Last week, with the change in House control, I left a great job. I was Special Litigation Counsel in the House Office of General Counsel, litigating on behalf of Congressional committees and @SpeakerPelosi, and handling special projects. A long, self-indulgent thread follows. 1/

Every time he does this, he tells voters what he cares about. Via @ShawnMcCreesh Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump took Mr. Xi around the back to show off a new helipad and the slick new driveway. “He’s an expert on stone, aside from many others, and he loves good granite,” Mr. Trump told reporters as the pair walked back inside.

There is no better example I can think of how Trump isn’t a steward of America or remotely patriotic or even nationalistic. He is simply a partisan of his own ego. This is just gross. He’s trying to suck up to a dictator and adversary by mocking another American president. And, btw, the anonymous functionary running this account will be remembered as a tiny little throne-sniffing weasel.

We're about at the point where Senators ask nominees the ultimate trick question: "Could President Trump create a rock so heavy that President Trump could not lift it?"

This is grotesque behavior. Joe Biden was an American president. Xi is a communist dictator, and the head of a foreign state. Our internal divisions are not fair game in this context.

So I was just watching Fox News and this commercial played during Jesse Watters show. It says “Paid for by the US Government.” This is clearly a campaign ad. And the singers are just singing over and over again, “Love me” - over images of Trump. @CBSMiami @CBSNews

A toaster is a wedding gift. A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else. Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign relationships. We should not unplug it now. ‘Trust us’ was not enough then, and it is not enough now.

“Trump Derangement Syndrome” is a fun little concept. There absolutely are normal Trump decisions that make people madder bc they dislike him so much. But if you’d said two years ago, “Trump will threaten to bulldoze the Kennedy Center unless his name is on it,” you’d have been hospitalized for late stage TDS.

GEFILTE PHISHING

Taken at face value this is quite a nasty thing for a board to say about its chairman.

This is racism, plain and simple. I have served on the Energy Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Railroad Commission, for most of my tenure in the Texas House, and I have never seen conduct so unbecoming of a Railroad Commissioner or candidate in that time. The right thing to do is immediately delete this and issue an apology. If not, I would remind any candidate that the Texas Legislature has granted the Railroad Commission broad discretion in carrying out its duties — because we have trusted the competence and fairness of those who serve. That trust can be revisited. If Mr. French wants to regulate immigration policy, he should have run for Congress.

This is racist. It is wrong. And I condemn it without reservation. There is absolutely nothing Christian or conservative about looking at a crowd of young Texans at a college football game, seeing the color of their skin, and declaring that they are a “problem.” These are 20-year-old kids cheering for their university—not political props and not targets for racial attacks. We can have serious debates about our nation’s immigration laws. I have strong views about immigration policy, and Americans have every right to demand changes to federal law. But opposing an immigration policy does not give anyone license to demean people because of their race or ethnicity. And let’s be clear: the Texas Railroad Commission regulates our oil and gas industry. It does not set federal immigration policy. Texans deserve Railroad Commissioners focused on the responsibilities of that office—not using a statewide campaign as a platform for racial division. This does not represent my Christian faith. It does not represent my conservative principles. And it does not represent the Republican Party I believe in. As a Texas Aggie, I’m always happy to take a friendly shot at the Longhorns when the opportunity presents itself. That rivalry is part of what makes these two great universities so special. But this goes far beyond college rivalry. We should be willing to call racism wrong no matter who says it, what party they belong to, or how politically inconvenient it may be. This is wrong, and I want no part of it.

This is the Republican nominee for statewide office. Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized. This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.

On this day, we remember six members of the DCPS family we lost 25 years ago: students Asia Cottom, Bernard Brown, and Rodney Dickens, and teachers Hilda Taylor, James Debeuneure, and Sarah Clark. facebook.com/share/p/14p7kKe…

Here is the New York Times from September 11, 2001, already old news by the time I picked it up from my doorstep. I’ve never been able to open it up or throw it out.

This could be the second-worst presidential trip to Dallas.

On Trump’s latest 9/11 story: - He was miles away from the World Trade Center on 9/11, at Trump Tower - There’s no evidence he was whisked out of any building; in 2016 he claimed he was “not so far” from a building thought to be unstable, didn't hint he was inside - There’s no public evidence he organized a Ground Zero rescue crew, let alone the 100-strong crew he has previously claimed - Rescue workers repeatedly did run away from the building he was referring to, One Liberty Plaza, over collapse fears that proved unfounded. Trump discussed these rushes in one Sept. 13, 2001 interview but didn’t say he was personally swept up in one, though it’s theoretically possible - One Liberty Plaza does not “still creak.” It was closed for less than two months and has been functioning for nearly 25 years now cnn.com/2026/09/08/politics/…

President Trump was not in the vicinity of the World Trade Center when it was hit. He was in Trump Tower, miles away from the towers and nearby One Liberty Plaza, which is/was also known as the US Steel building. There was public concern in the days following the attack that One Liberty Plaza might collapse, but the authorities repeatedly said it was structurally sound, and there's not currently any public evidence Trump went into it amid these collapse worries (?), much less that he was rushed out by firefighters. In varying language, he has repeatedly claimed for years he was at Ground Zero with a large crew of his workers helping with the recovery in the days after 9/11, but people who were definititely on site have said they never saw him or a Trump-organized crew on site and that it wouldn't make sense for them to have had access; there are pictures and videos of Trump in the neighborhood in the following days, in a clean suit, but not on the actual site. While campaigning in 2016, he told a version of today's story about being whisked away from One Liberty Plaza by big firemen, but he said in 2016 that the alleged incident happened "a couple of days" after 9/11 and claimed the creaky building was "not so far from us," instead of leaving open the impression he might've been a) inside it b) on 9/11 itself. nitter.net/Acyn/status/2097340291…

“The audio of President Trump is AI generated and used with permission” Why didn’t they just … have Trump say the words?

Happy 72nd Birthday to Ruby Bridges, who at the age of 6 desegregated the New Orleans public schools. She’s younger than 30 senators and our last two presidents—and only 7 years older than Barack Obama. The past isn’t past.

-Average gas prices hit the highest monthly levels in history in August. -Diesel prices hit an all time record high in September. What are trump and Republicans focused on? Changing the name of New Mexico to New America. November is coming.