Author | Lightnews

sekharn @sekharn.bsky.social · 49m

Man, how is it not the cowboys (cries in cowboys fan)

Reposted by sekharn

Denny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 55m

the problem of course is that there are 30 million americans who would stand in a bread line, hungry and jobless, and deny there is a recession

3 6 69

Reposted by sekharn

Denny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 1h

do you have any idea how bad things must be behind the scenes - how hellish the underlying data must be - for this guy to say something like this

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11h

TAPPER: Do you agree that the US is at risk of a recession?

BESSENT: I believe we are in a transition period here. I think we're in good shape, but there are sectors of the economy that are in recession

4 33 180

Reposted by sekharn

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 11h

Klein is right that Dems have to win in red states and that the party should be engaging in some soul-searching right now.

But the soul-searching should begin with basic facts. Moderation *is* the current strategy and Dems are losing despite having a popular agenda. More of the same won't fix it.

35 120 1.2K

Reposted by sekharn

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 11h

There's also a weird conventional wisdom forming that the Democratic agenda is toxically unpopular and that Republicans are delivering what voters want.

This is laughably false. Trump is the most unpopular president in modern history and his entire agenda is underwater.

One worry I have about Democrats right now is that they do not want to confront how much of the country disagrees with them.

First, Trump did moderate the Republican Party in crucial areas: Medicare, Social Security and trade.

47 250 1.6K

Reposted by sekharn

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 11h

I will never understand the pundit obsession with getting Democrats to solve "political division."

Not only is this what they're already doing, but Klein admits that Republicans will never do the same. So elections will remain constant GOP smears and simping Democratic promises of bipartisanship.

Ezra Klein

This Is the Way You Beat Trump — and Trumpism

I saw a poll a few weeks ago that struck me. It was from The New York Times and Siena University. It asked Americans what they thought the top problem facing the country was. No. 1 was the economy. That was what I expected. But No. 2 wasn’t immigration or inflation or democracy or climate change or even Trump. It was political division. In that same poll, 64 percent of the country said we’re too divided to solve our problems. They’re not wrong.

I hear it when Trump says, “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.” When I hear that, I hear something scary, but I also hear an opening, an opportunity: In the end, most Americans want America to work. They know we disagree with one another. They don’t want us to hate one another.

140 550 3K

Reposted by sekharn

Nick Davis @ntd.bsky.social · 14h

The Democratic Party has many faults but alleging that the party’s declining popularity or success is rooted in some sort of global leftward ideological drift is pretty funny.

A pundit makes a claim about ideology divorced from what the data imply: democrats have objectively not become some bogeyman bunch of left wing loonies.

29 110 420

Reposted by sekharn

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 4d

Everybody's talking about Dem strategy, so here's something to add to the mix.

I start with this premise: The best and most reliable indicator of whether someone will vote red or blue is the density of the place they live. More dense, more likely to be blue, & vice versa.

77 180 1.2K

Reposted by sekharn

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

Vs. Republicans in Louisiana:

4 41 180

Reposted by sekharn

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

As I've said many times, the most sensible way to determine what the party wants & prioritizes is by looking at what it does when it has power to act, namely, when it has a trifecta at the state level. Take Minnesota:

10 250 970

Reposted by sekharn

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

And to be clear, most Dem-leaning pundits *also* discuss the bogieman rather than the reality. They are so far up the ass of DC conventional wisdom that the bogieman is more real than the reality to them. It's more real to *everyone* at this point.

3 31 210

Reposted by sekharn

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

The reality of the Democratic Party -- what its elected officials actually do with the power they are given -- is almost entirely immaterial to US political discourse. Happens off-stage, basically.

Discourse is dominated by a kind of collective hallucination, a bogieman invented by its opponents.

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 1d

This right here, this exact sentence, is THE problem in American political journalism.

The IRA *was* cheap energy and good jobs! That was the whole bill! Democrats did precisely what political pundits are telling them to do and the pundits just ignore it.

the party now cared more about climate change and various academic fixations than cheap energy and good-paying jobs.

23 240 1.1K

Reposted by sekharn

Dr Aunt Tara Goddard @drtaragoddard.com · 1d

Students can't even buy a hot meal at the campus market. Pretty sure they aren't getting weaves and manicures ([sic] racist).

bsky.app/profile/drta...

Dr Aunt Tara Goddard @drtaragoddard.com · 2d

Reminder: another group of people who may rely on SNAP is students. If you live in a college town and/or feel connected to your alma mater, please consider calling up the campus food bank and asking what they need - money, types of food etc.

The paternalism of this flyer is painful when you see it.

A flyer at the register of an on-campus market at Cal Poly SLO explains how SNAP benefits can and can't be used at the store. Annoyingly, it can't be used for hot food.

5 4

Reposted by sekharn

Sara Luterman @slooterman.bsky.social · 1d

You can’t even use SNAP to buy a hot rotisserie chicken unless you live in a state with a special waiver.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

ROB SCHMITT: People are using SNAP benefits to get their nails done, to get their weaves and their hair. This is a really ugly program.

SEN. RON JOHNSON: That program needs to be dramatically reformed.

140 720 3.1K

Reposted by sekharn

Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 1d

It's baffling to me that the people who believe "Throwing an ever expanding amount of public money at a solution that in 200 years has failed to produce safety for all and also hurts innocent people" get to frame themselves as the "Reasonable" ones who "live in reality"

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 16d

www.cnbc.com/2025/10/16/a...

Unusually thorough piece about the Flock/Ring pairing. The quotes from Flock CEO vs. those from EFF are a useful contrast for how the same terms are deployed in vastly different ways, with Langley asserting that a privately owned panopticon somehow constitutes safety.

Langley says for some critics, such as privacy focused organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which have long criticized Ring and similar technologies, there is no reasonable debate left to hold. “There is a certain part of the country that just doesn’t prioritize safety, and like us, Jamie [Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, who recently returned to active leadership of the company] does, and I believe everyone has a right to be safe and people should be held accountable if they commit a crime,” Langley said.

For critics of use of surveillance technology in law enforcement, “There is nothing we can do other than shut down our business,” Langley said. “They live in a world of hypotheticals and I live in a world of realities, and we have to do something about it.”

EFF argues that the reality of surveillance technology is uncovering abuses.

“Of course people have a right to be safe, but what companies like Flock and Ring fail to acknowledge is that their technology doesn’t make people safer, it just subjects them to a round-the-clock warrantless digital dragnet that keeps tabs on everyone whether or not they’re suspected of any crime,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Jennifer Pinsof. “That’s an affront to our freedoms, and a recipe for abuse and real harm especially in increasingly authoritarian times. Privacy isn’t dangerous, but giving privacy up for a false sense of security is very dangerous,” she added.

3 23 75

Reposted by sekharn

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 16d

www.cnbc.com/2025/10/16/a...

Unusually thorough piece about the Flock/Ring pairing. The quotes from Flock CEO vs. those from EFF are a useful contrast for how the same terms are deployed in vastly different ways, with Langley asserting that a privately owned panopticon somehow constitutes safety.

2 24 59

Reposted by sekharn

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

genuinely crazy-making how much the national press is indifferent to the verifiable fact that jd vance is buddy buddy with internet nazis, and the degree to which this is almost certainly a form of solidarity among people with a similar institution pedigree

Microplastics Sommelier @leastactionhero.bsky.social · 1d

mainstream media report on jd vance’s twitter mutuals, challenge level: impossible

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 1d

He has already chosen, what the fuck are we doing here
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

82 1.7K 8.3K

Reposted by sekharn

Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 1d

can't believe outlets are running moral-panic headlines again based on flimsy anecdata from the *same* trade group (the national retailer federation) and sponsored by the *same* anti-theft company (sensormatic) that had to retract this *same* "study" just two years ago for being bogus.

Retailers Dealing With Increasing Levels of Theft and Violence

Report emphasizes importance of preventive measures, coordination with law enforcement

progressivegrocer.com

63 1.1K 3.3K

Reposted by sekharn

Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 1d

I have watched as so-called "compromise" positions on transgender people's rights have failed over and over--in statehouses, the Biden White House, and in liberal rhetoric. There is no middle ground acceptable to the politicians, activists, and billionaires obsessed with trans people and our lives.

33 590 2.7K

Reposted by sekharn

Charles Johnson @charles.littlegreenfootballs.com · 2d

It’s heartbreaking and deeply enraging. These people are monsters, dragging the nation into an anti-science abyss.

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 2d

Can't overstate how fucked up it is that unraveling what is arguably the greatest achievement in the history of humanity is now a motivating issue of one of the two dominant parties in the U.S.

Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 3d

FL is moving forward w/ plan to end all childhood vaccine mandates. Starting with hepatitis B, chickenpox, and the bacteria causing meningitis and pneumonia. Then next year GOP FL legislature is expected to revisit 1977 law re: whooping cough, measles, polio, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, and tetanus.

1 11 62

Reposted by sekharn

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 2d

Can't overstate how fucked up it is that unraveling what is arguably the greatest achievement in the history of humanity is now a motivating issue of one of the two dominant parties in the U.S.

Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 3d

FL is moving forward w/ plan to end all childhood vaccine mandates. Starting with hepatitis B, chickenpox, and the bacteria causing meningitis and pneumonia. Then next year GOP FL legislature is expected to revisit 1977 law re: whooping cough, measles, polio, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, and tetanus.

390 3.4K 9.3K

Reposted by sekharn

A.J. Bauer @ajbauer.bsky.social · 1d

This column illustrates the weirdest imbalance in our politics.

Do Republicans take the advice of liberal columnists? Do liberal columnists write with conservative audiences in mind?

Not really.

But our media system is flush with right-wingers writing for liberals and Dems taking them seriously.

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 1d

It is time to admit that Republicans won the 2024 election by running to the center.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/o...

The most obvious thing in politics is often the hardest to admit: If you lose an election, the best thing that you can do to make sure you win the next one is to find a message that puts you closer to the median voter than you were the last time around.

8 32 180

Reposted by sekharn

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

Can I also just say, again, that the Biden admin under no circumstances committed to “left-wing” migration policy, in any way, shape, or form. I want Douthat to articulate what specific policies he thinks are included in that, because I think he seriously misunderstands the policies at issue.

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 1d

Utterly bizarre to describe climate change policy as some kind of radical-left albatross.

The IRA contained precisely the kind of 'kitchen table' programs everyone says Democrats should focus on — and they're popular!

The problem was that Americans *didn't know* what the IRA was or who passed it.

It is completely obvious that the party lost in 2024 because it overcommitted to a range of unpopular left-wing positions, some of which yielded disastrous policy results (like the Biden migration wave) while others merely persuaded constituencies that had voted Democratic in the past (like blue-collar Midwesterners or culturally conservative Latino men) that the party now cared more about climate change

In poll after poll, Americans have said that they know little to nothing about the IRA, with the most recent poll, out in April 2024, finding that 4 in 10 people say that they don’t know enough about the law’s provisions to have an opinion on them. At the same time, a July 2023 Data for Progress poll found that large numbers of Americans support provisions in the IRA when asked specifically about them, including tax credits for businesses that produce clean electricity, electric vehicles, and new clean energy technologies (69%); rebates up to $14,000 per household to improve home energy efficiency (71%); and ramping up production of American-made clean energy technologies (73%). And perhaps most significantly, support for these key IRA provisions has grown over time among all likely voters, especially Republican voters.

56 360 1.8K

Reposted by sekharn

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 1d

This right here, this exact sentence, is THE problem in American political journalism.

The IRA *was* cheap energy and good jobs! That was the whole bill! Democrats did precisely what political pundits are telling them to do and the pundits just ignore it.

160 1.4K 5.9K

Reposted by sekharn

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 1d

Utterly bizarre to describe climate change policy as some kind of radical-left albatross.

The IRA contained precisely the kind of 'kitchen table' programs everyone says Democrats should focus on — and they're popular!

The problem was that Americans *didn't know* what the IRA was or who passed it.

55 370 2.6K