Go Sen. Booker! [checks name plate 🧐] Rule of Law is crumbling. Call it out, every time. Demand better.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Booker: "Ghislaine Maxwell is sitting in the lowest possible confinement after giving no information that helped us get one more investigation started and has been silent, and the man responsible for that we're about to make the attorney general of the US ... this is farcical."

Wow. Writing about John Leganski's book about Speaker McCarthy, @mattngreen.bsky.social unknowingly validates my forthcoming book on political capital, saying getting elected Speaker means focusing “almost exclusively on “member-to-member connection(s).” 🎯 misofact.substack.com/p/how-to-hag...

How to Haggle your Way to the Speakership

John Leganski’s account of his time working for Congressman Kevin McCarthy sheds some light on why the House GOP has become so difficult to lead.

misofact.substack.com

When did partisan diversity become a corporate objective? Just kidding! I know when. Anyway, this was fun, folks. 😭

The Verge@theverge.com · 2d ago

Bluesky's new CEO Toni Schneider on the platform's reputation for being a liberal bubble: "Yes, we definitely want that to change. It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people."

The only thing worse than academics’ typical email closings, are abbreviations of academics’ typical email closings.

Well that seems important.

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4d ago

“.. The disclosure marks the first time a bank has formally tied money laundering concerns to U.S. President Donald Trump's family business.” @reuters.com $COF www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

It’s not a panacea, but the fascists are getting 20-25% of the vote & aren’t dominating politics in multiparty systems. Also, Americans love to point to 🇮🇱 & 🇬🇧, which are two of the worst-designed parliamentary systems. Anyway, more & stronger parties are absolutely a bulwark against fascism.

Noah Berlatsky@nberlat.bsky.social · 5d ago

people love the idea of a multi party system. based on israel, UK, and really lots of other places, I'm much less convinced. our problem is fascism. if we don't defeat fascism, it doesn't matter how many parties we have.

Happy July 32nd to all who celebrate! 🎉🫣

Driving off care workers, farm workers, advanced-degree workers, etc. — because of a curdled nativist insistence that walling our economy off will mean better outcomes for themselves, rather than worse outcomes for everybody. Scarcity politics is rotten stuff.

Timothy McBride@mcbridetd.bsky.social · 6d ago

U.S. Weighs $100,000 Fee for Foreign Students Wanting to Work After Graduation www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

"Our first recipe is a chopped salad with iceberg lettuce, chopped bacon, hard-boiled eggs, and the secret ingredient, frozen blueberries. We call it 'Recalled Foods Salad.' It's sure to get you up and running." -This show, probably.

Brandy Zadrozny@brandyzadrozny.bsky.social · 6d ago

Someone posted this in slack and I actually thought it was The Onion. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

UPDATE: The dam is breaking. Six federal appeals courts in a row — including two *today* have now shot down ICE's mass detention policy, along with a 469-54 split against the administration among district judges. www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

5th federal appeals court rejects ICE mass detention policy

politico.com

Today, in middle-aged academics' rage, I learned that a paperback version of the course textbook I've used for 20+ years costs $265!! The electronic version, which requires students to read it through the publisher's proprietary software interface, is $98. RIP books! 😩

Crowdsourcing: Does anyone in my network know former Rep. Bill Archer (R, TX-07)? He keeps coming up as an anomaly in my political capital research, and I don't know why. I would love to chat with someone who knew him or worked for him.

A decade ago, Facebook was so worried about rising misinformation that it paid various news outlets to hire writers specifically tasked with publishing Snopes-like fact-checks. Today, the company is leaping into bed with a purveyor of misinformation to toy with a tool known for getting facts wrong.

So now we know why the CEO of General Motors introduced him. He’s using our money to buy/promote Cadillacs. Everything is transactional in this crass, avaricious administration.

If you had told me a > 2 minute spot, in a single setting, with 80% improvised dialogue, featuring an unknown candidate and one who’s been out of office for a decade, is one of the best campaign ads going in this age of social media, I wouldn’t believe it. And yet…

Josh Turek@joshturek4iowa.bsky.social · last wk.

Great game, Mr. President. 🏀 Iowa, you heard President Obama. The ball is in your court. Join our campaign and help us Push For Change: Turek4Iowa.com

These are very much NOT “polarized America” numbers. I also can’t get this graph from @economist.com out of my head.

Jenn Agiesta@jennagiesta.bsky.social · last wk.

New CNN poll: 73%, a new high, say Trump is not paying enough attention to the country's most important problems. Views on the war in Iran worsen, as economic issues remain deeply negative. @aedwardslevy.bsky.social has all the details here. www.cnn.com/2026/07/29/p...

The US will try anything but gun control

Upwards of 200,00 people may have lost their jobs today; or will in the upcoming days. There is a palpable sense of fear among the Haitian community right now. They need your support.

Heba Gowayed هبة جويد@hebagowayed.bsky.social · last wk.

My Haitian friend was just fired from his job. "They said I don't have a legal status now." This is likely happening to hundreds of thousands of people across this country today. Sick.

The inhumane cruelty of this administration, steeped in white supremacy, fills me with helpless rage, embarassment, and sadness.

Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social · last wk.

The Trump administration launched a plan Tuesday to channel hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers directly into deportation proceedings, a change that some attorneys said could lead to people being removed from the United States without a hearing. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering an emergency request involving a federal executive order on mail voting. ✅ The League of Women Voters supports secure, accessible vote-by-mail options for eligible voters ✅ www.lwv.org/newsroom/pre...

“Warning: the exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who don’t want you to love your country.” New signage coming to the Smithsonian uses language of a gaslighting abuser. We are in an age of American authoritarianism. Excellent piece (gift) by @philipkennicott.bsky.social wapo.st/45t93R6

Column | I’ve visited the Smithsonian hundreds of times. Warnings aren’t needed.

An executive order from President Donald Trump may be laughable, but it shouldn’t be laughed off.

wapo.st

This is what happens when you replace experts with techbros using AI. It’s insulting, embarrassing, and massively damaging to US reputation capital.

Alt USAID/ USAID Forever@altusaid.altgov.info · last wk.

We can't even. "A senior US State Department official displayed a map of Africa that was completely wrong before high-level officials from African nations, including some whose countries had been mislabelled." open.substack.com/pub/emilysba...

Senator Lee seems confused about how to Senator.

Josh Chafetz@joshchafetz.bsky.social · last wk.

Mike Lee out here doing his best Michael Scott

I look forward to all the reports & coverage about all of the internal problems & mistakes of all of these other institutions, in the same way that universities are constantly blamed (& blaming themselves) for “declining trust.” “Compared to what?” news.gallup.com/poll/712436/...

Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · 3w ago

“Compared to what?” is always the essential question when asking about critiques of higher education & universities, whether we’re discussing declining trust, freedom of speech, viewpoint diversity, or any of the other things.

an ideologically driven effort to destroy an independent institution and replace its serious and broad-minded approach to american history with MAGA slop

Trump Orders Warnings Placed at ‘Inaccurate’ Smithsonian History Museum

President Trump said the signage at the National Museum of American History would correct what a disputed White House report described as “extreme political activism.”

nytimes.com

Today, in violations of the rule of law that would be sufficient for impeachment in any other American presidency but aren't in this one because pathological partisan loyalty has rotted the constitutional order:

tony romm@tonyromm.bsky.social · 2w ago

NEW: In a stunning admission, the Trump administration admitted in court documents that it canceled billions in energy grants to states "based solely" on politics -- and whether that state was represented by Democrats and backed Harris in 2024. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

I'm actually astonished at how clean this graph looks as a diagnostic for our housing ills. Note how close it is to 1 at the start. Houses per single adult or married couple.

Much of what ails US politics stems from dysfunctional political parties and people who feel disconnected from their government. I join more than 500 political scientists in asking Congress to enact a solution: make proportional representation a reality in the US. medium.com/@scholars-re...

Letter to Congress: End the Redistricting Wars by Adopting Proportional Representation

Gerrymandering persists because single-member districts allow it.

medium.com

Incredible thread of ~600(?) one-liners burning Stephen Miller…that’s still going. What a skill, Prof. Kruse. 👏 😂 Some real bangers.

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 3w ago

I try not to overdo this bit but ... my man is begging for it. Let's go.

Maybe we could take a break from ALWAYS finding a way to criticize Democrats for Republican malfeasance. There is virtually nothing Beshear can do to change this situation. Place the blame where it belongs.

Steven Beschloss@stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 2w ago

The longer Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear fails to find out what’s happening or what happened with Mitch McConnell—and act—the more Beshear looks utterly incompetent and weak.