This is the sort legislative conduct we saw in the antebellum period. The contradictions just built and built until finally there was a civil war. I think we're on the edge.

I suspect this is the point. They thoroughly do not want people independent of employers.

the first rule of congress is that it’s harder to get something done than do nothing

If I were @schumer.senate.gov, I would not agree to help Republicans fund this regime on the "promise" of an ACA vote at a later date. It didn't work the last time when they promised to fund DC. It won't work this time either. The House won't touch it.

If the Democrats do cave, I don't see how they can win the next election. Everybody's going to be so discouraged. This may be the point where the party splits in two. Absolutely awful time to do that but there may be no good time.

Well now. Whose fault is that?

It is not after all the first time a civil war has been fought over food.

We are apparently going to have a revolution over SNAP.

A very old dream in China. In the old days much harm was done by and in the pursuit of immortality.

🧵 Spengler dimly foresaw "AI." He said that when a culture runs out of ideas and freezes into a bureaucratic civilization, there is at the end an effort to gather any remaining scraps of creativity. Is this not exactly what the "AI"-mongers plan?

Ask him why so many air traffic controllers are retiring at once. Ask him if it has anything to do with Reagan firing 11K union strikers in 1981 and having to replace them all at once. Ask him how the mass firings this year will impact us the same way 40 years from now. Ask him, Jake.

Terrorists (i) use force or the threat of force to (ii) intimidate or coerce a (iii) civilian population. Drug smugglers guys meet none of those criteria. Terrorism is the propaganda of the deed, smuggling is the opposite of terrorism. Not every bad behavior is terrorism.

It may be past time to start doing demonstrations outside of GOP Congresspeople's local offices.

The truth is not "more nuanced," the truth is that none of these people are narco terrorists.

Groan.

So…do we punish one Republican Congresscritter for each death due to withdrawn health care, bankrupt one for each bankruptcy?

Do not print lies in the newspaper.

the Iranian drought story is insanely undercovered. foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/07/i...

Guns pulled and shots fired in the Little Village Mexican neighborhood in Chicago. ICE pulled guns but does not seem to have fired, reportedly shots were heard but no one knows who fired them. Fortunately, no one seems to have been hit. How long can this go on before there is a lethal assault?

"ALWAYS Keep The Gun Pointed In A Safe Direction"—The NRA At least he doesn't have his finger on the trigger.

New: The current “AI race” media frenzy, whether framed as productivity revolution, Chinese competition, or AGI salvation, is either largely myth-making or missing the most crucial point. So let me challenge that frenzy with a different story. 1/ open.substack.com/pub/protagon...

When they come for Jews they also come for Blacks, Owens. Do you want to be part of that? To be reviled by your own kin?

When I was an organizer talking with folks about forming a union, a common refrain was people wanted management to respect them and their work. I would explain that we can’t change the bosses heart, but we could build enough power to force them to pretend.

Sometimes you can hear something said 20 different times and not *really* understand or connect with it. But then one person says it in just the right way that you can feel it in your core. That’s why stories matter.

Police shouldn't be doing high-speed chases with low-level suspects, period. Some departments have banned them and in this age of license plate scanners and ring doorbells, it's easy enough to track them down without putting lives at risk.

I think it's useful to compare ICE to the SA (brownshirts), a paramilitary rabble, whereas CBP is more comparable to the SS, a well-trained paramilitary organization. 😬😬😬

I know a lot of people are snarking "So...single payer??" But that's not what this means. This means "more tax breaks, which would give windfalls to rich people & chump change to everyone else, who would then be screwed because it costs just as much to perform surgery on a waitress as a CEO."

The laws of war are not mere niceties. They are lessons from centuries of blood agreed upon to keep the world more stable. Violating them isn’t hero cop who cuts through red tape to get things done, it’s psycho cop who crosses lines in ways even the rule benders find appalling and must be stopped.

They always overreach.

Sigh.

I've had people say "Oh that's great for you," and no! It's not. That's like saying "You must love this Cholera epidemic we're having!" to a primary care doc. I have colleagues wanting to leave the field because it's no longer mental health care but wartime field medicine. I'm a 1-person MASH unit.

I think we need to stop calling it empathy and go back to calling it decency. It isn't a favour you're doing someone else, it's you proving that you aren't a fucking ghoul

As of today I have been a Wikipedia editor for 20 years 🧵of my favorite things I've seen and done in my two decades on the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit

This is actually a pretty standard and unremarkable move, as evidenced by Justice Jackson issuing it. But most people won't believe that for several good reasons. /1

Time to lock up the conservative justices and put them on short rations.

Heather Cox Richardson: I don't know how this will work out. I don't, either, but it's probably going to be more stupid than we can possibly imagine.

"Do you know what isn’t really any fun at all? Being the performatively crazy person in a room full of performatively crazy people[…]" By Jove, I think she's got it!

Eep!

Remind me never to get into an argument with someone who believes that the USA and China are on the same plane on civil rights…at 3am.

It's Friday, I'm sick as hell, and I'm so goddamned tired of Marjorie Taylor Greene's face. I GOTTA SCREAM. catvalente.substack.com/p/are-you-th...

you have to wonder what sort of legislation the House tries sending to the Senate if they kill the filibuster. do they finally get around to privatizing social security like during Bush?

lol is this a prelude to more immigration raids, because like everything in this admin ends up being a prelude to more immigration raids

Wow. Queen bee feminism. That's either vastly hypocritical or just cray-cray.

More 1933.

People gave Trump a ton of moderation credit for being rhetorically softer than his peers on the welfare state but in practice Trump has been way more aggressive on that then even the most wide-eyed reactionaries

so much of axios/politico reporting on the shutdown is Republicans running to them saying "democrats are going to make a deal any deal now" and then when you ask to see the deal, it's non-existent

He sounds completely nuts.

Elon Musk is one of if not the most destructive human beings of the 21st century and if we had any kind of functional justice system he would never live another day of freedom and if there was any kind of just god his afterlife would be no less unpleasant. May his every joy curdle and turn to ashes.

May This Week Be a Pivot www.emptywheel.net/2025/11/07/t...

And enslaving Uighurs, and burning lots of coal to make PVs. (They also build cars.) We will now have a performance of "Molasses to Rum to Slaves."