Bret: Millions of Americans, including me, not only hate the parties but also hate the party for which we typically vote. That means there’s a market of the dissatisfied. I hear this all the time among my friends in New York City: They can’t believe they’re stuck with Zohran Mamdani as mayor, and they felt the same way about Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio before him. But when you ask them if they voted in the primaries, the usual answer is: Uh, no — we were on the Vineyard or in Greece. The point is that it’s on them, or us, and the remedy is some civic entrepreneurship, philanthropically funded, to change this.Shorter Bret: my friends are unrepresntative and too lazy to be in charge, but nonetheless they of course should in charge.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Bret's Friends In New York
Well ok then.
Shithole State
When I am president, I will also travel the country telling people that they live in disgusting hellholes.
But Trump said North Carolina was one of the worst. “Nobody use to think of North Carolina as a dangerous state,” Trump said. “It was like North Carolina, it was beautiful, it was apple pie. Right? And now it’s the worst in the whole nation, and it all started with Cooper and you have a lousy governor right now too.”
And he contradicted what his attorney general, Todd Blanche, said before he took the stage.
“North Carolina is ground zero for exactly what is working,” Blanche said. “Communities are safer, families are stronger, and side by side with your local county sheriffs, police officers and state partners, people are able to go to bed at night and feel safer than they did just two years ago.”
Good Democrats
Sometimes the centrist-coded ones surprise.
With no news release and little ceremony, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration has killed an anti-transgender regulatory effort launched during the waning months of former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s term.
The proposal would have used the Virginia Board of Health to bar transgender women and girls from women’s-only athletic teams and competitions, bathrooms, locker rooms, and other spaces where people may be undressed. The state’s regulatory docket records the outcome in bureaucratic language: “Withdrawn.” The action was terminated July 30, after its public comment period had ended and 321 comments had been submitted. No preliminary regulation was ever drafted.
Innovations In Economics
Forget the Peace Prize, the man deserves the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
Trump: "If we lose $50 billion a year with a country, and we say 'we're not going to trade with you anymore,' we don't lose $50 billion a year. It's very simple. Right?"
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 17, 2026 at 12:03 AM
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I agree with you, Mr. Trump, just stop trade! It's very simple!
To be fair, this isn't any nuttier than "expansionary austerity" and plenty of other nutty economics ideas which are accepted as unquestionable fact.
Snorts and Giggles Until Real Americans Take It Seriously
Not that long ago, skepticism about AI, opposition to data centers, and concerns about the Flock surveillance system were dismissed as absurd lefty (ONLINE LEFTY, even WORSE) issues, equivalent with being concerned about 5G cell towers.
The people hanging on out Elon's Nazi CSAM site were convinced these were BLUESKY issues, which is their code for "too stupid to even consider."
Now that they are heartland (real American) issues, suddenly they are real, though the centrist discourse factory is so corrupted with tech money that they are slow to catch up.
What do you think Abundance is/was? Just the "left" conduit for tech VC money/influence.
Speaking of 5G cell towers, never forget this Naomi Wolf banger.
The people hanging on out Elon's Nazi CSAM site were convinced these were BLUESKY issues, which is their code for "too stupid to even consider."
Now that they are heartland (real American) issues, suddenly they are real, though the centrist discourse factory is so corrupted with tech money that they are slow to catch up.
What do you think Abundance is/was? Just the "left" conduit for tech VC money/influence.
Speaking of 5G cell towers, never forget this Naomi Wolf banger.
Monuments To The Trump Presidency
I'm not going to say it will be good if, as seems likely, Trump turns the Kennedy Center into a giant crater, but it would be a fitting monument to the era.
I'm placing my bets on them trashing the place inside so that it will have to be demolished, leaving that task to someone else.
Future administrations could arrest everyone involved, of course.
Could.
People don't need to fear actual prison. They need to fear a Justice Department dedicated to making them suffer and draining their savings for attorney fees.
I don't think anyone fears that.
They should.
Also, the bulldozers should travel the inauguration parade route to the Supreme Court building in 2029.
I'm placing my bets on them trashing the place inside so that it will have to be demolished, leaving that task to someone else.
Future administrations could arrest everyone involved, of course.
Could.
People don't need to fear actual prison. They need to fear a Justice Department dedicated to making them suffer and draining their savings for attorney fees.
I don't think anyone fears that.
They should.
Also, the bulldozers should travel the inauguration parade route to the Supreme Court building in 2029.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Run Away
I, too, am going to go away for 2 months. Later, suckers.
The House is going home again—this time to avoid a vote on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s impeachment.One for the THERE'S NOTHING THE DEMS CAN DO crowd (Massie did this).
House GOP leadership announced Wednesday morning that they will end their current slate of votes early and head home until the midterms, a nearly two-month break.
Cost-Push Inflation
I admit it will be funny in that "haha orange man" sense if the Fed raises interest rates, but I'm also pretty sure Trump is right (for the wrong reasons) that raising interest rates is a bad idea.
At least it would not be the ideal policy response if we didn't have stupid psychos running the country.
It will do little to reduce price increases and could cause a recession!
At least it would not be the ideal policy response if we didn't have stupid psychos running the country.
It will do little to reduce price increases and could cause a recession!
How Much Does Ground Beef Cost, Michael, $2?
I don't buy a lot of ground beef but I suspect this is not true.
Doesn't seem like you're getting below $6/lb anywhere...Emmer says Republicans need to talk more about grocery prices that aren't expensive: "Eggs are at pre-pandemic prices. Ah, beef is at, ah, less than $2 a pound for ground beef ... I think we have a lot to run on."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 16, 2026 at 12:59 PM
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Americans Reject Free Money
The four-day poll showed 63% of Americans - including four in 10 Republicans and nine in 10 Democrats - disapproved of Trump's offer made in his convention speech that he would ensure all Americans get a $5,000 dividend if Republicans retain control of the U.S. Congress in November's midterm elections.
A lot of Republicans probably reject it because they imagine all the undeserving who will get it, too, but it's still funny.
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Sure Why Not
PATEL: The previous regulation automatically disqualified any individual who participated in either side of it KENNEDY: Either side of beastiality? So you disqualified the animal? P: Well, we have great canines, but we're not going to disqualify them K: I'm trying to understand why you did this.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 15, 2026 at 3:18 PM
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Is That A Lot
At least we've achieved so much.
A Pentagon watchdog has revealed that the United States lost dozens of aircraft, including at least 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones, and that hundreds of buildings and structures used by the US were damaged or destroyed by Iranian attacks during the conflict.
There's always money in the banana stand for catastrophic wars.
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