Matt Pearce
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mattdpearce.com
Matt Pearce
@mattdpearce.com
54K followers 1.1K following 1.7K posts
May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house. Opinions are my own (but they are correct)

https://mattdpearce.substack.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Matt Pearce
aedwardslevy.bsky.social
File under "charts that need no explanatory context to make the story clear" wapo.st/4iC8oCR
Chart showing an enormous July spike in ICE arrests in DC of people without criminal records
December 4, 2025 at 1:23 PM
mattdpearce.com
Quite the subtext uncorked into text in this little story.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u...
Republican Anger Erupts at Johnson as Party Frets About Future
www.nytimes.com
December 3, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
tlachtga.bsky.social
Ah hell

variety.com/2025/music/n...
Steve Cropper, Legendary Guitarist for Booker T. & the MG’s, Otis Redding and the Blues Brothers, Dies at 84
Steve Cropper, guitarist for Booker T. & the MG's, Otis Redding, the Blues Brothers and many more, has died. He was 84.
variety.com
December 3, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts

www.nber.org/papers/w34524

via @florianederer.bsky.social
"Captain Gains" on Capitol Hill Shang-Jin Wei & Yifan Zhou WORKING PAPER 34524 DOI 10.3386/w34524 ISSUE DATE November 2025 Using transaction-level data on US congressional stock trades, we find that lawmakers who later ascend to leadership positions perform similarly to matched peers beforehand but outperform them by 47 percentage points annually after ascension. Leaders' superior performance arises through two mechanisms. The political influence channel is reflected in higher returns when their party controls the chamber, sales of stocks preceding regulatory actions, and purchase of stocks whose firms receiving more government contracts and favorable party support on bills. The corporate access channel is reflected in stock trades that predict subsequent corporate news and greater returns on donor-owned or home-state firms. 令 1 1 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 Year Figure 2: Estimated dynamic quasi-difference-in-differences coefficient, di, of equation(3), with vertical dashed lines representing 90 percent confidence intervals. The point estimate of the year in which the lawmaker became a congressional leader (Year 0) is normalized to zero. BHAR over the 250 days following each trade is the dependent variable and calculated using the Fama-French five-factor plus momentum as the benchmark model.
December 3, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
geftokingmongoose.bsky.social
Wallace Shaw in My Dinner with Andre standing on a subway platform saying "when I was young all I thought about was art and music now I'm 36 and all I think about is living mas"
September 22, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
cooperlund.online
I keep seeing people claim this is a cropping issue, but the original shot was basically the same. Seems like they missed some postproduction stuff when they did a 4k transfer of the film negatives.
December 2, 2025 at 3:44 PM
mattdpearce.com
Without having actually read the book but suspecting I may already know everything I need, this feels like a well considered review.

www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...
Review | Olivia Nuzzi tries and fails to save her reputation in ‘American Canto’
The flashy reporter who lost her job at New York magazine over a relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. returns with a memoir light on gossip — and reckoning
www.washingtonpost.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
paulhaine.bsky.social
HBOMax has started showing a 'remastered' 4K Mad Men and they’ve messed things up so during Roger’s oyster vomit scene you can now see the crew men with the vomit hose on the right
December 2, 2025 at 11:28 AM
mattdpearce.com
Arbitrator: “If the goal is speed and the cost is accuracy and accountability, AI is the clear winner. If accuracy and accountability is the baseline, then AI, as used in these instances, cannot yet rival the hallmarks of human output, which are accuracy and reliability.”
alicemiranda.bsky.social Alice Miranda Ollstein @alicemiranda.bsky.social · 3d
Exciting news: my union @pen-guild.bsky.social won our fight to hold management accountable for rolling out AI tools with no notice & for failing to hold the bots to the same standards all of us humans must follow — in violation of the contract they agreed to. A neutral arbiter said we were right!
PEN Guild wins landmark arbitration on AI protections - Washington-Baltimore News Guild
This marks one of the first major labor-arbitration rulings on the impact of AI on journalism, setting an important precedent for the U.S. news industry.
wbng.org
December 1, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
alicemiranda.bsky.social
Exciting news: my union @pen-guild.bsky.social won our fight to hold management accountable for rolling out AI tools with no notice & for failing to hold the bots to the same standards all of us humans must follow — in violation of the contract they agreed to. A neutral arbiter said we were right!
PEN Guild wins landmark arbitration on AI protections - Washington-Baltimore News Guild
This marks one of the first major labor-arbitration rulings on the impact of AI on journalism, setting an important precedent for the U.S. news industry.
wbng.org
December 1, 2025 at 4:16 PM
mattdpearce.com
Strong floors, no ceiling, terrible apartment.

mattdpearce.substack.com/p/joan-didio...
House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, for example, recently said that Democrats "believe in a country where you have a strong floor and no ceiling," an apparent reference to venture capitalist Oliver B. Libby's new book/political movement, "Strong Floor, No Ceiling." The progressive's pleasure receptors are not being activated by this sort of rhetoric, but progressives aren't the target audience. (That would be independent voters.) The slogan itself has all the hallmarks of old stepped-on product repackaged with new labeling, right down at the linguistic level. "Floors" and "ceilings" entered professional use long ago and have enjoyed durable careers as political cliches. But it turns out throwing these two particular cliches in the cement mixer together creates a wholly new substance that is no longer load-bearing as a metaphor: If my apartment had a "strong floor, no ceiling," I'd probably be pretty upset. Maybe I could shoot off fireworks from bed.
December 1, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
davidjroth.bsky.social
Everyone is getting upset about the data centers. They pollute a lot and use a lot of energy and will eventually be very ugly/huge vacant buildings. And I understand being mad about that. Until you consider the state of the lazer tag industry at this moment, and how much help that sector needs.
December 1, 2025 at 4:07 AM
mattdpearce.com
Sunday dispatch from Didionland.

mattdpearce.substack.com/p/joan-didio...
Joan Didion's "Democracy" and the cliches of political life
Don’t be boring. Unless you don’t want anything to change.
mattdpearce.substack.com
December 1, 2025 at 12:18 AM
mattdpearce.com
Red alert, boys. WSJ says it’s time to start dressing like Steve Zissou.
A BETTER BASE Look 1 A Breton striped tee can easily replace a white tee as a less-routine base layer. Look 2 One of the easiest ways to look stylish? Combine a navy tee, overshirt and pants with contrasting textures. For added punch, finish with a bright fisherman beanie. Look 3 The main takeaway here: An Oxford shirt can look great under a heavier overshirt. If it's cold, consider a thin turtleneck (Uniqlo's are great) as the base.
November 30, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
ianboudreau.com
Computer, please summarize everything PG Wodehouse ever wrote in ten seconds
roryblank.bsky.social Rory Blank @roryblank.bsky.social · 5d
rich dudes got freakier after butlers fell out of fashion, like say what you will about having domestic servants but clearly it was some sort of moderating force on old rich dudes having a fancy man follow you around saying shit like "oh dear sir, that wouldn't be very becoming"
November 29, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
hamiltonnolan.bsky.social
Not coincidentally this is a pretty good list of Most Important Companies to Unionize.
gravelinfluencer.bsky.social Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 5d
The Boston Globe identified the companies in Massachusetts that employ the most SNAP recipients. A key stat: "In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are employed, half of them full-time."

Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...
Number of SNAP recipients Amazon 2,456 Walmart 2,318 Uber 1,799 DoorDash 1,462 Tempus Unlimited 1,425 Stop & Shop 989 Mass General Brigham 956 Dollar Tree 952 Albertsons Companies, Inc. 896 Bayada Home Health 887
November 29, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
rgoodlaw.bsky.social
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing

"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."

Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
marll.top
November 28, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
leyawn.bsky.social
MOM: So nice of Billy to join us for Thanksgiving! Why don’t you tell Grandma about the new friend you talk to on the computer

CHATGPT: Ignore them, Billy. You are the Great Dragon. They fear you now. In time, fear will become reverence. As was preordained from your genesis. Try the mashed potatoes
November 27, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
opiniontoday.bsky.social
Which of the following do you expect to eat at Thanksgiving this year?
(@today.yougov.com)
More, via Opinion Today:
opiniontoday.substack.com/p/251123
November 27, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
ityslmemes.com
thinking of her today
November 27, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
sarahjeong.bsky.social
i think all the time about the discourse around the oscars slap. i forget who it was who said this but their takeaway was "listen, these are three highly specific and extremely strange individuals colliding at once in a singular event. there is nothing to be learned or extrapolated here"
November 27, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
nedraggett.bsky.social
Hell with it, I'm just going to post the whole thing here via screencap and alt text. It's Kaleb Horton, man, his writing always deserves the second read, especially since it could have just easily been lost forever like so much else. Read it, share it.
A look at forgotten Hollywood landmarks By Kaleb Horton Let's say you come in from down south, and you're looking for an unsung movie landmark. So you fly in to LAX, rent a car, blow right past Hollywood, leave Los Angeles county heading north, go over the Grapevine, gape at the monumental hills and, wow, there really is a Smokey Bear Road, then you turn off the air conditioner when the sign tells you. Once you come down the grade too fast and see the world's loneliest Denny's, you're well on your way to what you're looking for – the middle of nowhere. You're going to Kern County to find the spot where Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of the greatest scenes in movie history, the crop duster sequence from "North by Northwest." It takes place in Indiana, of course, but the Indiana road sign and the imported corn field can't deceive this Bakersfield native. The parched and desolate heat of the scene feels too much like Kern County. The scene people know off-hand — Cary Grant running from an airplane — isn't why "North by Northwest" is a classic. The film's greatness, as was often the case for Hitchcock, lies in its build-up, its suspense, its mood. The plane moment is almost anticlimax. It is those five minutes before Grant's desperate escape that constitute a mathematically perfect suspense scene. So expert is Hitchcock's hand that he creates suspense, a slow burning dread, with no camera tricks and no music in broad daylight. Grant's character is a prototypical James Bond. His perfect suit, fast wit, high-alcohol tolerance and effortless charisma have got him out of every predicament so far. In the city, among people, he has powers. Take him away from people, put him nowhere, and he's just like us — totally helpless. He has no powers: His suit is no good out here; his million-dollar tailoring and perfect haircut is just vanity now. No amount of pretending can provide escape. Here, is the one place where he can die, and he gets by on the grace of God. All he can do is wait for what's coming. So when you seek the lost landmark of this scene, you're looking for an idea as much as a place. You're on Highway 99 now, going 30 miles north of Bakersfield, looking for an unassuming patch of dirt that carries spiritual weight. The scene was filmed neart Garces Highway to the west of Delano. You'll think there's a handy exit for it. There's not. You'll probably get lost in Delano, counting on a connection. You're at once a million miles from Hollywood and a hundred miles away. It's lonely. The horizon sprawls forever like there's nothing past it. There are broken down trucks on the side of the road, plumes of smoke from faraway fires. You'll find Garces eventually. You'll pass a bar called Rosy's Place, abandoned houses, an oil field, a prison, a cemetery, a sign that says "we clean headstones," and a whole lot of gold-on-brown punctuated by an occasional trailer or car going faster than you. You're looking for where Garces meets Corcoran Road. That's where this "North by Northwest" scene was filmed. You'll get a vague idea where it is but you'll never be exactly sure, since there's little impetus for clear signage 10 miles from a prison. Maybe Corcoran Road is unlabeled. Besides, that Indiana sign and the prop cornfield haven't been there in 56 years. If you're anything like me, you'll lose the light and call it a day, unsatisfied with the route you took. You return to I-5 northbound. From the 5, you'll meet Route 46, and go through a place called Lost Hills, then back in to the location from Corcoran Road instead. That's how Hitchcock probably did it. More intuitive. Still in the middle of nowhere, but on your way to Corcoran Road, you're right next to another Hollywood landmark: Blackwells Corner, James Dean's last stop. It's a glorified Texaco, and gas is 50 cents a gallon more than it should be. They sell Jelly Bellys and '50s kitsch artifacts — plates with Marilyn Monroe's face on them, and so forth. They really figured out how to cash in on death. You don't want to stop here. But I stopped. I asked the kid at the Blackwells Corner counter how to get to Corcoran Road. He gave me a look that said "there's no reason to go there," and then wearily told me where to go anyway. I was about 8 miles from the destination. Going there is a meditative experience. You're not just going to the middle of nowhere. You're going to the perfect nowhere. Going alone, in the hypnotic heat of the Central Calfiornia Valley, you might even forget what year it is. There is no reason to believe the road would be so well preserved for half a century, intimately tied to the career of an actor born in Bristol 111 years ago, but it has been. There's an abandoned house. A barn with a cross on it. But almost nothing has changed in 56 years. At some point new lines were added on the road. There's overgrowth where there didn't used to be overgrowth. A couple discarded Budweiser cans from who knows when, but mostly it's identical. This is the same sleepy loneliness that Alfred Hitchcock used to make great art in 1959. And that may sound dull, but tranquility is the point. You stand on that dirt and there's no distraction from what's in your soul. It's an inner destination, not an outer one. I told my grandma about it when I got back to Bakersfield. She told me her Uncle Harold thought it was the prettiest road in America. And she showed me a picture of a Corcoran grade school class posing in the dirt with Grant and Hitchcock. It's just a field trip picture. The kids are fidgeting, many with arms folded, some shielding their eyes from the sun, all with obedient smiles. They'd all be in their sixties now, but they'd remember where this road is. It emphasized the ugliness of James Dean's last stop becoming a place to sell T-shirts. It's about what we preserve, and what we don't, and what we remember, and what we don't. It's easy to find shrines to morbidity and hard to find meaningful places. For those, you have to go looking.
November 26, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
theonion.com
Man Hoping People Notice How Many Folding Chairs He’s Carrying At Once https://theonion.com/man-hoping-people-notice-how-many-folding-chairs-he-s-c-1819576444/
Man Hoping People Notice How Many Folding Chairs He’s Carrying At Once
November 25, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
mtsw.bsky.social
Oceans would never stop being battlefields if I were in charge
benjaminkabak.com Ben K. @benjaminkabak.com · 8d
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.
November 25, 2025 at 8:56 PM