So, @edzitron.com ate his Wheatties this morning

I'll take "Things voters definitely didn't say about inflation during the 2024 election." for $500.

If I told you ten years ago all of the Jeopardy winners, doctors, lawyers, stat-focused sports nerds, and premium shitposters escaped Twitter on a pirate ship to a website that was completely inhospitable to Nazis and phrenologists……. I don’t know, man, I’d be pretty excited.

I have been saying for years that Democrats should run against Republicans on the issue of corruption. Make fighting corruption the centerpiece of their hopefully populist campaigns. Well, if they don’t run on corruption this year, against Trump, then they deserve to lose.

A positive vision of the future. The GOP has one, as evil as it may be, and Dems don’t. it’s that simple

So you're saying that the company provides products that offer increased surveillance but secretly allow the distributor to see what is happening? They called the company...Palantir? Go figure.

This argument - that court reform is the necessary precondition to any other Democratic priority - is so transparently, inarguably true. If Democrats don't support it, the only logical conclusion is that they want to be seen passing legislation but don't actually care if it gets overturned.

"If a child feels unsafe and unsupported at home, we have a responsibility to ensure they also feel unsafe and unsupported at school."

Discworld QOTD, from Men at Arms

I think it reflects a loss of hope. Young people are being told they will NEVER own a home due to mortgage rates & hedge funds. Working people are being told that AI is going to eliminate entire categories of workers. A bleak and uncontrollable future makes a substandard present feel even worse.

This is a great list, and I share the sentiment completely.

I still think these two paragraphs from Ganz are the most important contemporary political writing

Giannis (brought to you by Kalshi) has officially relinquished the title of "most delightful, thoughtful, reflective European nerd who is also an MVP-caliber baller." We're in the Wemby Era. There's no going back.

Anyway I don’t know how you interpret handing out $1.8 billion in slush funds to the president’s brownshirts as anything other than “they’re definitely going to steal the midterms by force if necessary, and we’ve already had our last free election”.

it took this country five decades for the surviving interned Japanese-Americans who were deprived of absolutely everything and imprisoned for no cause to get $20,000 in reparations per person. we are currently awarding the guys who did the Beer Hall Putsch five years ago orders of magnitude more

I know we're a big "property rights" country, but we're also a big "don't fuck with me or you'll regret it" country. I feel like we could overlook the former to satisfy the latter. Just this once.

this is such a great encapsulation of what the various factions of the reactionary right want. i might add that they envision themselves as slave masters and the rest of us, in one way or another, as their slaves. betterdonkey.substack.com/p/the-vra-wa...

It's got to be so hard for the folks that run the Fox Weather Channel. The natural Fox instinct to scare viewers clashing with the right wing directive to downplay the obvious increase in climate-related emergencies. Tough spot.

Every day that goes by, I'm more convinced that America is unsalvageable in its current state. Too many corrupt people with bad motives supported by a mean-spirited populace. So many people will take care of their own while wishing pain on others. I don't understand it.

Millions of pigs are at risk of having to endure horrific suffering each year because @klobuchar.senate.gov is looking to score points in her Minnesota governor's race. Voters don't want this. Many pig farmers don't want this. Only corporations do. Disgusting and abhorrent how we treat animals.

really insightful and horrifying stuff from @thefarce.org

Just scrolled by an anti-AI story from the Washington fucking Times so i'm really going to need Democrats to get on-message and start claiming that "AI==higher cost of living + lower quality of life + billionaire greed + consent violation" space, really fucking fast. Fucking MOVE.

Classic win-now move. You have to give Pittsburgh credit for going for it while their championship window is open.

“If you don’t think there are more gay players in the NFL, NHL, NBA, you’re just stupid.” Yes, Charles.

The second worst way to be on a list with Karl Malone.

The Roberts Court, the Trump White House, and the national GOP are acting like this is their one big shot. Either they secure the lasting end of US Constitutional democracy, or they’re in very serious trouble from the backlash. And they’ve already gone so far that there’s no other possibility.

By a 6-3 margin, the Court rules "Because we can."

Israel will continue to conduct escalating war crimes because they know they have the paid, inviolable support of greedy, amoral American politicians.

Love to see Clarkson getting his flowers and contributing in a winning team. Dude deserves it.

As soon as anyone suggests a first step that could eventually lead to meaningful change, it's always a step too far. Major Democratic donors don't want things to change. Democratic voters do. Having power would force elected Democrats to choose. Can't have that.

Democrats are going to lose a rigged election because Republicans are willing to be nakedly partisan. GOP voters (and judges) see elections as an existential fight against an evil opponent, and they support a win-by-any-means-necessary approach. Democrats need to take notes.

Democrats should run on anti-corruption, yes, 100%. But to do it effectively, they also need to *not be corrupt*. Many of them forget that critical second part.

As animal shelters in the US become overcrowded, it’s not just the pets that suffer. Animal control and animal shelter workers bear an enormous amount of stress, collectively euthanizing about 600,000 animals each year. Vox’s @kennytorrella.bsky.social explains how you can help.

Great article underscoring the difficulty of persuading anyone of a hard truth that, if accepted, will require personal sacrifice.

NEW—I got an exclusive excerpt from a USAID whistleblower's new book that made me gasp multiple times. It details Trump's dismantling of the humanitarian aid agency & his team/DOGE's shocking ignorance to public health. 'Into the Wood Chipper' by Nicholas Enrich is out tomorrow. Read excerpt here:

I don't think some of you understand that it is in fact the official position of all UN member states except two that this is a judicially accurate map.

you fucked up a perfectly good freedom of navigation is what you did look at it, it's got tolls

South Africa, where there is no ongoing war. Refugees from having to live in an integrated, multiracial country. The horror. At least they'll feel better living here, knowing the government is actively attempting to re-segregate. Hope is powerful.

The cost to save those lives would have been - relative to the overall US budget - negligible. The only conclusion is that the people making these decisions (Musk/Trump/Miller/Vought) either don't value human life or wanted these children to die.

time and time again the court holds that rules and maps - even illegal ones - cannot be changed because it is “too close to an election” if the changes would benefit Dems now, it is fine canceling *ongoing primaries* in order to rewrite maps in favor of the GOP

Our economy is and has always been TERRIBLE at pricing in externalities. This is the cause of like 40% of our problems

Great timeline. RIP to America's window as (at least nominally) a multiracial, multiethnic democracy. Reclaiming it will require structural reforms.

I understand why folks are skeptical of him both personally and politically, but I'd give anything to have mainstream Democrats talking like this.

sorry but our politics problem isn't just "republicans bad." another huge part of it is that "too many democrats bad" and "too many democrats weak." you dont get to bad republicans having power if you wont address the other two.

As with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, Democrats in power continue to pick leaders who put donors before voters, who believe the goal is the status quo and that capitulating is strategic. Ben Wikler was too radical for Democrats because he understood the structural flaws and wanted to fix them.

Excellent points.

I am struggling to understand why for so much of the media, when a sitting president and his goons kill people summarily at home and abroad that that is somehow not categorized as “political violence”