The BK of the Kennedy Center is a case in point. And a metonym for the entire country. From details to macro Trump is destroying everything, partly out of spite, partly out of incompetence.
Heidi Jon Schmidt
@heidijon.bsky.social
Author, Democrat, mom New York Times, The Atlantic, Boston Globe Mag, etc. hjs24pearl.substack.com heidijonschmidt.com
In the 2018 midterms, one of the big issues on the right was "civility in politics" bsky.app/profile/oluf...
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@handle.invalid · 3w agothe lesson from the right is not that their obsessions with trans volleyball, anti Haitian blood libel, or reversing the change in teen pregnancy rate are actually the well framed kitchen table issues of the volk but simply that political discourse becomes about things people say often and loudly
It’s all identity politics, but since it’s largely white identity politics it’s fine and doesn’t count. It’s not something communist like police shouldn’t be able to get away with murder bsky.app/profile/chri...
Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social · 3w agoThis is going to make me sound old and maybe a little nostalgic but it’s really striking how in the Trump era, no one even pretends to debate about policy anymore.
But let’s not poke around in the Russian influence muck. There are, like, dead bodies under there and it’s so messy.
David Rothschild@davmicrot.bsky.social · 3w ago2016: Russia cyberattacks US to help elect Trump; Republicans gut anti-Russian policy from their platform; Campaign Manager Manafort floats policies to breakup Ukraine while sharing internal campaign data with Russian asset (shared with FBI agent investigating Trump's ties to Russia)
2016: Russia cyberattacks US to help elect Trump; Republicans gut anti-Russian policy from their platform; Campaign Manager Manafort floats policies to breakup Ukraine while sharing internal campaign data with Russian asset (shared with FBI agent investigating Trump's ties to Russia)
Jesse Eisinger@handle.invalid · 3w ago“This should be unthinkable for the son of the president. End of story.” A Russian oligarch close to Putin bankrolled Don Jr.’s wedding. www.propublica.org/article/dona...
I wonder if the NY Times has a Euphemism Desk to soften its stories. Trump lawlessness is an “expansive interpretation of presidential power”? A Trump-UAE crypto scheme “blurred the line between foreign policy and private enterprise.” This thread imagines history as written by NYT’s Euphemism Desk.🧵
This is a VERY weird post from @maxtani.bsky.social, which may say as much about Semafor as it does about Bessent.
Semafor@semafor.com · 3w ago🟡 SCOOP: Inside the US Treasury secretary’s tense relationship with financial media www.semafor.com/article/09/1...
Trump in Ireland: “Zelenskyy has to do one thing, he has to stop hitting the oil refineries in Russia. That’s hurting the world.” ..I just watched how people ran out of trains and hid in the bushes as the drones were targeting Ukrainian trains overnight. No, nobody will stop until Putin stops.
ESSENTIAL reading and frightful :
Will Bunch@willbunch.bsky.social · 4w agoThe Trump regime doesn't want you to know how it's arresting record numbers of immigrants It's called 287(g) I went to Trump-loving Pa. coal country to report on how local cops, promised $$$ by ICE, have created a "show me your papers" police state My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/penn...
Shana Tova to all my fellow Jews. Let’s make this year the year we flip the house and the Senate, and state and local governments around the country! That would make it a sweet new year. Happy 5787! 🍎🍏🍯
So emblematic of today’s Republican Party www.aol.com/articles/con...
Convicted sex offender offered opening prayer at rally for GOP Senate nominee in North Carolina - AOL
A North Carolina pastor who led the opening prayer at a recent campaign stop for Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley is a registered sex offender, twice sentenced to prison
aol.com
If you follow me and want to help, I only have one request. Spread the word about the threats to democracy and how we can fight back. Tell everyone to subscribe to Democracy Docket and share its content. demdock.com/4w6emld
I LOVED @skyeperryman.bsky.social’s new book. It’s energizing and hopeful, and my favorite chapter is a vital antidote to SCOTUS doom-and-gloom. Skye is one of the key players in the legal battle against Trump 2.0 and she has a lot to teach us about how to fight and win when all feels lost.
Heavy lifting by Dan Froomkin makes for light reading here. Really good job of sorting out media coverage of Trump's $5,000 gimmick.
Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News@froomkin.bsky.social · 4w agoWhat they SHOULD have written: TRUMP MAKES $5,000 DESPERATION PLAY Trump offers voters a nonsensical, impossible kickback in hopes of stopping the blue wave likely to crush Republicans next month. So what DID they write? I handed out grades. presswatchers.org/2026/09/trum...
A call center is employing prisoners to make political calls for a conservative super PAC, Oklahoma Watch reports:
Who’s Calling? - Oklahoma Watch
Oklahoma prison inmates are working in call centers placing political calls and insurance telemarketing on behalf of outside companies, earning $2 an hour while a Virginia super PAC paid nearly $600,000 to the vendor for calls supporting conservative candidates — including calls made during Oklahoma's primary election season.
oklahomawatch.org
I believe Pope Leo’s gentle worldwide power may be key to our survival. I’m a lifelong atheist which means I know where to look for hope. I am watching his every move and its effect.
Thomas Reese@thomasreesesj.bsky.social · 4w agoBill Gates and Silicon Valley congressman latest to endorse pope's AI encyclical "I was fascinated by Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI," Gates wrote. "It lays a strong foundation for the work that needs to be done." www.ncronline.org/vatican/vati...
A possible romantic relationship between a president and one of his aides isn’t something the public needs to know about. by Ken Starr and Newt Gingrich
Turns out doing the right thing is right. By which I mean correct. Kudos @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social for the critical work cited here. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
US firms that kept DEI policies despite ‘go woke, go broke’ threats thrived
Exclusive: Companies that kept policies did just as well financially, even after Trump’s executive order, as those that didn’t
theguardian.com
Rep. Ralph Norman, who’s in a Senate runoff with Lindsey Graham’s sister Darline, secretly urged a military-backed coup in 2021 to keep Trump in power. But the NY Times thinks it’s no big deal. In its last 92 stories mentioning Norman over 3 years and 7 months, it hasn’t stated that fact once. 1/7🧵
@gregjaffe.bsky.social @crow.house.gov Given the story about people jumping off the USS Lincoln, can you explain what the CNO does, please?
MoJo ties the disasters in Gaza, Ukraine, and Iran to Kushner's corruption. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
![Dmitriev is now steeped in negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine on Russia’s terms, with his old pal Kushner representing the United States. The Kremlin is dangling potential deals for US investors that are reportedly worth trillions of dollars, if only America would lift its sanctions and welcome Russia back in from the cold. Kushner, meanwhile, has proved willing to peddle pro-Kremlin talking points time and again. In late 2025, he and special envoy Witkoff—whose family and the Trumps co-founded World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm in which a top UAE official would later purchase a 49 percent stake—publicized a “peace plan” for Ukraine. But its provisions, from capping Ukraine’s military to forcing Kyiv to cede territory that Russia hadn’t even conquered, were conspicuously pro-Moscow.
A Kremlin-friendly push by a US president with a mysterious Putin affinity might be unsurprising, but the details are galling. As investigative journalism site the Insider revealed, Kushner’s peace plan was in no way original. “Many of its most controversial conditions were contained” in a months-old Kremlin document the outlet had obtained. The plan was “at its core a recycled Russian document,” the Insider wrote, with “specific language that appeared almost exactly word-for-word in an earlier text—one drafted solely by Dmitriev.”
[snip]
On September 16, 2025, a UN commission officially declared Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide.
That same day, Forbes declared Kushner a billionaire.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bbp2b224lro3bfnzcqwwnkfo/bafkreid66xtv54cywyhrnngmo5ykjzxuj3fs7wdmd2c5elarxpokn54sxi)
Yes. 'Harvard About to Cave' narrative looks ever weaker. 1) Let's hope Yale gets the point, and stops its trembling. (See yaledailynews.com/articles/the... ) 2) Let's hope everybody gets the point. Obeying-in-advance never pays off.
Gregg Kilday@greggk.bsky.social · 2mo agoHarvard’s refusal to make a deal gets some support … Trump Administration Live Updates: Judge Dismisses Federal Antisemitism Case Against Harvard www.nytimes.com/live/2026/08...
"Last year, Trump tried to send kids alone to Guatemala in middle of the night, before judges halted him. But if there are no lawyers present, such eleventh hour rescues become impossible. That appears to be the point of the let’s-eliminate-the-competent-lawyers scheme." — @anatosaurus.bsky.social
Stephen Miller's secret campaign against helpless kids
That it's happening in the shadows doesn't make it less of a moral blight.
publicnotice.co
But it made them feel important!
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo ago"Last month, Trump used a planeload of reporters as an unwitting decoy during a real assassination threat, subpoenaed the reporters who reported something was amiss, then stood up at a black-tie dinner and told those same reporters how lucky they are he tolerates them at all" — @lizdye.bsky.social
20K court rulings on the same pure issue of law. This can't be blamed just on CASA, because there's a statute that bars class injunctions on this category of immigration issue, but clearly this is insane. (Thanks to @kyledcheney.bsky.social , tho, for the amazing coverage.)
Kyle Cheney@kyledcheney.bsky.social · 2mo agoUPDATE: Our latest weekly update puts us at more than 20,000 federal court rulings in ICE detention cases. The tally: -17,300 against the administration -2,700 in favor of the administration Explore the data, sorting by district/judge/result, etc. www.politico.com/news/2026/05...
This is the sweet spot of @vermontgmg.bsky.social's expertise: Nixon-on-steroids levels of corruption, intersecting with presidential security.
Garrett M. Graff@vermontgmg.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe Air Force One catering truck scandal is deeper and darker than the media is portraying it — it’s a Russian nesting doll of corruption and national security threats: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/the-five-s...
This @#$% keeps happening because too many of you on this Social Media site feel comfortable spreading rank Jew Hatred for kicks: www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/p...
UC San Diego Jewish fraternity vandalized in hate crime, San Diego police says
Authorities are offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to an arrest after a Jewish fraternity house in the University City neighborhood was vandalized with antisemitic and racial slurs, it w...
nbcsandiego.com