If there's one empirical insight I'd want everyone to understand about American politics, it's this: America's problems are solved problems. Just not here. What would change if the US simply matched the average of 31 peer democracies? Not Denmark or Norway. Just the middle of the pack. 🧵

Pew Research Institute (2023): • Red State Texas has about 2.1 million undocumented immigrants • Red State Florida has 1.6 M undocumented immigrants • Blue State Minnesota has 130,000. And yet only Minnesota is being occupied by masked thugs over "immigration." It's *not* about immigration.

Deutsche Bank here with the good stuff. Game on.

This is due to Republicans and Brett Kavanaugh.

The thing that really makes Minneapolis different, other than the fact that they straight up murdered someone, is that they've dropped all pretense that this is just about immigration. The state has declared war on its own people, or at least those people who live in cities.

Perennial reminder of this excellent paper about how secret police forces are swamped with underachievers “We don’t want clever people. We want mediocrities.” (Ungated summary here ajps.org/2019/10/08/w...)

The Supreme Court only cleared the way for Kavanaugh Stops four months ago and ICE now openly engages in violent racial profiling, snatching anyone who looks non-white and treating them as presumptively guilty of a crime. Remarkable how quickly our liberties can be crushed when courts go along.

There is a crisis of impunity. The Musk/Grok stuff is just one f many examples of people who are counting on there never being any consequences. And it all makes me just incandescently mad.

Frost: For so long, the right wing has held up patriotism as a vibe, as an aesthetic. But patriotism is more than bald eagles and flags and beer. Patriotism is about loving the people who live in the damn country — every single one of them.

Murphy: The United States Congress should not fund a Department of Homeland Security that is not obeying the laws of the United States of America

People who aren't in Minnesota might not know that if you drive or walk past pretty much any school, there's going to be a group of people, parents and childless, standing guard to make sure the kids are safe from feds. It's pretty remarkable. And very disturbing. www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Trump yells “fuck you” and flips off an auto worker in Michigan who yelled “pedophile protector” www.tmz.com/2026/01/13/t...

This is a military crackdown on the president’s perceived enemies.

Dear North American station designers, this (first two pics) is not how you deal effectively with vertical circulation on a 120-130 ft (35-40 meters) deep station. It's either the Moscow way (long inclined escalators) or the Barcelona/E-M REM way (elevators-only).

A planned example in Vienna of a deep-ish station in a space constrained environment: platform and tunnel far apart under buildings (built with NATM), three vestibules (yellow) connecting them to three separate vertical circulations: two shafts with elevators and an inclined tunnel for escalators

Eric Adams, former NYC mayor, launched a memecoin (cryptocurrency) today. He marketed it as an “NYC Token” and used media appearances and his social media to promote it. Within hours, Adams then drained its liquidity, apparently having scammed investors out of $3.4 million—a move called a rug pull.

“A diplomatic source said: 'The generals think Trump's Greenland plan is crazy and illegal. So they are trying to deflect him with other major military operations. They say it's like dealing with a five-year-old'.” That’s an insult to 5-year olds. A dangerous and corrupt moron.

Breaking NYT: The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane in its first boat attack, according to officials briefed on the matter. The laws of armed conflict forbid combatants from feigning civilian status. That is a war crime called "perfidy."

AOC: I want everybody to understand that the cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this. You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face.

STREETSBLOG INVESTIGATES “Unlicensed Drivers Comprise One-Quarter Of Street Fatalities: Data Unlicensed drivers are now responsible for one-quarter of road fatalities — and are linked to fatal crashes much more often now than pre-pandemic, Streetsblog analysis” nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/01/12/u...

We’re well past any academic discussion that Republicans have unleashed the military on US residents. Anything else is just semantics.

Trump is clearly not well. At a meeting with oil industry CEO’s Trump suddenly interrupts his introductory remarks, gets up and looks out the window and starts talking about his ballroom. Trump then realizes his mistake and says “unusual time to look”, and sits back down to continue.

The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.

A Washington Post article suggests that, beyond a certain threshold, larger homes don't make people happier. Instead, well-being is correlated with affordable housing in walkable neighborhoods where they feel socially connected. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

"No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law"

I am pleased to announce that I have commandeered my neighbor's home. This home will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, to ensure it is used to benefit my neighbor and me! Thank you for your attention to this matter!

A heck of a chart: in every single one of the 10 major US cities that built the most housing between 2017 and 2023, rents for older, existing units fell—often by quite a bit.

Absolutely true, and somehow not-discussed point: The US **ALREADY** has all the strategic advantages it could gain by "owning" Greenland. Through treaties and (until now) close NATO cooperation w Denmark The US has a naval base & 'space force' base there. You see USAF planes at Grndlnd airports

The destruction doesn't make for a photo-op like tearing down the East Wing of the White House or bulldozing the Rose Garden, but it's every bit as bad. Generations of American children learned to spell and count, learned the Preamble to the Constitution, from watching shows produced by the CPB.

Can we just stop and put this into perspective: Our Scandinavian allies put out joint statements today condemning the United States, and Denmark went as far as explicitly threatening military action while hinting at a potential invocation of Article 5. That’s genuinely fucking insane.

one of my recent preoccupations is the visceral hostility the MAGA right has for the histories and traditions of the United States. these are people who spit on the Declaration and salute third-rate European despots!

The way we need to market this shit is to do what conservatives did for the past 30 years and write books like “The ten forbidden truths you’re not allowed to say on politically correct tv” and then it’s just cities are mostly fine and it’s good to get a flu shot

like 75% of dem messaging right now should be “the party led by epsteins best friend is breaking into pre-k childcare centers so they can record your toddlers and put the videos on internet”

This second paragraph is the most comically bad amount of prose I’ve read in weeks. What a chode rocket.

We should ask why it’s so easy for terms and concepts like “Heritage American” and “Western Chauvinism” are met with earnest analysis and exploration while academic theory produced by Black scholars are summarily dismissed by people reading introductory texts if that.

Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself. For @reuters.com

There’s room for somebody on the left to wrap themselves in the flag a little & make a point that the right’s rejection of America as a creedal nation—and their ad hoc, ahistorical effort to make it an ethnonationalist project instead—is distinctly *unamerican,* a rejection of the national project.

Europe: Record high energy prices because of the Ukraine-Russia war US: Record high energy prices because of the Microsoft war against people resisting Copilot

January 6 was like a much dumber version of Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch and yet a plurality of American voters were like, Yeah, let’s give that guy the nuke codes again. An absolutely world historical debacle of societal ignorance. I’ll never understand it.

“In the past half century, by investing in transit and allowing development, Tokyo has added more housing units than the total number of units in New York City. It has remained affordable by becoming the world’s largest city. It has become the world’s largest city by remaining affordable.” 🎁

Why do these articles never ask the basic question of "does the president have the power to do that?" because the answer is obviously and clearly no.

Change in employment since Trump took office, by sector. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...

NEW: A hacker gained control of 1,100 mobile phones powering covert, AI-generated ads on TikTok. Then, he shared details of the operation with 404 Media. A look inside how startup Doublespeed, which is backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), is creating AI spam pages on TikTok to promote products.

“A-plus plus plus plus”. #NFP

Seven Voting Laws Every Blue State Should Enact Right Now. “1. Enact a statutory right to vote for every eligible citizen. This may surprise you, but there is no general federal constitutional right to vote.” [democracydocket.com]

Queens, a borough of 2.4 million people, permitted just 3,240 homes last year, a bit over 1 boatload. Austin, a city of less than a million people, permitted that same number every month last year. The results? Queens rents: ⬆️ 4.6% Austin rents: ⬇️ 3.1%

We know that real time information is important to our riders. The new e-paper screens we are piloting allow riders to check bus arrival times without using their personal devices.

Unamerican.

Cool 2015 development in Houston: 12 townhouses oriented around a brick courtyard on a 30,000 square foot lot, and right next to a row of mansions.