Brian Beutler
@brianbeutler.bsky.social
Off Message, Politix.fm;
Formerly: Crooked Media, TNR, TPM; www.offmessage.net/subscribe
Formerly: Crooked Media, TNR, TPM; www.offmessage.net/subscribe
Reposted by Brian Beutler
The failed right-wing culture war against the Super Bowl is a good microcosm. They picked that fight back in September, when they still felt ascendant. Months of failure and bloodshed later, the idea that MAGA is cooler than football and Bad Bunny seems ludicrous. www.offmessage.net/p/trump-has-...
February 10, 2026 at 5:19 PM
The failed right-wing culture war against the Super Bowl is a good microcosm. They picked that fight back in September, when they still felt ascendant. Months of failure and bloodshed later, the idea that MAGA is cooler than football and Bad Bunny seems ludicrous. www.offmessage.net/p/trump-has-...
Reposted by Brian Beutler
Trump won mostly by being the beneficiary of relentless negative economic reporting by elite Republican captured media, and a collective amnesia over who was President in 2020.
The political dynamics of 2025 were shaped by Democrats and Republicans over-reading Trump's victory in the same way. That turns out to be a problem for a LOT of rich and powerful people who made a very large bet on the theory that MAGA had won the culture war. www.offmessage.net/p/trump-has-...
Trump Has Lost The Culture
And his greediest collaborators are awakening to the fact that they made a terrible bet.
www.offmessage.net
February 10, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Trump won mostly by being the beneficiary of relentless negative economic reporting by elite Republican captured media, and a collective amnesia over who was President in 2020.
Reposted by Brian Beutler
This is true, and even if we get rid of Trump, we still have to reckon with the fact that a substantial proportion of US economic and political elites were *eager* to jump on the fascism train. They will still be the same people when Trump is gone.
The political dynamics of 2025 were shaped by Democrats and Republicans over-reading Trump's victory in the same way. That turns out to be a problem for a LOT of rich and powerful people who made a very large bet on the theory that MAGA had won the culture war. www.offmessage.net/p/trump-has-...
Trump Has Lost The Culture
And his greediest collaborators are awakening to the fact that they made a terrible bet.
www.offmessage.net
February 10, 2026 at 5:27 PM
This is true, and even if we get rid of Trump, we still have to reckon with the fact that a substantial proportion of US economic and political elites were *eager* to jump on the fascism train. They will still be the same people when Trump is gone.
Reposted by Brian Beutler
I don't know what setback or humiliation prompted that bizarre White House press release addressed to "Panicans" yesterday, but Trump is right to sense a lot of panic. It's growing. www.offmessage.net/p/trump-has-...
Trump Has Lost The Culture
And his greediest collaborators are awakening to the fact that they made a terrible bet.
www.offmessage.net
February 10, 2026 at 5:25 PM
I don't know what setback or humiliation prompted that bizarre White House press release addressed to "Panicans" yesterday, but Trump is right to sense a lot of panic. It's growing. www.offmessage.net/p/trump-has-...
The political dynamics of 2025 were shaped by Democrats and Republicans over-reading Trump's victory in the same way. That turns out to be a problem for a LOT of rich and powerful people who made a very large bet on the theory that MAGA had won the culture war. www.offmessage.net/p/trump-has-...
Trump Has Lost The Culture
And his greediest collaborators are awakening to the fact that they made a terrible bet.
www.offmessage.net
February 10, 2026 at 5:13 PM
The political dynamics of 2025 were shaped by Democrats and Republicans over-reading Trump's victory in the same way. That turns out to be a problem for a LOT of rich and powerful people who made a very large bet on the theory that MAGA had won the culture war. www.offmessage.net/p/trump-has-...
Reposted by Brian Beutler
“[T]he White House is right to sense that “Panicans” are everywhere. His collaborators are beginning to realize that they succumbed to irrational exuberance and made a huge bet on a lame horse.”
@brianbeutler.bsky.social
@brianbeutler.bsky.social
Trump Has Lost The Culture
And his greediest collaborators are awakening to the fact that they made a terrible bet.
open.substack.com
February 10, 2026 at 4:41 PM
“[T]he White House is right to sense that “Panicans” are everywhere. His collaborators are beginning to realize that they succumbed to irrational exuberance and made a huge bet on a lame horse.”
@brianbeutler.bsky.social
@brianbeutler.bsky.social
Reposted by Brian Beutler
One lesson of the Epstein emails is the total intellectual vacuousness of the international business elite
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Jeffrey Epstein circle’s ‘big ideas’ were vacuous guff
Emails show that despite hooking up the rich, the powerful and intellectuals, the philosophising was utterly banal
www.thetimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 8:51 PM
One lesson of the Epstein emails is the total intellectual vacuousness of the international business elite
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
My favorite part of that “Don’t Be A Panican” press release the White House issued yesterday is this sentence “These wins aren’t happening by accident—they come after President Trump lodged the most productive first year of a presidential term in modern history—and aren’t happening by accident.”
February 10, 2026 at 12:48 PM
My favorite part of that “Don’t Be A Panican” press release the White House issued yesterday is this sentence “These wins aren’t happening by accident—they come after President Trump lodged the most productive first year of a presidential term in modern history—and aren’t happening by accident.”
Reposted by Brian Beutler
Progressives say Harris lost because she was too moderate; moderates say it's because she was too far left. They're both reasoning backward and they’re both wrong. My grand unified theory is right. www.offmessage.net/p/why-kamala...
Why Kamala Harris Lost
Progressives say it's because she was too moderate; moderates say it's because she was too far left. They're both wrong. My grand unified theory is right.
www.offmessage.net
February 9, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Progressives say Harris lost because she was too moderate; moderates say it's because she was too far left. They're both reasoning backward and they’re both wrong. My grand unified theory is right. www.offmessage.net/p/why-kamala...
Reposted by Brian Beutler
In addition to a completely fucked information/media ecosystem (sorry for the technical language), this by @brianbeutler.bsky.social also rings true:
"The Democratic Party's pathological risk aversion and over-reliance on survey data...are generally paralyzing."
"The Democratic Party's pathological risk aversion and over-reliance on survey data...are generally paralyzing."
Progressives say Harris lost because she was too moderate; moderates say it's because she was too far left. They're both reasoning backward and they’re both wrong. My grand unified theory is right. www.offmessage.net/p/why-kamala...
Why Kamala Harris Lost
Progressives say it's because she was too moderate; moderates say it's because she was too far left. They're both wrong. My grand unified theory is right.
www.offmessage.net
February 9, 2026 at 6:25 PM
In addition to a completely fucked information/media ecosystem (sorry for the technical language), this by @brianbeutler.bsky.social also rings true:
"The Democratic Party's pathological risk aversion and over-reliance on survey data...are generally paralyzing."
"The Democratic Party's pathological risk aversion and over-reliance on survey data...are generally paralyzing."
Reposted by Brian Beutler
Yes, some of us did, but the libertarians at Reason were not prominent among them, except for the one who got fired for it.
February 9, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Yes, some of us did, but the libertarians at Reason were not prominent among them, except for the one who got fired for it.
Reposted by Brian Beutler
the suggestion that the libertarian movement has always been anti trump is infuriating, but also a sign that people may have a sense of which way the wind is blowing
February 9, 2026 at 4:03 PM
the suggestion that the libertarian movement has always been anti trump is infuriating, but also a sign that people may have a sense of which way the wind is blowing
Reposted by Brian Beutler
BREAKING: “in my 24th year of my quest to settle the planet Mars, I have just been informed of a basic fact of celestial mechanics.”
February 9, 2026 at 10:31 AM
BREAKING: “in my 24th year of my quest to settle the planet Mars, I have just been informed of a basic fact of celestial mechanics.”
Progressives say Harris lost because she was too moderate; moderates say it's because she was too far left. They're both reasoning backward and they’re both wrong. My grand unified theory is right. www.offmessage.net/p/why-kamala...
Why Kamala Harris Lost
Progressives say it's because she was too moderate; moderates say it's because she was too far left. They're both wrong. My grand unified theory is right.
www.offmessage.net
February 9, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Progressives say Harris lost because she was too moderate; moderates say it's because she was too far left. They're both reasoning backward and they’re both wrong. My grand unified theory is right. www.offmessage.net/p/why-kamala...
Reposted by Brian Beutler
An incredible turn of events here. 10/10, no notes. 😂
February 9, 2026 at 3:27 PM
An incredible turn of events here. 10/10, no notes. 😂
Reposted by Brian Beutler
People of DC, more than two weeks into being totally iced in, now get news of measles spread—brought in by Right to Life marchers.
Looking for people exposed on the Metro, at DCA, at Children's Hospital, on Amtrak.
Gee, thanks, RFKJr et al.
dchealth.dc.gov/release/heal...
Looking for people exposed on the Metro, at DCA, at Children's Hospital, on Amtrak.
Gee, thanks, RFKJr et al.
dchealth.dc.gov/release/heal...
Health Officials Investigating Measles Exposures to DC Residents
(Washington, DC) - DC Health was notified of multiple confirmed cases of measles whose carriers visited multiple locations in the District while contagious. DC Health is informing people who were at t...
dchealth.dc.gov
February 9, 2026 at 3:57 AM
People of DC, more than two weeks into being totally iced in, now get news of measles spread—brought in by Right to Life marchers.
Looking for people exposed on the Metro, at DCA, at Children's Hospital, on Amtrak.
Gee, thanks, RFKJr et al.
dchealth.dc.gov/release/heal...
Looking for people exposed on the Metro, at DCA, at Children's Hospital, on Amtrak.
Gee, thanks, RFKJr et al.
dchealth.dc.gov/release/heal...
Reposted by Brian Beutler
The best thing to have is enough.
I've shared this quote before but I'll share it again, as it's one I've been thinking about a lot as I've watched how our oligarchs have been behaving over the past few months.
May 25, 2025 at 6:11 PM
The best thing to have is enough.
Reposted by Brian Beutler
Part of what's great about this is how Hunter Hess tried really hard to not go into specifics but Trump (1) deduced (correctly!) that any reference to things that aren't "good" or "moral" must mean him and (2) decided he needed to elevate it with some bonkers response. Great work, Mr. President. 🫡
The president is now attacking a US Olympian as a “Loser” and misrepresenting his words for his mild unspecified criticisms about things going on in the US right now.
February 8, 2026 at 7:36 PM
Part of what's great about this is how Hunter Hess tried really hard to not go into specifics but Trump (1) deduced (correctly!) that any reference to things that aren't "good" or "moral" must mean him and (2) decided he needed to elevate it with some bonkers response. Great work, Mr. President. 🫡
Reposted by Brian Beutler
BREAKING: The Epstein survivors are releasing this ad on this Super Bowl Sunday to send the message that they will not “move on” from the largest sex trafficking scandal in the world. #standwithsurvivors
February 8, 2026 at 5:07 PM
BREAKING: The Epstein survivors are releasing this ad on this Super Bowl Sunday to send the message that they will not “move on” from the largest sex trafficking scandal in the world. #standwithsurvivors
Reposted by Brian Beutler
Massie on Howard Lutnick: "He should just resign. Three people in Great Britain resigned for less than what we've seen Howard Lutnick lie about. He clearly went to the island, if we believe what's in these files. He was in business with Jeffrey Epstein."
February 8, 2026 at 4:29 PM
Massie on Howard Lutnick: "He should just resign. Three people in Great Britain resigned for less than what we've seen Howard Lutnick lie about. He clearly went to the island, if we believe what's in these files. He was in business with Jeffrey Epstein."
Reposted by Brian Beutler
Amy Klobuchar running for Governor of Minnesota
February 6, 2026 at 8:44 PM
Amy Klobuchar running for Governor of Minnesota
Reposted by Brian Beutler
Bill Ackman's fund, Pershing Square, manages 18 billion dollars for wealthy clients, billions of it for the Harvard Endowment
Anyways here he is uncritically eating up conspiracy slop from Naomi Wolf about stolen NYC elections
Anyways here he is uncritically eating up conspiracy slop from Naomi Wolf about stolen NYC elections
February 8, 2026 at 2:28 AM
Bill Ackman's fund, Pershing Square, manages 18 billion dollars for wealthy clients, billions of it for the Harvard Endowment
Anyways here he is uncritically eating up conspiracy slop from Naomi Wolf about stolen NYC elections
Anyways here he is uncritically eating up conspiracy slop from Naomi Wolf about stolen NYC elections
Reposted by Brian Beutler
When Republicans do it / When Democrats do it
February 7, 2026 at 11:41 PM
When Republicans do it / When Democrats do it
His work here is done!
(The work: destroying the Washington post on behalf of Jeff Bezos on behalf of Donald Trump.)
(The work: destroying the Washington post on behalf of Jeff Bezos on behalf of Donald Trump.)
Will Lewis has just told staff at the Washington Post he is stepping down
February 7, 2026 at 11:07 PM
His work here is done!
(The work: destroying the Washington post on behalf of Jeff Bezos on behalf of Donald Trump.)
(The work: destroying the Washington post on behalf of Jeff Bezos on behalf of Donald Trump.)