simple: There is an illusion in Washington that Iran emerged weakened, isolated, and ultimately cornered by military pressure, sanctions, and the threat of escalation. From Tehran’s perspective, the recent confrontation did not end in defeat. Quite the opposite. The Islamic Republic believes it demonstrated resilience, survivability, and an ability to absorb enormous pressure without surrendering politically. In the eyes of Iran’s leadership, simply enduring against the combined pressure of the United States and Israel reinforces the regime’s central narrative: that resistance works.

The administration must recognize an uncomfortable reality: coercion has limits. If the United States truly seeks to compel Iran to abandon its core strategic doctrine, there are only two possible paths. The first is compromise, meaning accepting that any sustainable agreement will have to accommodate at least some Iranian red lines. The second is regime chang. No more no https://t.co/1AnXeabG2T middle ground.

#Iran
#IranWar‌

[Mykhailo Rohoza @MykhailoRohoza]

🇺🇸🧐
This is beyond outrageous.
Openly, shamelessly, without fear of anyone, he is robbing America right in front of the entire country — robbing all of us.
Kaitlan Collins, host of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, described the situation this way:
“Imagine suing the government for $10 billion while also being the person who controls that very government. That’s exactly what is happening right now. Donald Trump, sitting in the White House, has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Treasury Department and the IRS — the very Treasury he controls, the very IRS he oversees, the very government he leads.
He is effectively both the plaintiff and the defendant, and he wants taxpayers — you, me, every working family in America — to hand him $10 billion. Just think about that.”
Trump even appeared on television boasting that he had already “won,” essentially bragging that he was negotiating a settlement with himself.
Then his lawyers walked into federal court asking for a 90-day delay — not to fight the lawsuit, but to “reach an agreement.” An agreement between Donald Trump and Donald Trump, paid for with your money.
But then something unexpected happened.
Judge Kathleen Williams looked at this circus and basically said: “Wait a second. You are telling me you are suing yourself and expect me to approve a $10 billion payment from the U.S. Treasury directly into your personal pocket? Absolutely not.”
She rejected the 90-day delay. She demanded separate reports from both sides — despite both sides effectively being controlled by the same person. Then she took the extraordinary step of appointing three of the nation’s most respected law firms as independent advisers to the court.
Why?
Because $10 billion of taxpayer money is at stake.
What is really happening here is terrifying: a sitting president allegedly using the power of his office, and a Justice Department under his influence, to settle a personal lawsuit with himself and funnel public money into his own bank account.
Constitutional law already has a name for this: a collusive lawsuit.
The Supreme Court ruled on this principle more than 200 years ago. If both sides are effectively the same party, the courts have no authority to proceed. The Constitution requires a real conflict, real opposing sides — not a friendly deal between a man and his reflection in the mirror.
And this is not some isolated stunt. Critics argue it is part of a broader strategy: stage a fake legal battle, force a surrender, cash the check, and walk away.
But this time the number is staggering: $10 billion.
Money that could repair roads, fund schools, support veterans, or feed hungry children.
Instead, critics say it is being redirected through one of the most transparent legal scams America has ever witnessed.
And the people supposed to defend the public interest? The Justice Department. Government officials whose job is to protect taxpayers.
They are not fighting. They are not even pretending to fight.
The judge sees it. Top legal scholars see it. The Constitution itself sees it.
The only remaining question is whether the system still has enough courage to say “No.”
Because if a president can sue himself and pay himself with public money, then the word “government” no longer means anything.
It simply means: the person holding the pen writes the check — and everyone else pays the bill.

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

“There are weightier matters of state on which to confront Trump at this moment than his ballroom. But the billion-dollar ballroom is a potent symbol and a teachable moment. It’s a good fight to have.”

https://t.co/c346pelZCR

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

"We can fight to stop the ballroom. If this means leaving the area as a destruction site for the rest of Trump’s presidency, so be it. Let its ugliness exemplify the Trump era. Let its rubble symbolize what he's tried to do to the American republic." https://t.co/yVcOuyDSrT

[Robert Young Pelton @RYP__]

I am a broken record. Keep your eye on Hungary. It is the way forward for America.

Replicate, Investigate, Adjudicate, Eliminate.