Amanda Marcotte

Long day and I almost forgot! But today's excerpt from Standing Room Only is about how James Talarico is getting MAGA men to show their asses. Subscribe today! salon-standingroomonly.beehiiv.com Music by Library Card.

Dr. Oz started out as an excellent cardiologist. Then he got into hawking useless supplements, because it paid better for less work than saving lives. Now he encourages people to die and pretends Trump deserves a Nobel. I'll never stop being baffled at why he debased himself so thoroughly.

I see a lot of people on Bluesky saying “don’t celebrate.” And I see a lot of right wingers on Twitter who are celebrating like they finally got laid. Because they really want a martyr. It’s disgusting.

Karoline Leavitt's lie to deflect a question about a check from "DJTrump" to Epstein for a "fully depreciated" woman was stupid, even for her. Multiple women have experiences that show Epstein and Trump did think of women as objects for trading. www.salon.com/2025/09/12/e...

The fact that MAGA is in a delusional spiral, denying the boos, doesn't contradict me here. It's part of the way Trump manipulates his supporters. He wants them to feel that his rejection is their rejection. And to be angry and outraged — even so much that they'll spiral into denial.

What's funny about this is that Hegseth still won't call Mormons "Christian." Instead, they removed the word "Christian" entirely, which.....well, at least they don't have to pretend to think Catholics count, either. www.washingtonpost.com/religion/202...

The problem with wanting "nuance" in abortion laws, is every dude who says it means "abortions when it's my girlfriend is pregnant, but forced childbirth when it's that annoying feminist I want to take down a peg." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/o...

Circling back to this. It’s why I don’t waste energy fussing about how fast California counts ballots. The line is basically “wizards use satan magic to steal elections.” You can’t outrun bad faith. If ballots were counted on election night, they’d make up a new lie and all pretend to believe it.

Trump knew he was going to be booed at the Knicks game. It's why he went! It's why he smirked as they booed. (And then slept through the game.) Here's my short analysis of why he wanted to be booed. You can also see my cat, Joey. youtube.com/shorts/8ZZK6...

It's almost like Trump came to get booed and can't pretend to give a shit about the rest of this.

Bingo! It's tempting to imagine Trump might get close to understanding sports, because it does have winners and losers, which he understands. But the real appeal of it is camaraderie. He is incapable of understanding that. paulwaldman.substack.com/p/donald-tru...

Trump smirked as they booed him because getting the boos was the point of going. More from me soon on this.

At this point, the claims that elections are "rigged" are in the same realm as claims of demonic possession. The people behind this alleged conspiracy are clearly, in the GOP imagining, actual wizards, possessed of dark magic. That and also "rigged" means "they let Black people vote."

I’ve seen so many versions of this document, but since no one will link a source, I’m forced to assume it’s fake.