Thomas E. Ricks

Writer. And an OG verified blue check.

[Thomas E. Ricks @tomricks1]

I just noticed that my next novel is available (in pre-order) on Amazon.

https://t.co/mbZNvwNWwf

[Thomas E. Ricks @tomricks1]

@cncnntus @secupp Isn’t that football

[Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 @PollTracker2024]

North Carolina Democrats will have an 11-3 D congressional delegation next year for a map that was drawn to elect 11 Republicans and 3 Democrats.

[Shannon Watts @shannonrwatts]

This is what happens when you vote blue!!!

[Reggie B. @reggiebblue]

omg. This montage from Jimmy Kimmel last night.

[Good Vibe @GoodVibe94]

Dan Patrick: I'm not going to legalize marijuana in Texas. And if people want to vote me out of office for that, so be it.

Texans: Hold my joint.

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

In the history of the US, only three Black people were ever elected governor (Wilder, Patrick, Moore). Last night, five were, including the first Black Republican governor (Donalds in Fla.) and the first Black woman governor (Bottoms in Ga.). @ESCochrane https://t.co/jioLYQ0DFW

[David J. Bier @David_J_Bier]

ICE HSI agent Kent Blacklidge who racially profiled and tackled US citizen Leo Venegas while trespassing at his worksite (the first of Leo's three illegal detainments) was just arrested for rape and child sex crimes. The agent's duties had included child sex investigations.

[PoliticsVideoChannel @politvidchannel]

BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Democrats are planning to pass a bill called the Alex Pretti Act when they take over Congress in January that will end qualified immunity for ICE agents, allowing them to be sued or jailed for wrongdoing

[Forrest Wilder @Forrest4Trees]

On the Texas House: By my count, as of now, Dems have netted 8 seats with another 20 yet to be called, 13 of which the D is currently ahead. Remember: Ds need +14 seats to gain control of the lower chamber of the statehouse. Seems like they will have a solid majority.

[Thomas E. Ricks @tomricks1]

I’m a little surprised that pete Hegseth still has a job

[Jessica Huseman @JessicaHuseman]

Shout out to all of the people in Texas suddenly really looking forward to Thanksgiving with their uncle.

[Thomas E. Ricks @tomricks1]

@tedcruz Nah.

[Thomas E. Ricks @tomricks1]

Maybe musk will flee the country?

[Christopher Hooks @cd_hooks]

Insanely, horribly bad night for Elon Musk, who not only wasted half a billion but will have a Congress who hates him and an entire texas state government who loathes him

[Fr. Chris Vorderbruggen @FatherChrisVor1]

I have been holding my tongue about something that happened during the Ohio gubernatorial race. I refused to speak while the election was underway because I did not want my words mistaken for an attempt to influence anyone’s vote.

But now that the election is over, I have something to say.

For nearly twenty years, my ministry has taken me among the homeless, the abused, the exploited, and the forgotten. I have sat with victims of sexual violence and witnessed the lifelong wounds of childhood trauma.

What Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign did to Amy Acton was among the most morally repulsive things I have witnessed in American politics.

They took a woman whose stepfather was indicted for raping her when she was twelve years old and featured her mother, from whom she had been estranged for nearly fifty years, in a political advertisement attacking her credibility.

The advertisement challenged Acton’s account of her childhood without mentioning the sexual abuse allegations or the circumstances of that estrangement. When people expressed their horror, the campaign defended it.

Imagine examining another person’s childhood suffering and fractured family relationships, then deciding those wounds might help win an election.

Anyone who has worked with survivors of childhood sexual abuse understands the painful realities of denial, betrayal, shame, and estrangement. A child growing into a successful adult does not erase what happened. Nor does a parent’s denial make that suffering disappear.

I find it equally disturbing that an elderly mother, whom Acton herself described as unwell, was brought into this spectacle. Whatever her own struggles or responsibility for the past, exploiting that fractured relationship was grotesque.

To everyone who defended this, consider the message you sent to survivors. To the young woman whose family refuses to believe her. To the man who has carried the shame of childhood abuse for forty years. To the frightened child who has yet to tell anyone.

What did you teach them about the value of their suffering?

I am a priest. I believe in repentance, forgiveness, and redemption. But none of those things requires me to pretend that deliberate cruelty is anything less than a grave moral failure.

Your political allegiance does not absolve you of moral responsibility. You do not get to set aside your conscience during an election and retrieve it afterward.

If your loyalty requires you to defend the exploitation of a childhood sexual abuse survivor, your loyalty has become an idol. And if your conscience cannot recognize the wrong here, examine what political tribalism has done to it.

This is not about Republicans or Democrats. We have a choice as a people: continue excusing cruelty from our preferred political camp, or summon the courage to condemn it wherever it appears.

Amy Acton deserved better. Every survivor who watched this unfold deserved better.

And God help us if we have reached the point where winning an election matters more than protecting the dignity of a wounded human being.

[Scott Braddock @scottbraddock]

"Underperformance" is the word of the day across most of Republican rural Texas so far meantime Democratic strongholds like Travis County and Harris County are breaking records.
Hold on tight now...

[Thomas E. Ricks @tomricks1]

Sure not what I saw when I voted this morning. Long line of people in their 20s, slightly more women than men. Woman behind me wearing talafreako shirt.

[Christopher Hooks @cd_hooks]

If true, this could simply change the whole game board…

[Zach Despart @zachdespart]

2/ Paxton has made combating illegal voting a top priority.

We found he appeared to use an address where he did not live to vote in six elections in the past 2 years, including the one that made him the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate.
https://t.co/318PbBEHB3

[Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney]

JUST IN: A federal judge is encouraging his colleagues to call ICE officers in for live testimony on the witness stand, concluding that without direct scrutiny and cross-examination, routine lies will go unpunished.
https://t.co/mkN9OEHWna

[Thomas E. Ricks @tomricks1]

@cdrsalamander I suspect Putin and his gang

[Ken Dilanian @KDilanianMSNOW]

Breaking: Federal judge dismisses—and lambastes—the DOJ false statements case against two former FBI officials. Calls it “weaponization.”

Judge Faruqui—a former federal prosecutor himself—said the government made a number of errors in their "slapdash job" of a case. He said there was no evidence presented before the court that the FBI agents' statements were knowingly false or material. He said the government failed to establish a motive for why the agents would make false statements.

He told prosecutors it was "incredibly unfair" that the DOJ sent into court with such a weak case. "This does not feel like an investigation," Faruqui said. "It feels like a broken one-wish willow obsession."

He added that he was "deeply troubled by what has happened here in this case," and that what happened "cannot be described as anything other than weaponization."

"It was a rush to charge, and that was a mistake," Faruqui said of the case.