Time For Criminal Referrals December 2, 2025December 2, 2025 Trump’s Plan Is Now Out in the Open, writes Peter Wehner in The Atlantic: “It’s getting ever harder to avoid connecting the authoritarian dots.” Trump is in the process of building his own paramilitary force. He is invoking wartime powers to deport people without due process, even suggesting that American citizens may be sent to foreign prisons. He has deployed National Guard troops to cities over the objections of local officials. In a speech to American troops in Japan, he warned: “If we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more than the National Guard.” My colleague Tom Nichols, a retired professor at the U.S. Naval War College, warns that eventually what Trump is doing will become a new principle for the use of force: “He is acclimating people to the notion that the military is his private army, unconstrained by law, unconstrained by norms, unconstrained by American traditions.” Earlier this year, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth fired the senior judge advocates general, removing the officials who could obstruct the execution of unlawful orders from the commander in chief. Their dismissals will also have a chilling effect on those who remain. The firing of the JAGs is just one element of a broader purge of the military, which started at the beginning of Trump’s second term. In February, five former defense secretaries, including James Mattis, who served under Trump in his first term, wrote a letter to lawmakers, saying the dismissals “raise troubling questions about the administration’s desire to politicize the military and to remove legal constraints on the president’s power.” Think about it: Senator Mark Kelly, et al, told the military not to break the law — for which Trump said they should be hanged. And now Kash Patel is investigating them. Really? Asking Soldiers to Obey the UCMJ Isn’t a Crime; But Trump Thinks it is. Before Elissa Slotkin participated in that video, she posted this one (2 very wow minutes) which suggests, as Wehner does, that Trump may just be setting the military up for a change toward a more authoritarian direction. Wehner concludes: If America recovers, the path will lie not simply through electoral politics. The fate of the country rests on the recovery of republican virtue, the cultivation of an active passion for the public interest, and a willingness to sacrifice individual interests for the common good. Words and phrases such as honor and love of country have to stir people out of their lethargy and into action. We saw some of that in the “No Kings” protests, but much more needs to happen. My colleague David Brooks, citing the work of the political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, reminds us that “citizens are not powerless; they have many ways to defend democracy.” Whether we step up or not is a matter of civic will and civic courage. Can we summon those virtues at a moment when American ideals are under sustained assault by the American president? A final thought: As we continue along this journey, into places none of us has ever quite been before, it is worth holding close to our hearts the words of the Czech playwright and dissident Václav Havel. They moved me when I first read them, in the early 1990s, when so much was so different, and I have cited them several times since, but they hold more meaning now than ever. “I have few illusions,” Havel wrote. “But I feel a responsibility to work towards the things I consider good and right. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to change certain things for the better, or not at all. Both outcomes are possible. There is only one thing I will not concede: that it might be meaningless to strive in a good cause.” Two who are definitely striving in that good cause are Stuart Stevens and Simon Rosenberg. Their conversation yesterday is not to be missed. (I’ve saved you the first 80 seconds of “great to see you” stuff.) It’s past time, they say, for some form of highly publicized criminal referrals . . . now, addressed to some future Justice Department, once we have one again . . . both to call out what’s been done and to make potential perpetrators think twice about doing more. Support the opposition party?
2028 December 1, 2025November 30, 2025 Loads of wonderful young people have decided to Run For Something in 2026, many of them ex-military or CIA, following in the footsteps of people like Senator Elissa Slotkin and Congressman Seth Moulton with a special devotion to support and defend the Constitution. And then, after we win back the House and quite possibly the Senate (thank you for your help!), there will be 2028. Among the governors who may be in the running are Gavin Newsom, 58; JB Pritzker, 60; Gretchen Whitmer, 54 . . . and Andy Beshear of Kentucky (47), whose recent Washington Post essay, How Democrats can change rural red to blue, argues that “Democrats should be the party of aspiration — and talk like normal human beings.” Notions, I dare say, shared by virtually all our potential candidates. And then there’s the guy who, aged 38 (now 43), won the 2020 Iowa primary. Can a gay man be elected president? Scott Galloway and Ezra Klein discuss. The primaries will be wide open and, quite possibly, inspirational.* They should help remind people of which party is which. Ours is the party that — against consistent Republican opposition — gave the country weekends and the 40-hour work week; Social Security and Medicare; the minimum wage and consumer protections; the Affordable Care Act and the Family & Medical Leave Act; the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act; cleaner air and water; a whole suite of equal rights for LGBTQ Americans . . . . . . and the kinds of policies that led to far stronger job gains (10 of the last 11 recessions began under Republican presidents, not counting the one that may be brewing now). We’ve not been perfect by any means; but we’re really tried — including on immigration, where Republicans killed needed bi-partisan reform in 2007 and again in 2013 and 2024. How to encapsulate all this into a single, over-arching theme? As described here two weeks ago, Strong Floor, No Ceiling, is one possibility clearly gaining traction. OUR PRESIDENT MAY BE UNWELL ‘Trump will not make it to the end of this term compos mentis’ | Psychologist analyses Trump *With at least a touch of this 18-year-old Dutch boy’s youthful idealism (60 seconds).
Leaving MAGA — An Off-Ramp November 30, 2025November 29, 2025 He calls it an “e-book,” but at 9,500 words — and free — My MAGA Odyssey is really just a wonderful short story. In three parts. I. Why I Gravitated To MAGA II. Why I Left MAGA III. Empowering Others to Leave MAGA Once a prominent MAGA voice, Rich Logis writes: I know many will ask: “It took you seven years to leave?” It’s a fair criticism. I don’t have a good answer as to why I defended, and justified, over and over, the indefensible and the unjustifiable. I was always convinced that MAGA’s adversaries were far worse. I bought into the dehumanization of our opponents. I appreciate that these answers will be unsatisfactory to many. As I spoke and wrote as much as I could about how I left MAGA, I decided I needed to do more to reach out to others who were in my position. That’s why I founded Leaving MAGA. I want it to provide an off-ramp of sorts to those who are having doubts and/or are considering leaving the movement. It’s also a safe space, a community for those who are ready to return to who they were before MAGA clawed into their hearts and minds. Finally, Leaving MAGA is a resource for those who want to reach out to friends and/or loved ones in the movement. I am living proof that it’s possible to leave MAGA. Let’s get to work to again find peace with our family, friends and neighbors in MAGA. Read his “book”? Visit his website? And the many stories you’ll find there of others who’ve left MAGA, like this young man’s, or this young woman’s . . . each one an interesting personal struggle. I increasingly believe we’re going to win. Please help if you can.
Recommendations November 28, 2025 I wish all our little speculations had quintupled over the last year or two, as HYMC has done (and yet I’m still holding two-thirds of my shares). In the meantime, though — while I hope for great things from PRKR and ANIX and CNF and OPRT and RNGE and VERU, among others, all to be purchased only with money you can truly afford to lose — I have some other things to suggest: BROADWAY I’ve previously plugged Just In Time and Chess if you can squeeze Broadway into your budget. Let me now add one more — Spelling Bee — and happily echo the New York Times: “TENDER, JOYOUS, BITTERSWEET, and VERY, VERY FUNNY.” I had never seen the original (and have never attended an actual spelling bee), so when four participants were called up from the audience last week (only the last of whom I recognized as a star, Daniel Radcliffe), I was wondering — “Wow. Really? They could be selling those four seats rather than wasting them on cast members — and wait! Why aren’t they advertising Daniel Radcliffe?!” (I was wondering these things because I am a small investor in the show.) But it turned out they had sold those seats. All four were paying theater goers who only upon arrival had signed the nightly volunteer list to get up on stage. So every night’s performance is a little different, with different jokes — and I can’t wait to see it again. It is, indeed, very, very funny. AUDIBLE I’m not a runner, but The Running Ground was given lots of stars, even for slugs like me, so I figured I’d give it a try. And finished in less time than it would take me to walk the marathon (if I would ever walk that far, which I never have and never would). The last time I ran was 33 years ago, from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel up to and around the Reservoir, with a Secret Service detail. I embarrassed myself too thoroughly to elaborate here, except to say that in the seventh grade, preparing to sprint 100 yards, Coach Athans told me to lean forward and run on my toes. He forgot to mention that this works for sprinting only — so for the next 34 years, up until my final run, that’s in fact how I ran any distance, building calf muscles the size of unabridged dictionaries. I digress. I finished listening to The Running Ground over a series of a few power walks, eager to recommend it to runner friends of mine — and non-runners alike. LATE-NIGHT Lots of presidents have been known for their senses of humor; and we have elected some dim bulbs. But have we had a buffoon before? Seth Meyers takes a closer look. 60-SECOND SPOT Daddy — How Was Your Day? Have a great weekend! I increasingly believe we will, in fact, be able to save our democracy. More on that next.
Five Minutes To Watch Before Football November 27, 2025November 26, 2025 INEQUALITY Scott Galloway: “The reason we put an insurrectionist and a rapist in office” — 90 must-watch seconds (no need to stick around after they cut away). MAGAns will agree with almost all of it. PAUL KRUGMAN ON CRYPTO “Nobody’s using it for anything legitimate“– 30 seconds. The longer version, condensed here: The Trump Trade is Unraveling. At this point Bitcoin is largely a Trump trade. Why? Partly because Trump, whose family has in effect received massive bribes from the crypto industry, has been rewarding that investment with pro-crypto policies. Notably, Trump has signed an executive order intended to allow ordinary Americans — who, again, generally don’t know what they’re getting into — to invest money from their 401(k)s in crypto assets. More broadly, crypto is, as I’ve suggested, increasingly a tool for financial predators, and the Trump administration is extremely predator-friendly. The administration has been doing all it can to dismantle institutions, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, that were created to help keep investors and markets safe after the 2008 financial crisis. Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, and other Trump officials and allies — including some officials at the Federal Reserve — have also been doing all they can to undermine bank supervision, which tries to limit the kind of risk-taking that brought on the 2008 crisis. All of this is bad for small investors and bad for financial stability. But it’s good for financial schemers like the people and institutions promoting Bitcoin. So how should we understand Bitcoin’s recent crash? Think of it as the unraveling of the Trump trade. Trump remains as determined as ever to reward the industry that made his family rich, and those around him are as determined as ever to make America safe for predators of all kinds. But Trump’s power is visibly diminishing, so the price of Bitcoin, which has in effect become a bet on Trumpism, has plunged. OUR DEEP BENCH It’s exciting to see so many spectacular young Democrats running for office to get America back on track. Many come from the military. This one is an ordained minister and a rocket scientist (150 seconds). No military service but his wife is a combat veteran. He’s running to unseat the consumer-unfriendly Republican chair of the House Financial Services Committee. I think he just may win. !HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
How To Make Friends As An Adult November 26, 2025 But first . . . The Cruelty Is the Policy, writes his niece Mary: When Donald came into office, he almost immediately defunded U.S.A.I.D. Doing so hobbled America’s ability to deploy soft power which is a vital tool it has used in the past to create alliances, spread democracy, and expand its global influence . . . leaving a soft power void for our adversaries like China to fill. Donald doesn’t care about starving children in America, so there’s no reason to think he’d care about starving children anywhere else in the world, especially if they aren’t white. Since defunding U.S.A.I.D., at least 400,000 who should still be alive are dead. America has become the enemy of combating disease and feeding children, all thanks to the fact that tens of millions of people thought that it was a good idea to put a man in the Oval Office who has no basic human decency and cares nothing about humanity. Not to mention the monumental corruption, obstruction, bullying, lying, vulgarity, and incompetence. Some Congressional Republicans may not have the stomach for much more. Indeed, writes Lev Parnas . . . Marjorie Taylor Greene May Be Just the Beginning Marjorie Taylor Greene announcing she’s out isn’t just some random drama. She’s the visible tip of a much bigger iceberg that’s been forming under the surface for a long time. My phone has been buzzing with messages from people inside Trump world. They’re all saying the same thing in different ways: this is not a one-off. This is the beginning of something much larger. My sources are telling me flat out that there are more Republican members—already looking for the exits, talking about early retirement, mid-term resignations, and ways to get out before the next wave hits. Some are eyeing cushy lobbying or TV gigs. Others just want out before the Epstein files fully explode, before the legal and political cost of staying on Team Trump becomes unbearable. . . . My sources are clear: if just a few more dominos fall, the House can flip before the midterms. You know who else may be gone soon? Kash Patel, the FBI’s Agent of Chaos, who should never have been appointed in the first place, of course, and who is now Under Scrutiny for Use of SWAT Teams to Protect His Girlfriend. And now . . . Making friends as an adult is hard. Here’s the secret. grateful for your readership HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
The Lolita Express November 25, 2025November 25, 2025 EPSTEIN AND LARRY SUMMERS’ WIFE Behold: Elisa New, who has been married to Summers since 2005, sent Epstein a copy of an invitation to an unnamed event on Nov. 25, 2018 [a decade after he had first gone to prison for prostitution charges involving underage victims]. She is an American literature professor at Harvard and also discussed literature with him. She says in one message that she is going on a trip to Australia and will read a copy of “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov. The book is about a 30-something married scholar and his sexual obsession with a 12-year-old girl. People later named Epstein’s private plane, which flight logs show ferried VIPs and women all over the world, “The Lolita Express.” New then recommends he read “My Antonia” next time he’s on a long plane trip. “The prose is gorgeous, and the book has – come to think of it – similar themes to Lolita in that it’s about a man whose whole life is stamped forever by his impression of a young girl.” Which leads me to Andy Borowitz. Andy is known for his funny headlines. (Lindsey Halligan Reveals Her Dream is to Someday Go to Law School.) Sometimes, he gets more substantive — while still blazingly funny. (Who Will Replace MTG in Trump’s Clown Car?) And on rare occasion he chooses not to be funny at all. As here last week: She Says Trump Raped Her When She Was a Child. I don’t think the Epstein thing is going to go away. It’s just drip, drip, drip. The Republican standard bearer has said he can grab women by the pussy . . . was adjudicated to have raped a woman he swore was “Not His Type” . . . allegedly walked into teen-age girls’ dressing rooms . . . and has done everything he can to keep the Epstein files from coming out — even hauling one Republican Congresswomen into the Situation Room to browbeat her (unsuccessfully) into withdrawing her name from the discharge petition that finally got a vote after a 7-week Congressional recess designed to avoid it (leading some to brand his obedient G.O.P., “Guardians Of Pedophiles.) As you know, once it was clear Trump would lose that vote, he claimed to be for release of the files. Had that been true, he could simply have instructed the Justice Department to release them. Now he’ll likely instruct the Department to find other ways to delay, obstruct, and redact. See also: Forbes: Trump’s History With Jeffrey Epstein: The Full Timeline NEW TOPIC It’s not only MAGA influencers who have been unmasked, as described yesterday. See also: X’s New Transparency Tool Blows Open Global Disinformation Network Posing as “Gaza Eyewitnesses” Not to say horrible things have not happened; but some of the worst are called into question. HAPPY BONUS A quick tour of the world, in song (90 seconds).
Top Maga Influencers Unmasked November 24, 2025 Russia is definitely listening and — as it kills more and more Ukrainians in an effort to conquer a sovereign democrat state (a move Trump recognized as “genius“) — has been influencing millions of unsuspecting Americans: Top Maga Influencers Unmasked As Foreign Trolls Elon Musk’s social media site X has rolled out a new feature in an effort to increase transparency—and unwittingly revealed that many of the site’s top MAGA influencers are actually foreign actors. . . . Dozens of major accounts masquerading as “America First” or “MAGA” proponents have been identified as originating in places such as Russia, India, and Nigeria. . . . “This is total Armageddon for the online right,” wrote law student and left-wing influencer Micah Erfan. “It’s looking like half of their large accounts were foreigners posing as Americans all along.” Putin is winning. Not least because Trump wants to be him: rich beyond imagining like him . . . ruling for life, like him, over a vast landmass — all of North America in his case (Canada and Greenland would be nice to annex); all of the former Soviet Union and maybe a bit of Eastern Europe, in Putin’s. Both men have come a long way toward those goals. One was a business-bankrupting reality show personality and fake-wrestling hall of famer with a bone spur, a charming rogue to those who golfed or Epstein-partied with him who grabbed women by the pussy and kept a book of Hiter’s speeches by his bedside — and look at him now. The other, a highly disciplined former KGB agent eighth-level judo black belt, one-time KGB liaison to the East German secret police, whose parents were factory workers (though his grandfather was a personal cook for both Lenin and Stalin) — and look at him now. . . . Under Putin’s rule, the Russian political system has been transformed into an authoritarian dictatorship with a personality cult. His rule has been marked by endemic corruption and widespread human rights violations, including the imprisonment and suppression of political opponents, intimidation and censorship of independent media in Russia, and a lack of free and fair elections. If you agree we need an adequately funded opposition party — it is not yet adequately funded (I wouldn’t be asking if it were) — please click here to chip in as much as you prudently can. Now is the time to fund infrastructure. I’ll see what you do and jump through the screen to say thanks. MAMDAMI ON ANTI-SEMITISM Some of you have been worried. The proof, of course, will be in the pudding; but take these 90 seconds to be reassured. AOC ON MTG The date Marjorie Taylor Greene has chosen to quit is all of TWO DAYS after her generous congressional pension vests . . . and — says AOC — after she has made millions in the stock market on inside information. (Will she in fact “say every damn name” on Epstein’s client list before she leaves, as she has repeatedly vowed to do?) Entering Congress in 2021 with a net worth of $700,000, she will be leaving worth around $25 million. Apparently, most of the gain came from the value of her construction company, though it would be interesting to know whether its remarkable performance benefited in some way from her privileged position. VINDMAN ON A SECOND “PERFECT CALL” This one was between Trump and MBS and was perhaps even worse than the first (60 seconds — or read it here). Have a great week.
On The Off Chance . . . November 21, 2025 . . . you haven’t seen it: The Mark Kelly, et al, video that Trump considers sedition, punishable by death (90 seconds).* . . . you think he’s advancing our interests with his latest proposal to end the Ukraine war (“on Day One”): Timothy Snyder’s Five Reasons the US should not help Russia subjugate Ukraine (4 minutes).* . . . you don’t know what he’s done to farmers: Export-killing trade wars, rising equipment and fertilizer costs, huge increases in health care costs (27% of farmers rely on the Affordable Care Act for health insurance), impending rural hospital closures. . . . you know someone who’s thinking of joining ICE: Borderland Talk with Jenn Budd . . . Often times, [the young people] who are about to hear me speak come up and introduce themselves. They are interested in joining ICE, CBP and Border Patrol. The pay is outstanding, the benefits are incredible. You start at about $50k a year and can be earning over $100k in three years. You do not have to have a college degree or even a high school diploma as a high school equivalency is enough. No work experience, no prior military required. You can have prior arrests for DUIs and even sexual assault, and they will still hire you. For many, it is difficult to say no. Most think they know what these agencies are and claim that ICE, CBP and Border Patrol were once honorable. It is only Trump who has made them so corrupt and brutal. This makes me smile like the way I smile at a little child who believes Santa Claus is real. I always start out with a bit about myself. I joined in June of 1995 and rose to the rank of Senior Patrol Agent, and so on. . . . But all of that was a long time ago. So, I bring it forward to today, and show the slides of todays agents who are raping, sexually assaulting, strangulating, using their rank to force female agents into sex, sexually abusing children, producing child pornography, smuggling migrants, smuggling drugs and even trafficking children into sex. I show how Border Patrol agents commit more violent crimes than the migrants they arrest. I show how Trump’s policies created crises after crises on the southern border and how the right-wing media has sold Americans on a fake invasion that was caused by the feds simply refusing to process anyone. I show how people are still crossing today but that the agencies are lying and the media is not covering it. I leave them with the fact that these agencies see their agents arrested five times more than other law enforcement agents, that the Border Patrol has more suicides than any other agency. And then I raise my hands and show them how deformed they are from my own attempt. I beg them to not [enlist] because it will leave them destroyed. Their children will hate them, their families will disown them. They will lose their marriages and they will look in the mirror one day and not recognize themselves. . . . Recently, I have ended with making it clear that these agencies have violated their oath to the Constitution . . . They must be abolished. People say I am brave for making these speeches. You should know that it terrifies me and emotionally drains me to do them. But I have to do them, because I don’t see anyone else willing to. These young adults are where the agencies go to recruit. If all they know is the post 9/11 propaganda, they will enter these agencies and repeat history. I cannot live with that. . . . you can help: Now is the time to fund the Democratic infrastructure that all our 8,000+ candidates will rely on next fall. Have a great weekend! *Thanks to Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles for pointing me to these links. I try to read him every day.
Disappearing Data; Presidential Death Threats November 21, 2025 Catherine Rampell at the Bulwark: In 1937, Olimpiy Kvitkin, a statistician, was executed by firing squad. His crime? Producing inconvenient census numbers, which showed the Soviet Union contained about 6 million fewer residents than Joseph Stalin had claimed, probably because of that teensy-tiny famine the country had just been through. Oops. We’re (thankfully) not at that penal stage yet. She details “Trump’s Trick for Eliminating Bad News.” (Spoiler alert: Just delete it.) Senator Elissa Slotkin: Earlier this morning, President Trump threatened me and a group of service and veteran Members of Congress with arrest, trial, and death by hanging. Here is my response [80 seconds]. Senator Chris Murphy: The President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. This is not normal. We cannot allow this to feel normal. . . . Let this really sink in: The President of the United States just called for members of Congress to be executed. . . . [He] is engaged in the wholesale incitement, endorsement and rationalization of political violence in this country. . . . This is a moment for people to step up, for Republicans to step up, for business leaders to step up. Anybody who has a voice or a soapbox in this country needs to draw a line in the sand and say that it is not acceptable for the president of the United States to call for the murder of his political opposition. Trump Launches a $10 B Spying Operation Targeting American Liberals, Classifying Some As Pre-Terrorist. (Here’s the September 25 presidential decree that story refers to.) CNF CNF is holding an Extraordinary General Meeting December 10 to vote on a proposal by management to issue them a new class of shares effectively handing them complete control over governance. I’m voting NO.