Austin Wu

adding steak n shake into the mix bsky.app/profile/grav...

The biggest irony of all is that for all the misery it has wrought, the best way to blunt population growth turned out to be improving peoples lives through increases in womens educational attainment.

Best-case scenario: Trump Homes at maximum impact Let me model the most optimistic potential outcome, assuming everything goes right —full federal coordination, strong builder participation, high conversion rates, and sustained execution over 5 years. Core assumptions (optimistic case) Program structure: • 1 million homes delivered over 5 years (200,000 units annually) • Average home price: $250,000 (entry-level, well below $392,000 median) • 75% rent-to-own conversion rate (VS. historical underperformance, assumes federal backing solves typical pitfalls)

My man… all this analysis is useless. The Trump regime is just not gonna do it. They do not care. Who suggested you put this together?

cc @kevinerdmann.bsky.social

app.realai.com/public/analy...

Happy New Year with Eohippus

🐎 🎊

honestly my priors for rating a democratic elected is (1) how much they hate republicans and (2) if they're good soldiers, whether they are more ideological moderate or liberal is secondary

YouTube video by unvmebad86 George Washington

Every President's Day, we gather round and sing this old, traditional hymn www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbRo...

contrast this to a year ago when there was very little anti-Trump messaging in public from anyone in a position of power or influence

this is an big change and it does indicate his power over the elites - who have been much more deferential than society at large - is starting to wane

IF YOU ARE SOMEWHERE THAT ICE IS TARGETING PLEASE HIT US UP FOR WHISTLES! WE WILL HOOK YOU UPPPPP

WhistleGoblins.fun

In @thewalrus.ca, I argue it's time we talk about what the US administration really is, and what that means for Canada's survival. thewalrus.ca/canada-is-be...

PLA song/dance troupe members at attention in the rain in 'Youth' (2017)

It's Yover :(

New in People's Daily: Automation Comes for the Central Military Commission Political Work Department Song and Dance Troupe

The drunk uncle theory.

You don’t argue with the casually homophobic uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to change his mind; you argue so that the closeted cousin at the kids table knows there’s safe people and better possibilities out there

Additional pro: Panavia Tornado

Still processing this choice by @chicagomag.com. No matter how they couch it, they’re elevating an unapologetic bigot. There’s a lot of real estate between ignoring him and ranking him among the most powerful people in Chicago (ahem, Berwyn), and Chicago Magazine jumped over all of it, eyes closed.

tbh this is how I kinda feel about the notion of statsminister klobuchar in mn

yeah, I suppose for every TransLink there's PLA 16th Brigade Rubber Boot Factory No. 5, although even in the case of TransLink what preceded it was the electric company privately running transit as a natural monopoly, which feels like de facto state control but w/ extra steps

retvrn to regulated industries/crown corporations/some combination thereof?

Dairy Queen on Franklin Avenue East (1970s; 1980s)
500 Franklin Ave. E
Source: Hennepin County Library

This is basically where I'm at

The billionaire, like the dreadnought, is a "threat in being," his mere presence on the board affecting the way we interact with the political domain.

He's great when he's on your side. He's a problem when he isn't. And unlike a dreadnought, we can't control him.

The Wordle Company is not a reliable curator of news or opinion, and should no longer be thought of that way.

(also recognizing the position of relative privilege back then, to have a house where rice could be hoarded in)

on one hand, it's remarkably foolish to even attempt to replicate a semblence of the sorts of economic uncertainty that wartime china was characterized by, but on the other hand, nothing bad can happen, it can only good happen

during the second world war, my grandma's house in china had rats because unstable prices led her family to hoard as much rice as possible at the start of each month (which pests then got into)

Have you ever once seen the New York Times quote Trump like this?

we should retvrn tbh

I think “Biden’s economic policies were morally correct and successful but also unpopular” is something American progressives need to grapple with, because it’s important. We need to be trying to figure out what was COVID and what was voter preferences that could happen again.

"OUR NEIGHBORHOOD BLOCKS ICE" banner

"OUR NEIGHBORHOOD BLOCKS ICE" banner hangs on Chicago Avenue and 38th Street at George Floyd Square.

Minneapolis, February 2026

I think folks who call the UN "starry eyed idealists" are pretty much just reactionaries? There's so many criticisms to make about the UN founding (tethering world security specifically to US, UK, Russia, China? woof), but calling the founding of a global org "idealism" is kooky HL Hunt shit

trvth-strategic bomber (because nuclear weapons didn't exist in the 1920s and large-scale conventional aerial bombing occupied a space similar to nuclear weapons today in minds during the 1920s and 30s)

I could use an egg tart right now