And even if they are not harmed politically by their authoritarian turn, the dangerous, unprecedented extremism of the GOP should be covered as the major story that it is. They are now the equivalent of a European far-right party, and I’ve seen remarkably little framing along these lines.

Meanwhile, it is inarguable that the GOP has gone “sharply right” in much more tangible ways. The “big beautiful bill” might be the most right-wing major piece of legislation in recent decades. Trump, Vance, Miller, Bannon are closely connected to the global far-right. Trump is an autocrat.

I recognize that this issue is beyond the scope of this episode but I am struck more generally by how much focus there has been on how Democratic Party has supposedly moved “sharply left” as Ezra says, and how little discussion there has been about how extremist the GOP has become.

I get the political urgency for a reboot of the Democratic brand for more media-savvy leadership. But a lot is built around their disastrous defeat in the 2024 elections. There is a danger of generalizing about an anomalous post-covid anti-incumbency year when the defeat was actually fairly narrow.

Also, it may seem like a small thing, but by my count this is the third Ezra Klein show that highlights Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” comment. To be fair, it is the guest who brings it up. But it is important in highlighting what I see as the double standard by which the parties are assessed.

I remember a lot of discussion about the importance of understanding the “75 million” people (many commentators rounded up) who voted for Trump in 2020. Interesting to note that more than 75 million people voted for Harris, and yet I saw no such equivalent discourse after the 2024 election.

“The researchers aim to show that the ‘inevitability’ of AI is just a marketing frame perpetrated by the industry and that pushback is a lot more possible than we often see.” Yes!

"They were careless people, they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fake scenes of Black people behaving badly were the primary form of entertainment in this country for decades when they were performed by white actors with charcoal on their faces. The idea that this would not be popular if people knew it was fake is laughable.

If you have $20k + $500/month to burn and would like your house to be cleaner maybe just pay someone a fair wage to come clean your house occasionally?

A mugshot registration photograph from Auschwitz. A man with a shaved head wearing a striped uniform photographed in three positions (profile and front with bare head and a photo with a slightly turned head with a hat on). The prisoner number is visible on a marking board on the left.

2 November 1891 | A Czech Jew, Erwin Elischak, was born in Most.

In #Auschwitz from 29 April 1942.
No. 33283
He perished in the camp on 21 May 1942.
---

Online lesson about Jewish prisoners at KL Auschwitz: https://lekcja.auschwitz.org/29_zydzi_en/

Stop stifling your journalists, they are the only ones doing real reporting!

Never take seriously those who ridicule low income people for having a smartphone or laptop.

“If they’re so poor how did they buy an iPhone???”

Because they’re trying to escape poverty, not the 1700s, genius. If you think basic tech access is luxury, survive a month without it.

Racist Influencers Using OpenAI's Sora to Make it Look Like Poor People Are Selling Food Stamps for Cash Folks looking for evidence of SNAP recipients as welfare queens have no shortage of AI generated schlock to use as justification.

Blackface that exists without any actual human behind the makeup is a special kind of dystopian phenomenon

Michigan lawyer says a Halloween terror plot that FBI Director Kash Patel described never existed A Michigan defense lawyer is disputing FBI allegations that his 20-year-old client and four others planned a terror attack on Halloween weekend.

Who could have guessed

Border Patrol, ICE tapped into Washington police surveillance systems for potential immigration enforcement Federal law enforcement agencies accessed data collected by some local police and sheriff’s offices automated license plate cameras around Washington, a University of Washington Center for Human Right...

As Ring announces increased partnership with Flock and law enforcement, do not be fooled by reassurances that you can 'opt out.' Here's evidence that ICE tapped flock from local agencies sometimes without consent: www.spokesman.com/stories/2025...

if our brains weren’t always being cooked by the horrors of real life this place could be Actually Fun and it’s so nice to get a glimpse of what happens when it is

even if you don’t like baseball this shit was fun, right? everyone getting swept up in the same thing? I missed this

NEW from me:

Political hostility, high visa fees and (in the case of the UK) stagnant incomes are making the UK and US less attractive destinations for top international talent.

That steep decline in the appeal of moving to the US after 2016 is 👀

“Why are tens of millions of Americans about to start suffering at midnight on November 1st?”

Every single Republican who completely controls the government right now: “Joe Biden is the President during this crisis.”

The fact that Trumpers are desperate to create the illusion that their ever more unpopular, and ever more debilitated, Leader could stand for election again is a measure of the dead end nature of their fascist movement.

How many people went to the polls in 2024 thinking

“We need a president that’s more of an interior decorator.”

???

CULTURE TRENDS SNAP beneficiaries threaten to ransack stores over government shutdown One mother claims taxpayers must feed her children as SNAP benefits face cuts By Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi • Fox News Published October 31, 2025 2:16pm EDT

So there were some AI-generated videos that purported to show Black women ranting about SNAP benefits, and... Fox News is reporting on this like these are real people. They're not! They're AI!

This is truly insane. Total unreality. www.foxnews.com/media/snap-b...

a man in a tuxedo and bow tie is standing next to a woman in a dress at a party . ALT: a man in a tuxedo and bow tie is standing next to a woman in a dress at a party .

“They were careless people…they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Trump is holding a Great Gatsby/Roaring 20s-themed party at his private club in Palm Beach tonight as he tries to withhold SNAP and health care subsidies from millions of Americans. (via Kellie Meyer)

The ads write themselves. "While Republicans were making your prices higher and cutting your benefits, Donald Trump gave himself a gold-and-marble bathroom with a chandelier and a view of his Epstein ballroom."

I love how Rep. Joe Neguse reframed this question.

Bringing the House back into session doesn't affect Senate negotiations

Brining the House back into session and seating Grajalva means the House votes to release the Epstein Files

democrats preserving the fillibuster just for trump to direct republicans to get rid of it was for nothing. democrats should have done this day one in the biden administration but their biggest downfall was assuming that political “norms” were restored after biden won