Dante Scala

White House economist calls for 'fresh set of eyes at the BLS' after weak jobs report | Fox Business Video National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett discusses the latest jobs report, the firing of the labor statistics chief and the consumer impact of tariffs on 'Fox News Sunday.'

Hassett went on TV and claimed you can’t trust the economic data anymore because all the recent revisions are partisan.
A bald-faced lie.
Every serious economist still in this administration should resign. They are actively underminding the US economy by lending their credibility to this horse****

NEW. U Mass Poll.

Trump approve/disapprove: 38%/58% (cf. April, 44/53).

How much have you read, seen, or heard about Jeffrey Epstein?
A lot 36%
Some 41%
Not much 19%
Nothing 4%.

Trump administration hiding important information on Epstein? Agree 63%. Disagree 15%.

www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zgf7d...

Willa Cather's case for reading the great books eavesdropping upon the past, being let into the great world

"Eavesdropping upon the past, being let into the great world." Willa Cather's case for reading the great books [Henry Oliver]

Analysis | After 47 years on the political beat for The Post, it’s transition time Dan Balz writes on his retirement from full-time work at The Washington Post after 47 years.

Dan Balz is the best.

Republicans keep voting for bills they say they don't like In some cases, GOP members of Congress have said legislation they supported will need to be fixed down the road. In others, they've backed off explicit threats to vote "no."

A RISING TRUMP-ERA TREND: Republicans keep voting for bills they say they don't like

Some call to undo/fix policies they just backed.

Others predict they'll have regrets.

Some threaten to vote no, then fold.

Others warn they're ceding Article I power.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

A dynamic we've seen in polling even before Trump re-took office: support for deportation tends to erode when pollsters specify that people without criminal records or longtime residents will be among those affected. Now, support is dropping as people see what that looks like in practice.

Right after 9/11 — but that was with a president who had a 70% approval rating.

It’s Not Just a Constitutional Crisis in the Trump Era. It’s Constitutional Failure | Washington Monthly While Trump defies constitutional norms, Congress remains conspicuously silent and the Supreme Court has abdicated its responsibility.

One of our most serious constitutional historians plausibly argues "the phrase constitutional crisis no longer describes our situation. The Constitution has failed, and we no longer know which institution will rescue it." Read this piece. washingtonmonthly.com/2025/06/27/i...

Mamdani support was highest in areas with most millennials 100% Mamdani share of two-way vote 75% 50% Largest ethnic group • Asian — Black — Hispanic White 25% 0% 0% 20% 40% Aged 25-39 60% Owen Winter, Sources: NYC Board of Elections, Census

Black voters are incredibly polarized by age within the Democratic Party. This happens in every Dem primary since 2016.

You might not know this because the punditry does such a bad job on Black politics, either ignorant or treating Black people as a monolith in service of some other narrative

Call masked ICE agents arresting immigrants what they are: secret police | Opinion Donald Trump wonders what masked protesters have to hide. The same could be said for masked ICE agents arresting people at court hearings.

"In an essay published on the website of @cato.org , Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the institute, wrote, 'For the Trump admin, turning masked raids into standard practice fits into a wider effort to dodge accountability for potentially illegal and unconstitutional actions.'” [E.J. Montini]

"Trump is using the Guard and the military to enforce his will, not the law....When rioters were on his side, he didn’t call in the Guard. He embraced the criminals, pardoned them, and purged the law enforcement officials who prosecuted them. He’s a despot and a scofflaw." -- @saletan.bsky.social

⬇️ Actual originalism

A victory for democracy

Or you're just not trying hard enough.

🎵thermostatic public opinion🎵

🚨New Bright Line Watch report on the state of US democracy

-Democracy ratings ↓ w/experts & public, including Rs
-Performance ↓ in numerous areas such as free speech/press, abuse of government powers
-Faculty report academic freedom decline & self-censorship

brightlinewatch.org/threats-to-d...

🧵

Why should she be in the loop, when her boss isn't?

Don't read this to defend Kissinger's policies, please, but this is about the only time you will see him and Rubio in the same sentence.

"Now do this for clothing, shoes, food, appliances, consumer electronics, energy, construction materials, etc., and you start to see the problem," writes @scottlincicome.bsky.social.

"Also, importantly, do it for the Americans who can currently only afford ONE TOY for their kid. They get nothing."

Building a law of abundance The artificial scarcity plaguing our economy is deeply rooted in a "law of constraint" built over half a century. How do we unwind it?

OK, we've imagined the Abundance omelet. Now, which eggs should we break, and how? That analysis must begin with a grasp on how the law promotes scarcity and where legal tools can crack it. It also reveals the bigger-than-Democrats dimension to this. hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/building-a...

Aside from the substance, another way to look at this is that it is aligning yourself with Trump never, ever ends well, and the NSA job in particular is a poisoned chalice.

cc: Secretary of State Marco Rubio

NY Post front page: Trump admits tarifis will raise some prices, cause shortages: Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls SKIMP ON THE BARBIE

sometimes you do have to hand it to them

Seems like a good time to remind everyone that maintaining our unpopular two-party system is a choice, and we can make a choice to have more choice: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

At the new Mischiefs of Faction, @mattngreen.bsky.social runs the numbers on Trump's 1st hundred days. open.substack.com/pub/misofact...

One reason the new ruling is important: Judge Sweeney specifically rejects as unlawful Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act because none of its preconditions have been met: we're not in a declared war or an "invasion" or "predatory incursion" perpetrated by a "foreign nation or government."

Public health leaders, distrustful of RFK Jr., stand up project to defend vaccines Some key public health figures are taking an extraordinary step to try to shore up U.S. vaccination policy, feared to be under threat from health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Fearing that government information about vaccines & vaccination policy may be corrupted under an anti-vax health secretary, some public health leaders are exploring how to safeguard the enterprise of vaccinations in the United States. www.statnews.com/2025/04/24/v...

My latest post on Substack: What Wisconsin's election might say about what's to come in 2025 and 2026. Turnout practically mirrored a midterm, and trended higher in left-leaning places. nationalbeargarden.substack.com/p/what-wisco...

TaxProf Blog: Bob Jones And The Conservative Case For Not Revoking Harvard's Tax Exemption The Atlantic: The Conservative Case for Leaving Harvard Alone, by Conor Clarke (Washington University; Google Scholar): The Supreme Court precedent allowing the IRS to revoke a university’s tax-exempt...

The conservative case for letting Harvard alone, and where the Bob Jones U. ruling fits in

Democratic senator at epicenter of Abrego Garcia saga responds to grieving angel mom | Fox News Video Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., on visiting Kilmar Abrego Garcia in an El Salvadoran megaprison, the importance of due process rights and Patty Morin's criticism of his trip.

On Fox, Shannon Bream presses @vanhollen.senate.gov about Abrego Garcia: "Do you worry, though, that you are sticking your neck out for somebody who maybe, down the line, is proven to be connected to MS-13?"

Van Hollen replies: "I'm not vouching for the man. I'm vouching for the man's rights."

In all seriousness, people have gone to jail and lost careers for far less serious versions of this.