Dems badly need to start reckoning with the difference between our governance at the national level vs governance of cities/states I lived in SF & while I’ve always considered myself *much* closer to AOC than to Cuomo, the left’s policy approach in that city & many others has been, frankly, a joke

#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · last wk.

Must admit that I don't really understand what it is about Mamdani that made Schumer deem him essentially persona non grata. (I do get that El Sayed is a *senatorial* candidate, so the stakes for Schumer are more direct).

I do think there is an islamophobic influence in US fopo, but doesn’t this overstate it? We have productive relationships with many (most?) of the Islamic countries in the region! And to the extent that those relationships struggle, it’s because some of them act psychotic! (Khashoggi??! Sudan!!?)

#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · last wk.

"America is broadly Islamophobic, and so any enemy of Islam is a friend of ours"

Transportation secretary Sean Duffy benefited from millions in corporate donations to make a show about road trips. But two months after Duffy said the show would premiere, it doesn't appear to exist at all. My latest False Flag @thebulwark.com: www.thebulwark.com/p/what-the-h...

What the Hell Happened to Sean Duffy’s Road-Trip TV Show?

Three months after it was announced, the secretary of transportation’s summer show—funded by companies he regulates—hasn’t aired a single episode.

thebulwark.com

A law legalizing housing has ... led to a bunch of proposals for new housing. In Palo Alto, the car-brained NIMBYs are baffled & shocked. Oh noes, the "fabric of the neighborhood"!

New California law could ignite a surprising housing boom in Palo Alto

City officials didn't expect this flurry.

sfgate.com

“It’s not a fight between left and right, it’s between top and bottom. Which is why I met with a bunch of plague cultists for the most powerful man in the entire world.”

Weedle@weedle.bsky.social · last wk.

Sure the MAHA activists want to make it illegal for trans people to access hormones but they're so authentic and populist about it so

www.axios.com/2026/08/03/b...

Beef prices continue to soar

Beef sales are plunging and prices continue rising, as a global shortage of cattle undermines the meatpacking industry.

axios.com

at some point we're going to have to regulate media platforms

Scott McGrath@smcgrath.phd · 2w ago

🧪 Medical professionals are losing the attention war on YouTube. In a 3,958-video sample, independent creators produced the lowest quality content but captured the highest viewership using exaggeration. #MedSky

We can't solve a housing crisis without building more housing. Today we broke ground on the Casanova Residence, which will soon be nearly 100 affordable and supportive homes with on-site services for New Yorkers. Every new home is a step toward a City that everyone can afford.

Dems strongly favored to take the House in our new election forecast. Senate just better than a tossup: Iowa: 41% Dem Texas: 48 Alaska: 51 Ohio: 53 Maine: 68 Michigan: 69 North Carolina: 84 Georgia: 94 www.gelliottmorris.com/p/democrats-...

Democrats strongly favored to take the House, Senate tilts Democratic in our new election forecast (crosspost)

Our brand-new election forecast for the 2026 congressional midterms puts Democrats at above even odds to take control of both chambers

gelliottmorris.com

Update:

#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · 2w ago

Do people think someone who accuses her opponent of "blaming all his problems on Jewish Americans" is just going to endorse him in five days after she loses?

Coming out as trans convinced me that both things are true because Republicans are stupid and cannot see basic connections between things. They can like every trans person they know, think trans people should be wiped out, and not understand how the trans people they know would be impacted by this.

Squishiness on trans rights is a dealbreaker for me because (a) it’s a straightforward issue of personal freedom and bodily autonomy much like abortion, and (b) the right is obviously coming after us cis gays next.

ashley 🌹@clearlyashley.bsky.social · 2w ago

trans rights frankly is a top 5, potentially top 3 issue for me despite not being trans and not having any trans family being bigoted against trans folks not only hurts my trans friends and every trans person but is so predictive of further bigotry

it remains fascinating they got victory disease from Venezuela and now may have created an ongoing conflict

Hirschman@contextproblem.bsky.social · 2w ago

Everyone realizes the war isn’t going to be over by midterms right

really feels like everyone's ordering drinks at the neighborhood bar before it closes forever

Steven T. Dennis@steventdennis.bsky.social · 2w ago

WH/Rs plan to increase spending on war & farmers w/o offsets. No serious efforts underway to shrink deficits of ~$2T a year and worsening as population ages and Congress keeps piling on red ink. Social Security Trust Fund runs dry in 2032, leading to big cuts under current law.

Thanks to @scottwiener.bsky.social's landmark Senate Bill 35, this project skipped San Francisco’s famously Byzantine permit process and got approved in a matter of weeks, not years. Without SB 35, these 160 affordable homes would still be an abandoned McDonald’s tied up in NIMBY lawsuits.

SF Dept. of Homelessness & Supportive Housing@sfhsh.bsky.social · 2w ago

Yesterday, we celebrated the grand opening of 730 Stanyan, a new affordable housing community with 160 homes for low- to moderate-income families, including families and transitional age youth who have experienced homelessness.

one reason i am increasingly pessimistic about the future is that the Schmittian frame of friend/enemy politics is increasingly dominant on the New Right and that this is basically how the intellectual right talks now

lmao at Kamala being basically in the Zohran zone

Aaron Green@aaronguhreen.bsky.social · 2w ago

And this yougov.com/en-us/articl...

I feel like a lot of people are ideologically invested in a post American world that has yet to arrive Like no, sorry, this is it! This is the thing you’ve been waiting for! No returns or exchanges; feel free to leave a review though

Not all self-driving technologies are created equal. Tesla is engaged in consumer fraud that has killed people and will keep killing people until regulators step in.

David Zipper@davidzipper.bsky.social · 2w ago

This is framed as a feel-good story, but it should scare the wits out of anybody on the road. Tesla's deceptive marketing is convincing seniors that the cars drive themselves. In reality, a human must always be ready to intervene. If someone lacks the ability to do that, they shouldn't be driving!

It seems weird but ‘commodification’ of food kind of solved this? By encouraging investment & speculation that stabilized food prices. At least that’s how I remember it in my early modern history class

Isaiah Bishop@isaiahbishop.bsky.social · 2w ago

Ancient Babylonia recorded some prices on clay tablets over time, and you really can see that some years basic food and clothing is 5-15x more expensive

“When African exporters adapt their production and certification processes to meet Chinese requirements, they are gradually decoupling from the regulatory ecosystems of the US and Europe, making it harder for Western powers to reassert their influence through trade agreements or sanctions.”

Scott Lincicome@scottlincicome.bsky.social · 3w ago

"China’s zero-tariff play aims to lock in African loyalty: Tax-free trade with African nations marks Beijing’s latest move to win over the Global South from tariff-imposing Western rivals" asiatimes.com/2026/07/chin...

The price of housing is set by supply and demand. We can observe the balance between supply and demand by looking at the vacancy rate. Low rental vacancy rates (below ~6%) indicate housing scarcity, which benefits landlords and lets them raise rents. A higher vacancy rates gives tenants leverage.

NBC10 Boston@nbcboston.com · last mo.

Boston apartments aren’t what you'd call affordable. But they’re cheaper than they used to be. on.nbcboston.com/aueiOR5

This! People think primaries are more small-d democratic, but they're not: They put the nomination in the hands of a tiny number of the most fired-up voters (often not, uh, the most knowledgeable) - who can be targeted by consultants and pollsters much more easily than convention delegates.

Fed-up Republican@feduprepublican.bsky.social · last mo.

Agree. Primaries feed the consultant class who insist on poll-testing and message-framing to appeal to low-information voters. Would also mean MUCH FEWER POLITICAL ADS!

You can just do things.

Alex@mplsalex.bsky.social · last mo.

This is so awesome.

Write a horror story in 6 words. I’ll go first: Mike Lee’ll be Judiciary Committee chairman.

RonJon being the new chair of the Senate Budget committee is one shortcut to the last reconciliation bill being a total shit sandwich for everyone involved

Quite a quote!

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · last mo.

CDC stopped monitoring parasite now causing explosive diarrhea across the country

“‘Postliberalism’ as a term is really a rebranding of Catholic integralism.” By James Patterson, 12/4/25 h/t @thcarter123.bsky.social lawliberty.org/integralism-...

Integralism by Another Name – James M. Patterson

Postliberals would much rather spar over definitions than over the ideas and their implications.

lawliberty.org

I miss the great American tradition of not thinking about the president constantly.

Michael Cembalest is out with his annual energy report for JP Morgan and it's full of fascinating stuff, but this graph jumps out: Trump is succeeding in stifling America's clean energy boom. Absolutely ceding the field to China.