Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman.bsky.social
Columnist for MSNBC, Public Notice, Daily Beast. Formerly: Washington Post, The Week, American Prospect. Subscribe to my newsletter! The Cross Section: paulwaldman.substack.com
An insecure little boy who wants us all to think he’s funny and cool is taking AI to the worst possible place.
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/even-more-...
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/even-more-...
"Even More Vulgar"; Elon Musk's Dystopian Nightmare
What happens when the world's richest man is desperate for people to think he's funny and cool?
paulwaldman.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:00 PM
An insecure little boy who wants us all to think he’s funny and cool is taking AI to the worst possible place.
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/even-more-...
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/even-more-...
I wish I could have gotten the message across that there is an extremely important place called the Jerk Store, and though it may not be widely understood, their inventory of, if you will, a product that is sometimes referred to as "You," is, according to recent reports, running low
November 25, 2025 at 2:52 PM
I wish I could have gotten the message across that there is an extremely important place called the Jerk Store, and though it may not be widely understood, their inventory of, if you will, a product that is sometimes referred to as "You," is, according to recent reports, running low
Reposted by Paul Waldman
I really don’t think we can overstate the harm that the tech ethos of move fast and break things (followed by the unsaid “and then just move on”) has done beyond tech. Government, ngos, universities, public schools that have invited the folks who think like this in keep ending up gutted
All DOGE accomplished was purging critical government staff, handing private data to outsiders, and sentencing thousands in developing countries to death by gutting USAID.
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter
U.S. President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate.
www.cnbc.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:48 PM
I really don’t think we can overstate the harm that the tech ethos of move fast and break things (followed by the unsaid “and then just move on”) has done beyond tech. Government, ngos, universities, public schools that have invited the folks who think like this in keep ending up gutted
Funny story, Jim Justice used to be a billionaire and the richest person in West Virginia, but apparently he's now in so much debt that his net worth is "less than zero" according to Forbes: www.forbes.com/sites/christ...
November 25, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Funny story, Jim Justice used to be a billionaire and the richest person in West Virginia, but apparently he's now in so much debt that his net worth is "less than zero" according to Forbes: www.forbes.com/sites/christ...
Every real estate article in the WSJ is like "The Wilsons, owners of GloopCorp, paid $19 million for the house in 2022, then spent $4 million renovating it. They say it no longer fits their lifestyle, and they have listed it for $32 million."
Are these rich weirdos just moving every three years?
Are these rich weirdos just moving every three years?
November 24, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Every real estate article in the WSJ is like "The Wilsons, owners of GloopCorp, paid $19 million for the house in 2022, then spent $4 million renovating it. They say it no longer fits their lifestyle, and they have listed it for $32 million."
Are these rich weirdos just moving every three years?
Are these rich weirdos just moving every three years?
There are some insights you can only get from a guy who once worked on a winning campaign 33 years ago
NYT Editorial Board: we need a piece about a Democratic policy platform. hm. what if we paid James Carville to write the same thing he's been saying since 1991, plus the thing every contributor has been saying since November 2024
November 24, 2025 at 3:03 PM
There are some insights you can only get from a guy who once worked on a winning campaign 33 years ago
Reposted by Paul Waldman
Undoubtedly, Musk's "make people laugh at a party" is him taking a picture of someone he employs, having MechaHitler roast their appearance, and then delighting in the forced laughter of his other employees.
Everything about this might be the saddest thing I’ve ever seen
November 24, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Undoubtedly, Musk's "make people laugh at a party" is him taking a picture of someone he employs, having MechaHitler roast their appearance, and then delighting in the forced laughter of his other employees.
More and more politicos are realizing that 2026 is going to be an absolute catastrophe for Republicans, and that means opportunities for Democrats to win races they would have struggled to win in an ordinary year
Next phase: a wave of Republicans announcing they won't run for reelection
Next phase: a wave of Republicans announcing they won't run for reelection
Former Senator Doug Jones will enter the 2026 race for Alabama governor. #ALGov
www.al.com/life/2025/11...
www.al.com/life/2025/11...
Doug Jones will enter 2026 Alabama governor’s race
Campaign paperwork is to be filed this week.
www.al.com
November 23, 2025 at 6:13 PM
More and more politicos are realizing that 2026 is going to be an absolute catastrophe for Republicans, and that means opportunities for Democrats to win races they would have struggled to win in an ordinary year
Next phase: a wave of Republicans announcing they won't run for reelection
Next phase: a wave of Republicans announcing they won't run for reelection
"This administration is protecting you from antisemitism. Now, give us a list of the names, phone numbers, and addresses of all your Jews."
Oh sure, that sounds fine, nothing worrisome going on here at all.
Oh sure, that sounds fine, nothing worrisome going on here at all.
"Penn does not maintain information on employees’ religion"
Gift link to article. Link to petition supporting Penn's refusal to collect and hand over this information below.
Gift link to article. Link to petition supporting Penn's refusal to collect and hand over this information below.
Federal Suit Seeking Names of Some Jewish Employees at Penn Sparks Backlash
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:58 AM
"This administration is protecting you from antisemitism. Now, give us a list of the names, phone numbers, and addresses of all your Jews."
Oh sure, that sounds fine, nothing worrisome going on here at all.
Oh sure, that sounds fine, nothing worrisome going on here at all.
Reposted by Paul Waldman
Years ago I remember being shocked when Antonin Scalia threw a bullshit argument I knew for a fact he had to have gotten from a Rush Limbaugh rant into a written decision. Today federal judges are using their opinions for shitposting. Next we'll see a dissent that's just a string of groyper memes.
What is this dig at BlueSky doing in a judicial opinion? www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...
November 21, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Years ago I remember being shocked when Antonin Scalia threw a bullshit argument I knew for a fact he had to have gotten from a Rush Limbaugh rant into a written decision. Today federal judges are using their opinions for shitposting. Next we'll see a dissent that's just a string of groyper memes.
Revealing piece from Bruce Bartlett explaining how even back in the 1980s, the Heritage Foundation understood how to play the news media in ways other think tanks didn't:
brucebartlett.substack.com/p/my-days-at...
brucebartlett.substack.com/p/my-days-at...
![Heritage also understood that time-pressed reporters were already adopting the horrid he-said/she-said style that plagues journalism today. If we got wind that some world-class Brookings scholar was due to release a book on, say, national health insurance that made an original contribution to knowledge in the field, someone at Heritage would quickly draft a short paper rehashing the same old talking points attacking national health insurance that had been around forever and release it the same day as the Brookings study. More often than not, we would get a story in the Washington Post the next day saying little more than this: “Today the Brookings Institution published a book, 3 tears in the making, advocating national health insurance, and the Heritage Foundation released a report on the same subject saying it would bankrupt the nation and lead to a deterioration in health quality.” Reporters never distinguished between the quality of one study and the shallowness of the other; they both got conflated and prevented the other side from getting traction on an issue.[vi] This method still works today.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qlnirjwff4ibiw3wchmleszo/bafkreiabn6zsn47fjy7fdtsz56sqyl22sg6werwfjmgi3f7tbemrfyucna@jpeg)
November 21, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Revealing piece from Bruce Bartlett explaining how even back in the 1980s, the Heritage Foundation understood how to play the news media in ways other think tanks didn't:
brucebartlett.substack.com/p/my-days-at...
brucebartlett.substack.com/p/my-days-at...
So now swastikas are merely "potentially divisive" according to the Trump administration
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”
www.washingtonpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:24 AM
So now swastikas are merely "potentially divisive" according to the Trump administration
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Should Democrats move to the center to chase the median voter? It's the wrong question.
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/pundit-bra...
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/pundit-bra...
Pundit Brain Continues to Afflict Nation
People who know a lot and care a lot about politics want to believe that the average voter does too. But it isn't true.
paulwaldman.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Should Democrats move to the center to chase the median voter? It's the wrong question.
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/pundit-bra...
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/pundit-bra...
Reposted by Paul Waldman
There’s an interesting parallel with the “mecha-Hitler” episode here: AI seems to have a lot of trouble with the sort of winking needle-threading “respectable” right wingers have spent decades mastering, although that’s breaking down of late as well.
This tracks: Cornell researchers: xAI's Grokipedia cites neo-Nazi website Stormfront 42 times, Infowars 34 times, and white nationalist website VDare 107 times www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-mu...
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia cites Stormfront — a neo-Nazi forum — dozens of times, study finds
An analysis by researchers at Cornell University is the first comprehensive look at Grokipedia since Musk launched his project last month.
www.nbcnews.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:30 PM
There’s an interesting parallel with the “mecha-Hitler” episode here: AI seems to have a lot of trouble with the sort of winking needle-threading “respectable” right wingers have spent decades mastering, although that’s breaking down of late as well.
I'm no economist, but is Nvidia making huge profits really evidence that there isn't an AI bubble, when so much of the insane spending on AI goes right to Nvidia? It's like saying "How can there be a bubble when this tulip farmer is making so much money?"
www.wsj.com/finance/stoc...
www.wsj.com/finance/stoc...
Nvidia’s Strong Results Show AI Fears Are Premature
The chip maker says demand looks strong through next year, while a selloff has made the $4.5 trillion company look cheap.
www.wsj.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:08 PM
I'm no economist, but is Nvidia making huge profits really evidence that there isn't an AI bubble, when so much of the insane spending on AI goes right to Nvidia? It's like saying "How can there be a bubble when this tulip farmer is making so much money?"
www.wsj.com/finance/stoc...
www.wsj.com/finance/stoc...
Very important piece here - we really need to escape the pundit-brain thinking that imagines voters think about politics in the same ideological way people who think about politics all the time think about politics. Because they don't.
Good morning. I've got a banger new post out today that develops a new method for placing voters on the left-right ideological spectrum, and adds a new, "non-ideological"/affordability axis to usual way we chart & think about US voters (esp swing voters). www.gelliottmorris.com/p/not-just-l...
Not just left vs right: Most voters think about affordability and material wellbeing, not in ideological terms
Most voters want a party that emphasizes cost of living issues and makes the world a better place. Few Americans think in solidly ideologically terms. "Moderates" are mostly non-ideological.
www.gelliottmorris.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Very important piece here - we really need to escape the pundit-brain thinking that imagines voters think about politics in the same ideological way people who think about politics all the time think about politics. Because they don't.
Reposted by Paul Waldman
Obviously bad because the idea is to scare states away from creating any regulations to begin with, but at this point, who isn't going to call their bluff just to see what kind of dingbat bullshit DOJ tries to file
The draft order, obtained by WIRED, instructs the US Justice Department to sue states that pass laws regulating AI. www.wired.com/story/trump-...
Trump Takes Aim at State AI Laws in Draft Executive Order
The draft order, obtained by WIRED, instructs the US Justice Department to sue states that pass laws regulating AI.
www.wired.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Obviously bad because the idea is to scare states away from creating any regulations to begin with, but at this point, who isn't going to call their bluff just to see what kind of dingbat bullshit DOJ tries to file
How could this thing that absolutely everyone knew would happen possibly have happened
This is a nuts story. An AI chatbot and image platform left millions of images exposed. They show what people are actually using the AI for: taking random women's yearbook, graduation, and social media photos and making super realistic hardcore porn with them
www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...
www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...
Massive Leak Shows Erotic Chatbot Users Turned Women’s Yearbook Pictures Into AI Porn
Chatbot roleplay and image generator platform SecretDesires.ai left cloud storage containers of nearly two million of images and videos exposed, including photos and full names of women from social me...
www.404media.co
November 19, 2025 at 5:42 PM
How could this thing that absolutely everyone knew would happen possibly have happened
What the Washington Post opinion section has come to: A long piece by Salina Zito full of lines like "His curiosity has always been his most compelling strength," people telling her why they think Trump is so brilliant, and how he was nice to her grandkids.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | Trump has a way with Pennsylvania. This interview shows why.
The president’s unpredictable approach can be an asset — and helped remake an American industry.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:05 PM
What the Washington Post opinion section has come to: A long piece by Salina Zito full of lines like "His curiosity has always been his most compelling strength," people telling her why they think Trump is so brilliant, and how he was nice to her grandkids.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
In 2016 when Bobby Knight endorsed Trump I wrote a piece about how every dirtbag, scumbag, and douchebag was behind him; attracting the world's worst human beings was a key part of his vibe. But like everything, in his second term it's gotten so much worse.
NEW: The White House intervened on behalf of accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate during a federal investigation.
“It was so offensive to what we’re all here to do, to uphold the law and protect the American people,” one official involved said.
“It was so offensive to what we’re all here to do, to uphold the law and protect the American people,” one official involved said.
The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation
Federal authorities were chided for seizing electronic devices from Tate and his brother, and told to return them, records and interviews show. Experts said the intervention was highly inappropriate.
www.propublica.org
November 19, 2025 at 2:49 PM
In 2016 when Bobby Knight endorsed Trump I wrote a piece about how every dirtbag, scumbag, and douchebag was behind him; attracting the world's worst human beings was a key part of his vibe. But like everything, in his second term it's gotten so much worse.
Reminder that Mike Johnson said God woke him up in the middle of the night to tell him he was going to be Speaker of the House, but I guess in his wisdom the Lord forgot to say "Oh also, you're going to completely suck at it"
holy shit mike johnson is SHOOK on Epstein vote in Senate
November 19, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reminder that Mike Johnson said God woke him up in the middle of the night to tell him he was going to be Speaker of the House, but I guess in his wisdom the Lord forgot to say "Oh also, you're going to completely suck at it"
Reposted by Paul Waldman
New: Reuters has tallied job losses, suspensions and investigations stemming from the reaction to Charlie Kirk's Sept. 10 assassination. Its findings: More than 600 Americans have been punished, and the figure is likely to be an under-count.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
November 19, 2025 at 11:35 AM
New: Reuters has tallied job losses, suspensions and investigations stemming from the reaction to Charlie Kirk's Sept. 10 assassination. Its findings: More than 600 Americans have been punished, and the figure is likely to be an under-count.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Another brilliant gambit deftly executed, Mr. Speaker, your mastery of the legislative arts grows only more awe-inspiring
Mike Johnson: "Democrats are trying to use the Epstein matter as a political weapon to distract from their own party's failures. In a desperate attempt, they're trying to somehow tie President Trump to the scandal. President Trump has nothing to do with it. He said himself he has nothing to hide."
November 19, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Another brilliant gambit deftly executed, Mr. Speaker, your mastery of the legislative arts grows only more awe-inspiring
We Were Giving Him a Bribe, Says Bribe-Giver About Bribe-Taker, Explaining Bribe
Coinbase donated to Trump's $300 million White House ballroom project as an appeal to the administration, Emilie Choi, the cryptocurrency exchange's president and COO, said at Axios' BFD event today.
Exclusive: Coinbase explains donation to Trump's ballroom
Tech firms like Google, Amazon, and Nvidia also donated to Trump's ballroom fund.
www.axios.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:29 PM
We Were Giving Him a Bribe, Says Bribe-Giver About Bribe-Taker, Explaining Bribe