Jared Dunn

It really is amazing that when a popular young Democratic politician who wants to solve real problems for people beats an old-guard institutionalist Democrat in a primary, the institutionalist Democrat just stays in the race and basically runs as a Republican.

I am in this flowchart and I don't like it.

I think a lot about the chance we had at the start of COVID to finally become a more compassionate, collectivist nation, and how profoundly we were failed not only by the sociopathic greed of the ruling class but by each other.

It doesn’t mean we won’t get there, but the lost opportunity haunts me.

They are collectively punishing a population for failure to comply with their program to detain & deport their neighbors, and failure to vote for, venerate, and obey the dictator. Immigration raids are the pretext (and provocation), sure, but it's not hard to see or describe what's going on here.

West World Bernard Lowe GIF ALT: West World Bernard Lowe GIF

Centrist pundits, faced with any evidence that Democratic leaders are already following their advice, and none of it is breaking through because we aren't living in a pretend ealry 1990s media environment:

(4) Trump and the Republicans don't have an advantage over Democrats because they *better understand heartland Americans.*

They have an advantage over Democrats because they created their own universe of propaganda outlets, and then went out and bought all the mainstream outlets.

Duh.

Are we the baddies?

3000 years of beautiful tradition…

In historical terms that is of course a very rare condition, but that also makes it all the harder to contemplate losing it or to know WTF you are meant to do in its absence, if you personally manage to survive the process that gets us there.

I mean, the "and then" is probably doom for the hopes and dreams of anyone who relies on a free, stable society, and people (most of whom have only known very stable and peaceful times w/ the expectation of having control over their life path) are still trying to come to terms with that possibility.

Many of them also don’t want to be representing or having to answer to the coalition that they actually have, and a lot of this constant nonsense is wishcasting for a different coalition that would confirm their priors better and not make so many pesky and inconvenient demands.

Is it so much to ask to be able to make a living by using my brain to try to make the world a better place?

I think it was drawing dead either way b/c of the fundamentals + the policy choices they had baked in that eroded the coalition at the margins, but Harris at least felt like she gave a puncher's chance in case enough people were too freaked out by the prospect of what we knew Trump wanted to do.

He was consistently (but not insurmountably) behind in the polls, but appeared incapable of doing any campaigning or communication type things that could have changed that dynamic. What options were available to change the dynamics of the race in the "Biden stays" counterfactual? Lots of surrogates?

A big, beautiful blue ribbon commission to finally track down CROATOAN

This also maybe explains RFK's staying power, because I thought he'd be discarded almost immediately due to ego clashes + Trump not really being super aligned with his pet issues. But keeping him around is coalition management.

For people who think they can hunker down, be apolitical, and ride this out, this is how it's going to go. They will hold the resources for any worthwhile public work hostage to try to make you complicit and make you serve them, even if you just want to make some improvements to packaging security.

The problem is devs want to treat data as a property rights issue when personal data are actually observations of behavior to be used as evidence—primarily for social surveillance and control. It is rendering people in your community into relationships with power outside of their control or consent.

hey, @bretdevereaux.bsky.social? do we have an actual example of an Emperor suspending the Senate, raiding the treasury for his own purposes, and stopping the grain dole?

So much of "cancel culture" discourse is a re-description of the normal functioning of a democracy and public discourse by people who didn't like the results of one, or both, or how it made them feel.

ICE has been cracking down hard across the vast expanse of the greater Chicago area, and I wrote a little bit about what you need to understand about what it’s like here now. Plus, I compiled some resources for locals to get alerts and whistles. dansinker.com/posts/202…

Almost every major news story this week is about how the entire economy is now gambling, scams, bribes and theft.

Yeah, as someone who was only vaguely paying attention and had vaguely favorable inclinations toward him over Mills, my biggest reaction to this episode is shocked, shocked that this too-perfect working class hero troop Dem. candidate actually comes from money. A tale as old as time.

Cocaine perfected 🫡

“Donald Trump is a wish fulfillment fantasy of yelling at the TV” is incredible.

"normies do not care about this thing and so it is no use raising a stink" is imho just an excuse for not doing politics, which is the job of making normies care about something

More proof that anyone can put on Hi-Viz gear and immediately become Invisible and Official in the eyes of the public.

Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups AND Terry Rozier has been arrested by the FBI for alleged illegal gambling, sources tell ESPN. ESPN Bet on the sCREEN

I don't think many people realize yet how damaging Trump's suspension of SNAP payments will be to millions of Americans, doubly so because huge cuts are simultaneously hitting food banks and charities. Help your neighbors any way you can.

Also the commoditization of the non-AAA stuff has got to be causing a race to the bottom. I shouldn't be able to have a Steam library of 100s of amazing unplayed games that I'll maybe get to someday. I ought to be having to think about it and buy them as I want to play them for it to be sustainable.