Since the headline is a bit confusing, the NYT is reporting that on the same day we hit the girl's school in Minab, we also sent a missile full of tungsten steel pellets at a girl's volleyball tournament hundreds of miles away in Lamerd. Twenty one dead. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/w...

Delighted to return from vacation to something I missed: a surprisingly comprehensive ranking of weird Texas political-battle music from @hooks.bsky.social www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

feels telling about American foreign policy punditry that while many decry the aimlessness of Trump’s monstrously wrong Iran war there were far more outraged columns over the harm done to US power and influence and standing and interests and example when Biden rightly withdrew from Afghanistan.

i talked to the folks at nyt opinion about the primary last night and what's next: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/o...

Senate's done. Elsewhere, some really weird stuff. Pretty shocking result in R AG: Roy was talking tough about avoiding a runoff and he's more than 12 points down with Mayes Middleton in a really comfortable position. Did not see this coming at all.

Cancel that: Some Williamson polls open till 10, now, and there's a legal fight about Dallas ballots.

I'm bad at math and can't responsibly call anything. But Talarico's gonna win, and I bet calls start coming soon after Dallas and Williamson end voting (in two minutes)

Talarico is winning several of south Texas counties that have been making Dems scared the last decade by about a 2-to-1 margin, something that Cornyn is likely to point to in his runoff. Up 15 in Bexar so far. Up 7 statewide.

I realized that after 12 years, I don't actually know who or where Ken Paxton's base is. When he did poorly in hometown DFW I was worried my strongest warrior had missed a step. But he's only 2.5 points shy now and I'm less impressed by Big John

Alright, lets do some downballot. Dan Crenshaw looks a lot like he's going to get turfed out by stalwart state rep. Steve Toth, one of the great That Guys we have on offer. One incumbent down.

Greg Abbott is perfectly safe in his primary, of course. but his handpicked comptroller won't even get a runoff. Dunked in the toilet. Abbott's pick for ag commissioner cleared the bar, though, most likely. RIP Sid Miller :(

Cornyn running a little bit stronger than I would have expected but doesn't seem realistic to hope for 50%. Middleton, though, maybe? Seems like the attacks on chip roy really hit home

Talarico putting up Bashar Assad numbers in central Texas—winning Travis, Hays, Williamson by 50 points. Expect San Antonio to be good for him. Feels like an early-ish call is coming.

That's the worst news Crockett's gotten all night. She probably had to keep his margin under 20% there

Talarico is winning early vote in majority Hispanic counties that contain Laredo and Corpus Christi almost 2 to 1, which if it holds generally across south Texas is a massive boost (Webb here)

Early vote filtering in on TT/NYT counter is disproportionately from DFW area, which seems to be benefiting Crockett and Cornyn/Middleton. gonna be a while before we get better picture from across the state

Can’t believe you withhold this insight from the folks here

not liveblogging the tx primary tonight but gonna try to post stuff here

“I have instructed a large language model trained on sixty years of the most florid and overwrought Texas political writing (which is to say, my brain) to produce a guide to the man and his times.” This is peak @hooks.bsky.social in the best way possible www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

BRISCOE AGONISTES

get an early look at the piece some are calling an early frontrunner for the Pulitzer Prize for Texas political blogging (junior division) www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

I’ve gotten a couple of messages from folks who are asking in a friendly way why I’m still active on Twitter more than I am here. Just for the record, the answer…

@hooks.bsky.social is maybe the best writer of Texas and its deep-set contradictions since Billy Lee Brammer— www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

stellar reporting and an object lesson on the higher ed playbook in other states

Certified Chris Hooks Classic, here. It is very detailed and humane in telling the story it tells, which concerns the damage that a small number of snitches, creeps, and dullards have done to this institution, but also about the long history and awful present of snitches/creeps/dullards doing that.

Tour de force on just exactly what has gone on at Texas A&M for so many years from Chris Hooks in @texasmonthly.bsky.social: www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

For two years, I've been investigating claims that Texas A&M University has been overtaken by the forces of gay race communism. The truth is a little more complicated: www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Q: How do I unlock Sunglasses Macron? A: It's very difficult to unlock Sunglasses Macron in the course of a normal game because it requires a specific and unlikely sequence of events. While default Macron is ruler of France, the USA must choose the monarchy path and then lay claim to Greenland.

Because we could all use a little distraction: I wrote about all the drama that's been brewing in Loving County, a land of oilfields and family feuds and, most recently, a takeover attempt by an outside group www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

I wrote last year about what MAGA actually sees in Greenland, an island we already basically quietly own, why its leader is too stupid to get what he wants, and what they see as a beneficial side-effect (destroying the post-war international order) newrepublic.com/article/1947...

"I think good writing—clear thinking—matters. Not much, but a little! This is a minority position, I am learning." Chris Hooks on Olivia Nuzzi, Joan Didion, and the self-delusions of our current moment newrepublic.com/article/2041...

I know you probably do not want to read another article about American Canto. I certainly didn't think I wanted to read another article about American Canto. But this is, in fact, the best article I've yet read about American Canto.

I reviewed American Canto… newrepublic.com/article/2041...

second verse on this is one of the funniest things i've ever heard

Many thanks to @hooks.bsky.social for this terrifically thoughtful review of Jeff Roche's THE CONSERVATIVE FRONTIER. @texasmonthly.bsky.social subscribers, this one will be in the print issue in your mailboxes very soon!

There’s something missing in Greg Abbott. Over the last decade, he seems to have learned to fill it by moving troops around, a hobby which is having a stranger and stranger effect on his country as time goes by: www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

one of the most gripping films i've ever seen. feels far shorter than its runtime.

Love this @hooks.bsky.social story about how Texas Republicans are embracing everything they once hated about California: Health food, trial lawyers and film industry slush funds. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Full article (still an unsolved mystery!) by @hooks.bsky.social www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the...

As with anything to do with this Musk vanity project, @hooks.bsky.social’s piece on its real human and environmental costs is a must-read. Gift link - www.nytimes.com/2024/05/24/o...

"...as a freelance magazine journalist, I am a blue-collar manufacturing worker in a collapsing industry that no amount of tariffs can fix. My day-to-day has become a Rust Belt of the mind, and there is nothing left for me in the West. Off I go." - @hooks.bsky.social

This is excellent. newrepublic.com/article/1947...

I went to Greenland to try to think through one of the strangest aspects of Trump's second term: His love of the 19th century newrepublic.com/article/1947...

This by @hooks.bsky.social, about Trump's Greenland fixation, is a thoughtful musing on his second term and this moment of frenetic ferment in American politics. "Why are the Americans doing this? My worry is that the answer is simple: We're bored." newrepublic.com/article/1947...

Real Men Steal Countries: Inside Trump’s Absurd Greenland Obsession An underdressed reporter journeys across icy, barren Greenland—and into Trump’s bored, nineteenth-century brain. Words by @hooks.bsky.social Illustrations by @coldwarsteve.bsky.social

We sent @hooks.bsky.social to Greenland and he came back with a story about imperial folly, the return of the 19th century, and just what Donald Trump and his cronies are really up to there. It's the best thing I've read about Trump's second term newrepublic.com/article/1947...

For the June issue of The New Republic, I went to Greenland and Denmark to think through Trump’s annexation obsession, Trumpworld’s love of the 19th century, why my country keeps hitting itself in the head with a hammer, and the world‘s best bar (Daddy’s, in Nuuk)

This from @hooks.bsky.social is a rip-roaring piece of magazine journalism like from the old days. And yes, the @newrepublic.com sent him to Greenland! And he did reporting while there! newrepublic.com/article/1947... via @newrepublic.com

"So many Americans live in a demon-haunted world, with unreal dangers in every corner." @hooks.bsky.social You're not getting dumber because of fluoride, but maybe Texas officials are. The war on oral health continues. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...