A recurring - and tiring - set of arguments goes like this: fundamental economic concerns that affect people's daily lives and livelihoods - things like jobs, wages, cost of living, and basic economic security - matter to people a lot. So, if a political party or a candidate suffers an electoral loss, it must be because they neglected ...

In wrestling, the outcomes of “fights” are predetermined. But the physical demands and skills are very real - wrestlers need genuine strength, focus, and timing to perform convincingly. Similarly, Donald Trump’s wealth and business experience were real elements that formed the foundation of his public image, but they have been heavily ...

According to recent reports, the Trump cabinet will include both anti-TikTok and pro-TikTok people. Some Republicans are expressing absolutist, pro-ban positions but others, like Marco Rubio (who has been bashing TikTok for a while) say they will defer to Trump. Some politicians, unsurprisingly, can't resist deploying some classic para...

TikTok will probably either have to be sold to a US owner or shut down in less than two months. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/06/tiktok-sale-ban-us Governments have legitimate interests in protecting data security and addressing potential foreign influence, so it's ok to use legislative or regulatory channels with sta...

"[W]hy are people who are already free, and who are by any relative measure materially and politically better off than those in more repressive states, attacking their own systems of government?" Tom Nichols offers a punchy answer: We are unhappy because we have what we want. (This is meant to apply to those of us who live in Western d...

Mehdi Hasan just posted a viral tweet arguing that the relentless messaging from Elon Musk, especially his attacks on the media, has a significant impact on public trust and election outcomes. The claim is that people like Musk and Trump have created a self-reinforcing echo chamber around their followers: people only hear what they wan...

One observation from me about the election: People didn’t believe that “democracy was on the ballot” or that the “future of the republic was at stake”. One piece of evidence is that turnout fell in 40+ states. Sure, you can show me that voters told pollsters they "cared about democracy". But the "future of democracy" was a bi-partisan ...

## Writing and note taking - Craft. An underrated app for writing and outlining. - Bear. Now some of my longer notes live elsewhere, but Bear continues to be my repository for quick notes, and I keep happily paying for this fast & wonderful app. - Sublime Text. Especially for brief code snippets or just making ascii files. - Ulysses. -...