Dear Media: Media Crit Like It's Football, FFS
If media insists on treating our democratic governance like sports, the least they can do is criticize their own industry's performance like they do when it comes to football.
Wimpy Patriarchy
Bro, if you can't compete with women, you'll love Patriarchy!
David Weiss' Rush Job on Alexander Smirnov's Sentencing
The most notable feature of Alexander Smirnov's plea deal is the timing: David Weiss will rush him to sentencing on January 8.
The Terrifying Complexity of Tech Oligarchs' Obeisance to Trump
ABC's capitulation to Trump's lawsuit is a sign of things to come -- but also what has long been true. By contrast, the capitulation of the tech oligarchs to Trump may represent something altogether more horrible.
Kash Patel Also Lied about Trump's Personalization of US Intelligence
The lies Kash Patel has told are likely to be aired at his confirmation hearing, but at unlikely to dissuade Republicans to vote against his confirmation to be FBI Director. The most important lies pertain to Trump's efforts to put information obtained by US intelligence to his own personal use.
Maturing In US Society
A sketch of growing to maturity in the US.
To Pay Off His Election Debts, Trump Seems Prepared to Destroy the United States
Kimberly Strassel thinks Trump wants to hire people who intend to do grave damage to the US to pay off electoral debts. More likely, the grave damage is the point.
Chuck Grassley Says the FBI Must Combat Sexual Misconduct But the Senate Can Whitewash It
The NYT let Chuck Grassley and other Senators make false claims that could have been debunked by a great deal of NYT reporting. Better yet, NYT could have simply called out Grassley's own failures to uphold his own standards.
If an Informant Narcs on a Riot But No FBI Agent Asks about It, Did It Really Happen?
In spite of the fact that the FBI got key warnings about Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio that never got shared with FBI's Washington Field Office, in spite of the fact that the FBI had 26 informants on site but only asked three for information, the FBI contested DOJ Inspector General's critique that it should have done more to work its informants in advance of the attack.
The Lessons of Zero Accountability for a Kash Patel Bureau
As we talk about what a politicized FBI run by Kash Patel will look like, it helps to review how the House GOP already helped to politicize the FBI's work.
In Advance of the KashTastrophe, DOJ IG Raises the Stakes on Investigations of Congress
The recommendations in a DOJ Inspector General Report on leak investigations might give Congress further protection to leak. But it also might give aspiring FBI Director Kash Patel an excuse to prioritize prosecutions of journalists, before his former Congressional colleagues.
When Life Gives You Lemons in the Trump Era, Missouri Edition
"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Trump reelected? That's a lot of lemons. But let me show you some Missouri lemonade-making.
Zero Accountability: The Five-Plus Times DOJ Got Fabricated Evidence against Hunter Biden
There were five cases in which fabricated evidence about Hunter Biden was ingested by FBI. Most was not used by investigators, which the House GOP then used to politicize the case against him. But at least two did have an affect on his prosecution.
The Myths of Bluebeard and Orangeskin
Humans have been telling a story in which the same familiar elements have occurred because humans universally find it relatable across history and now — the myth of Bluebeard.
Zeynep Tufekci's Two Blind Spots Cross at DOGE
The glee surrounding Brian Thompson's death is not unprecedented -- Donald Trump campaigned on a similar mob glee, targeting Paul Pelosi, to get elected. And then he installed a bunch of billionaires to start looting. And politicians like Elizabeth Warren have already suggested some "broad public solutions" to that looting.
Fridays with Nicole Sandler
We talked about nominations and the Hunter Biden pardon.
You Can't Pardon America's Way Out of Trump's Assault on Rule of Law
You can't pardon your way out of Trump's attack on rule of law. It's going to take much harder work than that.
The White House Crypto Czar: Trump's Election Has Helped Bitcoin Far More than the Dollar
Trump's support of the dollar arises from his honestly held but incompetently implemented belief in American Greatness. His reckless support for a bubble cryptocurrency arises from his greed. With Trump, his greed tends to win out.
Kash Patel's Bullets
What kind of aspiring J Edgar Hoover can't even alphabetize his enemies list properly?
Devlin Barrett Makes Shit Up about Hunter Biden, Again
Devlin Barrett attacked Joe Biden's claims about how political pressure affected Hunter Biden's case by inventing a straw man and then linking the reported article that debunked him.