Con Flambers
@themagicconch19.bsky.social
Wisconsin politics and other things. Opinions are mine and mine alone. He/him
Blog doing deep dives on politics and history here - https://delving-deeper.ghost.io.
Blog doing deep dives on politics and history here - https://delving-deeper.ghost.io.
Pinned
Con Flambers
@themagicconch19.bsky.social
· Jun 22
I saw a raccoon and a deer chowing down on some foliage on the side of the road while driving home tonight... this is what solidarity looks like...
Reposted by Con Flambers
You ever think about how the Roman Senate kept meeting centuries into the reigns of emperors. Hanging out, shooting the shit, giving speeches, and play-acting that their positions of privilege remained positions of power.
January 3, 2026 at 6:36 PM
You ever think about how the Roman Senate kept meeting centuries into the reigns of emperors. Hanging out, shooting the shit, giving speeches, and play-acting that their positions of privilege remained positions of power.
Reposted by Con Flambers
Among the many reasons you don’t kidnap a foreign head of state at gunpoint even if you have the capability, is that it sparks consequences you can neither control nor anticipate.
January 3, 2026 at 10:27 AM
Among the many reasons you don’t kidnap a foreign head of state at gunpoint even if you have the capability, is that it sparks consequences you can neither control nor anticipate.
Was in the hospital last night, did I miss anything big
January 3, 2026 at 8:48 PM
Was in the hospital last night, did I miss anything big
Reposted by Con Flambers
Stranger things finale was fucking nuts!
January 3, 2026 at 3:06 AM
Stranger things finale was fucking nuts!
Reposted by Con Flambers
I mean given that he is constitutionally barred from re-election what exactly can you call this other than legalized bribery?
NEW w/ @kenvogel.bsky.social: Trump’s team raised more than $100 million for MAGA Inc. in the second half of 2025, with much of the money coming from wealthy people and corporations with issues before the administration. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/u...
Trump Super PAC Raised More Than $100 Million in Recent Months
www.nytimes.com
January 3, 2026 at 3:48 AM
I mean given that he is constitutionally barred from re-election what exactly can you call this other than legalized bribery?
Reposted by Con Flambers
Can’t name it exactly, but this a the peculiar quality of insipid contentlessness that makes you know it came from Weiss directly.
Incredible. CBS Evening News announces five new “simple values” — instead of their “38-page handbook” — as they roll out Tony Dokoupil is lead anchor.
One of those values is simply: “We love America and make no apologies for saying so.”
One of those values is simply: “We love America and make no apologies for saying so.”
January 2, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Can’t name it exactly, but this a the peculiar quality of insipid contentlessness that makes you know it came from Weiss directly.
Reposted by Con Flambers
Also if you’re kinda curious about special elections but only care about the interesting ones, here are the flippable seats for Ds this month
SC HD98 is Trump +7.5 on Jan 6
AL HD63 is Trump +17 on Jan 13
TX SD09 is Trump +17 on Jan 31 (a Saturday lol)
SC HD98 is Trump +7.5 on Jan 6
AL HD63 is Trump +17 on Jan 13
TX SD09 is Trump +17 on Jan 31 (a Saturday lol)
January 3, 2026 at 2:09 AM
Also if you’re kinda curious about special elections but only care about the interesting ones, here are the flippable seats for Ds this month
SC HD98 is Trump +7.5 on Jan 6
AL HD63 is Trump +17 on Jan 13
TX SD09 is Trump +17 on Jan 31 (a Saturday lol)
SC HD98 is Trump +7.5 on Jan 6
AL HD63 is Trump +17 on Jan 13
TX SD09 is Trump +17 on Jan 31 (a Saturday lol)
Reposted by Con Flambers
they’re never going to air the CECOT segment
January 3, 2026 at 1:59 AM
they’re never going to air the CECOT segment
"The administration is full of evil geniuses" people say, as Laura Loomer's brain becomes ever smoother
January 3, 2026 at 2:05 AM
"The administration is full of evil geniuses" people say, as Laura Loomer's brain becomes ever smoother
That's one reason why I'm a Mamdani Man. He prevented the comeback of a truly terrible figure, and all the downstream consequences of it.
Most of the derangement about Mamdani is for the obvious reasons but part of it is also that a surprising amount of people were committed to the Cuomo rehabilitation project because they hated the idea that anything could have consequences for men of the right class.
January 3, 2026 at 12:32 AM
That's one reason why I'm a Mamdani Man. He prevented the comeback of a truly terrible figure, and all the downstream consequences of it.
We gotta bring back shame and the idea that lying is bad, or we'll continue to get more Orwellian nonsense like this from collaborator media.
“We’ll tell you what we know, when we know it.”*
* CECOT not included
* CECOT not included
January 3, 2026 at 12:28 AM
We gotta bring back shame and the idea that lying is bad, or we'll continue to get more Orwellian nonsense like this from collaborator media.
Me, after spending all day being sick in the bathroom or being ready to BE in the bathroom, upon having my first sip of Gatorade: is this... is this nectar of the gods? Manna from heaven?
January 3, 2026 at 12:20 AM
Me, after spending all day being sick in the bathroom or being ready to BE in the bathroom, upon having my first sip of Gatorade: is this... is this nectar of the gods? Manna from heaven?
Reposted by Con Flambers
The leaders of every major institution have straight-up fricasseed their brains with 16 hours of daily Twitter time and are now incapable of any thought that can’t be formulated as “CHEW ON THIS HOT TAKE: [biggest pander imaginable].”
January 2, 2026 at 9:34 PM
The leaders of every major institution have straight-up fricasseed their brains with 16 hours of daily Twitter time and are now incapable of any thought that can’t be formulated as “CHEW ON THIS HOT TAKE: [biggest pander imaginable].”
Still think about how a poll of white voters without college degrees on the 2020 election used "have you read a book in the past year?" as one of its questions. The results were telling.
Hadn't read a book was like Trump+40, had read a book was Biden+9. A roughly 50 point spread.
Hadn't read a book was like Trump+40, had read a book was Biden+9. A roughly 50 point spread.
NEW: How many books did you read this year? If it was more than 2, congrats: you read more than the median American.
Read on for way more @today.yougov.com polling from me on America's book-reading habits in 2025. 1/
Read on for way more @today.yougov.com polling from me on America's book-reading habits in 2025. 1/
January 2, 2026 at 3:46 AM
Still think about how a poll of white voters without college degrees on the 2020 election used "have you read a book in the past year?" as one of its questions. The results were telling.
Hadn't read a book was like Trump+40, had read a book was Biden+9. A roughly 50 point spread.
Hadn't read a book was like Trump+40, had read a book was Biden+9. A roughly 50 point spread.
Reposted by Con Flambers
Worth observing that Elon Musk unbanned a notorious pedophile from the platform just a few years ago.
Source: www.mediamatters.org/twitter/elon...
Source: www.mediamatters.org/twitter/elon...
January 2, 2026 at 1:22 AM
Worth observing that Elon Musk unbanned a notorious pedophile from the platform just a few years ago.
Source: www.mediamatters.org/twitter/elon...
Source: www.mediamatters.org/twitter/elon...
Reposted by Con Flambers
very bizarrely, one of the few things I've seen that captures the rhetorical effectiveness of historical fascism is the bit in the Office where Jim gives Dwight one of Mussolini's speeches to deliver to a paper conference and it absolutely kills.
I've watched a couple of Hitler's early speeches, and they really do give off 'you had to be there's vibes.
Like Trump and his 'charisma'; I accept it intellectually, but I will never GET it. 'It's a generational thing, I'm told'. 110 percent not my generation, I guess.
Like Trump and his 'charisma'; I accept it intellectually, but I will never GET it. 'It's a generational thing, I'm told'. 110 percent not my generation, I guess.
otoh imagine hearing all the stuff about 'the Fuhrer' in historical drama and then seeing Hitler and being like "Him? That guy?"
January 2, 2026 at 12:59 AM
very bizarrely, one of the few things I've seen that captures the rhetorical effectiveness of historical fascism is the bit in the Office where Jim gives Dwight one of Mussolini's speeches to deliver to a paper conference and it absolutely kills.
Read DuBois's Black Reconstruction when I was a wee 20 year old - asked for it for Christmas one year - and it was a book that still shapes my thinking about history. And of course how badly Reconstruction has been slandered because of cultural and political bias to the South in the Civil War.
if i were to ever have the privilege of being sworn in to an office, i would choose a copy of Black Reconstruction
Strange takes on Mayor Zamdani swearing his oath on the Qu’ran. It has nothing to do with church & state. The point of the oath is for the person swearing in to do so upon some text that is sacred TO THEM. Some Presidents swore in w/o any book. John Quincy Adams was sworn on a law book. His choice.
January 2, 2026 at 12:36 AM
Read DuBois's Black Reconstruction when I was a wee 20 year old - asked for it for Christmas one year - and it was a book that still shapes my thinking about history. And of course how badly Reconstruction has been slandered because of cultural and political bias to the South in the Civil War.
Reposted by Con Flambers
it's kind of a hyper localized version of "liberals / urbanites do not count as americans"
January 2, 2026 at 12:16 AM
it's kind of a hyper localized version of "liberals / urbanites do not count as americans"
Reposted by Con Flambers
when trump won nobody was like "he needs to extend an olive branch" and "he needs to move slow to not alienate people who didn't vote for him" but you're already seeing it with zohran
January 2, 2026 at 12:02 AM
when trump won nobody was like "he needs to extend an olive branch" and "he needs to move slow to not alienate people who didn't vote for him" but you're already seeing it with zohran
Reposted by Con Flambers
as a texan i'll spare people zohran takes but one thing i think we're going to see even more of now that he's mayor is mainstream media shift the goal posts of what having a mandate is. trump had a mandate when he narrowly won but zohran has to reach out to all these factions no matter what
January 2, 2026 at 12:02 AM
as a texan i'll spare people zohran takes but one thing i think we're going to see even more of now that he's mayor is mainstream media shift the goal posts of what having a mandate is. trump had a mandate when he narrowly won but zohran has to reach out to all these factions no matter what
Reposted by Con Flambers
Mayor Mamdani has nullified every executive order issued by Eric Adams after he struck his corrupt bargain with Trump to secure dismissal of the indictment against him.
January 1, 2026 at 10:58 PM
Mayor Mamdani has nullified every executive order issued by Eric Adams after he struck his corrupt bargain with Trump to secure dismissal of the indictment against him.
I'll start this post with something positive: Mamdani getting inaugurated is really cool, esp given who his main opponent was
That said, I do wonder: how long till the Usual Suspects are calling him a traitor or a sellout or whatever
That said, I do wonder: how long till the Usual Suspects are calling him a traitor or a sellout or whatever
January 1, 2026 at 6:07 PM
I'll start this post with something positive: Mamdani getting inaugurated is really cool, esp given who his main opponent was
That said, I do wonder: how long till the Usual Suspects are calling him a traitor or a sellout or whatever
That said, I do wonder: how long till the Usual Suspects are calling him a traitor or a sellout or whatever
Reposted by Con Flambers
Mamdani took over the @NYCMayor account on Twitter but old Eric Adams tweets are still active. That means Mamdani's name and face shows up for old tweets he didn't send.
You're probably going to see a lot of screenshots like this where Mamdani appears to praise Netanyahu, but they aren't by Mamdani
You're probably going to see a lot of screenshots like this where Mamdani appears to praise Netanyahu, but they aren't by Mamdani
January 1, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Mamdani took over the @NYCMayor account on Twitter but old Eric Adams tweets are still active. That means Mamdani's name and face shows up for old tweets he didn't send.
You're probably going to see a lot of screenshots like this where Mamdani appears to praise Netanyahu, but they aren't by Mamdani
You're probably going to see a lot of screenshots like this where Mamdani appears to praise Netanyahu, but they aren't by Mamdani