again I point out how strange it is that high-level diplomatic negotiations of war and peace are being conducted by freelancers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, both of whom have egregious conflicts of interest, and not the actual secretary of state

A question you have to ask yourself if you’re going to approach politics as a responsible adult is whether your goal is to improve material conditions and achieve changes that reduce human suffering, or whether it is to look really cool in front of your friends online.These are not compatible aims.

Compelling, and frightening, 🧵 about what is likely going on behind the scenes with the SAVE America Act and why it likely is much worse even than it sounds.

Indeed. I wish people would abandon the "TACO" jab against Trump as the world is almost always better served by his backing down. And he is absolutely prideful enough to do terrible things just to prove he is not TACO. We don't need the mockery to tank his approval ratings: he handles that himself.

Market manipulation. The timing of Trump threats (usually Friday nights) then backing down (usually early Monday mornings) on war and tariffs tell you all you need to know.

One reason why I have been frustrated with the extent to which those desperate for Trump to fail have often uncritically soaked up IRGC myths of invincibility is that it has led too many people to play down how much devastation the United States and Israel can wreak on Iranian society

Easiest 100% legal way for Musk to do this, I think, would be to cut a very large check to the TSA union to disburse, since the govt itself spending money requires an act of Congress, not just money in the bank (the US has $875B in cash right now). Given Musk's views on unions, seems unlikely.

Sadly, I think this 🧵 holds significant truth. Our country directly empowers Israel in a way it doesn't (yet?) empower Russia so that deserves special attention. And crypto spending has been so effective many fail to see how destructive it is. (Ditto Big Tech.) But some welcome the chance to do this

It is quite telling that since the horrific story of Cesar Chavez re: sexual abuse broke earlier this week and calls to change the names of schools and other public spaces named in his honor, not one conservative voice has stepped forward to object that this would be tantamount to erasing history.

Obviously there's a lot more of this now with AI, but I was involved in a case years before AI in which the other side cited, and the court relief upon in ruling against us, an absolutely devastating declaration by one of the defendants -- that was entirely made up. Counsel suffered no consequences.

Horrific in every way. One small correction: it misstates who were the three original members of NFWA. They were Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Helen Chavez. Helen has never received the respect she deserved. Surely disrespected for gendered reasons as well. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/u...

Extremely powerful statement about heartbreaking, tragic events.

Survivors are always activated by the harm of others. It was that way for me. It is a story of love for each other.

Peace to Dolores Huerta, a hero amongst heroes.

Winning. So much winning.

Will they print a retraction if all Trump can get is the navies of Nepal, Bhutan, Chad, Niger, and Paraguay?

Insider elite domination of U.S. politics has brought enormous bias, group-think, and corruption. But at least the insider elites have some capacity for institutional memory. Outsider elites, especially ones too lazy to learn, bring all the vices of insider elites with none of the benefits.

Appalling even if it is not the least bit surprising.

Indeed. A related question is how Democrats can trust anything a nominee says in confirmation hearing testimony given the absolutely brazen breaking of such promises by prior nominees, perhaps most obviously RFK Jr.

Absolutely gutting story on Annunciation parents pouring their souls into enlightening legislators, knowing they’d the GOP brick wall. But the piece contains one of the most horrifying paragraphs an American parent could read; it will stay with me: www.startribune.com/in-living-ro... (gift)

We can ignore these efforts at our peril. The grave threats western democratic systems face are largely traceable to one source: Putin's regime. Too few recognize that, and sadly Biden/Sullivan (and Merkel) were among those that missed the point.

All of this incredibly obvious and infuriating welfare fraud happened under the first Trump administration and I don't recall them ever threatening to block funding to the state of Mississippi as a result.

My latest on the difficult choices Democrats will soon face on funds for the war. "Just say 'no'" sounds good, but it likely comes with a steep cost. Balkinization: Hard Choices on War Funding share.google/DDM1xA8RDX3G...

Whether you call it libertarianism or something else, we ought to have a clear consensus, and strong rules, keeping courts out of people's health care decisions and punishing hospitals for putting patients through this kind of nightmare.

No matter how often prominent people conflate Jews with the Israeli Government, we must remain absolutely clear they are not the same. And no matter how often prominent people conflate criticism of the Israeli Government with anti-Semitism, we must remain absolutely clear they are not the same.

This is a good lesson for journalists: Use plain language to state true things clearly.

This is horrible, but also informative. If Putin thought he could make a lasting Russia-US alliance with Trump, he wouldn't want to undermine potential public support by helping kill our servicemembers. This behavior suggests he just wants short-term advantages from Trump www.cnn.com/2026/03/11/w...

The UK is replacing (deceased) eminences with wildlife. I have all sorts of ideas about what wildlife might make a suitable replacement for our living, wildly unpopular President on one dollar coins.

“Her daughter’s new student enrollment form was denied due to “license plate recognition software showing only Chicago addresses overnight” in July and August... “Although you are the owner on record of a house in our district, license plate recognition shows that is not the place where you reside.”

Remember how there were going to be lots of trade deals?

Where do you suppose he got the idea of a "special military operation"?

Do all the progressives ceaselessly demanding that the filibuster be abolished, and confirming anyone pointing out the risks, realize they are on the same side as Trump? Trump says he won't sign bills until Congress overhauls voting : NPR share.google/prQ1WcwuKDR0...

The basic premise that Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba have awful regimes no one should support is obviously true but Trump is neither ending the regimes nor has any plan to counter the main rogue int’l actor— Ru— which is reaping collateral benefits as we speak. apple.news/ACnA6QjgxR8O...

My latest on why the Administration's attacks on Minnesota's management of Medicaid and food assistance programs are completely unfounded. Their own data shows that Minnesota is better than most and far better than several red states the Administration ignores. news.bloomberglaw.com/legal-exchan...

Floored by the ignorance of so many mainstream media outlets calling him "the new Ayatollah". Iran is at the center of a massive war and serious people cannot bother to differentiate between a religious title (which he currently lacks) and a political one (Supreme Leader) that he just received.

This is what ecocide looks like.

This is the Israeli playbook from Gaza (and Putin's in Ukraine for that matter) and it is ultra-disturbing to see the US carry out repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure. It simply does not serve a military purpose.

Useful 🧵 on how plans for a ground war are unmoored from reality. Saddam Hussein, who had the most convenient possible staging area and no qualms about rules of engagement, tried invading Iran. It proved a disaster. And it's hard to see our experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq as worthy of repetition

I can recall some other regimes that were marching through the world with wars of choice. Are those really the models we want to adopt?

👇🏽

We will never know whether the Weather Service would have made a better forecast, and saved lives, if DOGE had not gutted it. DOGE should be part of every story on govtl failure. What made the deadly tornado hitting Michigan so striking - The Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2026...

Knew this was coming, eventually.

The people you should never listen to again are: 1) Any MAGA, because they lied about exactly what we knew they were going to do and what the results would be 2) The centrist pundit class 3) Leftists who either genuinely thought or postured as thinking that Dems would be as bad/even worse.

It takes real galaxy brains to mass cancel solar and wind projects and then start a pointless unpopular war that sends oil prices soaring.

Excellent 🧵 on how the Administration's deliberate destruction of U.S. diplomacy is making this war both harder and less likely to achieve its ends (whatever those are).

i hate when liberals pull shit like that. i know part of it is because its a sensitive topic for me but you'd think we would have less credentialism when the two worst presidents of the last 50 years went to fucking yale and wharton.

I'm sure some people in the White House are thinking they need to fire more competent statisticians at BLS. The Unified Executive Theory says that all jobs reports must support the President's preferred narrative.

If that doesn't get him the Nobel Peace Prize, nothing will.

Common thieves. Not to be confused with the high seas pirates and protection rackets we see going on at the same time.