Theo Landsman
@ordinalandsman.bsky.social
Senior Political Analyst at YouGov Blue, Political Science PhD candidate , Ranked Ballot Nerd, Map poster.
I used to think it was like a weirdly sterile and professionalized feudal retinue and wondered why someone would want that but the Sinema stuff has convinced me that actual these people have a huge amount of discretion over who's in their detail and deep ties and it is just a feudal retinue.
February 13, 2026 at 3:06 PM
I used to think it was like a weirdly sterile and professionalized feudal retinue and wondered why someone would want that but the Sinema stuff has convinced me that actual these people have a huge amount of discretion over who's in their detail and deep ties and it is just a feudal retinue.
There are counter-insurgency campaigns, maybe even righteous counter-insurgency campaigns, where concentration camps would be the only way to win them, but the ethical decision there has got to be that the juice is not worth the squeeze.
February 12, 2026 at 8:37 PM
There are counter-insurgency campaigns, maybe even righteous counter-insurgency campaigns, where concentration camps would be the only way to win them, but the ethical decision there has got to be that the juice is not worth the squeeze.
I mean, concentration camps "work" by deracinating an entire ethnic group or populated area that harbors enemy combatants, thereby denying the enemy a population to embed in at the cost of destroying the fabric of their entire society. It's not death camp bad but it's pretty bad.
February 12, 2026 at 8:36 PM
I mean, concentration camps "work" by deracinating an entire ethnic group or populated area that harbors enemy combatants, thereby denying the enemy a population to embed in at the cost of destroying the fabric of their entire society. It's not death camp bad but it's pretty bad.
But in the big leagues, they are a crutch that enables and perpetuates bad majority and minority leadership and enables leaders like Schumer (and to be fair, also many of his critics) to be in denial about both the stakes of political conflict and their actual capability to fight back.
February 12, 2026 at 5:00 PM
But in the big leagues, they are a crutch that enables and perpetuates bad majority and minority leadership and enables leaders like Schumer (and to be fair, also many of his critics) to be in denial about both the stakes of political conflict and their actual capability to fight back.
I think there are other examples but specifically I'm thinking about various super-majority requirements in the Senate. It is fine, maybe even good, for small orgs to have something like that to preserve the fiction of unity and prevent marginalized members from repeatedly being overridden.
February 12, 2026 at 4:57 PM
I think there are other examples but specifically I'm thinking about various super-majority requirements in the Senate. It is fine, maybe even good, for small orgs to have something like that to preserve the fiction of unity and prevent marginalized members from repeatedly being overridden.
I think this works with the analogy in the sense that student gov, book clubs, maybe even medium sized membership organizations should have guardrails. By the time you make it to national politics you need to understand that total failure is a real possibility and there is no one to protect you.
February 12, 2026 at 4:12 PM
I think this works with the analogy in the sense that student gov, book clubs, maybe even medium sized membership organizations should have guardrails. By the time you make it to national politics you need to understand that total failure is a real possibility and there is no one to protect you.
I have been trying to work on a bowling bumpers analogy to US politics in the sense that like the institutional "guardrails" of U.S. politics bumpers both disincentivize learning how to actually play well and do not prevent a determined adult from hurling the ball into the gutter.
February 12, 2026 at 3:37 PM
I have been trying to work on a bowling bumpers analogy to US politics in the sense that like the institutional "guardrails" of U.S. politics bumpers both disincentivize learning how to actually play well and do not prevent a determined adult from hurling the ball into the gutter.
And it's something that Trump specifically seems to really struggle with, liberal institutions have repeatedly begged him for a dignified way of surrendering and he insists on their total debasement.
February 11, 2026 at 3:59 PM
And it's something that Trump specifically seems to really struggle with, liberal institutions have repeatedly begged him for a dignified way of surrendering and he insists on their total debasement.
I'd guess that it's already part of how mil historians think see it but something that always strikes me is that the Athenians are imitating the 'surrender or be destroyed' boilerplate conqueror speech, but finding a dignified way for their opponent to surrender was a key skill of those conquerors!
February 11, 2026 at 3:58 PM
I'd guess that it's already part of how mil historians think see it but something that always strikes me is that the Athenians are imitating the 'surrender or be destroyed' boilerplate conqueror speech, but finding a dignified way for their opponent to surrender was a key skill of those conquerors!
In a post-woke plane collision that more based plane passes through the burning wreckage of the more woke plane unharmed so nothing of value is lost. Hard to argue with DoD.
February 11, 2026 at 3:32 PM
In a post-woke plane collision that more based plane passes through the burning wreckage of the more woke plane unharmed so nothing of value is lost. Hard to argue with DoD.
Family had one of these growing up, was literally guillotined with a parking garage elevator by an inattentive attendant. Parking garage was shut down a few years later after a different attendant accidentally catapulted an SUV onto the roof of a nearby building: vinnews.com/2009/04/21/m...
Manhattan - SUV In Three-Story Fall In Parking Plunge [video] - VINnews
Manhattan, NY – A Mercedes SUV plunged three stories from a Greenwich Village garage yesterday afternoon, landing on a rooftop. Join our WhatsApp group Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email Miraculousl...
vinnews.com
February 9, 2026 at 3:42 PM
Family had one of these growing up, was literally guillotined with a parking garage elevator by an inattentive attendant. Parking garage was shut down a few years later after a different attendant accidentally catapulted an SUV onto the roof of a nearby building: vinnews.com/2009/04/21/m...
Blue is a food, the FDA has just classified it as one of the key food groups, it sounds like you’re not getting enough blue.
February 8, 2026 at 1:34 AM
Blue is a food, the FDA has just classified it as one of the key food groups, it sounds like you’re not getting enough blue.
California Republicans are displaying a level of solidarity with their red state compatriots that would bring a 1920s labour radical to their knees with awe.
February 7, 2026 at 9:22 PM
California Republicans are displaying a level of solidarity with their red state compatriots that would bring a 1920s labour radical to their knees with awe.
The dynamics of the redistricting fight are fascinating to me from a 'are legislators self interested or not' perspective. Blue state Rs have basically accepted that their political careers are being sacrificed so that right wing psychos in the Houston suburbs can go have fun being in Congress.
February 7, 2026 at 9:19 PM
The dynamics of the redistricting fight are fascinating to me from a 'are legislators self interested or not' perspective. Blue state Rs have basically accepted that their political careers are being sacrificed so that right wing psychos in the Houston suburbs can go have fun being in Congress.
This is why the filibuster is actually very bad for the minority party even if it’s good for individual minority senators and makes their job less boring.
There is no institutional leverage that is more politically useful than not being implicated in the decisions made by the governing party.
There is no institutional leverage that is more politically useful than not being implicated in the decisions made by the governing party.
February 7, 2026 at 1:40 PM
This is why the filibuster is actually very bad for the minority party even if it’s good for individual minority senators and makes their job less boring.
There is no institutional leverage that is more politically useful than not being implicated in the decisions made by the governing party.
There is no institutional leverage that is more politically useful than not being implicated in the decisions made by the governing party.
The strongest message Mamdani could send here would be to ensure that Delgado gets an important position in NY politics after the election. His campaign put critical pressure on Hochul to move left in ways that kept the lane open for Mamdani, but when that works a side effect is you lose.
February 5, 2026 at 5:44 PM
The strongest message Mamdani could send here would be to ensure that Delgado gets an important position in NY politics after the election. His campaign put critical pressure on Hochul to move left in ways that kept the lane open for Mamdani, but when that works a side effect is you lose.
You could do this with trailer parks in more rural areas but once you get less dense than that I think this would get too difficult and time consuming and you'd get bored. Goal is not so much class upheaval but "Greek god punishing those who violate arcane hospitality norms by traveling in secret."
February 5, 2026 at 4:48 PM
You could do this with trailer parks in more rural areas but once you get less dense than that I think this would get too difficult and time consuming and you'd get bored. Goal is not so much class upheaval but "Greek god punishing those who violate arcane hospitality norms by traveling in secret."
I would find regional rich assholes who like, own all of the apartment buildings in an Indianapolis suburb or all of the Honda dealerships, then start a competing business next door renting apartments or selling cars below cost until I’d bankrupted them, then move on to a different assholes.
February 5, 2026 at 4:38 PM
I would find regional rich assholes who like, own all of the apartment buildings in an Indianapolis suburb or all of the Honda dealerships, then start a competing business next door renting apartments or selling cars below cost until I’d bankrupted them, then move on to a different assholes.
It's a coherent position if you're an anarchist to the extent that anarchism itself is a coherent position.
February 4, 2026 at 9:11 PM
It's a coherent position if you're an anarchist to the extent that anarchism itself is a coherent position.
I think this is right but it's also true that something deep inside of them yearns to be put in jail for life or executed by the normie liberal grandmas and only in finally receiving punishment for their anti-social behavior is there even a chance of genuine emotion or release from being themselves.
February 4, 2026 at 8:09 PM
I think this is right but it's also true that something deep inside of them yearns to be put in jail for life or executed by the normie liberal grandmas and only in finally receiving punishment for their anti-social behavior is there even a chance of genuine emotion or release from being themselves.
Mugwump II: Revenge of the Mugwumps
February 4, 2026 at 4:34 PM
Mugwump II: Revenge of the Mugwumps
The real MVP of data fakery is the anonymous CUNY data scientist possibly turned state witness behind that huge fake financial aid company scandal.
February 3, 2026 at 5:35 PM
The real MVP of data fakery is the anonymous CUNY data scientist possibly turned state witness behind that huge fake financial aid company scandal.
If anything it's a testament to how bad at faking data LaCour was that the obvious problems with his data fakery were the big takeaway from Broockman et al and not his polling firm saying they'd never heard of him.
February 3, 2026 at 5:30 PM
If anything it's a testament to how bad at faking data LaCour was that the obvious problems with his data fakery were the big takeaway from Broockman et al and not his polling firm saying they'd never heard of him.
The thing with Adams is that I would be completely prepared to believe that South Korea airdropped him a shipping container full of gold bullion or that anything he did for South Korea no matter how weird was because he was a huge fan of K Pop or Park Chung Hee.
February 3, 2026 at 5:02 PM
The thing with Adams is that I would be completely prepared to believe that South Korea airdropped him a shipping container full of gold bullion or that anything he did for South Korea no matter how weird was because he was a huge fan of K Pop or Park Chung Hee.
There were allegations that he was also involved with Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan but I don't know how much those were ever substantiated.
February 3, 2026 at 4:59 PM
There were allegations that he was also involved with Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan but I don't know how much those were ever substantiated.