David Dayen
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ddayen.bsky.social
David Dayen
@ddayen.bsky.social
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Executive editor, The American Prospect. Author, Chain of Title and Monopolized. Tips at ddayen-at-prospect-dot-org or Signal at ddayen.90
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ddayen.bsky.social
Going all shutdown on our homepage right now at prospect.org. Understand what's happening, check it out!
prospect.org homepage right now
November 10, 2025 at 6:03 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
When I'm right, I'm right. From October 6:
prospect.org/2025/10/06/t...
Now that Democrats have gone down the health care path, an endgame is not hard to predict. Republicans have expressed themselves open to a “conversation” about health care, and that might evolve into an “assurance” of negotiations, but only if government funding is passed on a short-term basis to give space for those negotiations. And you can see enough Democrats deciding that this assurance is something real to take that deal. Already, three senators who caucus with Democrats—John Fetterman (D-PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Angus King (I-ME)—have supported a continuing resolution to fund the government, and Republicans only need at most five more.
November 10, 2025 at 3:22 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
Rule by deal=ad hoc agreements with domestic companies & foreign nations that benefit the president & businesses he favors. Each deal is individually negotiated, unpredictable, & unconnected. They often fall apart. The only benefit is bringing powerful men to heel. prospect.org/2025/11/10/t...
Rule by deal picks winners and losers—the exact fear that so many free-market voices wielded incorrectly at the Biden administration. In all of these deals, there is no industry-wide analysis, credit facility available to all companies in a sector, or equitable offering of investment capital. It’s also not clear what legal authority they are relying on to make direct investments. This selective approach risks trapping the government in a cycle of doubling down, investing more public money to prop up struggling, politically favored companies rather than letting them fail. Promising firms in the same sector may lose access to private funding, as investors gravitate toward firms with governmental support. WHILE RULE BY DEAL MAY BE CHAOTIC, it is effective in consolidating political power in the office of the presidency. In no domain is this more apparent than in the response of corporate leaders in the second Trump administration. The transformation from Trump’s first term is dramatic. In August 2017, after a white supremacist ran a car through a crowd in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing a 32-year-old woman, Trump declared that there were “very fine people on both sides.” Immediately, the CEOs of Merck, Intel, and Under Armour resigned from Trump’s manufacturing council. Dozens of other CEOs followed—including Disney’s Bob Iger and Tesla’s Elon Musk—in what became a mass exodus from White House advisory positions; Gary Cohn, the chair of the National Economic Council, left as well. In the wake of the January 6th, 2021, insurrection attempt, the Business Roundtable, the Chamber of Commerce, and the National Association of Manufacturers quickly condemned the administration, a rare moment of elite business leaders breaking from conservatives.
November 10, 2025 at 2:46 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
Surprisingly Sen. Warner (D-VA) is a no, splitting with Kaine after the Cave Caucus dangled the RIF prohibition.
Warner said he can't support the deal.
November 10, 2025 at 1:29 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
At least the widows of the dead Democratic Reps. will get their cash. (priorities, sigh)
November 10, 2025 at 12:04 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
The only exception to that is with respect to reductions in force (RIFs). The bill appears to both roll back RIFs announced during the shutdown and prevent any further RIFs between now and Jan 30.
RIF language 1 RIF language 2 RIF language 3
November 10, 2025 at 12:00 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
One thing from our piece on Saturday: Sen. Shaheen is leading the Senate cave caucus. She's on the appropriations committee and wants whatever little goodies she got in her appropriations bill passed into law. As we wrote:
prospect.org/2025/11/08/w...
Equally bizarre is Shaheen’s game, since she is not even running for re-election when her term expires in 2026. She is on the Appropriations Committee, and part of the weak Republican offer is to pass the appropriations bills that have gone through the committee on a bipartisan basis. Clearly, Shaheen is more concerned with getting those bills done than using important leverage to protect the signature Democratic legislative achievement of this century.
November 9, 2025 at 10:55 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
Slight update:
This is now the box score of a team in the lead.
Big Tennnnn
Wisconsin passing stats 11/8/25
November 9, 2025 at 12:08 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
This team is tied in the 3rd quarter.
The leading passer is a kicker.
wisconsin passing stats
November 9, 2025 at 12:04 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
November 8, 2025 at 9:32 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
Trying to think of a worse idea but I'm coming up short
FHFA's Bill Pulte pitches a 50-year mortgage.
November 8, 2025 at 9:28 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
Getting spicy in the neighborhood.
Signs on the utility poles in LA. FUCK Trump and how did our oil get under Venezuela
November 8, 2025 at 8:13 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
So the story goes:
1-Trump sees high beef prices
2-Decides to quadruple Argentine imports
3-Gets condemned by ranchers saying that's not the problem
4-after being dogwalked, decides to do what the Biden admin was already doing on meatpackers (there's an active lawsuit)
Trump asking DOJ to investigate meatpackers for collusion. There's already an active lawsuit over this!
November 7, 2025 at 10:02 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
Unions, outside activists like DSA, and a growing number of lawmakers are on Mamdani's side. Even the business community is winnable on his child care ideas.
Gov Hochul has an election next year and that could be a point of leverage.
prospect.org/2025/11/07/z...
State Senator John Liu said that there is “palpable enthusiasm and optimism” about Mamdani among Democratic state legislators. “Every week, more and more colleagues come on to Zohran’s side,” he said. Both houses of the state legislature have supported increasing taxes on the wealthy for the past several years, a fact that progressives hope to capitalize on as they pressure Hochul—to “put her on an island of one in Albany,” said Rebecca Garrard, co-executive director at the activist organization Citizen Action of New York.
November 7, 2025 at 2:47 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
The Progressive Caucus just endorsed her opponent, Randy Villegas. Working Families Party is a big supporter of his as well.
Washington — Today, the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC (CPC PAC) announced it has endorsed school board trustee & educator Randy Villegas in the March 6th primary election for California's 22nd Congressional District. “Randy Villegas believes every family in the Central Valley deserves a fair shot, but for too long those elected to lead have put their corporate donors ahead of the needs of the community. Randy is running to change that and finally bring the voices of his neighbors to the halls of Congress,” said CPC PAC Co-Chairs Pramila Jayapal and Maxwell Frost. “As an educator and small business owner, Randy understands that a bold economic agenda that puts working families first is our most critical priority and we could not be more thrilled to endorse his campaign.” "The Congressional Progressive Caucus is at the forefront of fighting on behalf of the American people for the deal we deserve and I'm thrilled to have their endorsement," said Randy Villegas. "Working families like mine in the Central Valley and across the country know we need bold leadership to meet this moment, and that's exactly what our campaign is all about."
November 6, 2025 at 9:02 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
Great story here of a determined citizen deciding to serve as a substitute for a government that's disinterested in protecting the public.
prospect.org/2025/11/06/t...
November 6, 2025 at 3:36 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
Literally quoting Mario Cuomo
Showed up at the funeral to make sure he's dead meme
November 5, 2025 at 4:40 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
Not the greatest screengrab but here
cuomo headshot
November 5, 2025 at 4:16 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
Pure 🔥
Sliwa is right—these guys are chumps. Ackman et al. certainly could have had a much greater effect if they had spent their money more strategically and thoughtfully. They’d have started much earlier, rounded up a candidate who was far less damaged than Cuomo, and drawn up a campaign message that wasn’t tremendously unpopular among the New York electorate. (Pro tip for Ackman and company: Next time, you can consult a “poll” to see what people think about things. They aren’t perfect, but it’s important data.) What we see, I think, are a bunch of rich guys who have been comically out of touch with normal people for many decades, and more recently have blowtorched their brains into a smoking pile of ash on Elon Musk’s Twitter/X and in various group chats. It’s why they got so worked up about Mamdani in the first place—the New York City mayoralty is not some omnipotent office, and there are a dozen ways to hem it in at the state and local level if they so wished. What these oligarchs spent to stop Mamdani feels like less on an annual basis than he wants them to pay for a better future for all New Yorkers, a joke Mamdani himself has made.
November 5, 2025 at 2:51 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
...
DNC Chair Congratulates Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani on Win Tonight, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, handily won his election, sending another clear sign that Democrats are winning across the map when focusing on issues of affordability. In response to Zohran Mamdani’s win, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement: “Mayor-elect Mamdani ran an impressive campaign, laser-focused on what matters most to working families in New York: lowering costs, expanding access to affordable child care, and making it easier for families to make ends meet. His campaign galvanized and energized voters across New York City and met those voters where they live. Mayor-elect Mamdani’s campaign illustrated the power of a big-tent party that focuses relentlessly on lifting up all working people.” Heading into tonight, Democrats had won or overperformed in 46 out of 47 key elections this year. Democrats will enter 2026 with strong momentum heading into the midterms, as the DNC continues to invest in organizing and building power across the country.
November 5, 2025 at 2:47 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
Shot, chaser
Ackman writes he'll be an optimist and Cuomo will win and the next tweet is Decision Desk calling it for Mamdani.
November 5, 2025 at 2:16 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
Wow.
November 5, 2025 at 1:32 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
Exit poll result of the night:
9% of voters finding Jay Jones' texts disqualifying voted for Jay Jones.
Jay Jones exit polls on his texts
November 5, 2025 at 1:14 AM
ddayen.bsky.social
I like when the real information in a story comes in the final paragraph. Ohio Democrats threatened a referendum to block any new map for '26. That backed Republicans off to this minor tweak. Hardball, it works!
By passing the map through the commission instead of through the state Legislature, Republicans avoid navigating a potential referendum that could have kept the current maps in place for the midterms. But by striking the deal, the GOP will not be able to draw their most aggressive map that could have more easily net three red-leaning seats.
October 30, 2025 at 3:58 PM
ddayen.bsky.social
When I say "presumptively illegal" I mean it literally: the 2023 merger guidelines set markers for structural presumptions, and a WB-Paramount tie-up would breach them.
California AG Rob Bonta, up for re-election next year, has constituents who want him to stand up. prospect.org/2025/10/30/f...
Under the Clayton Act and their interpretation in new merger guidelines written in 2023 by President Biden’s antitrust enforcers, a merger between Paramount and WBD would trigger several structural presumptions of illegality, with respect to both movie studios (the combined company would have more than 30 percent of the market) and televised news. Those 2023 merger guidelines are still in place, and importantly, state attorneys general can use them and the relevant federal laws to block the merger. Maybe state enforcers won’t want to prejudge the case, but others have already stepped forward. The Writers Guild of America, whose members are on the front lines of this potential sale, called a WBD tie-up with Paramount or any other studio or streaming service “a disaster for writers, for consumers, and for competition” and said their members would “work with regulators to block the merger.” I doubt that they’re referring to the Trump administration.
October 30, 2025 at 1:53 PM