I guess all those millions of "No Kings" protesters are just donor-driven elitists who don't understand that "kitchen table issues" are all that matters. nymag.com/intelligence...

Yes, I'm a broken record on this, but it really infuriates me that the Democratic party's strategists, left and center, keep telling Democrats that voters don't really care about democracy: nymag.com/intelligence...

Trump keeps saying mail ballots and early in-person votes are crooked. That's 69 percent of all ballots cast in 2020 and 60 percent of all those cast in 2024. His position is carte blanche for preemptive election rigging: nymag.com/intelligence...

People have nine days remaining to shrug off the government shutdown as a DC side-show: nymag.com/intelligence...

I'm no expert on NJ politics, but the more I read vague takes on whatever it is Mikie Sherrill is supposed to lack, the more I think Trump just has Democrats spooked: nymag.com/intelligence...

The last person on earth who should be endowed with fact-finding authority on much of anything is Donald J. Trump. nymag.com/intelligence...

One point from this post I'd like to underline. We've all been so busy refuting the nonsense about a Trump "landslide" and the idea voters were endorsing what he's now doing that we've kinda forgotten to remind people there's never a "mandate" to revoke the Constitution! nymag.com/intelligence...

Finally, three judges say what needs to be said about this administration's demonization of any resistance to its plans: nymag.com/intelligence...

As long a look at J.D. Vance as I could take without blinking and then closing my eyes. nymag.com/intelligence...

I offer a cold shower on the obsession with 2024 autopsies among Democrats. Yes, it's worth knowing why Democrats lost. But it's not terribly relevant to a very different 2026 midterm election: nymag.com/intelligence...

Pope Leo XIV is making it pretty clear he's not J.D. Vance's kind of Catholic, much like his predecessor: nymag.com/intelligence...

A quick tour through the redistricting battlegrounds, with a sense that this is now moving too slowly for GOP comfort: nymag.com/intelligence...

Of all people, Katie Porter should understand why Republicans matter in a multi-Democratic statewide field, since Adam Schiff's successful herding of GOP voters to Steve Garvey knocked her out of the 2024 general election. nymag.com/intelligence...

I started off just trying to explain the Top Two context of the dispute to non-Californians, but after about the 25th time I watched the Katie Porter interview, I got a mite exasperated with her. And I was a 2024 Katie Porter for Senate voter: nymag.com/intelligence...

MAGA folk claim that because Trump threatened to do crazy stuff on the campaign trail and subsequently won then he doesn't have to comply with the laws or the Constitution in fulfilling his "mandate." Apparently 49% of the electorate can abolish the rights of the 51%. nymag.com/intelligence...

You can get so used to Trump lying all the time that you forget to call him out on it now and then: nymag.com/intelligence...

"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...