Ellis also finds that the feds' use of force in Chicago "shocks the conscience."

Love the idea that the primary barrier to a higher birth rate is people able to afford infertility treatment, but not a bit more expensive infertility treatment.

The next president isn’t gonna have to demolish this because it’s gonna collapse under its own weight during a state dinner.

One underrated funny plot line from January 6 was Mike Pence being so dumb that he had to call up *Dan Fucking Quayle* to be like “gee Dan, Trump says I can just hand the election over to him on my own, does that seem right?”

Ellis: "The government would have people believe, instead, that the Chicagoland area is in a vice hold of violence, ransacked by rioters and attacked by agitators. That simply is untrue. And the government's own evidence in this case belies that assertion."

It’s important to remember that the GOP nuking the filibuster* would be an unambiguous win for Dems even if it didn’t mean they got anything of substance. The win is staring them down and making them do something they didn’t want to do. *I also don’t think they’ll have the votes to do this

Kind of hilarious to imagine they think this is targeting blue cities because they don’t realize what “hub” means.

Hating Lin Manuel Miranda isn’t a personality, Jesus Christ. It’s way worse than being a Disney adult or watching Parks & Rec.

Ok uh, I read the beginning of the bad Ross Douthat thing, and it’s a weird pincer movement of “men have become too feminized” and “women have become too masculinized.” But neither argument is made in anything close to a convincing fashion. Just asserted.

Also I kind of think we need to knock it off with presuming his name’s gonna be on the ballot in 2028, or that he’s even gonna be alive for it. That’s doing like 60% of his work for him.

Uhhhhhhhhh

I wish everyone who insisted Trump would fuck elections by posting ICE agents at every polling place, or even just a few key ones, would grapple with what it means that they were wrong, why they wanted to believe it, why they pushed back so hard when disagreements happened.

This isn’t fair. He didn’t just “not solv[e] any problems,” he caused a shitload of new ones too.

Oh word? A bad election result and the next day we’re announcing a holy war on the country’s behalf? That’s certainly gonna juke those numbers sir.

Remarkable: In Virginia and New Jersey, Spanberger and Sherrill erased the GOP edge among working class. Per exit polls, each got 50% of noncollege voters, big gains over previous contests. Shocker: Anti-Trump politics appeals to working class, too! New from me: newrepublic.com/article/2027...

They would rather do this than renew health care subsidies.

As a general rule, if something is a core constitutional power of Congress, I think they ought to be able to delegate it to the executive, but they should be able to revoke that delegation without having to override a veto. Makes no sense otherwise.

The fact that a lot of leftists despise Parks and Rec - one of the best and most sympathetic depictions of non-cop government in modern media - is a symptom of the fact that a lot of the left has no idea how to actually implement the policy proposals they want to enact.

This is something I said earlier today, about last night’s wins making the shutdown harder, crossed with something else I’d posted about, the beltway rags regurgitating lines from John Thune that democrats were on the verge of caving.

The gist of this statement is “being in the house sucks, I’d rather give up than keep trying.” Anybody who would even think to write a statement like this, we’re well rid of them.

Wallpaper is cool because you can buy a roll that’s 18 feet long and then once you line the patterns up you can maybe use 11 feet.

Truckstop Vigilante, just say bitch. This is taking forever.

It’s interesting because in my personal experience, management’s response to DEI type initiatives was to implement it sincerely and earnestly. Not saying that was at all universal, this is just an anecdote, but even the older conservative coded men took it very seriously.

A best of both worlds moment: Trump taking a fat L from his own lickspittles after already getting tarred with the damage he did from doing the tariffs in the first place.

Also, a process question, maybe @andycraig.bsky.social might have an answer: if, while Johnson has the house in recess, enough reps quit that he’d lose the speakership if it came to a vote, is there a way to force it into session to make it so, or does he remain speaker until he decides?

This is a really good question. Maybe *the* question. A thing I just thought of as a potential way things could break: a few outright straight up resignations in the House. What if like 8 moderate republicans just called it quits?

Last night’s victories, everywhere they happened, were fundamentally anti-Yglesian, to coin a term.

Donald Trump wants to deny Americans representation in order to keep power. That’s the headline.

The Democratic Party is the democratic party.

Make Democracy Higher Salience Than Ideology For Now (MDHSTIFN).

This does not indicate that Republicans think Trump is coming from a place of strength. It looks like them battening down the hatches for a tsunami next year.

Evangelicals will be like Steel, Chamber of Commerce types will be like The Eradicator, open Nazis will be like Cyborg Superman, and the actual Trump family trying to claim his mantle will be like Superboy.

100%, the second he dies, each of the half dozen factions of the coalition he bound together is going to try to brand as the true heir of Trump. It’s gonna be like The Death of Superman.

Any discussion of the filibuster has to be understood first in the fact that it exists inside a body - the Senate - which was designed by our founders NOT to represent the will of the American people. The filibuster makes the Senate even less representative. (1/x)

It’s time to start jamming new axes into the political compass. Fiscal and cultural? lol ok, if it’s 2008. How about corruption v honesty? How about democracy v despotism? Make voters realize republicans want to dynamite the foundations of the country to line their pockets.

Republican senators are going to almost certainly balk at the idea of ending the filibuster, and Democrats should take the opportunity to use it against republicans every chance they get and then end it the second they take control of the chamber.

Hell yes, the Republican party’s official response to people voting against them should be “you’re not allowed to do that anymore,” especially since they’re not going to actually be able to do it. Make that brand toxic as shit.

This is what I’ve been saying, re: “you voted for this” discourse. Whatever I think people should have known, what I think they have no excuse not to have known, for whatever reason they seem not to have known it.

Acknowledging that NYC mayor elections are a Whole Thing, this is easily one of the most robust faith outreach operations I've ever seen for a mayoral race.

Oh, and after all the millions of dollars spent on advertising, the harmful policies and all the demagoguery... Stop. Picking. On. Trans. Kids. The Rs lost to me four times in six years. That should've been a hint. But apparently it wasn't, so the voters made their thoughts crystal clear tonight.

Given last night’s results, I don’t think we have much to fear about the public pinning Trump’s bullshit on Trump. He’s threatening to withhold funds from NYC? Fuck it, let him try. He’s getting blamed for the shutdown. If Dems take Congress in the midterms and he doesn’t sign any bills, it’s on him

The headline about Spanberger's blowout victory in VA--along with the Dems romping in the House of Delegates--is that transphobia really doesn't work as an electoral secret weapon. And this fact needs to set in, despite the dearest wishes of the most ossified members of the commentariat.

I must once more emphasize that we have not heard at all that there did not seem to have been any reports of things like ICE at polling places yesterday. If they want to do voter suppression and intimidation, the time to shoot that shot was months ago when they could end the filibuster to do it.

This is another thing! For all the worry about ICE agents posted outside polling places, that would been a lot easier to prove out in an off year election with action in a very limited number of places, and there was none.

I feel like the shutdown fight just got tougher. Trump’s an idiot but he’s not wrong that the shutdown hurts them and they could end it tomorrow on their terms by ending the filibuster. But given tonight’s results, GOP senators are even less likely to do it because losing the chamber is in view.

I know people have compared it to other times he’s pushed to end the filibuster, but 1) I think he means it more this time and 2) results like this means he’s got way less juice to see it through.

Yeah, she’s running for a third straight Dem term when Dems posted the weakest presidential numbers they’d shown in the state since Bush running for reelection post 9/11, and she’s just trouncing. Even more impressive, TBH.

Goddamn.

This date business makes me wonder whether they could even get to a bill in the House at this point.