Mike

I used to be disgusted and now I try to be amused.

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

Periodic reminder that virtually every major elected official claims, or tries to claim, that they are an outsider, a rebel, a maverick taking on “the establishment.” The President, Vice President, and speaker of the House talk that way. So did Barack Obama. Ted Cruz. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, Jim Jordan do it, when their party is in power and out. When they are committee chairs or ranking members etc. Even partisan media does it. Everyone wants to be “the resistance” to some nebulous establishment no one claims membership in.

You can’t run a stable, serious, government when the people in power refuse to accept responsibility for being in power. None of them are “outsiders” taking on “elites.” They are all insiders and elites blaming other elites for their collective failure to do their jobs.

[shoe @shoe0nhead]

haha woke 1 was craaazy but if you said woke 1 was craaazy during woke 1 you were a fascist racist nazi

so whatever progressive politicians are talking about right now they’ll just “woke 2 was craaaazy” it away in 5 years?

incredible stuff

[The Knicks Wall @TheKnicksWall]

Knicks vs Sixers opening night, Knicks vs Spurs on Christmas for a Finals rematch.

START THE SEASON ALREADY.

[Russ Greene @GreenPlusAnE]

The Washington Post editorial board issues a stern warning:
The 2030's could be worse than the 1930's.

The problem:
- Seniors collect too much $$ from government.
- Too few births = too few workers, taxed to support too many seniors.
- Debt -> WWII levels.

Link and quotes below-->>

[𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖊 🕯 @atlanticesque]

“Ok, yes, I got caught up in a ridiculous moral panic and temporarily became an insane anarchist. But that was like, two whole years ago, who cares? Give me power”

[Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias]

I don’t love this idea that nothing anyone said or did in 2019-2020 counts.

Like it’s fine as a sociological observation, but I want political leaders who keep their heads even in the face of dumb fads.

[Greg Lukianoff @glukianoff]

Yes, whispering into young people's ears that “they cannot handle the basic give and take of life without being permanently damaged, unlike everyone who came before them”, is totally going to make them happy and self-confident. https://t.co/Z2JwPsROI5

[Peter J. Hasson @peterjhasson]

"We were a dying little town."

AI and data centers are saving the small towns everybody else left for dead -- and I hope the people trying to stop that from happening have trouble sleeping at night

[Chris Freiman @cafreiman]

Neither “real communism” nor “real capitalism” has ever been tried, but actually existing communism has impoverished and starved people while actually existing capitalism has enriched and fed them.

[Nate Silver @NateSilver538]

FYI the only humane policy is a lifetime ban from the groupchat to anyone who does this.

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

Quite often the people who say “the system is the problem” are the biggest problem with our system.

[Billy Binion @billybinion]

This is entirely predictable. According to the DSA's most recent survey, over 80% of members have college degrees, and the group is almost entirely white. The idea that the activist left is led by the "working class" is a myth. It's mostly an elite phenomenon.

[Billy Binion @billybinion]

The vice president of the United States should not be spending time on social media calling private citizens fat.

[Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 @JessicaBRiedl]

Only 25% of Republicans strongly support free trade. They should really stop calling themselves the party of limited government, free markets, and stopping socialism. There is no such major party right now.

[Chris Freiman @cafreiman]

More political myths that refuse to die:

We can fund Scandinavian levels of social spending simply by raising taxes on billionaires.

The rich pay little in taxes because they usually use the “buy, borrow, die” strategy.

Foreign aid is a large part of the federal budget.

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

How would you like to grow up with a mom who looks at your face every morning and sees an enemy

[Eric Boehm @EricBoehm87]

Really strong "wow I bet you're fun at parties" energy here

I'm glad we've arrived at a place where we can (correctly) view the "everything is a grievance" mindset as weird and off-putting

[Eric Boehm @EricBoehm87]

It's been eight years since Trump placed tariffs on aluminum imports.

Production has not increased, as even the White House admits, but prices have increased for everything from cans to cars.

How much longer do we have to wait to declare this policy a failure?

[Sean T at RCP @SeanTrende]

Opening up party nominations to primaries was a mistake. It's like deciding NFL rosters entirely via fan polls.

[Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 @JessicaBRiedl]

Slopulism follows when parties give up on economic policy. If you no longer care about delivering broad prosperity & low inflation - either because you can't pull it off, or think voters won't reward it - all that's left is to carve up the economy and hand pieces to your voters.