Trump Has Politicized the Department of Justice, Destroying Their Independence and Reputation

While the Department of Justice (DOJ) falls under the POTUS, with the POTUS choosing the U.S. Attorney General to oversee the DOJ, previous presidents have tried to create a wall between the White House and DOJ, allowing the DOJ to act with independence. This wall allowed the DOJ to do their jobs based on the law, and helped prevent the POTUS from using the DOJ to go after political enemies or protect himself, family members, or political allies. A U.S. President doing any of these things would be a blatant abuse of power and would deserve being impeached and removed from office.

This thread will provide multiple examples that he’s doing these things. (Note: I posted articles about this in the Trump, 2nd Term thread, prior to 10/10/2026. Also, this thread is not meant to be comprehensive. There are a lot of articles/stories I did not include in this thread.)

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2026-2027 NFL Week 4

Cowboys make a big trade for Joey Porter Jr. Do you like the move, Don?

So far it seems like Kubiak has turned the Raiders around. It’s not just being 3-0, but the way the team has played, especially on offense. They’re executing, playing clean, and have reduced boneheaded mistakes. They look way better on ST as well. The defense has looked OK, but I feel like they will be exposed, especially against the run.

Having said that, if they can contain the Chiefs run game, I think they have a legitimate shot to beat the Chiefs. The Chiefs aren’t and haven’t been a team that will dominate a lot of opponents. On the contrary, I think a lot of teams can play the Chiefs close. The Raiders could be one of those teams tomorrow.

The Chargers have looked awful, but their defense did generate 5 turnovers against the Bills offense. If the defensive improvement is real, this might be more of a game than I first assumed. The Chargers really have to turn things around on offense, though, and while that’s possible, it would be kind of surprising. (I think they should lean heavily on the run game, instead of leaning on Herbert.)

2026-2027 NFL Week 2

Lions@Bills

The Bills have a good offense, possibly one of the best NFL offenses, but they made it look a little too easy too often. If the Lions defense doesn’t improve significantly, I don’t think they have a defense good enough to win the Super Bowl.

I have similar feelings about the Bills defense.

Two other observations:

  1. The Lions OL seems a little shaky. Against the pass rush, they looked a little overwhelmed at times. (The LG stood out a bit in this regard.)
  2. Josh Allen is an incredible talent. His arm strength, size and running ability are on par with Cam Newton in my view. But there are still times where he’ll do something questionable that can get him in trouble, or out of sorts. With regard to the latter, I’m thinking of the few possessions at the end, where he and the offense just seemed a little sloppy.

2026-2027 NFL week 1

Patriots@Seahawks

Darnold getting hurt on the first series and not coming back in was sickening. I have zero faith in Drew Lock, although he made enough plays to give them a chance. Still, if the Maye didn’t have 3 INTS, the Hawks probably lose this game. (The last two INTs were really bad.)

The Seahawks penalties were frustrating, especially since their offense seemed pretty vanilla. Also, they had trouble getting in the play. My feeling is that this is on Brian Fleury, the new OC. Last year, the offense did a good job of playing clean and getting to the line of scrimmage quickly. I’m hoping it’s just growing pains for Fleury.

I feel very fortunate that the Hawks came away with the win.

The Most Entertaining Movies I Saw from 2016-2026

After watching Weapons, I thought it was one of the most entertaining films I’d seen in a long, long time. But to see if this was really the case, I went back and scanned all the films I’d seen in the last ten years–not just current releases, but older films as well. In this thread, I’m going to list those films, and talk about a few of them.

Here’s the list, starting with the films I saw in 2016

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“It’s all a Lie:” Republicans Don’t Care About Waste, Fraud and Abuse

“It’s All a Life” is the title of Stuart Stevens’s book on the GOP. Stevens managed Republican campaigns, and while I haven’t read his book, I believe the basic point is that the Republicans never believed in conservative principles or values. I tend to agree, and I guess we can thank Trump for exposing this. The list of these principles and values is long, but in this thread I’m focusing on the claim that the GOP values cutting government waste, fraud, and abuse. I believe this was one of the primary rationale for the cuts by Elon Musk and DOGE, but I want to highlight one story that indicates that Republicans don’t really care about waste, fraud, and abuse. The story is about the DOJ dropping the case against a man accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. I’ll put a gifted link below, and I’ll try to explain why I think it proves my point later.

How the Reflecting Pool Vandalism Case Fell Apart

Revisiting Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Atlantic recently featured two articles about this book. One of the article mentions that pop culture has “flattened” Holden Caufield into an “irritatingly male, misanthropic whiner.” The author thinks this is unfair, and I agree, but I wondered if I would feel this way if I read the book now. This has been one of my favorite novels, and I’ve read it once or twice since the first time I read it in my twenties. It’s always held up well. I thought it was a good time to re-read the novel to see if I would feel the same.

After finishing the novel again, here are some random thoughts:

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