Rajan Narang
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rdnarang.bsky.social
Rajan Narang
@rdnarang.bsky.social
1.2K followers 880 following 2.5K posts
Working for a just democracy. Explaining and learning so we do better with our next opportunity. We’re mobilized and now it's time for us to organize. Personal account
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rdnarang.bsky.social
I hope someone's tracking all this private prison revenue so we know exactly how much to fine these companies and pay in reparations.
Where is business booming? The companies that are supporting ICE’s exploding immigration enforcement operation. “We’ve never seen anything like this before,” the founder of private prison company Geo Group, George Zoley, said on an earnings call yesterday. The ICE machine, by the numbers: $682 million in revenue for Geo Group in this year’s third quarter and $580 million in revenue for CoreCivic, another private prison company, in the same period. More $$: ICE paid tech company Palantir $51 million for software to help with criminal investigations and track self-deportations and visa overstays, according to an analysis of transaction history on USAspending by NOTUS’ Jackie Llanos. “We power ICE,” CEO Alex Karp boasted on the company’s earnings call this week.
November 11, 2025 at 5:00 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
We're in a battle for democracy against fascism. But we're also in a battle for democracy against crypto's attempt to purchase us wholesale, and our allies aren't necessarily the same between the two fights. It's going to be a hard slog.
Graph showing corporate donations since Citizens United in 2010, with crypto donations highlighted
November 11, 2025 at 4:55 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
Gonna need Netflix to deliver better content before they start talking this big talk!
Netflix's Ted Sarandox quipped that YouTube is in the "killing time" business, while Netflix is about "spending time"
November 10, 2025 at 11:45 PM
rdnarang.bsky.social
Strong doge weak doge meme. Gavin Newsom 2025 is the strong doge, Gavin Newsom 2022 is the weak doge
November 7, 2025 at 6:33 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
Thank you, Matt, for reminding me that Garfield (and this speech) absolutely ruled
And it did gentle the condition and elevate the heart of every worthy soldier who fought for the Union, [applause,] and he shall be our brother forevermore. Another thing we will remember: we will remember our allies who fought with us. Soon after the great struggle began, we looked behind the army of white rebels, and saw 4,000,000 of black people condemned to toil as slaves for our enemies; and we found that the hearts of these 4,000,000 were God-inspired with the spirit of Liberty, and that they were all our friends. [Applause.] We have seen the white men betray the flag and fight to kill the Union; but in all that long, dreary war we never saw a traitor in a black skin. [Great cheers.] Our comrades escaping from the starvation of prison, fleeing to our lines by the light of the North star, never feared to enter the black man's cabin and ask for bread. ["Good, good," "That's so," and loud cheers.] In all that period of suffering and danger, no Union soldier was ever betrayed by a black man or woman. [Applause.] And now that we have made them free, so long as we live we will stand by these black allies. [Renewed applause.] We will stand by them until the sun of liberty, fixed in the firmament of our Constitution, shall shine with equal ray upon every man, black or white, throughout the Union. [Cheers.] Fellow-citizens, fellow-soldiers, in this there is the beneficence of eternal justice, and by it we will stand forever. [Great applause.] A poet has said that in individual life we rise, "On stepping-stones of our dead selves to higher things," and the Republic rises on the glorious achievements of its dead and living heroes to a higher and nobler national life. [Applause.] We must stand guard over our past as soldiers, and over our country as the common heritage of all. [Applause.]
November 7, 2025 at 6:30 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
Matthew Yglesias tweets "I keep talking to Democrats who are mildly flummoxed by the fact that a shutdown strategy they undertook under duress and against their better judgment appears to be working. 😂" Mad face underneath a smile
November 7, 2025 at 5:02 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
The Yale School of Management:
Copy of the dril tweet saying “turning a big dial taht says "Racism" on it and constantly looking back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right”
November 6, 2025 at 10:33 PM
rdnarang.bsky.social
Stringer Bell glaring
November 6, 2025 at 12:12 PM
rdnarang.bsky.social
Dearest mother, landing a second Union army on the James River has worked better than McClellan ever dreamed. We have taken Richmond and its suburbs, and we push north to link with our compatriots-in-arms moving south from the Capital. Sending love to you and papa,
Map of Democratic seats and flips in the Virginia House of Delegates
November 5, 2025 at 5:39 PM
rdnarang.bsky.social
With immense sympathy, I would nonetheless point out that these were all foreseeable problems! www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Former Biden administration officials say the administration let bureaucracy, a fear of repeating past failures like Solyndra, and an unawareness of how quickly the Trump administration would undo their work derail a quick and effective rollout of climate and clean energy policy.
November 5, 2025 at 7:54 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
got pretty emotional watching this beautiful family bask in victory (to our music, no less)
Zohran Mamdani and his family at his victory rally
November 5, 2025 at 4:47 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
No, Glenn Youngkin -- Virginians didn't want your party, your underlings, and your thinly veiled prejudice.

Congratulations to Lieutenant Governor-elect @senatorhashmi.bsky.social, who reps our community with poise and courage.
Youngkin doesn't want Hashmi in the state Hashmi defeats Reid by 10.5%
November 5, 2025 at 3:58 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
Straight into my veins
From @dylanewells on Twitter: Overheard from an attendee at the Cuomo watch party, where some supporters have already left: “He’s going to speak at this? What the fuck is he going to say, I suck, I lost?”
November 5, 2025 at 3:25 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
MOOD:
November 5, 2025 at 2:53 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
With an estimated 26% of votes in, Maine is so far rejecting a Republican attack on absentee voting. An estimated 75% of the city of Portland is in so far, fueling the No vote. But as you can see, No's strong performance is not limited to urban areas
election results map of Maine
November 5, 2025 at 2:24 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
Haven't read Mitchell's book yet, I hear it's quite good, but saying that Clausewitz wishes he could have done as well is BOLD
Book review compares Wess Mitchell's newest book favorably to Clausewitz
November 4, 2025 at 9:54 PM
rdnarang.bsky.social
this is perhaps the least fergalicious man of all time
My statement regarding Governor Moore's announcement creating a mid-cycle redistricting commission in Maryland: If the goal of the commission is to hear directly from Marylanders, the Senate will participate in a process which includes in-person listening sessions in each of Maryland’s eight existing congressional districts. Marylanders’ voices remain central to this process, and these public meetings will provide an opportunity for voters to hear about the unique legal barriers in Maryland - barriers that could unintentionally give Donald Trump another one or two of Maryland's congressional seats should this effort backfire in our courts. The Senate Democratic Caucus understands that this is an unbalanced risk reward calculation. It is why there is overwhelming concern about Maryland joining the mid-cycle redistricting wars rather than focusing on tangible, immediate policies to protect our State from this lawless Trump Administration.
November 4, 2025 at 6:16 PM
rdnarang.bsky.social
A searing coda from @rtraister.bsky.social, correctly indicting Dems' tendency to lean on and coddle gerontocrats: "The short-term grab at a familiar past got us through an immediate crisis, yes, but simultaneously assured a longer-term and more corrosive defeat." nymag.com/intelligence...
Prioritizing the urgency of now over the chance to build deeper into the future is the trade-off Democrats made when they decided Biden was the only one who could beat Trump in 2020. Would one of the candidates who drew younger support have been a riskier pick in that cycle? Less safe because we have no reassurance of their past victories? Absolutely. Might Trump have won reelection then? He sure might have. Yet six years later, here we are. The short-term grab at a familiar past got us through an immediate crisis, yes, but simultaneously assured a longer-term and more corrosive defeat. A second consecutive Trump term — which then felt like the worst outcome but would have left the right less time to strategize and grow more canny in their malevolent aspirations — would perhaps have been better for the country’s future than what we have now, the bottomless catastrophe where an elderly Biden and his supporters in the Democratic Party dumped us.
November 4, 2025 at 11:06 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
Ezra Klein makes an important point here: The Democratic Party isn't running aground because of "the groups", but because of its broader political culture (which is ironically heavily influenced and sometimes steered by the people who've griped loudest about "the groups")
Since the 2024 election, there has been a lot of talk on the Democratic side about the power of the so-called groups — the progressive advocacy organizations and nonprofits that have arguably pushed Democrats to the left. I’ve used that term before, but I think it’s imprecise. The real thing we’re talking about here is what might be called the professional political classes. The groups that we’re talking about are downstream from the progressive professional political class. The people in them are the same people who staff or drive the other parts of progressive politics: One year you’re with a nonprofit, then you’re on a campaign, then you’re in the White House, then you’re back at a group. You’re followed on X or Bluesky by left-leaning journalists like me, by producers at MSNBC or breaking news reporters at Politico. It’s not a bunch of groups. It’s a professional community that exists largely online. And so that professional community’s culture and attention are governed not by its values or its goals but by the decisions of the corporations and oligarchs who own the social media platforms and design them to further their profits or their politics. The conversations pulsing across these platforms are shaped not by civic values but by whatever proves to keep people scrolling: Nuanced opinions are compressed into viral slogans; attention collects around the loudest and most controversial voices; algorithms love conflict, inspiration, outrage and anger. Everything is always turned up to 11.
November 4, 2025 at 4:02 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
Oh good; in this bureaucratic turf war, we have a possible traitor on one hand and an incompetent crooked clown on the other.

And it's no biggie! Merely a matter of who runs our counterintelligence efforts against unfriendly nations!
The FBI is fervently opposed to a House bill that would give Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard increased oversight of counterintelligence, revealing an apparent turf battle within the intelligence community under the Trump administration. The proposal would make the Office of the Director of National Intelligence the federal government’s top counterintelligence agency. The FBI has long been the country’s lead agency for counterintelligence, or the work of thwarting foreign spies and intelligence threats, and the bureau wrote a letter to Congress expressing its “strong objection” to the proposal. In the unclassified letter, the FBI said the proposed changes “would cause serious and long-lasting damage” to U.S. national security.
November 3, 2025 at 6:42 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
is it illegal to run in Slovakian cities starting next year?
Pedestrians in Slovakia will need to watch their step starting next year. On Tuesday, Slovakian lawmakers passed an amendment that will require people to move no faster than 6 kilometers (or roughly 3 miles) per hour on sidewalks in urban areas. The law, which also applies to skaters and cyclists, aims to improve traffic safety—particularly in an effort to reduce scooter collisions. The speed limit will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
November 3, 2025 at 6:26 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
Cuomo 🤝 Youngkin

Closing with thinly veiled Islamophobia
November 2, 2025 at 4:51 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
have you seen her 2023 victory video
October 30, 2025 at 2:45 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
The Los Angeles Clippers Hall of Fame has 8 inductees, who played a *total* of 19 seasons for the Clippers.

Dirk Nowitzki played 21 season for the Mavericks.
Full list of Los Angeles Clippers Hall of Famers. The 8 players listed played a total of 19 seasons for the Clippers
October 30, 2025 at 2:40 AM
rdnarang.bsky.social
If one is looking for a working definition of neoliberalism, "refusing to fulfill your own commitment to impose a wealth tax alongside your desired cuts, even at the expense of your government falling, early elections being called, and the potential victory of the far right" sums up their ethos
Withdrawing support. France’s Socialists threatened on Friday to topple Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s fragile governing coalition if the party’s budget demands are not met. “We have made an effort not to censure the prime minister, but so far we have not seen any sign of a willingness to compromise,” Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure told local media on Friday. “If there is no change by Monday, it’s all over.” Last week, Lecornu sacrificed a major economic policy by suspending President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plan until after the 2027 presidential election in order to secure a governing coalition with the Socialist Party and survive two no-confidence votes. But the Socialists’ backing came with conditions—namely, that Lecornu must include a tax on the ultra-wealthy in the budget proposal. As of now, the prime minister remains opposed to such a measure. A formal vote on the income part of the budget is scheduled for Nov. 4, but the Socialists have pledged to file a no-confidence vote early next week if Lecornu does not cave to their demands. This would be the third such motion against the French premier in less than a month and is likely to further deadlock the country’s deeply divided National Assembly.
October 26, 2025 at 3:23 PM