Vijay D

The goal is soul!

[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

[Vijay D @vdevarajan]

@mattyglesias @TVietor08 The Washington Generals of negotiators.

[Vijay D @vdevarajan]

@Acyn American Taliban

[Ben Rhodes @brhodes]

In the best case scenario, Trump struck a deal to reopen a Strait that was open before the pointless war he started, with the IRGC demonstrating its control over the Strait and potentially extracting fees plus sanctions relief. Thousands of innocents - including hundreds of children - dead in Lebanon and Iran for no reason. U.S. troops killed and wounded. U.S. embassies and bases in the Middle East badly damaged. U.S. standing in the world obliterated. U.S. munitions badly depleted. Hundreds of billions spent. Prices up everywhere. More global economic fallout to come. Putin strengthened and enriched. Just a catastrophic situation even in the best of circumstances. A profoundly shameful episode in American history no matter what happens next.

[Vijay D @vdevarajan]

@kurt13warner And then I believe for the first time in modern history an American president threatened another country with war crimes and genocide. A country that didn't attack us btw. America's reputation on the world stage took the biggest hit. Who will trust us again?

[Vijay D @vdevarajan]

@kurt13warner They know they can inflict damage of their own, and will have much more control over the world economy via Hormuz than they did before. And you have to remember - Trump behaved in extreme bad faith throughout. Pretended to negotiate and bombed them by surprise. Twice.

[Dan Carlin @dccommonsense]

Anyone who thinks a POTUS threatening to destroy a whole civilization is an ok (or even laudable) thing to do doesn't care if they're a "baddie" or not.
And thats how we get blowback events like 9/11 and then wonder why.
This is stupid, reckless leadership of ONE MAN.

[U2 @U2]

The Tears Of Things borrows its title from a book by Franciscan friar Richard Rohr, which examines, through the writings of the Jewish prophets, how one can live compassionately in a time of violence and despair. The song imagines a conversation between Michelangelo’s David and his creator… where the young man with the sling and five smooth stones refuses the idea that he has to become Goliath to defeat him... he’s also revealed as having heart shaped pupils half a millennia before the heart shaped emoji, which puzzles visitors at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy, to this day.

Days of Ash EP available now. Read Propaganda here: https://t.co/OB3mVe69vu

[U2 @U2]

Song of the Future honors the schoolgirl uprising in Iran and the life of 16-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh, one of thousands of Iranian schoolgirls who took to the streets as part of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in 2022. These protests were sparked by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in Tehran on 16th September that year from injuries sustained following her arrest by the so-called ‘morality police’ for not wearing a hijab in accordance with government standards. Seven days later, Sarina was beaten by the Iranian security forces and died from her injuries, the regime claiming she killed herself. The song aims to capture Sarina’s free spirit, the promise and hope of her short life.

Days of Ash EP available now. Read Propaganda here: https://t.co/OB3mVe5BFW

[Vijay D @vdevarajan]

@Brandoniswrite @DanGrazianoESPN Trade like that is a good way to stay mediocre. Teams need to spike on something. With Lamb, Pickens, Dak, passing offense should be our thing. This trade means we go from top 5 -> mid pass offense and 32 -> mid pass rush. Keep Pickens and find another way to be mid pass rush.

[James Talarico @jamestalarico]

This is the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see.

His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert.

Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas.

[Elmo @elmo]

That Bunny was AMAZING. Elmo thinks he should be called Good Bunny! Elmo loves you, Mr. Good Bunny! ❤️🎶🐰

[Justin Amash @justinamash]

The Constitution isn’t optional.

The point of the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement is to hassle the government.

It’s supposed to be difficult to search or arrest people. That’s not a bug; that’s a feature of our American republic.

[Jonathan Haidt @JonHaidt]

If you're feeling powerless to do anything about the administration's assault on American values (and alliances, and rights...) Scott Galloway is orchestrating a way to apply economic pressure by unsubscribing to services from specific companies.

https://t.co/XPPYa0IVaR

[Kevin Gallagher @KevG163]

Troy Aikman

Super Bowl XXVII MVP

22 of 30
273 Yards
4 Touchdowns

#DallasCowboys
January 31, 1993

[Kevin Gallagher @KevG163]

Emmitt Smith

SUPER BOWL XXVIII
The Game-Winning Drive

After tying the score at 13 early in the third quarter, the #DallasCowboys steamroll the #Bills and take over the game.

Emmitt — the NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP — carries the ball seven times for 61 yards on the #Cowboys' 8-play drive, capped by his 15-yard touchdown run.

January 30, 1994

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

Take a moment to look at the inhumanity captured in this extraordinary photo running on the front page of tonight's Minneapolis @StarTribune. It shows federal immigration agents immobilizing a protester on the ground and spraying chemical irritant directly into his face. The scene reminds me of the brutality used against civil rights protesters in the 1960s. We look back at those old photos and wonder how the authorities could have behaved so savagely; many years from now, young Americans will look at these photos from 2026 and wonder how anyone could have justified shooting a woman in the head as she tried to drive away, arresting 5-year-old schoolchildren on the street, or holding a man down and spaying chemicals into his face. Thanks to the Star Tribune reporters and photographers for documenting this work; they create accountability, they make democracy work, and they make all of us in journalism proud.

[Greg Olsen @gregolsen88]

I’m surprised Dallas’s defense wasn’t more motivated to get a stop when they cut the lead to “one score”

#fieldgoalsgetyoubeat

[Aaron Schatz 🏈 @ASchatzNFL]

Dak Prescott now leads all QBs in adjusted DYAR (giving more value to rushing because QB rushing is very valuable) and leads all QBs in Kevin's Total Adjusted EPA. (In particular, he's suffered from WR drops.)

We need to be discussing Dak Prescott as an MVP candidate.