Author | Lightnews

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 3d

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.

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 13h

Vs. Republicans in Louisiana:

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 13h

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:

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 13h

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.

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 13h

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 · 22h

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.

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Dr Aunt Tara Goddard @drtaragoddard.com · 13h

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 · 1d

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.

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Sara Luterman @slooterman.bsky.social · 19h

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 · 1d

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.

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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 15h

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 · 15d

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.

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 15d

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.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15h

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 · 15h

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

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 19h

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

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 16h

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

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 16h

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.

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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 · 2d

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.

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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 · 2d

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.

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A.J. Bauer @ajbauer.bsky.social · 21h

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 · 22h

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.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 18h

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 · 22h

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.

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 22h

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.

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 22h

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.

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 22h

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

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Micah @rincewind.run · 18h

the SNAP thing is a good illustration of one of the ways Trump has been captured by the Republican establishment and not the other way around

when he first came onto the scene he had an instinctual understanding that “fuck the poors” was bad optics

now? gatsby parties while they starve

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 19h

“70% of wage-earning adults who rely on government programs like SNAP and Medicaid work full-time, many at hugely profitable companies like Walmart and McDonald’s whose low wages are effectively subsidized by tax dollars without any of the blame or paternalistic lectures.”

SNAP benefits feed essential needs while still leaving many hungry for more

Journalist and author Adam Chandler explains what so much of the conversation about them gets wrong.

www.thehandbasket.co

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 19h

In 2023:
-39% of SNAP users were Americans under the age of 18
-19% of SNAP users were 60 or older
-60% of SNAP benefits went to families with children

SNAP benefits feed essential needs while still leaving many hungry for more

Journalist and author Adam Chandler explains what so much of the conversation about them gets wrong.

www.thehandbasket.co

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 20h

As SNAP hangs in the balance for nearly 42 million people, misinformation is rampant. Myths of laziness and fraud persist when we should be talking about too low wages for workers, income inequality, and our threadbare social safety net.

In this guest post, Adam Chandler sorts fact from fiction:

SNAP benefits feed essential needs while still leaving many hungry for more

Journalist and author Adam Chandler explains what so much of the conversation about them gets wrong.

www.thehandbasket.co

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Howard French @hofrench.bsky.social · 18h

Please consider these generally unknown details.

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Howard French @hofrench.bsky.social · 18h

My new essay in the WSJ about the essential role that enslaved labor played in America's capitalist takeoff. Born in Blackness. urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

The Complex Role of Slavery in Building America’s Wealth

It was a crucial factor in the country’s economic takeoff well beyond what’s commonly assumed.

urldefense.com

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