Henry Porter
@henryporter.bsky.social
710 followers 1.1K following 3.5K posts
Wrecking lot proprietor. 🌋
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henryporter.bsky.social
We need serious local news outlets, doing original reporting, subsidized by and aligned with the Democratic Party.
henryporter.bsky.social
We need to replace physics with evolution as the paradigmatic science up and down our pedagogy. “Is MAGA ‘fascism?’” is precisely the same sort of question as “are dogs the same species as wolves?” It’s nothing at all like categorical lines in classical mechanics.
dhnexon.bsky.social
🧵 Fascism is an ideology. The government is fascist. But it's an unconsolidated competitive authoritarian regime, not a totalitarian one.

@justinscasey.bsky.social and I discuss this, and the heterogeneity of interwar fascism, here 👇
henryporter.bsky.social
Why is educational attainment so predictive of partisan alignment? We’ve been moving that direction for a while. What happens at college has something to do with resentments of non-college voters. Thread on The Hard Hat Riots…
foghorn453.bsky.social
Between 1962-1972, Harvard and MIT graduated 21,593 students. 14 (1 in 1542) died in Vietnam.

In the same decade in South Boston, 1 in 80 draft-age boys died in Vietnam.
henryporter.bsky.social
I missed that. Thank you!
henryporter.bsky.social
We need serious local news outlets, doing original reporting, subsidized by and aligned with the Democratic Party. Hyperlocal with lots of youth sports and WeRateDogs-type content.
robflaherty.bsky.social
Wrote about Democrats, the media environment, culture, and authenticity for the @nytimes.com

Our problem is bigger than an election: it's that we lack the tools to communicate the vast majority of the electorate who get their information through culture.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/o...
Opinion | If You’re a Voter Reading This, This Essay Is Not About You
Opt-out voters don’t buy what we’re selling — and even if they did, we’d have a hard time reaching them.
www.nytimes.com
henryporter.bsky.social
Whatever happens, never ask the question “What if the issue driving education polarization is education, specifically the way we organize education after high school?”
henryporter.bsky.social
Is that the real scandal?
Reposted by Henry Porter
danahoule.bsky.social
C’mon, man,
A. Parties aren’t “brands”
B. It’s not “destroying” anything

Scammy emails are a problem, but Mothership has been blocked from most Dem clients, & what they’re doing appears to not be easy to shut down. I want Dems to bleed them dry, but it’s not the party, it’s feeding off the party…
adambonica.bsky.social
The annoying spam texts destroying the Democratic brand:

$678M raised through those spam tactics

$282M to one consulting firm: Mothership Strategies.

$11M to actual campaigns (1.6%)

The party isn’t just treating donors like marks—it’s being fleeced itself yet continues to back Mothership.
The Mothership Vortex: An Investigation Into the Firm at the Heart of the Democratic Spam Machine
How a single consulting firm extracted $282 million from a network of spam PACs while delivering just $11 million to actual campaigns.
open.substack.com
Reposted by Henry Porter
whatdemsaredoing.bsky.social
You all see how these news companies and TV channels are bowing to Trump? What can be done? Well, here’s a message more Democrats need to get into their heads.

Spread the word 👇
henryporter.bsky.social
We need serious local news outlets, doing original reporting, subsidized by and aligned with the Democratic Party. Hyperlocal with lots of youth sports and WeRateDogs-type content.
henryporter.bsky.social
The story is certainly more complex. Having newspapers aligned with the parties that served their readers mattered tremendously in the lead up, see Hearst’s platform in running for governor. But universal public education seems to be a baseline ingredient for big positive sum politics.
henryporter.bsky.social
The Cult of SCOTUS is created by law professors and journalists who gain status along with the Court. After WW2 the media became non-partisan and needed non-partisan protagonists. At the same time law schools and law faculty exploded.
jeffjarvis.bsky.social
FFS. #BrokenTimes questions historians filing amicus briefs to the courts. What's the trouble? "What they are hearing is a generally liberal message."
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/u...
As the Supreme Court Focuses on the Past, Historians Turn to Advocacy
Spikes in the number and influence of briefs filed by historians have prompted questions about the role scholars should play in litigation.
henryporter.bsky.social
The New Deal coalition was possible with an all white electorate and universal public education sufficient to be a prosperous good citizen. Universities are a successful treatment for racism and training after high school is now needed by all but they failed to keep up with these needs.
henryporter.bsky.social
The op-ed page wasn’t invented until the 1970s. People like Will Rogers, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Mike Royko had columns in the news section.
henryporter.bsky.social
This kind of thing will never hit home with voters as long as humanities professors throw a public shit fit when the Secretary of Education says parents expect college to prepare their children for a career.
annakornbluh.bsky.social
“American Academy of Arts&Sciences reports 96.3% of humanities grads age 23-32 fully employed. Earnings in humanitiess comparable to social/life sciences, job satisfaction levels too. A serious mismatch bw actual employment for hum grads +general perception."
www.mellon.org/voices/human...
Mellon Foundation
The Mellon Foundation makes grants to actively unlock the power in the arts and humanities that helps connect us all.
www.mellon.org
henryporter.bsky.social
We need serious local news outlets, doing original reporting, subsidized by and aligned with the Democratic Party. Hyperlocal with lots of youth sports and WeRateDogs-type content.
henryporter.bsky.social
The White House is way too small and it's impossible for Dems to do anything about it without getting trashed in the media so this is good.
henryporter.bsky.social
Lol. I was just googling pics of her after seeing a Seth Meyers bit.
henryporter.bsky.social
Law schools have a hack gap problem.
stevevladeck.bsky.social
#SCOTUS's academic defenders are increasingly arguing that the justices' behavior in Trump-related emergency applications is a response to district court "overreach."

But those claims depend upon cherry-picking from or misrepresenting the examples—and ignoring the Court's own shirking of its rules:
Bonus 170: Whose Judicial Overreach?
Debunking the unpersuasive (and also rather unprovable) claim that the Supreme Court's behavior on Trump-related emergency applications is largely a response to lower courts abusing their own powers.
www.stevevladeck.com
henryporter.bsky.social
henryporter.bsky.social
We need serious local news outlets, doing original reporting, subsidized by and aligned with the Democratic Party.
Reposted by Henry Porter
jonathanbernstein.bsky.social
I know people think that Dems are doing nothing but once again it just isn't true. Part II.

(Good that @gregsargent.bsky.social is on this; you would think from some accounts around here that Dems are trying hard to downplay the scandal).
gregsargent.bsky.social
Senate Dems are invoking a 1928 law to demand that DOJ release the Epstein files. I talked to procedural experts and they laid out a scenario in which this could actually work. Not at all assured, but definitely worth trying.

My new piece lays it all out:
newrepublic.com/article/1986...
Trump’s Epstein Fiasco Worsens as Dems Suddenly Find Big New Weapon
Senate Democrats are using a 1928 law to pressure Trump to release the Epstein files. The White House will ignore them. Here’s what could happen next.
newrepublic.com
henryporter.bsky.social
There’s a fair amount of Howard Zinn thinking between Hunter and the interviewer that’s not great.
henryporter.bsky.social
Minute 43: Advertising for “Ground News” which “balances” NBC with The Federalist so you get the “unbiased truth.” That asymmetrical media regime is killing us. Dems got to get in the game.
henryporter.bsky.social
Minute 31: If you haven’t been the subject of the news it’s hard to describe how disorienting it can be to read something and be like, “Is the reporter a psychopath? Have they not met any human beings?” Only to hear normal people *praise* those journalists.

youtube.com/watch?v=XBbk...
Hunter Biden Interview
YouTube video by Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan
youtube.com
henryporter.bsky.social
One of the things killing our democracy is that the professionalization of journalism has turned Enlightenment fantasies about how democracy works into the background assumptions informing the discourse.
meredithshiner.com
The answer was the president of the United States saying CPB money doesn’t fund Sesame Street. It funds making tv accessible for people in rural American asking a billionaire to his face why his grandkids deserved to access Sesame Street but the grandkids of rural American didn’t.