Amol S. Naik

Dad & husband. Principal: Tuesdays: Fmr: many things. Policy nerd. ATL Tar Heel. Enthusiast.

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

A bit of happy personal news! https://t.co/bHvXPQ159Q

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

For most of my life, folks have been butchering my name. Amol became Ah-mall. A-mel. Uh-mul. (It’s uh-Mole btw!)

Seems like a small thing. But names have a way of telling us who belongs, and who is asked to explain themselves.

This week, I write about Abdul El-Sayed, Zohran Mamdani, Barack Obama and John McCain, and why you can disagree with someone’s politics while still insisting that they an indisputably among “We the People.”

Why Can’t He Just Have A “Normal” Name?

https://t.co/IZYqHoYsFo

[Atlanta Hawks @ATLHawks]

MLK DAY IN THE A! 👑 @GeorgiaPower

[Addisu Demissie @ASDem]

Win by what??? 5 would be an earthquake.

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

@ASDem Amen! Demographics have shifted dramatically but not that dramatically

[Rahm Emanuel @RahmEmanuel]

Putting my DCCC political strategist hat back on for a minute, the DSA vs. normie Dem debate is overlooking an important fact. Black Democratic turnout has been surging since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act and cleared the way for the Trump-backed redistricting wave. Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Michigan, and Tennessee. When voting is not a luxury and your rights are on the line, politics stops being an Ivy League seminar — and there's no patience for faculty lounge debate. It's existential, and the national media would do well to see there's more than one story coming out of these primaries.

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

Great points @dougnagy! So why isn’t Atlanta leading here?

[Douglas Nagy @dougnagy]

Atlanta should lead this chart. Similar advantages to Dallas but better city, climate, location and airline.

[RT Intl @RT_on_X]

'I love Judaism, and I love the Jewish people' — Michigan Democratic Senate primary winner Abdul El-Sayed

'AIPAC and Israel are not the same as Judaism and the Jewish people... I call bullsh*t'

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

Well there goes my excuse that I need a new laptop. If @JeffDean can change the world on what looks to be quite an old machine, I think my laptop is sufficient to send emails

[Jeff Dean @JeffDean]

Turned it in...

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

Jennings was the voice of history in my home growing up. As in many Indian homes, becoming a doctor was supposed to be the path. At some point it became apparent I liked politics so being Peter Jennings was also deemed worthy. My excuse is his kind doesn’t exist today!

[Michael Beschloss @BeschlossDC]

Peter Jennings passed today 2005:

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

@steveschale Completely agree. And I love Thanksgiving personally. BUT hopefully the consulting class is aware just how deeply unpopular it is. Right there with data centers, leaders of Congress and the war in Iran. Feel like millionaire celebrities not effective working class spokespeople

[Freddie New @freddienew]

My parents died suddenly in a car accident 25 years ago this year. I was 21, and became a guardian for my little brother and sister (10 and 12 at the time).

I've spoken about the accident and its impact on a couple of podcasts, but it's fresh on my mind as my brother just shared with me a handwritten letter I sent to him at his school. He's kept it with him ever since.

I've transcribed it below; he told me last night that it's helped him many times over the past two decades. Sharing it here in case what I said back then in an attempt to help a little lost boy is of assistance to anyone else.

23 July 2002

To Harry, From Freddie.

1. Don't panic.

2. You have many people watching your back. I am one of them and I am watching it very closely.

3. The accident was nobody's fault. Therefore we cannot legitimately blame anyone for it. We call it an accident for this reason.

4. We cannot bring Mummy and Daddy back – but this has important consequences:
– We need to remember what they taught us.
– We need to behave as they would have wanted us to.
– Because they are not alive, but we are, we owe both ourselves and their memory a duty to live as well and as fully as we possibly can, not to give in, not to give up. Because of the accident we have been given a very special insight into what it means to be alive – to live as fully as we can, to consider others, to work at what we are good at, and work even harder at what is difficult.

Something has been wasted, something has been lost. We must make sure that our lives are not. We shall always regret that Mummy and Daddy are not here – let us not regret anything we do, or know that we had a chance and threw it away.

Whatever happens, I have got your back. Even if I do sometimes hit you with cricket balls.

Run straight, look your foe in the eye, and never back down. Strength and honour!

I love you very much.

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

@NilesGApol This is the second time in two days you’ve hit her unfairly on this clip. Virtually every internet-based interaction passes through one or more data centers. Including your tweets. This stuff is nuanced man, the expedient answer isn’t always the right one

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

Totally agree. The @Braves have continuously been one of the best run organizations in all of professional sports since I’ve been in 7th grade. And I’m no spring chicken.

I’ll trust that AA and crowd know what they are doing and enjoy the ride

[Barrett Sallee 🇺🇸 @BarrettSallee]

This Braves team is REALLY good. If you're upset about the trade deadline, fine. But ... that was yesterday. Today is the start of a two-month stretch to show just how good this team can be.

Spoiler: It's fully capable of winning the World Series as currently constructed

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

I mean, if she was a pundit, this is a perfectly good/legitimate answer but she is a Democratic Party politician who lost to Talarico - the only acceptable political answer is ‘of course we can turn Texas blue and I plan to do everything in my power to help him do so.’

[Sam Block @theblockspot]

Braves are 7-0 in their last 7.
Braves are 11-3 in their last 14.
Braves are 15-5 in their last 20.

This team can win the World Series.

[Greg Bluestein @bluestein]

Two Republican mayors from deep-red South Georgia are crossing party lines to endorse Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, saying his work for their communities outweighs partisan loyalty. 1/ #gapol #gasen

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

@mattsawhill @ossoff High praise!

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

He’s right. @ossoff has the best constituent services I’ve seen Georgia politics and plenty of Republicans will privately admit that. (And more than a couple will likely pull the lever for him in November)

[Team Ossoff @TeamOssoff]

Conservative radio host Erick Erickson on Senator Jon Ossoff: You talk to farmers in South Georgia, they can get him on the phone. They can get his staff on the phone. They can get help. You talk to Republicans in Houston County, very Republican part of the state, they know they can reach out to Ossoff, and he doesn't care that they're Republican. If they need something, he's going to get it done.

[Atlanta Braves @Braves]

7️⃣ in a row!

#BravesCountry

[Amol S. Naik @amolsnaik]

Takes political courage to not just give the politically expedient answer here. While environmental and energy concerns are real, so is bolstering the balance sheets of rural Georgia communities. This kind of nuance is needed and appropriate

[CSPAN @cspan]

GA Gov. candidate @KeishaBottoms (D) on data centers: "I am respectful of everyone's thoughts on it but at the end of the day we gotta separate fact from fiction and we don't have enough facts on data centers to make an informed decision."