Charlie Hunt
@charlesrhunt.com
Polisci Prof at Boise State and RI native. Congress, elections, and representation are my things. Dogs are my actual things. I co-host the podcast "Scandalized" on the NPR Network: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1259047598/scandalized
Pinned
Charlie Hunt
@charlesrhunt.com
· Jan 6
This is my favorite slide to open up my U.S. Congress courses with to quantitatively prove to my students how much I unironically care about Congress. It's my daily average heart rate from my Apple Watch over a 5-yr period. The #1 highest day in that period is circled in red.
no wait don't go
Incredible:
"Nancy Mace of South Carolina has told people she is so frustrated... that she is planning to huddle with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia next week to discuss following her lead and retiring early from Congress."
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u...
"Nancy Mace of South Carolina has told people she is so frustrated... that she is planning to huddle with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia next week to discuss following her lead and retiring early from Congress."
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u...
December 4, 2025 at 12:03 AM
no wait don't go
Reposted by Charlie Hunt
This is honestly a pretty Bluesky-specific problem. It is deathly serious in here at all times and I'll be honest, looking at Bluesky regularly is making me a worse, more hysterical writer, causing my non-Bluesky readers to tune out, and it's just making me an unhappier person.
And it may not just be limited to Bluesky, it seems like this is taking over much of online. Feels like @maxread.info or @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social could go long on the problem.
December 3, 2025 at 7:25 PM
This is honestly a pretty Bluesky-specific problem. It is deathly serious in here at all times and I'll be honest, looking at Bluesky regularly is making me a worse, more hysterical writer, causing my non-Bluesky readers to tune out, and it's just making me an unhappier person.
What an embarrassment
Jeffries claims the charges against Cueller were "very thin" and says Trump's pardon was "exactly the right outcome"
December 3, 2025 at 5:42 PM
What an embarrassment
Rick Scott (net worth: $200m) makes this same argument constantly. It really speaks to how their personal life experience informs their policymaking (see @bcburden.bsky.social's classic book). They — not the very few lower-income members — are the most threatened by legislation like this.
December 3, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Rick Scott (net worth: $200m) makes this same argument constantly. It really speaks to how their personal life experience informs their policymaking (see @bcburden.bsky.social's classic book). They — not the very few lower-income members — are the most threatened by legislation like this.
Reposted by Charlie Hunt
If you think your job is not to tell the truth but to "challenge your audience's assumptions" if the latter is in tension with the former then you're going to end up lying. bsky.app/profile/larr...
For my part, I would say that questioning the framing of some Times stories—for example, the highlighting of Trump’s putative emotions or the foregrounding of what he says (even when, as is often the case, what he says is false)—is not an indication that I want my “views validated.”
December 2, 2025 at 4:03 PM
If you think your job is not to tell the truth but to "challenge your audience's assumptions" if the latter is in tension with the former then you're going to end up lying. bsky.app/profile/larr...
Reposted by Charlie Hunt
What time do you get in?
Officially moving to Chicago tomorrow. I assume JB Pritzker will be waiting for me at the airport
November 25, 2025 at 1:13 PM
What time do you get in?
Reposted by Charlie Hunt
After you help your boss convert a doc to PDF
November 22, 2025 at 4:55 PM
After you help your boss convert a doc to PDF
If I'm reading Georgia's election code correctly, a special election date would be set within 10 days of MTG's resignation, and the election would be held within a month of that announcement. So probably sometime in February — would love @the-downballot.com to set me straight if I'm wrong!
November 22, 2025 at 2:30 AM
If I'm reading Georgia's election code correctly, a special election date would be set within 10 days of MTG's resignation, and the election would be held within a month of that announcement. So probably sometime in February — would love @the-downballot.com to set me straight if I'm wrong!
Reposted by Charlie Hunt
“a member of the DSA steering committee came up to me, big DSA member, strong DSA member, tears pouring from his eyes down onto his bright yellow zohran tote bag, and he said to me, he said, sir, labor is the source of all value. and i said, its so true. solidarity, comrade”
November 21, 2025 at 9:25 PM
“a member of the DSA steering committee came up to me, big DSA member, strong DSA member, tears pouring from his eyes down onto his bright yellow zohran tote bag, and he said to me, he said, sir, labor is the source of all value. and i said, its so true. solidarity, comrade”
A total joy to see my @slate.com Political Gabfest pals (who are not literally my pals but I feel like they are after over a decade in my ears) on video for the first time! (@jdickerson.bsky.social @davidplotz.bsky.social)
Is the Department of Justice Collapsing Under Corruption? | Slate Political Gabfest
YouTube video by Slate
www.youtube.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:38 PM
A total joy to see my @slate.com Political Gabfest pals (who are not literally my pals but I feel like they are after over a decade in my ears) on video for the first time! (@jdickerson.bsky.social @davidplotz.bsky.social)
In case you were wondering what YouTube recommends first when you turn off your watch history/subscriptions and start from scratch
November 19, 2025 at 10:24 PM
In case you were wondering what YouTube recommends first when you turn off your watch history/subscriptions and start from scratch
Let's go let's go let's go
Project Hail Mary is one of my favorite books of the last decade. The movie looks incredible.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VYs...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VYs...
Project Hail Mary | Official Trailer 2
YouTube video by Amazon MGM Studios
www.youtube.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Let's go let's go let's go
Reposted by Charlie Hunt
mr president sir theres a story coming about how you intervened to help a sex criminal. no sir, not that sex criminal you helped….no not that one either…sir, please stop guessing sex criminals that you helped. ill give you a hint sir, hes a trafficker. no sir, not that trafficker a different one
NEW: When Andrew Tate landed in the US, Customs & Border Protection seized his electronic devices. But @propublica.org found that a White House official told DHS to return the devices, emphasizing that the request came from the White House.
By @robert-faturechi.bsky.social & Avi Asher-Schapiro
By @robert-faturechi.bsky.social & Avi Asher-Schapiro
The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation
Federal authorities were chided for seizing electronic devices from Tate and his brother, and told to return them, records and interviews show. Experts said the intervention was highly inappropriate.
www.propublica.org
November 18, 2025 at 1:10 PM
mr president sir theres a story coming about how you intervened to help a sex criminal. no sir, not that sex criminal you helped….no not that one either…sir, please stop guessing sex criminals that you helped. ill give you a hint sir, hes a trafficker. no sir, not that trafficker a different one
If you need a break from, you know *gestures wildly*, I wrote about the Edmund Fitzgerald because I felt like it.
When the gales of November came early
The enduring musical tribute to the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on the 50th anniversary of its wreck
youarehere.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:50 PM
If you need a break from, you know *gestures wildly*, I wrote about the Edmund Fitzgerald because I felt like it.
I don't have a lot of (read: any) sympathy for congressional Republicans on this (or any) issue, but how annoying must it be to just be jerked around by the White House like this, to have to go back and pretend like you thought it was a great idea all along after first having to pretend it wasn't.
November 18, 2025 at 3:45 PM
I don't have a lot of (read: any) sympathy for congressional Republicans on this (or any) issue, but how annoying must it be to just be jerked around by the White House like this, to have to go back and pretend like you thought it was a great idea all along after first having to pretend it wasn't.
"So really it's a game of both luck and strategy, and the object (as you may have guessed, your Holiness) is to accumulate cones"
November 16, 2025 at 3:48 PM
"So really it's a game of both luck and strategy, and the object (as you may have guessed, your Holiness) is to accumulate cones"
The number of things this skeet could apply to is astronomical
This is some goofy shit, what the fuck
November 13, 2025 at 3:45 AM
The number of things this skeet could apply to is astronomical
“Somehow, Woody returned.”
November 12, 2025 at 11:00 PM
“Somehow, Woody returned.”
I know it's a boring observation at this point, but it just deserves a mention that Republicans are losing their minds over a map that gives Democrats just 25% of the state's delegation (instead of 0%) in a state in which Kamala Harris won 38% of the vote.
Utah Democrats are getting something they haven't had in a very, very, very long time: a safely Democratic U.S. House seat to run for.
Morning Digest: Utah's new congressional map guarantees a Democratic pickup
And that means a Republican will have to walk the plank—but which one?
www.the-downballot.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:53 PM
I know it's a boring observation at this point, but it just deserves a mention that Republicans are losing their minds over a map that gives Democrats just 25% of the state's delegation (instead of 0%) in a state in which Kamala Harris won 38% of the vote.
Reposted by Charlie Hunt
Adelita Grijalva is finally getting sworn into the House today. Her 50-day stint as a congressperson-elect is by far the longest this century.
November 12, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Adelita Grijalva is finally getting sworn into the House today. Her 50-day stint as a congressperson-elect is by far the longest this century.
Reposted by Charlie Hunt
Bluesky rn
November 5, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Bluesky rn
Reposted by Charlie Hunt
"Unwilling to assert itself as an equal branch of government," Congress has been "content to hand over many of its core constitutional powers to the executive branch...Yet Congress’ path to irrelevance...did not begin during the shutdown" writes @charlesrhunt.com theconversation.com/the-shutdown...
The shutdown – and the House’s inaction – helps pave Congress’ path to irrelevance
With major shutdown impacts beginning to set in, a scholar of Congress says the House has all but abdicated its position as ‘The People’s Chamber.’
theconversation.com
November 2, 2025 at 3:51 PM
"Unwilling to assert itself as an equal branch of government," Congress has been "content to hand over many of its core constitutional powers to the executive branch...Yet Congress’ path to irrelevance...did not begin during the shutdown" writes @charlesrhunt.com theconversation.com/the-shutdown...
Reposted by Charlie Hunt
I use Claude (an AI) to scan my posts for spelling and grammar errors. On the most recent post (about the East Wing, link below), I got a really amazing addendum.
www.pbump.net/o/yes-most-a...
www.pbump.net/o/yes-most-a...
October 30, 2025 at 3:03 PM
I use Claude (an AI) to scan my posts for spelling and grammar errors. On the most recent post (about the East Wing, link below), I got a really amazing addendum.
www.pbump.net/o/yes-most-a...
www.pbump.net/o/yes-most-a...
Reposted by Charlie Hunt
Has anyone actually written something on the apparently inability of the reactionary mind to grasp the basic themes and even overt text of Tolkien?
Like at some point Gandalf turns directly to camera and says “the Men of Gondor sure are insufficient to this task, we need the hobbits to do it”
Like at some point Gandalf turns directly to camera and says “the Men of Gondor sure are insufficient to this task, we need the hobbits to do it”
this is an overtly fascist narrative - even the misreading of myth & literature is on brand
October 29, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Has anyone actually written something on the apparently inability of the reactionary mind to grasp the basic themes and even overt text of Tolkien?
Like at some point Gandalf turns directly to camera and says “the Men of Gondor sure are insufficient to this task, we need the hobbits to do it”
Like at some point Gandalf turns directly to camera and says “the Men of Gondor sure are insufficient to this task, we need the hobbits to do it”
Man where my muddle buds at
vance answers the question of what if you made a moblin the vice president
October 29, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Man where my muddle buds at