My greatest fear in life is that I die before we figure out who has what on Elon Musk. If he really just wanted to see the world burn, he sure waited a long time to suddenly start instigating.

When a player attempts a shot at his own goal, misses, and then, despite the entire stadium yelling at him — “you’re going the wrong way!” — makes yet another attempt against his own goal, it raises some questions about the competence of the player.

What’s your estimate? What’s the percentage of skiers who were informed in advance that they were going to be forming a “Z” at the start?

Republican leadership in the House is working directly against American interests and directly in favor of Russian interests, and Speaker Mike Johnson knows this — hence the unbelievable excuse that this is somehow about “securing our border.”

On January 19, 2021, two days after Navalny’s return to Russia following his recovery from an FSB assassination attempt, Vladimir Zhirinovsky said there were three possible destinations on the path Navalny had chosen: “prison, emigration, or the grave.”

Everything that happens leads to something else — for better or for worse. Some still unknown figure might have taken just the right level of inspiration from Alexey Navalny’s example to carry on the work that Navalny started. Whether the work is done better or worse, it will continue.

Kremlin propaganda gives its consumers the opportunity to believe what they want to believe — even if what they want to believe is that Russian society is actually *worse* than it appears. Mardan isn’t telling you the “truth.” He’s manipulating you. And it’s working.

Taken two years ago to the minute while on a layover in Baku en route from Moscow to Tbilisi.

Falsifiable prediction: when Russia "wins" the war in Ukraine and then *does not* subsequently attack a NATO member country, policy makers in Washington/Brussels/etc. will congratulate themselves for having thwarted Putin's (nonexistent) "imperialist ambitions."

Empty-handed US SecDef at Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting who is unable to prove his words with funds given intransigence of some GOP members is huge blow to US credibility around the world. But for Ukraine it’s a question of survival as a sovereign and independent state.

If you watched the debate: Trump won. If you listened to the debate: Trump won. But if you only read the transcript: Biden crushed him. (And yes, I’m a journalist. I know how tiny the minority of people is who care about the written word.)

If President Biden is fit enough to serve as president for four more years, then he's fit enough to give a live interview to Fox News. If the The White House really believes the debate was just a "bad night," prove it by showing that Biden can spend 60 minutes answering tough questions.

I’m mostly in agreement with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, but not totally: Trump is only the second most skilled propagandist in the world today (meaning he’s not the GOAT, even if he remains frighteningly good at what he does).

Pavel Kushnir, a real hero of the Russian Federation, died in police custody last week. The YouTube channel that got him arrested had five subscribers at the time. His final recorded poem is below.