"Today, we don’t have a Republican president willing to take down a demagogue who threatened free speech. We have a Republican president who is himself the demagogue who threatens free speech." nymag.com/intelligence...

Pleased to see an old anti-McCarthyism free speech group reactivate. But there's a problem in replicating the defeat of Tail Gunner Joe: nymag.com/intelligence...

At the risk of getting completely over my skis (which is easy since I don't ski), here's an early projection of how the shutdown will evolve and end: nymag.com/intelligence...

Don't let the incoherent Weave keep you from noticing the clear signal from Trump to the military that his political enemies are fair game for "warfighting." Not just in an emergency, but every day. nymag.com/intelligence...

Sorry, populists, but I just don't buy it: nymag.com/intelligence...

I think it's interesting that suddenly Carr and Trump are retreating to old-school fulminations about liberal media bias. Seems like a tactical win for Jimmy Kimmel. nymag.com/intelligence...

This piece is getting very little traffic. Don't know if I'm too far ahead of the curve or too far behind. Don't pretend to be an expert on this topic; mostly looking at the necessary evolution after the war in Gaza reaches its nightmarish end. nymag.com/intelligence...

Trump's EO on Antifa is an example of the old southern expression: "You're goosing a ghost." That could either make the EO a meaningless bit of MAGA porn, or really dangerous: nymag.com/intelligence...

The crowning insult to the American-bred legacy of the UN was Trump's altar call for every nation to pursue its own blood-and-soil nationalist dreams. Wonder if he doesn't know the UN was born to defeat and then deter nationalist extremism? nymag.com/intelligence...

Somehow, after a decade of rhetorical outrages, Donald Trump managed to shock me (or at least embarrass me as an American) again with his insanely narcissistic UN address: nymag.com/intelligence...

Quite seriously, I think congressional Dems tied their own hands so none of them could wave a white flag. nymag.com/intelligence...

Georgia 44, Tennessee 41. Woof.

For the record, I abhor the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and abhor all political violence. Hard stop. There may be more to say tomorrow about the MAGA retribution that is gaining steam, but for today, I really do pray for Kirk's family and for the repose of his soul. Judgment is God's alone.

A dyspeptic prediction: SCOTUS will deny Trump his tariff authority, saving him from the horrible consequences of his economic illiteracy. The punditocracy will utter high hosannas for the Court "finding a spine." Then Trump wins on every other big case. Win-win for MAGA.

This SCOTUS shadow docket order is really, really bad. Many people will suffer from it, and Stephen Miller will run wild. nymag.com/intelligence...

Yes, I know I'm in danger of taking something stupid seriously, but I do think there's a reason for this ridiculous, expensive, and historically illiterate step: nymag.com/intelligence...

New GOP name for OBBBA: "Working Families Tax Cut." A more accurate monniker would be "Working Lobbyists Tax Cut." nymag.com/intelligence...

A word to the Democratic message wizards who want everyone to grind away like cicadas at the latest narrow area of Trump weakness: at some point, fascism has to matter more than Medicaid cuts. nymag.com/intelligence...

Just a thought, but perhaps Democrats should look at the government they might be forced to shut down not as turf to defend but as territory occupied by a proto-fascist regime. nymag.com/intelligence...

Here we are, and here we go, again: nymag.com/intelligence...

So the president who's anxious that accurate history about slavery will hurt the country's reputation is at the same time claiming our cities are currently crime-ridden hell-holes. nymag.com/intelligence...

Laura Loomer's affection for Joe McCarthy got me thinking about the easier path she's had to his kind of notoriety. nymag.com/intelligence...

My first reaction to Goldmacher's shrieking prose about 2020-2024 party registration trends was: "Wow, Democrats did poorly in 2024. Breaking news, dude!" nymag.com/intelligence...

Is it my imagination, or is the Times' Shane Goldmacher making predictions of total doom for Democrats his journalistic signature? Yes, the short-term registration trends are bad, but how about a little context! nymag.com/intelligence...

A roundup of all the really terrible possibilities the DC law enforcement takeover might portend. nymag.com/intelligence...

Whatever else you want to say about it, Trump's it's-all-about-me approach to foreign policy could make things impossible for any MAGA successor: nymag.com/intelligence...

I know we're all supposed to think of Mike Johnson as a legislative genius and all, but his pubic remarks are often, to use a technical term, really stupid, as in this case: nymag.com/intelligence...

My effort to unravel the very different things Democrats mean when they demand "fresh blood." nymag.com/intelligence...

Really is bizarre that Trump keeps quoting Vladimir Putin about the threat to election integrity posed by mail ballots. nymag.com/intelligence...

Oh God, missed the news last week that Terry Reid had died. An incredibly underrated rock musician for decades. If you're not familiar with his work, please listen to this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpXP...

There's evidence that Trump voters expected him to lower prices, not just lower inflation rates. If prices start to spike, as the Producer Price Index suggests, there could be political hell to pay. nymag.com/intelligence...

This cracks me up. The strategy behind Gavin Newsom's ballot measure is to make this about simple partisanship rather than pols vs. voters on redistricting. So who appoints himself captain of the anti-Newsom team? Kevin McCarthy! Newsom should send him a thank-you card. nymag.com/intelligence...

A major new Pew survey provides the clearest evidence yet that the elements of the electorate that trended towards Trump in 2024 are trending away from him right now: nymag.com/intelligence...

OK, clock's ticking now. California Dems have 9 days to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot and then 10 weeks to talk voters into passing it. nymag.com/intelligence...

The fake DC crime wave just the latest example of Trump inventing emergencies that expand his powers, exploiting loopholes created for presidents who don't lie through their teeth and abuse their authority. nymag.com/intelligence...

Getting tired of having to explain that the neo-Confederate monuments that Team Trump is raising up again were dedicated to lies about history, not to honoring history. They're propaganda, not actual memorials. nymag.com/intelligence...

As a former Senate staffer, I figured I had a duty to explain the exceptional self-abasement of the Upper Chamber to normies. nymag.com/intelligence...

The monomania in this administration over mass deportation best illustrated by the fact that even a shaky, threadbare FEMA is being asked to do grunt work for ICE recruitment in the middle of disaster season: nymag.com/intelligence...

Some days I look at the headlines of my own pieces and mutter to myself: What has happened to this country? nymag.com/intelligence...

An overview of four ways Trump could try to hold onto the House in the 2026 midterms despite extremely likely losses. The one getting the attention is his re-redistricting power grab. But there are others that will bring back memories of Trump's behavior in 2020: nymag.com/intelligence...

Guess what: here's some more neutral government data that Donald Trump has already rejected because it spoils his narratives. nymag.com/intelligence...

Now that Nancy Mace is running for governor, odds are going way up that South Carolina will revive its reputation for dirty politics. She's a self-promoting smear machine. nymag.com/intelligence...

Schwarzenegger seems to have sent up a flare about Newsom's effort to resume partisan gerrymandering right now. If this turns into a fight, Arnold could be the idea front-man for opposition to Newsom's plan: nymag.com/intelligence...

Another day, another unhinged presidential pronouncement on Truth Social. But this one takes us officially into Banana Republic territory, folks. Here's our live-blog on the matter: nymag.com/intelligence...

Thought when I left that other platform I'd see fewer empty personal insults. Oh well.

If Democrats win in 2028, there will be no "return to normalcy." Normalcy has been taken off the table by Trump 2.0. nymag.com/intelligence...

Harris has earned a lot of gratitude and admiration from Democrats. But the last thing they'll want in 2028 is a reminder of the disastrous 2024 campaign, and they could use some fresh faces as well. nymag.com/intelligence...

I used an old baseball anecdote about how to get over a sore pitching arm. "First you take a year off. Then you retire." Kamala Harris is halfway there. nymag.com/intelligence...

Trump's alleged shift towards electoral realism down-ballot is producing MAGA candidates who ain't having it. nymag.com/intelligence...

Not currently seeing much evidence that the Epstein Files are hurting Trump's approval ratings among his MAGA base. His bigger problem is that his policies suck, but Republicans still love them. nymag.com/intelligence...