The New York Times published an extraordinary study of the role of billionaires in politics earlier this week, that naturally got lost in everything that is going on, including in Iran.
Here is a gift link to the article, and a few select quotes:
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/u...
Imagine the reaction in the US if ~175 schoolgirls had been killed by a targeted Iranian missile. (Or anyone's missile.)
This is an atrocity.
Kanwal Sibal @KanwalSibal • 6h X The Iranian ship will not be where it was if we had not invited it to talk part in our Milan exercise. We were the hosts. I am told that as per protocol for this exercise ships cannot carry any ammunition. It was defenceless. The Iranian naval personnel had paraded before our president. The attack by the US submarine was premeditated as the US was aware of the Iranian ship's presence in the exercise to which the US navy was invited but withdrew from participation at the last minute, presumably with this operation in mind. The US has ignored India's sensitivities as the ship was in these waters because of India's invitation. We are far from politically or militarily responsible for the US attack. Our"responsibility" is at a moral and human plane. A word of condolence by the Indian Navy ( after political clearance) at the loss of lives of those who were our invitees and saluted our president would be in order.
Some context to the Iranian boat that was targeted by US off Sri Lanka coast
Former Indian FM: “US was aware of the Iranian ship's presence in the exercise to which the US navy was invited but withdrew from participation at the last minute”
SCOOP: An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations.
This surveillance can happen through all sorts of apps, such as video games, news apps, weather trackers, and dating apps.
The Republicans seem to be prepping an argument that any domestic terror attacks in the aftermath of their Iran attacks will be the fault of Democrats for shutting down DHS funding, so I'd like to remind everyone of this appointment:
This is a breathtaking article about the complete clown show at DHS being overseen by Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski (gift link)
we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad
I am running out of ways to convey how disconnected from reality Trump's judicial nominees are. They can't say that Trump lost the 2020 election, they won't say that the January 6 insurrection happened, they don't acknowledge any fact about anything if Trump hasn't authorized them to believe it
In November of 2024, two weeks after voters returned President Donald Trump to office, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. summoned employees of the U.S. Supreme Court for an unusual announcement. Facing them in a grand conference room beneath ornate chandeliers, he requested they each sign a nondisclosure agreement promising to keep the court’s inner workings secret.
Jodi Kantor in the NY Times reports that the Chief Justice requested Court employees sign nondisclosure agreements in November 2024 - moving to formal contracts requiring silence/confidentiality after Trump was reelected: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...
Every jurisdiction should be doing this. Write to your local officials and demand it.
Chicago Orders Police to Document Potentially Illegal Federal Immigration Tactics - The New York Times
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/u...
i have just gotten off a productive call with sauron where i laid out our requests
- nazgul bodycams
- morgul knife must remain sheathed unless suspect is determined to be carrying the one ring
- shelob will be the new point of contact
The biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.”
That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.
Exposing Alito for his lies in this way at this moment while the world is watching is a brilliant. Bravo!
The people who spent years defending and even lionizing Kyle Rittenhouse and Ashli Babbitt now want us to believe that an unarmed mother in her car and a disarmed nurse were domestic terrorists who deserved to be murdered by law enforcement.
“Freedom is not free. We have to work at it. Nurture it. Protect it. Even sacrifice for it.”
“The lies this administration is telling about Ms. Good aren’t those you deploy as part of a cover-up. They’re those you use when you want to show you can get away with anything. They’re a projection of power.”
It’s the continued existence of the normative state that lulls a population to sleep. It makes you discount the warnings of others. “Surely,” you say to yourself, “things aren’t that bad. My life is pretty much what it was.”
Gift link
"Past or present, it’s not the leaders who disappoint me. It’s the led."
🎁🔗
🚨BREAKING: Any candidate for federal office may challenge election laws governing their election, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 7-2 decision Wednesday, potentially triggering a deluge of litigation over the counting and certifying of results. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/o... This is important and worth the small amount of time to read it. So, I am GIFTING this opinion piece.
This week: we execute a U.S. citizen.
Next week: we take over elections to stop “fraud.”
It's so transparent what's going on here.
A gut-punch of a review of The Voice of Hind Rajab. (Gift link from the writer.)
Mary and I take on, in our new NYT op ed, the grave mistake in the reasoning of the Supreme Court which unleashed retribution prosecutions.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/o...
bsky.app/profile/theh...
