Politics

“Foreigner! Foreigner! This is America! You’re not American! Get the fuck out!” I woke up on the 250th anniversary of my nation’s independence to the sound of some poor soul on the street having a manic episode, and its substance, such as it was, was thematically indistinguishable from that of any stump speech given by our current, duly-elected president.

Left to its own devices, capitalism decides if people deserve what they need, and a fundamental American disagreement is whether that’s a bug or a feature.

I got a speeding ticket the other day, my first in probably more than 25 years. After a decade and a half of not owning a car, L and I reluctantly accepted a hand-me-down Hyundai Tucson a couple years ago so we could be more nimble for the sake of our aging parents. Not coincidentally, I’ve been driving it a lot lately, making regular visits to the memory-care residence my mom now calls home, or… See more →

What the folks at LA Taco, not the LA Times, figured out was that while it was impossible to have on-the-ground reporting from sweeps happening across a metro area as colossal as LA, we live in a time where most everything is documented and uploaded to social media in near-real time. They took to compiling these social media videos and reports into a vertical video Daily Memo that simply runs down where ICE has conducted… See more →

Miller’s view, like that of his boss, is that America is even more divided than we think, and the only resolution to this state of affairs is for one side to subjugate the other.

I’m not looking forward to Erika Kirk’s continuation of her husband’s regrettable legacy, but I’ll give her credit for doing something evangelical Christians on the national stage so rarely do: what Jesus would do. Just days after the horrific murder of… See more →

It was as if National Review were running Criterion Channel. An art house streaming service with a foundation of conservative values, and somebody thought it would work. Or maybe they knew it wouldn’t, and that was the point. As I butted heads with virtually all of my colleagues, most of whom were also progressive-minded cineastes, I began to suspect the company had hired us just to tie up our expertise in a boondoggle. I wouldn’t… See more →

Reading about the Parkland jurors literally crying because they didn’t get to kill someone. This fucking country. nytimes.com/2022/10/15/us/…

I’m supposed to be en route to @OIAF_Animation right now, but had to cancel my trip last-minute. I’ve been sulking about it all day, but reading about draftees fleeing Russia really puts my stuck-at-home troubles in perspective. nytimes.com/2022/09/22/wor…

Any country where an Alex Jones is front page news for any reason is a country in trouble.

“[T]he 24 states [banning] abortion fare worse on a broad range of outcomes than states where abortion will probably remain legal, including child and maternal mortality, teenage birthrates and the share of women and children who are uninsured.” nytimes.com/2022/07/28/ups…

We’re not lacking for shameful moments these days, and like most, this one is not a surprise. But it is despicable on a level I have not experienced in my lifetime, and my sadness is equaled only by my rage.

A commonly expressed example of American excess is the fact that we constitute just 5 percent of the world’s population but consume a quarter of its resources. We haven’t quite reached that level with our share of the world’s Covid deaths, but our current 15.8 percent stake is still a plenty potent argument for American exceptionalism, though obviously not the sort of argument the exceptionalists prefer to make. Our Covid death toll makes well over… See more →

Let me begin by saying I promise this post is mostly good vibes. Skip ahead if you like, but if you’ll momentarily indulge my pessimism: What a stupid time to be alive.

2021 was supposed to be the year the vaccine gave us our lives back, and while it did for some of us to some degree, its international distribution predictably favored wealthy nations, and the long-simmering anti-vax movement here in the wealthiest nation of… See more →

They’re arguably worse than actual rapists and murderers.

People do all kinds of shitty things and still manage to convince themselves they’re in the right. But I cannot understand how people who issue death and rape threats can live with themselves. inquirer.com/news/school-bo…

Everyone responsible for this should be deeply ashamed. nytimes.com/2021/09/01/us/…

A great long read from @MrDanZak on the unfunny joke that is the Maricopa County election audit. washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021…

A helpful summary from @itscaitlinhd of the situation at the border, which is part of a cycle our outdated immigration policies are ill-equipped to solve. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

The cause/effect is this simple: Thousands of people stormed the U.S. Capitol building because the President of the United States lied to them.

insist all you want that madison cawthorn is not a romance novelist but you will not make me believe it

I know there’s a lot on Joe’s plate
And I’m more than happy to wait
But when things are less hectic
Can he switch us to metric?
I think that would really be great

I wore these on the first day and I’m wearing ’em on the last. twitter.com/robweychert/st…

Nearly 4,000 Americans died of COVID-19 on January 6th, a new record that was all but completely ignored as our horrified gaze was averted by an even larger number of Americans laying siege to their own United States Capitol, egged on by none other than the president himself. In the week since, as the president has been banned from social media and grudgingly condemned the riot while refusing to accept responsibility for it, as cabinet… See more →

A great read from @TimothyDSnyder about how the GOP is split between people trying to game the system and people trying to break it. nytimes.com/2021/01/09/mag…

Now’s as good a time as any to quibble with the oxymoronic term “permanent suspension.”

I wear black most days, but I wear it with purpose today.

“What’s the downside for humoring him?”

I began last year’s “That Was 2019” post by expressing disappointment in my immune system’s poor performance that year, so let me begin this year’s wrap-up by praising that same immune system’s effectiveness in 2020. More than 1.8 million people died of COVID-19 in 2020, a disproportionately high 340,000 of them Americans, and I didn’t get so much as a head cold. I spent much of the year being grateful for my health and financial… See more →

New old work: I redesigned our Cabinet Cards a bit for the incoming administration. features.propublica.org/cabinet-cards-…

You know how little kids will give their parents, like, a rock from the backyard as a Xmas gift? Congress is that kid.

Prosecutors said prison would only make Brandon Bernard more violent, so they sought—and got—the death penalty. WHAT IS THIS SYSTEM newyorker.com/news/daily-com…

Of all the forms COVID denialism takes, indifference to overrun healthcare workers may be the most enraging. nytimes.com/2020/11/25/hea…

can we just tell him putin said the election was legit

A reminder that the federal government has murdered eight people since July, with two more to go before Inauguration Day. nytimes.com/2020/11/20/us/…

Bannon’s gotta be proud of how vigorously his star student is applying that “flood the zone with shit” imperative.

We passed a quarter million American COVID-19 deaths today. The virus is surging, hospitals are reaching capacity, the mortality rate is ticking back up, and the lockdowns are starting again. In a few days, an order goes into effect here in Philadelphia banning all public and private indoor gatherings until at least the end of the year. Gyms and museums are closing, indoor dining at restaurants and bars is halting. Outdoor gatherings are to have… See more →

There’s so much work to do, but having a leader of the free world who believes in something other than himself is a good first step.

yeah gonna go ahead and ignore this one for today

good morning to the reality-based community and absolutely no on else

And once again, a national lead of several million votes and somehow we need to nervously watch a few thousand votes in a few states. 🇺🇸

Spent the morning supporting and feeding volunteers at several polling places with the birthday girl @chambermonster, and then finally cast my own ballot. 🎂🗳🇺🇸

Tomorrow is Election Day. The polls say the path to victory for the incumbent president is a very steep one. But after 2016, no one trusts the polls, no matter how many articles explain how pollsters have adjusted their methods since then. (For the record, 2016’s predicted margins didn’t give me anywhere near the level of confidence in a Democratic win that everyone else seemed to have.) Anyway, anything other than a landslide Election Day… See more →

I get that when your whole thing is solidifying minority rule for a generation, you spike the football on a night like this. But the spite here is still breathtaking. twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/s…

just once
during a debate
when a candidate concludes a statement
i want them to say
“we’ll be right back after these messages”

like when netflix adds christmas movies on january 1 twitter.com/MikeIsaac/stat…

fuck

I’m at a low boil pretty much all the time now. I think the past three weeks or so have been a little better, but I’ll still sometimes catch myself snapping at Leah over something impossibly trivial, or throwing my hands up in disgust and falling into a prolonged funk at the slightest annoyance. This week’s Republican National Convention, a substance-averse cult gathering which kept Hatch Act experts busier than ever, didn’t help. With the… See more →

“Cultures that survive are in flux; cultures that die stand still, like statues.” broadstreetreview.com/cross-cultural…

Smart analysis of the center/left debate over whether Trumpism is a rejection or manifestation of American democratic ideals. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…