Top Comments: Open Thread

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Friday December 05, 2025 · 7:02 PM PST

2025/12/05 · 19:02

Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!

Tonight will be an open thread night.

( I might even explain why I’m Open Threading tonight next week!)

Comments below the fold.

Chitown Kev

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Friday December 05, 2025 · 4:30 AM PST

2025/12/05 · 04:30

In WAYR?, I note what I’m reading and comment...you note what you are reading and comment. Occasionally, I may add a section or a link related to books…

I am reading:

Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Morris- One thing I like about the sort of “intellectual biography” that Obsession is would be that it can involve multiple readings and interpretations and can be written again and again. Morris, thoroughly examines the material and makes generous use of Butler’s journals to round out Butler’s own views of her work and Morris’ own evaluation of Butler’s work. An authority on Butler’s work but not the authority.

In 1978 she reflected: I am a dancing bear, a novelty, a black woman who writes successfully. I must be able to prevail whether blacks in general are in or out of fashion. That means I must always speak well and have something interesting to say. I must become a good storyteller— reach people on a level beyond color. At times, Octavia reminded herself that she must use standard English and avoid any slang because in her mind, As SF’s solitary black woman writer, I must relax in good English or be misunderstood.”

I think that this statement is as true today as it was in 1978 when she wrote it (although I do like some works that employ slang or Black English).

How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays by Umberto Eco

Chitown Kev

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Thursday December 04, 2025 · 4:00 AM PST

2025/12/04 · 04:00

We begin today with Lucy Campbell of The Guardian reporting on new ICE actions in the city of New Orleans.

Masked agents patrolled a heavily Latino suburb in marked and unmarked vehicles, and a resident told the Associated Press he watched agents arresting men outside a home improvement store in New Orleans – a familiar scene that has played out in several major cities in recent months.

Gregory Bovino, the border patrol chief and frequent Fox News guest who has become the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, was filmed leading a group of masked agents through the historic French quarter. One woman heckled the agents as they marched along Poydras Street, shouting “we hate you” from her car, and “fucking losers”. [...]

It is unclear how long the crackdown would last – one report suggested it could continue into January – but roughly 250 agents are reportedly targeting 5,000 arrests. The Democrat-led city has been bracing for weeks for the arrival of federal agents, with rumors swirling of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) crackdown led by border patrol initially referred to as “Swamp Sweep”.

Border patrol agents began making arrests on Wednesday, including in the parking lots of Lowe’s hardware stores on Elysian Fields and in Metairie, as well as at Home Depot locations in LaPlace, about 30 minutes outside of New Orleans, and Gretna.

Chitown Kev

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Tuesday December 02, 2025 · 8:59 PM PST

2025/12/02 · 20:59

Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.

OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.

Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.

(Certain events taking place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving will not be discussed.}

Chitown Kev

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Tuesday December 02, 2025 · 4:00 AM PST

2025/12/02 · 04:00

We begin today with Greg Sargent of The New Republic and his many doubt about the Congressional Republicans willingness to investigate the Caribbean boat strikes.

To be sure, this does look like a classic bait and switch. It’s likely Republicans will conduct some moderate oversight on this second strike allegedly killing the two men. But then, whatever they learn, they’ll use that exercise as a back-door way to deflate pressure for transparency on the rest of the operation, which is probably illegal and itself may consistof war crimes.

However, it’s not nothing that Republicans like Representative Mike Rogers and Senator Roger Wicker—the chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees—are now vowing real oversight. Democrats can seize on this—because this latest turn exposes how weak and indefensible the case for these bombings truly has become. [...]

There are many more lines of inquiry here. Smith tells me that he will push for public release of a Justice Department memo that purportedly details out a legal justification for the strikes. Experts see the legal case as extremely weak, as it appears to grant Trump unilateral authority to execute civilians who aren’t engaged in an act of war against the United States in any sense. That memo also seeks to preemptively declare that those who carry out these strikes have legal immunity, which some legal types see as a tacit admission of potential legal vulnerability.

Chitown Kev

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Sunday November 30, 2025 · 4:00 AM PST

2025/11/30 · 04:00

We begin today with Heather Cox Richardson writing for her “Letters from an American” Substack about the seeming avalanche of challenges to the Trump regime from the Republican Party.

In the wake of yesterday’s report from Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered Special Operations to kill the survivors of a September 2 strike on a small boat off Venezuela, the Senate and the House Armed Services Committees have announced they intend to conduct “vigorous oversight” and “gather a full accounting” of the operation. The two committees referred to the Department of Defense by that name, rather than by the “Department of War” rebrand Hegseth and Trump have pushed. [...]

Congress appears to be stepping up on this issue, and that willingness to cross Trump suggests members are recalculating Trump’s power relative to their own. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo noted: “This is genuinely big news…. Republicans are challenging Trump now because he seems weak. No one wants to back a weak horse.”

A Gallup poll released yesterday shows President Donald J. Trump’s job approval rating at 36% with disapproval at 60%. Since last month, Trump’s approval has plummeted 11 points. Republicans’ approval of Trump has fallen seven points to a second-term low, while approval among Independents has fallen eight points to its lowest point in either term. Only 3% of Democrats approve of his job performance. Although war conditions usually help a president’s popularity, Trump’s threat to attack Venezuela attracts the support of only 30% of Americans. Seventy percent oppose such military action.

There are signs that the MAGA coalition is fracturing. A Politico poll released yesterday shows that just 55% of those who voted for Trump in 2024 see themselves as MAGA. While the MAGA 55% remain largely loyal to Trump, 38% do not consider themselves as MAGA and are less enamored of him than are his MAGA loyalists.

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