I called Barker to ask why her book skips over January 6, despite covering that period extensively. Her answer was telling:
Nate Weisberg@nateweisberg.bsky.social · last wk.In her new book, former Democratic operative Evan Barker exposes progressive follies, but her account of going from Bernie supporter to Trump voter is dazed and confused.
In her new book, former Democratic operative Evan Barker exposes progressive follies, but her account of going from Bernie supporter to Trump voter is dazed and confused.
Evan Barker’s Magical Mystery Tour
Evan Barker offers a revealing critique of progressives but fails to explain how disillusionment with Democrats led her to vote for Trump.
washingtonmonthly.com
Everywhere else, Catholicism is dying. But in Washington, it’s taking over. I wrote about the Catholic right for @nymag.com
The Young Catholic Elite Poised to Take Over MAGA
For J.D. Vance and his co-religionists in Washington, faith is a powerful means of ascent.
nymag.com
The first job after college now comes with an infuriating requirement: having already had one. AI is making it worse.
How AI Broke the Entry-Level Job
AI is not destroying white-collar work. It is making entry-level jobs harder to get, especially for graduates without real work experience.
washingtonmonthly.com
In a new @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social piece, I explain how this agenda from @repcasar.bsky.social & @usprogressives.bsky.social revives an American tradition of DIY progressivism that promotes affordability by using public factories to counter monopoly power washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/18/p...
The Affordability Case for Public Factories
Public factories once helped America fight monopoly pricing. A new push would revive them to lower drug costs and ease supply bottlenecks.
washingtonmonthly.com
Congressman Greg Casar@repcasar.bsky.social · 3mo agoWe make your prescription drugs cheaper by saying if companies won’t make prescription drugs affordable, we’ll just make them ourselves. A vial of insulin goes from $300 a vial to $50. That's a bill from @schakowsky.house.gov and @warren.senate.gov.
Slavery is up to the states!!! But also free states must help slave states enforce slavery.
My forthcoming book is about what happened in America in 2025, when an elected president tried to rule as a dictator. Pre-order here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/818503...
“Hondurasgate Looks Worse than Watergate and Iran-Contra Combined” — my @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social look at the giant bonkers scandal no one (in America) is talking about washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/12/h...
Hondurasgate Looks Worse than Watergate and Iran-Contra Combined
Hondurasgate is far more than Trump's pardon of cocaine trafficker and former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández.
washingtonmonthly.com
1. Amazon has built powerful pricing algorithms that have learned how to steer prices upward — not just on Amazon, but across the web. I have a new piece on how these algorithms work, and how they help sustain Amazon’s monopoly.
How Amazon’s AI Algorithms Raise the Prices You Pay
Amazon can steer market-wide prices without ever colluding—exposing a gap in antitrust law that the FTC is now fighting to close.
washingtonmonthly.com
Since Trump appears poised to try to pull out of NATO, Democrats should vociferously assert that pulling out of the 77-year-old compact without Congress would not only be wrong but illegal, @billscher.bsky.social writes.
Democrats Should Tell Our NATO Allies Trump Can’t Quit Them
Trump says he may leave NATO—but U.S. law forbids unilateral withdrawal. Democrats should tell allies to ignore any illegal exit attempt.
washingtonmonthly.com
I thought my National Counterterrorism Director was "weak on security"
FactPost@factpostnews.bsky.social · 5mo agoQ: You Director of National Counterterrorism Joe Kent just resigned today. He said he can't support your conflict with Iran. What's your reaction to that? Trump: Well, I read his statement. Uh... I didn't know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy.
Powerful, gripping new story by @garrettepps.bsky.social in @washingtonmonthly.com, about the reaction in small-town coastal Oregon when ICE and the "deportation industrial complex" arrived. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/03/09/i...
“Cocky Iran Hawks Forget the History of Blowback” — my latest for @washingtonmonthly.com washingtonmonthly.com/2026/03/10/i...
Cocky Iran Hawks Forget the History of Blowback
Iran hawks like Lindsey Graham promise that the bombing will be quick and decisive. History suggests otherwise.
washingtonmonthly.com
NEW @mattizcoop.bsky.social in @washingtonmonthly.com “sticking with the JCPOA … would have made sense. We’d still have our allies. We wouldn’t be alone, save for Israel.” washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/28/t...
Trump’s Iranian Gambit: It Didn't Have to Come to This
The president scuttled the Obama-era agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program, leaving us blind and with few allies.
washingtonmonthly.com
Shocked shocked I am that Collins is trying to have it both ways
Sahil Kapur@sahilkapur.bsky.social · 6mo agoSusan Collins: “I support the version of the SAVE America Act that recently passed the House.” BUT ALSO: “I oppose eliminating the legislative filibuster.” This bill has no path to 60 Senate votes. Republicans are looking for a way around it. www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...
To be clear, there is still hope for blocking a Paramount–Warner merger. But as @jonathanalter.bsky.social notes, we need a loud public outcry.
Washington Monthly@washingtonmonthly.bsky.social · 6mo agoJonathan Alter (@jonathanalter.bsky.social) has learned that Trump will kill Netflix’s bid for Warner Bros and help Paramount win, giving the president control of Fox, CBS, CNN, and TikTok. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/17/t...
Jonathan Alter (@jonathanalter.bsky.social) has learned that Trump will kill Netflix’s bid for Warner Bros and help Paramount win, giving the president control of Fox, CBS, CNN, and TikTok. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/17/t...
After Censoring CBS, Trump Will Go For CNN
I've learned Trump will kill Netflix’s bid for Warner and help Paramount win, giving him control of Fox, CBS, CNN, and TikTok.
washingtonmonthly.com
I got a contributor's copy (I wrote a book review), and started paging through it, and this is a pretty amazing issue. tons of eye-opening reporting/analysis of grocery pricing and affordability issues for starters. highly recommended.
Washington Monthly@washingtonmonthly.bsky.social · 6mo agoOn affordability, Democrats have the stronger hand. They just need to stop folding. The winter issue of the Washington Monthly is here, featuring @glastris.bsky.social, @jrakove.bsky.social, @alexbronzini.bsky.social, @billscher.bsky.social, @gooznews.bsky.social + more: shorturl.at/38NmN
@davidaustinwalsh.bsky.social calls @lkatfield.bsky.social's Furious Minds "a nuanced and sophisticated look at MAGA’s intellectual and institutional infrastructure," for @washingtonmonthly.com. Check out the full review here:
The Unraveling Right
The MAGA movement is fracturing between donors, intellectuals, influencers, and an increasingly radical base.
washingtonmonthly.com
washingtonmonthly.com/2025/06/11/t...
Trump’s Deportation Frenzy Echoes the Fugitive Slave Hunts of the 1850s
Trump's crackdown on immigrants bears alarming parallels to the fugitive slave obsessions of the pre-Civil War South.
washingtonmonthly.com
death cab for starrdiver@starrdiver.bsky.social · 7mo agoI see people talk about ICE by calling them the Gestapo, and while its not hard to see the comparison; they really aught to be compared to something homegrown. Because in truth, the closest thing we can compare ICE to is to federal slave catchers. The operation is the same.
Announcement from @astrolabe.bsky.social: "There's so much news about Minnesota that I can spell it!"
Can't algorithmically deprioritize a bus stop
Molly Jong-Fast@mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 6mo agoName them shame them
This Claremont twit is so fearful of “wine moms” with cell phones and whistles that he’s demanding Trump crush them with violence. Or rather, more violence.
Green-card holders no longer have access to the Small Business Administration's 7(a) loan program - the primary loan program for small business owners. The Trump Administration is determined to tighten the economic noose any way possible on ALL immigrants. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
SBA cuts off non-US citizens from primary loan program
The move would bar small businesses with any amount of ownership from green card holders from applying for the agency’s most popular small business loan program.
politico.com
On affordability, Democrats have the stronger hand. They just need to stop folding. The winter issue of the Washington Monthly is here, featuring @glastris.bsky.social, @jrakove.bsky.social, @alexbronzini.bsky.social, @billscher.bsky.social, @gooznews.bsky.social + more: shorturl.at/38NmN
Very pleased to be published in @washingtonmonthly.com today! And —“Bernie for Burlington”…what a fabulous biography!
Washington Monthly@washingtonmonthly.bsky.social · 6mo agoThe young Bernie Sanders was an oddball and a perennial candidate. But even then, he saw a reality other politicians ignored. @chrisirmscher.bsky.social reviews "Bernie for Burlington" by @dchiasso.bsky.social washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/02/b...
If this be "de-escalation," imagine what escalation would be like.
Washington Monthly@washingtonmonthly.bsky.social · 6mo agoThanks to conservative justices, the law doesn’t allow Trump to compel cities, like Minneapolis, to bow to his immigration orders, and so he used ICE thuggery. It backfired. Now what? From legal affairs editor @garrettepps.bsky.social washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/02/t...
The raids will continue; ICE can make warrantless arrests. Protesting is “domestic terrorism,” observing is “obstruction”; news coverage is “conspiracy”; Walz & Frey can be prosecuted for criticizing ICE. If this be "de-escalation" . . . washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/02/trumps-ice-problem-and-ours/
Trump’s ICE Problem—and Ours
Trump can’t legally force “sanctuary” cities to help ICE. So he flooded Minneapolis with federal agents. Here’s what comes next.
washingtonmonthly.com
