Scott Orchard

“woke” is when you acknowledge that black people have contributed to the united states

Families on SNAP worry about not just feeding themselves but also their pets With SNAP benefits going out late, nonprofits are begging for pet food donations to prevent desperate owners from surrendering their dogs and cats to animal shelters.

With SNAP benefits going out late, nonprofits are begging for pet food donations to prevent desperate owners from surrendering their dogs and cats to animal shelters.

Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ Critics of New York City’s mayor-elect have said his pledges of free bus service and universal childcare are unrealistic, but in Europe it’s a given

This perfectly encapsulates how I feel living in the US. The republican party is an insane death cult, the democratic party is 3 corporations in a trench coat, and the "socialists" are just the completely normal left-wing capitalists you'd find in any of 2 dozen European nations.

If someone is warning you about fascism and they’re on Substack they’re asking you to do something they’re not willing to do.

Elections in democracies determine who administers the government; they do not alter whom the government is for. Under any administration, Republican or Democratic, the United States government exists to serve the people of the United States, regardless of their partisan affiliation. Besides, Americans are not as easily divided as Trump might think. Millions of Republican voters live in New York, just as millions of Democrats live in Texas. He cannot tell whom he is punishing by glancing at an electoral map. But even if he could, Trump’s acts of extortion have no place in a democracy. They belong in a protection racket: If you support Trump, you are protected; if you do not, you are vulnerable. If you donate enough cash to Trump, you may receive favorable treatment, including immunity from the law. If you oppose Trump, you may be prosecuted.

This is not how a representative government works. It is how the Mafia works.

Went back to the history of the Sicilian Mafia to illustrate something obvious but worth stating explicitly: The Trump administration behaves like an organized crime syndicate running a protection racket, not a representative government www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

The voices of SNAP Recipients have become political pawns. They explained, in their own words, what Trump withholding funds has been like.

New — While some states have received SNAP benefits for November and USDA is supposedly pushing through all federal payments soon, that doesn’t erase the psychological terror of the last few weeks.

I spoke with 20+ SNAP recipients in 16 states about preparing for a possible future with no food:

Predator: Badlands is fantastic and you should totally see it.

The absolute collapse of their stupid AI ruse — hopefully followed by a massive wave of tech regulation and imprisoning the politicians who enabled this — cannot come soon enough.

This type of thinking could solve a lot. What if health insurance executives had to put their families on their cheapest plan?

15 years ago, I said every social media founder should be forced to use and live with the default settings of their platforms. Now I would say that the AI founders should have their tools pointed at their families for a year before they can deploy them elsewhere.

Nuremburg trials is the moderate position

Zoned out Trump in the disaster girl meme.

never forget, HR is not there for your interests. it’s only there for the company’s interests

it doesn’t get any clearer that america’s betrothal to fossil fuels is about letting energy companies pick our pockets to prop up their obsolete industry

I have terrible, terrible news for red America SFGATE columnist Drew Magary unpacks the 2025 elections.

Hey yo here’s some blue meat from me on yesterday’s election results.
www.sfgate.com/politics/art...

Zohran has now gotten more votes, in New York City alone, than 49 members of the U.S. Senate did when they get elected; It's likely that, when the final tally is complete, he'll have gotten more votes than half of all Senators currently in office. *This* is what power and purpose looks like.

I wonder sometimes if what I'm chasing isn't just the masked bastards snatching our neighbors, but the ghosts of the life we lead before all this. Before the agents showed up, before the helicopters, before the tear gas, before the kidnappings. Before this latest Trump election, certainly, but before the first one too. So much has been lost. So many ghosts.

I wrote about ghosts. dansinker.com/posts/202…

basically every 2024 truism is dead. Trump did not build a lasting multiracial coalition or turn young men into committed Republicans. You don’t need to cave on trans rights to win. The pundits have nothing left to tell you.

Opinion | Trump Is an Albatross

oops here is the gift link

AOC: We know that Donald Trump has not only been convicted of committing crimes, but that the supreme court has given him a blank check to continue to commit crimes while in office. So we cannot underestimate the threat and the danger of this moment. But we cannot respond to that with cowardice.

Sacramento right now. Huge turnout.

The theme of this election night, yet again, is that Trump voters show up to vote for Trump and that’s it. If he’s never on the ballot again, there will be more election nights like this. I’m just afraid Democrats still don’t understand that and we don’t have institutions that will keep him off.

UNEQUAL: The rise of a new American oligarchy and the agenda we need This past year has been indelibly shaped by concentrated wealth and power. The 10 richest U.S. billionaires got $698 billion weal

This is some rough reading, but it’s important.
www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/rese...

A screenshot from Ghostbusters of that EPA guy trying to shut down the busters. The text reads A vote for Mamdani is a vote for the Ghostbusters. Only Andrew Cuomo will unleash Gozer the Destroyer and Make New York Great Again - Walter Peck

wow big NY endorsements for cuomo still rolling in

even @theonion.com could not have written this

“The thing that's such a credit to him specifically, is trust. They let us cook,” Borenstein said. “There's an openness to try new things.” That has included establishing an eclectic array of aesthetics for the campaign’s videos, built on shared principles more than a specific style. “None of us came from the world of political advertising. None of us came from the world of even political comms,” Becker said. “I come from film, documentary. Anthony comes from film. Deb comes from marketing. Donald comes from—Donald comes from outer space. None of us even know the rules of traditional NGO or D.C.-type political communication, so I don't even think it occurred to us to do it that way.” Having a candidate with a clear message that he really believes in helps, too

This is it. The entire takeaway from the campaign, no matter who or where you’re running. This is the lesson.

what if we had the hot dog for when you go vote instead of a sticker, like in australia

The public-facing side of American conservative politics more or less amounts to crashing out constantly about a bunch of shit that either you or the weird liars you listen to uncritically have made up. The non-public part, from what we've seen of the chat logs and such, is somehow much worse.

It's almost as if letting the ultra-rich own the entire mainstream press and also all the big social platforms had a downside.