Living in Scandinavia, I find myself morbidly fascinated by American progressives' inability to understand—or acknowledge—that the secret to a healthy, functioning welfare state is broad middle-class buy-in. Everyone pays something—some more than others; everyone gets something—some more than others
Bernie Sanders is great in part because he doesn’t shy away from explaining how Medicare for All would involve, yes, more taxes and would save everyone big money. He makes the case for a functioning gov’t that serves people! That is NOT politically stupid; it’s building a coalition and society.
Tweet from Katie Porter: 0% state income tax for California families making under $100,000. That’s thousands of dollars back in your pocket where it belongs. As Governor, I’ll work the issue at both ends—lowering taxes for those who are struggling and raising them on the biggest corporations that can afford to pay.
Personally, I think people who are between the third and fourth quintile of income-earners in California should probably pay some income tax.
California's experiment in trying to build a Nordic-style safety net on a Norquist-style tax system is not working and I don't think it's responsible for gubernatorial candidates to call for taking it to the next level
The fact that someone earning low six figures qualifies for subsidized housing in San Francisco but not in most other California cities itself demonstrates that the statewide income tax is not the culprit in the state's affordability crisis.
it is friday, march 13, 2020. global markets are in freefall. President Trump declares a national emergency over the covid pandemic.
it is friday, march 13, 2026.
Congressman Keith Self • • Follow X 1d• The Sharia-Free America Caucus has grown to 48 members spanning 22 states-and we're j... See more DEFEND SHARIA-FREE AMERICA CAUCUS Co-Chairs: Keith Self (TX-03) & Chip Roy (TX-21) Whip Tom Emmer (MN-06) Andrew Clyde (GA-09) Pat Fallon (TX-04) Russ Fulcher (ID-01) August Pfluger (TX-11) Mary Miller (IL-15) Craig Goldman (TX-12) Tracey Mann (KS-01) Monica De La Cruz (TX-15) Andy Harris (MD-01) Pete Sessions (TX-17) Eric Burlison (MO-07) Brandon Gill (TX-26) Mike Ezell (MS-04) Michael Cloud (TX-27) Addison McDowell (NC-06) Brian Babin (TX-36) Mark Harris (NC-08) Wesley Hunt (TX-38) Pat Harrigan (NC-10) Eli Crane (AZ-02) Michael Rulli (OH-06) Andy Biggs (AZ-05) Josh Brecheen (OK-02) Paul Gosar (AZ-09) Scott Perry (PA-10) Nick Begich (AK-at-large) Mike Kelly (PA-16) Barry Moore (AL-01) Sheri Biggs (SC-03) Aaron Bean (FL-04) Ralph Norman (SC-05) John Rutherford (L-05) Andy Ogles (TN-05) Randy Fine (FL-06) John Rose (TN-06) Cory Mills (FL-07) Mike Kennedy (UT-03) Mike Haridopolos (FL-08) John McGuire (VA-05) Anna Paulina Luna (FL-13) Ben Cline (VA-06) Byron Donalds (FL-19) Morgan Griffith (VA-09) Buddy Carter (GA-01) Riley Moore (WV-02)
In the 1920s, there was an enormous Klan-aligned caucus in the House of Representatives that passed an immigration restriction bill designed to keep out Catholics and Jews because they supposedly posed an existential threat to American civilization. 100 years later, here we are.
Trump in his high school dress uniform
lol now the chickenhawk is posting photos of himself dressed up in his high school uniform to pretend he served
Fascinating ruling this morning from the CJEU:
EU law requires countries to recognise an acquired gender of their own citizens, if that recognition is needed to give effect to their freedom of movement and their rights to work and live elsewhere within the EU.
Noem's one-minute $220 million ad cost more than nearly every film nominated for Best Picture at the upcoming 2026 Academy Awards:
* Frankenstein
* Marty Supreme
* Sinners
* Bugonia
* Hamnet
* Train Dreams
* Sentimental Value
* The Secret Agent
Battery-Electric Vehicles have caught up with #diesel cars in #Denmark 🇩🇰
The fleet of #BEVs reached 570,600 (19.5%) of all passenger cars at the end of February 2026 and the #BEV fleet has grown by 200,000 (53.7%) since Feb. 2025.
#elbil
📈 by DST (in Danish) 🔗 www.dst.dk/da/Statistik...
On the one-year anniversary of his detention by federal authorities, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and First Lady Rama Duwaji welcomed Mahmoud Khalil, his wife Noor, and their baby boy, Deen, to Gracie Mansion to break the fast together.
Great work by NYT showing Trump's war is the most unpopular ever. Supports my argument (see below) that in some ways the public rejection of Trump across the board is a very heartening development:
"The proposed budget includes more than $1 billion in state subsidies for NJ Transit — up $215.3 million from the current budget. That includes $282.2 million from the budget’s general fund and $765.6 million from the Corporate Transit Fee..." www.nj.com/politics/202...
Yes. "They're not scared that Mamdani will be a bad major, they're scared he's gonna be a good mayor"
Hank Green may be running for Congress (this is presented as just a suggestion John heard from multiple people, but it could also easily be a sneak campaign not an announcement): youtu.be/rt6NZ-hlUj0?...
goddamn is this a breath of fresh air after Allred 2024
... it's understandable if an underpaid employee or someone who doesn't make much money steals, but someone well off stealing doesn't do anything to fight Amazon being exploitative of its workers.
Also, grocery chains typically have small 1% to 2% operating margins. Whole Foods after its acquisition by Amazon only has about a 2% to 3% margin, so all you accomplish by stealing is driving up prices for other people....
Washington defends gender-affirming care against unconstitutional attacks.
Gender-affirming care remains legal and protected in the state of Washington.
Last year, our team secured a preliminary injunction blocking two executive orders that threaten to end federal funding to medical institutions providing gender-affirming care.
Hey, remember how I said that my third friend in the oil industry didn’t respond? Yeah they got back to me.
It’s not looking good, team
An untold story of BIL & IRA was how much movement it generated from petrochemical giants to plan onshoring midstream production in the battery supply chain…lots of stuff with much broader uses than just EV battery production.
But they needed the growth of that market to justify investments.
This is incredibly on point.
Spot oil prices grab the news, but it’s the impact we’re about to witness to petrochemical and derivative production that should really scare the shit out of folks.
It’s the sort of shock that could ripple through our global industrial economy for many months.
U.S intelligence did warn Trump and his administration that U.S airstrikes would be unlikely to create an uprising, but Trump and his administration did not listen.
oh people don’t want to be out in the streets? the streets that are being bombed? those streets?
Tweet from Daniel Pipes: "The uprising in Iran in early January suggested an even greater insurgency would then follow on the U.S.-Israeli campaign to erode regime power. Yet, the populace now appears cowed into near-silence. This ranks as the most surprising and disappointing development of the past week. Without a new uprising, the regime will likely remain in power, less powerful but more awful than ever. (The picture below is from Jan. 10 in Tehran.)"
Amazing how quickly "We're fighting this war for freedom of the Iranian people" becomes "The Iranian people are at fault for not rising up."
Past fossil-fuel price spikes left import-dependent countries with two options: pay up or cut fuel use. Now there is an alternative in solar and batteries.
I looked at recent examples in Europe, Pakistan, Cuba to glean what might happen with the war on Iran.
🎁🔗 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
In hindsight the "Wait until an uprising gets crushed, then attack to incite an uprising once they're all dead or in jail" gambit may have been ill-conceived.
“A classified report by the National Intelligence Council found that even a large-scale assault on Iran launched by the United States would be unlikely to oust the Islamic republic’s entrenched military and clerical establishment.”
wapo.st/4lcrq3M
