David French

My friend @davidlat.bsky.social just published an email Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp sent to the firm. This excerpt is the most chilling. This is how constitutional republics die -- when rivals see a violation of fundamental rights not as an injustice, but as a business opportunity:

There's a very real question as to whether federal law will apply to Trump's allies at all during Trump's term. The atmosphere of impunity may be like nothing we've seen in our lifetimes.

Phil Williams @philinvestigates.com

BREAKING: Federal prosecutors based in Nashville have withdrawn from the criminal investigation of Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles, an unprecedented move that could signal plans by the Trump administration to drop the case against a Republican ally. www.newschannel5.com/news/newscha...

Career prosecutors withdraw from federal criminal investigation of GOP Congressman Andy Ogles

Federal prosecutors based in Nashville have withdrawn from the criminal investigation of Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles.

MAGA morality: Put thousands of federal employees on leave, cut aid that sustains countless lives, demonize your opponents, and then enjoy the suffering of your enemies.

But then - when one DOGE worker is fired for vicious racism -say, "Where's the grace and mercy in this country?"

Christopher Wray resigned as FBI director. Was it capitulation or defiance?

I think it was defiance. Wray's resignation actually narrowed Trump's options. There was a path to rapidly appointing Patel as an acting director, without Senate confirmation. That path is now closed:

Opinion | Did Christopher Wray Just Defy Donald Trump?

Now, the Senate has to do its job.

Stocks are soaring because it's always great when someone just stops hitting you with a hammer. But when they stop, the next step is to take the hammer out of their hands.

Congress needs to take back its tariff authority. And we need to keep saying it until it happens, in this Congress or the next.

I strongly agree with this. Lots of folks are demoralized. Some are intimidated. Others are apathetic. That will change.

Dear authoritarian adviser: "Process" is how we find out if someone is actually here illegally:

If our laws depend on Trump’s voluntary compliance — and Congress won’t lift a finger to defend the laws it has passed — then the president is unleashed. We are left to the whims of a man who cares about only himself, a man who is willing to discard any law or standard to satisfy his lust for power.

Opinion | Crony Capitalism Has Reached a New Low

If we break our alliances, we are smaller and weaker. If we break them for pride and power and greed, then we don’t just break an alliance, we break our own character. We diminish ourselves in every way that matters, and no amount of newly sovereign frozen ground can obscure our national shame.

Opinion | Something Is Rotten in the State of America

When I wrote that I was voting for Harris, two of the factors that pushed me from voting third party to voting Harris were Trump's attacks on the rule of law and his reckless position on Ukraine. Harris was right on those issues, and Trump was very wrong.

Feeling pretty vindicated right now.

There is zero ambiguity here. It’s nauseating.

Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 @joshuaeakle.com

Steve Bannon, after calling for Trump to be President for life, did a Nazi salute on stage at CPAC. Nazism has officially taken over the GOP. The few remaining conservatives have a choice: either leave the party and obstruct it—or choose to be complicit.

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"Patel is so absurdly devoted to Trump that he wrote a children’s book about Trump, called 'The Plot Against the King,' in which he describes the Russia investigation as a plot by 'Hillary Queenton' against 'King Donald.'"

Kash Patel is absurd -- and dangerous: www.nytimes.com/live/2024/11...

Opinion | Kash Patel’s Threat to the Rule of Law

In the new administration, loyalty will come before experience or moral judgment.

The Trump flip-flop on TikTok illustrates something that I've been arguing for a while. His supporters say he's "unpredictable," and that keeps our enemies on their toes.

Nope. He's manipulable, and that gives our enemies an advantage. China is seizing that advantage now.

It didn't take long for our new Director of National Intelligence to start spouting Russian propaganda. What a shameful lie.

By this reasoning, the instant someone is accused of murder, we can do what we want to them because the murder victim didn't have due process. Or if someone is accused of theft, because the victim didn't get due process.

This is beyond just wrong. It's evil.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com

KARL: Do they have any due process at all? HOMAN: Due process -- what was Laken Riley's due process? (That's a "no")

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No politics now. Only sorrow. May God bless and comfort the families of those who died in the crash tonight. It's just gutting.

The MAGA and Christian nationalist attacks on Phil on the other site are vile. Phil is doing vital work. He's one of the best reporters I've known. Rigorous, accurate, and fearless.

Phil Williams @philinvestigates.com

Over on the other site, Community Notes has been weaponized by the right wing to LIE about a post that I made. Here is the note pushed by the trolls, then my original post. This is really, really bad!

End the pardon power. It's an outdated vestige of royalty, and it's been abused too many times.

There's a strange belief on the right that manufacturing jobs are the holy grail of working-class jobs. When, in reality, generations of factory workers worked hard to send kids to college so they didn't have to work on the line. They didn't want their families to work on the line forever.

Please read this piece. Phil has reported on the activities of racist white Christian nationalists in Tennessee, and they (and their allies) have come after him in the most vile ways. This is what they do, and the world needs to know.

Phil Williams @philinvestigates.com

A personal reflection: “Journalists like myself have a choice: surrender to the fascist mob that wants to intimidate the truth-tellers – or rededicate ourselves to doing what’s right no matter the cost.” www.newschannel5.com/news/newscha...

Phil Williams: In reporting on hate and extremism, 'while the attacks are personal, so is the cause'

Rarely in my nearly 40-year career as a journalist have I felt the target on my back as continuously and intensely as I have in the last 15 months.

This is an excellent piece. Please read.

"If we’re going to issue debt to buy super speculative assets that have no use today, have never had a use, but some evangelists claim will solve all of our society’s problems, why stop at crypto? How about a strategic Powerball ticket reserve?"

Cliff Asness: The New ‘Crypto Fort Knox’ Is as Dumb as It Sounds

To create a sovereign wealth fund dedicated to something five times or more as volatile as straight-up stocks is an awful idea.

"Donald Trump is determined to transform America’s system of justice into his personal political weapon, and now Breonna Taylor’s family bears the fresh pain of a new and terrible miscarriage of justice." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/o...

Opinion | Trump’s Perversion of Justice Has Reached a New Phase

There isn't a plan. There's no nine-dimensional chess. He's not a mastermind. He's an angry man drunk on his own power, picking stupid fights for no reason, all to demonstrate "strength." There's no defense for this.

There's no duty to stay on Twitter:

1) It's an app for partisans. If you stay, you're not reaching the general public

3) It's an app, not a country. It's not worth "fighting for." Who fought for MySpace?

2) By staying, you're giving a troubled man an audience he doesn't deserve.

Also . . .