Michael Jaeger
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jaegerbru.bsky.social
Michael Jaeger
@jaegerbru.bsky.social
Political junkie, ACFC, USWNT, brunch founder, proud dad of Kit and Sarah. East coast born and bred, LA since the turn of the century.
Shocking, but not surprising. (Also pathetic.)
Utterly ludicrous framing from @nytimes.com here, treating Pete Hegseth's arguments as if they're legitimate. The casual reader will be left with no inkling whatsoever of how unusual and corrupt an abuse of the process this truly is:
November 24, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
We really do have two different kinds of law now: District Court law (aka the law), and Supreme Court "law" (aka the U.S. House of Lords upholding Trump's personalist regime)
I don’t know what the Supreme Court will do, but I am confident that at the District Court level it is still the case that the Pentagon cannot recall a sitting US Senator to active duty in order to court martial him for something he said. Article 1, Section 6, among other constitutional provisions.
November 24, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
Every Democrat in Congress should put out a video saying troops have an obligation to refuse unlawful orders. Make them prosecute all of you. This isn't a close call.

I'd add Republicans too if I thought any of them had the courage to actually cross Trump on this.
Hegseth is now threatening to recall Sen. Mark Kelly to active duty in order to court martial him.
November 24, 2025 at 5:52 PM
This is fantastic news.
November 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
Oddly enough, in media coverage of Dems' video warning against carrying out illegal orders, there's very little discussion of *whether it's actually reasonable to fear Trump is giving illegal commands or not.*

The evidence is strong that he is. Media should say so:

newrepublic.com/article/2035...
November 23, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
I just think Trump understands Mamdani is not someone he wants to tangle with. Too smart, too charismatic, too New York, too straightforward, too young. Easier targets elsewhere, like everyone who works for him and most of Congress. (1/2)
November 21, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
something i'll note is that if nuzzi ran catch-and-kill ops for rfk jr and lizza knew this prior to him being appointed as HHS, and instead of telling anyone, he decided to save it for his substack long after rfk jr had made communicable disease into federal policy, that's completely fucked
November 22, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
There are going to be prominent Democrats and mainstream media voices who insist that we have to "turn the page" and "forgive and forget" and they should all be roundly ignored, if not mercilessly mocked.
It’s crazy to think about the crimes we’re going to learn about after this regime ends.

We’re already hearing about Watergate level crimes every week. Imagine what will come out after it’s over.

We’re going to need a full accounting of all that’s been done in violation of the constitution.
November 22, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
We don’t need to reform ICE.
We don’t need alternatives to ICE.
We don’t need to engage in dishonest debates wondering what the U.S. would do without ICE.

ICE isn’t even 23 years old. Most adults know a world without ICE. And the billions used to fund ICE can be used to meet people’s basic needs.
November 18, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
Trump is incapable of resisting charm, (male) charisma, and - most importantly - celebrity. He has an unquenchable desire to be near it, has been chasing it his whole life.

That's mostly it. Forget all the "He's a populist!" bullshit from both the centrist commentariat and the anti-liberal Left.
Every article by a 'savvy' political analyst reads like a focus group transcript with a low-information voter.
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
November 22, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
Trump’s affection for Mamdani has nothing to do with his political ideology, of which he has almost none; it’s entirely a function of his narcissistic personality disorder, which perfectly explains every single decision he makes, but is somehow left out of “serious” political discussions
November 22, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
Just remembering how one of the most important and widely read and dropped-with-maximally-damaging-timing "Biden is old and senile" pieces was reported by Nuzzi. It makes you think!
well, I read it, and the salient, non-gross part is Lizza alleging, midsentence and without elaboration, that Nuzzi ran numerous “catch-and-kill operations” on RFK’s behalf, which would give her a role in both his appointment and the untold preventable deaths he has abetted in office. Cool.
November 22, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
Editorial Boards have been derelict in their defense of American democracy.

Credit to a local paper for standing up: @sentinelcolorado.com the first to call for #impeachment.

Showing AGSulzberger & NYT, Will Lewis & WaPo, Emma Tucker & WSJ what the Fourth Estate is for.

bsky.app/profile/sent...
November 22, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Exactly right. And depressing. But that’s where we are as a country.
This is an accidentally honest answer. What she's saying in code is:
"The President is a misogynist, petulant bully. You've all seen him be a misogynist, petulant bully. And lots of voters out there are also misogynist or petulant or bullies and that's why they like him."
Q: What did the president mean when he called a reporter "piggy"?

LEAVITT: Look, the president is very frank & honest with everyone in this room. You'll all seen it yourself. You've all experienced it yourselves. And I think it's one of the many reasons the American people reelected this president
November 20, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
There have to be consequences for how Bovino’s brutal raiders keep ginning up charges against innocent people that are quickly dropped as soon as the spotlight moves on.
November 20, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
Of all the terrible things Roberts has done, this was the most shocking stat: "the right-wing majority has used the shadow docket to uphold Trump’s actions roughly 90 percent of the time, repeatedly bailing him out of any obligation to follow the law"
There’s one person squarely to blame for Trump’s corruption, authoritarianism & assault on democracy: John Roberts. He’s enabled so much of Trump’s lawlessness while somehow escaping accountability for it

New cover story from @pemalevy.bsky.social & me

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
This is all John Roberts’ fault
Trump owes his corrupt and abusive reign to one man.
www.motherjones.com
November 19, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
The fact that no one in the room stood up for her says a lot about how we got here bsky.app/profile/pale...
"Quiet! Quiet, Piggy."
November 18, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Shocking, not surprising. That is disgusting and pathetic.
…and then the rest of the White House press corps pushed back against the president’s gratuitous insult aimed at one of their colleagues?

Oh wait! There’s no sign that anything like that happened!

Because access beats out solidarity, every day of the week.

people.com/donald-trump...
Donald Trump Snaps at Female Reporter Who Asks About Epstein Files: 'Quiet Piggy'
Donald Trump Says 'Quiet Piggy' to Female Reporter Asking About Epstein Files
people.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Something that the both-sides brigade ought to note. (I won’t wait.)
November 18, 2025 at 12:57 AM
100%
Good ideas, though my dismal opinion is that every strategy would've run into SCOTUS 5-4 making up a reason why it didn't work then pretending it had no choice but to stop the count.

Then never relying on the opinion in any other case, because it was all fake.
November 17, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
If these people are ever thrown out of power, I hope we all understand there is no reformist pathway for institutions like this as much as Dems might desperately wish and claim there is.
November 15, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
Exactly. Dems should say: Are you really sure you want to stake your future liberty on this serial criminal's promises to protect you?
Combo of Trump’s lawlessness and the pardon power complicate the psychology. Deterrence requires more than warning of future prosecution. The people committing these murders need to ask:

Can I depend on a faithless man like Trump to pardon me?

What other forms of accountability might I face?
Trump Boat Bombings Take Dark, Unnerving Turn with Leaked Memo Stunner
A new Trump administration memo argues that those carrying out the boat attacks can’t be prosecuted. Why? Because the administration says so!
newrepublic.com
November 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
New in PN: The hysteria over Biden's pardons seems extra ridiculous now

"Trump has perverted the pardon power far beyond the most questionable actions of any other modern president, emboldening a diverse cast of crooked politicians and outright fraudsters in a new American age of corruption."
The hysteria over Biden's pardons seems extra ridiculous now
Trump's abuse of the pardon power makes everything else look like child's play.
www.publicnotice.co
November 15, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Yes. This. So stupid.
1/2 One of the big problems for the always-punching-left Democratic consultants is that they are waging ideological battles in public that actually _reinforce_ the left-wing image of the party that they are trying to fight. That is a risk they have decided
substack.com/@lakshyajain...
November 15, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Michael Jaeger
This is a 19-paragraph article to which 7 journalists contributed; it contains not a single hint that there is any impropriety in the President of the United States directing the Justice Department to investigate his political adversaries.
November 14, 2025 at 8:32 PM