Heather Sharp

Red States: Less Freedom, More Poverty, Shorter Lives Nothing better illustrates each parties vision than how they manage statewide policy.

The bottom line is this.

open.substack.com/pub/cmarmita...

The free speech activist who built a list of professors he worked to get fired for their speech must be celebrated for his support of free speech, and anyone who quotes his speech accurately in context will be fired and/or face state punishment by the champions of free speech, do I have that right?

The Tragic Irony of Charlie Kirk's Death When the defender of gun violence becomes its victim, America is forced to look in the mirror

open.substack.com/pub/lexisant...

I’m a Historian. I See Reason to Fear—And to Hope. We can’t assume that all will be fine in the end, but history shows us that times of unrest are opportunities, too.

The gift link didn’t work last time.

Hopefully it does this time…

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Start a trade war with China. Escalate when they retaliate. Repeat until a near-embargo. Meet to agree on a 90 day pause. Get nervous about that agreement, so re-meet to re-agree to that 90 day pause. As the 90 day pause draws to a close, meet to agree to a 90 day pause.

The Threat to Free Speech in Trump’s Unprecedented Wall Street Journal Suit On the merits, this defamation case should be winnable for the newspaper. But the chilling effect is real and dangerous.

"It's time to have a serious conversation about America’s free speech problem. Let’s start with the abuse of defamation law by the president of the United States."

@kimwehle.bsky.social on Trump's WSJ lawsuit: www.thebulwark.com/p/the-threat...

Don’t Degrade Church With Politics Church intervention in electoral races is an efficient polarization machine.

Churches can now openly involve themselves in elections, but Elizabeth Bruenig argues that “what may appear to be a triumph over liberalism could in fact be a loss, the supersession of heavenly concerns by earthly ones.”

Listen up, weaklings: there’s no Epstein client list – and definitely no cover-up. Yours, Donald J Trump | Marina Hyde It’s the bonfire of the Maga hats. The real mystery is where their wearers got the idea of a paedophile conspiracy from in the first place, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

Listen up, weaklings: there’s no Epstein client list – and definitely no cover-up. Yours, Donald J Trump | Marina Hyde

Samuel Alito Takes Pride in Gay-Bashing With his majority opinion in Mahmoud v. Taylor, Alito gave bigoted parents a big, fat kiss—and changed the nature of public education.

My LGBTQ friends knew I wasn't going to miss the most bigoted decision from this court. In case you missed it, Sam Alito's opinion in the "bigots are afriad of picture books" case is one of the most homophobic screeds ever from the SCOTUS.
My latest @thenation.com
www.thenation.com/article/soci...

You’ve seen this movie before: Maybe Reagan guessed, Bush hoped, and Trump tried—but tax cuts never paid for themselves. Given the mountain of evidence, claiming once again that "tax cuts will pay for themselves" is no longer ideologically motivated optimism.

It's a lie.

Feudalism Is Our Future What the next Dark Ages could look like

This is very good. The outline of the New Dark Age emerges
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

‘You cannot stop this from happening:’ The harsh reality of AI and the job market “I’m really convinced that anybody whose job is done on a computer all day is over. It’s just a matter of time,” one engineer told Michelle Del Rey

‘It is a better programmer than me’: The harsh reality of being laid off because of AI

Red State Voters Approved Progressive Measures. GOP Lawmakers Are Trying to Undermine Them. In the wake of ballot measures that increased abortion access and improved sick leave for workers, a coordinated effort is unfolding across the country to restrict direct democracy — and shift power…

In Missouri, overturning the will of voters has almost become the legislature’s main business.

Lawmakers wasted no time moving to undo a constitutional amendment that legalized abortion up to fetal viability.

By @jeremykohler.bsky.social‬

Always remember: Trump IS consistent about the only things that matter to him: 1) staying out of jail 2) revenge and 3) getting rich

Tariffs are ultimately an excuse for him to get Fox News to fawn over his phony "deals" while he travels the globe collecting airplanes and family crypto bribes

The Godfather of the Woke Right A 2011 book by Pat Buchanan shows the deep roots of today’s right-wing illiberalism.

The origins of today’s “woke right” precede the left-wing version of wokeness, Jonathan Chait writes: “I happened to find a textual source, perfectly preserved in time.”

I’ve found it’s more visually appealing to just paste in his head at the inflection points

What did Pope Francis think of JD Vance? His view was more than clear | Jan-Werner Mueller Francis was as outspoken as could be without naming names, when he criticized Vance in his February letter to US bishops

What did Pope Francis think of JD Vance? His view was more than clear | Jan-Werner Mueller

Pete Hegseth is a pretty despicable human being, on top of the other, many deficits he brought to the Pentagon

But you should be even madder at the 50 senators who knew Hegseth was an alcoholic, a serial abuser of women, and a poser massively unqualified for the post and yet voted for him anyway

There are certain things you just don’t let JD Vance near:
- football trophies
- couches
- democracy
- popes, apparently

‘The bomber’s words sound mainstream. Like he won!’ Oklahoma City’s tragedy in the time of Trump Revulsion at deadly Oklahoma City explosion in 1995 has faded. But echoes of the blast, and its perpetrator, Timothy McVeigh, are heard today as far-right ideas storm the US

‘The bomber’s words sound mainstream. Like he won!’ Oklahoma City’s tragedy in the time of Trump

One of the sources of rot running through our political, intellectual, and media institutions is the total triumph of the idea that democracy means outsourcing your morality and point of view to a fuzzily incoherent view of what's popular. Total rejection of the idea of morality as personal virtue.

In Divisive Move, Democrats Put Books Back in Libraries

Liberal Activists Say Women Should Be Allowed to Wear Shoes Again. It's Not That Simple

In This Steeltown Diner, the Ashes of the Purged Would Tell Us One Thing If They Were Alive: Keep Trans Players Out of Frisbee Golf

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If you’re continuously stunned by the behavior of gerrymandered GOP representatives in the world of Citizens United, don’t be.

Here’s how to think of them:

They are no longer public servants.

Improving public outcomes is not their goal. Nor do they do better in life…

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Holy shit this piece is absolutely savage. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-new-gend...

Also, the totality of the scandals is, in fact, a distinct scandal of its own!

The Five Scandals (and One Fascinating Political Insight) of Signalgate The Trump administration's group chat tells a lot about itself

Across the last 48 hours, “Signalgate” has morphed from one scandal into what I think is best thought of as five distinct overlapping scandals, as well as providing some fascinating political insight into who has power and how decisions get made in Trump II. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/the-five-s...

It's been fully memory-holed, but Marco Rubio was elected to the Senate as a Tea Party candidate. He'll back whichever tendency within the Republican Party that seems ascendant and likely to move him ahead. Right now, that's fascism.

John Roberts made Trump’s authoritarianism possible. He could still save his own legacy | Steven Greenhouse The supreme court judge has emboldened and enabled Trump, but the president’s second term must surely have him worried

John Roberts made Trump’s authoritarianism possible. He could still save his own legacy | Steven Greenhouse

Waiting for Liberal Democracy in the American South Our country’s constitutional order is withering before us. In the states of the former Confederacy, democracy never fully flourished.

When critics go so far as to claim that there is no precedent for what Trump is doing in the history of American government, they are forgetting about the political history of the American South.

New from @aselrod.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/liberal-de...

a large group of people are gathered in front of a sign that says house of representatives ALT: a large group of people are gathered in front of a sign that says house of representatives

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAYYYY SMACK DOWN AT THE KENNEDY CENTER. WE’LL SELL YOU THE WHOLE SEAT BUT YOU’LL ONLY NEED THE EDGGGGGE