hope =/= optimism [not the same things]

My sense is that most Americans had not heard of Charlie Kirk until yesterday. The first and perhaps only thing they're going to hear about him from the most trusted and important voices in American politics is that he was a model and constructive participant in good-faith political discourse.

This is what she lives with every day now: “The fear of leaving your family and letting them know, ‘If I don’t return, it’s not because I am abandoning you.’” Powerful story by @chabeli.bsky.social for @19thnews.org.

This is class solidarity. In case you’re at all confused.

No matter what @MarshaBlackburn keeps saying, it’s not criminals they’re targeting. www.cnn.com/2025/08/30/u...

"But that one of the symbols of local resistance would be a man launching a sandwich is about as unexpected as things get. (That being said, a group of men dumping tea into a harbor did help inspire the Revolutionary War.)" @maustermuhle.bsky.social for @51st.news 51st.news/email/e53cf0...

Yeah Andrew has been the beneficiary of orders of magnitude more public assistance than Mamdani. A laughable dimension to attack his opponent on. Leading with this chin.

This rhetoric also just tries to normalize the idea that rent should be unaffordable. Since when is $2,300/month cheap?? Median household income in NYC is $78,000, so $2,300/month is still 35% of (PRE-TAX!) income for the average New Yorker. It's 14% of $200,000 (which is an acceptable ratio).

So you’re saying that Cuomo spent 725 years of Mamdani’s current rent on those records? 👀

Also, Andrew Cuomo spent $20 million of NY taxpayers' money to subpoena phone (& gynecological records!) of women who accused him of sexual harassment. How else might those 20 million have been spent? For instance: on resources and services for needy New Yorkers?

i think it is hard for some people to really their heads around the reality that kennedy is staunchly anti-vaccine and thinks that people should suffer through disease and that those who die deserved it and that those who survive are a better order of human being

ELIZABETH WARREN: What Zohran is saying is 'I want people to be able to afford to live in NYC' FABER: But raising taxes in order to do it? WARREN: Oh my goodness! Oh dear! Are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry?

I think that the fascists have a different political project and that they do not have to actually deliver anything except cruelty against the out groups. Trump is authentically cruel and crass. People like that because they believe him on those things.

The NIH’s 2024 budget of just under $37B generated $95B in economic activity in 2024 alone. 99.4% of new pharmaceuticals approved from 2010-2019 came from NIH-funded research. I’m hard pressed to think of anything that generates as much direct economic benefit as our NIH did before they destroyed it

Wernher Von Braun, Gustav Mahler, Alma Mahler-Werfel, the Elements, Hubert Humphrey, George Murphy, Oedipus Rex, Lena Horne, Vatican Two, Sexually-Transmitted Infections and masochism — just a few things I learned about obsessively listening to Tom Leher albums starting when I was 10.

Senators are Van Hollen, Welch, Schatz, Murray, Kaine, Durbin, Merkley, Sanders, Warren, Smith, Baldwin, Markey, Warnock, Heinrich, Duckworth, Klobuchar, Hirono, Alsobrooks, Lujan, Ossoff, and Murphy. Both GA Senators and Baldwin from WI but no one else from a Trump 2024 state. No NY, NJ, or CA.

Spring is here, suh-pring is here Life is skittles and life is beer I think the loveliest time of the year is the spring I do, don't you? ‘Course you do But there's one thing that makes spring complete for me And makes every Sunday a treat for me — my childhood

“Univ. of Illinois report shows that a large humanities department like English produces substantial net profit; units like engineering and agriculture run at a loss. The widely respected Delaware Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity shows the same pattern.” /7 thi.ucsc.edu/the-humaniti...

This is very bad. Although entirely predictable. Once more the humanities are being cut back to prop up STEM and, increasingly, AI investment (including at the expense of bench science). In the past, cuts to humanities were promoted on two separate logic streams that do not hold true: /1

Who could’ve guessed.

The mass starvation & killing of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli gov’t is a chillul hashem, a desecration of God. Jewish leaders who criticized Zohran Mamdani for three words he doesn’t use should raise their voices loudly here as well. forward.com/opinion/7575...

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that France will recognize Palestine as a state, amid snowballing global anger over people starving in Gaza.

🚨NEW: A horror story emerges from hacked flight logs of the March 15 flight to El Salvador: mass disappearances. It's possible there are DOZENS of additional people the Trump admin sent to be imprisoned in El Salvador without trial who are imprisoned there whose names have never been disclosed.

More on Collins and the weird distortions and tidying up of her record that seem to happen every time her seat is up, this time with the (batshit) help of Planned Parenthood:

Susan Collins is now denying she got a hall pass despite other Republicans literally saying she got one. #mesen #mepolitics

The sheriff of Chesapeake, Virginia's second largest city, is calling himself “Detain ‘Em Dave”. He lost the GOP primary in June to a candidate who wants to crack down even further on immigration. No Democrat or independent filed to run. boltsmag.org/sheriff...

Why? Why don't they know? Whose responsibility is it to ensure they know, how are those mechanisms failing, and what can we do to repair or replace them? Those are the questions those who believe in journalism as public service should be asking ourselves. Because 48% is a failing grade.

really interesting that the vice president cites as a key intellectual influence a guy who thinks black people are natural slaves

In July of 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered one of the greatest speeches in US history. Today it’s often presented in abridged form, though, and skips what seems like a long-winded introduction. If you read the intro closely, however, there’s an ingenious structure. THREAD👇🏽

AOC: They’re giving people crumbs and they are taking away the whole loaf.

These people think they’re at the end of a story — that they ARE the end of a story — and they are wrong. More than that: the story is changing around us all the time, in the ways that people who think they will always have the power to write it cannot even begin to anticipate.

“In Cell 15, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia and 20 other Salvadorans were forced to kneel from approximately 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM, with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion. During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself…”

There’s just so much: the victory of a new political talent, the loss of an old tyrant, the possibilities of alliance & positive strategizing, the hope for a more just future, the cracking of the last generation’s stranglehold on power. Also the joy and force of Tish James! Listen to her voice!

Spare a thought for Jessica Ramos, who threw out her principles & alliances for a spot in the Cuomo administration, and today got 0.39% and is watching a likely Mamdani primary win.

Why you need to rank Mamdani — even if he’s at #5 — in addition to not ranking Cuomo www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Seriously—at this point… FIGHT ME, TRANSPHOBES.

Here’s a look at Hortman’s legislative history and legacy on key policies during her 20 years in office.

#NoKings in Langhorne PA

The #NoKings march in Dallas, Texas is HUGE!

Dallas, Texas police estimate there are 10,000 people attending the "No Kings" protest on Saturday. #NoKings #Dallas #Texas

Boston showed up for No Kings Day!

NEW: Chicago right now. Every time, this city turns up. Thousands refusing to bow down to Trump authoritarianism. 👏👏 #NoKings #50501Movement

“Don’t rank Cuomo” chant broke out at the No Kings march down Fifth Ave.

It’s blindingly clear at this point that the protestors in Los Angeles are in fact helping to prevent a fascist takeover, and the pundits who suggested that protest is counterproductive were being either stupid or actively malicious.

this was my favorite sign from today

Los Angeles, CA - In front of the federal building hundreds of protesters chanting “shame” at marines. Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine in a truck just drove by with a full band, waved a “battle of Los Angeles” t shirt, people are dancing now.

Houlton, Maine showed up today. There were at least 100 people, which is amazing for the County.

Surreal to hear a “No Kings” chant reverberate through the concrete canyons of #Chicago

Do you know how badly you have to screw up as a Republican to get this kind of turnout in IDAHO? #NOKINGS