The Call for Platner Is from Inside the Progressive House
Graham Platner was cultured, not natural. The progressive social media ecosystem manufactured his Senate campaign—and women wielding that ecosystem's own skills took it apart in days.
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Happy Birthday 'Merica
The 250th highlights our failures in electing presidents. How a nation's fetish for the strongman president handed us Trump—and why the anniversary should be the year we start disenthralling ourselves from the imperial presidency.
Unwashed America
A million foreign fans are about to see MAGA America up close and unmediated. The World Cup won't sports-wash Trump—it may explain us to the world, and maybe turn some hatred into pity.
The Left, Right, Up, Down, In, Out of Politics
Why can't AI fix a 1993 Ford Ranger? The same reason progressives keep misreading the electorate — both fixate on one tidy explanation and ignore the messy permutations. Pew's new political typology points to a more useful picture, and some unexpected common ground.
Just Get it Running to Get Past Trump
Car-revival culture has a mantra: don't get it right, just get it running. It may also be the smartest way to think about rebuilding democracy after Trump.
The 25th cannot help us—only Impeachment can
The 25th Amendment requires Vance, half the cabinet, and two-thirds of Congress to remove Trump. It was written for a stroke, not insanity. If he can fight back, he's "able." The only remedy is impeachment.
Everyone a Sovereign: Fear and Self-Loathing on No Kings Day
Curmudgeon's take on No Kings Day: the protests are therapeutic. The real problem — a 45-year orchestrated attack on American political self-worth — is where we need to look.
Iran's Rope-a-Dope (and email test)
WWII proved bombing doesn't break police states. Iran's leaders know it. Their strategy: absorb punishment, blockade the Strait of Hormuz, and let economic pain end the war for them.
Iran's Rope-a-Dope
WWII proved bombing doesn't break police states. Iran's leaders know it. Their strategy: absorb punishment, blockade the Strait of Hormuz, and let economic pain end the war for them.
The Fault Lies not in AI
Updated: Trump moved against Anthropic to break or bend it to his will. Meanwhile, the panic about AI taking jobs misses the point — capital has used technology to strip workers of power for decades. The real threat was never artificial intelligence.
A Day in the Life of Epstein-with Andrew Update.
What did Jeffrey Epstein’s day actually look like? Using a random sample of the DOJ email release, I estimate his outgoing email volume and show how a steady stream of short, operational messages helped administer a trafficking enterprise. UPDATE: Andrew arrested--what did our emails have.
Unsupervised ICE: Built for Violence
ICE’s hiring surge did not just add inexperienced agents — it purposefully dismantled standards meant to restrain them. With academy screening collapsed and first-line supervision stretched past professional limits, Trump's ICE has constructed a system that predictably loses control of force.
Everyone Graduates ICE Killing Academy
Normal law enforcement academies remove more recruits than quit. At ICE, the pattern is inverted—74% quit, only 26% are dismissed. Academy attrition collapsed from 12.2% to 4.2%. Two out of three recruits who would have washed out are now put in the field. Part 2 of 3.
ICE is Built to Kill
The Trump administration claims 85% of ICE's surge hires are "experienced law enforcement officers." OPM payroll data tells a different story: two-thirds have no discernible law enforcement background.