bensandny.bsky.social
@bensandny.bsky.social
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
hard not to notice that as trump's polls crater and gop gets crushed in election after election, news orgs are not racing around hiring progressive commenters and boasting about how they're reaching out to real americans by following the will of the volk.
January 18, 2026 at 5:58 AM
hard not to notice that as trump's polls crater and gop gets crushed in election after election, news orgs are not racing around hiring progressive commenters and boasting about how they're reaching out to real americans by following the will of the volk.
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
In this week’s newsletter, I discuss my own despair at the political fecklessness of the opposition party, but take solace in the fact that the people are leading.
In @thenation.com
In @thenation.com
It’s Official: The People, Not the Politicians, Are Leading
In this week’s Elie V. US, our justice correspondent explores the fecklessness of the Democratic Party, MAGA racism, and fighting despite unwinnable odds.
www.thenation.com
January 16, 2026 at 5:45 PM
In this week’s newsletter, I discuss my own despair at the political fecklessness of the opposition party, but take solace in the fact that the people are leading.
In @thenation.com
In @thenation.com
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
Adam Tooze on professional Dems: “If you had any self-respect, you would not be on any podium again, ever, sounding off about anything. Because comrades, if we were in the 30s, I would have taken you out and shot you. You fail like this, you don’t get to come back and show off your wounds.”
👑
👑
January 15, 2026 at 11:55 PM
Adam Tooze on professional Dems: “If you had any self-respect, you would not be on any podium again, ever, sounding off about anything. Because comrades, if we were in the 30s, I would have taken you out and shot you. You fail like this, you don’t get to come back and show off your wounds.”
👑
👑
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
Sure. But but it was way better for your career, and the esteem of many of your highly placed professional peers, to be wrong about this and so many people were. They’re doing great btw www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/o...
Opinion | The Resistance Libs Were Right
www.nytimes.com
January 13, 2026 at 12:18 PM
Sure. But but it was way better for your career, and the esteem of many of your highly placed professional peers, to be wrong about this and so many people were. They’re doing great btw www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/o...
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
Hey look it’s those nice folks we interviewed in the diner
this is all it’s really about for them. Not domestic policy, not “economic anxiety”, just an endless desire to punish stand-ins for the Mommy who forced them take a bath, even if it tanks their own quality of life.
January 12, 2026 at 1:15 PM
Hey look it’s those nice folks we interviewed in the diner
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
TWO. Two chances this Supreme Court had to make the right call. One was the simply call January 6 what it was: An insurrection. Even the liberal justices couldn’t do that. The other was to not make sham and politically-motivated investigations an “official act.”
And here we fucking are.
And here we fucking are.
January 12, 2026 at 1:52 AM
TWO. Two chances this Supreme Court had to make the right call. One was the simply call January 6 what it was: An insurrection. Even the liberal justices couldn’t do that. The other was to not make sham and politically-motivated investigations an “official act.”
And here we fucking are.
And here we fucking are.
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
They really did think the Caucasians would support them rounding people up didn’t they
430k of us vs. 2k of them, we're gonna win this
Cedar & 31st I think
Cedar & 31st I think
January 11, 2026 at 8:39 PM
They really did think the Caucasians would support them rounding people up didn’t they
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
The reactionary centrist logic is simple: if the left does something bad it’s the left’s fault, and if the right does something bad, it’s also the left’s fault for making them do it. It’s a simple formula and once you see it every one of their arguments is the same
January 10, 2026 at 11:24 PM
The reactionary centrist logic is simple: if the left does something bad it’s the left’s fault, and if the right does something bad, it’s also the left’s fault for making them do it. It’s a simple formula and once you see it every one of their arguments is the same
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
From firing the local MAGA-allied police chief to calling for the abolishment of ICE, so much inaction by elected Democrats boils down to "but I'm scared!"
I am very sorry, but you said you could do this job when you were hired. Please step aside if you can't.
I am very sorry, but you said you could do this job when you were hired. Please step aside if you can't.
January 10, 2026 at 3:57 PM
From firing the local MAGA-allied police chief to calling for the abolishment of ICE, so much inaction by elected Democrats boils down to "but I'm scared!"
I am very sorry, but you said you could do this job when you were hired. Please step aside if you can't.
I am very sorry, but you said you could do this job when you were hired. Please step aside if you can't.
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
this is your mission. roll up to this daycare in full tactical gear to harass some kids and teachers. when you get spooked by your own shadow like a panicked horse and start shooting your gun, our pedophile president will call the person you shot a terrorist. good luck soldier
January 8, 2026 at 2:33 PM
this is your mission. roll up to this daycare in full tactical gear to harass some kids and teachers. when you get spooked by your own shadow like a panicked horse and start shooting your gun, our pedophile president will call the person you shot a terrorist. good luck soldier
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
I think Adam Serwer said once (paraphrasing here) that just reading history ranks among the best kind of anti-racism education one could get, which as a former history major I endorse 100%.
January 8, 2026 at 4:01 PM
I think Adam Serwer said once (paraphrasing here) that just reading history ranks among the best kind of anti-racism education one could get, which as a former history major I endorse 100%.
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
A 23 year old larping as a journalist made a misleading and inaccurate YouTube video that the administration full of chronically online shitposters used to justify the “largest immigration operation ever” and now someone is dead
January 7, 2026 at 6:58 PM
A 23 year old larping as a journalist made a misleading and inaccurate YouTube video that the administration full of chronically online shitposters used to justify the “largest immigration operation ever” and now someone is dead
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
he should be saying their failures to act are grave violations of their oaths of office, a disgrace to the senate, blah blah blah. he should be making the case to the public to be mad, not dumping it on our laps and saying “you do something about it”
January 6, 2026 at 5:58 AM
he should be saying their failures to act are grave violations of their oaths of office, a disgrace to the senate, blah blah blah. he should be making the case to the public to be mad, not dumping it on our laps and saying “you do something about it”
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.
Right.
If you want a good explanation of why the American system of government worked well enough for 200 years and then suddenly stopped, it's because Republicans in Congress suddenly started letting their partisan interests COMPLETELY override their institutional interests
If you want a good explanation of why the American system of government worked well enough for 200 years and then suddenly stopped, it's because Republicans in Congress suddenly started letting their partisan interests COMPLETELY override their institutional interests
a lot of problems wouldn't exist if we had a congress with even an ounce of self interest
January 4, 2026 at 11:52 PM
yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
amazing how the entire machine can pivot within 24 hours. no need to slowly upsell the argument; just issue new marching orders
January 5, 2026 at 6:50 AM
amazing how the entire machine can pivot within 24 hours. no need to slowly upsell the argument; just issue new marching orders
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
Media figures don’t want to believe that MAGA is based primarily on selfishness and hatred for everyone else, so they have a need to codify that hate into defined policy positions that MAGA neither has nor deserves.
MAGA's supposed "anti-interventionism" is actually pro-pillage and pro-plunder.
Trump says Venezuela's oil wealth "goes also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us by that country"
January 4, 2026 at 4:42 PM
Media figures don’t want to believe that MAGA is based primarily on selfishness and hatred for everyone else, so they have a need to codify that hate into defined policy positions that MAGA neither has nor deserves.
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
So much of American history is just impulsive and extremely stupid elites, who don't believe in consequences because they have never personally experienced them, doing highly consequential stuff because they're bored or believe it might make them richer. I guess a lot of our culture, too.
January 3, 2026 at 7:22 PM
So much of American history is just impulsive and extremely stupid elites, who don't believe in consequences because they have never personally experienced them, doing highly consequential stuff because they're bored or believe it might make them richer. I guess a lot of our culture, too.
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
one of my recent preoccupations is the visceral hostility the MAGA right has for the histories and traditions of the United States. these are people who spit on the Declaration and salute third-rate European despots!
It's striking that progressives like Tim Walz and Zohran Mamdani evoke the middle American attitude that, "Yes, we can fix these social problems because we're Americans and it's the right thing to do!" While the "America first" right only emulates failed and failing nation-states elsewhere.
January 2, 2026 at 12:45 AM
one of my recent preoccupations is the visceral hostility the MAGA right has for the histories and traditions of the United States. these are people who spit on the Declaration and salute third-rate European despots!
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
I do think the handwringing about the Kennedy Center boycott is at least a little bit the sublimated anxiety about the potential social consequences of elite capitulation under Trump II
December 30, 2025 at 6:06 PM
I do think the handwringing about the Kennedy Center boycott is at least a little bit the sublimated anxiety about the potential social consequences of elite capitulation under Trump II
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
The entire conservative legal movement and philosophy of “originalism” is premised on the illegitimacy of any SCOTUS decision that doesn’t fit the GOP party platform
December 30, 2025 at 1:01 PM
The entire conservative legal movement and philosophy of “originalism” is premised on the illegitimacy of any SCOTUS decision that doesn’t fit the GOP party platform
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
The whole Make America Great movement claims to be nostalgic for the New Deal era in which Trump grew up, but they seek to undo the progressive taxation, labor-friendly policies, and robust welfare state (including social security, Medicare, investments in higher education) that lay at its core.
December 27, 2025 at 12:46 PM
The whole Make America Great movement claims to be nostalgic for the New Deal era in which Trump grew up, but they seek to undo the progressive taxation, labor-friendly policies, and robust welfare state (including social security, Medicare, investments in higher education) that lay at its core.
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
For years now, moderates have decried the division of identity politics of Democrats, ignoring of course that the Republican Party was defined by identity politics itself — the identity of whiteness. Now that it’s explicit the inability to call it out and to cover it aptly is starkly disappointing.
December 22, 2025 at 5:06 PM
For years now, moderates have decried the division of identity politics of Democrats, ignoring of course that the Republican Party was defined by identity politics itself — the identity of whiteness. Now that it’s explicit the inability to call it out and to cover it aptly is starkly disappointing.
Reposted by bensandny.bsky.social
The entire american "free speech" panic was about elites being criticized, which is why anyone who ever took it seriously should be ignored forever
Freedom of speech, in the liberal ideal, was about limiting the power of the elites.
Now, in this twisted form, it is about forcing us to listen to elites and silencing the masses.
Now, in this twisted form, it is about forcing us to listen to elites and silencing the masses.
Total gaslighting. Anti-trans activist; chooses to speak in person, provoking students who want to protect trans rights; they exercise their freedom of speech to tell her she isn't wanted; she gets to speak anyway; the BBC dutifully platforms her again; and now she threatens to sue everyone.
December 22, 2025 at 8:22 AM
The entire american "free speech" panic was about elites being criticized, which is why anyone who ever took it seriously should be ignored forever