It’s a mob operation.

Exclusive | ‘The Boss Wants This Money’: Inside Trump’s Unprecedented Fundraising Operation

Meredith O’Rourke, nicknamed ‘princess of darkness,’ carries out the president’s desire to wring hundreds of millions from companies for his projects.

wsj.com

this shit was always annoying even in cases where it was maybe technically correct, but now with Trump doing lots of unprecedented bad shit the ‘heh, you rube, you fool, politicians have always been corrupt’ gimmick is both wrong on the merits and much more pernicious.

Widow's Bay DSA@gonebabygone.bsky.social · last wk.

There’s a kind of guy on social media who acts like you’re a moron for believing in gradations. You say we’re teetering on fascism, they go “umm we were founded on genocide” You say Musk is having a racist breakdown they go “umm he was always racist” Truthers for the concept of things getting worse.

More to the point, this is happening in *non-white* countries as well: Japan, Turkey, and India have huge far-right nativist blocs. So it's not merely white supremacy or nostalgia for the days when the West ruled. Nor is it happening purely in developed post-material countries.

Sam@samd.bsky.social · last wk.

what’s going on with the world man. why is the far right resurgent everywhere? it’s easy to blame whatever policy boogeyman (neoliberalism, housing shortage, immigration, etc etc) but I think it has to be something deeper. maybe lived memory is dying out of how evil fascism is

Surveys like this always alarm people Fortunately, recent research from cognitive psychology shows that the reason people are so wildly wrong when estimating the size of minority groups is largely NOT because of prejudice — but rather how humans think about unknown proportions of any kind

Joel S.@joelhs.bsky.social · last wk.

This actually explains something about how people talk about the Jewish community.

The fact that VP JD Vance and Richard Grenell went to Romania—on behalf of the Trump Administration— to advocate for Andrew and Tristan Tate, who by all accounts, were rapists running a coercive sex ring, then permitted them to come to Florida, should be a crazy, crazy scandal.

When someone tells you it has always been this bad, the correct response is to point out that the Voting Rights Act passed with 98 votes in the Senate in 2006 and its main sponsor was a Republican who worked with the ACLU to build a comprehensive record in defense of its most “controversial” parts

NERV IRB Coordinator@professormusgrave.bsky.social · 4w ago

There’s such a tendency for people to say “oh it’s always been that bad” to people who are vastly more informed and are saying things have changed. It’s like pointing to the smoldering ashes of a city and being informed that buildings have always caught fire

"one ought to orient oneself towards affirming the good in those institutional behaviors one is responsible for rather than merely disclaiming responsibility for anything not personally chosen" is a pretty easy thing to understand once you expand out all the terms.

W.E.D.em Boyz@leftistwonk.bsky.social · last mo.

Almost none of the ”we need to reclaim patriotism” people ever explain ~why~ we should do so. They begin with the assumption that patriotism is a good thing. What if it’s not?

The good news and bad news from the American perspective is that we can absolutely turn this around - another American century (in partnership with a free EU) is an option. We just need to make good political decisions. And that's what has proved so challenging.

James@gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 2mo ago

> The United States is self-immolating on a daily basis >Russia is being immolated by Ukraine >China is deflationmaxxing European century, it is, I guess

Yeah this is such a fascinating element. He talks about it in his letters too: the Elves’ great flaw is wanting to preserve everything just as it is and trying to stop its history, and that’s what leads to Celebrimbor and the Rings

Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It's one of the most interesting aspects of Tolkien's worldview; for all the hatred of modernity, he is very clear in identifying an obsession with the past as the cause of decline and degradation.

Imagine if we treated Trump the way we treat people who miss the recertification deadlines for government assistance programs.

Chris Geidner@chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Well, we are past midnight, and the Trump administration is out of compliance with Judge Cooper’s order. Background: www.lawdork.com/p/federal-ju...

Erdogan ordered Turkey’s police to raid the opposition party’s HQ days after a kangaroo court ousted the opposition leader.

We cannot keep ignoring Turkey’s descent into authoritarianism. We must stand for the people's right to democracy for allies & adversaries alike.

Turkish police storm opposition offices after leaders ousted

Officers forced their way into the building days after the party vowed to defy a court ruling removing its leaders.

bbc.com

I have had some of the most positive interactions in my life with people that work full time in disability spaces and also many of the most random, vindictive, spiteful ones as well. It's so exasperating & discouraging. Today's an especially bad day for it too, for personal reasons. I don't get it.

Brilliant h/t to @segyges.bsky.social (included helpful context/explainer)

I think 'earning' or 'deserving' or 'good' billionaires or 'bad' billionaires are all sort of missing the point tbh. There are decent people who are billionaires and there are unobjectionable ways to make lots of money but that's not the point. The point is that level of unaccountable power is bad.

A billion dollars is the socio-economic equivalent of a loose nuke, and we should work to prevent the acquisition of the former with the same urgency and ruthlessness we use to prevent the acquisition of the latter.

Thomas Zimmer@thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Sunday reading: Fueled by profit motives, ideological radicalization, and elite self-victimization, America’s tech barons are aggressively taking the side of authoritarianism. I wrote about why the tech billionaires are aligning with Trump – and why now:

Also, even if that were true, that’s fucking monstrous? Are we not supposed to care when people who have other health problems die?

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 4mo ago

“This was not a disease that was killing healthy people. It was killing sick people”. RFK Jr. lying about the COVID19 pandemic.

This scene & the crashouts on X over passage of Virginia’s redistricting plan are, it warrants noting, the same picture. It’s like a grand unified theory on how MAGA approaches matters, here and abroad: “you mean our _lessers_ can respond when we act like assholes to them? That can’t be right.”

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4mo ago

LUTNICK: It is outrageous that Canada will not put US spirits on the shelf. It is insulting and disrespectful to America SHAHEEN: They won't do it because of the insults from this president and comments like yours

Corruption and competitive autocracy are two halves of the same coin. Corruption is how you reward your supporters and bully your opposition without resorting to outright violence. Keeping the machine going eventually becomes *the* reason for staying in power, over anything ideological.

Edward Luce@edwardluce.bsky.social · 4mo ago

People will be closely studying how Hungary's opposition pulled off their win in such a pro-incumbent system. Important to note that the theme was corruption. Democrats need to get much better at calling out Trump's corruption.

Can never get over how tawdry the modern Right's view of Western Civilization is; nothing to build, nothing to aspire to, nothing even really to destroy or wage war against, just sullen resentment of their own children and seething hatred of the cities whose economics subsidies their regimes.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4mo ago

JD Vance: "Will you stand against the bureaucrats in Brussels? Will you stand for western civilization? Will you stand for freedom, truth, and the God of our fathers? Then, my friends, go to the polls and stand for Viktor Orban!"

i will vote for any candidate who offers up this slogan

András Tóth-Czifra@minczifra.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Perhaps Magyar's most important promise, and the one that certainly resonates with voters: "never again a country without consequences!" The crowd chants: "To prison! To prison!" [with the corrupt officials of the outgoing government]

huge thank you to everyone involved in this mission for reminding us of the best of humanity and I am tremendously glad it all went off as planned space is pretty cool and so, in many cases, are people

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 4mo ago

HOUSTON (AP) — Artemis II’s astronauts return to Earth, ending a record-breaking trip around the moon with a splashdown in the Pacific.

remember nathan hansen, the right-wing twitter guy and self-employed attorney who has amplified conspiracies — pizzagate, obama birtherism, hatians eating pets, etc. — and lost a district judge election in 2024? he's the newest immigration judge in minnesota.

Literally a hole in the ground countries and corporations can throw bribes into

Ken Vogel@kenvogel.bsky.social · 4mo ago

NEW: Trump accepted $37m worth of donated steel for his WH ballroom project from the Luxembourg-based company ArcelorMittal. Days later, the WH made adjustments to Trump's tariffs that could benefit ArcelorMittal.

NASA is honestly one of the greatest things humans have ever created, the stuff of math and dreams

i still remember Bezos inviting Shatner on one of his Blue Origins rocket trips and watching Shatner basically in shock while Bezos was "so you think i'm cool now?"

Havoc@havocsix.bsky.social · 4mo ago

the trump administration is selling this country wholesale to rapacious, extractive industries that will destroy our collective resources for private profit morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/breaking-t...

BREAKING: Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service

The headquarters is going to Utah. Every regional office is being shuttered. The research program is being destroyed.

morethanjustparks.substack.com

gosh, this does make us sound pretty cool, doesn’t it

Minnesota House DFL@mnhousedfl.bsky.social · 4mo ago

ICYMI - Samuel L. Jackson (!!) narrated this powerful video for Saturday's No Kings rally about the strength of Minnesotans protesting ICE: "When your neighbors are being attacked and your communities are being targeted, you don't give up. You don't look away. You don't back down. You showed up."

#NoKings

This should be an impeachable offense. I understand that we’re way past any of that, but that shouldn’t stop us from naming it.

John Gramlich@johngramlich.bsky.social · 4mo ago

89% – percentage of disaster aid requests Trump has approved for states with a Republican governor and two Republican senators 23% – percentage of disaster aid requests Trump has approved for states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators www.politico.com/news/2026/03...