true story, he followed me on Twitter because I was Leo Strauss posting and then blocked me because I was anti-Dugin

a guy named michael millerman. former PhD student in my dept.

My book, Democracy for Busy People (press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...), is all about the dilemmas of this situation: What would a good democracy look like that took seriously that people do have, & always will have, different intrinsic motivation to be engaged in politics?

based on my experiences as a parent i genuinely believe that if someone is feeling irritable the first thing they should ask themselves is “have i pooped today?”

He’s far too dumb to be recruited as an agent. OTOH, he’s so predictably dumb and easily flattered & manipulated that it’s entirely reasonable for the Kremlin to consider him an asset — a useful idiot.🧵

It’s a real problem that our elite institutions are just much stupider now than they used to be

How many people saw this, and didn’t even blink at it; Just transparently gives away that nobody there knows what the fuck they are talking about

Your federal government on Trumpism: "More than 10,000 veterans lost their homes to foreclosure since May 2025, when the Trump administration shut down a key safety net in the VA home loan program... "Another 90,000 vets are heading toward foreclosure..." www.npr.org/2026/04/02/n...

> @samsteindc.bsky.social

Oh fuck. This is how I found out

ok but would a dying bluesky look like *this*

A few lefties are losing their minds over this, and insisting the way to win is to activate habitual nonvoters. To which my response is: be my guest! Give it a try! See how it works out.

I have knocked doors for basically every campaign here in Bergen County NJ since Obama 2008. Knocking doors is probably the most demoralizing thing you can do if you actually care about politics. The public just does not fucking care.

There is exactly one human being in the last hundred years of American politics who has successfully activated the habitual non-voter: Donald Trump

The president's first post since an F-16 was shot down over Iran with one American still missing.

the defense secretary who was plucked off a couch at fox news is arguing about jesus with the fucking POPE in case you’re wondering how things are going

Oh dear. Oh my.

With the news that a second plane, an A10 was shot down (pilot safe) makes me wonder if those recent shipments from Russia to Iran had some new weapons

watching live Artemis II feed. they're unpacking food and using an iPad, somewhere out there further than any human has been in almost all of our lifetimes

This is essentially identical to what the members of the Russian State Duma delegation told Kommersant about this mission. And they said that Rep Luna (R-FL) came through for them in a manner they hardly thought possible.

Brad Lander says he raised $740,000 in first quarter of 2026 for his Democratic primary challenge to Rep. Dan Goldman. #NY10

I'm not sure about you, but I think the collapse of US hegemony, a global price spike and recession, and a new ground war in the Middle East are far worse than drag queens reading books at the library.

hot take

I don't think he's kidding about the cocaine.

It's like we're in a competition with Iran to see who can run out of general officers first

this is the chaplain btw. wonder why he was fired.

Exit of Trump officials including FBI director Patel under discussion, Atlantic reports reut.rs/3OebPEZ

so we're just going to get a complete cut-and-run and leave the global oil market in abject chaos. catastrophic defeat for the united states www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

Someone in CENTCOM must be thinking the same. There's a crazy amount of footage of MQ-9s, fighters, CSAR HC-130s and HH-60Ws over Iran the last hour or so. The kind of equipment one would need for searching for downed air crew. Incredibly dangerous moment for these pilots.

The US has it's own Cargo 200 problem.

Driscoll’s inclusion as being part of refusing is interesting

I’ve been around the army for 53 years. Never been more pessimistic about the health of the institution — it’s likely to get much worse over the next 34 months. Rebuilding the norms and ethics of the profession is going to take a generation+.

Guys, the President was literally threatening to invade the territory of a NATO country earlier this year, to the point where they had to deploy troops to deter it. That has consequences.

If this were a Biden Cabinet member, the "damaging rumor" — that Hegseth put on a disguise to go out drinking — would be in the headline.

There’s a part of me that thinks this is going to be the thing that finally brings everything crashing down on Trump - imagine being a Wall Street dope for whom everything depends on reopening the strait, you’re like “oh no Trump always wins,” you get up, check his Twitter, and this is what you see

Iryna Terekh (ancienne architecte urbaniste), fondatrice et CTO de Fire Point, startup de la BITD Ukrainienne qui produit le missile de croisière Flamingo. Peut-être la "ménagère avec une imprimante 3D dans sa cuisine" fustigée par le PDG de Rheinmetall que Zelensky a remis à sa place.

A lot has changed since 2022

The Islamic Republic's judiciary has executed 19-year-old Amirhossein Hatami, who participated in the January protests, on charges of Moharebe, meaning waging war against God. hengaw.net/en/news/2026...

Is that good???

Wie verbessert die Politik das Leben in Österreich? Zehn gute Gesetze, auf die man nicht mehr verzichten will.

Turns out he wasn’t as bad

🚨 BREAKING: Russian drone strike kills 20 animals at Kyiv region veterinary clinic.

Seems like Hegseth is taking out more generals in the US than Iran.

Servus Österreich 🇦🇹 Ein Gericht in Wien hat einen 20-Jährigen wegen Tierquälerei zu 6 Monaten Haft auf Bewährung verurteilt. Der Mann verschickte seine Katze demnach in einem Paket – und beschuldigte im Prozess den Postboten.

I spoke to the only people who actually matter in the entire Pam Bondi tenure: The survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. They are simultaneously elated that Bondi is gone after she disrespected and retraumatized them. But they don't believe Todd Blanche will be better www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Hillary Clinton would have carried Florida's 28th District ​​56-40, but Trump took it 62-37 in 2024. Mujica's candidacy will now test just how much damage Trump 2.0 has done to the GOP with Florida's Cuban American electorate and voters who trace their ancestry to Central and South America.

JD Vance is now responsible for finding and killing Glonzo

Trump has insulted and tariffed his European allies, persuaded Denmark to prepare for a US invasion and, by pressuring Ukraine and not Russia, encouraged Putin to keep fighting. All of which he has forgotten. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...