Since Bowser's 2023 trip is back in the news, I went through an old FOIA I filed on it. Interesting to note that Bowser's people initially told the Qataris they'd pay their own way: wonder what changed? Also amusing to note Bowser dined with Bloomberg and Fenty in the UAE...

We’re excited to announce the latest SpotlightDC-funded project: Dream City, a new independent podcast that will explore the inner workings of D.C.’s political and business worlds.

Queen Ghislaine even has a puppy at Club Fed. This is how convicted sex traffickers are coddled by the Trump admin. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/d...

New: The Supreme Court DENIES Kim Davis' request to overturn Obergefell, the marriage equality decision. No noted dissents. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

I am once again saying that we saw what wall to wall, panic coverage of a crisis looked like after the Biden debate and there’s no reason Trump isn’t getting that kind of coverage except for class solidarity.

Yes really — the “we asked this guy. He doesn’t actually know jack shit but he’s rich” model of reportage really needs to go

Remember that insurance is actually a thing you hope never to use, and then read this critique.

I can't tell you how many interviews I've done where I've been asked: If Trump's policies are so problematic, why are U.S. stocks rising so rapidly. A bit of international context illustrates the real issue here. U.S. stocks have dramatically underperformed other advanced economies.

“What if we’re not opponents, but instead colleagues who want what’s best for the American people”: I wrote that atop this thread, and … welp. I wish that were parody of Senate mods’ thinking, and not a faithful rendition of it.

As far as I can tell, all the outrage about FSAs is based on one WSJ article about a GOP proposal that isn't part of the deal. So it seems like we can move on to being outraged by things that are actually in (or missing from) the deal.

Government is shut down. Chaos in airports. 42 million going hungry. 24 million face skyrocketing healthcare costs. Economy in turmoil. And the president of the United States is in the Fox broadcast booth calling plays for a football game.

I just noticed Beutler's plan, just in time for it to be not adopted. It's a good plan. One month extensions in perpetuity, conditioned on baseline no-bad behaviour by R's - no criming (in certain ways) allowed! No impoundments and recissions. Just caving in exchange for nothing is not a good plan.

Regular reminder that Axios stories saying Dems are about to cave are likely sourced from GOP staffers trying to make it happen. Doesn't mean it definitely won't happen. But it's like those NYT stories that Harvard is considering caving (they haven't). The anonymous source was trying to manifest it.

Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...

Interesting compelled public employee speech case. (Opinion linked from the story, thankfully.) www.cnn.com/2025/11/07/p...

“I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.” aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...

wednesday 'stack, in which I make the case that ubiquitous unregulated agentic AI is quite simply impossible backofmind.substack.com/p/transparen...

Trump 1: Whoever talked to Trump last determined US policy. Trump 2: Whoever CLAIMED they talked to Trump last determined US policy.

as an aerophobe I’m inspired with great confidence that Hegseth and this knob are on top of this

So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!

It turns out “personal liberties and free markets” is simply billionaire code speak for “reactionary shitposting”.

This has not gotten much attention, but it should. Virginia under Youngkin returned to an insanely harsh system where people convicted of any felony lose their voting rights FOR LIFE. Dems' win this week mean they'll get to advance a constitutional amendment to end lifetime disenfranchisement.

It's an urban legend. Really that's what it is. There is an urban legend that the filibuster exits in part to allow small states to exert influence. It's just a legend. The history does not reflect that. The actual operation of the filibuster does not reflect that. There's no theory of how it could.

Thread

$40 Billion to Argentina so Milei can dance like Trump at Mar-a-lago but they’re suing not to feed hungry Americans and they’ll let your health care premiums skyrocket

“woke” is when you acknowledge that black people have contributed to the united states

There is something really wrong with people who need workers to be not just competent, but slavishly fake-happy. "Slavishly" used on purpose, bc that's where this grotesquerie comes from.

This is an absolutely wild video. If you've got an hour to kill, check it out youtu.be/VRjgNgJms3Q?...

bezos somehow made an editorial page worse than the one at the wall street journal

Also, DHS is nothing but a 20-yr old org chart. It’s not a “thing” that has to exist: it was just a post-9/11 reorg of agencies that had been elsewhere, brought under one over-militarized leadership. We could abolish DHS tomorrow and relocate all its pieces to less military agencies.

This is a really hard day and I want to just add as WIRED's politics editor -- WIRED's politics reporting isn't going anywhere. We are very much here and won't stop. Please continue to read and support us - canceling your subscription to WIRED is not standing in solidarity with our journalists.

Wanted a day off from the news, now I am archiving our many elected officials accusing a Capitol cop of being the J6 pipe bomber without any evidence for later...

every time you think the new WaPo editorial board can't embarrass itself any more, they manage to find a way. Left: 'Texas gerrymandering is no big deal!', from August. Right: 'Maryland gerrymandering is an affront to Western civilization!', from today.

BREAKING: Cornell caved. Here is the settlement agreement, signed today by the university's president, Michael Kotlikoff: statements.cornell.edu/2025/documen...

This is what happens when you gut CISA

Happy FSTL day to all who celebrate

as a thought exercise for everyone reading ross douthat's latest missive in the NYT, i want you to think about sending an email to your entire company with the subject line "Did Women Ruin the Workplace?", then think about the over/under on the number of minutes/hours you would still be employed

DHS stopped automatically archiving officials’ text messages. Now to save messages — as law requires— officials gotta… -take a screenshot. -send it to their work computer -run the file through a program there -repeat www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...

A man collapsed in the Oval Office yesterday. The internet got the story wrong. My experience struggling to correct the record — including on Bluesky! — and the warning signs as AI, aggregation, and social media increasingly drive our news consumption.

When I think of the hurdles Elon Musk has to clear to get his $1 trillion payday, I'm reminded of the joke that "God put me on earth to accomplish a certain number of things, I am so far behind I will never die."

While administrators have been negotiating in secret, faculty and staff have been fighting. It just could not be more clear who gives a shit about the university as an ideal and who doesn’t.

We are almost at the point where we can let people text and drive, Musk says. In the next month or two, we will allow you to text and drive, essentially, he says to wild applause. No word of Tesla taking legal responsibility if the car crashes when you are texting, which is what actually matters

Sean Dunn, aka DC Sandwich Guy, speaks outside court after his not guilty verdict: “I am so happy that justice prevails in spite of everything…. “That night I believe I was protecting the rights of immigrants… Every life matters, no matter where you came from, no matter how you got here…”

tbh I'm a little surprised the archive[.]whatever paywall circumvention sites haven't received any attention before this www.404media.co/fbi-tries-to...

When the shakedowns just start happening in public. $NVO

the jury nullification take is wrong. If that’s what had happened they wouldn’t have sent a note to the judge asking for definitions of relevant terms. They just didn’t think he did the crime after considering the evidence and following the given instructions. Don’t charge sandwich cases.

Detroit really needs a longer-term EV strategy than “do EVs when a Democrat is in power and then get rid of them when Republicans win” because we are on year 15 of this shit and I gotta say it’s a waste of R&D and industrial capacity

Bad news in the sense that like Trump she's been underestimated as a political force at every turn--she's genuinely dangerous. Good news in the sense of a potentially devastating succession battle chopping up MAGA.