@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social Buddy, nobody's saying they want you and Chuck to put your heads together and cook up a plan. Nobody's saying that because no one's thickheaded enough to waste their breath wishing for something that won't happen and wouldn't work. They're saying it's time to go now.

Tomorrow I’m off to give talks about my work at Yale and Harvard. Tonight, my four year old told me I’m “probably not good at drawing fish” because “I’m not really good at anything”

My joints will be SO uninflamed

Shana tovah to all

I think what you see with SCOTUS is different ways that too much power corrupts competing with each other. One way is obvious, that having total impunity and a lifetime appt is too much for some people when asked to choose between doing your job and getting what you want. But -

Out now: New issue of MTSR featuring a symposium on @feelingtheory.bsky.social's WILD EXPERIMENT, in which @maiakotro.bsky.social and I take the opportunity to fire off some long-simmering hot takes on how J. Z. Smith is used in discussions about comparison as a method. brill.com/view/journal...

This always happens. I'll be sure to yell "AND HOW!" when I actually give the talk so people know

You just see everywhere how much americans need a commitment to the existence of public goods in a country where everyone is sure that tech innovation will make them unnecessary and let you keep your tax dollars. Trains, libraries, public universities, even government employees

Given the time of year this is I instinctively read this as a cosmogonic response to a job posting at UT

Some news! My book, _Strike:Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire_ (currently $3.62 on Amazon, lol) is one of the best books of the year from @newyorker.com. Thx to all the friends, family, colleagues, and reviewers who helped make this book a collective effort about collective action.

I think these points aren't mutually exclusive bc of what these people do differently than a lot of other liberals. I think a lot of us are imprisoned in a discursive world where the goal is to prove that something is a bad kind of thing ppl wouldn't want to do and we live in a world where ppl do

Checks out!

Again, the argument isn't, and cannot really be "we need to make a bigger tent by allowing candidates to have opinions outside the liberal mainstream." Because that ASSUMES you can do that without losing anyone you already have. The pitch here isn't to the party

For those not up on your Millerites en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_D...

It’s all based on the premise that it’s everyone’s job to suffer so the party can position itself to attract moderate Republicans. It’s tired! The big tent includes people already in the party who want things, especially the things they vote for

You see this is where babies come from

But is he GREAT disappointed

I'm not hopeless. We're still in a position where the unpopularity of the conservative agenda, and even more so, the unpopularity of its effects can make a difference in a lot of places. But I really think nothing big can change until we change how people get their information.

*Me, writing a eulogy for Dr. Seuss* No one combined his skill in rhyming made up words with his skill in drawing weird little guys

Even with all the attention, I feel like we somehow don't talk about Trump's CLINICAL narcissism enough. I remember when he was first running for president, just taking credit for everything in the world

I feel like the Ezra Klein side of this argument doesn't understand ITSELF at all. You don't build a bigger tent by including bigots UNLESS the bigots don't chase other people out. What they claim to be arguing is that the party should simply include them, what they're really arguing -

I know this isn't just about college but- I think my students have recovered from pandemic lows in a lot of ways but the percentage of them who, when I put a paragraph on the board, truly cannot tell me what it means, or if part of a story, what happens in it is way way up from earlier in my career

Once again watching Encanto and thinking - seven foot frame, supernatural anticipation? Bruno shoulda hooped!

It’s been sad this year watching how the White House press corps refuses to back each other up. Here a female journalist is insulted and denigrated and the next male reporter just moves on to a new question. You’re all in this together, folks. Time & again, they won’t stand up for their colleagues.

One of the worst things about Trump being so solely focused on forcing everyone to be nice to him and say how great he is is that that would be, in and of itself, a much less harmful presidency than the one we're experiencing

This man is one of the campaign’s super volunteers, the nicest dude you’ll ever meet, wildly dependable, and apparently capable of taking the coolest photo of 2025.

I keep think that the big quandary facing dem politics is: what if what people want doesn't work? Either to achieve the results they want or to stop the progress of a movement that makes normal politics irrelevant

The thing that always drives me crazy about this stuff is that the legacy media credulously reports that Republicans want to send stuff back to the states then does NOT report on all their efforts to refuse their states

This is unfortunately how they all need to talk and then act. Not a big Swalwell guy but much of what's happening is happening bc of who people are and are not worried about

I would call it A(v)Ignon

I wanted to play some bball after class today but I teach til 330 and had daycare pickup. I brought shorts but a student had some questions that kept me late so I just changed my shoes and rushed over to the gym in my khakis. 6 or 7 3s later is an unlikely, extremely elderly school yard legend born?

Right like aren't you tired of saying he can't do things because it's not legal or it doesn't make sense

I think also you just truly have to, and I've never meant anything more, consider what it means that these inroads are happening even though conservatives are always wrong. If debate is valuable, than the fact that the left has better arguments should have reshaped society

It is so depressing when smart people think debate is valuable. You can't possibly have lived a real life, in the real world, where things actually matter and think that you explaining your views to conservatives is going to make things better. Part of the reason Bluesky is the way it is is that we

And on scale! You can't meaningfully punish a person who can pay any fine easily with a fine

One interesting aspect of Kimmel - Kirk is that it's the first episode like this that I have seen where no one can make the arguments they're making and say the things they actually said. I think it's interesting in part because quotes have long been the bedrock of journalism, so it's a signal

They can take Kimmel but they can't make you watch Gutfeld

This is it. No good ideas, no new ideas. Just the hope of winning next time and having the votes for something. So impoverished as an imagination.

I can’t fucking believe I lived to see pro- and anti-regime Man Show hosts

I like to think there was an equilibrium where the bigger an asshole Carolla became, Kimmel had to move left to meet it

Today I had the thought that it might help to have a more positive politics. But the irony is, that's what a lot of moderates already talk about - they want the VOTERS to be more positive about the party, on social media. But what about a democratic party - for people who like democratic policies?

The reason I complain about the party almost as much as I do about the other party is that I have watched for 20 years while it let the jaws of the trap close and never came up with an idea besides "maybe we can overcome it still if we get enough people to vote for us"

One parenting tip I have for everyone is "always be aware of your camera angles"

People used to say that we all wanted the same things but had different solutions and for many things that was true even if GOP solutions were so dumb and bad. Like we want to solve poverty with social programs and we want to solve it by being so cruel to the poor it's motivating are positions

I think the main thing the dem establishment can't understand about its own voters is that it succeeded, when it succeeded, BECAUSE the left gritted its teeth and voted for it. That's not me saying lefties are a majority in the party, but certainly a big enough bloc to matter

I understand the thinking. I understand the moral quandary. Actual people are hurting and they might help. But good lord! Our only ask is that people don't feel too many negative effects from your policies and then ppl will pat us on the back for being good little boy is the dumbest possible plan

This is a specific kind of thing that's maddening about this moment, people are getting fired over Charlie Kirk because so many corporations are afraid of reprisals by the Trump administration. Or, they're eager to get in good with the Trump administration. Both make sense if you're an oligarch -

*Me, planning the American Revolution*

(impatiently scrolling through a list of ten evil whales from icelandic folklore and their characteristics) I don't have time for this