“There is a word for people who dispute the pope’s authority on doctrinal matters, and that word is ‘Protestant.’” —Mark O’Connell on JD Vance

Evolution of a Cynic | Mark O’Connell

JD Vance’s new memoir attempts to sidestep the vice-president’s ambitions with a shallow recounting of his conversion to Catholicism.

nybooks.com

A smart, beautiful story about the Southern coalition www.nytimes.com/2026/11/08/u...

How Mississippi Reached the Verge of Electing a Black Senator (Gift Article)

The echoes of history surround Scott Colom’s final push toward victory, but assembling the coalition that propelled him took hard work after many Democratic misses.

nytimes.com

Days after Laura Loomer placed her podcast on hiatus, Katie Miller announced that she's halting ger show.

"Jeffries and other party leaders, by linking everything to affordability, are setting themselves up to fail. Dealing with affordability is going to be very difficult. The thing they have control over is anti-corruption policies," says @adambonica.bsky.social. newrepublic.com/article/2176...

Something I never tire of in old-fashioned journalism: the local angle. Here is the @theguardian.com’s nice piece on @abdulelsayed.bsky.social’s Oxford years, including the fact that a local eatery named a sandwich after him. share.google/higy8sCkynw7...

Abdul El-Sayed’s Oxford years: PhD, political influences and sporting distinction

Michigan senator-elect’s former peers recall his time at university in Britain – and his love of coronation chicken sandwiches

share.google

unreal

FOX NEWS: The DSA had a really good night. But Third Way has cautioned against reading too much into that MAMDANI: I'm sure they have 😀

Warren: "I do want to be clear: If you've been making your profits by cheating American families and scamming your investors, you better get ready for some investigations. Serious ones."

The Washington Post sent me an iPhone push alert for this dumb cope

You probably don’t want to be pissed off on a Saturday morning, but I insist that we keep front of mind the ordinary people whose livelihood has been ruined and dignity compromised by this Administration and their cohorts. What will we do for them? Gift link: wapo.st/4enhBy5

Trump fired him. The ‘DEI Watchlist’ shamed him. Then came 500 job rejections.

Efforts to purge the government of diversity, equity and inclusion programs have taken a major toll on Black workers who now struggle to find comparable jobs.

wapo.st

"The results on Tuesday cannot be understood outside of the hubris of Trump and the Republican Party; outside of its belief that it had insulated itself from popular discontent; that it had, in some sense, won politics and that Trump had fully escaped the pull of political gravity."

jamelle@jamellebouie.net · 2d ago

one lesson of the republican wipe out is that it is very important for parties not to get too high on their own supply

Lolol

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “After Trump, there was no bigger loser on Tuesday than Elon Musk,” our columnist Michelle Goldberg writes.

Opinion | Elon Musk’s Very Bad Night

The midterms vote was an epic rebuke of Silicon Valley.

nyti.ms

Do you know how corrupt your administration has to be for this to happen www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson accuses Trump administration of corruption

On Joe Rogan's podcast, the senator from Wisconsin cited claims by a former White House adviser and accused Trump aides of catering to special interests.

washingtonpost.com

Hundreds at Tea Party rally in 2010 Media: Big story here. The People don’t like Obama. Millions at No Kings rally in 2026 Media: Not much of a story here. We said 2024 meant The People are with Trump; this doesn’t fit that narrative. Both had older protestors. Isn’t this just right-wing bias?

mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social · 2d ago

you know what was in retrospect a huge story that the political media mostly missed? no kings. the savvy take was that the protests had no juice because so many of the protesters were old. seniors are by far the highest voting propensity age cohort.

Mississippi election marks political earthquake in the Deep South ft.trib.al/7Sli08p

Mississippi election marks political earthquake in the Deep South

Democrat Scott Colom could become the first Black man from the state to reach the US Senate in 150 years

ft.trib.al

Put this in the history books under the 2026 midterms. It says it all succinctly.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3mo ago

perfect synopsis of modern Republicanism

The expansive and urgent Musk documentary from @alexgibneyfilm.bsky.social and @bleeckerstfilms.bsky.social is now out on digital. Highly recommend.

MUSK | NOW AVAILABLE TO BUY OR RENT ON DEMAND

An incisive look behind the legend of Elon Musk, the world’s most heralded “inventor-entrepreneur” who has enormous influence on the world in which we all live.

bleeckerstreetmedia.com

Trump’s 1.5% victory in 2024 was a mandate. Democrats’ 13.5% victory in 2026 is not.

We can't go back to neoliberalism and nibbling around the edges. It's time for bold leadership, rooted in love and — dare we say — hope. 📸 @marcmalkin.bsky.social

Couldn’t have picked a more broken person for the most dysfunctional White House in history.

Trump names Stephen Miller his new chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles

The ascension of Miller, the hard-charging architect of the president’s mass-deportation campaign and a MAGA favorite, comes just days after Republicans lost big in the midterms.

nbcnews.com

New from @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social: Voters just rejected the oligarchs and the incrementalists. Democrats swept the 1930 midterms too. What FDR did next is the playbook. “Voters don’t want to hear excuses for why government can’t get things done. They want results.”

Our New Deal Moment

Democrats swept the 1930 midterms—but it was what FDR did next that mattered most. Here’s what today’s progressives can learn from his example.

democracyjournal.org

So the Democrats go out and win EVERY STATEWIDE OFFICE IN TEXAS and The New York Times can still only find Republicans to interview? What are we even doing at this point?

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2d ago

In deep-red Texas, conservatives are trying to make sense of what just happened to their longtime Republican stronghold. We visited a men’s bible study as they gathered for the first time since the state flipped in the midterm election.

This is known as the "Caligula phase".

Lorenzo Salgado was murdered by ICE 4 months ago today. Texans have been adding their “I voted” stickers to his memorial in Houston. I just added mine.

Make him do it. Veto a minimum wage bill. An anti-corruption bill. An end the war bill. A stop ICE bill. A save medicaid bill. A lower prices bill. Make him veto everything people want. Create the contrast, electoralize it, win in '28, and then make it all law in '29. cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_ful...

Eduardo Bolsonaro leaving Texas as he fears being prosecuted by Texas’s newly elected Democratic Attorney General www.nytimes.com/2026/11/05/w...

How Did Flávio Bolsonaro Flee Brazil? ‘I’ll Take That to the Grave,’ He Says

From Miami, Flávio Bolsonaro is making unfounded claims of a stolen election and plotting to sway his nation’s politics from afar, even though his party is not challenging the results.

nytimes.com

"Turning Point is driving us to extinction,” said Gina Swoboda, the former Arizona Republican Party chairwoman who has feuded with the group. “They have become a destructive force in Republican politics.” www.nytimes.com/2026/11/07/u...

Turning Point Bet on the Midterms and Lost. Some Republicans Are Furious.

Candidates backed by the right-wing activist group did not fare well, and the results set off recriminations from establishment Republicans.

nytimes.com

My five theses about America after the spectacular midterm election. www.nytimes.com/2026/11/07/o...

Opinion | The Midterms Were Spectacular. Here’s What They Showed. (Gift Article)

Five signals from the Democrats’ extraordinary string of victories.

nytimes.com

Begun, the Narrative Wars have. But if Democrats are smart, they’ll opt for storytelling instead.

If Democrats Can Tell the Right Story, They’ll Keep Winning

Both parties are racing to define what the 2026 blowout meant. Hannah Arendt’s Truth and Politics provides Democrats with an excellent answer.

newrepublic.com