Dad, spouse, economist, cyclist, Lego maniac, long lapsed blogger (not necessarily in that order). Tend to prefer my 70 square miles to the surrounding reality.
THE $168 BILLION WAS TAKEN ILLEGALLY AND THE GOVERNMENT DIDN’T WANT TO GIVE IT BACK. Kill me I’ve wasted my life.
Aaron RuparBessent: "Here at the Treasury, I had $168 billion of tariff revenues that we're gonna have to refund. So when the Democrats scream, "Oh, the refunds should go back to the American people!', well, the American people had it, it was in the Treasury and it was paying down the debt."
It’s Amy Coney Barrett all over again. Collins, facing reelection, will vote no on an anti-abortion nominee who gets confirmed anyway
Alice Miranda OllsteinBREAKING: Susan Collins cited our report on Blanche's promise on a private call with religious activists to restrict abortion pills in announcing today she will not vote to confirm him. www.newscentermaine.com/article/news...
"don't make enough money" is a fig leaf All those degree programs--social work, art, etc.--have disproportionately female student bodies. This is designed to make it harder for women to attend college--college education being a key factor in women's autonomy from men & left-leaning voting pattern.
The New RepublicPresident Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
The Iranians just attacked tankers *last night*. Markets are on crack that they still buy this! It's incredible!
Aaron RuparCNBC: "Oil moved pretty drastically on what the secretary was saying ... that in turn has impacted the futures pretty rapidly"
President Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
Trump Moves to Cut Off Student Loans for Tons of DegreesUnder a new rule, if your degree doesn’t make enough money, you won’t be able to get a student loan.trib.al
Just told my 10 yr old daughter about Jeanine Pirro. She had tears in her eyes. And then she did the Wakanda pose and said "#Franziakanda Forever"—which is the kind of pop culture crossover event I can celebrate.
it's funny how americans don't like subsidized groceries like this because that is big scary socialism, but turn around and clamor for businesses to provide them free parking... when the cost of that parking is being subsidized by everyone, including non drivers, as they'll just rise prices
USA TODAY OpinionOpinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.
The reasonable response to this letter is FUCK OFF
Adam Harris“The letter, which was reviewed by Bloomberg News, asks schools to publicly pledge to make sweeping changes that include reexamining admissions practices, hiring more conservative faculty, cracking down on student protests, combating grade inflation, reducing foreign donations and lowering tuition.”
This is 100% right though. If drivers are running aground on these things because they can’t see it easily at night and/or in rain, that’s a design flaw. Cars hitting barriers isn’t always necessarily proof of recklessness that has been mitigated, but instead an indication that something’s amiss.
Can't think of a thing that will radicalize a generation faster than "you've gotta let that old man in the corner over there see what's inside those pants before you play Kindergarten volleyball."
Gillian BranstetterAn initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play
no agreement with trump is binding, it's impossible that anyone at this point fails to understand that. All that's happening here is spineless toadies folding as anticipated bsky.app/profile/matt...
Matthew GertzYou’d have to be a fool and/or desperate to get to yes to accept this, so it’ll probably be enough to get him confirmed. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/u...
I'm just going to keep screaming this until I'm hoarse, but until Trump the norm -- for 50 years -- was that sitting presidents had their taxes audited by the IRS and released to the public to show they were clean. But Trump refused repeatedly, and sued when his return was leaked, and now ... this
Kyle GriffinFLAG: Trump gets to keep tax immunity for himself, his sons, and the Trump Organization under the new 'deal' struck by Todd Blanche. The new order also reaffirms that Trump won't have to pay any taxes he might have owed the IRS.
car brain is the real-life equivalent to the myths about toxoplasmosis. efforts to reduce trash rotting in the street festering with disease and rats being met with "but muh parking!?????" is beyond parody. these people would happily live in a landfill if it had assigned parking.
David DilbertStop the War on Cars. Stop taking our parking spots away.
Three takeaways: 1) Maggie thinks congressional subpoena power in 2027 will mean nothing because it will be unenforceable; 2) She says 70% of his attention is on his construction projects; 3) She confirms he has zero policy ambitions, just personal ones. 2/2
This is a completely insane interview in that the things they are discussing are so alarming that their heads should be exploding and yet they are calm. History will be unkind to those, like the NYT, who underreacted to Trump’s violation of the country. 1/2 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/o...
Opinion | How Trump Has Changed, With Maggie HabermanThe New York Times correspondent says 70 percent of the president’s mind is dedicated to White House renovations.www.nytimes.com
Google Earth, a tool often used as a source of satellite imagery to verify photos and videos, has added a feature that allows you to alter satellite imagery with AI, for reasons. blog.google/products-and...
Transform any place with Nano Banana in Google EarthCustom images — generated from Google Earth satellite, aerial, and 3D imagery — help you redesign any location.blog.google
Wrote about this. www.offmessage.net/p/andrew-tat...
The Tate Brothers' Should Be The Trumps' Second Epstein ScandalThe truth is much worse than most people realize, and they knew a lot of it.www.offmessage.netBrian BeutlerHad the tab open for weeks but finally read the New Yorker's Tate brothers expose. Among many thoughts: that reporting ought to be an existential emergency for MAGA and the international far right, but the reaction is eerily mute due (perhaps) to the decline of reading and weak political opposition.
Tip of the hat to mainstream media, who credulously gave us those "Musk is getting out of politics" headlines last year and those "Musk has regrets" headlines last week, and will give us those "regretful Musk is getting out of politics" headlines next spring.
George PearkesNYT: Musk preparing 9 figure spending campaign in support of Republicans in "swing" states like Ohio, Iowa, Alaska, and Texas.
One of the worst things about the Senate’s attempted Fauci show trial is how the supposed evidence against him is early in COVID he considered multiple hypotheses, then increasingly ruled some unlikely as evidence came in. The objection is he did science. Fundamentally that is what’s under attack.
Like the foreign drone ban, this seems to apply to new models of foreign made robots but existing models will (presumably/theoretically) still be sold. Smells like naked protectionism and not like legit security threats to me. But that’s just how MAGA likes to sprinkle us with freedom.