Peter Birkenhead

Serious Men and the Water They Swim In I’ll never forget the feeling I got about an hour into reading Hillary Clinton’s emails after they were released in 2016.

When her emails provided a look behind the curtain at Hillary, we saw an integrity completely at odds with her public image of corruption. When Epstein’s emails provided a look behind the curtain at powerful men, we glimpsed corruption completely at odds with their public image of integrity. 

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Shut the fuck up.

Democracy dies in deference.

Bullshit. People in the crosshairs of brutal American violence are allowed to complain about it. “Crybaby?” Jesus Christ.

He (and we) could succeed at both electoral politics and fighting fascism if he used his position to shape public opinion instead of merely reacting to it.

Patagonia vests and vapes, but yes.

Oh, sorry, misunderstood. Yeah, I doubt any were.

Reverend James Reeb was killed in Selma. Jonathan Daniels, was killed in Hayneville, Alabama.

There’s such a sharp contrast in this moment between the bravery of everyday people who can barely afford to lose anything, and the cowardice of powerful people who can afford to lose so much. It reveals the extent to which power in America is essentially a reward for cowardice.

No more pretense or excuses. Trump and his team have made the white supremacist foundations of this project explicit and clear.

If you enable this you need to face who and what you are. But you can always choose another way.

Choose humanity. Decency. Equality. Democracy.

I mean, the last time we saw Bond he was still 45 years old, as he has been since 1962, so I think audiences might be able to make the leap.

But has he? Been accountable? His answers to questions about this seem conspicuously free of awareness about the gravity involved and the pain attached to his actions. I wish I saw someone wrestling with deeply serious stuff rather than spouting boilerplate “I was young and dumb” talking points.

Don't be chickenshit.

Charlie Kirk was a loathsome human being because he celebrated violence against people he didn’t like. Don’t be like Charlie.

This is a demand, that if raised loudly by the base, the congressional Democrats will have an incredibly hard time avoiding or ignoring. What are they going to say? That this is a distraction? That it’s too complicated? That they can get this deal without leverage? That Latino voters can drop dead?

www.facebook.com/share/1JTFgn...

Trump's Birthday Card To Dead Sex Pest Epstein As Gross As We Imagined And other people were in on the 'joke.'

Trump's Birthday Card To Dead Sex Pest Epstein As Gross As We Imagined
www.wonkette.com/p/trumps-bir...

By Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social

The new CDC director is trying to kill you. Not just “the most vulnerable”; you, me, everyone. This is a comic book-level evil scenario.

This story is unbearable. Read it anyway.

A horrendous decision, obviously, but Is it actually clear that any of the grants affected were for those diseases/conditions?

Maureen Dowd’s Criminal Anxiety I feel for Maureen Dowd’s sister, I really do.

open.substack.com/pub/peterbir...

Surprise. The fact that every day, sometimes every hour, will offer surprises of one kind or another, most involving human interaction. Running into a friend you haven’t seen in years, catching a street performance, hearing a language you’ve never heard before, taking a detour to a new experience..

Free DC models effective resistance to Trump’s takeover DC residents’ rapid response to Trump's National Guard deployment is a masterclass in how to prepare for crises and fight authoritarianism.

“We should all remember Washington, D.C.’s most violent day was sparked by Trump himself. What’s more, D.C.’s safety won’t come from militarization, but rather through decreasing unemployment, ending ICE’s kidnapping of neighbors, and restoring funding to Medicaid, SNAP and public schools.”

A million times this.

“Alarming”: Trump’s Threat of Troops in Cities Just Got Much Scarier Top Democrats are demanding that the Pentagon release documentation of internal conversations about future militarization of domestic law enforcement.

News --> Top Dems are demanding that the Pentagon disclose any/all internal memos and policy guidance involving DHS's push for more militarization of domestic enforcement.

It's a response to our reporting on DHS talks w/Pentagon on this. Details in my new piece:
newrepublic.com/article/1990...

I wrote a thing, a roundup of some of the resistance going on.

The Holocaust Museum ushmm.bsky.social has an opportunity, as an institution not connected to the Smithsonian, to highlight Trump’s erasure of history. State control of historical narrative and its role in incipient fascism would make for a timely exhibition. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

They’re such fragile little things.

I have been placed in Facebook jail. If you know me on there please spread the word.