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Sarah Posner
@sarahposner.bsky.social
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"boldly to the right" "nature of politics"
6 replies 12 reposts 47 likes
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Paul Waldman@paulwaldman.bsky.social |
3363 followers 331 following 524 posts
Columnist for MSNBC and Heatmap.news. Formerly: Washington Post, The Week, American Prospect. Co-host of the Boundary Issues podcast. Subscribe to The Cross Section: paulwaldman.substack.com
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Sarah Posner
@sarahposner.bsky.social
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"boldly to the right" "nature of politics"
6 replies 12 reposts 47 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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My latest at @heatmap.news , on how aggressive climate action is now woven into the Democratic agenda at all levels. For instance, all the Dem governors mentioned as successors - Whitmer, Newsom, Pritzker, Shapiro - are moving strongly on climate (though Shapiro a little less so).
1 replies 3 reposts 9 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Now you might say "C'mon, you're talking crazy." Maybe. But this ruling is the culmination of everything he's dreamed of his entire life - a license to crime! With all the resources of the US government to enable him to do it! Right now his imagination is running wild.
4 replies 5 reposts 25 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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We keep talking about Trump ordering Seal Team 6 to kill his rivals. I don't that's how it'll work - too much chain of command involved. He'd rather assemble a small team of loyal military operatives assigned to the White House, who answer only to him, to take such orders. Basically a death squad.
5 replies 8 reposts 30 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Just him, but I'm sure the court would find ways to bootstrap any of his accomplices into immunity as well.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Remember how Trump said "I have an Article II where I have a right to do whatever I want as president" and every legal scholar said "No you moron, that's not what it says," but now the Supreme Court said "Actually, wouldn't it be cool if he did? Let's do that."
1 replies 8 reposts 52 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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So revealing that the Supreme Court decided that presidents are free to commit crimes on behalf of the president more likely to commit crimes than any other president ever.
2 replies 8 reposts 47 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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One of the cool things about this new Supreme Court ruling is that since you take bribes in exchange for "official acts" pretty much by definition, the president is now free to take bribes! I wonder if that's something Donald Trump might take advantage of.
3 replies 25 reposts 95 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Pretty clear that the Federalist Society project to take over the courts for the far right is the most successful and consequential political effort in history. Only took them a few decades. Meanwhile, Dems are like "Let's not be hasty, blue slips serve an important function in preserving comity."
12 replies 176 reposts 664 likes
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Rima I Anabtawi
@rimaanabtawi.bsky.social
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The far-right National Rally leader is unconditionally opposed by French Jewish groups for her party's historic antisemitism. Israel's diaspora affairs minister, however, is 'impressed' by her positions, adding that Netanyahu is seemingly 'of the same opinion'
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
5 replies 21 reposts 49 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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We’re all sorting through our feelings about Joe Biden right now. I’m as uncertain as anyone. This might help.
2 replies 1 reposts 5 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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I am interested in learning what was going on in these prep sessions. Like, was he just hitting it out of the park, and this came as a complete surprise to his team? Or did they see it coming?
2 replies 1 reposts 15 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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I'm talking about prominent public officials, not regular people. Of course many of them are racist and Islamophobic, but most of the time they try to present it with dog whistles and weasel words. Trump doesn't bother.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Maybe my favorite Trump moment from the debate. Why won't Biden acknowledge the heroism of The Certain Dog? Does The Certain Dog mean nothing to these libs???
12 replies 16 reposts 116 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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This is one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions in history and 95 percent of Americans will never understand it, they'll just know government can't solve problems and everything will get worse. Which of course will lead to more votes for, yes, Republicans.
3 replies 11 reposts 46 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Thinking about how Trump said about Biden, "He's become like a Palestinian" with disgust in his voice. Good reminder that he's just an unadorned, crude racist of the kind you don't see much in public life these days.
7 replies 19 reposts 114 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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My debate response for @heatmap.news : There was actually a question about climate change! And what ensued was...well...it could have been worse, I guess. But not by much.
1 replies 2 reposts 5 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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When Trump said "I didn't have sex with a porn star" he meant that Stormy Daniels' filmography makes her more of a porn character actor than a true "star" so that's why he wasn't lying, now shut up libs
3 replies 3 reposts 22 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Still rolling around in my head Trump's response to a climate question by saying that when he was president, "We had H2O"
4 replies 8 reposts 60 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Excellent piece from Sarah Jones on how J.D. Vance didn't really change; he's always been full of shit
2 replies 2 reposts 22 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Just have to say this... TELEVISED DEBATES SHOW US ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT WHICH CANDIDATE WOULD BE A BETTER PRESIDENT
4 replies 4 reposts 41 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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With the Olympics starting soon, it's time to start considering casting choices for a reboot of... GYMKATA!!!
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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The Supreme Court, $13,000 “gratuities,” and the right-wing project to seize control of the nation’s institutions for their own corrupt ends.
1 replies 4 reposts 28 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Not long ago a guy came up to me at a book event where this issue didn't even come up and pulled up the quote on his phone to harangue me about how Trump had been unfairly accused of being pro-Nazi. Dude was ready to throw down over it.
0 replies 2 reposts 13 likes
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David S. Bernstein
@dbernstein.bsky.social
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Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters issued this memo today requiring teachers in all schools to keep a Bible in their classroom and teach from it as a historical document. (Via KOCO 5 News)
121 replies 108 reposts 256 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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They should remake "Heathers" but set in a retirement community. They're basically high school already, and there are so many conflicts that are just a couple steps away from turning murderous
7 replies 4 reposts 35 likes
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e.w. niedermeyer
@niedermeyer.io
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oh my god there's a chinese knockoff of the cybertruck and somehow the cybertruck looks like a cheap knockoff of it
www.carscoops.com/2024/05/dong...
162 replies 627 reposts 2200 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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In light of the Supreme Court's latest "Corruption is cool, actually" ruling, here's a piece I wrote a year ago on their long quest to make it so unless a public official signs a notarized document saying "I am committing bribery by taking this bribe" then it doesn't count
2 replies 11 reposts 31 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Trying to think of an issue that was 1) really important to Republican voters, 2) a Republican president made huge progress on it, and 3) those voters had no idea anything had happened. Can't come up with anything.
4 replies 10 reposts 34 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Mental health tip: If you come across an article that starts "We talked to a group of undecided swing-state voters..." immediately close that tab and look at pictures of puppies for a few minutes
8 replies 61 reposts 301 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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This can't be true, John Roberts assured me the Voting Rights Act was no longer necessary because racism is but a fading memory
1 replies 46 reposts 218 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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And of course I meant "flaks" to "flacks"
1 replies 0 reposts 11 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Well yeah, that's a key motivator for cable news - they have so much time to fill.
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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By popular demand, I've changed "flacks" to "flacks" on this piece. I've seen it both ways, but I am a servant of the people.
6 replies 6 reposts 28 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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A proposal: What if we just don’t interview campaign flaks at all? Do they ever add anything useful, or interesting, or informative? Of course not. So why do news outlets keep talking to them?
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/what-if-we...
5 replies 9 reposts 46 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Was it woke college professors who destroyed rural Main Streets? Immigrants? Trans teens? Snooty urban elitists? Nope. It was...wait for it... Capitalism! "The likelihood a rural grocery store would exit the area after a dollar store moves in was three times greater than in an urban area."
3 replies 42 reposts 134 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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With the Biden/Trump debate two days away, here's a piece I wrote about why presidential debates suck and we should have no more of them
1 replies 2 reposts 16 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Once every 10 years or so a conservative will write a piece saying "Maybe it's not so great that our movement is saturated in scams and grift" and then they go right back to it because too many people on the right are getting rich conning their gullible masses out of their money
0 replies 3 reposts 17 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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There's only one question we should be asking about potential Trump VP picks, and it isn't whether they'll help him win. It's whether they're on board with the authoritarian project. Which is why JD Vance is the most dangerous of the bunch. My latest at MSNBC:
0 replies 4 reposts 14 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Another report about a coal county where voters favor Trump, who lies to them about how coal is coming back, over Biden, who wants to help them transition to the future. Not a word acknowledging Trump failed these people. Just they're supporting him because Biden hasn't solved all their problems.
3 replies 7 reposts 27 likes
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e.w. niedermeyer
@niedermeyer.io
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Guy waited five years and paid $102k for a Cybertruck, crashed it after four hours of driving, only for Tesla to tell him that "the accelerator may not disengage under braking" and that it will take $30k and one year to repair.
Truly an L of historical proportions.
www.reddit.com/r/RealTesla/...
231 replies 591 reposts 2490 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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When someone says "The president needs to give a speech about this so voters get it!", 99 percent of the time he's already given like 5 speeches on it, it's just that nobody paid attention. Which isn't necessarily anyone's fault, it's just that the bully pulpit is often overrated.
1 replies 2 reposts 26 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Still amazes me that in 2024, the most elite runners in the world have their name label thingies held on to their shirts with...safety pins. Isn't there some kind of space-age polymer that could hold them on? Or velcro?
2 replies 0 reposts 17 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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This is what Tom Schaller and I have been on about for months. If it was just rurality that produced rage, rural minorities - who have suffered worse than their white peers by almost every measure - would be ransacking the Capitol and rallying behind demagogic politicians. But they aren't.
2 replies 16 reposts 48 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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I think about this often, how Kavanaugh is just a replacement level white guy who glided through life, while KBJ and Sotomayor had to claw their way up at every step to show they were just as good as their white peers, yet they're the ones who have their intelligence and qualifications questioned
2 replies 38 reposts 150 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Did you hear about the American Climate Corps? Probably not.
Which is too bad because it could be really popular like the CCC was during the New Deal. Unfortunately it's underfunded, the jobs are being channeled through other orgs and most people don't know it exists.
My latest for @heatmap.news
2 replies 34 reposts 84 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Also: the polling industry is dominated by progressive groups? Uh, no. Definitely no. Look at the big Democratic polling firms and who their clients are.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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Things still going well over at my former employer
1 replies 2 reposts 25 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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"Concentrate on the normies" is often a smart strategy; the problem here is the assumption that the Biden campaign to date has been super far left, as though they've been airing millions of ads about EVs or something. But the Biden campaign is already pretty normie-focused!
3 replies 1 reposts 14 likes
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Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
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If you want to hear me talking about the Supreme Court, the election, and stupid corporate titans, here I am on the latest Background Briefing with Ian Masters: www.backgroundbriefing.org
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes