Increasingly, I think "the Dems taking personal credit for shifting thermostatic opinion" is a huge part of the story of the last twenty years. Obviously, any gains in November will be because everyone fucking hates Trump. And that's the strategy problem. But there's also this practical problem.

This is what the average Minnesotan sounds like these days

if you want a long read that involves udders, a hot air balloon, and some extremely dubious data on egg prices, the story I’ve been working on for the last few months where I tried to single-handedly take on every government function myself is now online! www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

William and Mary calls itself the alma mater of the nation because so many distinguished politicians went here but here’s a fact. The last president to graduate from here was John Tyler, but both Mike Tomlin and Sean McDermott did. We are now the alma mater of the NFL (head coaches)

I always say that the Trump admin did an impossible thing - turning me into a states rights guy - but yeah man, I’m not sure there’s been a bigger actual reason for dissolution in our history. Why should they pay taxes?

How many protester deaths are too much in the United States?

You ever just - think about the fact that Jeremiah is never described as a levite in the book of Jeremiah

Just for what it's worth, I don't think Graham Platner is pausing his campaign, I think he personally is going on a trip with his wife to seek medical treatments. Sounds like his campaign is going to keep working.

If i had to point to one thing I think is the national party's most dangerous misapprehension, this would be it - ICE is a real thing, not just a discursive reflection of the politics of immigration. At some point, you have to get real and realize the real thing is too dangerous to exist

Honestly think you can trace the history of today's completely insane tech billionaires to the fact that the utopian things they believed in the early 00s didn't pan out at all, one of them being that unrestricted communication would lead to world peace and understanding

I have a new article out today - I'm proud of it both for its own sake and because it's my first article outside of Religious Studies journals. It's called "Towards a “repertoire interaction” model of ethnicity: “Becoming ‘Israel’” and available cultural repertoires," get in touch if interested

At long last, we have created the tyrannical king from the classic declaration

Every now and then something happens where I want to go back and time and slap every libertarian I ever knew (which, growing up in Texas was not none).

Just in case they change the rules

I think the contemporary democratic party, at least at the national level, is shaped most of all by the belief that they have an agreement with their voters that they are allowed to pursue moderate Republicans above all. The basic idea is that they think we know that if they don't talk about ICE -

The MPD union, at least, has made it clear which side they are on. This is the cost of DECADES of (everyone, everywhere) refusing to deal with the rising right-wing and white-nationalist involvement in policing.

Within this triangle you will find such intellectual luminaries as myself, @jennisifire.bsky.social @meirazk.bsky.social @drewjakeprof.bsky.social @chancebonar.bsky.social @historianca.bsky.social and many others

Not too bad, Ken

at some point we're gonna have to have a real conversation about why we're still paying federal taxes to a regime that isn't using them to help anyone, but instead is using them to brutalize us

Being a conservative means never having to explain (or think about) why a mom with kids in school WOULD suddenly try to run over a heavily armed guard, surrounded by other heavily armed guards, while slowly leaving the scene

When your wife hasn’t been warned that it’s trick shot o’clock

Not surprising for a guy who traded Luka Doncic, but I think every Mavs move after trading for PJ pretty much sucked. Obviously you'd rather have Grimes than Caleb Martin, but I increasingly feel like I'd rather have DJJ than Najj Marshall, too. Marshall does some good things but he especially loves

As a resident of Virginia, I tend to think that Virginia Dems are a good example for national Dems to follow. Nobody thinks they're super radical, especially in affect, and they clearly aren't guaranteed to win - this isn't CA or NY, but they just haven't been afraid to use power when they have it.

Man I’m feeling great out there lately, and as a forty-year-old, I know that’s just gonna keep being true indefinitely.

It’s easy to think that schools in Minneapolis are closed because the Feds murdered someone in the street but no, the actual reason is that while that was happening, the Feds were busy doing other heinous shit across the city like tear-gassing a school

I call this one the Joni Mitchell because it’s from both sides now

better way to think of this is “20,000 of the dumbest, most violent people in the country currently receive government subsidies for their stupidity and violence. should we continue doing that?”

Kinda sucks how one day you’ll post stuff like “does the Grinch use the toilet?” and then the next it has to be “I reject those who worship death”

ICE is a textbook example of the thing I'm always banging on about where a lot of Dem consultants end up thinking winning elections and governing are the same thing. When you think about the question in the abstract, "do ppl want aggressive immigration enforcement" might have a yes answer

The Mavs game starts when now

Finally I’ve found the trick that will heal the nation

You’re the Worst!

Are we still doing that if I won the lottery there would be signs thing

My own diagnosis of how the Dems Failed Us viz. j6 has basically to do with a way that millions of angry posters are also Failing Us: confusing elections with governing! I think a lot of people don't even know that all they're debating is how to win elections, what things to say

this isn't even a case of bad phrasing in a headline, the lede legitimately presumes (pretends? assumes? asserts? idek) that the CSAM machine has independent agency and is making active choices

Been wanting to check out those new Air Keds... looks like they got some buckets in them.

Got some shots up

I guess the creators of Octonauts like Dr. Who

I’m sure every parent reading this is excited about giving their children shots at as many different appts as possible, something many parents enjoy

Who WAS that hooded figure who occasionally wandered off to parent

The Hilton thing (of course) wasn't real, and there is no universe where a mega, multi-national corporation refuses services to ICE, but I do wonder if the administration ever takes a minute to even think about whether it wants to wildly attack the profit margins of billionaires

I’m actually still open to this opportunity

I was just thinking today that one of the reasons I still write articles despite how annoying the process is, is to cite myself. Which is to say if I do the complicated textual math to prove a point in an article I can just refer to it in something for broader audiences and save a lot of headache

Hand down man down baby

I think Walz shoulda run. Minnesota may be different than most places, but they're just gonna pin the same scandal on whoever is running. Yesterday the president was posting stuff about whether Walz had Melissa Hortman murdered, I don't think they're too concerned with how legitimate the smears are

even my favored structural reforms are just finding ways to brute force a less destructive republican party, whether that is ending as much as possible the electoral bonus for representing rural areas or making multi-partyism more viable.

I still think what’s weirdest about all this is that at the moment at least the entire Maduro gov is still in place except for Maduro. Like even if they hate Maduro that much, why would they be celebrating like this about being led by his VP, cabinet, officers….