Recent posts by Online Political Thinkers on Bluesky

i'm fucking dying at the Free Press tapping Cardinal Dolan of all people

SHE WOULDN’T EVEN TALK TO THE PRODUCERS IF THE SEGMENT

She only knows how to digest criticism as an attempt to silence her even when the criticism is that she's silencing others

There's still time, girls

counterpoint: fuck off, bitch

Just thinking about how right-wing media barons in the US and UK whitewashed Hitler and Nazi allies bought up papers in late Weimar.

wrote about whatever last week was, and its implications for Trump as Republican Party leader open.substack.com/pub/goodpoli...

I have counted 11 dogs on this 737, and I’m sure I missed a lot of them

I’m off this week finishing my book (literally on a reporting trip as we speak). But follow my colleague at @the-independent.com Justin.

Do not miss the religious subtext here

Blocked out an hour and a half to do the Monday crossword.

"the success of the network as television products die off is almost beside the point. Weiss represents the triumph of an avenging anti-woke class, and her comeback reveals where its most influential power base is located —" (in Hollywood)

What we have here is a top editor spiking a story not because of serious editorial concerns, but because: 1) she is insecure and needs to assert authority; 2) she wants to drive serious journalists out of CBS; and 3) she craves attention, which is her oxygen. Especially number 3

There are two types of people in the world. (And we had to buy multi-option LEDs this year to keep the peace between them.)

Weiss, today: "The only newsroom I'm interested in running is one in which we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters with respect." CECOT reporter, y'day: "Ori and I asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity."

These stupid assholes who are the ones who are like “don’t look at climate polling (which kills our argument) look at purple district candidates!” “No wait not THAT purple district candidate!”

Lying your ass off in extremely obvious fashion to your team of professionals should help earn trust!

Staffers in the Heritage Foundation’s economic and legal centers resigned over the weekend to join a conservative advocacy group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence. The fallout continues. www.nationalreview.com/news/exclusi...

It will very interesting to examine the 2025 990s for Heritage and Advancing American Freedom.

Ice cold.

What is your favorite regional snack food that everyone should try?

Checking in on @notmrtibbs.com's #HOF Tracker. With 37 ballots known, Andruw Jones & Carlos Beltrán are at 76% each. It's early, but that kind of number is not going to cut it given the dropoff we always see from public to private ballots. tracker.fyi

I have to image that it is perhaps impossible to actually gather, but has anyone seen good quantitative (large-n, non-anecdotal, etc.) data on what percent of ppl returned to prison for a parole violation (tech or non-tech) actually committed a new-but-uncharged-for-convenience crime?

Another thing about Bari killing the 60 Minutes CECOT piece. Remember how she wrong a book about antisemitism? Right? Surely she's heard the words "never again?" So killing a piece about a concentration camp says quite a lot about her, beyond just not knowing anything about journalism.

A THIRD OF THEIR GROSS INCOME.

“Seek the truth and tell it plainly” Orwell laughs. Or maybe he cries. Who’s to say

This first question really seems to be the big fracture. And a lot of it seems to stem from Jewish members of this confederate coalition looking for a carve out.

Here’s what The Counteroffensive is reading today: NATO intel warns Russia is developing weapons that create clouds of shrapnel to target Ukraine's Starlink satellites, critical for military activity. Experts say this could also damage Russia’s satellites.

Too bad Bari didn’t spike the CECOT story before we ran this

i've said it before but it's fairly obvious that Matty has inherited his grandfather's penchant for democratic centralism, except instead of Leninism, he does it for centrism

Stand strong against clapter, friends

most interesting part about the latest Navarro piece on the New Yorker:

"Former Vice President Mike Pence’s political group is poaching top officials from the conservative Heritage Foundation amid growing ideological fights within the conservative movement and backlash at the prominent foundation." www.wsj.com/politics/ele...

That photograph of Weiss they use - the one with the hand gestures - makes her look just as she is: the person in the meeting who knows exactly what words will impress the boss, but otherwise has never had an original thought, and lacks even a trainee secretary's basic administrative skill.

Not only is the head of US intel aping Russian propaganda, it doesn’t make a lick of sense. NATO/EU want to pull the US into direct war with Russia?!? The US is in NATO. The Russia-Ukraine war has been going for nearly 4 years. NATO could’ve gone to war but didn’t. If anything, been quite cautious.

Going to make some hummingbird friends. Not bribing them at all. 🪶

it bewilders me every time i see a guy argue that the era of reading books is over because of LLMs

Russia already signed a treaty to not attack a NATO or EU member. It’s the UN Charter, and also forbids Russia from attacking anyone else. Plus 1994 Budapest Memorandum and 2014-15 Minsk Agreements promise to not attack Ukraine. Promising to not attack isn’t a concession, it’s baseline obligation.

James Bennet has low-key caused greater damage to journalism than many more-famous names.

…. youtu.be/NBhrQ1fgMGo?...

Wow! Back in July, Ted Cruz warned Benjamin Netanyahu about antisemitism on the right, and Netanyahu said "That's Qatar, that's Iran, that's astroturf. That's paid for." wapo.st/4qrPqBD

Pew's big mode effect study a while back had the same finding -- for all that people like to talk about social desirability findings when it comes to more political topics, where it really seems most evident is questions like this:

You’re joking, right? Vance sides with the bigotry. He’s been pushing blatant white nationalism in public for years, and it’s accelerated recently. His whole pitch is he’s more directly bigoted than Trump. This might be even worse than the infamous article saying Elon Musk’s politics are a mystery.

This week’s @runforsomething.net feel-good update: Get inspired - meet some of our newest endorsed candidates. rfsfeelgoodupdates.substack.com/p/rfs-feel-g...

Monday. December 22. Another day the DoJ is breaking the law by not releasing all the Trump Epstein files.

So CBS News paid President Trump millions to settle a baseless lawsuit over 60 Minutes editing a Kamala Harris interview the way they edit every interview, then a self-styled free speech champion took over CBS News and censored a 60 Minutes report exposing Trump admin actions, do I have that right?

He pretty clearly took the side of the Nazis. He used all their lines.

For all the talk among Republican Jews about Zohran Mamdani and the Squad or other progressives, the rise of Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes and the rise of antisemitism on the right scares them shitless. wapo.st/4qrPqBD

the fact that you have people associated with the Truman project willing to rationalize this administration is bleak same with people at American thinktanks rationalizing the "Western hemisphere" turn

If these were oil drilling projects being cancelled, Republicans would scream that canceling the project was theft from the company. If renewable energy is cancelled, those same Republicans cheer. news.bgov.com/bloomberg-go...

Something which isn't always acknowledged is that "contrarian thinkers" are just regurgitating conventional wisdom with a little extra racism, and these forbidden views are generally expressed by the most platformed mainstream figures, like Pinker.

This Day in Labor History: December 22, 1988. The Brazilian rubber worker, union leader, and environmental activist Chico Mendes was murdered by a rancher named Darcy Alves who hated everything he stood for. Let's talk about this horrible moment but also Mendes' great movement!

"But despite their best efforts, local initiatives to stop the plowing over of homes and farms and businesses with giant warehouses of servers and chips will continue—and they’re starting to have an impact on the AI transition." prospect.org/2025/12/22/d...

This to me is the biggest issue. These men spoke at grave risks to their own safety about being beaten, raped, and tortured at the order of the President of the United States. All of Weiss's odes to free speech and "dangerous ideas" is and has always been horseshit

“Weiss told colleagues this weekend the piece — planned for Sunday night's show — could not run without an on-the-record comment from a Trump administration official.” www.npr.org/2025/12/22/g...

"When we picture a disaster scenario, we imagine those in charge trying to alert an apathetic public. But this seems to be the reverse; liberalism’s leaders seem unsure, while the rank and file are screaming at them to fight. " newrepublic.com/article/2042...

“where we’re going we won’t need Jews” versus “actually we still need quite a lot of Jews”

TIL that Nicki Minaj has become a Trump supporter. She spoke at the Turning Points USA convention. Wild.

Agreed. This is why I suggested that European NATO members send a small multinational tripwire force to Greenland.

The whole notion that you can’t air an investigative segment on immigration without going to Stephen Miller for comment is absurd.

a simple lesson in press coverage: every journalist has lindsey graham's cell # and there are never any investigative stories about lindsey graham

Reporter: We have 3 videos, 2 breathalyzers, 4 bartenders, and a minivan full of nuns attesting to how the driver was drunk and reckless when he hit the school bus. Weiss; What did the driver say. Reporter: He and his lawyer won’t talk. We asked them 5 times. Weiss: I’m killing your story.

In other words, National Socialism.

There's a US ambassador to Denmark and a US consul in Greenland, but "special envoy" for whatever is just a unilateral made-up title. Sometimes the role can be substantial, sometimes it's just empty puffery. But either way it's not part of the credentialed diplomatic mission to a particular country.

Paul Steiger, the legendary WSJ/Propublica editor, used to encourage us to pursue stories of “moral force.” That could never come at the expense of integrity, fairness or transparency. But it served as a lodestar for his reporters and editors. Whatever Bari Weiss is, it’s not this.

Trump's all-purpose excuse to avoid answering questions used to be "we'll have it in two weeks." In 2025, that shifted. Now it's just "I don't know." To hear Trump talk, he knows absolutely nothing. I analyze what this shift means. www.salon.com/2025/12/22/t...

nor her many defenders

though only successful because of the Ethics of Access Journalism

Landry rushed to clarify he isn't resigning as governor of Louisiana and this will be, like, his side gig I guess. The state constitution explicitly bans state officeholders from simultaneously holding any federal office.

The entire american "free speech" panic was about elites being criticized, which is why anyone who ever took it seriously should be ignored forever

Bari had been incredibly media savvy for years, knowing which asses to kiss, knowing which old guys with power to charm. It has worked well for her thus far. Kissing up and punching down does have its limits, however.

It is very misogynistic to criticize an extremely talented young woman journalist - gross new york times guys for years, about a woman who never worked as a journalist

Anti-anti-Trump intellectual flyweights gotta stick together

Gotta name this Weisswashing, I think. Because I seriously doubt this is the last time she’s going to censor stuff to protect Trump.

Incompetent courtiers being put in charge of key technical positions and then totally botching them was a recurring feature and major weakness of historical absolute monarchies and authoritarian regimes. Anyway, Bari Weiss,

With the beauty of this mind-numbingly dumb rule she's pretending to believe being that it's a preemptive catch-and-kill for literally anything the Trump administration (and therefore she) doesn't want on the air

really looking forward to conor friedersdorf's next column about how the real threat to free speech is once again people criticizing bari weiss on social media.

What Bari is saying is true of course, but it's horseshit in this case. You don't spike a story after it's been signed off on by legal and standards and screened that many times unless you're covering for someone you work for or with. You're already past the point in the process she's bringing up.

She is stupid and has no idea how to do her job,even the evil version of her job where she ruins the network from within.

You can't invent the lightbulb by improving the candle. You can't create new shit just by reading, regurgitating and rewording old shit. AI would tell you to build an iron lung to treat the symptoms but the human brain discovers penicillin to kill the cause of the symptoms.

Oh Sally. I remember when you were great. I am so fucking betting against Bari Weiss because she believes in her own small set of grievances, and she is she fusing them to the grievances of larger people and I hope they are all defeated. But she certainly will be.

Again, a lot of serious young journalists at the Times have been endlessly criticized for years for being obviously correct about what Weiss means when she evokes "free speech"

There is nothing people like Bari Weiss hold in contempt more than regular people putting their lives and safety on the line to defend truth and justice.

Never change, Bari Weiss

Alright this guy is calling it for the weekend. Busy few days of unioning and hummingbird photography before loading up the sleigh. In the meantime, may I offer two mandarin ducks? 🪶

He's talking about the 16th largest metro area in the United States with 3.7 million residents

That’s a funny note to end the episode on

This is a justification written by a 12 year old. Try harder. Or really, try at all.

Andrew Johnson illegally fired Edwin Stanton on Feb 21, 1868. The House voted, in a one-sentence resolution, to impeach him on Feb 24. The actual articles were adopted March 2-3. The Senate trial began on March 4. Twelve days from the offense itself to facing trial for it.

i think Vance is telling in this regard: he's not willing to alienate the Candace wing of the GOP

I drank so much Red Dog back in the day. The 40s were good too!

Congress covering for a horrific pedophile ring populated by our President and so many powerful people and rich people in this country who sexually assaulted girls for decades and CBS News covering for those same people who sent innocent men to be tortured at CECOT, just a disgusting time here

Senators like Kaine should resign mid-term, but insofar as they won’t, they ought to serve as archetypes for candidates who need to lose their primary elections. This kind of irresolute wimpiness ~entirely explains Democrats’ historically consequential failures in the Trump era.

not to excuse Weiss who owns this but I’ll be pretty surprised if there wasn’t a nasty call to an Ellison making clear that if this ran they could kiss WB goodbye

Not just mad. A scandal so big it called into question the fairness of the election (according to these freaks)!

I hope Wisdom the bird outlives that guy.

Don’t know why you people are making fun of Sally Jenkins, who has a sterling track record of not being duped by frauds