Anne H. Putnam

POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success

mr president sir theres a story coming about how you intervened to help a sex criminal. no sir, not that sex criminal you helped….no not that one either…sir, please stop guessing sex criminals that you helped. ill give you a hint sir, hes a trafficker. no sir, not that trafficker a different one

The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation Federal authorities were chided for seizing electronic devices from Tate and his brother, and told to return them, records and interviews show. Experts said the intervention was highly inappropriate.

NEW: When Andrew Tate landed in the US, Customs & Border Protection seized his electronic devices. But @propublica.org found that a White House official told DHS to return the devices, emphasizing that the request came from the White House.

By @robert-faturechi.bsky.social & Avi Asher-Schapiro

64% of the country might say “we're too divided to solve our problems,” but a plurality of the voters chose a President who called his political opponents “vermin” and said the greatest threat we face as a country is “the enemy within.” I think there may be a stated vs. revealed preference problem.

their plainly stated goal is to starve forty million people until they get what they want, which is to rip health care away from millions more

that this is too monstrous for most news organizations to tell the truth about does not change the facts

When People magazine is doing journalism better than the NYT

I’m really starting to suspect that most of the tech bros haven’t actually read Tolkien, as they certainly don’t understand it.

The gentle hobbits save the “hard men” of Gondor, largely through compassion and selflessness. Not the other way around. The Christian parable is barely hidden!

I hope this has some impact. It's shameful the way MAGA / GOP use art at cross purposes from what its creators meant (and without consent, often breaking the law). www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...

HAYES: “Let me be as clear as I can — Trump is arguing in court to let Americans go hungry so they don’t have to negotiate with Dems over stopping some of those same Americans health care costs from skyrocketing.”

Why do young liberals love Zohran Mamdani? We talked to 3 elderly Staten Island conservatives who can’t correctly say his name.

Ezra Klein This Is the Way You Beat Trump — and Trumpism

I saw a poll a few weeks ago that struck me. It was from The New York Times and Siena University. It asked Americans what they thought the top problem facing the country was. No. 1 was the economy. That was what I expected. But No. 2 wasn’t immigration or inflation or democracy or climate change or even Trump. It was political division. In that same poll, 64 percent of the country said we’re too divided to solve our problems. They’re not wrong.

I hear it when Trump says, “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.” When I hear that, I hear something scary, but I also hear an opening, an opportunity: In the end, most Americans want America to work. They know we disagree with one another. They don’t want us to hate one another.

I will never understand the pundit obsession with getting Democrats to solve "political division."

Not only is this what they're already doing, but Klein admits that Republicans will never do the same. So elections will remain constant GOP smears and simping Democratic promises of bipartisanship.

Can Democrats Accept the Obvious?

The most obvious thing in politics is often the hardest to admit: If you lose an election, the best thing that you can do to make sure you win the next one is to find a message that puts you closer to the median voter than you were the last time around.

It is time to admit that Republicans won the 2024 election by running to the center.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/o...

I just hope Trump is helping Americans realize that they should hate the ultra-rich a lot more than they currently do

J. D. Vance’s Bad Answer to an Anti-Semitic Question

He has already chosen, what the fuck are we doing here
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Never take seriously those who ridicule low income people for having a smartphone or laptop.

“If they’re so poor how did they buy an iPhone???”

Because they’re trying to escape poverty, not the 1700s, genius. If you think basic tech access is luxury, survive a month without it.

EUGENE DANIELS: “You said diversity can be a weakness. What did you mean?”

CUOMO: “Diversity can be a weakness if you have antipathy among groups, Jonathan.”

EUGENE: “I’m Eugene.” 🤦🏻‍♂️

(Jonathan is the other Black host. SNL’s writers have nothing on Cuomo!)

Douthat writes that 2024, when Harris lost by 1.5% of the popular vote, was "an ideological referendum and progressivism lost." I wonder why he didn't view the 2020 election, when Trump lost by 4.5% of the popular vote, as a far more significant loss for conservatism.
bsky.app/profile/larr...

Did you know that over 1.3M active duty service members and veterans rely on SNAP benefits to feed themselves and their families?

Now you know.

I looked it up once. SNAP takes 2% of the US budget and 93% of the money goes to the actual poor people instead of to the bureaucracy. So it's kind of like if you paid $1000 in taxes, you spent $20 on the poor of which they got to keep $18.60, and you spent $166.66 on the military.

At the risk of stating the extremely obvious: the energy on The Left is not in the centre

[even by my incredibly cynical standards] holy shit

This video from Portland is a metaphor for what is going on in America. ICE trying so hard to get Americans to cross a line and if they don't, dragging them across the line and violently attacking.

Literally nothing makes sense anymore. I’m continually gooped aggrieved and gagged. I’ve started earnestly yelling “BRO!!!” every time I read the news.

Opinions > Spencer Cox and Ian Marcus Corbin Addiction and assassination: A nation adrift Megan McArdle Toxic femininity and the rise of cancel culture Editorial Board In defense of the White House ballroom Ned Price I worked for Biden. Here’s the gold in Trump’s foreign policy. Eva Moskowitz These schools are the answer to unlocking every child’s potential Iulia Lupse That public beach is no longer for everyone Leana S. Wen Answering your questions about using AI as a health care guide

The Washington Post opinion section is a thing to behold today. (Don't worry, I canceled my subscription, but old habits die hard, and I tend to still navigate to their front page during my news reading in the morning.)

Can you help @nurssseha.bsky.social today? Winter in Gaza will be hard.

Please kill me

By proceeding with the loading of my groceries in the car before seeking approval from alleged "cashiers," I forced the issue. It's a strategy known as "stake-driving."

no one is getting 'canceled' it is literally a primary election

Donor Who Gave $130 Million to Pay Troops Is Reclusive Heir to Mellon Fortune

In spite of the headline, there is the pesky legal matter that neither billionaires or anybody else can “give” money to “pay troops” or anything else. However, a great compromise would be for billionaires to pay more money into the general treasury through “taxes.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/u...

Tax the Mellon like it's 1979!