Chad Rector
chadrector.bsky.social
Chad Rector
@chadrector.bsky.social
Political Science, Marymount University. International organizations, Asia. Occasional hobbies: pro-housing activism in Silver Spring MD, playing the Pontian lyra, making Alsatian tarts. Johnny-come-lately Bluesky's 2.2 millionth user. www.chadrector.net
Outside the train station in Seoul is a statue of a guy who threw a grenade at the Japanese Governor in 1919.

Our statue outside Union Station in a few years is going to be way cooler.
November 6, 2025 at 7:52 PM
My grandfather still participated in the *most dangerous* anti-fascist gathering in American history! But sorry Wendell; it's no longer the largest. (He would understand, and approve.)
October 19, 2025 at 2:04 PM
This bill is what happens when weak party leaders can't contain members outbidding each other, piling more and more extremism in an insane logroll.

Leaders with effective control, who care about the party brand, constrain members not just so the bill gets passed at all, but to prevent the backlash.
July 1, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Janice for Mon Mothma. Making Cass Kermit is too obvious - so Gonzo for Cassian (he has the same expressive eyebrows as D Luna).
June 23, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Silver Spring, Maryland, Tesla Dealership. Unsold cars getting loaded to be taken away.
June 16, 2025 at 1:22 PM
From a White supremacist perspective, the changing racial composition of the U.S. is an emergency, and then - as now - White Californians are in league with "the enemy."
June 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Many* White Californians, in contrast, saw themselves as guardians of their racially-inclusive communities, and correctly saw the Chinese Exclusion Act as an attack on California.

(*to be clear, not all)
June 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
White Californians were "betraying" America with their embrace of Chinese immigration, acting as a subversive fifth column. The root of the "problem" wasn't just the Chinese, but the Whites who accepted them.
June 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
California, to Easterners, was a growing political and economic threat (with deepening Pacific ties, SF could have become to Asia what NYC was to Europe) but also a racial threat, as Californians were seen to welcome deepening cultural and economic ties with East Asia.
June 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Federal actions in Los Angeles echo the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) in more ways than one. Chinese exclusion was obviously rooted in racial anxieties, but it was also rooted in a fear of California generally.
June 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Ought to tell us something that we had a nailbiter, could-have-gone-either-way vote in the House to deliver a huge upper-class tax cut and the stock market responded by going *down*.
May 22, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Cancelling it was tough! Strange New Worlds is great.
May 20, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Goldman Sachs has lost like $30 billion in market valuation since the inauguration. Seems like, for them alone, it would pencil out to pay $29 billion in bribes to get Trump and Vance impeached and removed. (Trick shot: make Romney or Haley house speaker, then president.)
April 9, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Blue cities throughout the US should run German/EU war bond rallies.
March 18, 2025 at 8:20 PM
I've thought about that Onion headline every single day for the past year.
January 5, 2025 at 2:07 PM
The implications of lower-income folks switching to the GOP after *this* economic performance are pretty disturbing. Any future president (including a Democrat) will expect that delivering economic equality is a waste of time, electorally.
November 7, 2024 at 12:04 PM
I keep thinking about what a terrible message this sends to all future presidents - economic stewardship doesn't matter.
November 6, 2024 at 11:18 AM
Chads. Buncha divorced dads grinding it out at the auto dealer to pay off their boat loans.
September 16, 2024 at 6:15 PM
Chad peaked in the 1970s, so Chads are mostly GenX guys who lean R. Here is Milo though, from SSA: almost non-existent pre-2001, and now super popular. Pretty much all Milos are zoomers with hipster parents.
September 16, 2024 at 6:12 PM
Reminds me of the most metal thing a former US president has ever said:
July 24, 2024 at 9:15 PM
I made sure to cite this guy in my first book:
February 27, 2024 at 5:23 PM