Ask For A Lawyer. Tabs, Tues., May 13, 2025

Well, not EVERYWHERE. Sir, this is an Arby's! You don't have to ask for a lawyer there.

Tag yourself, spoiler alert you’re that goat. Tabs gifs by Martini Glambassador

Morning!

Let’s get right to it.

Progressive livestreamer guy Hasan Piker was detained at O’Hare for two hours coming back from Paris, apparently for no other reason besides his political beliefs and the fact that he says them out loud, to people who subscribe to him. Because now this is a country where that happens. His politics may be your politics, they may not be. (You can likely guess with 100 percent accuracy A Thing Piker is outspoken about, because it’s the thing Donald Trump is on a warpath for, in the name of his fake, disingenuous campaign against “antisemitism.”) So that is one thing that is true, and we need to all be hyper-aware that we now live in that kind of country. Which leads us to the other thing that’s true, which many of our favorite experts on law, tech and authoritarianism are talking about on Bluesky, and it’s that Piker talked to these people for two hours without a lawyer present. Do not do that. Ask if you are free to go. If you are not, ask for a lawyer. Then proceed to STFU. As intrepid independent journalist Marisa Kabas writes, what Piker did is kind of an instruction manual for what not to do. But the fact that it happened, well … again, we are in the phase of authoritarian takeover where that happens. Understand that. [Washington Post / Marisa Kabas]

And Popehat:

We’ll have more on Donald Trump’s white Afrikaner fake “refugees” TOOT SWEET, but while you’re waiting, hey look, a Trump administration white supremacist saying the quiet part loud:

Loud and clear, bud. Loud and clear.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is Susan Collins Concerned about the threats to the rule of law (that he created and enabled). [Politico]

One of Trump’s DOJ numbnuts-es, Todd Blanche, is now allegedly the librarian of the Library of Congress, because that guy sure does strike us as a reader! Trump tried to fire the actual librarian of the Library of Congress, which he cannot do, because that’s a branch of the government that doesn’t have anything to do with his ass, and when two of the DOJ goons Trump is trying to put in other positions at the Library of Congress tried to show up and smear their MAGA fart clouds all over it yesterday, the staff wouldn’t let ‘em in the building, because fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck you. [New York Times / CNN]

Speaking of fuuuuuuuuuuuuck you, here is a message from President Ocasio-Cortez.

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Trump’s airhead transportation secretary, Bing Bong from “The Real World” or whatever, he wants us to know it’s Joe Biden’s fault that the Newark airport is falling apart. We probably need to start asking what the Trump endgame of running the entirety of American air traffic control safety and tourism into the ground is. Because I promise you there is one. Or not necessarily specifically Trump’s, that guy can’t find his ass with both hands these days. But whoever around him is directing this, to what end? [NewsNation]

Ben Shapiro thinks Trump sucking Qatari sheik dick for free airplanes is “skeezy.” And for once Ben Shapiro is not wrong. [Media Matters]

Donald Trump invented the word “equalize” AND YOU DIDN’T SAY THANK YOU. [AL.com]

The World Is Moving On Without Us. [Jonathan V. Last]

Frijoles borrachos. It means “drunken beans,” and they’re for eating! Here is a New York Times recipe and an Andrew Zimmern recipe. I kind of made them both at the same time, with some of my own improvisation. There’s beer in it! But it’s beer for eating! [New York Times / Andrew Zimmern]

We’re sure we missed one million horrible stories, because that’s how many there are every hour of every day.

Evan has a side project called The Moral High Ground, you should check it out and subscribe there too!

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