Not the Governor of North Carolina; got the handle first

Amazon has pulled its AI-powered Fallout Season 1 recap after fans noticed it made significant errors ahead of the launch of Season 2. https://bit.ly/4a8Pam4

Yeah, I've got to tell y'all... I live under one of the flight paths for DCA and the crash over the Potomac was not too far from my apartment. This really worries me, especially in the broader context of the incompetence re: air traffic right now.

These are the 'strategy tips' centrist liberals have been passing back and forth to one another over the Atlantic for at least a decade now as they crowd out and suffocate insurgent left/progressive challengers.

How are they doing? What grade would you give them? Do things seem to be improving?

This. This was the formative event of my generation & our entire politics in 🇺🇸. The structural break after which we were no longer a full democracy, when 5 Wizards In Robes decided they were a super-legislature & counting all the actual votes didn’t matter. The rest has been 25 years of commentary.

Trump is trying to preempt state AI laws via an executive order. It may not be legal The executive order is the latest in a series of attempts by the Trump administration to hold back state-level AI rules. But many Republicans are also uncomfortable with the effort.

"It may not be legal!"
FFS @npr.org, you don't need to hedge. It's plainly illegal.
www.npr.org/2025/12/11/n...

The "legal experts":

Censorship Does Not Keep Kids Safe KOSA is an alarming bill that would enable censorship and violate young people’s First Amendment right to freely access information. We must call on Congress to act now and protect free speech online.

Today, members of the House will vote on a dangerous bill that will expand government censorship under the guise of protecting youth online.

Tell your representative to protect the First Amendment and vote NO.

No, they didn't. They thought an on-the-record vote against extending the subsidies would give them a cudgel against the GOP and didn't want the consequences of a gov't shutdown extending for months...

I think it was a dumbass choice, but I think this part was calculated in.

MAGAZINER: How many veterans have you deported?

NOEM: We haven't deported veterans

MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea

One of the most blatantly authoritarian threats in a Trump term full of them

I think Bowman and Warsh are probably skeptical of integrating crypto into US monetary policy also, but (AFAIK) Waller is the only one who has publicly expressed that skepticism and called for regulation. (Bowman and Warsh are also more broadly anti-regulatory than Waller, which I dislike.)

In general, I think the actual Fed governors are pretty conservative on things like this, so the question is whether or not they can be bullied. It's also way I think the two non-Fed nominees should be absolute non-starters. (Hassett should be a non-starter because he's a total hack.)

When people talk about "the problem is old Dems" I think about the rep from where I grew up, Barbara Lee, who retired in her late 70s and was effective. I think of Thompson, who is extremely effective at 77.

The issue is efficacy. We need more Reps like Thompson.

Or, on the flipside, lots of opportunities for it!

He's pretty wary of crypto, especially in the context of national monetary policy and the need for regulation. I don't think the issue in this case is "pro-crypto Senators." I think the issue is that the administration may want to do some crypto stuff and would worry he'd be disruptive.

I don't like either of those three, but I think all are likely to basically defend the institutional autonomy of the Fed. Waller > Bowman >> Warsh. I think Hassett is unconfirmable, and I worry the admin will retreat to Rieder or Warsh and succeed.

The fact that Hassett's name is on the list is deeply unserious. Rieder isn't a serious choice either, but at least he's not on TV saying insane bullsh*t everyday.

Of Waller, Warsh, and Bowman, I think Waller is probably the best choice, but given his views on crypto, I'm not sure he has a shot.

MINNEAPOLIS: “All I did was step outside as a Somali American citizen, and I got chased by a masked person, assaulted, kidnapped. It was inhumane. If this is what’s happening to a 🇺🇸 citizen on camera, imagine what could happen to your loved ones.”

Roger "they don't want health care" Marshall.
This guy is a doctor. Worse still, he's an OBGYN. How's that for terrifying?

Stagflation is the worst case scenario, and the Fed is trying to hedge against this as a political calculation. Again, Trump politicizing the Fed, like the FTC, the FCC, the SEC, and so on... is beyond the pale, and GOP enablers should never be taken seriously on "institutions."

This is Fed Chair speak for "right now, everything looks pretty shaky." What I don't like with this decision is that the rate cut is clearly being done for political reasons. The politicization of the Fed is extremely dangerous. The levers they have can really cause problems.

Yes, because during the Biden administration there was an enormous influx of Afghan refugees as a result of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. They didn’t have credit; many were unaccompanied women with children living in groups to help with child and elder care. It was good guidance.

In spirit, content and intent, this was really no different to a Klan rally.

The exception being the wholesale absence of outrage in mainstream media.

This period of history will be an indictment on those standing silent, as much as the monster himself.

Yes, but I feel like September is one of the least objectionable times of year.

Leaders of a Catholic church in Massachusetts kept a Nativity display with an anti-ICE message in place on Monday, defying an order from the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to remove it. The display shows Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus missing, replaced by a sign reading “ICE WAS HERE.” trib.al/adPW46y

Some people have asked what I mean when I talk about the need for anti-corruption reforms. Here are some ideas.

What's striking here is that the State Dept's choice to change the font is *because* they don't want to accommodate people with disabilities, because this administration is anti-accessibility.

It is wild to me that Trump can be shoulder deep in the FTC, which is supposed to be an independent agency, and it’s like 35th on the list of scandalous things this week. Two of the most consequential mergers of this century and just straight up corruption.

I recognize that these people exist in America, but I cannot make sense of how a person - internally - watches a Trump speech and thinks "this is who I want in charge of the US military."