Lincoln: I have read and re-read the Bible, Shakespeare, and many, many political speeches. I will now produce some of the most original, powerful, and evocative works of the American civic canon. AI: I have indiscriminately hoovered up many, many words. I will now produce some slop.

“Panels installed flat against the roof, in particular, fared well. Some rooftop solar owners have taken to removing their panels ahead of strong winds. Many were already back online.”

My column from Monday. There’s a prefiled constitutional amendment in Alabama that would bar naturalized citizens from holding office. It’s such a blatant violation of the 14th Amendment that one must assume it’s an attempt to get the Supreme Court to further restrict due process and rule of law.

School vouchers have been shown to make private schools raise their tuition, but I’m sure that wouldn’t happen here.

Some grave irony in using the memory of a highly original political writer to sell a plagiarism machine.

You should do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. And if you’re a politician, you should do the right thing *especially* if it’s unpopular. Moral leadership puts bigots on their heels.

Igor McBeal

The people who voted for Zohran Mamdani and the folks who raged over “woke” Cracker Barrel have more in common than you may think. Let me explain.

Via Chabeli Carrazana & 19thnews: States used a historic infusion of COVID-19 relief funds to improve their child care systems over the past few years, and now that the money has run dry, some can no longer keep their child care reimbursement rates up. https://ow.ly/kB4H50Xotnt

Via Jacob Fischler: The U.S. Supreme Court Friday temporarily blocked a lower court’s order that the Trump administration pay for a full month of food benefits, hours after some states began loading nutrition assistance funds on payment cards held by the 42 million Americans who use the program.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: Montgomery Police arrested a fifth suspect Thursday in connection with an October mass shooting that killed two and injured 12.

Via @fischler.bsky.social: The U.S. Department of Agriculture told states Friday it was releasing full November funding for the nation’s major food assistance program that helps 42 million people afford groceries, complying with a federal court order issued Thursday.

This podcast seems like a really smart idea.

An underappreciated aspect of our current media landscape is that there is a lot more for journalists to cover (particularly those who have non-localized or non-specialized audiences) and far fewer people available to do it.

Oh, it's Mass Effect Andromeda.

“Claim: Mamdani is a communist. False: Any real communist will happily spend six hours explaining why this isn’t true.”

The spoils system worked in the 19th century because salaries for federal jobs were much higher than one could get in the private sector. Federal clerks and local postmasters could make two to three times what the average laborer made.

Via Ashley Murray: A vote to stop President Donald Trump’s deadly strikes on alleged drug-running boats off the coast of Venezuela failed Thursday in the U.S. Senate, nearly mirroring the outcome of a similar war powers vote last month.

Via Amanda Watford and Stateline: States are moving in sharply different directions on the death penalty, with some looking to broaden when and how executions occur while others try to scale them back or end them entirely. https://ow.ly/7SRk50XnUoP

My $0.02: Give one-star reviews to films that are incompetently made — with no redeeming acting, writing or photography — but are done in good faith. Give zero-star reviews to incompetently made films that are explicitly abusive, deceitful or propagandistic, with no attempt at art.

Via Ralph Chapoco: An Alabama legislator has prefiled a bill that would allow parole officers to restrict the communications of people convicted of a sexual offense against children and require them to undergo treatment. https://ow.ly/nVXr50Xo55w

Like selling Paul McCartney hamburgers

Not saying we shouldn’t marvel at the absurdity of the pay package, but keep in mind these are the benchmarks he has to hit to get it, and uh…it isn’t going well so far

Updated via @fischler.bsky.social: A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration Thursday to pay roughly $9 billion for a full month of nutrition assistance benefits by the next day.

Via Anna Barrett: Auburn University apologized for accidentally sending three emergency alerts to students and employees about an active shooter, a tornado and a hazardous waste spill within the space of minutes early Thursday afternoon.

Alabama folks: List includes Atlanta.

Via @fischler.bsky.social: The U.S. Department of Agriculture will reduce the largest monthly food assistance payments by about 35% in November, a smaller decrease than the department initially estimated, according to a court filing late Wednesday.

Via @timhenderson.bsky.social: The ADP report does not include an estimate of the unemployment rate, unlike the suspended federal report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also does not break down the statistics by race or gender.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The state is applying for grants meant to offset Medicaid cuts made by Congress in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The proposal includes funding for providers, IT and maternal health.

Brentwood-based CoreCivic, a private prison operator, has picked up more than half a billion dollars in federal contracts since President Donald Trump took office in January -- mostly due to a rise in immigrant detentions. From @tennesseelookout.com.

Pelosi is the major reason we have the Affordable Care Act in its current form. She stiffened the spines of the White House and congressional members in 2010 after there was talk of paring ACA back after Scott Brown's upset in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate election that year.

I don’t know if Barney Miller creator Danny Arnold went to Fordham, but he was a Fordham football fan (when Fordham was a nationally ranked program): Stan Wojciehowicz was named for Alex Wojciehowicz, Fordham’s All-American center, a teammate of Vince Lombardi and later an NFL Hall-of-Famer.

Prelude to a pouncing.

Via Ralph Chapoco: Democratic state legislators have criticized comments from U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama labeling Montgomery as a ‘war zone.’  https://ow.ly/ah3250XntGZ

Via Elisha Brown: An increase of the Virginia General Assembly’s Democratic majority all but solidifies that state voters could put a reproductive freedom amendment into the state constitution next year. https://ow.ly/1PU150XnrmY

Once again I am asking commenters making some variation of “you deserve this” to remember that Trump supporters are only 37% of the adult population; that several areas of Alabama went heavily for Harris, and that those areas by and large are the ones suffering most from the White House’s policies.

Via Anna Barrett: Alabamians could see major surges in the cost of Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans without enhanced tax credits for ACA premiums, which lie at the center of the federal government shutdown. https://ow.ly/IzP850XnvyG

Just a reminder that Tuberville has called inner-city people “rats” and most immigrants “garbage.”

Via Jonathan Shorman: Monthly data published by the U.S. International Trade Administration indicates that student visa arrivals were 19.1% lower than in August 2024, not including Canada or Mexico via land. The decline among African countries was 32.5%. https://ow.ly/T3ZQ50XnbeQ

Via @fischler.bsky.social: U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday the Federal Aviation Administration would restrict air travel in 40 “high-traffic” areas of the country to relieve pressure on air traffic controllers who have been working without a paycheck since Oct. 1.

AethelRED the Unready right folks

Via @ashleymurray.bsky.social: For nearly three hours the justices poked and prodded at the language of a 1970s-era sanctions law that Trump has invoked since January in a series of emergency declarations and proclamations triggering import taxes on goods from nearly every country.

Would love to watch the Community treatment of the Law & Order treatment of the Sandwich Throwing Trial.

Via Ariana Figueroa: “The election results ought to send a much-needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis, his shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

Oh my GOD. The song that Rudy Giuliani used in his anti-Zohran post is fucking AI-generated. It's a song called "September 11, 2001" and it's from some AI slop factory called The Experience. You need to hear how bad this song is. music.apple.com/cz/album/sep...

Via @timhenderson.bsky.social and Stateline: Young homebuyers have been priced out of the market even more than previously, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors. https://ow.ly/E7bk50XnaBe

Whenever I see this nonsense, it seems like a projection of one's own controlling impulses onto someone else.

Via Mississippi Today: Republicans will still retain control of both chambers of the 174-member Legislature when lawmakers convene in January for their 2026 session. However, national Democratic organizations hoped to end the GOP’s two-thirds supermajority control of the state Senate on Tuesday.