I'm so disillusioned, I almost don't even care who gets the FIFA Peace Prize next year

I think we are all going to start having more conversations about Jon Ossoff.

The October 2024 cover of The Economist:

My domestic policy preferences are closer to those of Democratic centrists than they are to Mamdani and the DSA. But my sympathy is pretty low for complaining centrists who decided to support Andrew Fricking Cuomo as their alternative to Mamdani.

It seems somewhat bad that the richest man in the world can use his money to bankrupt individuals or organizations -- including officials who are tasked with holding him accountable -- that accurately point out that his actions plausibly facilitated the deaths of millions.

The US finally admitting it lost a war on the same day that we're doing UFC fights on the White House lawn is going a bit too hard on the "late Roman Empire" vibes.

elon musk becoming a trillionaire the same day the DOJ approves the paramount/warner brothers merger is too much. only one sign of the apocalypse per day, thanks.

Musk buying twitter, Bezos buying WaPo, Ellison buying CBS—all are less profitable now. But they’re political investments that increase the value of the new owners’ portfolios Wealth concentration makes this possible, and that’s one mechanism by which inequality destroys democracy

I thought people were kidding, turns out Elon really did axe the screwworm containment program back in March 25. fucking imbecile www.agri-pulse.com/articles/226...

Different people will react differently to this, but I think it's great. If anyone can get high-quality answers to their individualized questions—as good as asking a professor of that subject—that can democratize learning in a really profound way.

A 51-49 Dem Senate is one in which, for example, many Trump nominees never even make it out of committee, making it irrelevant which way Fetterman or Platner or whomever would vote on the floor.

Even if you have a paper copy of today's NYT, read this op-ed on line for the awesome infographics. And yeah, today is one of those days where I go, "I get to work with these guys?!" like the rookie on the 10-day contract who snares a lob from Lebron.

Billionaires like Jeff Bezos go around talking about how super-rich people like them are paying a large share of taxes, and so why should they pay more. That's very misleading, as @gabrielzucman.bsky.social explains on his substack—republished here on @motherjones.com.

Jake hits the highlights here, but worth emphasizing: At recent growth rates, a one-time 5% tax means that CA billionaire wealth will increase by ~$200 billion this year, *after they pay the tax*.

Hey, if you're a CA voter who hasn't returned your ballot, and you also want to pass the #BillionaireTax, then there is a great strategic voting opportunity here. If there are no R governor candidates on the ballot in November, then the sub-tabs of recent polling suggest the tax wins easily.

These fucking demons told me that my neighbor wanted to eat my dog and now they want to talk about social trust evaporating

What if taxing the rich works?

Saez and @gabrielzucman.bsky.social on the CA billionaire tax 250 households (0.001% of the state) holds wealth equal to more than half of California’s entire annual economic output Their wealth grows 15% a year and is taxed at just 0.26% per year www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The facts: -Bezos paid $0 fed'l income tax in 2007 -He paid $0 in '11 -Btn '14-19, his wealth grew by $99 BILLION and he paid $973 million in taxes. Sounds like a lot but it's 0.98% of his wealth growth (which is his true income). www.propublica.org/article/the-...

This seeming technicality is potentially highly significant. As we saw in my thread this am, 28 usc 1304 does authorize settlement payments (tho not on these facts, arguably). This takes us outside 1304 and into "whoever cuts this check commits a federal crime" territory.

This suggests a lack of internal alignment among political appointees as to legality. Needless to say, it takes a lot of illegality for this administration to get to that point.

I say without hyperbole that this is the most brazenly corrupt action in US Presidential history. That it does not immediately lead to impeachment is a dangerous sign of how far the rule of law has declined.

Ok, let's live-skeet my research on the DOJ Judgment Fund. Here's the authorizing statute, 31 USC 1304: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/...

You should all read Brian's excellent analysis re the dubious legality of this "settlement." Since we're apparently scholarly live-skeeting this disaster, here are my two cents from my research for a book I'm working on, about how we got here. 🧵/1

It is difficult to overstate the level of institutional destruction at the IRS during the first year of the Trump admin. The IRS has been decimated. Let's begin with the IRS Senate-confirmed positions. There are only two at the IRS: The Commissioner and the Chief Counsel. /3

None of this would be possible without turning the IRS and the DOJ into personalist agencies. This is authoritarianism 101. Take over an agency, and then use it to attack rivals and enrich self. Mainstream media covers the DOJ pretty well. Less so re the IRS. /2

My new one @slate.com: Why is John Roberts in a Rush All of a Sudden? slate.com/news-and-pol...

The Roberts Court has made a lot of jurisprudentially conservative decisions that progressives naturally disagree with. But that’s really not what’s going on anymore. Increasingly its rulings are just partisan. They cannot reasonably be explained by pointing to a conservative judicial philosophy.

Today in revisionist history.* * We know it will reduce their power because we tried it in the past and it worked. Reducing rich people's power is one of the main reasons we adopted corporate income tax. And it worked. Until we ruined it too.

I am glad Randy Barnett decided to air this particular thought, because we can now proceed accordingly, and have a long overdue conversation in law schools, about the ways in which our stories in constitutional law, have been shaped by (some) men who hold racist and sexists beliefs.

Someone who used every tool at his disposal to overthrow our democratically elected government is most emphatically not a "good man," and most emphatically does deserve to have his career destroyed.

"Elmo is weak on crime" - Elmo

Wisconsin is showing that you can fight creeping authoritarianism by getting organized and consistently voting, year after year, in small races and big ones, to win back democracy by voting in people who actually support democratic process.

Whatever happens, this is a deeply shameful episode in American history that will leave a permanent stain on the country. Repeatedly vowing to commit war crimes against millions of innocent civilians is beyond the pale.

You know what I do admire about the student system: all the cite-checking. I have worked with student journals: we have caught plagiarism, we have caught AI, we have caught copyright infringement. Some fields are little too trusty. That said, more peer review would be good.

The fact that the assault on birthright citizenship has gotten this far, despite the plain text of the constitution, is astonishing. It also reveals some flawed assumptions about intellectual diversity, which sometimes involves resuscitating a dead and discredited idea b/c powerful people want to.

2010s: a startup worth $1 billion is a vanishingly rare thing (a "unicorn") 2026: a company that makes AI collars for cows is worth $ 2 billion www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The Trump Administration's violence and corruption is impossible to ignore. I created the nation’s first Accountability Commission to gather the evidence of wrongdoing in Illinois by ICE so we can hold them criminally and civilly liable.

I'd say that 150 hrs is very little for a full law review article that includes any kind of actual research, and that there is no way 15 hrs is enough to fact check a full length article written by an LLM.

WaPo Deputy Opinion Editor is just straight up lying about Mamdani's estate tax proposal (in both tweets and an op-ed). The bill contains a $1.75 million primary residence exemption, exempts retirement accounts, and the 50% marginal rate doesn’t kick in until $30 million.

Almost like it was a mistake to alienate all of our allies with idiotic trade wars, and then launch an actual hot war where we needed their help gcaptain.com/trump-calls-...

yeah the problem with leaving is that you actually have to leave “You’re a member of the L.A. County Club? Not anymore, you’re not,...That’s where a lot of these conversations break down. People realize they don’t want to give up these things they love.” www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

In honor of international Women's Day I am going to tell you a story about Ellen Ash Peters, the first female professor at Yale Law and the first female Justice on the Connecticut Supreme Court.

DHS gets the worst of the worst. [Touches ear] Sorry, correction... DHS is the worst of the worst. bsky.app/profile/amym...

Yes

Also, the government has lots of computers, but they are the wrong kind of compute for inference. They need to use AWS or another cloud provider just like you do. www.aboutamazon.com/news/company...