Jay Bookman

Bookman: Burt Jones' pledge to eliminate Georgia's income tax is wrong-headed • Georgia Recorder Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is asking Georgia voters for a big promotion, and the centerpiece of his campaign to become our next governor is a promise that many will find appealing, at least at first glance. ...

Somebody has to patiently explain the obvious -- like, say, that eliminating #IncomeTaxes is shooting all but the upper ~5% in the crotch -- to gullible morons

I dunno how @jaybookman.bsky.social keeps doing it, but here he is again, patriotically plugging away

georgiarecorder.com/2025/07/31/b...

Regression's a bitch.

Just curious, @dszymborski.fangraphs.com. If you gave ZIPS a tweak or two, would it tell us that Adolph Hitler had a great WAR?

Bookman: Trying to parlay football career into US Senate run is a tired play, even with Dooley name • Georgia Recorder If I wanted a failed football coach as my U.S. senator, I’d move to Alabama. And I’m not moving to Alabama. Seriously, what in Derek Dooley’s resume makes him think his next job ought to be serving Ge...

New commentary from opinion writer Jay Bookman (@jaybookman.bsky.social): If I wanted a failed football coach as my U.S. senator, I’d move to Alabama.

Bookman: Massive turnout for 'No Kings' protests in Georgia shows people's courage to act • Georgia Recorder Last weekend, for the first time in a while, I felt faith refreshed. In Atlanta, Savannah, Marietta, Athens, Macon, Columbus and other Georgia cities, large and small, tens of thousands of people turn...

New commentary from opinion writer Jay Bookman (@jaybookman.bsky.social): Massive turnout for ‘No Kings’ protests in Georgia shows people’s courage to act

This appears to be checkmate! All your private information belongs to Musk and Thiel.

💯 this

"Elon was wearing thin, I asked him to leave."
Trump is treating Musk like another old trophy wife to be discarded. In fact, if Elon isn't careful he could end up buried on a golf course in New Jersey.

Bookman: There's no way to cut $800 billion from Medicaid without hitting bone • Georgia Recorder After repeatedly promising on the campaign trail that he would never cut Medicaid benefits, Donald Trump is pushing a “big, beautiful” spending bill that would slash Medicaid and other health care spe...

Georgia's "Pathways" program has been a terrible failure at getting people covered under Medicaid.
That's why state and national Republicans, looking for a way to push millions of people off Medicaid, are embracing it as a success.
My column, no sub. req.:
georgiarecorder.com/2025/06/05/b...

10 million Americans will lose health care just to pay for more yachts for billionaires. Here’s what’s at stake just in battleground state Georgia, where at least 200,000 people will lose health care, potentially thousands more. Great writing from @jaybookman.bsky.social at @georgiarecorder.com.

"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises ...." the Founders wrote almost 240 years ago, as if they anticipated the coming of a Trump and intended to frustrate him if possible.
We should use the tools they gave us.

Why is the US Govt continuing to interfere in the domestic politics and elections of our allies, and why is the Homeland Security Secretary on a lengthy world tour?

If we refuse to let the brightest minds of the world come to the USA our of pure RACISM, we're gonna be run by a bunch of Proud Boy Oath Keeping morons, kinda like Donald Trump.

We are isolating ourselves on an Island of Ignorance.

MUST WATCH: ICE kidnapped a disabled American citizen.

Her name is Alma Bowman. Born in the Philippines while her dad served in the U.S. Navy.

She’s lived here 48 years.
They crashed her wheelchair, denied meds, cut her off from her lawyer—and jailed her.

She. Is. A. Citizen.

I dunno. "Classic conservatism" pretty much does want to invest power in one man, and always did and always will. The type of conservatism that claimed the label in late 20th century America was at best an anomaly, and more likely, as we've seen, a disguise.

This is the obvious result of any good-faith reading of the Constitution, which explicitly gives Congress control over int'l commerce.
But to Trump, stripping him of the power to impose tariffs is tantamount to him losing the 2020 election. It's all that makes him relevant.
So ... game time.

Remember early in Trump I, when Trump vehemently denied asking James Comey for loyalty?
Now he publicly demands it, and enforces it.
That's a measure of how much this has progressed.

At press conferences, Trump seems to learn more new things from reporters than reporters learn from Trump.

"Really? I know nothing about that."

I’m thinking InfoWars.

Margo Martin # i @MargoMartin47 Follow BREAKING! President Trump calls@_ItsSavannah_to inform her that he will be granting full pardons to her parents, Todd and Julie Chrisley! Trump Knows Best! SPACE

Trump is pardoning Todd and Julie Chrisley, the Georgia reality TV stars convicted of fraud.

Todd was sentenced to 12 years and Julie to 7 years.

Their daughter, Savannah, campaigned for Trump.

During a speech at the RNC in 2024, she said her parents were “persecuted” for their political beliefs.

Gaza’s youngest influencer aged 11 among children killed by Israeli strikes Yaqeen Hammad offered tips for surviving life under bombardment and is just one of dozens of minors who have died

Like Putin, Netanyahu is a monster: Gaza’s youngest influencer aged 11 among children killed by Israeli strikes.

Yaqeen Hammad offered tips for surviving in war zone and is one of dozens of minors who have died in recent attacks. 😭😭😭👇 tinyurl.com/26h4y7p7

This troubles me at least as much as anything else I've seen today, and much more than most. We are in deeper than the media admits. Don't ignore what your senses and rational thoughts point to. Some things...you don't have to be told.

Democrats have an opening in the South, but local leaders know they have work to do A new class of Democratic party chairs see repairing the party’s relationship with the working class as key to its political comeback.

I cannot stress enough how important the South is to the future of the Democratic Party given the Electoral College & population shifts. & in terms of margin in 2024, GA & NC were 9 & 8 points more Democratic, respectively, than Ohio was.

In a press release last week, the Trump Dept of Justice bragged that the sentencing of Scott Jenkins, a Virginia county sheriff convicted of selling sheriff's badges, demonstrates that it will not tolerate corruption in law enforcement.
Today, Trump announced he had pardoned Jenkins.

I am left believing that this obvious destruction of law, education, healthcare and the old economy is what Americans really want. They see the reconstruction of a new America, led by an autocrat, being better for them.

There is simply no other explanation for what’s happening.

The number of young adult males too lazy to work but not too lazy to apply for Medicaid is close to zero, and far too small to build major policy around.

Looking back, my first real inkling of how crazed and fact-resistant the American right wing could become was during the Terri Schiavo case.
That was 20 years ago.

Is anyone else still worrying about declining insect numbers?
It's a sure sign of ecological collapse.
I don't miss all the blowflies on the window sills or all the bugs on the windscreen but the loss environmental services must be colossal. How will agriculture & food production be sustained?

The Trump regime's embrace of "antisemitism" as a cause is rank opportunism, a virtuous cloak it has donned to make its cruelty, tyranny and racism seem somehow admirable.