Paul Loop

This isn’t one of those “oh maybe we’re taking him out of context when he talked about bombing LA” quotes. It’s a five-alarm fire quote — and it ought to be placed high on every serious news site’s homepage tonight and tomorrow morning.

The dictator is an idiot.

Isn’t it illegal to arrest people on a hunch? Yes it is

News: I'm told that concerns over Skydance's ownership of the CNN pushed Amanpour to seriously consider months ago whether she wanted to remain at the network. At the time she communicated her feelings to CNN leadership, which asked her to stay a little while longer: www.status.news/p/christiane...

Good timing for me to post my latest Stop the Presses newsletter just before Trump gives a speech that shows he‘s totally out of his mind.

Trump on Canada: "I promised them if they become the 51st state, I said, 'I will let you keep ice hockey and I will let you keep your O Canada national anthem.'"

Let’s check in on The Free State of Florida, where the GOP is pursuing criminal prosecution of anyone who mentions a grand jury investigation that implicates the governor’s wife and a sitting US senator www.miamiherald.com/news/article...

Brown University’s widget shows that the energy costs of the Iran war have just passed $1,000 per household iranwarcost.watson.brown.edu

The Republican Party is responsible for all this. They chose an ignorant, cruel, impulsive, malignant narcissist to lead them and then, with a weakened and feckless news media helping, fooled enough low-information "independent" voters to put him back into office. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/10/w...

July 31: Russia is sharing intelligence with Iran to launch assaults on US troops October 9: Trump is doing a diesel deal with Russia (which can now use that money to provide intelligence to Iran in launching assaults on US troops)

The lying liars at DHS said ICE agents tried to block Oscar Belgal from driving away, and believed their lives were in danger. Lies. Always lies.

Jesse Watters: High gas prices because of the Iran War are worth it because "all of those big oil companies - they are making so much money"

New Colorado newspaper founded by political consultants, one of whom is a city council member, reports @coreyhutchins.bsky.social. coloradomedia.substack.com/p/new-colora...

This is so true from @mjtoma.bsky.social: "It took some guts for Ossoff to decide to make his central attack on Collins his racism...but Ossoff has pressed the point of Collins’s bigotry relentlessly." Big 2028 implications. newrepublic.com/post/216452/...

This feels like a threat.

“among editors who rely on freelance writers, it has become common knowledge that our inboxes and pitch forms are absolutely inundated with AI slop of one form or another.“ A great story by @tomzellerjr.com who has been kind enough to let me write for Undark and does not need this slop and fakery.

NEW in Ragebait: I take a deep dive into David Ellison's evolution from trust fund kid whose daddy funded a movie just so he could act in it to becoming one of the most powerful media tycoons in recent memory. A true avatar of the "Failed Actor Theory." zeteo.com/p/is-this-fa...

"Ten tankers were struck inside the strait from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4. That is the highest number of strikes in any week this year, compared with a previous weekly high of six. On Thursday, after a strike deep in the Persian Gulf, "Brent crude rose 5% to more than $105." www.wsj.com/world/middle...

NEW: As Colorado’s Tina Peters reportedly meets with President Trump to discuss an election “plan,” her attorney says the plan involves seizing ballots nationwide and discusses strategy for a potential civil war

NYT predicably reports that "Mayor Zohran Mamdani ignited intense anger from Jewish groups on Wednesday." That's *some* Jewish groups. Or Zionist groups. Not all Jewish groups. Not all Jews. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/n...

DOJ's Civil Rights Division once attracted the best of the best. These are the worst of the worst. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/u... Good article, but for the pathetically weak nut graph that says their work histories "might have disqualified them from being hired in the past, former officials said."

Too many people in the media give Trump props for "transparency" because he talks to reporters frequently. But he lies most of the time and often ignores questions. A day after he talked about letting Iran destroy Los Angeles and San Diego, he won't even explain what he meant.

Dictator Move of the Day. (This is my second DMOD today. It's a busy day for authoritarians.)

A Hasidic Jew, with the sidecurls, hat, and everything, is being deported. For the alleged crime of antisemitism. For peacefully protesting Israel. Where he is a citizen; and to which he is being deported.

A Democrat got drunk once. A Republican made his fortune swindling sick people. We report, you decide. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/u...

@beatwithari.bsky.social Thank you for having right-winger Thom Tillis on, so he could expose himself as a feckless, both-sides-do-it quitter. Apparently, he thinks he's got enough contrarian juice to take some sort of presidential run. I hope corporate donors waste a lot of money on him.

I dare AG Sulzberger and Joe Kahn to read this paragraph and tell me any of it is inaccurate — and then tell me they still think both-sidesing is a morally defensible thing to do and that history will look kindly upon them.

At a panel on AI slop and got this email. This is the cost, making hundreds of thousands of people a day try to decide if they are talking to a real person or not.

AI-induced ADHD is gonna be a diagnosis.

The first U.S. federal appeals court to examine fair use in AI training has sided with Thomson Reuters, upholding its landmark copyright win against the AI startup Ross Intelligence. buff.ly/UclLmsM

Hegseth says “anti-American losers in our media” are committing “treason” by not obediently amplifying his Iran war lies. He hasn’t held a war briefing for reporters at the Pentagon since May. Which means he hasn’t justified his actions to the public, even though he’s conducting a war in our name.

Now seems like a good time to say that the more I look at what doge did with USAID the more it looks like a straightforward eugenics project and Elon’s protests that he didnt know anyone might die seem doubly evil

“For the last year and a half, the people of the United States have witnessed the suffering of the undocumented in our midst, purposely and strategically magnified by our government, and for the most part, we have simply passed on by.” https://www.headsupnews.org/p/we-are-losing-our-soul-as-a-nation

One thing that i don’t see people noting about the Cornell Sun’s reporting on the rape case is that everyone who decided to take the risk and made the core decisions about what would be published is a woman

Desperately needs something like “The comment was clearly racist, although in what way was hard to immediately determine.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Here‘s your reminder that Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House home early so they wouldn’t have to vote on Pete Hegseth’s impeachment before the midterms. Republicans were terrified that they’d have to face voters and explain why they were covering for a racist, sexist, war-losing piece of crap.

You know that scene in The Godfather where Michael goes to the trattoria bathroom, retrieves a pistol, and shoots those 2 guys in the head? This is 100X better. Maybe more.

I just cant get enough of this.

Many thanks to @theunpopulist.net for reposting my piece on Stephen Miller’s Office of Remigration, which really needs more attention. This agency announces right in its name that white nationalism is the basis for US immigration policy: www.theunpopulist.net/p/stephen-mi...

driftglass.blogspot.com/2026/09/prof...

driftglass.blogspot.com/2026/09/prof...

😔 😡 on my daily dog walking route

The Lancet: DOGE is responsible for millions of deaths. WSJ oped: DOGE Works. Let’s Keep It Going.

The federal agents Trump let loose in Washington DC to make the city “safe and beautiful” are arresting Black men for petty crimes. Am I nuts to think this is worth a news story or two?

Ted Cruz's ESPN cameo got him booed off the air, left staffers "embarrassed," and sparked questions about equal time, in what we have learned is the latest source of friction inside and outside the network. Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/espn-ted-c...