Glen Cote

When Massachusetts passed a "millionaires tax" in 2023, conservatives claimed the rich would flee.

But two years later, they haven't — and MA has collected $5.7B for infrastructure and public education.

A reminder that positive change can still happen at the state level.

lol the united states is going through a coup

Someone on Twitter replies to me: "meh. buy american or stfu." Two hours later, in a separate thread, the write: "$30 for a single button-up is ridiculous unless it is decent quality silk."

This two-parter below is exactly why it's hard to make clothes in the United States.

Let's look at how much it costs to produce a button-up shirt in the US. 🧵

Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson

Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later.

harpers.org/archive/1941...

To say he is not meeting the moment would be an understatement. Shameful.

So far today, Chuck Schumer has said his strategy for preventing Trump sending troops into blue cities is to win over Republican senators (!) while Hakeem Jeffries praised Eric Adams's courage and authenticity (!!) while refusing to endorse Mamdani. Again.

These two gotta go.

It is really funny that Jimmy Kimmel Live showed more moral fortitude and adherence to a system of values than Columbia University

If they had a right-wing, “tough-on-crime” coded mayor there would be endless national profiles about him and how he finally brought sanity back to Chicago.

Top 10 American Fears of 2024 (Chapman Survey) Horizontal bar chart ranking the top fears of Americans (percentage “afraid” or “very afraid”): 1. Corrupt government officials (65.2%, top fear for years). 2. Loved ones becoming seriously ill (58.4%). 3. Cyberterrorism (58.3%). 4. Loved ones dying (57.8%). 5. Russia using nuclear weapons (55.8%). 6. Not having enough money for the future (55.7%). 7. U.S. becoming involved in another world war (55.0%). 8. North Korea using nuclear weapons (55.0%). 9. Terrorist attack (52.7%). 10. Biological warfare (52.5%). Red bars display percentages; small arrows indicate change from 2023 rankings.

Top Public Worries in the U.S. (Yale & GMU poll, May 2025) Stacked bar chart of worries among U.S. adults. Categories ranked by share “very worried”: • Government corruption (54% very worried, top issue). • Other leading concerns: cost of living (48%), the economy (47%), state of democracy (44%), disruption of federal services (44%), cultural/social divisions (36%), treatment of immigrants (35%), global warming (29%), crime (26%). • Lower worries include job security (17%), health (16%), and being targeted because of identity/beliefs (15%). Green shades show “very/somewhat worried,” yellow/orange shades show “not very/not at all worried.

Perceptions of Federal Government Problems (AP-NORC poll) Bar chart showing the percentage of U.S. adults who consider various issues in the federal government to be a major problem, minor problem, or not a problem. • Corruption: Overall 70% major, 22% minor, 7% not a problem. Higher among Republicans (78%) than Democrats (63%). • Inefficiency: 65% major overall, with Republicans (81%) much higher than Democrats (55%). • Red tape (bureaucracy): 59% major overall, with Republicans (73%) higher than Democrats (47%). • Civil servants unwilling to implement president’s agenda: More partisan split—Republicans 56% major problem, Democrats 20% major problem; overall 34% major, 36% minor, 28% not a problem. Title: “Majority of the public believe corruption, inefficiency, and red tape are major problems in the federal government.

Word Cloud of How People Describe American Government (Berkeley Democracy Policy Lab) Large central word: “Corrupt.” Other prominent words: Broken, Chaotic, Dysfunctional, Shit, Clueless, Divided, Inefficient, Crooked, Hijacked, Justice, Woke, Bloated, Untrustworthy, Hopeless, Frustrated, Disastrous, Messy, Sneaky, Turmoil, Delusional. Smaller scattered words include both negative and neutral terms such as Crap, Important, Poder, Resilient, Unfocused, Needs Help. Visual emphasizes “Corrupt” as the dominant public perception.

I’m starting to notice a trend in the polling data…

—Top Public Worry: Corruption

—Biggest problem in Fed Gov: Corruption

—Top fear: Corruption

—What one word would you use to describe American government?: “Corrupt”

It’s almost like voters are trying to tell us something.

Cities make America great

Why do headlines say "norms shattered" when what is meant is "laws broken" or "Constitution violated"?

Medicare for All - "That's socialism!"

Social Security - "That's socialism!"

Debt free education - "That's socialism!"

Universal childcare - "That's socialism!"

Bailing out a failed libertarian austerity agenda in Argentina...

"That's just how it is."

What America is going through is not unusual in historical terms. Plenty of examples like it today elsewhere in the world.
What makes it unusual is the rapid collapse from a set of widely espoused norms and values that centered on liberty. It is the sacking of the shining city on hill that shocks.

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Silly Jimmy Kimmel. He should have just called for all homeless people to be killed and he’d still have a job.

We’ve been living through 72 nonstop hours of this exact tweet

New Mexico will be the first state to make child care free The program, which is expected to save families $12,000 per child annually, is available to all residents regardless of income.

New Mexico's economy is a fraction of the size of New York City's.

If they can enact universal childcare — and relieve working families of a crushing cost burden — surely we can too.

It's just a question of political will.

Sure seems like Big Pharma spent way way more energy, money and lobbying capital on fighting Dems on prescription drugs than doing anything about the Secretary of HHS casually, and without any real evidence, telling everyone their products kill kids and give them autism.

State Rep. James Talarico to jump in Texas Senate race The rising star has been flirting with a bid as Democrats look to flip the Lone Star state.

EXCLUSIVE: State Rep. James Talarico will jump into the Texas Senate race.

Here are the Top 5 Dogs of the week!

Exclusive | Democrats Get Lowest Rating From Voters in 35 Years, WSJ Poll Finds Republicans are seen as better at handling most issues that decide elections despite respondents’ unease with President Trump over the economy, tariffs and foreign policy.

“The Democratic brand is so bad that they don’t have the credibility to be a critic of Trump or the Republican Party.”

You can’t fix a problem without acknowledging its existence. We need new Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate.

There’s a lot to be angry about with mainstream media.

But the Wall Street Journal got personally and directly threatened by the President of the United States. And they said ‘fuck you’ and ran their well-sourced story anyway.

Credit.

Trump's approval hits new low as Epstein pressure mounts The news is all about tariffs, deportations, and Trump's Epstein Files shenanigans. He's underwater on all three

Re: Trump's Epstein files approval, I can't remember a presidential policy this far underwater ever. Having a hard time wrapping my head around the 20:1 ratio between the percent of people who want him to release the files (79%) and those that don't (4%).

Hello, I like money.

Sam Altman saying he might vote Republican:

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

A Nazi owns Twitter, right wing billionaires own the Wall Street Journal and the LA Times, and CBS is run by a right wing nepo baby who just fired one of the network’s biggest stars for criticizing Donald Trump. Here’s why America has a left-wing media bias problem.

truly insane that while the NY times was trying to beat chris rufo the the scoop on mamdani's SAT scores, the murdoch owned wall street journal was uncovering evidence of trump's close ties to the leader of an elite pedo ring

WSJ has a serious investigative news desk bc their non-opinion stuff has to reliably inform people in the business/finance worlds of the social conditions that will shape the economy. the NYT politics desk and senior leadership, otoh, seem to have decided their core mission is to discipline the left

Elon Musk's controversial Grok AI lands contract with Pentagon The Department of Defense is set to begin using Musk's controversial chatbot Grok, according to a Monday announcement.

Just a week ago, Grok spewed racist, Nazi rhetoric across this platform.

Yesterday, it won a $200M contract from Trump's DOD.

Show me your budget, and I'll show you what you value.
www.newsweek.com/elon-musks-c...