separate from everything, the idea that 2020 was a squeaker but 2024 represents a historical mandate will simply be the death of me

if centrist pundits wanted to do something actually useful with their platforms, they could do worse than coalescing around and pushing the idea that stephen miller is a bad boyar betraying the tsar

it is almost impossible to imagine the donald trump of 2016 even *inadvertently* acknowledging to reporters that he's being dogwalked by fox news and his own people, man is in abject decline

It’s understandable to feel afraid of this if you’re a serious person. But they aren’t serious people. Hegseth is calling in Trump because he’s getting justified pushback from FOGOs and he wants to make a point to those that have tried not to show. It’s a sign of weakness not strength.

To be an effective liberal is to be a socialist and to be an effective socialist is to be a liberal.

wild

Its insane that American politics now more or less revolves around infrequently passing a single comically large overstuffed money bill instead of like... normal legislation

One funny thing about this is the United States already has it: compared to any peer democracy, a massive proliferation of hyper-local governments including an absurd number of micro-municipalities in major metros, and a ludicrously large number of local elected offices. It mostly sucks.

he’s just cooked. going to be interesting i guess to see who manages to consolidate power within the administration while Granpa periodically flings turds over the curtain

We really do need to stop referring to "Christianity" as some sort of monolith religion because it absolutely isn't and many Christians do not view other Christians as adherents.

I do hope that the lawsuits being preemptive, rather than reactive, means that this stays all tied up in red tape for, uhhh, at least another week and a half. Like, if it could push back any actual deployments until (to pick a totally random date), maybe October 8th, that would be great, thank you.

This is going to be my legacy, isn't it?

Many of us have gotten *way* too comfortable with direct access to the creators of the art/media we enjoy. Being able to directly message them has been a blessing and a curse. While it's nice to be able to express more gratitude and grievance, some of us now feel *entitled to it.*

A moral society would make guys like this absolute pariahs, basically excommunicated from all sources of social belonging and support. There's no excusing beliefs like this. They're products of an entirely malformed being.

Hey @alyankovic.bsky.social what the heck

Ya know on some level I do understand Jeffries and Schumer acting like utter cucks because 77,302,580 sapient human beings of their own free will walked into a booth or mailed in a slip and asked for this specifically by name and dealing with those feels much like dealing with rabid coyotes

So this sounds pejorative and unfair but I can’t get around it any other way, and around the associated implication that bigotry and maximal bad faith is a force multiplier in this form of politics/rhetoric.

Further: "ALL Trump-era cuts will be reversed in full and all outstanding debts owed by the Trump administration will be treated as odious and not honored"

My latest:”Through gossamer tributes, Kirk’s cruel condemnation of transgender people & his racist throwback views abt Black Americans were no longer anathema but instead are being treated as just another political view to be respectfully debated —like a position on tax rates or health care policy.”

Both are wrong. In politics, communication doesn't win people over. That's some West Wing BS. You win people over by sticking to your guns, and then exploiting your now (seemingly) unimpeachable character when people suffer the consequences for their own shortsightedness.

To keep things in perspective, they are doing this in one of the safest and most policed areas of downtown Chicago. They aren't protecting anything. They are larping as soldiers b/c Trump wants to be SEEN as occupying Chicago with the military without actually doing it.

The horrifying thing about Trump is that he is both the biggest conman and the biggest mark in America at the same time

Twisting someone else’s work for your own satisfaction, and getting angry when they don’t agree with you, has some real Morgoth from The Silmarillion vibes.

Some people need to grow up and stop emotionally investing themselves in their interpretations of other people's characters. It's genuinely unhealthy for them and annoying, distressing, and alienating toward the creators they complain to/about.

i think a fundamental issue with our politics right now is that with the collapse of mediating institutions there is a critical mass of more or less politically unsocialized 'free agent' voters thermostatically seesawing the system, which is an extremely destabilizing influence

My takeaway from this is just how online elite political discourse is

Techbros want technofeudalism where they rule with an iron fist through mass surveillance and autonomous drones, the latter being important because it free them from being constrained/having to listen the military. Truly individualized control over an society held at gunpoint

Instead of the next judicial education session, all the judges watch this tiktok instead.

i suspect this coming immediately after silwa spilled the beans about people trying to bribe him does not improve the case for cuomo

me everyday

ICE must be dismantled and every member must be prosecuted.

Anyways, this is all I have to say about Ezra Klein.

Remember Anne Frank...!

oh my god he is becoming capable of self-awareness???

it's over, i've already depicted you as weak anti-New Deal bankers and me as the Chad FDR

Holy shit, the Epstein files must be absolutely loaded with his name.

Britain in 1833: ‘Hey look we abolished slavery’ Britain in 2025: ‘hey look we’re bringing back indentured labour!’

Far too many USians do no know that immigration issues are *civil* matters, not criminal; undocumented immigrants have committed *misdemeanors*, and CBP/ICE/DHS often brutalize and kill them for what, in other contexts, would basically result in a fine. Think about why you're okay with that.

"Being respectful of our history" means not lying about it. There are not, actually, "a lot of questions" about this grisly massacre You should put your "confidence and trust" in the nonpartisan scholars who have studied this extensively instead of a right-wing Fox & Friends propagandist

Seeing this washed up metalhead/creeper cry over a Cinderella meme -- from Gavin Newsom no less -- is objectively funny.

I keep seeing people say immigrants don't contribute to society, but most stories I see about ICE arrests all seem to take place at the immigrant's job. 🤷‍♂️

We don’t talk enough about how racists and authoritarians are the ones who actually genuinely hate this country.

👁🫡

it's a great interview, and what's striking is that at the end of the day both klein and coates believe in winning people over. the difference is that coates thinks you do this by telling them the truth, and klein thinks you do it by empathizing with them and recognizing their concerns as Real

Trump and Dems are officially meeting Monday. This is after Trump cancelled his last meeting with Democrats because they were holding firm on immigrant and transgender protections. The Republican budget has dozens of anti-LGBTQ+ riders. Call your Dem senators, people, don't let them capitulate.

i have said this before but i think that ones view of the current political situation is fundamentally shaped by how you view the outcome of the 2024 election. was it a definitive affirmation of the MAGA worldview or a narrow, extremely contingent result?

of all the things about ta-nehisi coates’s philosophy i wish people would internalize the main one is: sometimes you lose

"social media bad" is the skeleton key of all modern politics post-2016

I say this sincerely: There is so much 9/11-related material that has yet to be declassified that the president could release.