Morning

Sunday funday.

Saturday Evening

Enjoy

Saturday Long Read

enjoy 

A taste:

Every bit of this is disheartening on its face. But it’s actually worse than any first-blush irritation, that familiar annoyance that comes from encountering still another textbook exercise in witless triangulation. Because what this sort of reporting ultimately means is that if you have enough money to get somebody, anybody, to produce a white paper for you, which you can then put on some think-tank stationery? Then, my friend, you are ready to enter into the rushing current of elite reportage. For no matter how unhinged the position you’ve taken, or paid someone marginally credentialed to sketch out on your behalf—“Can Woman Think?: We Investigate,” “Is the Negro a Man: A Reconsideration”—that opinion will, by virtue of such provenance, possess all needed evidentiary gravity for the Times. And then some. (Only yesterday the Times ran this actual story, which is not parody.)

That's Your Audience

Fine, liberals are horribly intolerant. You still have to sell to them, the people who might buy your product.

Like other conservatives interviewed for this article, Ms. Bowers contended that left-wing politics had crept into the Kennedy Center, warping it so that it became a place that was not welcoming for all. And yet, she would not accept that Mr. Trump had injected his own politics into the place, which has driven away audiences.

“That characterization is a little unfair,” she said. “In the past, I don’t think that everyone felt welcome, to be frank with you. I know that lots of conservatives did not.”

Asked why people were not coming to the Kennedy Center as much anymore, Ms. Daravi, the head of communications, replied with two words.

“Liberal intolerance.”

Obviously businesses (and nonprofit arts orgs) don't always get it right, but generally conervatives don't understand that they didn't do all the 'woke shit' to please Joe Biden, they did it to sell widgets and tickets.

The Law Is Ass

I refuse to waste any of my beautiful mind following the various court cases as they head towards Sam Alito's desk. 

Once upon a time you could at least follow the arguments and, for sport if nothing else, see how the conservatives were doing "heads republicans win, tails republicans win" this time. But increasingly there isn't any argument all, just "because we say so," so there isn't any point in indulging that particular kink.

Nothing against the Law People who do that stuff. It has value. I'm just not going to follow it!

Morning

Slacker Saturday.

Happy Hour

Friday edition.

White House!

[image or embed]

— F.O. (@get-effed.bsky.social) November 6, 2025 at 7:54 PM

Was This ChatGPT's Idea

Just a Treasury bust out. Faced with this dilemma—where do you get a trillion dollars quick?—OpenAI is getting ready to run hat in hand to the taxpayer for subsidies, like every great Ayn

Randian self-created entrepreneur, pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. At a recent Wall Street Journal tech conference, OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar suggested that a government loan guarantee might be necessary to fund the enormous investments needed to keep the company at the cutting edge.

Gerrit De Vynck of The Washington Post explained further that she also discussed “financial innovation,” like making sweetheart deals with chipmakers like AMD that get a stock boost from having any relationship with OpenAI, or trying to get a cut of the revenue that other companies generate through ChatGPT. But the loan guarantee suggestion stuck out; it felt like a pre-bailout, leaping past the crash and going right to the socialization of risk.

Though Friar later walked back her suggestion, saying that she was advocating for structural support for AI in general, not just her company, it is likely true that some kind of huge subsidy or another is probably the only way that OpenAI’s preposterous business model—it is “worth” a supposed $500 billion—can be sustained.

Odd Play

In normal times, most blue states are actually capabale of electing a Republican governor for various reasons, but this timing doesn't seem great for Stefanik! Trump ally Elise Stefanik announces run for New York governor

Seems Bad

Every tech innovation since smartphones have just been excuses to get away with various crimes/civil harms that old boring companies couldn't.

A CNN review of nearly 70 pages of chats between Shamblin and the AI tool in the hours before his July 25 suicide, as well as excerpts from thousands more pages in the months leading up to that night, found that the chatbot repeatedly encouraged the young man as he discussed ending his life – right up to his last moments.

Also, Too

The Republican plan for the shutdown was "the Democrats will cave." The Democrats, so far, have not caved!

Things changed, I think, but the early press push was to put all the blame on the Democrats. Then polls showed people mostly blame the Republicans. Then an election happened in which, while it was not a pure referendum on the National Democrats, the Democrats did well!

Can we learn from this???

Disqus Problems

People are complaining they can't login. I don't have a solution, but some are saying you can get in to the comments (and login?) through here. I can't replicate the problem for myself.

...seems to be a general disqus problem. Hopefully they fix it.

Remember When

For no particular reason (okay there was a reason), I was remembering that when Pelosi ascended to Speaker, Republicans and conservatives were excited that they would be able to portray all Democrats as under the thumb of a "San Francisco liberal."

One reason these types of attacks can work (they did not, in her case, obviously), is that Republicans correctly think they can usually get some number of journalist-friendly Democrats and centrist dipshit pundits to echo their attacks.

You know, some "moderate" member of Congress in Ohio, or wherever, will go on TV and say that while he supports the Speaker, he hopes she leaves her gay-loving, tree-hugging, tax-raising impulses back in San Francisco with the rest of those weirdos. Political reporters will write 27 articles wondering if America is ready for San Francisco values. The (old) New Republic runs a cover story (written and edited by Harvard grads) about the ongoing coastal elitist problem of the Democrats.

As I said, that didn't play out that way with Pelosi, much, even though they tried.  But my point is that Republicans can only dangle the bait and the various fishies have to bite.

Morning

Fatuous Friday

Justice

The sandwich hero is innocent.

Is That Good

Because of The Great Recession, I think "we" have forgotten that even modest recessions really suck for people.

Layoff announcements soared in October as companies recalibrated staffing levels during the artificial intelligence boom, a sign of potential trouble ahead for the labor market, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Job cuts for the month totaled 153,074, a 183% surge from September and 175% higher than the same month a year ago. It was the highest level for any October since 2003. This has been the worst year for announced layoffs since 2009.

Predictions are hard, especially about the future, but with all the various self-inflicted wounds, it's hard not to see a recession arriving...

Speaking Of The New York Times

Why are all these chunky butches mouthing off to me?

 

Fortunately, in the post-woke era, no one can file an HR complaint against Ross.

Nice try, guys.

Change in Headline

[image or embed]

— Editing the Blue-Gray Lady (@nytdiff.bsky.social) November 6, 2025 at 1:40 PM

The Two Wings Of The Republican Party

The "Hitler sucks" one and the other one.

“I’m in the ‘Hitler sucks’ wing of the Republican Party,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said over the weekend at the R.J.C. event. “Here’s what I do know: You can sit in a basement with weird people and say weird things. It’s a free country.”

Who Runs The World

This bit from Yes, Prime Minister always makes me laugh:

Sir Humphrey: The only way to understand the Press is to remember that they pander to their readers' prejudices.

Jim Hacker: Don't tell me about the Press. I know *exactly* who reads the papers. The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they *ought* to run the country; The Times is read by the people who actually *do* run the country; The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; The Financial Times is read by people who *own* the country; The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by *another* country; and The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it *is*.

Sir Humphrey: Oh, and Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?

Bernard Woolley: Sun readers don't care who runs the country as long as she's got big tits.

The specifics are a bit dated (no more Page 3 girls, for one), but it's still surprisingly close. However, I think putting it on *the readers* misses the point. The idea that if news outlets are shit, it's because they are just giving the readers what they want, erases the  agency and intentions of  the people who make the newspaper. Change it to:

The Daily Mirror is written by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is written by people who think they *ought* to run the country; The Times is written by the people who actually *do* run the country...

I was reminded of this because the tone of the New York Times editorial board and a chunk of the politics news side increasingly is, basically, "written by the people who think they ought to run the country." Maybe that isn't new and I am just noticing it more, but it does seem to be the new perspective of the Dash Sulzberger era.

Obviously anyone putting their opinions out there thinks they should be listened to (including me!), but that's a bit different than the entitled 'respect my authoritah' tone, combined with the implicit threat that the news side is going to go after you if you don't please the publisher.

Confidence Building

Good luck flying.

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Wednesday that he would order a 10% cut in flights at 40 major U.S. airports, citing air traffic control safety concerns as a government shutdown hit a record 36th day.

Maybe I just don't watch much (hardly any) cable news anymore, but am I wrong that the shutdown generally doesn't seem to be getting the same kind of coverage previous ones did? I'm exaggerating a bit here, but my memory is that it was scary graphic SHUTDOWN DAY 3 [ominous music] in the past, and now it's just... eh, this is normal now.

Sure Why Not

A pre-bailout is easier to sell than a bailout.

OpenAI Wants Federal Backstop for New Investments

Sarah Friar, the CFO of OpenAI, says the company wants a federal guarantee to make it easier to finance massive investments in AI chips for data centers. Friar spoke at WSJ’s Tech Live event in California. Photo: Nikki Ritcher for WSJ

Gotta, um, beat China. Send it over to our favorite bribed senators and see what they can do. This looks like a job for Gillibrand!

A statement from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. pic.twitter.com/Exwx54OYJV

— NVIDIA Newsroom (@nvidianewsroom) November 5, 2025

Coordinated messaging push. "Give us all the money or the Chicoms win."

Morning

Thrilling Thursday.

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Source: I Made It Up

 Dems listened to Shor after the election, and he had no data to back up assertions like this.

.@NBCNews exit polling on young men (18-29) in VA, NJ and NYC

VA: Spanberger +14
NJ: Sherrill: +10
NYC: Mamdani +40

— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) November 5, 2025

This kind of thing had Chris Murphy saying things like, "We must gift some of our women to the incels." (exaggeration)

The Dem "data gurus" have just been lying to them for years, either making things up wholesale, like this, or doing bullshit interpretations of issue polls. It's a combination of getting paid to tell leadership what they want to hear, and getting paid to tell them what donors want them to hear.

I don't want to get into the details, but part of Shor's origin story was that he was fired from a Group (CANCELLED INTO MAKING MILLIONS) for not being woke enough. He's also one of those "I'm really left wing deep in my heart, HOWEVER..." guys.

Brad Lander For Whatever Office He Wants

Our message to Andrew Cuomo was loud & clear in June.

It’s louder & clearer tonight. pic.twitter.com/9BIjlDD6ar

— Brad Lander (@bradlander) November 5, 2025

QOTD (Yesterday)

Mamdani: I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life, but let tonight be the last time I utter his name.

Cruelty

On many "culture war" issues (a bad term, those are often the most important issues), there are a set of self-identified moderate voters who yearn for the compromises that those nice people on NPR tell them are desirable and workable. Abortion, immigration, race-related issues, trans rights, ... just go down the list. 

Those people aren't cruel, mostly, but they don't understand that the compromises themselves are cruel. They definitely don't understand, because our Advanced Politics Knowers don't either, that "compromises" are just the start of the next phase of "negotiation."

"Abortion shouldn't be legal in all cases" sounds sensible to them. "Your doctor can't treat your ectopic pregnancy" does not. These are, often, the same picture.

"We have legitimate concerns about participation in girl's and women's sports" sounds sensible. "The school board is going to inspect your kid's genitals" does not. These are, often, the same picture.

The Sensible Centrist view is that we should embrace the sensible compromises and put the issue behind us forever, something that never works. The compromises themselves are often cruel and unworkable, no matter how they are sold, and they are, of course, just the first step. Once you've acknowledged your opponents have a point...

It isn't hard to stand on stage and explain why these things are cruel and unworkable instead of conceding the point to your opponents. The totebagger set often doesn't like the cruelty of the policies they support. They just need someone to explain this to them.

I don't think this is a "last war" issue. I think it's that people started to see the cruelty.

Republicans re-up trans attacks on Dems that worked for Trump in 2024 But the tactic seems less effective this time around: “They’re falling into the fundamental mistake of trying to refight the last war,” a Democratic strategist asserts.

Also, too, immigration. 

 

Lots of Wins

Mamdani likely to exceed 50%, destroying those talking points from the Center (he didn't even win a majority!) and the Right (Silwa was a spoiler!).

Spanberger wins in VA, as expected, Sherrill wins in NJ, which was also expected but there was some close (wrong) polling.

A lot of Republicans lost in the VA House of delegates.

The Dem won the VA attorney general spot, despite his big "scandal."

The Dems on the PA Supreme Court all keep their jobs.

CA redistricting wins.

Good news across the board, anywhere it would have been possible, really.

Morning

Maybe the Republic (NOT A DEMOCRACY) survives another day.

Election Results Thread

VA, NJ, NYC, PA State Supreme Court are the big ones...

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Much Seth Moulton News

A completely untrustworthy guy, but useful in seeing which way the wind is blowing.

National Democrats have been grappling with how to talk about issues facing trans people since, by their own admission, they were caught flat-footed by Republicans’ focus on anti-trans messaging in 2024. Moulton became the poster boy for Democrats who were looking to distance themselves from trans rights when he told The New York Times shortly after the election that he doesn’t want his daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

...

Markey has positioned himself as a top trans rights ally in the Senate. He has led legislation, such as the LGBTQ+ Panic Defense Prohibition Act and the Gender-Affirming Care Act and has called to increase access to gender-affirming hormone therapy. Last Congress, in response to hundreds of anti-trans state bills introduced across the country, Markey was the Senate lead for the Transgender Bill of Rights, which seeks to “protect and codify the rights of transgender and nonbinary people under the law.”

In response to a list of questions from NOTUS, Moulton committed to “support and lead legislation like the Transgender Bill of Rights” if elected as senator.

“I understand that some people were hurt by how I framed my comments in the past, and I take that seriously and have listened to their feedback,” he said.

and

Before making public denunciations and rejections of AIPAC an early pillar of his Senate campaign against Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) spent months seeking a promise that the group would endorse him upon the announcement of his Senate campaign, a source familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider.

The source said that Moulton — who has been endorsed by AIPAC in previous races — began courting AIPAC leaders in Massachusetts in the spring this year and then made multiple explicit requests for an endorsement throughout the summer.

AIPAC leaders were ultimately unwilling to provide such a guarantee before the race began, the individual said.

On the second day of his nascent primary campaign, Moulton released an announcement rejecting AIPAC and saying that he would return any donations he had received from its members.

How Did We Get Here

There are many answers to that, but one is that even if Dick Cheney had actually killed Harry Whittington, he would've faced no consequences and few if any of our sainted pundits would've thought this was in any way off.

Mamdaniphobia

Some of it is about Israel, some of it is Islamophobia over and above anything having to do with Israel, some of it is just "this guy is making us look bad."

But a lot of it is that he is not one of "our guys" and a lot of "our guys" are really angry that they won't get invitations to the annual ball.

The ball is where you get to do corruption, too. This is a metaphor.

There's A Bit Of A Problem

I'm not sure if it's good or bad that these things have become so absurd that even right wing outlets are starting to criticize the press, arguably "from the left."

An exchange from President Trump's interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes" about accusations of corruption involving his family's crypto empire was not included in the extended version the network shared online.

The big picture: The sit-down came after Trump sued and settled with the network over the program's editing of an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris and as Trump's FCC chair threatened broadcasters with claims of "news distortion."

This isn't even about it not being broadcast - which was of course standard practice until Trump decided it wasn't and a corrupt network bribed him - they excised it from the full online bit.

It is bad that things are this absurd, of course, but I suppose there's something positive in the fact that even the worst press outlets are able to notice the stink.

Put It In The Louvre

I don't think I have to explain to you, dear readers, why this is ridiculous.

If polls hold, Spanberger is looking more likely to clear 50% in her more swingy state than Mamdani is in a city so Democratic that only 6 of 51 city council members are Republicans.

Dems nationally say that matters a lot for thinking what comes next.https://t.co/wcsdca4q7P

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) November 3, 2025

The Better Things Aren't Possible wing of the Democratic party has come up with this, fed it to one of their press familiars, and they're running with it. "Well the Muslim guy couldn't even break 50% [in a 3-way race], so, unlike Eric Adams, we will NOT be calling him the future of the Democratic party and will instead be giving that title to the ex-CIA lady who said that Mamdani lies when he says anything good can happen.

She argues there’s a level of dishonesty in some of the big promises Mamdani is making that she worries could hurt Democrats with voters long term, saying the reason she doesn’t have a Mamdani-style proposal for government-run grocery stores is “because I couldn’t ever pass it.”

“People do want us to be aspirational and dream big. They also don’t want us to lie to them,” she told CNN. “When you have a party that makes promise after promise, and then say, ‘Oh, we passed it in the House, it’s not our fault’ — vulnerable people believed you. Maybe he is going to get Albany on board with totally refinancing public transportation. But there’s a lot of people who believe him.”

I dunno, if you can't get FIVE PILOT COMMUNITY GROCERY STORIES through your state legislature then you should just fucking resign before you get elected.

She's right in that second paragraph about the House, but that isn't about Mamdani, that's about the cynical actions of congressional Dems.  

This was a big hit in the Dem leadership group chat - the Baileys were quite taken with the argument.

Spanberger could've just said, "good luck to him!" and moved on.

We Will, In Fact, Be Greeted As Liberators

Dick Cheney, liberated from life, like countless Iraqis.

In hell, being shot in the face by his friends FOREVER.

Morning

Totally Tuesday

Monday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Pelosi's (probably) Out

She's 85. It's time.

No Not Like That

Final update of NYC EV Turnout chart from @rudnicknoah. 18-29 year olds have already blown by their 2021 turnout rate. pic.twitter.com/ilvQpBohvg

— Zachary Donnini (@ZacharyDonnini) November 3, 2025

Back in the era of blog, an amusing thing was that the political/media class truly thought that because it was on the computer, that it was a youth thing. Sure bloggers themselves tended to be on the somewhat younger side, but we all knew our readers were mostly not very young.

Also it was a weird way to be dismissive. One would've thought that if bloggers had cracked code of reaching "the kids" (people under 35), that the Professional Democrats would be lining up to discover our secrets instead of using it to infantilize us.

But then, as now, the worry was that we were reaching The Kids the wrong way, with the wrong uncontrollable message.  We had crazy ideas like "war is bad."

Send Up The Tapper Signal

O'DONNELL: Why did you pardon Changpeng Zhao?

TRUMP: Are you ready? I don't know who he is

O'DONNELL: His crypto exchange Binance helped facilitate a $2b purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin. And they you pardoned him.

TRUMP: Here's the thing -- I know nothing… pic.twitter.com/rJFXsJ2VvF

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 3, 2025

Sure Why Not

Future New York Times editorial: "We also have concerns about the legitimacy of Mamdani's election, HOWEVER...".

House Republicans are exploring ways to prevent Zohran Mamdani from ever being sworn in as mayor even if he prevails in Tuesday’s election by using the Constitution’s “insurrection clause,” The Post has learned.

The New York Young Republican Club is pushing to prevent the NYC mayoral frontrunner from taking the oath of office Jan. 1 under an idea floated this summer.

It cites language in the post-Civil War 14th Amendment to the Constitution barring from office anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or who has “given aid or comfort to the enemies.” The group argues that Mamdani’s own statements calling to resist ICE could violate the prohibition.

6-3 in favor, opinion by Alito.

And Which Of Those Small Towns Have You Visited

One of my pet peeves is rich people who obviously don't travel beyond going from resort to resort.

Elon Musk, "These lovely small towns in England, Scotland and Ireland, they've been living their lives quietly. They're like hobbits" "And so one day, 1,000 people show up in your village of 500 and start raping the kids" "This has now happened, God knows how many times in Britain"

[image or embed]

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog.bsky.social) November 2, 2025 at 8:09 PM

Complete nonsense, of course, but an interesting thing about "rural Britain" is that unlike rural America, where you can genuinely be far from everything, is that few people are far from a decent-sized town. Most (not all) of those small villages are pretty close to "civilization." They even have broadband and cellphone towers.

The Evolution Of Political Journalism/Punditry

Just thought of this for no particular reason.

Back in the mid-1990s, the fact that some big-name Washington reporters were receiving huge speaking fees created a scandal within the journalism world. No one was tougher in criticizing the practice than David Broder of the Washington Post, a Pulitzer Prize winner and a professor at the University of Maryland who is commonly referred to as the “dean” of the national press corps...

...

So it’s surprising to see that Broder, who recently took a buyout but will continue to write his Post column, appears to be a regular presence these days on the business-lecture circuit and has even spoken to major health-care groups. Do a Google search and you’ll see that Broder is represented by a number of speaker’s bureaus, including Grabow, which says it is “your David Broder booking agent for private corporate events.”

Broder is identified (in various promotional and other online materials) as a featured speaker at such events as these:

Last October’s Western Conference of Prepaid Medical Service Plans, “an organization comprised of 31 member companies, primarily Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans, principally located throughout the Western United States and Canada.” The event was held at the La Quinta Resort & Spa, “a legendary hideaway and meeting destination, renowned since 1926 for its charm and serenity. La Quinta Resort & Club features 90 holes of some of the country’s best golf . . . [and] a variety of unique indoor and outdoor treatments including PGA WEST Golf Massage, open-air Celestial Showers Sacred Stone Massage and more.”

According to a draft agenda, Broder was set to speak on October 16. Two days earlier, he wrote a column for the Post called “A Market Makeover For Health Insurance,” which hailed the release of a new report by the Committee for Economic Development (CED), “a high-powered business group,” which called on “government to restructure the private insurance market in less rigid form than Hillary Clinton proposed 14 years ago—and then step back and let competitive market forces do their invaluable work of forcing recalcitrant insurers, doctors and hospitals to bid against each other on the basis of price and quality.”

For inexplicable reasons "no one" even brings up the issue anymore. 

Monday Morning

Every single week.

Sunday Evening

Almost Monday.

Afternoon

Enjoy

Cuomo

It is one thing to have an old guard desperate to engage in elite reproduction until long after their own deaths, it's quite another to have them do it incompetently.
 
There are precisely zero reasons Andrew Cuomo should be the mayor of New York City, or even the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City. I could go down a long list - a very long list - of his sins, but one simple reason is that the guy isn't really a New York(city)er, and he actually hates the city.

He might or not might not move to Florida when he loses, as he promised, but he certainly won't remain a New York resident.

If they wanted to get behind an "Andrew Cuomo" - someone in their particular club, of a certain time, with a certain kind of politics, but a least a little bit less shit - they could have found that person a year ago. The mayoral primary is on the calendar, and that Adams would have some troubles winning it wasn't a sudden surprise.

At least put in the minimum bit of effort.

What's Happening Here

Odd.

BOSTON -- There was an explosion early Saturday at Harvard Medical School that appears to have been intentional, but no one was injured, authorities said.

A university police officer who responded to a fire alarm tried to stop two unidentified people who ran from the Goldenson Building before going to where the alert was triggered, university police said in a statement.

Morning

Dodgers win.

Welp

If only there had been some signs.

People who know Obama say he has been surprised and appalled in how many of the rich people who now form his social circle have made concessions to Trump. He’s reaching out to business and other institutional leaders, urging them not to bend to the current administration even if it helps their bottom lines.

One of Obama's flaws is that he is an elitest. He does believe the rich guys in nice suits should run the world, and that they will do it competently and benevolently.

Not sure how he came to that conclusion.

Dear JD Vance,

In recent years, many young people have approached the faith through social media, successful programs and popular online Christian witnesses. The danger is that a faith discovered online is limited to individual experiences, which may be intellectually and emotionally…

— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) October 31, 2025

Mayor Mamdani

The likely result on Tuesday. Many of our "vote blue no matter who" favorites have behaved very badly in all of this, and that should not be forgotten. Islamophobia never stopped being "respectable," and that goes beyond any issues related to Israel or American Jews.

Though there are many who think "the more Muslim you are, the more antisemitic you are" by definition. 

The "Islamophobic" label is for them .

Unreality

One of the unrealities that our media embraces - and it is mostly pretending not to understand things, not actually failing to understand them - is that a conservative movement and administration filled with actual Nazis can genuinely be interested in things like "fighting antisemitism on college campuses."

Every time the New York Times, for example, puts a phrase like that in the newspaper, are they informing readers? If not, what are they doing? What do they think they are doing?

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Friday Evening

 Enjoy

Nobody Could've Predicted

That the audience and patrons and artists of the Kennedy Center would be repulsed by a Trump takeover.

Just Do It

The only reason to be against this is the likelihood that the next Dem senate will reinstate it right away, probably while saying the pledge of allegiance on the Capitol Steps.

Celebrate By Neuken In De Keuken

It is always good when far right assholes face a bit of a setback.

Dutch centrist party D66 won the most votes in Wednesday’s general election, news agency ANP said on Friday, putting its 38-year-old leader Rob Jetten on course to become the youngest-ever prime minister in the Netherlands.

With almost all votes counted, D66 can no longer be overtaken by the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) led by Geert Wilders, according to the news agency, which collects the results from all municipalities in the Netherlands.

A Dutch friend tells me that it is more of a left party than a centrist party, though anglo media is loathe to label it that way.  Their coalition will be centrist, but the party is not. 

Big Shitpile II: NVIDIA BOOGALOO

Welp

Here is where the bubble dynamics get complicated. Tech firms don’t want to formally take on debt—that is, directly ask investors for loans—because debt looks bad on their balance sheets and could reduce shareholder returns. To get around this, some are partnering with private-equity titans to do some sophisticated financial engineering, Paul Kedrosky, an investor and a financial consultant, told us. These private-equity firms put up or raise the money to build a data center, which a tech company will repay through rent. Data-center leases from, say, Meta can then be repackaged into a financial instrument that people can buy and sell—a bond, in essence. Meta recently did just this: Blue Owl Capital raised money for a massive Meta data center in Louisiana by, in essence, issuing bonds backed by Meta’s rent. And multiple data-center leases can be combined into a security and sorted into what are called “tranches” based on their risk of default. Data centers represent an $800 billion market for private-equity firms through 2028 alone. (Meta has said of its arrangement with Blue Owl that the “innovative partnership was designed to support the speed and flexibility required for Meta’s data center projects.”)

In this way, the data-center financing ends up being a real-estate deal as much as an AI deal. If this sounds complicated, it’s supposed to: The complexity, investment structure, and repackaging make exactly what is going on hard to parse. And if the dynamics also sound familiar, it’s because not two decades ago, the Great Recession was precipitated by banks packaging risky mortgages into tranches of securities that were falsely marketed as high-quality. By 2008, the house of cards had collapsed.

Haven't seen the word "tranche" in awhile.

As with the original shitpile, the complexity makes it hard to see just how fucked everything is until it is too late. There are the underlying assets, and then who knows how many bets placed on them, and bets placed on those bets, with all the bets somehow going in the same direction.. 

Proof of Vaccination

In the near future, you will need vaccination proof to travel more and more places.

SARASOTA, Fla. — Florida plans to end nearly a half-century of required childhood immunizations against diseases that have killed and maimed millions of children. Many critics of the decision, including doctors, are afraid to speak up against it.

Sure Why Not

 

Morning

Futile Friday

Happy Hour

Get happy

Woke Universities

College freeze peach was always about how it was wrong for students to even question their betters, as defined by who Atlantic writers respect, and this is what they have achieved.

Melissa DeRosa ’04 M.P.A. ’09, secretary to former governor Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) and unofficial advisor of his bid for New York City mayor, berated a Cornell undergraduate student after she probed DeRosa about Cuomo’s sexual harassment allegations at an Oct 1. Zoom event hosted by the Cornell Political Strategy Group.

After the event, the club suspended the student, before reducing her punishment to a strike in the club’s punishment system days later, according to a former club member familiar with the situation.

You are surely thinking that the student must have been really out of line.

“I was wondering how you, as a woman who has done a lot of work for women, can grapple with the ethical and moral qualms of working with a disgraced governor with numerous sexual harassment allegations?” the student analyst asked DeRosa during the event.

It's Going To Keep Getting Worse

I don't think Dems have some magic wand to fix everything, but I do wish the leadership would prioritize giving a shit about this stuff. Right now I'm pretty sure that if I get whisked away and my member of Congress starts making a big deal about it, Jeffries will send him not so subtle signals to focus on What The American People Really Care About.

I could be wrong about that, but that I'm not obviously wrong about it..

Sure Why Not

Time for internal passports and borders too. Maybe states can set internal tariffs as well.

Oh So That Was True

Spent years being yelled at by people who claimed Garland was doing everything perfectly.

The slow decision-making at the top of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department affected two major probes into Trump after he lost the White House in 2020: whether he illegally possessed and obstructed the retrieval of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence, and whether he conspired illegally to overturn the 2020 election.

Far from rushing the Trump cases, FBI and Justice Department officials chose to move cautiously and slowly over concerns about the implications of investigating a former and possibly future president, taking  pains to insulate the probes from even the appearance of politics.

Surely if we do this just right then no one can accuse us of being "political!"

Trump Almost Fixed The Problem He Created

Huzzah.

Trump said afterwards that Washington’s dispute with Beijing over the supply of rare earths has been settled, China would resume buying US soybeans and Washington would reduce its tariffs on China.

Trump shook hands with Xi after their talks and boarded Air Force One to return to Washington, saying onboard that the meeting had been a “great success”.

He told reporters the Chinese leader had agreed to work “very hard” to prevent the production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl – blamed for many American deaths – and in exchange the US would reduce fentanyl-linked tariffs from 20% to 10%, lowering the overall tariff burden from 57% to 47%.

Mechanical Turks

Why

It was wild to watch. Sure, Neo nearly toppled over while closing the dishwasher, took two minutes to fold the shirt and twisted its arm attempting to dance the Macarena. But shhh. Remember the rule. Oh, did I mention Neo had a human puppet master, controlling it with a VR headset?

Neo’s creator, 1X Technologies, is making the Rosie-the-Robot dream: some of the first humanoid housekeepers. Starting Tuesday, you can apply to its early adopter program and preorder one for $20,000, with delivery expected in 2026. The company will also offer a $499 monthly rental plan with a six-month minimum commitment.

Just one hidden cost: your privacy. For now, you’ll need to be cool with a company representative potentially peering through the robot’s camera eyes to get chores done. There are guardrails, including controls over when and what the operator can do.

For not entirely good reasons, actual human beings will clean your home for not very much money!

Morning

Thirsty Thursday.

Happy Hour

Better blogging tomorrow, hopefully.

America' s Worst Humans

Andrew Cuomo

So here's Andrew Cuomo reacting to Maria Bartiromo wondering if Mamdani will "change the look of New York" and have Muslim women "completely covered up," telling her that Mamdani "doesn't understand New York culture" because he has "dual citizenship" and "he's a citizen of Uganda."

[image or embed]

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) 29 October 2025 at 15:50

America's Most Ridiculous Human

Bari Weiss

Lunch

Life intervening for a bit.

Leftist Dogma

The article from the NYT's resident white supremacist, Jeremy Peters, is even worse, but for the moment I will just say we are several decades into pretending a small number of humanities department dominate universities which, even if the caricatures of those departments are true, are a tiny portion of universities dominated by business schools etc.

Also does the undergraduate degree of any other politician get this treatment? Like the "conservative dogma" of every econ major?

Yes most econ professors probably vote Dem for obvious reasons, but the econ major is still conservative dogma.

Morning

Wonderful Wednesday

Happy Hour

get happy

Almost Pony Time

Someone tell journalist/The Democrats they can start referring to him as "a widely loathed president" or similar.

Presidents’ popularity tends to wane. In his second term Donald Trump’s has fallen faster than that of his recent predecessors.

Since modern polling began most presidents have started their terms with positive net approval ratings (the share of voters who approve of their job performance minus the share who disapprove). Both of Mr Trump’s terms began with public opinion split nearly evenly. In both cases his net approval rating quickly turned negative. Now it is -18, the lowest it has been since his inauguration—and three percentage-points lower than at any point in his first term.

I thought it was fine if journalists referred to Biden as "unpopular" in the latter part of his presidency. Trump is more unpopular.

FALL FUNRDAISER DAY FINAL

Thanks to all! I guess I'll keep doing this!

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I Guess That's Ex-Speaker Johnson

Oh well. 

Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he’s spoken with President Donald Trump about the possibility he might seek a third term but said he doesn’t “see the path” for such a move. 

 

Asked about Trump floating a third term, which is barred under the Constitution, Johnson replied, “Well, there’s the 22nd Amendment.”

It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

While I get the attempts to shorten the length of a typical 9 inning game, I get very annoyed when people propose measures to reduce the potential for extra innings. That baseball games occasionally last forever is part of the fun.

I didn’t watch last night's 18 inning game, but wish I had!

Experts

This doesn't just apply to China, of course. Basically every "Middle East Expert" on journalist speed dial as well.

And there are officials in the U.S. government and those in related circles who think people who have spent substantial time in China (and some other countries) are greater security risks. This leads to hurdles in getting security clearance and works against some real experts. https://t.co/5FxnwuXp4S

— Edward Wong (@ewong) October 28, 2025

I don’t think spending 10 days in a place makes you an expert, either, but any time I travel anywhere I am amazed at how quickly one can fill a blank slate view with a sense of a place. That is not a substitute for other knowledge, of course, but if you are a current events expert, flipping through local TV for a couple of hours gives you information that no think tank publication could. As can just walking down the street.

The American media portrayal of places I have visited is often hilariously and obviously wrong. 

Sure Why Not

I will admit Trump's dementia progression was slower than I expected but it has never been incorrect to observe it.

He also mused about magnets, encouraged military members to buy Toyotas, claimed unanimous support for the Nobel Peace Prize (sure, everybody but the Norwegian Nobel committee) and rhapsodized about hugging missiles. That was on top of a smattering of election and inflation denial, Joe Biden insults and, on a more ominous note, a threat to summon “more” than the National Guard to U.S. cities he deems dangerous and uncooperative.

Monday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

FALL FUNDRAISER DAY 6

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LET'S GOOOOOOOOO

Some of the worst Dems are actually in very blue districts.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has told allies that he is planning to challenge Rep. Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional District, multiple people told City & State.

“He’s going to run and knows he’s got the best shot at defeating Goldman,” one person in touch with Lander told City & State, on condition of anonymity.

Consequences

One reason Republicans make these kinds of threats is it doesn't occur to them that they and theirs could be impacted, also. I don't want the next Demcratic president to start firing up the the denauturalization machine, but maybe it shouldn't be so obvious that they wouldn't.

FAA

I certainly don't mean this as a defense of Trump and Duffy, but we should always have a large surplus of air traffic controllers, because they are kind if important, and a lot of decisions over many years made the system as brittle as it is.

The Federal Aviation Administration said flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted Sunday morning due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility.

"But, Atrios, this sounds like you are defending Trump and Duffy!" No I am saying there were shortages before they arrived  - and there never should have been -  though they have made fixing that almost impossible.

Narrator: But it was not perfect

 Did they find the brain worms:

Donald Trump said that he received an MRI scan during a recent trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center – marking the first time he has provided a reason for his second medical exam this year and raising new questions about the president’s health. 

“I did. I got an MRI. It was perfect,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Monday.

Morning

Manic Monday.

Sunday Night

Rock on.

FALL FUNDRAISER DAY 5

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President Deals

The buzz is we are going to get a big beautiful deal with China, which I assume involves us giving them all our lunch money. More seriously, I am sure it be another edition of Trump breaking something and then taking credit for half fixing it. Thank you for glueing my coffee mug back together, sir, it only leaks a bit.

Don't Take Away His Binky

Trump announces new tariffs every time he gets mad at something he sees on TV. It is his coping mechanism, his emotional support tyranny. If the Supremos take that away (they probably won't because nothing matters anymore), he won't have that satisfaction anymore. There is nothing he loves more than announcing new tariffs.

Morning

Sunday Funday. Travel day so adjust your expectations accordingly.

Saturday Night

Rcok on.

FALL FUNDRAISER DAY 4

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Why

Even aside from the impracticalities making this less than possible, why would millions of people live in space?

Jeff Bezos says the future is so bright, he "doesn't see how anybody can be discouraged who is alive right now." Speaking at Italian Tech Week 2025 earlier this month with Ferrari and Stellantis chair John Elkann, the Amazon and Blue Origin founder laid out a plan to launch humanity into orbit — literally.

The conversation started on Earth but didn't stay there long. Bezos dove headfirst into space — predicting colonies, building data centers off-world, and using the moon as a gas station. "I believe, in the next couple of decades, there will be millions of people living in space. That's how fast this is going to accelerate," he said.

[fixed typos, sorry, phone posting] 

Welp

I have never been a Kamala hater, but I don't think she's the person for the moment.

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Happy Hour

Another week done.

Obviously there are people who are actual victims, unlike me, but Trump I was probably the worst 4 years of my life and Trump II will certainly exceed that.

My job is easy, but I don't have the luxury of tuning out. And, yes, I get that is a minor complaint, relative to the experience of many.

Donald The Dove

I have no idea what Venezuela will or should do, but "they won't hit us back" is their assumption in their approach to everything.

Fall Fundraiser Day 3!!!

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BLOGGER ACCOUNTABILITY

One of my regular takes has been that we won't have real self-driving cars in my lifetime.

By accounts (I have never experienced), Waymo works a lot better than I expected. But I was still not wrong.  Waymo has a remote operators who intervene. As long as that intervention is required, self-driving cars don't really exist.

You can have a modest taxi fleet, but you can't scale that too much. Personal cars definitely won't function like that.

And even if Waymo works, it is still a research project. It isn't a viable business model.  That doesn't say anything about whether the technology works, precisely, but the dream of replacing low paid drivers with robot cars was always a bit dubious. Drivers are cheap!

True self-driving vehicles would be a neat invention, but the case for 96% self-driving is less obvious.

Everybody Knows By Now

Just to add to the previous post, everybody who is making "deals" with President Deals fully understands that the deal only lasts until he changes his mind. More than that, he knows you're someone he can keep extracting things from.

The point is that people/entities that do make deals are just agreeing to do what they want to do anyway, with Trump as cover. This is especially true of universities.

Remember Trump blew up NAFTA and forced a new agreement in 2019, even before we got to the recent shenanigans.

For The Best

Carney sucks but I suspect he is realizing that there are no deals with President Deals.

Morning

Fabulous Friday.

Happy Hour

Keep on giving!

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Our Silly Attempts To Bully China

Dean Baker:

Trump apparently thinks that by making it more difficult for them to sell stuff here (by charging us high taxes), he is putting enormous pressure on our trading partners. He definitely is putting some pressure, but Trump seems confused on the size of the impact.

Take the case of China, Trump’s archenemy. They sold $440 billion worth of goods to the US last year, about 2.2 percent of its GDP measured in dollar terms. (Their GDP measured in purchasing power parity terms is over $40 trillion, but for this calculation, the dollar value is more appropriate.)

If Trump were to cut off all imports from China, this is the amount of demand in the economy they would have to replace. (Their exports to the US are already down to $330 billion.) By contrast, the United States lost an amount of demand of more than 6.0 percent of GDP when its housing bubble collapsed in 2007-09.

No proccessed rare-earth metals for us.

Welp

If the powers that be wanted to defeat Mamdani - and of course they did - then they should've lined up behind someone who wasn't a complete scumbag.

Cuomo, talking to conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg this morning:

"God forbid, another 9/11—can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?" Cuomo asks.

"He'd be cheering," Rosenberg says.

Cuomo paused and chuckled before saying: "That's another problem."

— Nick Garber (@nick_garber) October 23, 2025

It says a lot that they were happy enough with Cuomo that they never bothered.

Sure Why Not

Not precisely what I expected when this arrest was first reported.

More on NBA arrests: Chauncey Billups involvement in a poker game scheme involved La Cosa Nostra Italian crime families. Proceeds laundered were converted into crypto currency in an effort to avoid detection

Unwitting victims were defrauded out of tens of millions of dollars

— Yianni Kourakis (@WPBF_Yianni) October 23, 2025

Details of the rigged poker games that Damon Jones and Chauncey Billups were involved (from the US Attorney press conference):
+ X-ray machines built into tables to read face-down cards
+ Contact lenses/glasses that read pre-marked cards.
+ Secret cameras in card trays

— chad millman (@chadmillman) October 23, 2025

There were also insider information sports bets, inclding Rozier saying he planned to leave a game with an "injury." Prop bets like that should be illegal, for obvious reasons.

Sounds like a Trump dementia fantasy (not saying it is).

The Epstein Ballroom

I haven't yet figured out if demolishing the entire East Wing was always the plan, or if an incompetent rush job fucked up a small amount of intended demo  so they just kept going.

I've seen the conjecture about it all being about the bunker, but right now there's no bunker. There isn't going to be one for awhile!

Pray for storms.

FALL FUNDRAISER DAY 2

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Whoopsie Doodle

Clown shit every day.

The payroll company ADP appears to have cut off the delivery of timely data encompassing 20 percent of all payrolls, which Fed governor Christopher Waller disclosed in an August speech. ADP and the Fed would not comment on the matter, but sources tell the Prospect that ADP was unhappy with the disclosure. A letter from Fed chair Jerome Powell that has been described to the Prospect urgently asks ADP to reverse its decision and resume giving them the data, intimating that the central bank needs the information to set policy. A Freedom of Information Act request for the letter has yet to be processed.\

Waller was a first term Trump nominee, in the lame duck period. 

Morning

Thirsty Thursday

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Sure Why Not

That he is just doing this isn't funny, but since he is, it would be quite funny if he just collapses the whole thing. Or his never-to-be-paid contractors do.

Trump Administration Live Updates: White House Changes Course and Will Demolish Entire East Wing

"changes course"

Sending this script back to the writers.  Some metaphors are too obvious, guys.

FALL FUNDRAISER DAY 1 - AFTERNOON EDITION

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Suck It, Losers

That Town

Trump is Trump and of course we can't expect him not to pal around with the worst people in the world, including the man in the mirror, but the thawing of official DC to the guy who bone sawed their supposedly treasured pal happened rather quickly.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing for a visit to the United States by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next month, in what could be the first state visit to the U.S. by a foreign leader in Trump’s second term, according to several people familiar with the planning.

A lot of money from the worst people in the world flows around official DC. This is called realism.

Fall Fundraiser Day The First

Thanks to everybody who keeps this place - and me - going.

At this point it's no secret that the internet ad economy was eaten by Google and Facebook. That's why all the paywalls went up! No more free pie.

Except here. It's free. I intend to keep it free. I have no idea if revenue would increase or decrease if I put it behind a paywall, but I don't intend to.

If you find some value here - either from my brilliant commentary or from time spent in the comments - please consider giving, either a one-time or recurring. 

 And if anyone has MacKenzie Scott's contact info, remind her of this very important fundraiser.

 

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Flood The Zone

They don't do it frequently, but everyone knows when the New York Times leadership is mad about something and they start running daily front page above the fold stories about it. 

Sometimes it's "drip drip drip" coverage, with new information revealed, but it can also just be "recycling the same old shit just because" coverage.

We all remember how mad they were that a black lady was running Harvard, for example. Day 15, in a controversial move, black lady is still running Harvard. We don't even know precisely why they were so mad about that.  

I suspect the contents of the "rich failson groupchat" would be quite revealing, if ever such a thing was unearthed.

Probably an angry buddy of Dash Sulzberger who had some connection to Harvard had some random axe to grind. Or maybe just pure racism! Who knows? Maybe a blogger ethics panel would tell us!

Once you know they do get mad about some things, you get to notice all the things they don't get mad about.

Sure Why Not

Saving Argentina, and the fortunes of some hedge fund guys, is a mission-critical "America First" policy.

Finalizing a $20 billion lifeline for Argentina using taxpayers’ funds during the government shutdown was an essential action for the agency, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday.

As I said, it was doomed to fail, as soon as Trump opened his mouth, anyway. 

Morning

Wednesday, it is wacky.

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

NEW: After The Washington Post reported Monday on the demolition of the "East Wing facade," a new picture obtained by Law Dork that was taken on Tuesday shows that a substantial portion of the entirety of the East Wing has been demolished.

[image or embed]

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) October 21, 2025 at 9:13 PM

Welp

NEW: After The Washington Post reported Monday on the demolition of the "East Wing facade," a new picture obtained by Law Dork that was taken on Tuesday shows that a substantial portion of the entirety of the East Wing has been demolished.

[image or embed]

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) October 21, 2025 at 9:13 PM

There Are Still Lines?

A bit surprised.

President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Office of Special Counsel, Paul Ingrassia, appears unable to win Senate confirmation — although he’s still slated for a committee appearance later this week.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., a member of the Homeland Security Committee, told Semafor he doesn’t “plan on voting for” Ingrassia after Politico published racist and offensive text messages attributed to the nominee. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., another member of the panel, also said he cannot support Ingrassia and said the nomination should be pulled.

"Offensive" is what we call describing oneself as a Nazi.

Just Like Their Leader, Donald

A deadbeat cult.

When the New York State Young Republicans Club disbanded Friday amid an uproar over its racist and antisemitic rhetoric in a group chat, the club left behind unpaid bills from extravagant social gatherings.

At two of those events, the club ran up bills of more than $23,000 over a weekend at a Syracuse hotel – spending big on a three-course plated dinner with filet mignon and open bars – but then didn’t pay, according to records obtained by syracuse.com.

Paywall, but there are a whole series of unpaid bills like this described in the article. A little dine and dash gang.

Master Race

I don't think this stuff is as easy as some people say, but it’s not hard to train for if you're reasonably fit to begin with.

More than a third [of ICE recruits] have failed so far, four officials told me, impeding the agency’s plan to hire, train, and deploy 10,000 deportation officers by January. To pass, recruits must do 15 push-ups and 32 sit-ups, and run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes.

Even if you are fairly fit and active, no particular activity is easy unless you actually do exercises related to that activity. The important implication here is that they are trying to onboard so many people that none of them are told to go away and train for a few weeks.

The article says the run is what is taking most of them down. Lots of guys lift but don't do cardio. Cardio is for pussies.

I couldn't do the pushups. I run, so that would be trivial for me, but it isn't trivial for people who don't run at all. Though, as I said, it's not difficult to train for in a short amount of time for someone who is generally fit.

There's a big difference between what people can do cold and what they can do after a few weeks of effort.  A regular cyclist might struggle to do the run cold, but they would probably find it easy after a few runs.

Lunch

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Very Stable Genius

There are a few reasons why propping up the Argentine Peso isn't likely to work (hitting record lows, again). One reason is that the entire point of promising a backstop is that it's a credible, sustained commitment. The value isn't just the money itself, but the promise of the money. Trump going out there and saying he might yank it soon does not provide that!

I'm not sure how "we" are going to buy more beef from Argentina - unsure who the "we" here refers to - but cattle ranchers are going to love this!

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump said the United States could buy Argentine beef in an attempt to bring down prices for American consumers.

“We would buy some beef from Argentina,” the Republican president told reporters aboard Air Force One during a flight from Florida to Washington on Sunday. “If we do that, that will bring our beef prices down.”

And Things Got Out Of Hand

Amazing stuff. Read the whole thing:

Lindsey Halligan—the top prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia—was texting me. As it turned out, she was texting me about a criminal case she is pursuing against one of the president’s perceived political enemies: New York Attorney General Letitia James.

So began my two-day text correspondence with the woman President Donald Trump had installed, in no small part, to bring the very prosecution she was now discussing with me by text message.

Over the next 33 hours, Halligan texted me again.

As a teaser, this is near the end of 15 pages of screenshots:

While everyone - including me! - is reacting to this as "haha she doesn't know how journalism works," I do think we have to understand that this is, quite often, how political journalism works. The Tim Russert rule - off the record until asserted otherwise.

Mommy He Hit Me Back

Yes just to spite Trump:

How China weaponized soybeans to squeeze U.S. farmers — and spite Trump

It's all about pressure before a meeting. Nothing happened before that?

For Beijing, halting U.S. soybean imports has been an easy and relatively cost-free way to pile pressure on Trump ahead of a planned meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month.

We do get this in the second paragraph:

This year, however, Chinese importers aren’t buying. In retaliation for President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Beijing has cut off Midwestern farmers from their largest and most lucrative overseas customer: China accounted for half — or $12.6 billion — of U.S. soybean exports last year.

But otherwise there's little sense that, well, DONALD TRUMP STARTED IT. Half a sentence in the entire piece.

It is remarkable, especially for those of us who grew up in the era of Globollocks and The World Is Flat, that the collective media response to Donald Trump blowing up the world's free trade regime has been a very loud silence.

Morning

Taco Tuesday.

Monday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

get happy

Sure Why Not

Take a wrecking ball to the whole building.

Demolition crews have begun tearing down part of the White House to build President Donald Trump’s long-desired ballroom despite his pledge that construction of the $250 million addition wouldn’t “interfere” with the existing building.

I'm imagining 2011-era David Brooks losing his shit on the Newshour if Obummer had mildly modified a window or similar.

I hope one side collapses.

Money Talks, Bullshit Walks

As I said when this was happening, it was surprising that there seemed to be mass cancellations happening when there wasn't, as far as I could tell, any organizing force behind it.

Disney saw more than double the typical number of customers cancel their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions in September — when subscribers threatened to quit because of Jimmy Kimmel's brief suspension.

It appears some of those subscribers followed through on their boycott threat and canceled, according to new subscription data from research firm Antenna.

The data firm said 8% of Disney+ subscribers and 10% of Hulu customers in the US canceled in September. The services usually lose 4% to 5% of their customers a month, in line with the industry average, the data firm said.

That Trick Works Every Time

I am not an expert on Argentinian voters, but I suspect this will not help Milei.

Hosting Milei at the White House last week, Trump threatened Argentinian voters with withdrawing aid if his ally was defeated at the ballot box.

“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” Trump said.

The election in question is for the legislation, not a re-elect for Milei. Earlier in the article:

Milei, once a global poster boy for budget-slashing libertarian politics, is heading into the polls diminished by his failure to stabilize the ailing peso, despite spending nearly all the Central Bank’s dollar reserves to prop it up.

Inflation, which Milei had initially managed to stem after taking office in December 2023, has been rising again month-on-month.

The problem with libertarianism is, quite literally, you eventually run out of your Central Bank's dollar reserves.

I dropped my monetary economics class in grad school, but I remember enough to know that trying to maintain a currency value with finite and limited dollar supplies wasn't going to work.

Lunch

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Maybe Somebody Will Die Or Something

I imagine the endgame hope of Johnson is that somebody dies soon so that he can seat Adelita Grijalva without there being enough signatories on the Epstein discharge petition.

Johnson defends his refusal to swear in Grijalva: "I'm following the Pelosi precedent." When Republican "Julia Letlow was elected... Pelosi took 25 days to swear her in." Karl fact-checks him: "that was the date [Letlow] requested ... Pelosi didn't delay that." Johnson admits nothing and moves on.

[image or embed]

— Will Saletan (@saletan.bsky.social) October 19, 2025 at 9:33 PM

I don't have any advice, but I would like to know that the Dems have an actual plan here.

Saying that I hope they have a plan does not, as always, mean that I think there is a magic wand that they are failing to use. I just hope it's a better plan than Obama's Garland plan, which was to nominate him then shrug his shoulders when Mitch did nothing.