brendenmgallagher.bsky.social
@brendenmgallagher.bsky.social
Congrats to my friend @johnlingan.bsky.social on the publication of "Backbeats: A History of Rock and Roll in Fifteen Drummers!" John is one of the best people writing about music today. His passion and expertise bleeds through on every page of his work. Order your copy today!
November 13, 2025 at 8:56 PM
What drives me insane about centrists "finding a solution" to lower premiums is that there is no viable solution to the right of Obamacare. You got to try the market and the market can't deliver. The market cannot be trusted with healthcare.
November 13, 2025 at 8:00 PM
What DSA backed candidates have been stinkers? I think that generally outsider "progressives" are a mixed bag, but DSA backing has a very high batting average
the left has been burned a lot before by electing people we thought were good and turned out real stinkers but i think zohran is the genuine real deal for bringing her into the fold
November 6, 2025 at 10:33 PM
There is truly no male loneliness epidemic in Long Beach, California. Tide is high today on the bay and out my window I see tons of dudes on skateboards with fishing rods pulling up.
November 6, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Interesting @vanityfair.com Little Gold Men podcast on political Oscar contenders today, but I would dispute One Battle After Another as being attacked "from the left." I would say it is being attack through a lens of liberal identity politics whereas the left has embraced it
November 6, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Of the 3 films made by comfortable white guys trying to make sense of poorer, angry politically polarized white guys that have come out this year I think their relative quality comes from each director's capacity for empathy:

1. OBAA
[big gap]
2. Bugonia
[bigger gap]
3 Eddington
November 3, 2025 at 6:24 PM
What do you think are the common doomer questions people ask around climate change other than:

Why care so much if the world is just going to end anyway?
Why save for retirement if there won't be a world left for us?
Why bring children into a world ravaged by climate change?
October 24, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Eh, DSA LA's candidates are all pretty normal, but we have union and non-profit machines for them to grow in.
Reductively, the two kinds of left candidates in America are 1) Bernie Sanders and 2) young, exciting progressive challenger people like because they saw a video on the Internet. Mixed bag on both ends. Probably worth recruiting more outwardly normal, even boring middle-aged people with left views.
October 22, 2025 at 6:36 PM
The "ratfucking by the DNC" portion of the Democratic Primary process is important because it helps you figure out if you have an AOC or a Lee Carter. DSA bench candidates have a much higher chance of being the former because they are already mostly vetted.
October 21, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Hate to say it, but Tea Party had an explicit ideological program and No Kings does not.
The networks took the much smaller Tea Party movement so seriously they broadcast a Tea Party rebuttal to Obama’s 2011 SOTU on top of the normal GOP one.
Reminder: We spent YEARS reading thousands and thousands of articles on the Tea Party and how it was a true expression of the American people's will, and it never mounted anything nearly as big as Saturday's No Kings rallies. [1/3]
October 20, 2025 at 9:47 PM
I attribute this to the brilliance of GOP coining the term "Obamacare" as that would obviously exclude Medicaid and Medicare improvements and just focus on the marketplace plans, the aspect of the bill they knew they could kneecap without a public option.
one of the consistently interesting things about ACA criticism since it was signed into law is how critics discount or ignore the medicaid expansion
October 20, 2025 at 9:40 PM
The DNC wanting to litigate old social media posts gives me hope that insurgent candidates are about to romp in the next couple of cycles. So out of touch with the moment, it's like sending cavalry horses to charge gatling guns.
October 18, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Bro, a Reaganite tried to ruin your life a month ago lol
Ronald Reagan said it. #NoKings tomorrow 10/18
October 18, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Almost all of my biggest gripes with Newsom boil down to that he is such a NorCal guy and our governors should always be SoCal guys.
CA governor Gavin Newsom vetoed both of the major AI bills on his desk that Silicon Valley meaningfully opposed—one making it illegal for bosses to use AI to fire workers with no oversight, one requiring chatbot sellers to ensure their products do not harm children before marketing to them.
Silicon Valley's capture of our political institutions is all but complete
The tech lobby kills off two key California AI bills, and why it matters. Plus: How Sam Altman played Hollywood with Sora 2, organized mass social media deletions, and more.
www.bloodinthemachine.com
October 17, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Enjoying my time over here but allowing QTs disabled is shameful cowardice
October 17, 2025 at 5:48 PM
We all have our criticisms of Obama but no one of voting age at that time thought he would pass single payer. Dems wanted a public option, which would have made the ACA much better and he sacrificed it to get Joe Lieberman's vote on ACA.
October 16, 2025 at 6:37 PM
I guess you can criticize No Kings, but it does beg the question why your thing has an order of magnitude less interest, and you should be prepared to answer that without sounding like a freak.
October 16, 2025 at 3:56 AM
The No on Prop 50 campaign is one of the most pathetic things I've ever seen in CA politics because if they tell the truth at all, almost everyone in California would go against them, so their signs say vague stuff like "Say NO to Nuisance Newsom"
October 15, 2025 at 10:50 PM
BlueSky is amazing
Everyone in my feed is shitting on Nuzzi. Meanwhile, the other person in the saga is now destroying the medical community and endangering public health.

But let’s slut shame Nuzzi.
Scoop: Olivia Nuzzi has written a book during her year in exile, in which she is set to in part address her relationship with RFK Jr. Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/olivia-nuz...
October 15, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Lots of TV gurus try to help writers craft "good samples" when the reality is that every show I'm put up for has 500 people submitting to staff and your sample matters far less than your connections. I think your best bet is writing to sell and hope one of them fits a staffing need.
October 15, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Watched an amazing documentary last night: Sherman's March (1985) is a rom-com documentary set in the backdrop of Civil War history. The filmmaker sets out to retrace Sherman's march to the sea but gets sidetrack by various failed love affairs.
October 15, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Here's the deal. If you are making a project for over, say $3 million, you could choose to use union crew. Some great filmmakers were famously anti-union (Kubrick) some are vehemently pro-union & have great working conditions (Eastwood). It is a choice.
March 5, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Megalopolis and Madame Web represent the two types of bad movies (misguided auteurist vision and bloated studio catastrophe) so hats off to the Razzies for getting it right this year 👏👏👏
February 28, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Gene Hackman one of the best to ever do it. His performance in Royal Tenenbaums was the perfect comedy leading performance and his performance in The Conversation was the perfect drama leading performance.
February 27, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Nancy Pelosi has been wrong about so much but she was really right about how good Jeni's Ice Cream is.
February 27, 2025 at 12:11 AM