MN-Sen: Just realized there's an independent in this race named Marisa Simonetti, who is accused of throwing a live tarantula at a house guest while blasting Christian music.
Simonetti got 31.6% of the vote in her 2024 race for Hennepin County commissioner. The victim of her tarantula episode was a tenant she was subletting her basement to via AirBnb. Simonetti apparently canceled the Airbnb but the "guest" didn't leave and Simonetti's "self-help" after the cops declined to remove her got illegally creative. Unfortunately her tenant was also an attorney... Simonetti was convicted of several related charges in March and sentenced in July. She got 90 days with work release. She also sued the victim, the cops, and the prosecutors for $28million in damages for ruining her political career. I'm assuming that was dismissed. Not sure what her day job is (she lost her real estate license years ago for deceptive practices) but she also has an OnlyFans site.
As Jesus famously said, "If you only throw tarantulas at those who throw them back at you, how are you any better than the sinners?" That's the bible verse, right?
The NJ Working Families Party is recruiting candidates to run non-machine-backed campaigns for State Senate and State Assembly in New Jersey. In addition to open seats, incumbents are also being targeted.
CNN had a segment on earlier where they were with Roy Cooper, and the setup was that Cooper was warning that he didn't have the election in the bag. I didn't watch it because my blood pressure and anxiety are high enough as it is, but I can only assume this is a combination of battling voter apathy and just outright taking the piss.
Something worth noting about CNN is that their parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is in the process of merging with the Paramount-Skydance empire run by the Trump-supporting Ellisons. While that lawsuit is currently in legal limbo, I wouldn't be surprised if CNN is trying to curry favor with Trump in anticipation of what's coming. Who knows.
Per what CA Attorney General Rob Bonta is saying, Paramount Skydance is being more unreasonable and combative than Meta, which he pursued legal action against with a settlement in the billions.
You have to consider that all these candidates have fundraising on their mind. A CNN segment saying "the race is closer than you think" can both get the word out about the race and lead to social posts, email subjects, and text messages that warn about the segment that aired on CNN saying it's a close race--followed by a donation solicitation.
On a related note, we really need to get money out of politics. Badly.
That's better than acting like the election is in the bag, only to get surprised because of complacency. NC is close enough that neither party can take it for granted even in nationally favourable years.
Roy Cooper knows that while his race isn't really close, the races that will decide who controls the North Carolina legislature are close and if the Democrats win control they can do away with the GOP's perpetual rule Gerrymander.
So what was everyone doing on 9/11? I was on the west coast a couple weeks away from starting my junior year of college. Got a call from my mom at 6am PT that the towers were hit but didn’t really process it til later in the day. Was the first time I really started watching cable news in earnest.
I flew yesterday, because the flight got me into New York on the afternoon before the first night of Rosh Hashanah and was slightly cheaper than flying on other days around this time. Oh, in 2001? I don't want to talk about that anymore. That was an awful day, and what followed it was worse and part of why things are so terrible today. In a lot of ways, everything since the 2000 election has been a long, grotesque nightmare that I wish would end and restore the status quo ante, but it can't.
I was arguing a case in Atlanta at the 11th Circuit about campaign financing against Jim Bopp. The court delayed the argument and then started it but we didn't know what had happened since all cell phone were required to be turned in when we got to the court -which was before the 1st plane hit. So while the Court knew the planes had hit we didn't until after the argument when the presiding judge told us. Since I had driven to Atlanta I got home to Tallahassee that night. I was always impressed that the court didn't miss a beat and did its job while letting us do ours without be affected by the tragedy
My roommate at college back in SFSU woke me up when it happened and had me watch the TV. I believe this was close to 11 am at the time of 9/11/2001. I was not even three weeks into my senior year, in my early 20’s and news coverage was around the clock with nothing but this.
The first feeling I had was the this was a sudden shock to me. Then I remembered watching the 1997 HBO film Path of Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing where Ramzi Ahmed Yousef at the very end of the film said, “Next time, we will bring them both down.”
Before this happened, after he was inaugurated as POTUS, President Bush made absolutely ZERO headlines that were worth noting besides his cabinet nominations and anything education related. During the period of January 2001 - August 2001, it was a pretty chill period, at least if you were based in the Bay Area.
I was in my mid 20s, working at an investment firm on the 22nd floor of an office tower in downtown Toronto. We all heard/saw the story of the first plane hitting a tower, as many may know it was thought at that point it was a small plane that had gone off course or something. Then the second plane hit, and the Pentagon got hit, and the internet literally broke. No news site was working. Rumours started flying, about other planes hitting elsewhere like Chicago, car bombs in London, and then eventually they sent us home as the markets were suspended. My roommate and I went home and watched the news slack-jawed for the rest of the day. I don't remember if we went back to work the next day or if it took a couple of days. I also remember that only a couple of weeks prior, my sister and I had gone to England to visit relatives. Flying was rather a different experience after that.
I don't think that was ever in the cards. If only Dems could take a temporary lesson in tactical voting, UK style, to prevent the R from winning... but alas...
"Alani Bankhead made certain with hours to go before Monday’s deadline that she would not step aside to give independent Seth Bodnar — who is backed by former Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) — a clearer run at Republican Kurt Alme.
'I’ll never bow down,' Bankhead said during a press conference ahead of the 7 p.m. Eastern Time deadline to drop out. 'I am in this race to win it and I am staying through Nov. 3' ...Her refusal to drop is no surprise. She told POLITICO earlier this month that it would take 'a lighting bolt from God' to convince her to exit, and she’s cast Bodnar’s backing from Tester as proof that he’s more aligned with the establishment than she is."
I sense a bit of an ego. Unfortunately, if she's going to take 15%, it is going doom Bodnar, and with it, our chances of at least preventing the R's from getting that seat.
No one had ever heard of the guy before March. This is his first run for office, and U.S. Attorney isn't exactly a position with a lot of name recognition unless there's a high-profile case.
Academic administrators like Bodnar, on the other hand, do have name recognition. Gordon Gee, who was the head of West Virginia University for many years, was a local pariah. People scoffed at hearing his name after he eliminated departments and teaching positions to strengthen his executive power. And now he's a donor to Republican Sen. Jon Husted.
I'd still say Johnston is the favorite as he's been in politics quite a while. But Diana DeGette and Michael Bennet lost, and John Hickenlooper almost did, but they've also been in politics for a while
I absolutely think Johnston's support is soft and he'll be forced into a runoff. The question is with who. Lisa Calderón was the DSA candidate in 2023 but got narrowly outpaced by a business friendly moderate (who then lost to Johnston). She's running again, which would split the leftwing vote with Lewis in the first round, but if no one else of note runs it will probably be one of them and Johnston in the runoff. Should be close...the margin by which Kiros beat DeGette was staggering, and I certainly wasn't expecting Hickenlooper to lose the city by almost 9 points either. But this will be a nonpartisan free-for-all, not a Democratic primary, so Johnston starts off in a slightly more comfortable position.
Here's an article I wrote over at my Substack publication about how progressivism is distinct from liberalism and socialism, at least as how I define the three left-of-center ideologies. The article is quite the deep dive.
Very very good essay! The progressivism you describe aligns pretty neatly with my own political views. I would even group my support for nationalizing utilities as part of your definition of progressivism, as I believe the current approach of government-sanctioned private monopolies has been a complete failure that has led to inadequate services at best (ConEdison in the NYC area) and natural disasters at worst (PG&E and the California fires). On the other hand, I can see a place for private industry in America. There’s a difference between nationalizing PG&E and nationalizing a local business in your town. I know I’m loyal to some of my nearby small businesses - for example, a record store I patronize in Nyack NY, or an Italian restaurant in my hometown of Chappaqua NY I love.
I will say that I don’t think all liberals (your definition) are willing to work with fascists. Jeffries’ meeting with Jared Kushner was nauseating, but at the same time I think Pat Ryan has been a stellar Rep, and I’d group him with liberals. Personally I suspect the issue is not ideology, but corruption. Hence why getting money out of politics is so important to me, along with other democratic initiatives. So many politicians seem to see themselves as above the common people, irrespective of party or ideology. Addressing that is, in my mind, a must if we want the U.S. to exist, let alone get better, in the future.
I haven't read the essay yet, but I think the issue of a fighting spirit vs a desire to collaborate is a different issue than corruption and also quite different from moderate vs liberal vs socialist, etc.
I’m of the mind that corruption can be a reason for a lack of a fighting spirit. Corporate donors tend not to like the fighting spirit because it can turn on them. Ditto for members of Congress insider trading in stocks. Collaboration benefits them since members of both the GOP and Dems have donor ties/insider trade. That’s just how I see it though, and who knows, I could be wrong.
I agree, but I'm saying that while there's obviously an overlap between corporate capture and collaborationism, that's not the only reason for it, and it's not at all purely a function of ideological orientation, either.
All you need to do is go back decades to when Richard Nixon got elected POTUS back in 1968 and see how the U.S. has slowly and progressively changed into being a more corporately influenced country. No country in the world besides the U.S. is as tight with corporations as the U.S.
But back in the 1950’s corporate donors and influence was much different. Movie studios were their own entities and banks far less the big banks they are today. Tech companies? Not even a concept unless we’re talking technology that aided industrial labor, radio, TV, movie theaters, etc.
Quite honestly, this discussion with liberal vs. progressive in terms of views is more semantics than anything else. And I'm still trying to understand the meaning of this all.
Here's why I'm saying this - If you didn't grow up in Berkeley, which through the UC Berkeley system is one of the biggest influences in liberal philosophy in the U.S., you wouldn't know that many of us liberals possess the exact same traits and views as the progressives of today.
In fact, Berkeley was well ahead of where progressives elsewhere in California and the country were back in the 90's when I grew up as a teenager in the city. I even took ethnic studies in high school back in 1994 before the rest of the CA public education system took more than two decades to mandate it statewide.
Berkeley has a tradition of fighting against corporate influence for a long time. Nowadays it's different with the influence of YIMBYs, millennials and Gen Z but besides the influence of developers (which is nothing compared to how it is in San Francisco), Berkeley is still at its core quite staunchly liberal. After all, it voted for Bernie in 2016 and 2020.
"In short, liberals tend to at least partially support social justice, but they are universally less supportive of economic justice than progressives."
In Berkeley I know this not to be the case. We are all in for economic and social justice although how they get addressed is the question.
I know back in my elementary school from 1989-1991, Columbus Elementary School, we were the first school in the country to be renamed in honor of Rosa Parks, who was invited to attend the opening of the newly named Rosa Parks Elementary School (her il health prevented her from coming).
In class we learned broader awareness about culture and different races but also specifically addressed bias, namely as it related to racial profiling. 1994 was three years after the Rodney King riots, which was on plenty of our minds at the time.
Anything historical I can’t comment on as this is more than 30 years back in the day.
I read your essay bc I know you're a generation or two younger than my GenX and recently it seems to me that the definition/characteristics of progressive vs liberal have flipped from the 90s. So I was curious to see what the definitions wree today. *My 1980s/90s Midwestern blue collar understanding of progressive didn't vary a ton from your definition in the essay (good govt, social and economic justice)* but the process did. Progressives were pragmatic then, they were willing to make progress toward goals. Much like AOC has shown a pragmatic streak in Congress, rather than being strictly dogmatic.
I don't think Anyone in the US who was liberal or progressive thought Bill Clinton was either, except Pat Buchanon and his ilk. The blue collar union liberals I knew never would have called Bill Clinton liberal. Neither would he himself, thus the whole Third Way and triangulation business of the New Left. Clinton was a moderate Democrat who was slightly left of center and socially a little more left than that. Not a liberal, unless you accept a conservative operative definition of liberal. (Which your essay sort of does as it equates Clinton with liberalism and uses that as a strawman.) Liberals in my state refused to work with conservatives like wealthy business owners, and as a result their union jobs disappeared, moving to Southern RTW states or Mexico.
Government can be effective with regulations, but running large scale enterprises is not often a strength of government. I lived in PR for many years where the govt owned and ran water, electric, and phone. Phone was privatized while I was there and was far more reliable after. It no longer took 9 mo to get a landline (moot now, ofc). Electric was mostly privatized after Maria, jury is out if it is better, but it was undeniably terrible before. 60% of treated drinking water leaks from system before reaching a tap. Govt is bad at large scale enterprise because it is not nimble and is chronically underfunded.
Obamacare was insurance reform, a regulatory shift, not a health Care reform. I strongly doubt govt could run a national health care system well in the US. One only need to look at the funding issues that the British NES has as an example. Is their system more accessible than ours? Yes. Is it efficient? Is the care for those with access better? Doubtful. The liberal view I grew up in, in the 80s/90s would have agreed with nationalizing health care and utilities. The progressives would have looked for ways to make them better based on the values you noted but not necessarily a government takeover. For example, regulating health care, education, prisons, and utilities as non-profit entities so shareholders weren't calling shots.
Are you really suggesting that progressives elected to Congress should not work with Conservatives to find common ground to move society forward incrementally when possible? Doesn't that just call for gridlock? We've had 16 years of that, look what it's gotten us.
I'm not completely against political compromise, but I'm saying that progressives shouldn't completely abandon their core values when political compromise is necessary and shouldn't compromise for the sake of compromise.
Sometimes, government runs things better, sometimes private businesses do. Has NASA been poorly run, historically? How about the U.S. Military? (OK, sometimes, but in general, the military is very good but sometimes put in no-win situations by stupid politicians.) In Germany, people have observed that Deutsche Bahn used to be extremely reliable before it was privatized. And the NHS is great. Its funding problems are political, a legacy of sabotage by people like Margaret Thatcher who wanted to destroy it, much like Social Security and Medicare have a fake funding crisis as a result of a refusal to tax wealthier earners equitably and were fucked with by G.W. Bush to inject private profit into the system and screw over recipients.
My feeling about nationalization is that it is better for a government to run things like airlines than for there to be monopolistic conditions. Only two airlines fly between Berlin and New York: Delta and United. What do you think that does to fares and service? Why does my ass hurt so much after an 8 hour 45 minute flight when it didn't hurt like that after a 14-hour flight to Beijing years ago? Small businesses are great. Big oligopolistic corporations have to either be powerfully regulated, broken up or nationalized. Which solution do you think would have been best after the 2009 financial crisis? At the time, I supported nationalization of the offending firms and later selling off their assets piecemeal, so that none of them were ever "too big to fail" again. People have sworn up and down that that would have destroyed banking, etc., etc., but the result is that assets are even more concentrated in the hands of fewer banks now.
Been away for a few days. I think you kind of answered the question. Robust anti-trust would solve the airline issue and too big to fail, without nationalizing things for pols to F with.
It wouldn't solve Deutsche Bahn's problems, which arose from the profit motive incentivizing ignoring maintenance for a long time, something that didn't happen when the German government owned the railways. Anyway, I disagree that regulation is sufficient to make the problems of oligopolism go away.
It seems like there's a lot of national political ad buys during college football games (I saw ads from AES and a pro-Benson group during the Eastern Michigan-Michigan State football game), but I haven't noticed any on college volleyball telecasts.
Congressman Ted Liu is responding to Trump’s desire to change the name of Lake Ontario. He jokingly said he’s changing his name to Ted America.
Knowing X and how many of the users are basically Elon Musk’s followers, the first comment to the post was from a user who criticized Liu’s vote on the stimulus checks during the pandemic.
News from the North: Alberta is holding a byelection tomorrow in the district of Calgary-Shaw, due to a resignation of Rebecca Schulz, a member of the United Conservative Party and former cabinet minister. She won in the 2023 general election by a 56.3-42.7 margin over the NDP. The byelection will pit candidates from the UCP, NDP, Liberals, an independent, and the Progressive Tory Party, which is another example of a splinter movement of centre-right activists thinking the major party has gone too extreme.
The byelection is being held under the shadow of the upcoming referendum to begin exploring separation, and while most pundits think the UCP will hold on, I do wonder if they will suffer a hit to their share of the vote. More candidates on the centre and left may damage the NDP's chance at any gains, unfortunately.
Despite the UCP's best attempts, they aren't polling worse than they did in 2023. I don't know if Canadian by-election voters differ somewhat from general election voters (like they do the U.S), but it'd be surprising to me if it flipped.
WI-Gov - Republican nominee Tom Tiffany suffered minor, non-life threatening injuries after a plane he was aboard was forced to make an emergency landing on water in Lake Wausau in Marathon County.
Democratic nominee David Crowley issued a statement wishing Tiffany a full recovery and praising the pilot of the plane.
I think AES had the perfect response for a lot of these bad faith questions, meanwhile the anchor gave away the game: "But Republicans have made it a big attack on you". We need to stop engaging in these bad faith arguments and I think that AES provides us the path forward.
It truly won't satisfy some Jewish voters - I know it doesn't satisfy me. But it is the right response, considering that it's from someone who chose to associate himself as closely with Piker as El-Sayed did, which is a mistake.
Did he? OK, that's good, but that's after campaigning with him. I certainly _hope_ he'll be able to recover from it, because I care much more about preventing dictatorship than El-Sayed's trustworthiness in judgment, but it was a serious unforced error to associate himself closely with Piker as recently as a few months ago.
Frankly I think a lot of the stuff about Piker has been blown out of proportion. He’s a bit of a himbo who is terminally online and says things that are bound to be taken out of context. I don’t personally believe he is anti-Semitic. I don’t believe he hates Jews. That’s just my read on him from actually listening to the things he says that aren’t blasted out in the corporate media. People keep talking about “the Joe Rogan of the Left”. Unfortunately for better or for worse. He is that.
I’m worried about how Jewish voters will respond to AES myself in MI. Someone I know is Jewish and has MI family, and she has told me that the Jewish community in Michigan in general is refusing to back AES. Said person I know thinks AES will lose, partially due to this.
I don’t think that will happen, as A. the national environment is too blue and B. the Canadian trade war is not going to help MI’s economy (I pointed out the latter to this person I know and she acknowledged I had a point — apparently many MIers work in Canada), but it is something that concerns me.
If he does lose it won’t be because of some Twitch Streamer. It will be more the inherent anti-Muslim bias of this country. There are plenty of videos out there where AES convinces more Conservative voters to come out and vote for him.
I do agree for what it’s worth. Sadly Islamophobia is a plague in this country. It is good to know AES has convinced some conservatives.
Interestingly, this person I know has told me that Jews and Muslims get along quite well in her experience in the U.S. I did see a poll a while back (that I do not remember where I saw it) where not only were Jews the least Islamophobic religious group of those asked, but they somehow managed to be lower than actual Muslims. (Top of the list, of course, was white Evangelicals, the scourge of my religion (I’m a Christian) and the ones who are turning it into a doomsday cult.)
He reminds me of Mamdani a little bit. He’s a smart campaigner, Piker notwithstanding.
Quite frankly, unless someone has polls suggesting otherwise, I don’t think most Americans know or care who Piker is.
If he loses, I suspect it will be due to a combination of anti-Muslim bias, his association with Piker, and his political positions. I don't think it's rational to say that any of of the three is the sole reason.
It’s amazing. Republicans can appear with every neo-Nazi and white supremacist around and the CNNs of the world may ask them about it 1 or 2 times. But let a Democrat appear with a “scary Muslim” and they’ll be asked about it forever.
I mean Trump takes regular calls and political advice from Lara Loomer who repeatedly called 9/11 an inside job by the U.S. government, and for some reason media and politicians and regular voters don't care a bit. El-Sayed campaigns a bit with a very popular and frequently controversial far-left streamer and accepts an endorsement, and suddenly it's nonstop pearl clutching.
I don't think it's necessarily true that people don't care about Republicans' racist associations. I suspect its part of the reason for why we're looking at a blue wave.
The article does note Talarico's money goes further: Since the field was set with Paxton’s late May runoff win, Republican groups have spent $81.1 million on ads, including future reservations through the end of September, per AdImpact. Democrats have spent $43.7 million — nearly all coming from Talarico’s campaign. However, Talarico’s campaign dollars go further on broadcast and radio than those spent by Republican super PACs, due to rules that offer campaigns a discounted rate.
In an age of cord-cutting, especially when the cost of living is an issue and cable/satellite subscriptions are probably getting dropped to cover the rent or electricity, I have to wonder how effective TV ads are compared with door-knocking, phone-banking, or GOTV efforts.
Speaking of cord-cutting, as one of those myself, I happened to catch a new ad from Abbott today. His previous ads were him hyping up completely eliminating property taxes here in the state. I wonder if that message isn't resonating because his latest ad I caught said now he wants to give people a vote before a county raises their property taxes.
One comment I have on this topic: I think radio ads go much further than people expect, and they're also much cheaper than TV ads. A lot of people still turn on AM/FM radio when driving around for errands or commuting.
Now here’s something to watch in Delaware. A very controversial bill passed last year that, among other things, limits shareholders’ ability to obtain information from companies they suspect of wrongdoing, and makes it easier to pass business deals. It was passed with support from Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — and was partially written by a firm that represents the former.
The Delaware Working Families Party responded by supporting several primary challenges to Dems who voted for the bill. Two of them have endorsements from the governor, Matt Meyer (who backed the bill), as well, as noted by Bolts Magazine. They are both also Bernie endorsees.
Given Musk’s unpopularity, we’ll see how these fare.
Trump's mail ballot sabotage shenanigans as the Supreme Court rejects it 7-2 with only Alito and Thomas predictably voting for him. Ironically, all of the Trump appointed justices voted against him.
https://eplocalnews.org/2025/03/29/simonetti-launches-u-s-senate-bid-as-legal-case-lingers/
MN-Sen: Just realized there's an independent in this race named Marisa Simonetti, who is accused of throwing a live tarantula at a house guest while blasting Christian music.
One more reason to elect Peggy Flanagan.
"accused of throwing a live tarantula at a house guest while blasting Christian music."
Lol. You've got another 60 years or so to come across that scenario again. Bet you don't -- unless there's a weird spider cult in Minnesota.
Simonetti probably will get less 1% of the vote.
Simonetti got 31.6% of the vote in her 2024 race for Hennepin County commissioner. The victim of her tarantula episode was a tenant she was subletting her basement to via AirBnb. Simonetti apparently canceled the Airbnb but the "guest" didn't leave and Simonetti's "self-help" after the cops declined to remove her got illegally creative. Unfortunately her tenant was also an attorney... Simonetti was convicted of several related charges in March and sentenced in July. She got 90 days with work release. She also sued the victim, the cops, and the prosecutors for $28million in damages for ruining her political career. I'm assuming that was dismissed. Not sure what her day job is (she lost her real estate license years ago for deceptive practices) but she also has an OnlyFans site.
Perhaps Simonetti is best suited for being an influencer instead of being in politics.
She could join the GOP if she’s so inclined. I’m sure they’d love to have her!
As Jesus famously said, "If you only throw tarantulas at those who throw them back at you, how are you any better than the sinners?" That's the bible verse, right?
"Truly I tell you, whatever spider you threw at the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you threw at me."
NJ State Legislature:
https://newjerseyglobe.com/legislature/progressive-group-launches-statewide-candidate-recruitment-effort/?ref=primaryschool.ghost.io
The NJ Working Families Party is recruiting candidates to run non-machine-backed campaigns for State Senate and State Assembly in New Jersey. In addition to open seats, incumbents are also being targeted.
CNN had a segment on earlier where they were with Roy Cooper, and the setup was that Cooper was warning that he didn't have the election in the bag. I didn't watch it because my blood pressure and anxiety are high enough as it is, but I can only assume this is a combination of battling voter apathy and just outright taking the piss.
Good idea. Run like he's behind so he can conduct a fierce campaign and win by even more.
Oh thank goodness, so I'm not alone in thinking that the premise was utter BS.
Something worth noting about CNN is that their parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is in the process of merging with the Paramount-Skydance empire run by the Trump-supporting Ellisons. While that lawsuit is currently in legal limbo, I wouldn't be surprised if CNN is trying to curry favor with Trump in anticipation of what's coming. Who knows.
Per what CA Attorney General Rob Bonta is saying, Paramount Skydance is being more unreasonable and combative than Meta, which he pursued legal action against with a settlement in the billions.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/27/rob-bonta-paramount-meta-01052439
You have to consider that all these candidates have fundraising on their mind. A CNN segment saying "the race is closer than you think" can both get the word out about the race and lead to social posts, email subjects, and text messages that warn about the segment that aired on CNN saying it's a close race--followed by a donation solicitation.
On a related note, we really need to get money out of politics. Badly.
That's better than acting like the election is in the bag, only to get surprised because of complacency. NC is close enough that neither party can take it for granted even in nationally favourable years.
Don’t worry. This is common - wants to ensure there’s strong turnout.
Roy Cooper knows that while his race isn't really close, the races that will decide who controls the North Carolina legislature are close and if the Democrats win control they can do away with the GOP's perpetual rule Gerrymander.
So what was everyone doing on 9/11? I was on the west coast a couple weeks away from starting my junior year of college. Got a call from my mom at 6am PT that the towers were hit but didn’t really process it til later in the day. Was the first time I really started watching cable news in earnest.
I flew yesterday, because the flight got me into New York on the afternoon before the first night of Rosh Hashanah and was slightly cheaper than flying on other days around this time. Oh, in 2001? I don't want to talk about that anymore. That was an awful day, and what followed it was worse and part of why things are so terrible today. In a lot of ways, everything since the 2000 election has been a long, grotesque nightmare that I wish would end and restore the status quo ante, but it can't.
I was arguing a case in Atlanta at the 11th Circuit about campaign financing against Jim Bopp. The court delayed the argument and then started it but we didn't know what had happened since all cell phone were required to be turned in when we got to the court -which was before the 1st plane hit. So while the Court knew the planes had hit we didn't until after the argument when the presiding judge told us. Since I had driven to Atlanta I got home to Tallahassee that night. I was always impressed that the court didn't miss a beat and did its job while letting us do ours without be affected by the tragedy
That's a good story. What was the outcome of the case?
We lost 2-1
I was in 7th grade piano lab. That's the only thing I can remember with certainty, anything else would probably be a constructed memory.
My roommate at college back in SFSU woke me up when it happened and had me watch the TV. I believe this was close to 11 am at the time of 9/11/2001. I was not even three weeks into my senior year, in my early 20’s and news coverage was around the clock with nothing but this.
The first feeling I had was the this was a sudden shock to me. Then I remembered watching the 1997 HBO film Path of Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing where Ramzi Ahmed Yousef at the very end of the film said, “Next time, we will bring them both down.”
Before this happened, after he was inaugurated as POTUS, President Bush made absolutely ZERO headlines that were worth noting besides his cabinet nominations and anything education related. During the period of January 2001 - August 2001, it was a pretty chill period, at least if you were based in the Bay Area.
I was in my mid 20s, working at an investment firm on the 22nd floor of an office tower in downtown Toronto. We all heard/saw the story of the first plane hitting a tower, as many may know it was thought at that point it was a small plane that had gone off course or something. Then the second plane hit, and the Pentagon got hit, and the internet literally broke. No news site was working. Rumours started flying, about other planes hitting elsewhere like Chicago, car bombs in London, and then eventually they sent us home as the markets were suspended. My roommate and I went home and watched the news slack-jawed for the rest of the day. I don't remember if we went back to work the next day or if it took a couple of days. I also remember that only a couple of weeks prior, my sister and I had gone to England to visit relatives. Flying was rather a different experience after that.
I was working 8 blocks away. It was a pretty surreal experience...
MT Senate:
Alme (R) 38
Bodnar (I) 30
Bankhead (D) 16
Austin (L) 5
https://montanafreepress.org/2026/09/11/alme-holds-an-8-point-lead-over-bodnar-in-senate-race/
thought D was going to withdraw
Deadline came and went without that
I don't think that was ever in the cards. If only Dems could take a temporary lesson in tactical voting, UK style, to prevent the R from winning... but alas...
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/10/montana-senate-bankhead-midterms-01031177
"Alani Bankhead made certain with hours to go before Monday’s deadline that she would not step aside to give independent Seth Bodnar — who is backed by former Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) — a clearer run at Republican Kurt Alme.
'I’ll never bow down,' Bankhead said during a press conference ahead of the 7 p.m. Eastern Time deadline to drop out. 'I am in this race to win it and I am staying through Nov. 3' ...Her refusal to drop is no surprise. She told POLITICO earlier this month that it would take 'a lighting bolt from God' to convince her to exit, and she’s cast Bodnar’s backing from Tester as proof that he’s more aligned with the establishment than she is."
I sense a bit of an ego. Unfortunately, if she's going to take 15%, it is going doom Bodnar, and with it, our chances of at least preventing the R's from getting that seat.
I'm legit surprised at how weak Alme may be and how Bodnar is, even with Bankhead still in the race.
No one had ever heard of the guy before March. This is his first run for office, and U.S. Attorney isn't exactly a position with a lot of name recognition unless there's a high-profile case.
Academic administrators like Bodnar, on the other hand, do have name recognition. Gordon Gee, who was the head of West Virginia University for many years, was a local pariah. People scoffed at hearing his name after he eliminated departments and teaching positions to strengthen his executive power. And now he's a donor to Republican Sen. Jon Husted.
Denver, CO Mayor:
https://denverite.com/2026/08/26/denver-dsa-endorses-shontel-lewis-for-mayor/
The Denver DSA is backing City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis’ bid to unseat mayor Mike Johnston from the left.
I'd still say Johnston is the favorite as he's been in politics quite a while. But Diana DeGette and Michael Bennet lost, and John Hickenlooper almost did, but they've also been in politics for a while
I absolutely think Johnston's support is soft and he'll be forced into a runoff. The question is with who. Lisa Calderón was the DSA candidate in 2023 but got narrowly outpaced by a business friendly moderate (who then lost to Johnston). She's running again, which would split the leftwing vote with Lewis in the first round, but if no one else of note runs it will probably be one of them and Johnston in the runoff. Should be close...the margin by which Kiros beat DeGette was staggering, and I certainly wasn't expecting Hickenlooper to lose the city by almost 9 points either. But this will be a nonpartisan free-for-all, not a Democratic primary, so Johnston starts off in a slightly more comfortable position.
Here's an article I wrote over at my Substack publication about how progressivism is distinct from liberalism and socialism, at least as how I define the three left-of-center ideologies. The article is quite the deep dive.
https://apollography.substack.com/p/being-progressive-important-distinction
Very very good essay! The progressivism you describe aligns pretty neatly with my own political views. I would even group my support for nationalizing utilities as part of your definition of progressivism, as I believe the current approach of government-sanctioned private monopolies has been a complete failure that has led to inadequate services at best (ConEdison in the NYC area) and natural disasters at worst (PG&E and the California fires). On the other hand, I can see a place for private industry in America. There’s a difference between nationalizing PG&E and nationalizing a local business in your town. I know I’m loyal to some of my nearby small businesses - for example, a record store I patronize in Nyack NY, or an Italian restaurant in my hometown of Chappaqua NY I love.
I will say that I don’t think all liberals (your definition) are willing to work with fascists. Jeffries’ meeting with Jared Kushner was nauseating, but at the same time I think Pat Ryan has been a stellar Rep, and I’d group him with liberals. Personally I suspect the issue is not ideology, but corruption. Hence why getting money out of politics is so important to me, along with other democratic initiatives. So many politicians seem to see themselves as above the common people, irrespective of party or ideology. Addressing that is, in my mind, a must if we want the U.S. to exist, let alone get better, in the future.
I haven't read the essay yet, but I think the issue of a fighting spirit vs a desire to collaborate is a different issue than corruption and also quite different from moderate vs liberal vs socialist, etc.
I’m of the mind that corruption can be a reason for a lack of a fighting spirit. Corporate donors tend not to like the fighting spirit because it can turn on them. Ditto for members of Congress insider trading in stocks. Collaboration benefits them since members of both the GOP and Dems have donor ties/insider trade. That’s just how I see it though, and who knows, I could be wrong.
I agree, but I'm saying that while there's obviously an overlap between corporate capture and collaborationism, that's not the only reason for it, and it's not at all purely a function of ideological orientation, either.
All you need to do is go back decades to when Richard Nixon got elected POTUS back in 1968 and see how the U.S. has slowly and progressively changed into being a more corporately influenced country. No country in the world besides the U.S. is as tight with corporations as the U.S.
But back in the 1950’s corporate donors and influence was much different. Movie studios were their own entities and banks far less the big banks they are today. Tech companies? Not even a concept unless we’re talking technology that aided industrial labor, radio, TV, movie theaters, etc.
Quite honestly, this discussion with liberal vs. progressive in terms of views is more semantics than anything else. And I'm still trying to understand the meaning of this all.
Here's why I'm saying this - If you didn't grow up in Berkeley, which through the UC Berkeley system is one of the biggest influences in liberal philosophy in the U.S., you wouldn't know that many of us liberals possess the exact same traits and views as the progressives of today.
In fact, Berkeley was well ahead of where progressives elsewhere in California and the country were back in the 90's when I grew up as a teenager in the city. I even took ethnic studies in high school back in 1994 before the rest of the CA public education system took more than two decades to mandate it statewide.
Berkeley has a tradition of fighting against corporate influence for a long time. Nowadays it's different with the influence of YIMBYs, millennials and Gen Z but besides the influence of developers (which is nothing compared to how it is in San Francisco), Berkeley is still at its core quite staunchly liberal. After all, it voted for Bernie in 2016 and 2020.
"In short, liberals tend to at least partially support social justice, but they are universally less supportive of economic justice than progressives."
In Berkeley I know this not to be the case. We are all in for economic and social justice although how they get addressed is the question.
I know back in my elementary school from 1989-1991, Columbus Elementary School, we were the first school in the country to be renamed in honor of Rosa Parks, who was invited to attend the opening of the newly named Rosa Parks Elementary School (her il health prevented her from coming).
How was the ethnic studies you were taught different from anthropology?
In class we learned broader awareness about culture and different races but also specifically addressed bias, namely as it related to racial profiling. 1994 was three years after the Rodney King riots, which was on plenty of our minds at the time.
Anything historical I can’t comment on as this is more than 30 years back in the day.
I read your essay bc I know you're a generation or two younger than my GenX and recently it seems to me that the definition/characteristics of progressive vs liberal have flipped from the 90s. So I was curious to see what the definitions wree today. *My 1980s/90s Midwestern blue collar understanding of progressive didn't vary a ton from your definition in the essay (good govt, social and economic justice)* but the process did. Progressives were pragmatic then, they were willing to make progress toward goals. Much like AOC has shown a pragmatic streak in Congress, rather than being strictly dogmatic.
I don't think Anyone in the US who was liberal or progressive thought Bill Clinton was either, except Pat Buchanon and his ilk. The blue collar union liberals I knew never would have called Bill Clinton liberal. Neither would he himself, thus the whole Third Way and triangulation business of the New Left. Clinton was a moderate Democrat who was slightly left of center and socially a little more left than that. Not a liberal, unless you accept a conservative operative definition of liberal. (Which your essay sort of does as it equates Clinton with liberalism and uses that as a strawman.) Liberals in my state refused to work with conservatives like wealthy business owners, and as a result their union jobs disappeared, moving to Southern RTW states or Mexico.
Government can be effective with regulations, but running large scale enterprises is not often a strength of government. I lived in PR for many years where the govt owned and ran water, electric, and phone. Phone was privatized while I was there and was far more reliable after. It no longer took 9 mo to get a landline (moot now, ofc). Electric was mostly privatized after Maria, jury is out if it is better, but it was undeniably terrible before. 60% of treated drinking water leaks from system before reaching a tap. Govt is bad at large scale enterprise because it is not nimble and is chronically underfunded.
Obamacare was insurance reform, a regulatory shift, not a health Care reform. I strongly doubt govt could run a national health care system well in the US. One only need to look at the funding issues that the British NES has as an example. Is their system more accessible than ours? Yes. Is it efficient? Is the care for those with access better? Doubtful. The liberal view I grew up in, in the 80s/90s would have agreed with nationalizing health care and utilities. The progressives would have looked for ways to make them better based on the values you noted but not necessarily a government takeover. For example, regulating health care, education, prisons, and utilities as non-profit entities so shareholders weren't calling shots.
Are you really suggesting that progressives elected to Congress should not work with Conservatives to find common ground to move society forward incrementally when possible? Doesn't that just call for gridlock? We've had 16 years of that, look what it's gotten us.
I'm not completely against political compromise, but I'm saying that progressives shouldn't completely abandon their core values when political compromise is necessary and shouldn't compromise for the sake of compromise.
Sometimes, government runs things better, sometimes private businesses do. Has NASA been poorly run, historically? How about the U.S. Military? (OK, sometimes, but in general, the military is very good but sometimes put in no-win situations by stupid politicians.) In Germany, people have observed that Deutsche Bahn used to be extremely reliable before it was privatized. And the NHS is great. Its funding problems are political, a legacy of sabotage by people like Margaret Thatcher who wanted to destroy it, much like Social Security and Medicare have a fake funding crisis as a result of a refusal to tax wealthier earners equitably and were fucked with by G.W. Bush to inject private profit into the system and screw over recipients.
My feeling about nationalization is that it is better for a government to run things like airlines than for there to be monopolistic conditions. Only two airlines fly between Berlin and New York: Delta and United. What do you think that does to fares and service? Why does my ass hurt so much after an 8 hour 45 minute flight when it didn't hurt like that after a 14-hour flight to Beijing years ago? Small businesses are great. Big oligopolistic corporations have to either be powerfully regulated, broken up or nationalized. Which solution do you think would have been best after the 2009 financial crisis? At the time, I supported nationalization of the offending firms and later selling off their assets piecemeal, so that none of them were ever "too big to fail" again. People have sworn up and down that that would have destroyed banking, etc., etc., but the result is that assets are even more concentrated in the hands of fewer banks now.
Been away for a few days. I think you kind of answered the question. Robust anti-trust would solve the airline issue and too big to fail, without nationalizing things for pols to F with.
It wouldn't solve Deutsche Bahn's problems, which arose from the profit motive incentivizing ignoring maintenance for a long time, something that didn't happen when the German government owned the railways. Anyway, I disagree that regulation is sufficient to make the problems of oligopolism go away.
TX-Sen: Just got a Ken Paxton ad...in West Virginia
It seems like there's a lot of national political ad buys during college football games (I saw ads from AES and a pro-Benson group during the Eastern Michigan-Michigan State football game), but I haven't noticed any on college volleyball telecasts.
Yeah its strange, I was flying from Austin to Seattle yesterday and saw an ad for Mike Lawler....
This is good news for Paxton’s campaign. /s
https://x.com/tedlieu/status/2098910440004694108?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
CA-36: I would have respected this more if he had stuck with it to see reactions.
I can't read X. What's the upshot?
Congressman Ted Liu is responding to Trump’s desire to change the name of Lake Ontario. He jokingly said he’s changing his name to Ted America.
Knowing X and how many of the users are basically Elon Musk’s followers, the first comment to the post was from a user who criticized Liu’s vote on the stimulus checks during the pandemic.
https://www.wisn.com/article/rep-tom-tiffany-in-hospital-after-emergency-plane-landing/73705005
WI-Gov: After his plane made an emergency landing in a lake and he swam to shore, Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany is in the hospital with minor injuries.
News from the North: Alberta is holding a byelection tomorrow in the district of Calgary-Shaw, due to a resignation of Rebecca Schulz, a member of the United Conservative Party and former cabinet minister. She won in the 2023 general election by a 56.3-42.7 margin over the NDP. The byelection will pit candidates from the UCP, NDP, Liberals, an independent, and the Progressive Tory Party, which is another example of a splinter movement of centre-right activists thinking the major party has gone too extreme.
The byelection is being held under the shadow of the upcoming referendum to begin exploring separation, and while most pundits think the UCP will hold on, I do wonder if they will suffer a hit to their share of the vote. More candidates on the centre and left may damage the NDP's chance at any gains, unfortunately.
Despite the UCP's best attempts, they aren't polling worse than they did in 2023. I don't know if Canadian by-election voters differ somewhat from general election voters (like they do the U.S), but it'd be surprising to me if it flipped.
WI-Gov - Republican nominee Tom Tiffany suffered minor, non-life threatening injuries after a plane he was aboard was forced to make an emergency landing on water in Lake Wausau in Marathon County.
Democratic nominee David Crowley issued a statement wishing Tiffany a full recovery and praising the pilot of the plane.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DdO5vFBG3PC/?stkn=cXJrM3l4b3o2ZDN4
I think AES had the perfect response for a lot of these bad faith questions, meanwhile the anchor gave away the game: "But Republicans have made it a big attack on you". We need to stop engaging in these bad faith arguments and I think that AES provides us the path forward.
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mvftwot7ru2a
But...but...b-b streamers! /s
It truly won't satisfy some Jewish voters - I know it doesn't satisfy me. But it is the right response, considering that it's from someone who chose to associate himself as closely with Piker as El-Sayed did, which is a mistake.
Again, though, El-Sayed has repeatedly disavowed and distanced himself from Piker. It's not something that he's unable to recover from.
Did he? OK, that's good, but that's after campaigning with him. I certainly _hope_ he'll be able to recover from it, because I care much more about preventing dictatorship than El-Sayed's trustworthiness in judgment, but it was a serious unforced error to associate himself closely with Piker as recently as a few months ago.
Frankly I think a lot of the stuff about Piker has been blown out of proportion. He’s a bit of a himbo who is terminally online and says things that are bound to be taken out of context. I don’t personally believe he is anti-Semitic. I don’t believe he hates Jews. That’s just my read on him from actually listening to the things he says that aren’t blasted out in the corporate media. People keep talking about “the Joe Rogan of the Left”. Unfortunately for better or for worse. He is that.
Not sure the disavowal and disassociation ever happens.
He only said some of Piker’s statements are dumb.
I’m worried about how Jewish voters will respond to AES myself in MI. Someone I know is Jewish and has MI family, and she has told me that the Jewish community in Michigan in general is refusing to back AES. Said person I know thinks AES will lose, partially due to this.
I don’t think that will happen, as A. the national environment is too blue and B. the Canadian trade war is not going to help MI’s economy (I pointed out the latter to this person I know and she acknowledged I had a point — apparently many MIers work in Canada), but it is something that concerns me.
If he does lose it won’t be because of some Twitch Streamer. It will be more the inherent anti-Muslim bias of this country. There are plenty of videos out there where AES convinces more Conservative voters to come out and vote for him.
I do agree for what it’s worth. Sadly Islamophobia is a plague in this country. It is good to know AES has convinced some conservatives.
Interestingly, this person I know has told me that Jews and Muslims get along quite well in her experience in the U.S. I did see a poll a while back (that I do not remember where I saw it) where not only were Jews the least Islamophobic religious group of those asked, but they somehow managed to be lower than actual Muslims. (Top of the list, of course, was white Evangelicals, the scourge of my religion (I’m a Christian) and the ones who are turning it into a doomsday cult.)
He reminds me of Mamdani a little bit. He’s a smart campaigner, Piker notwithstanding.
Quite frankly, unless someone has polls suggesting otherwise, I don’t think most Americans know or care who Piker is.
If he loses, I suspect it will be due to a combination of anti-Muslim bias, his association with Piker, and his political positions. I don't think it's rational to say that any of of the three is the sole reason.
It’s amazing. Republicans can appear with every neo-Nazi and white supremacist around and the CNNs of the world may ask them about it 1 or 2 times. But let a Democrat appear with a “scary Muslim” and they’ll be asked about it forever.
I mean Trump takes regular calls and political advice from Lara Loomer who repeatedly called 9/11 an inside job by the U.S. government, and for some reason media and politicians and regular voters don't care a bit. El-Sayed campaigns a bit with a very popular and frequently controversial far-left streamer and accepts an endorsement, and suddenly it's nonstop pearl clutching.
I don't think it's necessarily true that people don't care about Republicans' racist associations. I suspect its part of the reason for why we're looking at a blue wave.
I said the CNNs of the world.
Ahh, sorry missed that. Yeah, I agree with your statement then.
We knew it would eventually happen.
TX-SEN: Senate Republicans finally mobilize with big money for Ken Paxton in Texas
From the Texas Tribune (https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/11/senate-gop-leadership-ken-paxton-john-thune-texas-spending/): Texas PAC, a new group connected to SLF, on Friday purchased an initial tranche of some $51.3 million worth of broadcast TV ads in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin media markets, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact.
The article does note Talarico's money goes further: Since the field was set with Paxton’s late May runoff win, Republican groups have spent $81.1 million on ads, including future reservations through the end of September, per AdImpact. Democrats have spent $43.7 million — nearly all coming from Talarico’s campaign. However, Talarico’s campaign dollars go further on broadcast and radio than those spent by Republican super PACs, due to rules that offer campaigns a discounted rate.
In an age of cord-cutting, especially when the cost of living is an issue and cable/satellite subscriptions are probably getting dropped to cover the rent or electricity, I have to wonder how effective TV ads are compared with door-knocking, phone-banking, or GOTV efforts.
Speaking of cord-cutting, as one of those myself, I happened to catch a new ad from Abbott today. His previous ads were him hyping up completely eliminating property taxes here in the state. I wonder if that message isn't resonating because his latest ad I caught said now he wants to give people a vote before a county raises their property taxes.
One comment I have on this topic: I think radio ads go much further than people expect, and they're also much cheaper than TV ads. A lot of people still turn on AM/FM radio when driving around for errands or commuting.
Delaware State Legislature:
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/01/elon-musk-billionaire-bill-elections-progressive-challengers-delaware.html
Now here’s something to watch in Delaware. A very controversial bill passed last year that, among other things, limits shareholders’ ability to obtain information from companies they suspect of wrongdoing, and makes it easier to pass business deals. It was passed with support from Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — and was partially written by a firm that represents the former.
The Delaware Working Families Party responded by supporting several primary challenges to Dems who voted for the bill. Two of them have endorsements from the governor, Matt Meyer (who backed the bill), as well, as noted by Bolts Magazine. They are both also Bernie endorsees.
Given Musk’s unpopularity, we’ll see how these fare.
Why did Meyer support the bill, as a progressive that later endorsed against it in these primaries?
Worth noting Delaware is the headquarters of a great number of businesses because it's easy to incorporate because of lax regulations and laws.
The latter part of your comment answers the former. Some businesses threatened to leave apparently if it wasn’t passed.
Trump's mail ballot sabotage shenanigans as the Supreme Court rejects it 7-2 with only Alito and Thomas predictably voting for him. Ironically, all of the Trump appointed justices voted against him.