Charles Attend
cmerlin.bsky.social
Charles Attend
@cmerlin.bsky.social
End the NYTimes.
Pinned
The future of Red America: stuck in near indentured service, you can't pay for the treatment to cure your daughter but manage to scrunge up just enough to take her to the closest privately run national Park for a final hurrah. Tears roll down your face as you say you're so lucky to be an American.
Reposted by Charles Attend
Trump supporters' extreme views driven by personal insecurity: research
Trump supporters' extreme views driven by personal insecurity: research
PsyPost reports that a new study published in the journal Advances in Psychology suggests that White people who personally perceive themselves as ranking at the bottom of the racial economic hierarchy or “tied” with Black Americans were the most likely to support President Donald Trump. Previous research identified a phenomenon known as “last place aversion,” where people fear being at the very bottom of a social hierarchy — and Trump voters apparently feel the sting of smallness more acutely than others, whether or not they are actually at the bottom rung of the ladder. Surprisingly, researchers found that these attitudes were not driven by actual poverty. The researchers controlled for objective indicators of socioeconomic status, such as income and education levels. They found that belonging to the “last place” profile predicted Trump support and anti-DEI attitudes regardless of how much money or education the participant actually had. “We … [expected] a subset of non-Hispanic, white Americans who feel ‘last place.’ That said, we expected this profile to be more likely among working class individuals,” Cooley told PsyPost. “However, perceiving oneself to be ‘last place’ was not associated with the lowest objective income nor the lowest objective education among the White Americans in our samples.” The United States currently exhibits a significant racial wealth gap with economic statistics consistently showing that the average white family holds considerably more wealth than the average Black or Hispanic family. But despite this reality, surveys indicate that many white Americans feel they are “personally falling behind” in terms of status without realistically weighing the resources at their disposal. “This line of research was motivated by recent political trends among some white Americans, including support for DEI bans, alignment with alt-right ideology, and endorsement of political violence in pursuit of political goals (e.g., January 6th),” said study authors Erin Cooley and Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi, associate professors of psychology at Colgate University and the University of Virginia, respectively. “Many of these attitudes are not only extreme but also anti-democratic, raising questions about how such views can coexist with identities centered on being ‘most American’ (e.g., white nationalist belief systems).” The tool researchers used to assess personal status was a box measure called the “Perceived Self-Group Hierarchy.” Participants viewed a diagram representing a status ladder based on money, education, and job prestige, and they were asked to place markers representing themselves, white people, Black people, Asian people, and Hispanic people onto this ladder. Researchers found a consistent link between this “last place” profile and specific political views. “White Americans who fit this profile reported the highest levels of support for Donald Trump throughout the campaign season. They also expressed the strongest intention to vote for him. When surveyed the day after the election, this group was the most likely to report having cast their ballot for Trump,” PsyPost reports. This same group of insecure white people also showed “the strongest opposition to DEI programs, favoring policies that would ban such initiatives in universities.” Additionally, they showed higher alignment with alt-right ideologies, agreeing more frequently with statements such as “White people are generally under attack in the U.S.” and “The government threatens my personal rights.”
dlvr.it
February 17, 2026 at 11:52 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
“The lesson of the Trump years is that liberalism and democracy are not self-sustaining. That guardrails are dependent on the courage and wisdom of individuals. That we only get liberalism tomorrow if we choose to protect it today.”

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
George W. Bush Can Suck It
He didn’t throw shade at Trump; he whitewashed authoritarianism.
open.substack.com
February 17, 2026 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
Affaire Epstein : les 100 000 euros promis par le criminel sexuel américain à une association fantôme créée par Jack Lang
Affaire Epstein : les 100 000 euros promis par le criminel sexuel américain à une association fantôme créée par Jack Lang
D’après les e-mails dévoilés par la justice américaine, Caroline Lang a sollicité de l’argent de l’homme d’affaires pour le compte de son père dès la fin 2012, année où ils se seraient liés d’amitié. Deux virements de 50 000 euros chacun devaient transiter par le biais de l’Association des cultures du monde, créée par Jack Lang en 1993.
www.lemonde.fr
February 17, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
Voters DO identify themselves and if they misidentify themselves they’re prosecuted for felonies.

I’ll take that exact same thing for ICE.
February 17, 2026 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
you're using your institutional authority to delete the civil rights of 340 million people and install Trump as a king? okay, the next president, if there is one, is changing the locks on the Court building. those are the rules that you people established
February 17, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
We know this in part because WE JUST WENT THROUGH IT. People spent years attacking Biden with complete reckless abandon, and excusing it by saying "We'll of course rally everyone back in 2024." It didn't happen! The miserable reputation you had created dragged us into oblivion.
February 17, 2026 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
The reason that it's important to establish now that WE MUST ELECT THE DEMOCRAT IN 2028 is that you won't be able to get people back in the fold if you spend three years attacking Dems as a feckless party that's possibly no better than Trump. The damage we suffer now will hurt us in the future.
February 17, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
Any Dem that comes in without a plan for court reform will effectively be a lame duck on day 1, who will spend 4 years giving orders to agencies that the Supreme Court tears up and reverses with the help of burrowed right wing bureaucrats.
February 17, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
I think it’s time for Democratic leaders to start saying “if you’re a pilot or ground crew involved in a deportation that was stayed by a judge, you’ll be held criminally liable for human trafficking.” Everyone involved in these flights should have that fear in the back of their minds.
Overnight, this probable ICE flight landed in Benin and is now returning to Senegal, likely for a crew layover.
February 16, 2026 at 10:57 AM
Not so pucelle, after all!
Good grief. Everyone knows they were just friends.
February 17, 2026 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Charles Attend
NEWS: CBS blocked Stephen Colbert from airing an interview with Texas State Rep. James Talarico and ordered him not to mention the cancellation over fear of FCC chair Brendan Carr.

Colbert went on air and revealed it anyway.

“He was supposed to be here, but… 1/
February 17, 2026 at 9:39 AM
The only antidote is for Dems to loudly tell the legacy media to fuck off. The more the better.
The successful effort to force Biden out signaled to elite media that they had a veto over Democratic Party primary voters. Whether they successfully exercise it or simply try to in 2028 is an open question but bet your sweet nippy they’re going to try.
Have you ever once seen the New York Times quote Trump like this?
February 16, 2026 at 11:21 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
Yes, the most exhausting thing about the far-left is responding to their completely fictional version of the Democratic Party (one that is not, for instance, one of the most visibly pro-trans parties on Earth).

And where they believe punishing America with fascism is justified by Dem failures.
Speaking as someone who has many, many complaints about the Democratic Party, “letting them lose” when they’re in a contest with an actual fascist party isn’t very smart. Nor is it remotely fair to say they’ve adopted far right policies on trans rights, immigration, or abortion (??).
chat is it good or bad if the only defense against fascism is voting for one party forever and never letting them lose no matter how far right they go and how much of the fascist's policies around immigration and trans rights and abortion they start taking on over time?
February 16, 2026 at 1:29 PM
Tim Apple should take a look at what's happening to CBS news viewership.
Apple News Under Pressure From Trump‑Allied Officials — Trump administration officials have mounted a campaign pushing for more MAGA‑sympathetic content on Apple News, prompting scrutiny of the platform’s editorial direction. Apple has remained publicly silent in response, raising…
Apple News Under Pressure From Trump‑Allied Officials
www.semafor.com
February 16, 2026 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
It's a freak show, all the way down.
Erika Kirk Faces Backlash Over Alleged 'Inappropriate' Texts With A 15-Year-Old: 'Absolutely Vile'
Purported Texts Between Erika Kirk And A 15-Year-Old Go Viral Sparking Backlash And 'Grooming' Allegations
www.yahoo.com
February 16, 2026 at 2:35 AM
Reposted by Charles Attend
About one of the Trump accusers in this piece:

“The interview [with the alleged victim and her attorney] was conducted July 24, 2019, and entered into the FBI’s case files on August 9, the day before Epstein was found dead in his jail cell.”
Hey everyone. Potentially the biggest story in the country, right here. substack.com/home/post/p-...
February 16, 2026 at 5:10 AM
Reposted by Charles Attend
Zero confusion about what Europeans should do.

Acquire capabilities necessary for defense of Europe. Smartly reduce vulnerabilities to coercion & blackmail by China & US. Invest in revival of European industry & technology. Work together where interests are aligned.

It‘s quite simple.
February 16, 2026 at 5:04 AM
🤞
🚨 PICTURED: Liz Truss meets with Donald Trump at his golf course in Palm Beach
February 15, 2026 at 7:30 PM
You don't hate the media enough.
The RFK number seems like a massive failure of the media to explain what RFK is doing to our public health system and how catastrophic it will be
Net favorability of how Americans view
Trump: -18
Hegseth: -15
Vance: -14
Rubio: -10
RFK Jr: -4
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
February 15, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
The @bostonglobe.com opinion page this morning is headlined by white supremacist Richard Hanania, whose racist views have been smoothed over in recent months by centrists
February 15, 2026 at 3:15 PM
That must mean the governments of other countries could do even more crimes, according to bondi.
The Dow was at 43,488 when Trump took office. It just hit 50,000.

So if you had invested $43,488 in the US, you would now have $50,000. But if you had invested the same amount in the rest of the world, you would now be worth $60,000.

Lemme do a expla-youtube-nation
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYL5...
"Dow 50,000" Sound Nice. Until Justin Wolfers Shows You That U.S. Markets Are Coming 21st Out of 23.
What does “Dow 50,000” actually tell you—anything about the economy, or just that a number got bigger? Dow 50,000 is a milestone, not a measurement. The level of the Dow is basically arbitrary: it’s…
www.youtube.com
February 15, 2026 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
New post about tariffs. Last week two reports found that foreigners have borne very little of the cost. But the CPI came in somewhat soft. Is there a contradiction? As I explain, no.

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/who-is-pay...
Who Is Paying the Trump Tariffs?
A wonkish guide for the confused
paulkrugman.substack.com
February 15, 2026 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes!

"Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."
Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky
Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For
academic.oup.com
February 13, 2026 at 10:08 PM
Reposted by Charles Attend
February 14, 2026 at 3:49 PM