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….

I always feel bad piggybacking off J Bouie bc he’s so insightful it feels even more like a contribution no one needs than usual. But yes people will act like the end results of the GOP starting with - pick your poison, Gingrich or McConnell - just refusing to be part of governance -

Again, I think the most logical explanation for all of this is that 1) Trump is one among many idiot conservatives who believe that you should conquer a place with oil, e.g., Iraq, and take their oil, then oil is magically cheaper and 2) he believes this kidnapping was so intimidating...

A frustrating throughline of the Trump years is that he basically tries to get everything done through intimidation but he sucks at intimidation but he still often gets what he wants because of America's pre-existing power and the value of sucking up at him, then he takes credit -

Max Christie is really a pretty good player

It does seem like Trump's claim to be ruling Venezuela is based on what he assumed would happen if we kidnapped the president and left and not what anyone is in a position to do

did they just go to wikipedia to get the first picture

This shit is so naked!

looks like someone is about to win the “fell for it again” award

Another skeleton key to the Trump years that I always think about is how Musk and Zuckerberg both came out publicly as pro-Trump after the assassination attempt, not that Musk was hiding it terribly well, and both described how he behaved after being shot as "epic" or "awesome" or whatever.

The common thread to everything Trump is that we have lost the idea that laws exist and are supposed to be enforced impartially because trying to decide when they are justified or not on a case by case basis is prime for extraordinary abuse

Yeah they just learned "we don't have power over Trump" and kinda chilled

Mike Lee taking five minutes to be a principled libertarian before turning to "apparently Venezuelan forces were trying to stop us from kidnapping their president for some reason, which allows us to treat them as a hostile party so nm" is very Mike Lee

The conservative mind has been ruled for a generation by the fantasy of a brilliant, principled liberal who is led by the spirit of honest inquiry to a humble, weeping conversion to conservatism. And since that has never happened in reality, they have to pay each other to perform it for them.