Spencer K. Pevsner, MSc

I saw how the Greens channelled voters’ anger – and fused it with hope. That’s why they won in Gorton and Denton | Owen Jones Starmer called the byelection a battle for the nation’s soul. This result shows Labour has lost that – and I think it will lose much more, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones

The politics of hope are back.

The politics of fear are in crisis.

New column on the Green victory in Gorton and Denton 👇
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Stunning and historic result in the Gordon and Denton parliamentary by-election in the UK.

The anti-genocide Green Party led by Zack Polanski has won the seat from Keir Starmer's governing Labour Party.

Nigel Farage's Reform UK and its odious candidate Matt Goodwin beaten.

This is the best possible result! The Greens are the only real left-wing party in the UK right now and have the capability to fully replace Labour and stand up to Reform - this is the way out!

democrats should internalize that this is what their colleagues think of them and act accordingly

Triceratops

Meet America’s new swing voter: The anti-system voter. (Or: Why Democrats should think through nominating AOC in 2028) A new paper finds anti-system sentiment — not left-right ideology — decided the 2016 and 2024 elections

Donald Trump won in 2016 and 2024 because anti-system voters flocked to him.

Democrats need a strategy for competing with anti-system voters in 2028.

This is, in some ways, a very strong case for nominating someone like AOC over Newsom.

www.gelliottmorris.com/p/meet-ameri...

You Know What? Maybe the Time Is Right for an AOC Presidential Bid She’s only 36, and there’s a good argument that she should run for Senate and bide her time. But she also could be a formidable White House candidate.

from the perspective of someone who might want to be president, the best time to run for the white house is now, not later. so if AOC is thinking about it — if the white house is her ambition — then her best bet is to throw her hat in the ring

She is exactly the right person for those low-info voters who want a big change and who dislike the establishment of both parties - they swung big for Trump in 2024 and only vote in presidential elections. Someone like Newsome simply will not be able to get them to vote for him. AOC is the way out

Something to note for those who claim that the American voting public is too sexist to vote for AOC: both times Dems nominated a woman they were the incumbent party at a time of high public dissatisfaction with the status quo. The status quo hate continues, Dems aren’t in office - now is the time

You Know What? Maybe the Time Is Right for an AOC Presidential Bid She’s only 36, and there’s a good argument that she should run for Senate and bide her time. But she also could be a formidable White House candidate.

"From joining Sanders on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour to endorsing Mamdani to her comments in Munich, Ocasio-Cortez keeps showing prescience and depth. Perhaps the right woman is staring right in front of us, and we should embrace her leadership." newrepublic.com/article/2065...

AOC: "Extreme level of wealth inequality leads to social instability and drives authoritarianism, right-wing populism, and really dangerous domestic internal politics. That is a direct outcome of the failure of democracies over decades to deliver."

He’s even dressed like one of the fremen!

Loving the Dune routine from that Kazakh figure skater!

Comic. [2x2 chart. Top left quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of dinosaurs stegosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus, velociraptor, and long-neck dinosaur. Top right quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of mosasaur, quetzalcoatlus, dimetrodon, plesiosaur, and pteranodon. Bottom left quadrant: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of penguin, egret, ostrich, pigeon, falcon. Bottom right: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of squirrel, stapler, plant, person, and bicycle.]

Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs

xkcd.com/3204/

[Standard caveat that people are bad at predicting what will persuade them.] It's funny that a "fight harder against Trump" message polls the best, and James Carville's anti-defund-the-police message is next to last.

Resistance Moms and the never-Trump Republicans have been right about everything.

Great, NOW who’s going to Fire all of these Arcades?

I have nothing of substance to add re: the condemnation of paleo associations with Epstein, but as the initiator of one of the more recent high-profile SVP ethics cases who spent months going through their process, I have some thoughts re: SVP's handling of ethics cases/reports.

A thread 🧵:

Screenshot of a statement from SVP that they find “no policy violations” in having members appear in the Epstein letters

Really SVP? You’re just going to ignore decades of sexual and academic misconduct, marrying a student AT one of your conferences, and every report I’ve filed (implying that’s what you do with reports) to defend famous Horner? You’d rather have pedophiles than students is your message?

basically yglesias, jain, jentleson, WelcomePAC donors etc all base their prescriptions for Dems on a statistical model that nobody can replicate, and refuse to acknowledge (a) that uncertainty dwarfs the detectable effect of moderation & (b) that the last year has proved their views wrong!!

Four people (including a brown-haired Mark Norell) on ladders remove model skull from Apatosaurus mounted skeleton

Hmm, sounds like we need a refresher. The issue of whether everyone's favorite long-neck is called Brontosaurus or Apatosaurus (or both) has *nothing* to do with which skull was historically included on museum mounts! 🧵#FossilFriday

I'm not joking when i say race science dipshits think people are pokemon, but it's rather less funny that a eugenicist has been an assignment editor for much of the mainstream press for the past six years

What’s the most recent activity that you did that turned out better than you expected it to be?

we really gotta unseat this guy. was happy to canvass for his opponent, Nick Simmons, in 2024 and would gladly do so again

ryan fazio go away challenge

I've been holding my fire on this, but this is unbelievably fucking weak. Resign and wander off into the suburbs, asshole. Take the rest of the caucus with you while you're at it

AOC: "An ICE officer had violently pushed a woman to the ground and he had come over to help get her up and that is what precipitated this incident that very quickly led to an execution in the streets. What we are seeing here is a momentous pivotal moment for the United States."

BTW when I say abolish ICE, I mean abolish it entirely and replace it with exactly nothing. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. That's it.

Skull of Scyllacerta, reconstructed based on scans of four nearly complete skulls.

Introducing a new Permian reptile: Scyllacerta creanae

With a tympanic fossa on the quadrate and no lower temporal bar, Scyllacerta challenges long-standing ideas about when-and-how hearing evolved in reptiles 🦎👂

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/pala...

AOC: An agency that is attacking U.S. citizens, kidnapping five-year-olds and using them as bait, and privately circulating the idea that they can violate the rights of Americans by busting down their doors—they deserve to be defunded, and I’ll take any step in that direction.

My train from London to Oxford was cancelled halfway through once we reached Reading, so we have now been provided with a rail replacement…taxi? I mean I’ll take it over a bus but it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced anything like it