Matthew Sheffield
@matthew.flux.community
🟦 Analyst and writer focusing on cognition, AI, politics, religion, and media 🟦 Host, Theory of Change 🟦 Writing @flux.community, but frequently quoted or published in NYT, WaPo, NBC, Variety… Signal: matthewsheffield.01
This will happen if and when JD Vance collapses among Republicans. He's too close to the failed Trump regime. And people aren't going to vote for the doofus Marco Rubio.
David Gilbert@davidgilbert.bsky.social · 2h agoNEW A group of anti-Trump MAGA figures are prepping to run a third-party candidate for president in 2028. The name at the top of their list: Tucker Carlson www.wired.com/story/maga-i...
The SCREEN Act just failed to pass in the Senate Commerce Committee! 🎉 Enormous thanks to the thousands (!!) of you who told your Senators to vote no! Your voice matters and you should feel good that you made a difference. Obviously, the fight isn't over, but this was an important victory.
Much of the electorate is fed a steady diet of D=communist, etc., which is rarely countered by their social connections. And they refuse to believe accurate reporting on GOP positions. So because a ballot issue focuses on a policy, voters decide what policy they want.
How? Democrats largely decided to withdraw from the interior states w very few exceptions. They did this by refusing to counter talk radio (this was a choice) and then dismantling Howard Dean's 50-state project. Currently, the party is trying to come back to states though.
@fogbaby.bsky.social · 13h agoYet Kansans still keep electing mostly R legislators. Can anyone explain that ?
Progressives keep winning referenda in red states. Kansas voters shot down a Republican attempt to stop judges from being nominated by non-partisan commissions because it was generating too many actually qualified judges who ruled against them.
Kansas just affirmed that abortion politics still matter
Voters rejected a measure that was yet another ploy to restrict the right to abortion in the state.
politico.com
Excellent voting by Missouri residents to block the local Republican effort to make ballot initiatives harder to pass.
Missouri voters block GOP-led effort to raise bar to pass constitutional amendments
The push came after progressives in the solidly Republican state found success with ballot measures related to abortion, health care and the minimum wage.
nbcnews.com
The Christian right has a decades-long record of using panics about porn and kids to enact censorship laws that eventually come to restrict adults' political, religious, and commercial speech. They want to ban VPNs and have a Great Firewall here. Don't fall for the lies about SCREEN Act.
Mike Stabile@mikestabile.bsky.social · 20h agoIf SCREEN were to pass, you'd be required to scan your face and upload an ID to access this site because it allows "harmful" material. This affects you even if you don't care about sex work or porn.
when you put it that way it sounds pretty crazy
Toby Buckle@polphilpod.bsky.social · 22h agomaga will accept as leaders rapists, pedophiles, white supremasicsts, wife beaters, con artists, conspiracy theorists, absolute morons, paid foreign agents, & people who are *all* of those things but you can't be even slightly pro-immigration, that's the line newrepublic.com/article/2138...
🧵 This Thomas Edsall column is extremely subpar. It is the case that "democratic socialist" is a slight liability, however, being endorsed by Trump or being MAGA is even more of a liability. Edsall does not mention that because it goes against his Clintonian conservative wishful thinking.
Larry Glickman@larryglickman.bsky.social · yesterdayThe article is on democratic socialism and I wish he had explored a bit what the term means in practice today in our post-Cold War environment. What policies are associated with it? Are they popular? Do they mark a departure from New Deal liberal traditions? www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...
This is just Clintonian conservatism. Republicans became the party of far-right lunatics and people who don't pay attention. Democrats have everyone else, including conservatives. "Reactionary centrist" is like saying "capitalist communist." It's an oxymoron.
WhatRWeDoingHere@voteblue4vr.bsky.social · yesterday@matthew.flux.community This is a reactionary centrist: (Edsall, not Glickman)
Breaking: For the 10,286th time the sniveling Republican cowards we knew would fold, folded. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/08...
Trump Live Updates: Senate Committee Advances Blanche Nomination as Attorney General
nytimes.com
Don't fix SCOTUS. Strip it of appellate jurisdiction & give it to a new court drawn by lot from the whole federal judiciary. Congress has the power to this & there's already a bill in the House to get it done.
Phillip Hallam-Baker@phill.hallambaker.com · 2d agoFixing the corrupt Roberts Court has to be job one for the incoming administration. Nothing can improve as long as the likes of Clarence Thomas are taking a million a year in bribes to be the FedSoc voice on the court.
There's no better way to wean the world off oil than to make it drastically more expensive and subject to the whims of a narcissistic simpleton.
Sarah Taber@sarahtaber.bsky.social · 2d agoAbsolutely unbelievable how solar power has taken off worldwide during the Hormuz oil crisis. You don't have to hand it to him, but Trump may have done more to finally kick off a global civilization of effete librul solar users than anyone else in the West
The whole midterm message could be a picture of Ken Paxton with the caption “he wants to look at your daughters genitals” and it’s a dem landslide
Matthew Sheffield@matthew.flux.community · 2d agoThe message "they want to inspect your daughter's genitals" would be astoundingly effective. Which is also why conservative Democrats who want to cave won't say it. In general, they would rather lose and be comfortable than win and have to push hard.
1/2 Trump is taking the reactionary Republican educational agenda into overdrive. Roger Freeman, an advisor to Nixon and Reagan, was the last one to state things so openly. Ignorant citizens are much easier to subjugate and steal money from. The goal is to manufacture public ignorance at scale.
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d agoPresident Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
Most current Democratic leadership is from safe Dem areas like NYC and SF, and so they (and their staff) never learned how and why to attack. Instead, they focus their attention on intra-party disputes, where nice-guy disagreements are necessary. That doesn't work against Republican bloodsport.
David Roberts@volts.wtf · 4d agoHowever horrible you think the Tate brothers are, I promise, it's worse than that. It's insane that Dems aren't making a bigger deal of the GOP embracing these grotesque monsters.
"VPNs are a privacy and security tool used by millions of internet users every day, and their use should not be treated as suspect. It is particularly galling that the SCREEN Act forces users who intentionally take steps to protect their privacy to identify themselves."
The SCREEN Act Threatens Privacy Far Beyond Adult Websites
The Senate Commerce Committee is set to consider S. 737, the SCREEN Act, a sweeping age-verification bill that would require online services to verify users’ ages before they can access any sexually e...
eff.org
This is such a lazy piece. It's like "this is a price control, and price controls always fail." First, it's not a price control. It's a government subsidy. Second, price controls don't "always" backfire. They prevent gouging in emergencies and help regulate monopolies.
USA TODAY Opinion@usatodayopinion.usatoday.com · 2d agoOpinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.
Support Matt! He does good work and understands the right the way few do -->
Matthew Sheffield@matthew.flux.community · 5d agoHi guys, I'm sorry to have to ask for this again but I really could use your support. My father died recently and now I have fallen behind on rent. If you could please chip in a few dollars, it would really help me keep going. I need to raise $10,000 asap to pay expenses. Thank you so much ❤️
We're still getting there. Please chip in a little if you could. I really have been hit with expenses and cannot continue doing this without your help.
Matthew Sheffield@matthew.flux.community · 5d agoHi guys, I'm sorry to have to ask for this again but I really could use your support. My father died recently and now I have fallen behind on rent. If you could please chip in a few dollars, it would really help me keep going. I need to raise $10,000 asap to pay expenses. Thank you so much ❤️
The effective federal corporate income tax rate: 1950: 50% 1990: 25% 2020: 13% Stop asking "but how we will pay for it?" Restore the corporate tax rate. That is how we will pay for it.
The message "they want to inspect your daughter's genitals" would be astoundingly effective. Which is also why conservative Democrats who want to cave won't say it. In general, they would rather lose and be comfortable than win and have to push hard.
Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 2d agoInsane that democrats keep trying to cave on this issue rather than amplifying the fact that it’s being spearheaded by bigots and freaks
RFK told Dana Bash that Lyme disease “almost certainly” came from gain of function research. Which is utterly false. www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
Lyme Disease Did Not Come From a Secret Military Lab, Contrary to FDA Chief's Claim
Bacterium that causes it circulated long before the lab opened, decades of evidence show
medpagetoday.com
It's in a report from the Heritage Foundation,by senior research fellow and Boise State University professor Scott Yenor. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The Heritage Foundation only wanted to protect women's sports when it was about trans athletes
Not anymore.
motherjones.com
They would literally end women's sports entirely if they could. I'm convinced that the genital exam requirement they keep trying to push on girls' sports to keep trans girls out is as much about making girls not want to participate at all as it is about trans girls. www.kuow.org/politics/202...
Transgender ballot initiative could require genital exams for WA secondary school students
Young female athletes in Washington schools would likely have to obtain genital exams to participate in school sports, if a controversial ballot initiative passes in November.
kuow.org
This is also what the reactionary right does with women's sports. They don't attend or care about WNBA, women's soccer... In fact they mock female athletics in every other context.
Kashana@kashana.blacksky.app · 3d agoLockdown people are so funny. They pull out their hair at the fact that schools were closed for five minutes, and then you ask them if they actually want to educate poor and minority children and they’re like of course not
Almost to $7,000. Thank you for your help! Please support or boost if could. I really appreciate it!
Matthew Sheffield@matthew.flux.community · 5d agoHi guys, I'm sorry to have to ask for this again but I really could use your support. My father died recently and now I have fallen behind on rent. If you could please chip in a few dollars, it would really help me keep going. I need to raise $10,000 asap to pay expenses. Thank you so much ❤️
Meanwhile Laura Loomer is fending off accusations that she’s a trans woman. Participating in right wing political discourse just melts people’s brains.
Dag.@3fecta.bsky.social · 3d agoMax Miller now insinuating that Bernie Moreno only is going after him now to deflect from the gay rumors. Everything is just peachy.
A caucus of violent, drunk ex-husbands controls three branches of government and both chambers of Congress.
The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 3d agoRep. Max Miller: "My former wife has claimed that during a custody exchange at my home that day, I assaulted her…If I had assaulted her, would she have offered to cook me dinner six days later?"