I agree with Edsall: Dems should try to win without the support of women, minorities, LGBTQ people, leftists, or people who need/support social services and/or are concerned about gun violence. Surely there's enough rich white straight male reactionary centrist columnists for an electoral majority!

Larry Glickman@larryglickman.bsky.social · yesterday

From Tom Edsall’s column. I wish he had specified what he means by “wedge-issue attacks.” I’m also not sure what it means to say that Dems have been “vulnerable” to these things for 60 years. Presumably, he is suggesting that backlash politics has, on balance, harmed the Democrats.

are they honestly making the claim that the solution to sibling abuse is to not have siblings? This is some "all crime is committed by the living, therefore life itself is a crime" logic here

on Sophie Cunningham and a trans controversy that doesn't involve any actual trans people: defector.com/the-right-ha...

📢 Fall 2026 call for proposals is open! The Junior Scholars in Quantitative Conflict Workshop organizers welcome grad students, postdocs & junior faculty in conflict & security research to apply. 🗓️ 1st & 3rd Fridays, 1pm ET, from Sept 4 📝 Deadline: Aug 14 utk.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Call For Proposals: Conference on Families in Early American and Atlantic Worlds April 15-17, 2027 Hosted by the John Carter Brown Library (Co-chairs Julie Hardwick and Karin Wulf) Details at: forms.gle/QWcB23XGbwu6...

Personally I would love to see Bluesky expand. It shouldn’t just be the app for leftists who can’t stand Matt Yglesias! It should also be the app for liberals who can’t stand Matt Yglesias. And apolitical folks who can’t stand Yglesias. And, yes, even conservatives who can’t stand Matt Yglesias!

I often come back to the idea that this also stems from an inability or unwillingness to conceive that the counterfactual isn’t that there was no pandemic. It was unmitigated transmission and compounding illness and death. It’s like the gravity was never comprehended or the post-hoc denial too high.

Peter@notalawyer.bsky.social · 3d ago

it’s pretty obvious that a lot of people remember that COVID lockdowns were unpleasant and from there just extrapolate that they were therefore bad policy

"The Trump administration admitted that it terminated nearly 300 federal research grants 'solely because' the projects were connected to states that voted against Donald Trump in 2024 and had two Democratic senators in office, according to court filings." www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Trump administration concedes it canceled research grants in blue states

The administration said 284 research grants were canceled because they were in states that voted against Donald Trump in 2024.

nbcnews.com

i’m never gonna be able to fire a cruise missile yet the question of using my tax dollars for them has never been up for debate

USA TODAY Opinion@usatodayopinion.usatoday.com · 2d ago

Opinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.

this is just objectively crazy but i feel like it dropped and people shrugged because ya of course he did. thinking about what follow up reporting/commentary could be done to keep this on people's radar and coming up short..

Trump overrode his own agencies to deny 4 Democratic disaster requests

President Donald Trump cast aside bipartisan precedent when he rejected eligible disaster requests from four blue states.

politico.com

Insane that democrats keep trying to cave on this issue rather than amplifying the fact that it’s being spearheaded by bigots and freaks

Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d ago

An initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play

We need to make it illegal to film and post video of ordinary citizens. Where is the benefit? What rights do you have as an asshole, which trumps the right of other people to live in peace? Filming cops, fine, they are state actors. But filming private citizens: fuck you

People are owed permanent, well-maintained toilets & sanitation & sewage systems. When you don't have those, you are not only risking local outbreaks, but--as could be the case right now--you risk outbreaks farther down the line. Sanitation is one of the great achievements of public health and law.

Cyclospora Spreads Through Human Feces. How Did It Get Into Our Food Supply? (Gift Article)

The large number of cases suggests that excrement entered the food system on a “surprising scale.”

nytimes.com

Should I take my laptop with me for a week-long visit to see family? No urgent deadlines but could get ahead on some things that would otherwise be a little bit of a scramble when I return… Also I feel like my laptop is a security blanket in case of some academic emergency. 😂

This state supreme court opinion pulls no punches: “This court does not anchor Hawaiʻi’s due process rights to the federal floor. Especially one that keeps sinking. . . . State constitutionalism makes it easy to consider Roberts Court jurisprudence ‘white noise.’”

Eric Segall@espinsegall.bsky.social · 2w ago

“The Roberts Court sees only white. It refuses to acknowledge who the Equal Protection Clause was written to protect. The freed people, their descendants, and all others denied equal citizenship. The 14th Amend. is not colorblind. It never was.” Me? No a judge www.courts.state.hi.us/wp-content/u...

New in @politicsgenderj.bsky.social : Sanches & Espírito-Santo analyze 25 yrs of South African parliamentary debates. Despite high rates of female representation, women MPs speak less—and leadership roles don't close the gap. Presence ≠ voice. doi.org/10.1017/S174... GenderSky PoliSky

Out in the latest issue of @politicsgenderj.bsky.social: @rainbowmurray.bsky.social examines substantive representation of women in French parliamentary debates. Open access. 📄 doi.org/10.1017/S174... GenderSky PoliSky

"I don't think it's proper for Congress to do its most important job."

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w ago

Q: The war w/Iran is 5 months in & the death toll has surpassed withdrawal from Afghanistan. At what point are you willing to put an AUMF on the floor? JOHNSON: The administration is working very hard to bring this to a resolution. We're closely watching. I don't think an AUMF is in order right now

We’ve been on a 10 year run of colleges shutting down their most unique and valuable departments in favor of bland templated programs that they offer vacuous, mediocre versions of to students who just assume college has always been vacuous and mediocre in this manner.

ban them

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2w ago

Meta’s smartglasses mean any child can be covertly filmed. In the age of AI, how do we tackle that risk?

Just like this. Refuse to comply. Our organizations are made of us. If we don't participate when they choose hate? They adjust or they are replaced.

Kyle Goon@kylegoon.bsky.social · 2w ago

In February, USA Rugby banned trans women from all levels of one of the world’s most inclusive sports. What happened next was telling. Across the country, teams refused to comply. The story of the Baltimore Ferals, who are pushing back: www.thebanner.com/sports/rugby...

This shit with Taylor Farms is exactly what I’m talking about when I say you may say you “don’t do politics,“ but politics are more than happy to do you. The microbes political bribes got out the door and into your intestines don’t particularly care that you find it all beneath you.

This is an extremely odd halftime show.

Every time they make it harder for foreign students to study here, they're just jacking up the tuition costs for American students and robbing America of incredible new talent too.

Ben Allen@evodynamics.bsky.social · 3w ago

Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...

🎯 “An elite consensus that AI-assisted learning might be fine for hoi polloi but not for future leaders at the most selective institutions cannot be far-off now“ The coming class divide on AI: tech-free learning at elite institutions, AI-centered learning everywhere else.

Dennis Hogan@dennismhogan.bsky.social · 3w ago

Many faculty have been sounding the alarm about the problems generative AI poses for student learning. Strangely, some higher ed administrations seem have emerged as major AI boosters. Why? As I write in the latest @hedgehogreview.bsky.social it's a labor story: hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-f...

I cross-referenced my database of candidates against credible voter fraud cases. GOP politicians are implicated at 50x–38,000x the general public's rate. Yet even if every American voted with the integrity of a GOP candidate, it still wouldn't come close to justifying making voting one iota harder.

NEW: Aurora Police say an ICE detention center employee shot a protester last night. She is expected to survive. 42-year-old Brandon Booth, who works for the ICE contractor GEO Group, is being held on suspicion of attempted second degree murder and other charges.

It’s not the movie’s fault, but my dad and I went to see Hysteria without doing any prior research. Sadly, it’s a movie about vibrators. Soooooo awkward.

Defector@defector.com · 3w ago

What's the worst movie you've ever watched in a theater? defector.com/whats-the-wo...