Chuck Schumer Helps Pull Democrats Back From Brink Of Courage

seems to me that those democrats inclined not to fight perceive themselves as living through a somewhat ordinary cycle of presidential overreach and backlash and not something much more significant and dangerous

The least most politically engaged people I know are texting me before 8am to say, “we won’t forget.” So I don’t know man.

I’ll keep pushing this line of analysis because I’m increasingly convinced the clearest path out of this mess is for Dems to adopt a relentless anti-corruption, anti-inequality, anti-oligarchy, pro-democracy platform. The Dem leadership hasn’t realized it yet, but they’re now a reform party.

Heading home after a short trip to McGill. I’ve been to Montreal before but not McGill. This campus?! Gorgeous!

Universal swing in action: "What we saw last night was a directional shift toward Democrats in 99.8% of counties that held partisan elections." www.gelliottmorris.com/p/seven-data...

We're all going to write pieces about what you can learn from tonight but it's actually pretty simple: The frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

Eugene Deb’s drop in the first sentence — 🙌🏽

💯

Good things are possible and we don’t have to settle.

BREAKING: Democrat Johnny DuPree has flipped a Republican-held Mississippi Senate district in a special election. DuPree was previously the mayor of Hattiesburg. His win imperils the Mississippi Senate GOP's narrow supermajority. www.mississippifreepress.org/democrat-joh...

i want to repeat this: mamdani and spanberger have run similar campaigns tailored to their respective electorates and it is maddening to watch political journalists attempt to create some broad contrast where none exist

Came here to say this, but Jamelle Bouie has this covered. 👇 When the Democratic tent includes candidates like Spanberger and Mamdani, there is no crisis, or fight, for the party. IT’S A COALITION, NOT A POINT ESTIMATE.

ADHD increases dementia risk, but the available epidemiological data suggests that stimulant medications may normalize risk. Totally fascinating Thanks @hologramvin.bsky.social for this post! I did not know this so I hunted down the original paper: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

the assumptions made about the target audience by making the first two items "OnlyFans' and 'child support' are kind of incredible

Why do political leaders and the media focus so much shutdown rhetoric and coverage - not just this one - on airlines & flying? Yea, there’s an obvious safety component. But only half of Americans have taken a flight in the last year. 1/

On the cover of the December @theatlantic.com, I lay out some nightmare scenarios for the 2026 election. But you don't need hypotheticals to grasp what it might be like: Just look at North Carolina. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/... #ncpol

Sorry I refuse to entertain the complete non-existent world where white people don’t know that countless cultures, including some of their own but certainly diasporic racialized ones, call their mom’s cousin’s friend’s sister they grew up with “cousin” and call close women elders “aunt/auntie”

The GOP has been extremely effective at shaping perceptions of the Democrats, claiming they support policy positions they don't actually support If your strategy, as a Dem, for winning in 2028 *STARTS* by buying their spin and lies, then you've already lost www.gelliottmorris.com/p/the-strate...

Once again, @mcsweeneys.net does not miss. ------------------------------------------------ "In 2004, you saw some college guy using me and thought, 'What a lazy cheater.' Now you’d think, 'At least he’s not asking Gemini.' In a few years, you’ll say, 'Wow, look, a human being who can read.'"

Chotiner: I see, and the cask- Montresor: of delectable amontillado, yes Chotiner: it was a lure to exact your revenge Montresor: through living burial Chotiner: which you felt was an appropriate use of the wine?

I don’t worry much about targeting, but every once in awhile, the profiling seems almost too finely tuned

Absolutely right.

I guess I have a new example in my political communication class about how NOT to prep for an interview 🙃

this particular Nate Silver crash out is so bizarre

If you had told me in college that Nate Silver, one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2009, would eventually be reduced to cursing me and a coauthor out on a podcast and writing a whole angry article about us, I woulda been like damn, poor guy, sending love and support

Whether it's Staten Island Republicans screaming racist epithets at Zohran Mamdani or Manhattan Democrats bringing up Andrew Cuomo's history of sexual harassment and nursing home deaths, both sides have pushed the boundaries of civil political discourse.

"Vanderbilt is failing in its moral responsibility to push back against rising authoritarianism and political coercion." My effort to convince Vanderbilt (and all universities) to take a stand for the rule of law, the Constitution, and our democracy. www.tennessean.com/story/opinio...

Yet our lege still hasn’t passed a budget 🙃

1. This amount pays so few troops — it’s laughable 2. It’s just money laundering, right? www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

I sincerely know less than nothing about this nba gambling ring dealio. I do know that in a moment when powerful mostly white men are stealing from everybody at scale and with breathtaking gall, it’s odd that these are the faces I’m seeing.

The trend is real, but this NYT analysis at the Congressional district level has big ecological bias Poor *areas* vote Republican, but it's often the richer *individuals* within those poorer areas that are most Republican And many poor *individuals* rich blue urban *areas* vote Dem

If anyone at CSCW is doing or knows about work studying how athletes are dealing with online security/harassment issues or how sports (like the WNBA) become focal points for clickbait, AI slop, or political propaganda… come find me, I want to chat!

I would point an interested reader and careful thinker to two things. One, the university recently built another top-down school without student demand or sustainable funding. It isn’t doing so well. Two, I would point out that sports dynasties are built over generations.

People are fired up! So much joy! In South Jersey! @crindivisible.bsky.social #nokings

Head to a protest today. I can almost promise you will feel less hopeless. That's exactly what they don't want. There are more of us than there are of them.

UPDATE: Following the firing of the director of the student newspaper, Indiana University has now cut the print edition of the newspaper entirely. www.idsnews.com/article/2025...

Ok DC folks - I’m in the mood for a classic martini & steak frites kinda dinner. Send me your recs?!

This “deal” is impossible to sign. You have to promise to protect freedom of speech and also to prohibit faculty from “belittling conservative ideas.” There is no way to comply.

Old enough to remember when kids being anti-semitic was the basis for a federal government assault on higher education

As is always correct and in accordance with all the laws of the internet, I just watched Tom Holland's epic Lip Sync Battle performance, and now I am sharing it with all of you so you can do the same.

Solidarity is the only way

Hey if you have a culinary or restaurant or cooking or grocery or whatever question that I can answer — etiquette, advice, culture explainer, vibe prompts, etc — for my (ostensibly) food-related sporadic advice column, please send it to [email protected] with “Helen Help Me” in the subject line!

If red state schools accept this we are going to get a two-tiered system of higher ed. One set of states will be based in empirical reality and the other will be subject to the whims of a conspiratorial movement that is increasingly detached from facts.

“Win every election” is not a viable strategy for preventing authoritarianism

This is the way.

How W. E. B. Du Bois responded to government policing of "anti-American" sentiment during the 1910s: "I took great satisfaction in being able to sit back in my chair and answer blandly, 'We are seeking to have the Constitution of the United States thoroughly and completely enforced.' ”

North Carolina still does not have a state budget:

As always--the south is the nation's weathervane. Very good chance we don't get a real budget for the rest of this presidential administration.