The Liberal Currents Merch Shop is Live liberalcurrentsmerch.printful.me

extremely serious take: how much of the vibecession comes from legalizing weed -People buy from dispensaries (mostly owned by People Who Can Afford Lawyers) instead of the local guy -> fewer opportunities for local guys -No more awkward hanging out with the weed guy -> male loneliness epidemic

When we took office, NYC had a $12B deficit. Today it’s zero. And we didn’t close that gap on the backs of working people. We closed it while funding parks, libraries, safer streets, & public housing. Call it Pothole Politics or Democratic Socialism: We are government that delivers for the people.

What happened to all those private donors, Donald? Americans are on the hook not only for his tariffs but also for the billion he needs for his gilded ballroom. In the meantime, he's cut your healthcare coverage and SNAP benefits all to "save" money.

Do you need a meal today? I want to help. Today's Emergency Trans Meal Fund slot remains open.

I feel like it’s an underrated possibility that the public just genuinely cares less about crimes when Republicans do them

“Warfighter” breaking containment is low-key one of the worst features of the Whiskey Pete Era DoD. “It made sense when used in PowerPoint presentations as a shortcut for ‘soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and airwomen, etc’ but…”

It's hard to believe, but this really is the official position of our country's Very Serious Financial Analysts: "it would simply be too horrible if the strait stays closed, so ... [closes eyes tight, taps heels together] ... it won't!"

Seriously. In most subjects, you can already fix this with in-person exams. I suspect fixes will be found for others, as well--perhaps centered on making students do the writing in environments where they will be monitored and do not have access to AI.

One thing that stuck with me about Michael Lewis's "The Fifth Risk" is the chapter about the civil servants at the Department of Energy whose job it is to track the movement of nuclear materials and equipment around the globe. Wonder if anyone is answering the phones at DOE these days.

this is very clearly and directly genocidal: "Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group" is explicitly listed as a genocidal act in the 1948 convention, and Russia's intent to destroy Ukrainians as a people has been made clear over and over again

turns out that you can drive up the birthrate with a baby bonus, you just need to crank it up to twice the per capita income www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/o...

The data confirms what your wallet already knew: Trump is making life more expensive while your paychecks look the same. Let's be clear: One person started the Iran War, imposed reckless, illegal tariffs, and tanked the economy—Donald Trump.

they need to make up their minds over whether this thing is supposed to be nuclear powered lol

Probably 65% of what doomed Biden/Harris was the overhang of covid trauma and, then, inflation causing anti-incumbent angst. 25% was Biden being unable to communicate. 10% a paranoid approach to governing that the Warrenites insisted upon.

"it's a governance nightmare—and that's only to be expected if your standard operating procedure is allowing yourself to be bullied by bigots"

Look I could be a lot more graceful toward this viewpoint but working under politicians who think ‘affordability’ means Actually We Should Reduce Public Revenues and cut back on public services, but also public service expectations should be higher, throws my rage mode into overdrive

He's had a weird obsession with trans stuff since he got backlash in 2007 from LGBTQ groups over his decision to try to push an LGB-only nondiscrimination bill (that would have been vetoed by GWB anyway). He popped back up in 2014 to continue complaining about it. I wrote about it at the time:

When I first started bringing nondrivers to our state legislature transportation committees, I remember, it was a shock for legislators to hear from dozens of people outside the transportation consulting firm lobby

Interesting report, the data shows that at least for the highway lobby it's not safety first, it's safety third "Safety was the third most prevalent theme" for "how current problems and potential benefits were framed"

The thing that frustrates me the most about Barney Frank's current media tour is that a.) in every single appearance, he takes a shot at trans people, and b.) he fundamentally misunderstands what's been happening on the issue of trans rights, generally.

there has been a recasting going on especially in the pages of the nyt that the gay rights movement (esp. winning gay marriage) was this well-thought out, incrementally planned campaign and if the trans people had tried that they'd be fine and that just, doesn't seem true at all?

"Dems lose because they're too nice to trans people" is such a lazy take. The only Americans for whom trans rights are an election-altering issue are (a) trans people themselves (for good reason) and (b) magats who will never, ever vote D for any reason.

It took all the political capital he had to even get a shitty ACA. Several Senate Dems and a few blue dogs in the House were prepared to kill it completely

"What looks like voluntary surrender often rests on a promise: give up autonomy and you will be protected and cherished. The promise is fragile, and the reality that enforces it is harder and meaner." www.liberalcurrents.com/tradwives-de...

mfw the vibecession was real and consumers have just been accurately pricing in the future costs of a second Trump administration and war with Iran this whole time

Trump promised to lower prices. Instead, Inflation is skyrocketing and wages are falling behind. Gas prices are up. Groceries cost more. Health care is under attack. And reckless tariffs and a war of choice with Iran are making life even more expensive for my neighbors. You deserve better.

Complaints about Biden and Obama's administration tend to overlook the fact that history has proven Biden right on the policy and Obama right on the politics and I'm not sure what you do with that.

"Keeping people unemployed during a slow recovery led to the Republicans taking power." Okay, full speed ahead next time "Well, it turns out that people across the political spectrum hate inflation more than anything else." Ah

They never broke ranks. Never. Not even the Tea Party could break GOP unity. They just kept electing Republicans, no matter what, because consolidating power was the ONLY GOAL that mattered. DEMs... well, our shit-swizzling knobs are like, "I don't like her tone, so I hope DEMs lose. HAHA."

Here's my take on the California gubernatorial candidates' housing agendas, based on the Ezra Klein-hosted forum from last week. publiccomment.blog/p/the-candid...

I'm sure it'll take years before political reporters do any real introspection on Trump II but I continue to be absolutely flabbergasted by his decision to start a war w Iran--even more so that it was clearly done without any sort of coherent plan at all. Just an all time self-own by a US president

In 13 years of learning about various government programs and agencies, the two-word phrase that explains the most, and that I most wish the general public knew about and understood, is “administrative burden”.

More & more eligible low-income people are losing SNAP because of H.R. 1’s bureaucratic hurdles, including this mom who has tried for months to get her family’s benefits back while working & caring for 2 young kids. Keep in mind: SNAP benefits average about $6 per person per day.

i think if billionaires wanted to receive more respect and deference from the population at large they wouldn't say shit like this

But there is no money for health care, food, or gas. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/u...

"It erases the relentless, often invisible work of childcare and domestic management—the scheduling, the cleaning, the emotional labor, the unpaid nights and weekends—and it treats that erasure as proof that such work is natural, even easy, for women." www.liberalcurrents.com/tradwives-de...

but this is also an abdication of editorial judgment. the classic example is stories about water-skiing squirrels. you don't *have* to write junk just because people like reading it. and you *do* have to write important stuff that people don't read enough of if you do it often maybe readers change

politicians & press alike insist we can never tell anti-immigrant voters they're wrong—but they are, & we should! my latest for @liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/respecting-r...

there’s a certain kind of small business owner — and it’s not a small number — who own their own business because they’re a nightmare to work with for anyone else

A generation of young men is being taught that cruelty is courage and that calling 911 on someone you just provoked is "based." It's destroying them. And I think the snap-back is closer than people realize. open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

Western ‘Realists’: “Putin was reacting to NATO expansion in Europe; Ukraine is a one off scenario we can appease our way out of” Putin “yeah Ukraine is about the EU, and I might do it again if anyone else thinks about joining”

After driving up the US gasoline price by $1.54 per gallon, Trump now asks Congress to suspend the $0.18 federal fuel tax. aje.news/fyjmm4

In Final Fantasy Eorzeourteen, there are Two (2) kinds of catgirl

Calling protected bike-lanes “vanity projects” should be automatic evidence that a political candidate has no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to public safety, urban mobility and congestion, geometry and urban space, fiscal responsibility, or the successful positioning of cities.

Of course Achilles' shade shows up in the Odyssey (different Homer, imo) to inform us that, having done it, he now views his decision to choose a short, glorious life over a long, peaceful, obscure one as a terrible mistake. If he had it to do again, Achilles wouldn't even be Achilles.

Four years ago, President Vladimir Putin offered Moscow and its business elite a de facto deal: 'support my war in Ukraine, and in exchange you won’t have to think about it.' In the past week, that deal was broken. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

One does wonder just how much all that Hungarian filthy lucre running through Orban was subsidizing.