Trump supports a surprising variety of positions that are deeply unpopular with his base, from data centers to pardoning money launderers. There is a range of more or less folk theories for this: old Trump, checked-out Trump, corrupt Trump, of which only the last is really falsifiable. 🧵

We say “for all intensive purposes” because relaxed ones don’t matter

Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧@charliejane.bsky.social · yesterday

The word "efficiency" is derived from the old English "e-fish in sea" Saxon fisherman used to put electronic fish into the deepest part of the ocean to rouse the spirits of giant cod. This was seen as pagan and the practice was banned under Aethelred II But the phrase yet signifies a job well done

I think there's ~65% probability that Abdul El-Sayed wins the Michigan Senate race. Most of the ~35% risk that he doesn't win lives in the disinformation risk.

Michigan Senate readout | Joohn Choe

Abdul El-Sayed is positioned right now to probably win Michigan’s Senate race. Why do I think that? It’s nothing secret or technical: I thin

patreon.com

TL;DR, turnout is a necessary but not sufficient counter-strategy against expected election interference by an adversarial executive branch assumed to be hostile to the conduct of free & fair elections. 'Too big to rig' is still a good idea. That is a valid phrase. 1/2

You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention

I caught a bit of war work lately, so I've had cause to ask a question that might be interesting to others: why do sanctions requests for an administration you don't support? My answer: because patriotism is ideologically agnostic, and its duties are heightened if you disagree with the status quo 🧵

Alongside Matt Gertz's reporting the picture this all establishes, with increasing clarity, looks disastrous for Republicans if there's enough turnout this November bsky.app/profile/matt...

G Elliott Morris@gelliottmorris.com · 6d ago

This (from Tom Wood) suggests more than just the typical thermostatic backlash is happening right now. In sixteen months, Trump and Republicans have turned the GOP’s largest party ID advantage this century into a tie for its biggest deficit

A YouGov poll conducted in early 2026 showed that 50% of Americans "strongly or somewhat" supported dismantling ICE, while around 39% opposed it.

BLUF: an updated 30-day forecast of the Iran war prepared by a frontier model IAW Intelligence Community Directive 203 governing analytical tradecraft suggests that the likeliest outcome (~60%) is that "the conflict continues as a simmering, sub-threshold maritime-and-strike stalemate." 1/5

This is surprising but not unexpected news. I am no expert - I just re-learned what a ramjet is today, I sort of remember from reading some books about missiles last millennium - but two items of context occur to me as relevant here 1/4

The way that social media rewards conspicuous, public shows of moral outrage is morally bad, most people tend to agree, and ethically questionable at best. The real problem with it, though, I'd argue, is how it encourages people to think and act by rewarding shows of public moral outrage. (🧵)

"Human Capital Stock" is, quite incidentally, also one of the finest accidental band names perhaps ever uttered by a government figure

Allison Gill@muellershewrote.com · last wk.

There’s a reason they refer to us as human capital stock.

My man look like he about to ask Tim Curry if he knows how to Madison 😂

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · last wk.

My man looks like the mayor from SPIN CITY joined the Waffen SS

factcheckers out here like

Goodfellas Wiseguys Laughing Hysterically

ALT: Goodfellas Wiseguys Laughing Hysterically

static.klipy.com

William B. Fuckley@opinionhaver.bsky.social · last wk.

Large portions of the data center backlash are based on moral panic, but the the tech right VC types upset by it are very funny considering how gleeful they were about the demise of ‘legacy’ media. What’s that? You’re missing epistemic gatekeepers who would place complex facts in context? Tough shit

look I am 100% supportive of zoomers rediscovering offline public spaces but why y'all gotta use an acronym for everything

Bridgeman & Goodman argue in JustSecurity today that Congress should create a bipartisan Iran War Commission. www.justsecurity.org/155561/bipar... It's a great idea, I think wholeheartedly that it should happen. The reservations I have are about "would", not "should" 1/2

Face-eating leopards gonna need some Ozempic at this rate

As a slight aside, what the fuck, Australia

"You can never lick the boot well enough that they will let you wear it." -- attributed to James Baldwin

There are multiple factions inside the U.S. government trying to tell different versions of the same story about America's military and diplomatic posture in Europe. We've seen the results in the headlines of the past week. 🧵

I now believe that Tim Curry is having a good time in the afterlife

Who has eyes on Cher, anybody? We need eyes on Cher.

The next Rocky Horror Picture Show Experience at the UC Theater will be October 31, 2026. Never been, it wasn't ever my thing, even though I recognized the movie - and Tim Curry's role in it - were a big deal for the theatre kids. Think I'll go this time.

Primaries are over, so this sort of statement is relevant now: there is one similarity between sport shooting and activism - there is more than one total of course but the one worth remarking on is this: You can't un-say things any more than you can un-shoot them. 🧵

Iran's $30k bounty on US troops is illegal - not because killing American soldiers in a war we started is illegal (it isn't). It's because putting a price on a head is. That rule is American, written by a frankly *notable* racist named Francis Lieber in 1863, while Minnesota paid $200 a scalp. 🧵

Eight days ago the commander-in-chief of Iran's conventional army offered a $30,000 bounty for American servicemembers and I really, really, really, really, really did not like that he did that. 1/4

literally

The thing about the Jake Lang/Spiderman thing is that it's really kind of funny by itself, I think that's the problem with memes about it 🤔

"The defense secretary... said “at the Department of War, we do training, not tr***ies,” using a slur to refer to transgender people." -- Robin Opsahl, "US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joins Rep. Zach Nunn at Iowa State Fair", Iowa Capital Dispatch, Aug 17 2026

Joohn Choe@joohnchoe.bsky.social · 3w ago

"I tripped up on one question last night, regarding Taiwan. I don't speak politician. I was just honest. Of course, Taiwan is our friend. But I think people in South Carolina are more worried about boys in girls sports." - Darline Graham