Author | Lightnews

grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 2h

soon they will be

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 4h

the real queen

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 4h

I am put in mind of a particular latin phrase

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 5h

Trump says the SNAP money that he’s been ordered by a court to release won’t be released until the government shutdown ends.

Trump: SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden's disastrous term in office (Due to the fact that they were haphazardly "handed" to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT
1 ReTruth
13 Likes
11/4/25, 8:06 AM

grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 7h

moreover, to the extent that democrats are not the party of tax fairness, they are not it solely because of the big donors for whom yglesias simps and who he thinks should run the party. when confronted on this point he simply lies about it, because he's a liar

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 7h

we gotta stop talking about these people as if they have anything useful to contribute or are operating in good faith. at the very least it is undignified *for you* to pretend that's true

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 7h

even taken on its own terms, the demand that democrats be simultaneously so disciplined that not a single one of them anywhere says anything objectionable and also allow various "mavericks" to repeatedly blow up their legislative agenda is fundamentally incoherent

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 7h

huh it's almost as if having this "debate" is not about helping anyone other than matt yglesias advance his career. weird how that works

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 9h

I don't think it helps the debate about what Democrats should do to pick an obscure thing that some Democrat somewhere may have said -- like on teaching eighth grade algebra -- and then attribute it to Democrats generally.

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 17h

rolling this phrase around in my mouth like a fine wine, trying to get a sense of its texture

aloof
wife

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 17h

I simply cannot believe I am reading the words "aloof wife" in that order, right next to each other

A. Marmot 🌱 @aminus.bsky.social · 20h

[the NY Post scrambling to make a last-ditch scandal:]

"umm, uhhh, his aloof wife Rama Duwaji secretly ran the campaign"

garbage from the NY Post showing pictures of Rama Duwaji and her husband Zohran Mamdani, caption "How Zohran Mamdani’s aloof wife, Rama Duwaji, quietly steered his campaign from behind the scenes"

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 1d

which thing, my proposal or 1 million people leaving? because i think i agree with the conclusion either way

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 1d

i think also you have to account for the fact that in a non-RCV election there just wouldn't have been that many candidates, so in some sense the "vote transfer" process would happen informally prior to it.

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 1d

that's fair, and I do agree that people were not sufficiently strategic about their voting (the non-exhausted ballots were particularly frustrating here). I'm still skeptical that garcia would have won even in a runoff though

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 1d

we have to cyberbully people like this so hard they move to a remote monastery without internet access and swear an eternal vow of silence

Brian Mann @brianmannadk.bsky.social · 1d

NPR does not exist to silo people in a cozy set of ideas. Andrew Cuomo won 43% of votes in the Dem primary. He has a long history. Our reporting includes charges of sexual misconduct & mishandling of COVID care - and describes his long list of progressive wins as governor www.npr.org/2025/11/03/n...

Andrew Cuomo fights for his political life and his version of the Democratic Party

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a long list of accomplishments, many of them progressive. In the race for New York City mayor, that experience hasn't given him the boost he wanted.

www.npr.org

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 1d

ctrl-f idc
not found

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 1d

if it had been a straight plurality vote he would have won by even more. he won by 0.7% in the final tally

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 1d

also worth noting that "tyranny of the majority" has been completely debased conceptually to mean "anything happens that i don't like" even when none of what is happening constitutes "tyranny" in any meaningful sense

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 1d

in general prediction markets are stupid but i think if you publish something like this you should be legally forced to give odds on it so people can ruin you

New York Post @nypost.com · 1d

Nearly a million New Yorkers ready to flee NYC if Mamdani becomes mayor — possibly igniting mass exodus: poll

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are prepared to bolt from the Big Apple if socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani wins Tuesday's mayoral race — potentially setting the stage for the largest population flight in US history, a new poll warns.

nypost.com

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 1d

republicans not merely undermining efforts to combat global warming but actively working to make it and its consequences worse is entirely in line with the irrefutable theory (developed by me, must credit) that all republican governance is intended to cause mass death and suffering

POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 1d

European negotiators were personally targeted by their American counterparts during a brutal negotiation over green shipping rules, European Commission officials told POLITICO.

This highly unusual gambit left diplomats shaken after the meeting.

US accused of threatening EU diplomats during bid to kill green shipping rules

Negotiators at shipping talks in London were told both they and their countries could be punished unless they voted with the U.S.

www.politico.eu

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 2d

we have outgrown the need for Ezra klein

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 2d

Klein's entire theory of politics is stale bumper sticker vomit in the "don't like abortions? don't have one!" mold, utterly inadequate for at least two decades at this point if not longer

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 2d

Ezra "no enemies to my right" klein, ladies and gentlemen

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 2d

I will never understand the pundit obsession with getting Democrats to solve "political division."

Not only is this what they're already doing, but Klein admits that Republicans will never do the same. So elections will remain constant GOP smears and simping Democratic promises of bipartisanship.

Ezra Klein

This Is the Way You Beat Trump — and Trumpism

I saw a poll a few weeks ago that struck me. It was from The New York Times and Siena University. It asked Americans what they thought the top problem facing the country was. No. 1 was the economy. That was what I expected. But No. 2 wasn’t immigration or inflation or democracy or climate change or even Trump. It was political division. In that same poll, 64 percent of the country said we’re too divided to solve our problems. They’re not wrong.

I hear it when Trump says, “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.” When I hear that, I hear something scary, but I also hear an opening, an opportunity: In the end, most Americans want America to work. They know we disagree with one another. They don’t want us to hate one another.

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 2d

they never wanted to actually hold trump accountable. you'll never convince me that this wasn't purposeful sabotage

Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 3d

My latest is about the latest revelations on the failed prosecution of Donald Trump, and why you should blame Merrick Garland more than the Supreme Court.

You Should Blame Merrick Garland

Garland's incompetence gave the Supreme Court the chance to set Trump free

stringinamaze.net

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 3d

you simply do not ever have to treat ross douthat as a serious person who is capable of making genuine intellectual contributions

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 3d

classic "this does not help your cause says guy who hates you and your cause" shit

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 3d

It is time to admit that Republicans won the 2024 election by running to the center.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/o...

The most obvious thing in politics is often the hardest to admit: If you lose an election, the best thing that you can do to make sure you win the next one is to find a message that puts you closer to the median voter than you were the last time around.

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grapesmoker @grapesmoker.bsky.social · 4d

the blindness to what's happening is truly unreal, they presumably just think that it's just a phase and everything will go on as normal

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