Brian 🏴‍☠️

Nazis....I hate those guys.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This New York Times piece is worth your time. Here’s what is happening, as simply as I can put it.

Back in January, Trump sued the IRS, an agency he controls, demanding $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns a number of years ago.

IRS lawyers did their jobs. They wrote a memo laying out the defenses that could beat the suit, including the fact that Trump filed too late. His own lawyer was in court when the leaker pleaded guilty in October 2023, more than two years before Trump sued.

The Justice Department never showed up to court. Never argued back. Never used the defenses sitting on their desk.

The judge got suspicious and ordered both sides to explain whether they were actually opposing each other or just colluding. The day before that brief was due, Trump dropped the suit.

Same day, his Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded “anti-weaponization fund.” 

Trump gets a formal apology. The IRS agrees to drop any audits of him and his family, even though a 2024 Times report found a loss in an ongoing audit could cost him over $100 million.

The acting Attorney General, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, picks the five commissioners who decide who gets paid. Trump can fire any of them. Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are not ruled out.

This is the most corrupt thing I’ve ever seen from an American president.

Where in the hell are my Republican colleagues?

https://t.co/La0nlLuz1r

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

Within one 24 hour period, Trump:

- got out of a $100 million IRS fine
- secured "immunity" from all future tax investigations for his family and friends
- created a $1.8 billion slush fund for lawbreaking supporters
- was reported for likely insider trading worth nearly $1 billion

All of the obvious things to say about this are true. It's bad. Nobody even tries to defend it. The closest thing to a defense you get is something about how "but Democrats suck" and "woke was also bad," which is not a defense, but rather a kind of moral blank check made out to the administration to give them the right to do anything.

But what I'm most curious about is whether this sort of lurid corruption creates a countermovement that successfully returns government to rule of law or whether it's establishing a norm of executive imperialism that every future administration will use to achieve its ends, which can always be justified by the moral blank check of "the other side is worse, so let us do whatever we want."

[Home of the Brave @OfTheBraveUSA]

Don Jr.'s net worth went from $50M to $300M in 13 months. Here's how: his VC firm invested in Vulcan Elements in August. Three months later, the Pentagon gave Vulcan a $620M loan — 25x the median for critical minerals companies.

https://t.co/OZdEjHsjKA

[Brian 🏴‍☠️ @briham64]

@landofthe80s Somewhere between those two choices

[Yair Rosenberg @Yair_Rosenberg]

The problem is not talking to Hasan Piker or influencers like him. Such conversations are part of democratic dialogue. The problem is figuring out how to constructively engage a new media landscape dominated by smashmouth populists of all political persuasions who talk about everything but are experts in nothing, and whose incentives run toward incendiary virality rather than accuracy.

How do reporters and others have these conversations in ways that make their audiences more informed, rather than less? I have some ideas.

Gift link:
https://t.co/VNszTg3WQD

[Brian 🏴‍☠️ @briham64]

@magataotao Schismatic says what?

[Jürgen Nauditt 🇩🇪🇺🇦 @jurgen_nauditt]

Trump declares almost 50% of Americans to be public enemy number one – right after Iran.

This is no longer politics; this is open civil war from the mouth of a president. Anyone who brands half of their own people – millions of ordinary Americans who simply vote differently – as the "greatest enemy" hasn't understood America; Trump hates it.

This rhetoric isn't "tough," it's treacherous. It destroys precisely what makes America strong: the idea that Americans, despite all their differences, are one nation.

Trump has just proven that he doesn't want to be president of all Americans – but merely the leader of a faction that considers the rest the enemy.

Insane. And extremely dangerous.

[Mike Madrid @madrid_mike]

When Empires Decline

History rarely lets us pin imperial decline to one man. But at the pace of American devolution, Trump’s name will likely be etched into the story,perhaps in faux gold.
The fall of empires follows patterns. What differs is how people respond to lost status.🧵

[Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom]

"Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him." - @anneapplebaum

https://t.co/VJ28JGlyQl

[Luke Coffey @LukeDCoffey]

“We need Greenland for national security”

“We need Greenland for natural resources”

“Greenland is in our backyard”

“The people of Greenland aren’t governed well”

Now replace “Greenland” with “Crimea” and you have Kremlin talking points about Ukraine.

This is a problem.

[Jamie Bonkiewicz @JamieBonkiewicz]

MAGA 2021: “You can’t tell me to wear a mask.” “You can’t force a vaccine.” “You can’t make me stay home.”

MAGA 2026: “Just follow orders.” “Have your papers ready.” “Comply and nothing bad happens.”

[Tom Morello @tmorello]

Kristi Noam, Nazi slogan on podium today. “One of ours, all of yours.” WW2 SS officer killed, Nazis retaliated—One of ours, all of yours. The Victims:
◦Men: Over 170 shot on the spot; others later executed in Prague.
◦Women: Roughly 200 were deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where many died.
◦Children: Most were separated from their mothers; 82 were gassed at the Chełmno extermination camp. A few deemed "racially pure" were taken for "Germanization" by SS families.
•The Obliteration: The village was burned, buildings were dynamited, and the area was bulldozed and replanted to literally erase it from the map. 
YOU VOTED FOR THIS??

[Brian 🏴‍☠️ @briham64]

@ATRightMovies The gauntlet

[Brian 🏴‍☠️ @briham64]

@88IsabelleR @EggerDC Monsanto?

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

Think too highly of yourself people will hate you for it, think too lowly of yourself and others will start to agree

so the best course of action is to never think about yourself at all

[Jamey Jasta @simswapperamij]

Album of the year contenders? Let’s hear em!! We’ll dig in on the patreon podcast.

[Charlie Sykes @SykesCharlie]

The East Wing is gone. Demolished. Razed and obliterated. There was no notice, no consultation, no debate, permits or approvals. It was simply erased to make room for Donald Trump’s Mighty Works, which, in this case is a colossal ballroom, an enduring metaphor for his vanity, arrogance, and what his presidency represents.
https://t.co/lWKXKgAhuk

[Tara Setmayer 🌻 🇺🇸 @TaraSetmayer]

I’ve been overseas the last 2 weeks and I can’t begin to tell you how alarmed folks are about what’s happening the US.
There’s a sense of confusion, sadness and fear.
Not one person we talked to wants to come to America. Usually, it’s the opposite.
Not anymore. Smh.
Trump has destroyed our standing around the globe.

[Robert E Kelly @Robert_E_Kelly]

Every fall semester I teach Political Science 101

Today is day 1

Genuinely wondering if:

1. there’s any point teaching US separation of powers

2. the US should be coded a competitive authoritarianism

3. #2 means that US alliance commitments to liberal democracies are now un-credible

Helluva way to start the academic year

[Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom]

@Observations87 @Noahpinion