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On Orwell’s birthday, remember the words he might (or might not) have said: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations.”

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Trump and Stephen Miller’s America: “In cruelty will I seek out my fame.” “Henry VI, Part 2”

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More than ever now we miss the incomparable journalist George Orwell, born on this day in 1903. My essay on gibberish and journalism. www.culturaldaily.com/gibberish-jo...

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After Trump is gone we will need a journalism reboot. With journalists, not stenographers, sideline “reporters,” and P.R. flunkies.

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“If all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth,” wrote the prescient George Orwell, born on this day in 1903, in “1984.”

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George Orwell (born on this day in 1903) anticipating MAGA:

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“His addiction was to courses vain, his companies unletter'd, rude and shallow, his hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports, and never noted in him any study...” “Henry V”

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“Bear with my weakness. My old brain is troubled. Be not disturbed with my infirmity.” “The Tempest”

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Good (and infuriating) op-ed in NYT by sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild, who has spent years in Trump country rather than (as many journos do) just parachuting into a diner. The bad news: His supporters are aware that his policies hurt them. They don't care. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/o...

submitted 16 days ago • 10 comments

The Bove allegations should be treated as something akin to Watergate, or Iran Contra. The administration was attempting to do something they knew was illegal (anticipating the courts saying as much), and then trying to COVER IT UP. Only here instead of it being run out of the WH or NSC, it’s DOJ

submitted 1 day ago • 291 comments

“Bondi is the nation’s chief law enforcement official, not some pundit trying to score points on social media. When she engages in performative partisanship, acting more like a (terrible) political operative than an A.G., she doesn’t just damage her own reputation—she undermines her office.”

submitted 17 hours ago • 0 comments

“The absence of a reflexive public endorsement of Trump’s warmaking is a positive development—and a sign, whether he knows it or not, that [Trump] remains on a very short political leash indeed.”

submitted 17 hours ago • 4 comments

“Trump lied to the public” could be said of every day during his presidency.

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BREAKING: Emil Bove - whose judicial confirmation hearing is tomorrow - told lawyers to tell the courts to “fuck off” if they ordered the planes to El Salvador to turn around - per whistleblower Erez Reuveni. Gift article: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/u...

submitted 1 day ago • 865 comments

Touché.

submitted 1 day ago • 847 comments

If you need a mask to enforce the law, you don’t deserve a badge. Federal agents are snatching people off the streets—faces covered, names hidden. This isn’t safety. It’s secrecy. It’s not America. adamkinzinger.substack.com/p/why-are-fe...

submitted 1 day ago • 2053 comments

“Once again, we have to pretend that Trump is someone who might be telling the truth or is not just a small, venal man. If he wasn’t the president of United States, we would be ignoring all this. Because he is, we have to talk about it.”

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“This is no answer, thou unfeeling man, to excuse the current of thy cruelty.” “The Merchant of Venice”

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“I fear that Trump’s war with Iran will enable him to use these pretexts—terrorism, national emergency, and war—to further suppress dissent at home, narrow freedom of speech and expression, make warrantless searches and arrests of Americans, imprison opponents, and put more military on our streets.“

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Memo to Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries from Shakespeare: “You were wont to be a follower, but now you are a leader.”

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Will the Democrats ever stop playing not to lose against the “cruelty, the inhumanity, the racism [of the Trump administration]? And at a time when the Democratic base is really fed to the teeth with Democratic leaders who don’t fight, don’t even stand up for themselves.”

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Dear Media: We need journalism, not public relations.

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“The day after Trump joined Israel in bombing Iran’s nuclear installations, Netanyahu and his circle are counting on his political resurrection. Never mind the catastrophe of Gaza, with tens of thousands dead and worldwide condemnation, or Netanyahu’s assaults on democratic norms and institutions.”

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With apologies to the Bard, Uneasy lies the cap that wears this head.

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The Bard to Trump: “Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.”

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“Is his head worth a hat…?” “As You Like It”

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“By this hat, then, he in the red face had it.” “The Merry Wives of Windsor”

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“Forget about intelligence,” says Rubio. That neatly encapsulates the legacy of the ignorant Trump and his sycophantic administration.

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Why are no headlines focusing on the unconstitutional and dictatorial nature of this action?

submitted 3 days ago • 1297 comments

New: Trump’s two-week window was a smokescreen. He had already decided to attack Iran when he said he was open to negotiating. Our report on tonight’s historic U.S. strikes. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

submitted 3 days ago • 180 comments

During the war monger Trump’s speech last night I was reminded of a long interview I had with David Halberstam in 2005 I asked him if he had a pet peeve. He said this:

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“Everyone, when there's war in the air, learns to live in a new element: falsehood. Everybody lies.” “Tiger at the Gates,” by Jean Giraudoux

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Trump Bombs Iran, and America Waits

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Alas, yes. Irredeemable and shamelessly craven Republicans. And impotent, rudderless Democrats.

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The “prescription to reverse, or at least treat, the Great Rewiring of children’s lives. Four norms that parents, and society at large, should adopt: no smartphones before the age of 14; no social media until 16; phone-free schools; and far more unsupervised play and childhood independence.”

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“I very rarely reread anything but if I do it is probably during the summer in Ireland and it would tend to be a classic, like ‘Mansfield Park’ or ‘Wuthering Heights.’ There is such pleasure in finding out how much you’ve changed as different characters and plot points speak to you differently.“

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Is there no red line that Republicans will not redraw in abject servitude to Trump? “What can the courts—and the rest of us—do in the face of a president whose bad faith and willingness to concoct pretexts for abusing his powers basically have no bottom?”

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Important new @gelliottmorris.com reading of polling: "Republican voters are between two and three times as likely to support military action against Iran as Democrats are" As I've been arguing (see thread below) the idea of MAGA as "antiwar" is a myth. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/the-myth-o...

submitted 5 days ago • 17 comments

This is the most important thing I have written recently that you probably haven't read. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/the-...

submitted 4 days ago • 92 comments

THEY DID THE MATH Chance of DT flipping 88 counties red while 0 turn blue & winning ALL 7 swing states ABOVE the #recount thresholds? 1 in 5×10²⁸ chance 1 followed by 28 zeroes 1 in 50 OCTILLION #TrumpCheated WE didnt CHOOSE this Its a COUP MSM is complicit electiontruthalliance.org smartelection.us

submitted 4 days ago • 61 comments

So this is where that unfortunate Miss South Carolina of years ago ended up. Good for her.

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Memo from Coriolanus re. Trump to a spineless GOP (“O most unwise patricians [and] reckless senators”: “To say he'll turn your current in a ditch, and make your channel his? If he have power, then vail your ignorance; if none, awake your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd, be not as common fools…”

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“Look whe'er the withered elder hath not his poll clawed like a parrot.” “Henry IV, Part 2”

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The unimportance of being Ernst

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I watched a screener of this from PBS — it airs next week. Highly recommended. www.pbs.org/wnet/america...

submitted 5 days ago • 149 comments

While we wait for the Supreme Court to rule in a critical redistricting case from Louisiana, this is what the GOP is up to in Texas and Ohio. Remember the GOP's plan is to make it harder for you to vote and easier for them to cheat.

submitted 5 days ago • 886 comments