Many people have a vested interest in pretending otherwise, but the US research university is globally dominant to an almost unbelievable degree. The typical state university is a football team stapled to a R&D lab with a budget bigger than the entire nation of Belgium.

Democrats need to understand we’re already in a revolutionary moment. The American republic built in the 60s and 70s is being swept away by Republicans and the Supreme Court. It’s up to us to fight for a liberal democratic future. My latest: www.liberalcurrents.com/democrats-ne...

“they’re all crooks”, great, stay home! “they’re all the same”, great, stay home! “there’s no difference between the parties”, great, stay the fuck home, and use anti-cut gloves when prepping your dinner!

"For too long, the university has ignored the wisdom of the donor class and hired based on academic excellence. Regrettably, this has led to the underrepresentation of discredited viewpoints in elite higher education." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/wer...

If you are a Democrat and not at least entertaining the thought experiment of "What would Boss Tweed and James Michael Curley do to to win back control of this country?" I don't want your opinion. Bring back old dirty politics until the opposition breaks to accept democratic standards.

Oh man, my sister found another awesome 1960s cookbook If you’ve ever wondered about “MEAT SHAPES” — /1

A newly proposed Massachusetts bill would let cities and towns use automated speed cameras and red-light cameras to ticket drivers statewide. The proposal would allow enforcement for speeding, running red lights, illegal right turns on red, and blocking intersections.

While I am convinced that markets for residential rentals clear efficiently, apartment vacancy rates are almost entirely frictional, and higher vacancy quickly leads to lower rents, I actually grant that commercial landlords operate in a way that's both socially suboptimal and likely irrational

Great discussion of the public transportation benefits in Massachusetts of the Fair Share Amendment by @wgbh.org featuring an old friend, who had the quote of the event: "Austerity always fails." Hope my Boston folks listen! www.youtube.com/live/fGy1DkR...

I am increasingly frustrated with the endless D struggle session about messaging. Your voters are getting outright disenfranchised! Your messaging doesn't matter if you don't fix that! www.everythingishorrible.net/p/if-your-vo...

I haven't written anything about Platner because while I don't think he's a Nazi, I also think he's a terrible candidate, and Maine is going to be a shitshow no matter what happens. The mistake, early on, was the party settling on Janet Mills. The rest came from that.

Exactly. The needle which AOC has threaded quite well about Tucker and MTG is that while it's good that the MAGA coalition is fracturing you also don't have to trust these people any farther than you can throw them. This isn't a hard thing to understand, unless you're paid to misunderstand things.

When abusers aren’t held accountable there’s an obvious benefit to being abusive and terrorizing people to get what you want. The Trump administration is far from the only example. This is why stuff like deplatforming and removing abusers from power is important and not just a trend or a catchphrase

It is inconceivable to imagine being this much of a fucking loser. Who wants to be a friend or family associated with someone like this?

even the highest paid state legislature in the country (New York) still has a salary $50K lower than a 23 year old who have been working at McKinsey for 2 years makes (and that’s before even factoring in their bonus)

What is it about political service that people think it should be unpaid

Here would be my basic list of things to do for democracy reform.

We just signed a major agreement with @bostonlegacyfc.com detailing the transportation plans and team commitments for Boston’s new White Stadium. I hope you’ll join us to help finalize key details at a community meeting at the Franklin Park Club House on June 11 at 6 p.m.

Don’t run universities like a business run it as a public good

One reason Republicans are banning books and classes on race is because reading even one book about Jim Crow or Reconstruction makes it clear that they are hoping to reinstate segregation.

"For the first time, New York City has a mayor who has made riding a bike a seemingly genuine part of his political identity." Yes, however, I think it's more that Mamdani has made *not driving* part of his political identity. This is a man who gets around like most New Yorkers do.

The fact that if I ran for local office and won, I would have to take a pay cut to manage a $1.3 billion budget and make decisions that directly impact the well-being of half a million people is kind of insane. Unpopular but true: we under-pay our often disappointing politicians.

the Dems badly want you to know that in the culture wars they’re on whatever side consultants say is winning

I'd still be terrified of President George Washington at any age.

This man has shepherded some of the most blatantly white supremacist decisions in the history of the Supreme Court, which is saying a lot. Not interested in his crybaby efforts to clean up his tracks.

Stop blaming the professors and look instead at the pollsters and party hacks who have turned Democratic candidates into robots repeating "Kitchentableissues, kitchentableissues, bleep blorp." That's what voters hate. [end]

It became his job when Trump attempted a coup a few weeks before the transfer of power. He did nothing to punish him for over year! It’s absolutely a dereliction of duty.

Hero from Marblehead just dropped. Housing is good, actually!

data centers are light industrial with a somewhat unusual externality profile- worse in some ways, better in others- and it’s absurd that people are losing their minds about them

Just this morning, my team was in court arguing against Kalshi for operating unlicensed sports betting. If Kalshi wants to be in the sports gaming business in Massachusetts, they must obtain a license and play by our rules.

And @streets.boston.gov can demonstrate their commitment to making real progress by affirming at today’s budget hearing that @streetsboston.bsky.social has it right. walkuproslindale.org/weblog/2026/...

BOSTON LEGACY GET FIRST WIN IN CLUB HISTORY!!!! And what a dramatic win it was. After going down 2-1 to fellow expansion side Denver, the Legacy scored two goals in the dying minutes of the match. A major moment for the club at a time when they needed it the most 🦢💚 📷: @nwslsoccer.com

American conservatives believe that the purpose of government is to support and entrench artificial hierarchies dredged up in the fever dreams of American conservatives: to keep the right people at the top of society and the right people at the bottom of society.

The party deserves members willing to say, "I will never be friends with a Republican; they are reprehensible." Act like you care about the principles in the damn platform.

This is literally one of my favorite and earliest "fuck you, make me" stories in American politics. More @democrats.org need to take notes from the principles that John Quincy Adams and even his curmudgeon dad stood for. Boston adjacent, Massachusetts heroes both.

Gen Z has rediscovered the X-files & is realizing how dystopian the America of today is compared to the 90s "Watching The X-Files... has solidified my belief that I would have likely been happier in an age that preceded me." midnightmurmurations.substack.com/p/the-x-file...

Last reskeet: Yeeeeah, srsly. The human superpower is cooperation, not murder. Huge numbers of species commit murder at scale, to the best of their ability. Only one teaches their children how to read, builds steamships and puts rovers on Mars.

Hot take into the void: "ultra-processed food" is basically the antivaxx conspiracy theory for people who think they're far too well informed to get hooked into anything like antivaxx.

Racism is over says the Supreme Court, which you can tell because it took literally a matter of minutes after they gutted the Voting Rights Act for Republicans in the South to start moving to make sure Black people in their states get no representation in Congress

And on TikTok (and its competitors), there are no rules. It's the law of the jungle - every content creator is desperately hunting for something to say that will go viral, earn them views and likes. True? Not true? Totally made up? Doesn't matter, you'll never get banned for lying.

My only regret in Massachusetts is that we are too good to even be able to have to have this discussion. Our most rural area, the Berkshires, are easily to the left of me, an urban Boston elitist.

Because of course he did. Trump is a folk hero to the dipshits of America because he is a living retribution against a world they deem unfair for not rewarding their laziness and willful mediocrity. They need an excuse for not succeeding in life, but in lieu of that, they'll accept mockery.

Let's go, Boston. A bit colder than London, but @nwslsoccer.com with the @bostonlegacyfc.com is fun times. Get that W!

My New One at Slate: “The Supreme Court’s Conservatives Just Issued the Worst Ruling in a Century; This evisceration of the Voting Rights Act requires us to take SCOTUS reform more seriously.” @slate.com slate.com/news-and-pol...

Cc: @mayorwu.boston.gov and @massgovernor.bsky.social

It is worth, I think, emphasizing that in trampling congressional attempts to protect the rights of Black people, the Court is basically doing what it has always done, with the exception of a couple decades in the mid-20th century when it often worked with Congress to protect the rights of Black ppl

Liberalism is the unrelentingly radical belief that humans stand equal as brothers and sisters in a shared and open society, governed by laws and leaders of their own choosing, free to live lives of their own choosing, finding their own truth and fortune, vested with rights universal and inalienable

You have to impeach Trump, as many times as possible, in massive prolonged proceedings, as stridently as possible, because in the US system, that is the strongest form of political condemnation available, and he must be condemned endlessly until he leaves office in disgrace, goes to prison, or dies

I remember, in grad school, Chuck Bosk telling us, re: ethnography--if you haven't pissed someone off with your research, you probably haven't done enough to interrogate systems of power.

One of the worst things to happen to America was journalism ceasing to be a middle income career like teaching or accounting and transforming into a bullshit job for precocious rich kids because parental subsidies are required for your first decade in the business.