Well, this is timely.
NBC News is reporting: “Pete Hegseth is talking about a possible run for president in 2028.” And yes, the sentient universe just threw up a little in its mouth, so I apologize if you are reading this over breakfast.
On Sunday morning, the Wapo reported: “Military leaders warn Hegseth against extending Iran war operations,” because he has badly depleted our ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland.
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On today’s “To the Contrary” podcast, I’m joined by Congressman Jake Auchincloss (D-Massachusetts), one of the party’s leading — and most thoughtful —centrist liberals. (You really should check out his Substack: “Simple but Not Easy with Jake Auchincloss.”)
On today’s pod, we discuss:
Which direction should Democrats take? How can liberals counter the DSA?
And what should a Democratic Congress do on Day One?
Auchincloss has proposals to tax the social media “attention-frackers” to create new schools — but he also argues that Pete Hegseth should be the first Trump cabinet member to face impeachment. And he lays out the indictment.
Well worth your time.
Subscribers can listen to an ad-free version right here… or you can watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed
Note: If you enjoy conversations like this one, or just want to hang around with smart, sane people, please consider joining us. As you know, we depend on the kindness of strangers to keep doing this work. And the dogs and I are immensely grateful for your generous support.
Some highlights of my conversation with Jake Auchincloss
Why impeaching Hegseth should be a priority.
More reasons to impeach Pete…
A Day One agenda…
Taxing the “attention frackers” to fund schools.
Some Saturday must-reads:
Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party Update: “Milo Yiannopoulos, a Right-Wing Provocateur, Is Arrested by ICE” - The New York Times
The Trump administration said on Friday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had arrested Milo Yiannopoulos, the prominent right-wing agitator and early supporter of President Trump, at the New Orleans airport.
Public ICE detention records confirmed that Mr. Yiannopoulos was in custody, but did not say where he was being held. The Homeland Security Department said that Mr. Yiannopoulos had overstayed his visa and was issued a final deportation order in July. That order means Mr. Yiannopoulos faces possible removal from the country.
The Homeland Security Department publicized Mr. Yiannopoulos’s arrest, circulating an unflattering mug shot and warning other immigrants to “take control of their departure” by self-deporting.
That was then:
This is now:
Exit take: Somethingsomething Karma. “Milo Yiannopoulos pushed for ICE checkpoints, 'on the spot deportation' before his airport bust.”
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What I told the CBC: Defying Trump carries a price. But it’s worth it. “Conservative writer Charlie Sykes says Canada is right to take a stand against Trump’s tariffs” | Day 6 | On Demand | CBC Listen
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Trump plans to skip 9/11 Ground Zero ceremony. Via the NYT:
President Trump is not planning to attend a ceremony in Manhattan for the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, in part because he wanted to deliver a speech and the annual event has long barred remarks, according to four people with knowledge of the events.
Mr. Trump’s team had conducted advance visits at the site and had initially signaled to officials in New York and in Washington that the president intended to visit the memorial space known as ground zero, two of the people with knowledge of the events said.
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The extremely strange tale of the MAGA troll on the DOD paywall. “The marks are running the government” - by Jeremiah Johnson
Last week, [Sarah Rogers, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs’] messaged DataRepublican (real name Jennica Pounds) some files that Pounds was free to leak, saying, “I wanted to give you the option of ‘breaking’ the story as sort of a gift.”
Rather than publish the documents, Pounds had a multiday freak-out in which she accused Rogers of trying to somehow “entrap” her and trick her into committing a federal crime. In a now-deleted tweet, she said, “It’s not okay when the Deep State sets you up to commit a crime. I have never been more angry in my life.”
This set off a firestorm of activity on MAGA Twitter. Eventually, Rogers had to reply to the thread herself, saying that she obviously wasn’t trying to entrap Pounds. She publicly posted the documents herself to show that they weren’t meant to get anyone in trouble.
Despite this, Pounds continued frenetically posting about how the Deep State was trying to get her1 until a day later when she deleted a number of posts and posted an apparently AI-generated apology tweet, followed by an essay that somehow tried to tie her outburst to Charlie Kirk’s death (and was also likely AI-generated).
To state the obvious: Pounds is a conspiracy theorist and an imbecile. She is weapons-grade stupid. She has a history of posting Pepe Silvia-style diagrams to explain the connections between groups and individuals she sees as part of the Deep State, and she’s incredibly quick to jump to paranoid conclusions about benign activities….
Amid all the drama, reporting revealed that Pounds is actually a Department of Defense employee (and this was later confirmed by the Pentagon). This means that, bizarrely, Pounds is both working for the government and operating as a freelance “journalist” reporting on the government.
The entire episode is deeply embarrassing for everyone involved, and it’s very funny if you enjoy laughing at ridiculous internal-MAGA drama. But it can also teach us several important lessons about the modern MAGA movement.
Saturday dogs
Auggie and Eli. Always on watch.
