There has been a real reluctance for people to say too much about ICE’s continued occupation in Minnesota because the headline was that ICE was leaving.

But ICE has consistently made statements themselves that they are only changing tactics—not withdrawing altogether.

Seriously, think about what it means that "Defund the police" has the support it does despite both major political parties putting everything they had into wiping it out of the public conversation for years. With no party level support or political funding at all.

But I just don't think that's the case. I think the fact that leftist messaging continues to have a simply rooted place in the public consciousness, despite aggressive attempts to wipe it out by both major political parties, is a testament to how powerful it is.

Then after the most well funded political messaging apparatus in the world gets done with it, and a majority of their own party's constituents *still* support that message, but a majority of the country doesn't? The Democrats will declare defeat and tsk about how those fools could never message.

The left will say something incredibly clear, simple, to the point, with broad appeal. And then the Democratic establishment will spend every ounce of effort and funding they can scrape together to pretend it's utterly delusional and terrible messaging.

Or-

"Free healthcare for everybody?" Oh no no no, people will never listen to that, they think you're a deranged lunatic who thinks healthcare won't even cost the government anything! Which is such *elementary* messaging that anyone saying that clearly actually believes in that delusion! Obviously.

Like-

"Defund the police"? Oh no no no, people will never listen to that, they'll think you're saying [hour long deranged screed lifted straight from a Republican strategy meeting about how unsafe we'll be without cops]. Anyone saying "Defund the police" clearly has no idea how to message!

To put it bluntly: Bullshit.

The left by and large absolutely does know how to speak with people. Most leftists aren't theory-brained maximalists.

But the Democratic party is *always* there to recouch what leftists say in the worst possible language, or just pretend it's poorly phrased.

As @daedsider.bsky.social has rightly noted, "Once you understand that a driving principle of American politics is there is no such thing as a compassionate solution that's cheap enough or a cruel solution that's too expensive, a lot of things click into place." I think about that a lot. :(

Bluesky user says: This is what I am talking about, no one is pushing Newsom besides Newsom. The issue isnt that Ds are scared of a radical candidate, it is normies are scared of the left throwing a tantrum if the candidate isn’t a more radical leftist one Quote tweeting: ‪A.R. Moxon‬ ‪@juliusgoat.bsky.social‬ If I were a Democrat concerned about winning elections and was hearing that a significant number of voters wouldn’t support Gavin Newsom in 2028, I would simply stop pushing Gavin Newsom in 2026.

This is—ironically enough—what I am talking about.

RW voters who demand their bigotries be accommodated are never "radical" or "throwing a tantrum." No—those are "swing voters" to pursue, even as they fail to show up time & again. The goal here isn't a bigger tent, but to prevent movement leftward.

I do think there’s a certain type of Democrat that realizes it’s possible we are dealing with a perfect storm where almost any Democrat will win, and are terrified we might nominate radical candidates who will actually engage in needed change instead of status quo corporate centrist bullshit.

“I’ll vote for a soggy ham sandwich.” Ok, great. Good for you. Well done.

1) not the point
2) a lot of people won’t
3) we need better anyway
4) and we HAVE better
5) so when people start pushing the ham sandwich
6) we say hey the soggy ham sandwich, that’s a really bad idea
7) which IS the point

If I were a Democrat concerned about winning elections and was hearing that a significant number of voters wouldn’t support Gavin Newsom in 2028, I would simply stop pushing Gavin Newsom in 2026.

Trans Bathroom Ban Bills Now Expanding To Private Businesses Earlier last week, Kansas passed a bathroom bounty bill that could target private businesses. Now, Idaho will hear a similar bill that is more explicit that private businesses are also impacted.

Transgender bathroom ban bills are now expanding to private businesses.

First, Kansas bill creates bathroom bounty hunters that could target trans people in any business.

Now, Idaho is hearing a bill today that lets you sue a private business if it lets trans people pee.

Our latest story.

Why I Left the Network Those who need therapy often have to pay out of pocket or go without care, even if they have health insurance. Hundreds of mental health providers told us they fled networks because insurers made thei...

Those who need therapy often have to pay out of pocket or go without care, even if they have health insurance.

Hundreds of mental health providers told us they fled networks because insurers made their jobs impossible and their lives miserable.

(Published Aug. 2024)

random people online who you find censorious and annoying =/= state censorship. Hope that helps.

Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich

There's not really a good alternative ... but that's why it works.

That's fair, and definitely the health attitude to take.

I think I'm just nervous about giving the Democrats an inch when it comes to their old classic, "Don't focus on us right now, this is too important. Focus on the Republicans, internal party reform can come later. 🙂 We promise."

I do remember the 2009 economics workshop that Lee was emailing with Epstein about and I have been struggling for days to figure out how to communicate to people that to me all of these gatherings look like normal business as usual for physicists with high private resource access. This is The Show.

They want to scare people out of posting ICE-critical content, because they know these posts are turning even their supporters against them. But the better option is to take a page out of their playbook and flood the zone.

We can't just keep playing catch up and saying that we're going to focus on keeping the fascists out now, and get good people in power later. The Democratic party feeds off that strategy. It's exhausting and it's scary, but we have to do both ASAP, we can't stay on the back foot about this.

And then, having sunk none of their energy into actually fighting fascists and instead just fundraising off of them, they leave a demoralized left-wing opposition to try to pitifully rally behind people who openly don't give a fuck about most of the left-wing coalition.

The issue is, the Democratic Party will pull the exact same shit they've pulled for years now. Aggressively focus all of their energy on absolutely destroying left-wing opposition as thoroughly as possible, and then say, "Oops, no one else left to vote for, is there? Can't let the fascists win."

This is so disgusting. This man is fortunate to have a job to get back to, but I can imagine how many immigrants are losing stable jobs because they were kidnapped for a few weeks. Just pure state-sponsored terrorism.

Here's how former Seattle Police Officer Andrei Constantin felt about cops running people over with their cars. He was mututals on Twitter with the head of the SPD union, so it's safe to assume they mostly think this way.

CNN segment part 2. Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic for her that we have this horror show on video, but also it's really extraordinary that this doesn't seem to have altered their behavior even a little bit.

Masked death squad hitting another car to give them the pretext to assassinate her. That's ICE/CBP.

SPORTS Misgendering Incident Involving A Trans Olympian Triggers Heated Debate After NBC Deletes Footage Seema Sinha News Writer 20 5 ADVERTISEMENT hulu hulu Disneyt hulu The best stories, together X Share NBC has deleted the feed of the 2026 women's moguls freestyle skiing qualifiers, which took place on Tuesday, February 10, after commentators repeatedly misgendered an athlete during the live st Posts by Seema Sinha Swedish skier Elis Lundholm, who was born female but identifies as male, was referred to as "she" by one commentator, PREDATOR BADLANDS Now Streaming PARADISE Streaming February 23 while another used "they" instead of "he."

It was never about "trans athletes should just compete in their assigned sex at birth."

It was always about invalidation of the athlete's gender identity.

This is what ICE does every day. Hunt little kids who are here legally. They get sent to a place called the “baby jail” in Texas. Very little of it ends up on video like this. But it’s routine. And disgusting.