Pinned
Charles Attend
@cmerlin.bsky.social
· Jul 19
The future of Red America: stuck in near indentured service, you can't pay for the treatment to cure your daughter but manage to scrunge up just enough to take her to the closest privately run national Park for a final hurrah. Tears roll down your face as you say you're so lucky to be an American.
Reposted by Charles Attend
You have to understand what pieces like this from the NYT are and are not.
They are not an honest assessment of the state of politics today.
They are a negotiation tactic—an effort by a calcified, right-leaning legacy institution to steer the discourse in a direction more palatable to elites.
They are not an honest assessment of the state of politics today.
They are a negotiation tactic—an effort by a calcified, right-leaning legacy institution to steer the discourse in a direction more palatable to elites.
November 11, 2025 at 8:17 PM
You have to understand what pieces like this from the NYT are and are not.
They are not an honest assessment of the state of politics today.
They are a negotiation tactic—an effort by a calcified, right-leaning legacy institution to steer the discourse in a direction more palatable to elites.
They are not an honest assessment of the state of politics today.
They are a negotiation tactic—an effort by a calcified, right-leaning legacy institution to steer the discourse in a direction more palatable to elites.
Reposted by Charles Attend
When will people stop being angry? Two years after prices went up? Five? Twenty?
It's not this. This was a plausible explanation a few years ago but 2021 prices are a distant memory.
It's just a thing everyone says now. "No one can afford anything!" Learned through constant social reinforcement.
It's not this. This was a plausible explanation a few years ago but 2021 prices are a distant memory.
It's just a thing everyone says now. "No one can afford anything!" Learned through constant social reinforcement.
Ok but people are angry because the prices didn’t go back down (deflation is bad, obviously that’s not feasible). The fact remains that the prices shot up and stayed there.
November 11, 2025 at 7:31 PM
When will people stop being angry? Two years after prices went up? Five? Twenty?
It's not this. This was a plausible explanation a few years ago but 2021 prices are a distant memory.
It's just a thing everyone says now. "No one can afford anything!" Learned through constant social reinforcement.
It's not this. This was a plausible explanation a few years ago but 2021 prices are a distant memory.
It's just a thing everyone says now. "No one can afford anything!" Learned through constant social reinforcement.
You can immediately see why the UK is in deep deep ideological and political trouble.
November 11, 2025 at 6:20 PM
You can immediately see why the UK is in deep deep ideological and political trouble.
Idiocracy was right except for the classist reason it gave: it wasn't the working poor who were the idiots but the billionaires.
November 11, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Idiocracy was right except for the classist reason it gave: it wasn't the working poor who were the idiots but the billionaires.
Tim Kaine: "I'm voting for a budget that makes health insurance unaffordable to show Americans I'm the one for affordable insurance."
Kaine on why he thinks just getting a vote on healthcare is a win: "We're the minority party, but everybody will get to see who is standing for them when it comes to lowering their healthcare costs"
November 11, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Tim Kaine: "I'm voting for a budget that makes health insurance unaffordable to show Americans I'm the one for affordable insurance."
If only legacy media took even a 1% interest into stories like these instead of all hallway gossip.
My premium for my absolute dog shit policy is going from $180/mo to $1100/mo. 😳
November 11, 2025 at 5:41 PM
If only legacy media took even a 1% interest into stories like these instead of all hallway gossip.
I don't think trump worries about the Supreme Court. The tariffs aren't coming off, he'll just invoke some other bullshit reason.
He wants to send a check to Americans with his name on it, before the midterms. Dems let him last time and it almost worked.
He wants to send a check to Americans with his name on it, before the midterms. Dems let him last time and it almost worked.
Hassett's invocation of the Laffer Curve should be your tipoff that this is ALL bullshit.
The best possible explanation for the $2000 tariff rebate idea is that Trump is trying to prep the political ground for losing at SCOTUS, ginning up backlash to his PROMISE to pay back the tariffs.
The best possible explanation for the $2000 tariff rebate idea is that Trump is trying to prep the political ground for losing at SCOTUS, ginning up backlash to his PROMISE to pay back the tariffs.
QUINTANILLA: What's more likely -- a $2,000 tariff rebate check or a 50 year mortgage?
HASSETT: They're both really good ideas
HASSETT: They're both really good ideas
November 11, 2025 at 5:39 PM
I don't think trump worries about the Supreme Court. The tariffs aren't coming off, he'll just invoke some other bullshit reason.
He wants to send a check to Americans with his name on it, before the midterms. Dems let him last time and it almost worked.
He wants to send a check to Americans with his name on it, before the midterms. Dems let him last time and it almost worked.
Trump to veterans: you defended the country that we're now dismantling.
Trump: "Director Russ Vought -- what a good job he's doing cutting cutting cutting."
November 11, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Trump to veterans: you defended the country that we're now dismantling.
Reposted by Charles Attend
Sure, but it’s worse in Britain rather than better: in America, they historically had Fox News and a newspaper or two as the crackpot media outlets. In Britain, almost every media outlet is a bit Fox News and when there’s a new bullshit outrage, all of them have run with it.
November 11, 2025 at 7:05 AM
Sure, but it’s worse in Britain rather than better: in America, they historically had Fox News and a newspaper or two as the crackpot media outlets. In Britain, almost every media outlet is a bit Fox News and when there’s a new bullshit outrage, all of them have run with it.
You can't buy a house, health insurance, or college. FDT.
THE MEDIAN AGE OF A U.S. HOME BUYER NOW SITS AT A RECORD HIGH OF 61 YEARS, PER NAR.
November 11, 2025 at 4:13 PM
You can't buy a house, health insurance, or college. FDT.
Reposted by Charles Attend
A 1-year-old girl was pepper-sprayed through the window of a moving vehicle by ICE agents in Chicago. She was briefly hospitalized.
The dad said a masked agent pointed pepper-spray at a Sam's parking lot when they were hit.
#ProudBlue
Video Credit: NowThisImpact/IG
The dad said a masked agent pointed pepper-spray at a Sam's parking lot when they were hit.
#ProudBlue
Video Credit: NowThisImpact/IG
November 11, 2025 at 2:34 PM
A 1-year-old girl was pepper-sprayed through the window of a moving vehicle by ICE agents in Chicago. She was briefly hospitalized.
The dad said a masked agent pointed pepper-spray at a Sam's parking lot when they were hit.
#ProudBlue
Video Credit: NowThisImpact/IG
The dad said a masked agent pointed pepper-spray at a Sam's parking lot when they were hit.
#ProudBlue
Video Credit: NowThisImpact/IG
Reposted by Charles Attend
I wonder if the United States can learn anything from the last time a major industrialized country decided to isolate itself from the rest of the world?
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
November 11, 2025 at 3:35 PM
I wonder if the United States can learn anything from the last time a major industrialized country decided to isolate itself from the rest of the world?
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
Then resign and go home. Make room for someone who will.
John Fetterman: "Now, I have lost the taste to fight."
November 11, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Then resign and go home. Make room for someone who will.
Reposted by Charles Attend
Here are the at least 6 House Democrats, 3 Democratic-aligned organizations, and 4 Democratic Senate candidates calling for Chuck Schumer to resign as leader:
November 11, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Here are the at least 6 House Democrats, 3 Democratic-aligned organizations, and 4 Democratic Senate candidates calling for Chuck Schumer to resign as leader:
I can't wait for Obama's politically motivated arrest to crack page A12 of the @nytimes.com.
It is mass resignation time at DOJ. It is a corrupt organization now. Do not be complicit!
November 11, 2025 at 2:15 PM
I can't wait for Obama's politically motivated arrest to crack page A12 of the @nytimes.com.
Why does the media keep running these headlines?
Occam's razor: because they like him and want to help him.
Occam's razor: because they like him and want to help him.
This entire article points out that there is no plan. His own Treasury Secretary says he doesn’t know anything about it. So why does media keep running these kind of headlines? He keeps making these Truth Social posts and media keeps running stories as if it is something real.
November 11, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Why does the media keep running these headlines?
Occam's razor: because they like him and want to help him.
Occam's razor: because they like him and want to help him.
Kids::6-7
Geezers::alpha
Geezers::alpha
A subtle one that's easy to miss, but the fact that Andreesen and Musk both use "alpha" as slang for "information advantage" is a clear tell that their mental world is finance, not technology. They try to talk otherwise but they are investors not inventors.
*maximum alpha at 1.25x speed* continuously lives on in my head, unfortunately.
November 11, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Kids::6-7
Geezers::alpha
Geezers::alpha
But at least Americans won't be able to offer health insurance.
November 11, 2025 at 11:02 AM
But at least Americans won't be able to offer health insurance.
Our science genius, so smart we have to give him our democracy, discovers the meaning of a high school math definition.
Still no sign he understands the graph intuition behind it.
Still no sign he understands the graph intuition behind it.
November 11, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Our science genius, so smart we have to give him our democracy, discovers the meaning of a high school math definition.
Still no sign he understands the graph intuition behind it.
Still no sign he understands the graph intuition behind it.
Yes the 7 Dem traitors have negotiated a massive and awful reform to the ACA.
Dismantling ACA isn’t about punishing insurance cos. The subsidies Dems were haggling for are tax credits. That’s our money. Not theirs. They’re talking about health savings as pre-tax dollars like your 401k. This is deregulation. Letting insurance cos resume denying coverage and selling junk plans.
November 11, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Yes the 7 Dem traitors have negotiated a massive and awful reform to the ACA.
Business activity downtown Chicago has fallen down by double digits since Trump sent the goon squads.
His solution is to send more goon squads.
His solution is to send more goon squads.
Call in the troops to solve the commercial real estate crisis in our swanky downtown cores
You can’t make this shit up, folks
You can’t make this shit up, folks
November 11, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Business activity downtown Chicago has fallen down by double digits since Trump sent the goon squads.
His solution is to send more goon squads.
His solution is to send more goon squads.
Ukraine's electric grid has been struggling to recover from Russian attacks for days.
Last night, Russia sent over 100 drones.
US media has lost interest since Trump told them WONTFIX.
Last night, Russia sent over 100 drones.
US media has lost interest since Trump told them WONTFIX.
Darkness of war.
AFP’s Ivan Samoilov photographs a school bus driving down a street without lighting in Kharkiv on November 10, 2025, following recent Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine
AFP’s Ivan Samoilov photographs a school bus driving down a street without lighting in Kharkiv on November 10, 2025, following recent Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine
November 11, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Ukraine's electric grid has been struggling to recover from Russian attacks for days.
Last night, Russia sent over 100 drones.
US media has lost interest since Trump told them WONTFIX.
Last night, Russia sent over 100 drones.
US media has lost interest since Trump told them WONTFIX.
Reposted by Charles Attend
The Americans are coming.
President Donald Trump's administration may have steered clear of this year's UN climate summit in the Brazilian Amazon, but the conference's second day on Tuesday is nonetheless set to be dominated by the governors of California and New Mexico
u.afp.com/Snq2
President Donald Trump's administration may have steered clear of this year's UN climate summit in the Brazilian Amazon, but the conference's second day on Tuesday is nonetheless set to be dominated by the governors of California and New Mexico
u.afp.com/Snq2
November 11, 2025 at 8:27 AM
The Americans are coming.
President Donald Trump's administration may have steered clear of this year's UN climate summit in the Brazilian Amazon, but the conference's second day on Tuesday is nonetheless set to be dominated by the governors of California and New Mexico
u.afp.com/Snq2
President Donald Trump's administration may have steered clear of this year's UN climate summit in the Brazilian Amazon, but the conference's second day on Tuesday is nonetheless set to be dominated by the governors of California and New Mexico
u.afp.com/Snq2
Reposted by Charles Attend
So we make a deal that allows several Republican senators in key states to vote for ACA subsidies next month and get political cover back home, but not enough to pass it. Sounds great.
November 11, 2025 at 2:47 AM
So we make a deal that allows several Republican senators in key states to vote for ACA subsidies next month and get political cover back home, but not enough to pass it. Sounds great.