Monica Achen

A recurring theme of LOTR is that the initially naive and bumbling hobbits retain their moral core and persist while many of the tough guys fall to self-regard, fear, and despair.

Every single person who thinks they can manage an interview with Chotiner is one of those 12% of dudes who think they can win a point off of Serena Williams

I suspect people have developed unhealthy parasocial relationships with political figures for as long as people and politics have existed.

I've encountered some people in local politics who just could not help but alienate everyone they came in contact with regardless of policy preferences. And I really hope ICE are those people at national scale.

I know you know this, but those agencies are definitely not all boys. (I think DHS was about a third women as of 2024, though who knows now.)

Well don't I feel stupid

MICHIEL COXCIE (1499-1592), CARTOONIST; WILLEM DE PANNEMAKER (ACTIVE 1535-1578), WEAVER Noah Builds the Ark "Story of Noah' series Brussels-Brabant, 1563-1566 Tapestry; gold, silver, silk and wool In 1556, Philip II acquired a set of tapestries that told the story of Noah. However, in 1559 the ship carrying them to Spain sank and only two hangings were saved, so the king ordered another set in 1562. It originally consisted of ten tapestries, only three of which are still extant: one shows God commanding Noah to build the ark, another depicts the disembarkation after the flood, and the third is this scene, where the biblical patriarch is giving his sons instructions on how to build the ark. For the borders, Philip II chose his coats of arms and a few animals alluding to the four elements silhouetted against a landscape in the background, whose painstaking details must have posed quite a technical challenge. This tapestry arrived in Madrid in 1566 and was displayed in emblematic settings like the Monastery of El Escorial.

spiritually and emotionally I am these lions from a 1500s painting

That photo, lol. It's like a circa 2010 indie band just dropped their latest album, but the album is the 574th centrist consultant start-up.

The thing about investing in public transit is that it *scales* — the more people use it, the better it gets. For everyone.

Whereas the more cars there are, the *worse* everything about driving gets. Traffic. Parking.

[Ever noticed that in just about every car ad it’s alone on the road? Yeah.]

both the professional centrists and professional leftists over-estimate the effect size of ideological positioning relative to other factors influencing vote margin in any given year

I think "is" was supposed to be "in," but as a city of college towns, "is" works too.

Nightswimming, a deeply sentimental but not sacharine song about nostalgia, which is to say memory and loss, which is always also loss of a former self.

As a resident of the Great Lakes State and a frequent visitor to said lakes, I regret to inform NYT readers that the lakes are only mediocre and East Coasters should definitely continue exclusively vacationing at their salty, shark-infested beaches.

"He's a piece of shit, but let's get the political science stuff out of the way," Steven told me when I asked if he thought support of Tesla could be considered apolitical. "Elon Musk has platformed white supremacists and antisemites on X. He got rid of all the moderation. He put back accounts that were clearly neo-Nazis. He's changed algorithms to promote that type of hate. Him and DOGE did massive cuts in the government, including our civil services. He's cut cancer research. Did I mention he was a giant piece of shit?" "He's cut our aid to Africa, which Will result, without exaggeration, in millions of women and children and innocent people dying. Millions," he said. "I'm not a big fan of people who give the Hitler salute. I mean, I'm kind of fussy like that. He gave it twice at Trump's inauguration," he continued. "He's a Nazi. And he cheats at video games. You have another question?"

lol at this response to a “man on the street” interview with protestors at the Tesla diner

Cover of book with a weather vane. Also short summary of the book. Follow the Leader? How Voters Respond to Politicians’ Policies and Performance Gabriel S. Lenz In a democracy, we generally assume that voters know the policies they prefer and elect like-minded officials who are responsible for carrying them out. We also assume that voters consider candidates’ competence, honesty, and other performance-related traits. But does this actually happen? Do voters consider candidates’ policy positions when deciding for whom to vote? And how do politicians’ performances in office factor into the voting decision? In Follow the Leader?, Gabriel S. Lenz sheds light on these central questions of democratic thought. Lenz looks at citizens’ views of candidates both before and after periods of political upheaval, including campaigns, wars, natural disasters, and episodes of economic boom and bust. Noting important shifts in voters’ knowledge and preferences as a result of these events, he finds that, while citizens do assess politicians based on their performance, their policy positions actually matter much less. Even when a policy issue becomes highly prominent, voters rarely shift their votes to the politician whose position best agrees with their own. In fact, Lenz shows, the reverse often takes place: citizens first pick a politician and then adopt that politician’s policy views. In other words, they follow the leader.

One thing Trump II has made clear to me: we’re all living in @gabelenz.bsky.social's world now.

Most voters don’t choose candidates based on issues. They choose candidates first, then adjust their issue positions to match. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

h/t @brendannyhan.bsky.social

Most reporting is just not up to the task of registering both that 1) the White House is *attacking* universities *as institutions* 2) the White House is working *with* universities’ boards to achieve *common goals* for remaking and weakening those institutions

This is now my favorite political scandal

I'll go so far as to say, if someone is doing a thing to fight back versus literally nothing : Congrats, you've identified the 99.9 percentile who might actually help in any capacity. At all. Please don't alienate them.

This is utterly unacceptable.

Can Democrats Find Their Way on Immigration?

Read this piece on Democrats and immigration with interest. Not my area, but related to foreign policy and natsec in that Dems have a very, very sticky reputation for weakness even though R policies are unpopular. Some scattered thoughts, welcome comments/rxns. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/u...

The man who’s pretending that he’s burning down the universities in order to protect Jewish students:

20 years ago, I was on a jury in a domestic violence case. Like the Diddy trial, the facts were not much in dispute, only their interpretation. The way the other jurors talked about the survivor's complicity is seared into my mind forever. Today makes me think not enough has changed.

One of the problems of gerontocracy is that your elected officials cannot bring these sorts of athletic skills to the table

Congratulations, the universe sent you this dog because you have been chosen. Joy awaits. 13/10

Because we are seeing the alternative daily, and it's so much worse.

One of my firmest convictions is that hypocritical performances of virtue are underrated.

ICE holding immigrants in 'abysmal' conditions at Burlington office building, lawyers say ICE is detaining immigrants in a Burlington office park building that wasn't designed as a holding facility. Lawyers say conditions there are "abysmal" and "unsanitary."

I was not aware until @miriamwasser.bsky.social called me for comment on this earlier this week that ICE has been holding people for *multiple nights* in their Burlington (MA) New England HQ which (as pictured below) is located in a non-descript office park by the mall

www.wbur.org/news/2025/06...

Tula-Tu holding up a rose

Tula-Tu standing on roses

Flower girl 🌹

People have policy preferences, and then they rationalize why those preferences will win their party elections, and this is just as true of political professionals as it is of randos on Bluesky, and just as true of centrists as it is of progressives.