The crazy part is that college baseball culture is visibly enthusiastic and wacky. Elite youth baseball is overly serious, but they're having a good time too. There's no good reason American major leaguers should be so curmudgeonly compared to their international counterparts.

Trump can't endorse Paxton without pissing off Thune, whom he needs to get SAVE Republicans passed. And Paxton's a bigger risk in November. Trump can't endorse Cornyn without pissing off Paxton, who will fight back, both in the electoral arena and in court as TX AG. Risk is a small party fracture.

These guys are weird.

That's right, Property Brothers. "Then, at the everyday level, people need to understand affordable housing is good for the city. We need it. ... They don't understand that low-income [housing] does not mean that it's drugs and crime and things. It's nurses and teachers and police officers.”

Right. Kent doesn't support the war, but he's unwilling to blame Trump and his administration for their ill-advised decision or false justification. Netanyahu bears responsibility too, but Kent's going after AIPAC to suggest a grand Jewish conspiracy pushed Trump (good) into war (bad). Not great!

Billionaire Burgum: Bad Business Bro

Rangers, Mavs, and Stars all on local broadcast TV on the same night? What is this, 1996?

On the headline alone, I was expecting a report that Mamdani was abusing staff or backstabbing allies to get his way. The structure and diction of the headline present him as inauthentic and harmful. "Ruthless" is a particularly questionable choice with "Forceful" and "Hard-charging" available.

He came here to wash feet and chew bubblegum, and he's all out of bubblegum.

PCA's been drinking that Fight Milk

Monica de la Cruz knew she was on shaky ground—hence the vote to extend ACA tax credits—but I can't see how she'd be favored over Bobby Pulido at the moment.

Adebayo didn't even shoot 50% from the field? Not even 33% from deep??

Better idea: reinstate the used EV tax credit that Trump and Republicans killed last year. Reduce reliance on gasoline so these economic pressures are less painful in the future.

Trump and Hegseth want Iran to be to America what Netanyahu made of Hamas years ago: a font of violent rage directed at outside assailants, thoroughly outgunned but dangerous enough to justify rank xenophobia at home and "patriotic" lethal military action elsewhere to keep them subdued.

Why can't the TV network execs figure out how to space out Tournament of Champions, America's Culinary Cup, and Top Chef? Can't we save one for summer?

My kingdom for a reporter to ask Trump, without any context, whether he believes pluralism is a lie.

Betcha Trump and Hegseth think they can pull this off: > Declare victory in Iran > Hostilities pause > 300 loaded tankers transit Hormuz > Bomb Iran again

Economists study incentives. It's a shame so many overlooked that a second Trump administration, unlike the first, would have no incentive to maintain the favorable public perception needed to win reelection.

He'd recently been making all the rounds on news shows defending the White House vociferously. That's a man who saw the writing on the wall and knew he needed Trump's backing, which never came.

The Comity of Errors

That's not what this snippet (or the related NPR analysis) suggests. Instead, the implication is that the military was working with outdated target sets to begin with. This was an intelligence failure. Bad info in -> war crimes out.

Awesome. We're going to need her help. All systems go.

Texas Senate Democratic primary between Talarico and Crockett currently tied in both Dickens and Glasscock counties. Heh.

Never saw any issue anyone had with Dallas County DA John Creuzot or anything in support of his primary challenger, Amber Givens, but he's trailing in a nail-biter with over 170K votes counted. Why are Dallas Dems looking to dump him?

Trump shoulda just nominated Miss Muffett to run DOD if he was so intent on basing our military strategy on Kurds and whey.

After the big measles outbreak last year, Gaines County has abandoned electoral politics.

And he even had it right to start with: it's a clash of styles! Their policy stances aren't all that meaningfully different. The distinction is Crockett's pugnacious opposition to Trumpism versus Talarico's cross-partisan movement building.

Not the point, but did they really call it Operation Epic Fury? In 2026? That's disappointing, even for a hyper online tryhard edgelord like Hegseth.

Not a distraction. He simply can't handle being hated and needs to feel powerful. This atrocity was a stone cold lock the instant he encountered the phrase "Peace through Strength."

Roger Wicker deserves as much criticism for his approval of the Hegseth nomination as Cassidy rightfully gets for approving Kennedy.

Unfortunate as the kowtowing is, the silver lining in Hegseth's extortion of Scouting America is that a whole bunch of civic-minded kids and parents are going to see that the Secretary of Defense ardently disapproves of Citizenship in Society, and they'll know that he's wrong.

Harris cut a robocall for Crockett right as early voting ends? Not surprised at the endorsement, but she couldn't have gotten around to it two weeks ago, when it would have mattered a lot more?

Once again, paging Abigail Disney. Ms. Disney, opportunity is knocking.

Finally, a TV spot from Talarico identifying him as a Democrat, and it's an anti-ICE message cut from a recent speech: impeach Noem, prosecute abuse, unmask agents. Which lets you know he wants to make sure Democratic primary voters don't overlook himneith Election Day next week.

BBQ restaurants are struggling because beef prices are so damn high, squeezing margins and pushing consumers to trade down. Fortunately, the beef industry has a friend at HHS in Kennedy. Surely all the smoke in that brisket is carcinogen-free, at least...

The obvious strategic workaround here is to follow the Progressive Caucus plan: run on reallocating the funding for DHS to a much more popular (and broadly beneficial) pursuit, like healthcare or housing affordability

The only workable synthesis here is that he means science producers/consumers should emphasize that published findings are the best explanations/conclusions we have, not absolute truth. And sure, some folks attack those who question science. That's often because the questions are posed in bad faith

Trump's greatest electoral asset in 2024 was that he had already been president and didn't institute mass deportation or throw foreign trade into chaos with tariffs or kill the Department of Education or gut the VA or dozens of other awful things he's done since. The warnings sounded hyperbolic.

Wonder if Chip Roy thinks he's in trouble in the TX AG race—there's a new spot going after Mayes Middleton as "too woke" because he voted to award state contracts based on race. The bill in question? SB1, the 2025 general appropriations bill, which passed the Senate unanimously. Super woke, obvs.

Which House Democrat wants to file the discharge petition to require the appropriate parties publish this report? @juliejohnsontx.bsky.social

And even if rents in the rich tenants' previous residences didn't fall, those new luxury residents are now (possibly indirectly) contributing more in property taxes, which can be used to various pro-social ends.

A haphazard public grab bag of wide-ranging policy ideas could be more obstacle than asset, sure. Instead, Democrats should sell one slam dunk theme and let everything else flow from there. My proposal: Obliterate Corruption. Anchor the whole platform to uncovering, destroying, and burying it.

Vance wants to do it. He gets a nice trip away from DC, and he can come back and spew sanctimonious victimy garbage about how Pope Leo hates America and nationalist chauvinists are The Real Catholics. "Just patriotmogged the Woke Pope. It only looks like I'm crying because I'm laughing so hard."

Amazing. This scheme is completely untethered to its stated objectives, which are also counterproductive. "How many jellybeans do your colleagues think are in this jar that none of you can see? This is a measure of your personal monetary value. Thanks for your service!"

the cleats are a little much, bryce

SCOTUS tariff ruling sends 30-year Treasury yields up 4 bps in 20 minutes. Still climbing.

Trump take economy.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the Texas state government are whipping up a baseless frenzy about the threat of... Sharia law

Probably the optimal choice among high-profile options. Big question is whether Spanberger understands what this precise moment calls for and chooses to answer it. Early indications have been promising. Run the damn ball.