Schadenfreude is unbecoming. And: this fiasco exemplifies MAGA's contempt for competence. Anyone with her credentials and a shred of humility or self-awareness would recognize they haven't the chops for the job (and they shouldn't have been considered). Make experience and education great again!

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 3d ago

Breaking News: President Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, was fired after less than a week on the job, according to people familiar with the matter. nyti.ms/4yqxU46

"Bwof" is what Elmer Fudd calls consommé. This reminds me of the time I was at a French restaurant and the lady at the table next to me confidently ordered a bottle of the peanut gre-gee-oh.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d ago

Trump: "Do you know what bouf is? Expensive beef. They charge more money if you call if bouf ... the bouf costs a lot more."

Paul Revere would like a word

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d ago

Trump: "Leakers should be -- in my opinion, leakers should be shot. They should be shot."

I hope the take about how this is the moment to get beyond "affordability" is correct. I mean, consumer costs matter; I'm feeling it. But we're murdering people on the open seas with no review. We're kidnapping citizens and legal immigrants. The President lies about everything. Surely that matters?

Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · 6d ago

Crucial from @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com: Trump's implosion is enabling Dems/libs to reach lots of new voters. "It’s an opportunity to plant long-term seeds about the vision we want." Dems like Ossoff/Talarico are meeting this antifascist moment. Our exchange: newrepublic.com/article/2165...

THE CONVERSION OF ST PAW

I really enjoyed this! The last line especially slaps.

Kel McDonald@kelmcdonald.bsky.social · last wk.

Because I saw Bride of Frankenstein yesterday, I've been linking folks I talk about it with to @mattbaume.bsky.social very good video about James Whale youtu.be/2hU9jiUTFLo?... I highly recommend folks give it a watch this spooky season

Someone please ask Sen. McConnell to comment on James Talarico's mysterious absence from the campaign trail.

I am opposed to the death penalty, generally. I am particularly appalled by the Pentagon's proposal for a public execution on December 3. Here is the sermon I gave in response to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in July 2024.

Christ Church: The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost, July 14, 2024

YouTube video by Christ Church Oberlin

youtube.com

I don't defend, deny, or excuse the crime of which the condemned has been convicted. And: the rationale for crucifixion was precisely this. It wasn't an efficient method for execution, it was meant for public display and to send a message. Christians should react with horror, and with action.

Fort Hood shooter’s execution will be live-streamed, Defense Dept. says

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday about the firing squad execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan.

washingtonpost.com

Remember the good old days when "artificial" meant "fake" or "imitation"? When will we learn that "artificial intelligence" is literally not "intelligence"? When it's too late?

We’re about to sleepwalk into a gravely dangerous nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, and not enough people are talking about this. Here’s what’s happening (thread)

SLF PAC, a Republican group, has a new ad attacking Sherrod Brown. The problem, as reported by Cleveland's ABC5, is it's factually dubious. Jim Swift reacts to the latest sign of Ohio Republican's desperation:

Absolute cockamamie stuff. Taxes are not what's making gasoline expensive, and gas taxes pay for critical transportation infrastructure. We're creating a revenue shortfall for ourselves in order to camouflage the President's foreign "policy" disasters.

Ohio lawmakers approve 90-day gas tax holiday just weeks ahead of election • Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio state lawmakers have approved a 90-day gas tax holiday at the urging of Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy.

ohiocapitaljournal.com

Pump this right into my veins

Dustin A. Chacón@lingdustin.bsky.social · 2w ago

I've heard people make claims that AI would lead to a new Renaissance, but I didn't imagine it'd happen like this:

MACBETH: I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield To one of woman born. MACDUFF: Despair thy charm, And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee Macduff was from his mother’s womb Untimely ripped. MACBETH: Fuck.

Mark Wallace@wallaceme.bsky.social · 3w ago

Ok don’t let’s get carried away but I found something genuinely good on Threads.

My personal collection of bespoke chasubles

Louis@louisevans.bsky.social · 3w ago

qt what you bring to interviews instead of iced coffee, wrong answers only

I feel like this opera practically writes itself. Melania's cabaletta is going to be 🔥

I was today years old when I learned Erma Bombeck and Irma Rombauer are not the same person 💁‍♂️

Speaking as a pastor: I know we want to believe that parents have their children's best interests at heart. The reality is that "home" is not always a safe place for the people who live there.

Andrew Quemere@andrewqmr.bsky.social · 4w ago

A couple went on a Fox News podcast and claimed the state of #Massachusetts took away their teen because they won't help the teen transition. But it's actually because the father was charged with beating and threatening to kill the teen and the mother was charged with witness intimidation.

“Scuffle”

The Oregonian@oregonian.com · last mo.

Portland-area resident Marc Fogle died after a Clark County Sheriff’s deputy stabbed him 17 times during a scuffle in 2025. https://mrf.lu/2hTxL

20 year old me would have taken me aside privately and said, “You know you’re gay, right?”

Blue Heart Beaux 🕋@obsidian.blacksky.app · last mo.

Would 20 y/o you be impressed or disappointed by you today?

In 2028 I hope to enthusiastically vote for people I have not presently heard of.

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · last mo.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will not run for president in 2028 if former vice president Kamala Harris does. “Of course not. Why would I?” he said. “I wouldn’t do that to her.”

And who the #$*&#@ is "Doug"?

Reconstructionist@unavaleable.bsky.social · last mo.

what the FUCK are those helmets

Our greatest enemy is the belief that this world is filled with enemies to be conquered rather than filled with neighbors to be loved.

REMEMBERING 9/11: I lived in Manhattan 1994-2007; I was there on that day. I lived in Washington Heights, and had a temp job on the Upper East Side. It was a great commute: I took the A from 190th to 125th, then hopped on the B or C to 86th, then walked across Central Park, to 75th & 5th.

I think folks should be very careful with this line of attack. Even assuming Democrats take Congress in 2026 and win the trifecta in 2028, the residual effects of MAGA will ripple for generations. Be prepared to articulate how voters are reaping what they sowed.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last mo.

NEWSNATION: Why should we believe that now all of the sudden prices will come down after the election? KELLY LOEFFLER: We've done it before and he'll do it again. The Biden administration ... NEWSNATION: Why do you guys keep talking about the Biden administration?

I feel like the Trump administration thinks wartime violence is restricted to the Gulf and Iran can’t touch us over here. They picked a fight with the world’s #1 sponsor of terrorism.

NPR@npr.org · last mo.

The U.S. military says it has destroyed five Iranian oil tankers as the conflict continues to escalate. And, Smithsonian head Lonnie G. Bunch III says he plans to step down by the end of the year. n.pr/4xKRHfd

Bona fides: I was in Manhattan on 9/11. If a Democrat told an instantly disprovable, overdramatized lie about their whereabouts on that day, what do you think the Republican response would be?

Today one of my college students came for spiritual direction and mentioned that the book I recommended over the summer, Denys Turner's "The Darkness of God," was "so beautiful it makes me cry."

I think a fun new game show could be asking Donald Trump to explain things, where he is not allowed to say, "I don't know." Sample questions: Who would win in a fight: Holden Caulfield or Ethan Frome? What is a particle accelerator, and how does it work? Who was President on January 6, 2021?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo ago

Trump: "They have ranked choice, which is a crooked form of voting. It's totally dishonest. They throw everybody into a hat and somebody backstage that nobody knows picks a winner. It's ridiculous."