From a federal employee groupchat I’m still in. Lmao

Just to take stock: the first claim was that there was an entire literature supporting the anti-birthright position. Then, *after* that claim, scholars emerged to post drafts on SSRN. And *now* the government points to a "growing body of modern scholarship" all drafted after the initial claim.

how stunning: a literature appeared out of thin air, under the guise of "just asking questions" and "just following the history" that happens to fully support Trump's authoritarian, white supremacist dreams. how fucking coincidental. how fucking surprising. who (everyone) could have predicted?

It is important to see this sort of straight talking, precisely because of the executive order last week that conflated criticism of the government with terrorism.

If you are too dense to distinguish between moral reproach by the left as a response to speech and hamfisted government censorship by the right, then perhaps you should not have a column in the New York Times

Reducing car dependency is a key tool in defending democracy in a whole lotta ways.

"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply." me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

counterpoint: this is going exactly how a lot of people expected it to

Don't think I've ever felt this embarrassed to be an American. There's shame and anger too. But mostly embarrassment. We're the laughingstock of the developed world. And we should be.

increasingly toying with the idea that this is the root of all "rule of law" issues. A democratic theory of the rule of law should begin with the idea that the rule of law emerges from the average citizen's lived experience. And that experience today is being ruthlessly ripped off at all times.

No one had to fall for “free speech for me but not for thee.” It wasn’t especially subtle, and some called it out at the time. But a bunch of people really wanted to fall for it.

This feels like as good an opportunity as any to share some thoughts I’ve written on the post-competence world being constructed by the Right longcarolinian.medium.com/the-rights-b...

"We stand firmly on the principles of the U.S. Constitution, including the protection of free speech. HOWEVER, that right does not extend to speech that incites harm OR UNDERMINES THE DIGNITY OF OTHERS." Emphasis added because holy fuck

Last year: Austin Peay State University learns prof is Nazi who went to Charlottesville rally. Admin drags heels, pays him $56k severance to leave This week: APSU prof posts screenshot of headline - Charlie Kirk Says Gun Deaths ‘Unfortunately’ Worth it to Keep 2nd Amendment- & is immediately fired

I am having a hard time reconciling "Charlie Kirk was a fierce advocate of open dialogue and free expression" with "we must identify and persecute everyone who is insufficiently mournful"

The discourse over Kirk’s career is really hammering home how little the media and so many Dems understand the concept of lying or bad faith arguments. An entire life dedicated to poisoning the well under the guise of ‘an exchange of ideas’ and nobody is capable of calling it out for what it was.

I see little value in an evaluation of political action that excludes the views and desired outcomes of the actor from its criteria. That sense of “politics” is a fantasy where we can dodge the sticky conflict of disagreeing over the substance of right and wrong by seeing everything as structure

I feel like I am taking crazy pills. Charlie Kirk’s ultimate goal, which he said time and time again, would have been the suppression, through threat of violence and the use of state power, of the rights of those he disagreed with, including freedom of expression. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/o...

We must stand resolutely against political assassination and political violence of all kinds, and just as resolutely against everyone who exploits acts of violence as the pretext or excuse for political repression of political opponents.

Totally bizarre for the WP to treat this as a plausibly contested fact. There's a multi-decade conspiracy to plant this forged document in the book? Consider the totality of the evidence. Come ON.

This message was crystal clear in early 20th century discussions of the income tax - the principled value of progressive taxation is that it retethers the wealthy to society.

almost hard to remember when the center and right were having a years-long meltdown about free speech on campus because students protested Milo Yiannopoulos speeches

Looks like Klein is also tired of getting gaslit by Democratic senators. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/o...

i cannot overstate how extraordinary it is for federal civil servants to do this

This is only true if police believe they have a legitimate interest in getting away with misconduct

not sure what breunig majored in during undergrad, but as for matt y: i cannot emphasize enough how embarrassing it is for someone who studied philosophy in college to get worked this bad in an argument. yglesias has really gone downhill as a thinker.

You guys I feel so self-actualized as Carrboro dad

Firing and demoralizing feminized jobs as enemies of the state while brazenly bribing men with violent jobs that almost instantly puts them into the middle of middle class is very basic gendered warfare. Fulfilling the manosphere’s promise.

I often ran by a U.S. Park Police station in Rock Creek Park, and these guys’ personal vehicles had “don’t tread on me” license plates (my brothers in Christ, you are the boot) and in one case a “let’s go Brandon” sticker

Just took a lunchtime stroll to Merritt’s for a life-changing pimento BLT with my family and my friends, who I live next door to. Have I mentioned how happy I am we moved back

Just in case it’s not already clear that ICE is a white supremacist thug army, Homeland Security is recruiting with a “defend your culture” slogan.

Nothing to do with performance or merit: purged from the military because of their identity and then robbed of the retirement they worked for.

I've gone from <1 to 5 car trips a week since flash floods forced indefinite closures of 2 greenways in my town. We'd been debating becoming a one-car family. Now we're wondering if we can afford a 3rd car. Greenways are essential transportation infrastructure. It's time to treat them that way.

Opinion: Gas-powered leaf blowers are bad for humans and nature, and bans in the region can help.

love working for the state for a lot of reasons, among which is the wide variety of North Carolina accents I hear daily

Stanford's student paper sues Noem and Rubio, saying their policies cause non-citizen students to avoid expressing themselves freely in the Daily's pages due to fear of detention and deportation h/t @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.thefire.org/sites/defaul...

Grounds for divorce imo

fascism as a parody of fascism constitutional peekaboo because voters lack object permanence

I'm reading through the lawsuit now, and I'm going to live-post my reactions to it. The lawsuit is linked below. My immediate reaction: this is really bad, and egregiously misstates the law in a painfully obvious way. gov.texas.gov/uploads/file...

This reminds me: RFK Jr. doesn't believe that HIV causes AIDS! He believes recreational drug use causes it and that scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci formerly of NIH, conspired to make up an infectious disease responsible for AIDS so they could "take control of it." www.npr.org/sections/sho...

I live in Chapel Hill again!! I’m so happy 😭

Today was my last day as a federal lawyer (for now). Here are some thoughts I’ve put together on “merit,” based on my observations in that job, and the modern political Right. My thesis is that they are not just incompetent; they are *anti* competence. medium.com/p/574a0d721b6c

Praising redlining from first principles is what happens when your politics are entirely centered around what you think is or isn’t cool. If your politics aren’t material they’re reactionary

Critical to understand the AI push is the new plastic for fossil fuel companies—another strategy to manufacture demand for otherwise stranded energy assets. AI’s massive energy demands being used to fight fossil fuel retirements and walk back renewable commitments

People who refuse to use AI now will enjoy massive career returns over the next 10 years imo because their brains will not have turned to sawdust

A newspaper wrecked on purpose.

From @theassemblync.bsky.social’s email newsletter, a sad but compact illustration of how driving’s monopoly on transport leaves people who can’t afford to drive with no choice but to do so, making it politically impossible to adopt policies that reflect driving’s true costs

This brings to mind this prescient paper, on the potential for mutual reinforcement between AI and autocracy. academic.oup.com/qje/article-...