Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:

Everything got so stupid so quickly.

I know the “imagine if a Democrat did this” is overplayed, but if a Democratic president had given George Soros access to government personnel details and Treasury payments I’m pretty sure we’d have a literal civil war.

Sorry, Mexico and Canada, we elected a dimwitted shitheel

Thinking of starting a Bishop Budde fan club. Anybody in?

"California paid in a lot more [to the federal government] than it got back — $83 billion in total. So did Washington state and much of the Northeast. Most red states were in the reverse position, getting much more from DC than they paid in return."

States shouldn't have to earn the right to federal aid. But in any case, California, which subsidizes the rest of the country, definitely has open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Incredible precision by the helicopter crew dropping water on the LA firea 🎯

People outside of LA truly don’t understand how apocalyptic this is. It’s worse than it’s ever been. Entire residential neighborhoods are burning to the ground.

the two things I believe most strongly in this world are that public services should be wholly replaced by the private sector and that the government should intervene instantly the second I personally feel a little bit scared