Michael Hobbes

ACA health insurance will cost the average person 75% more next year, research shows

This is a really big deal that will impact MILLIONS of people:

"For example, if someone paid $60 a month for their health insurance this year, they might be looking at $105 a month next year. "
www.npr.org/sections/sho...

pretty incredible indictment of NYT’s news judgement that Wyden just comes out and says the real news, while the NYT story is framed all about the posturing and buries the lede

Centrist/Moderate is great branding because it implies reasonableness but there's nothing reasonable about stubbornly clinging to pro-business and pro-upper class politics when the country is falling apart. This is an ideology like any other, and it's a bad one

Stacey Sobelman staceysobelman ICE is offering a $45,000 SIGNING BONUS plus $100,000 starting salary. I make $55,000 as a teacher in my 8th year with a Masters. It was never true that wE dOn'T hAvE eNoUgH mOnEy to pay teachers more. It was always intentional. Education has been INTENTIONALLY defunded for decades because an educated populous is a threat to power. Read the books. Do the work. They are TERRIFIED of education.

All the fatuous bullshit aside: I used to
work as a fact checker. I would have been fired immediately for writing or "verifying" this.

What on earth is this reply

similarly the numerous conservatives that NPR and PBS platformed and promoted did nothing to defend those institutions. if they are destroyed, the conservatives will move to sinecures at think tanks or right-wing funded media. they were placed there, in some sense TO destroy NPR/PBS.

Tweet by someone using the handle "Peter Enis CBS News" Peter Enis CBS News @PeterEnisCBS g... #NEW Astronomer CEO Andy Bryon issued a statement following a viral video that appeared to expose an alleged affair between himself and his HR director. The moment happened at a Coldplay concert in Boston. Byron apologized to his wife, family, and company. Statement from CEO Andy Byron New York, New York - July 17, 2025 - "I want to acknowledge the moment that's been circulating online, and the disappointment it's caused. What was supposed to be a night of music and joy turned into a deeply personal mistake playing out on a very public stage. I want to sincerely apologize to my wife, my family, and the team at Astronomer. You deserve better from me as a partner, as a father, and as a leader. This is not who I want to be or how I want to represent the company I helped build. I'm taking time to reflect, to take accountability, and to figure out the next steps, personally and professionally. I ask for privacy as I navigate that process. I also want to express how troubling it is that what should have been a private moment became public without my consent. I respect artists and entertainers, but I hope we can all + think more deeply about the impact of turning someone else's life into a spectacle.fi As a friend once sang: 'Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you." -Andy

Friends, I'd be skeptical about a statement circulated by a 20-follower Twitter account named "P. Enis"

the entire conversation around that story rests on an a priori that i'm not at all prepared to accept tbh

And then when someone like Mamdani does talk about things people care about (housing, affordability, transit), they go nuclear in their attempts to silence him

This is the problem with framing every scandal as a "distraction" from kitchen table issues: The Democrats don't have a signature "kitchen table" policy they want us to talk about instead!

If you don't have a good alternative just talk about the child rapist and his friendship with the president

If you watch the clip she cannot clearly articulate a single "kitchen table issue" we should be talking about instead.

YouTube video by Debunk the Funk with Dr. Wilson COVID Lab Leak: A State of the Evidence

This is hella good
youtu.be/eTlur4YIAo0?...

Hiliteapartments.com

It’s the URL wot done it

Hil!te

Have been biking past this sign for two years and only recently realized that it’s supposed to be pronounced ‘hi-light’

Harry was sending risque messages to nearly a dozen women and exchanging nudes with some. He was in an exclusive relationship with none of them, and one of the women, Carlee Hosch, even provided messages in her videos in which Sisson explicitly said, “Right now, I can’t do exclusivity.” Another woman, Sara, said she sent “explicit” videos to Sisson because she believed he was a person “who genuinely cared for women more than for just their bodies.” Come on, girl. Sending topless videos doesn’t exactly scream read my dissertation.

If you love 1960s racism you will love the 1950s sexism
www.thefp.com/p/the-perils...

How humiliating to be caught at a Coldplay concert

Post by Meredith Shiner Barack Obama's reelection campaign responded with a snarky web video being like "Mitt Romney loves Wall Street and hates Sesame Street." A campaign staffer sent it to me so proud and I told him it sucked. He was shocked by this. And I was like this isn't a joke.

Post by Meredith Shiner Savvy operative types in DC truly believed then and believe now that average Americans are too dumb to understand how government works or why it exists. Educating and defending the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—with its profound impact on people for negligible taxpayer cost—was a layup.

I’m sorry but we have decades of evidence now that “just explain it to the American people” does not stick. Meanwhile, Big Bird went on Weekend Update to tell Mitt Romney to eat shit and people ate it up.

Philip! I'm sorry to hear about your departure but excited to see what you do next. I signed up, looking forward to the next chapter

the power move is to act like a gay man and use every website as a dating app regardless of its intended purpose or user base

They keep demolishing anything that could inform/educate the populace. I wonder why?

And, uh, some personal news: This is also my last column for The Post. I was offered and accepted a buyout.
To answer one possible next question, I'm not sure what's next save taking some time off. If you want, you can enter your email at pbump.net and I'll let you know when I figure it out!

Much elite resentment comes from their perception that they are in a downward class shift, driven by the avarice of those in the wealth percentile above them; but accurately placing blame would be class treason so: always punch down

Malcolm Gladwell's Podcast Episode · If Books Could Kill · 07/17/2025 · 58m

Episode 42: Blink

How much damage can a pop science book about the power of intuition do to our nation’s airport security?

Acknowledging that the billionaire who did a Nazi salute at the inauguration isn’t a cool guy you want to be friends with seems like it should be the absolute minimum qualification for membership in the opposition party.

Voters consistently rank trans issues last in their priorities. Multiple focus groups have found that the biggest problems Democrats have is seeming inauthentic, chasing polls rather than fighting for things they believe in.

The Democratic Party's approval ratings are terrible, a young Democratic politician solidly wins a primary in the country's biggest city by generating enthusiasm and high turnout, and Democratic leaders think the move is to publicly distance themselves, even denounce him, do I have that right?

This is the reason I'm speaking out about anti-trans Democrats in the US. I don't want them to make the same move that Labour did in the UK.

"you can't get into college identifying as white" is one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

New York Post headline Andrew Como’s plan new plan to punish New Yorkers staying in the race

This headline