He can play first base for the Mets

He’s written about these views publicly. They take 2 seconds to find. C’mon, folks. Maybe it’s a historian thing, but it would be nice for journalists to take what people write down literally and seriously

Russell Vought embodies the radicalization of the conservative movement; his example captures how far removed from democratic politics the Trumpist Right is. Vought is convinced to be fighting a noble war against a vast leftist conspiracy that has supposedly taken over the country.

That ball is foul in every park where the pole isn’t 318’ away

You cannot be serious

the guy who caught cal raleigh’s homer was wearing a shirt that said dump 61 here and he immediately took it off and had a shirt that said dump 62 here

Photo looks like it was taken in the hotel over Shin Yokohama

I was gonna pull together a Pavement mix of “go” at some point

Actually, umpires are good

Actually, umpires are good

We think this is an under-appreciated part of the shutdown story

When the Orwellian named Dept of Homeland Security was created … MANY of us predicted that it would eventually be doing all the things that it is doing right now Pinning it uniquely on Trump really misses the point in a bunch of ways

John Roberts’ Constitution: The federal government protecting people’s right to vote or giving them health care violates the sacred principle of state sovereignty but if the deranged POTUS and his bloodthirsty advisers want to use the military to invade other states for being too liberal that’s fine

Belichick’s UNC has scored three fewer points this season than Kennesaw State has. You love to see it

Russ Vought has threatened to illegally withhold federal funds, seemingly from states with D-voting majorities. Congressional budgeting expert, Cerin Lindgrensavage explains how we *all* lose when admins try to usurp Congress’s power of the purse. Full discussion here: https://protdem.org/4gYkvcy

I’m starting to notice a trend in the polling data… —Top Public Worry: Corruption —Biggest problem in Fed Gov: Corruption —Top fear: Corruption —What one word would you use to describe American government?: “Corrupt” It’s almost like voters are trying to tell us something.

She went to her alma mater and discussed civility with Larry Sabato after all it and Charlottesville has been through. It’d be nice is she said she’d root out the reactionary trolls who graduated before UVa admitted women and go from there

Chris Murphy says Dems should lay down a simple marker for Trump: No Dem support for anything that funds his lawbreaking. "if you want our votes, it can’t be for rampant lawlessness. This isn't a normal time...the world [is] watching to see what we stand for." 2/ newrepublic.com/article/2013...

This is critical. I asked Chris Murphy if Dems risk sending the message that they're okay w/Trump's lawbreaking provided they extend ACA subsidies. His answer was striking: On the full year budget, Dems cannot give a bipartisan imprimatur to Trump's lawlessness. 7/ newrepublic.com/article/2013...

A lot of us know what this is, but for the average person on here: circa 2015 the Alt Right (the explicitly NeoNazi wing especially) appropriated the obscure McDonald’s mascot from the 80s, and made it into a NeoNazi ridden meme. So yes, this is straight NeoNazism being posted.

I've noticed that @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social is getting a little more comfortable talking about the shutdown as actually being about rejecting passage of a budget when the president won't honor it. From MSNBC today:

I'm glad @prospect.org is digging what @americalabs.org and I are doing and I hate self-promotion, but I actually wrote what's quoted here from the First Branch Forecast as we note in the newsletter.

This might be something someone running for governor of Virginia, who is an alumna of The University, should say something about

My daughter and I rode the bus down Georgia Ave get muffins when she was two.

We have a post to commemorate the start of this shutdown: www.govtrack.us/posts/545/20...

Pew Research showing Democratic approval of their Congressional leadership now resembles Republican approval of their Congressional leadership in 2014, which historians might remember as the year before Donald Trump took over that party www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

Not a great day for a guy sitting at his desk just trying to get some work on normal but complicated democracy reform stuff done.

Vought's going to lay off federal workers anyway, so the terms of the shutdown are really interbranch power - which his how people like Vought have been thinking about it all along, too

Friggin derp Don DeLillo President

Statcast reports this is 98 percentile Mets-ing

Just the long Civil Rights Movement alone is democratic lore people like Klein can’t even fathom. Coates is America, this is our Left.

He's a courtier writing inside anti-reality for other anti-reality participants

Some personal news

Actually, this is it. This is the one weird trick that left(ish) funders have to learn & quickly. Long-term investment in movement and institution builders with no strings. Look around. It’s the model that works. It is the whole ballgame. Viola!

Wahoofuckingwa

It’s gotta be the throwbacks #wahoowa

*The AI boom = one of the costliest building sprees in world history * Past 3 years' commitments are greater than the cost of building the U.S. interstate highway system * Consumers must spend $800 billion on AI within a few years, to justify investment from 2023-24 www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...

I need @pitchingninja.com to do a McLean/Maddux overlay. Nolan’s not so far down the mound but it’s there

Sinemanchin

Respect to that whale being like, aw, yeah, here comes the good stuff. I’ve been to Hokkaido, I get it.

Watching my favorite baseball team, the New York Metropolitan Baseball Club

Somebody teach Tong a cutter grip please

Is beaning Matt Shaw domestic terrorism?

Crediting my four mile walk between innings 2 and 7 for this one. It’s been a day, but I’ll take a Mets W

Congress held a hackathon this past week, so of course we wrote about it. Lots of clever tools and new initiatives from the legislative branch.

The Eagles were the first salvo in Boomers’ war on their children

tired: pentagon pizza index wired: culture war grindr outage index