I feel like the problem with Dracula is the reverse: everyone *has* the context of "Dracula is a vampire" so instead of finding his behavior just strange and unsettling (as Harker does), instead the reader is going, "dude, he is a *vampire*, get out *now*!"

Trump's conversation with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is caught on a hot mic. Hard to tell exactly what they are talking about, but Subianto asks Trump about meeting Eric Trump and Don Jr, who supposedly have nothing to do with government while they run the family business.

This is such a thorough take down of Bari Weiss and the vapid shill she is for oligarch billionaires. He especially shreds the Free Press over it's coverage of trans issues and the so called whistleblower Jamie Reed.

youtu.be/gieTx_P6INQ?...

Abolish. Fire. Prosecute.

Punishing officials who lie in court and on documents is desperately needed to drag us out of the legitimacy of bullshit the Trump era has created.

They say it about every protest, and it's because they know on some level that their own mass movements are astroturfed.

They know that *their* side plays people to attend their events and assume that the same must be true for the opposition as well.

The projection is *hard.*

These people are just incapable of understanding that Trump just isn't popular.

“Israel released 250+ Palestinian prisoners + 1,700 Gazans… Hamas released 20 remaining living hostages – and was to hand over the bodies of 28 deceased hostages… there are 11,000+ Palestinians in 🇮🇱 detention, 87% never charged or convicted…” www.irishtimes.com/world/middle...

Send every ICE employee to the fucking Hague.

"Why can't Trump murder civilians indiscriminately at home like he does abroad" - Ross Douthat

City payouts from LAPD traffic collisions top $90m since 2019, more than $57m in the last two years alone.

2025 is already almost $25m and the fiscal year (7/1-6/30) isn't even a third over.

www.latimes.com/california/s...

The Cybertruck is the *perfect* piece of evidence to show that Elon really isn't that smart, because *so many* design choices are entirely about "looking cool."

The steering wheel is a tiny hexagon. The turn signal is a button on the steering wheel. The display is a touch screen.

It's *insane.*

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has launched investigations against school districts for teaching lessons on systemic racism and hosting empowerment gatherings for students of color.

"Look how careless the Dwarves of Erebor were, just *letting* their riches flow out into Dale, and thence into the wider world! A truly wise ruler would lay upon their wealth, thus allowing its value to increase by its scarcity!"

... okay, that was *way* too easy.

It really demonstrates the major flaw with being super rich:

There's no longer anyone around you willing to tell you that you sound like a complete moron.

I wrote about a new Nazi party that seeks to criminalize all human virtue, and how that means that human virtue is the greatest weapon against the new Nazi project.

www.the-reframe.com/the-crime-of...

Essential point:

"Key to... Vought’s worldview is the idea that the constitutional order - and with it the “natural” order itself - has been destroyed: The revolution has already happened, “the Left” won. Therefore, conservatives categorically err when they try to preserve what is no more."

How exactly do things like "forcing rural hospitals to close" and "kicking people off of Medicare" qualify as "fixing" healthcare, Mike?

Am I "fixing" your car by punching holes in your tires and cutting the fuel line?

Columbus was a genocidal warlord and slaver who nearly got his own men killed before stumbling upon human societies that did not need discovering.

Never stepped foot in North America. Wasn't Italian.

He doesn't deserve a holiday.

Giuseppe Garibaldi on the other hand deserves one. And was Italian.

A related problem for Trump/GOP is: "how are those ICE raids working out for you?"

Sure, there are Stephen Millers who thrive on cruelty, but a typical Trump voter is more "I'm okay with cruelty to benefit me."

Y'all got better jobs yet? More food on your table?

Help them see the answer is "no."

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

I'm sure all the folks who had Very Serious Concerns about Hunter Biden will be speaking up about this any minute now.

Any minute now.

A policy expert described Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s push in favor of private schools as a “great American heist,” funneling money from public schools: “It’s a strategic theft of the future of our country, our kids and our democracy.”

By @megomatz.bsky.social & @jsmithrichards.bsky.social