We must imagine Justin Herbert a champion

bullshit tends toward conservatism

One reason why Trump has been able to maintain such discipline of GOP rank-and-file lawmakers is because they fear he will provoke his followers into killing them or their families. They’re much more afraid of this than of violence from the left, and for good reason. www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick. Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.

Traditionally you had to play this game of plausible deniability if you wanted to both play to a right wing base and get invited on The Shows: You had to say (and vote for) things that would energize racists while also acting horrified & indignant at any suggestion that you might yourself be racist.

Absolutely brutal report just out from National Association of Realtors on the utterly broken US housing market. First-time homebuyers fell to a historic low of just 21% of all homebuyers, and their median age was an all-time high of 40 years old. The American Dream is dead.

Michele Obama flashback www.npr.org/2016/10/13/4... Sad that the U.S. electorate lacked the moral perception of a six-year-old.

wonder if any enterprising reporters have access to the NY Times building

I'm kind of baffled how the "moderates" have apparently all decided to turn against climate policy at once, just as China reaches green electrostate liftoff mode. I thought these people were all about National Greatness and making Hard Choices

sounds like a deliberate, conscious allusion to George Wallace

really excited to read the (doubtless imminent) concurrence from Conor Friedersdorf

this is frankly reason alone to say "no deal" to anything for the next three years. but this isn't viewed as a worthy cause for the same reason anti-ice activities isn't viewed as a worthy cause for the same reason that there were no actions taken against gillibrand calling mamdani a "jihadist".

if THE RUNNING MAN were actually a real television show, i am 100% certain mr beast would host it

When I hear about Mamdani wishing to keep Tisch on, I just think about how Allende believed until the very end that Pinochet was loyal.

I mean, come on bsky.app/profile/brun...

the “mainstream Republican” wing

Bill Donohue, thou shouldst be living at this hour

They’ve got John Roberts defending congressional powers from the executive, folks.

"most dem victories where centrists" i say later in the 🧵, i'm not claiming this as a victory for either normie dems or socialists it's a victory for opposing fascism & not trying to appease it (which comes in both lib & left variants)

This video confirms my reporting from my Monday newsletter: While NFL players seem to believe the NFL's sexual celebration rules are highly specific (a la Key and Peele's 2 pumps vs. 3 pumps), the actual rule asks each ref to determine what is illegally sexy based on their personal preferences

Vox Populi, Vox DEI

Seriously though, I’m a little worried just how uninterested the OR GOP seems to be in actually getting anyone to vote for them who isn’t already a totally bought in MAGA-maniac. They seem to think they’ll be able to wield power without having to, ya know, persuade people to vote for them.

look at what happened with immigration: dems try to be “centrist” with the biden border bill, gop just went further right and started lying about eating pets…may be a lesson to learn there

A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

You know, it's a small thing, but the thing I hate the most is the idea their pivot is towards free markets and personal liberties. A paper actually committed to those things would be absolutely venomous about the Trump administration. But what he actually means is 'Quisling, but respectable.'

Ed Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America

Lexington, Massachusetts! 19/

6. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislatures. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/u...

I'm not just describing the U.S. experience. It's true of the worst authoritarian takeovers, too. Things take time. Anne Frank didn't go into hiding until 9 years after the Enabling Act passed. www.offmessage.net/p/the-median...

RFK believes pandemic lockdowns were more restrictive and oppressive than the Holocaust, that vaccines cause autism, and that tap water may be turning kids gay. But, sure, let’s question whether the “conspiracist” label applies because some countries in Europe don’t fluoridate their water.

In our - very limited - historical experience of democracy, (i) states rot from the centre-right (ii) and it's contagious (via geography/powerful exemplar states)

and scene

There is also ample survey data that people of any age identify the time period when things were best, e.g. the Good Ol Days, as whenever they were 10-15 years old. They weren't the Good Ol Days, they're whenever you were a kid. That's what you miss: being a kid.

I’m angry and tired of this idea that just because someone puts on the decorations of a faith that they are taken as pious and devout representatives of that faith. I think it’s insulting to believers who actually try and follow the precepts of generosity, kindness, meekness, and mercy laid out.

Biden delivered the material goods but didn't benefit a bit from it. You could argue this was because Biden couldn't capitalize on these policies due to his age or incapacitation, but i think the problem runs deeper--the political system doesn't operate in the way it did when Biden came of age. 3/x

centrist and Republican pundits addressing a mainstream audience always retreat from the particular to the abstract. never specific policies, always generalized concerns

When you think about the courage, determination, and blood shed by the people who brought us the progress we have lived with our whole lives, I really do believe it’s self evident we don’t have the moral right to give up.

I guess the rule is, you can call Kirk a nazi, but only if you mean it as a compliment.

Putting away all the "CIVIL WAR NOW" banners at the news station and bringing out the "Mental Health Crisis in America" banners with a heavy sigh

Divide between people who think politics is an exercise in increasing status and career opportunities within a static system and those who think it's about creating the circumstances within which people can live well

The Trumpists believe they may have found their Reichstag fire moment. And if it is not this one, then how long until something else happens that might serve as pretext? When those who are controlling the levers of state power are itching for violence, how long until mass violence follows?

This is what anti-anti-ism finally collapses into. Truth is unknowable, numbers are biased, counter-argument always has to muddle the water. It’s not that the leftists are more violent. It’s that not-right wingers are. It’s completely nonsensical.

They care more about this than any of the recent massacres of children because they see dead pundits as people and dead kids as content.

Look, we need to welcome all perspectives in good-faith debate. I personally happen to be opposed to political murders. But I recognize that not everybody shares that view.

again: it’s a regime, and the regime’s composition includes various private citizens, propagandists, and soon, likely, paramilitaries. it doesn’t include career civil servants. opposition party is not a governance partner, it’s an enemy to be crushed. bsky.app/profile/rvbd...