Paul McCartney in CBS Studio 50, separated by 22,748 days

“When we boot up the data, it’s obvious the main reason Harris lost…is that 2024 simply had too much inflation-induced anti-incumbent sentiment for the incumbent party to overcome. This is curiously missing from its main diagnosis. The word ‘inflation’ isn’t mentioned in the autopsy a single time.”

The way Ron DeSantis has turned Florida’s previously top-notch university system into a lavish slush fund for his friends and co-segregationists needs to be the subject of a withering political campaign. Everyone who touched this process should be made radioactive in polite society.

Book launched!

FIRE helped achieve this just and appropriate result for this First Amendment violation. Credit is due.

/27 Anyway, once again, decent humans who are AUSAs now: get out. Get out now.

/8 Next, the judge tells them that (1) she wasn’t inclined to find vindictive prosecution before but now she’s revisiting, and (2) there are sanctions and findings of ethical violations coming.

/7 This encapsulates how Trumpism and Trumpist prosecutors have destroyed, probably for a generation at least, the reputation of DoJ and federal prosecutors.

/5 Every single prosecutor knows that’s wrong. Second, you CAN’T COMMUNICATE WITH GRAND JURORS OFF THE RECORD. Every prosecutor knows that. Third, getting rid of grand jurors who don’t vote for you? What the fucking fuck?

/3 Here’s the judge’s initial summary for the benefit of the defense, which hadn’t seen the transcripts yet. It’s very bad.

/2 Second: federal judges don’t talk like this unless it’s REALLY bad, and it is.

youtu.be/QQYMUMTI7fk?... Economic research shows that building new market-rate homes can start chains of moves that ultimately free up much cheaper ones. Here, Pew trace a real-life chain starting with a luxury building and ending with a low-income family being able to reunite in a home of their own

Pondering the similarities between Senate today and the Entmoot after Saruman starting cutting down the trees at Isengard

True at the same time: 1) Mitch McConnell has never had anything but contempt for Donald Trump; he didn't want him as the Republican nominee in 2016 or 2024 and would have been happy to see his political career end in January 2021.

he's going to shut down the govt because his own party won't support his ballroom and slush fund. amazing.

Pre-Friday Follow: I suspect most people who will see this follow at least one out of @liberalcurrents.com @theunpopulist.net @liberalism.org but you should be following all three.

If you are curious how often Trump has managed to travel on other weekends since the Iran war started (Feb. 28), every colored block is a trip to one of his properties. Every red dot is a round of golf. pbump.com/projects/gol...

Anon reviewer told us to cite more of my work:

I'm in no danger of having a Joker moment that negatively polarizes me onto the dark obsessively anti-woke path that so many right-of-academic-center academics have taken. But there are moments when I see the Joker grinning out of the corner of my eye.

Extremely relevant today - our new report on the state of the rule of law in America brightlinewatch.org/erosion-of-t... Most notably, 91% of legal experts say Trump's DOJ provides favors or benefits to his allies, including 56% of legal conservatives. Findings thread below; please read & share.

I've been an impeachment 3.0 skeptic, but I think there's a fair argument here that the slush fund is so bad it's worth pulling that trigger for

!!!

You get used to what you're used to, and I'm used to this, but I don't understand why the McGill/ Dartmouth rule isn't more widespread. It provides an immediate check on grade inflation at the level of the course instructor without external mandates or interference. It communicates good information.

Some fun/depressing napkin-math from The Economist on how much Trump's trade & immigration policies - and chaotic policymaking overall - are costing the otherwise-solid US economy (thanks mainly to the AI boom): www.economist.com/finance-and-...

had their project transferred to T&F only to find out that some of the key obligations contained in their AUP contract were no longer being honored by Routledge. In particular, Routledge now openly refuses to submit book manuscripts to peer review. Apparently the process is just too cumbersome /

pay-for-play presses which streamline their process to skim 40% of profit off of the (mostly publicly funded) intellectual labor of researchers for their billionaire owners. Some of our worst fears are now being confirmed. I just learned that one junior scholar with a book under contract with AUP /

Some people may remember that the majority of series editors resigned last summer in protest against Amsterdam University Press' sale of their film and media program to Taylor & Francis/Routledge. T&F and Routledge, while formerly respectable publishers, are now / mediastudies.hypotheses.org/6850

Share widely:

"If this settlement stands, future presidents will have a roadmap for turning lawsuits into spending programs and political grievances into taxpayer-financed payouts." [Tad DeHaven and Molly Nixon] /4, end

Instead, the level of generality is inflated high enough to give the fund broad discretion to reward friends and turn away foes. No appeal, no neutral third party administration, and of course zero court supervision from the get-go. Not much of a comparison to the dubious USDA settlements. /3

In his order creating the new slush fund, Acting AG Todd Blanche "cites as precedent several cases in which the USDA resolved discrimination claims brought by Native American, Hispanic, and female farmers, stating that those cases were 'settled on similar terms.'” No, they weren't. /1

some real “do i have to do everything myself” energy from ohtani lol

quote with a fictional band that is not spinal tap

“US Supreme Court’s uneven approach to election-map rulings boosts Republicans” electionlawblog.org?p=156275

Good job everyone.

TBQH this particular batch of gibberish isn't terribly different from the boilerplate gibberish of many commencement addresses.

Massie was useful on Epstein. He was absent on January 6. Both are true. Cassidy was brave in 2021. He was a collaborator from 2023 on. Both are true. My take on last night's primaries, up now. open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

RGCS Charles Taylor Student Fellow Tim Gulliver has been selected for a Supreme Court of Canada clerkship! www.mcgill.ca/law/article/...

I voted for it. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

Trump's Personal Attorney Todd Blanche Attempts to Pardon His Boss emptywheel.net/2026/05/20/t...

People defending this woman claim she’s only talking about Zionists, not all Jews. If you’re cool with her rants about how Jewish billionaires control Hollywood, run human trafficking networks & need to be put in internment camps & castrated because she also uses the word ‘Zionist’, you are an idiot

It’s the 1,701st anniversary of the start of the First Council of Nicaea which debated how divine yer man Jesus was compared to his old dad (I paraphrase slightly) – and at which St Nicholas (yes, that one, but pre-sainthood) got so angry with one speaker, he twatted him one 🧵

I don't actually remember how this came up, @gowder.io , do you? I mean, I remember the day, but not the context for the remark.

Many theologians cite MILF Manor as evidence of the doctrine of free will Because God definitely didn’t create that

Again, this Trump IRS thing is not a “settlement” or a “deal” or something with any legal basis at all. It’s pure corruption; colluding with his Acting AG to loot the Treasury; pay off his mob; and preemptively immunize himself and his heirs against investigation for fraud.