Zeb Larson

Strange, but let's be real, a very familiar form of tail-eating.

Give something “PhD-level intelligence” and this is what you get

Yeah, something had actually happened. Most Americans are actually savvy enough to see that nothing has been happening with Iran lately.

Our newest episode, and a really good one.

It’s been hilarious watching people like Sean Duffy nostalgize the 1970s and now we’ll have a chance to experience what it was really like: energy crises and economic stagnation.

Had a chilled Vietnamese sitting in my fridge this morning for when I came down with kiddo, then made myself a latte a couple of hours later.

I wrote something

If the question or concern is that we don’t have mass protests like we did in 2003, we also don’t have boots on the ground yet. That I think is the dividing line.

Yeah, certainly it highlights that they don’t need public approval to start — but they never did. This is incredibly reckless on their part and you can dissect why they don’t give a shit (or completely misunderstand) but re: the public, even a quarter of Republicans disapprove.

During the actual Cold War the idea of integrating computers into decision making was seen as kind of terrifying? People did it, but with a healthy dose of trepidation and awareness that surrendering control was too dangerous.

But if the computer kisses your ass enough, that’s all it takes.

It Wasn't Fascism All Along Conservatism was a distinct ideology but it is dead and it is not coming back.

"Mainline conservatism is dying. In the US and UK at least, it is dead.This has been destabilizing to be sure, but let us not waste too much sympathy on it. It caused many harms and ignored many more. We should not fight for a creed that could not fight for itself."

Democrats may not be able to prevent Mullin's confirmation, but they can certainly turn his track record of offense and stupidity into two days of televised humiliation so spectacular that he is wounded in Trump's eyes from day 1. That is the job.

I hope you’re wrong because if the cult of collegiality still stands after all of this we’re in trouble

The opinion that got me the greatest hostility in my early 20s was being “meh” on Firefly. It was fine? But I had so many other things I actually liked, and it very much benefitted from most of my peers still not really being plugged into HBO.

GOD DAMMIT, I didn't want to say out loud that I was fearing this possibility. The only things Indiana is ever first at is the worst possible things.

He’s gotta be so grateful for Platner taking some heat off of him. Or maybe not, I have no idea any more what animates him.

31 minutes ago Megan Mineiro Senator John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has repeatedly broken with his party on key votes, said he would vote to confirm Mullin. He said it was a "good thing" that Noem was out of the job, and called Mullin a "nice upgrade."

Lurch is desperate to make sure that every Democrat still hates his fucking guts.

She makes a hell of a sacrificial lamb. Unpopular, clearly incompetent. Easy to throw to the wolves and hope to blunt some criticism and pressure on the deportation campaign.

This is so different from 2003; the only Dem senator who supports the war is Lurch. Close to a quarter of REPUBLICANS disapprove in polls. Starting a war under these conditions is absurd; there's no political gain in it. Hunting for a rational explanation will yield nothing.

The paradoxical thing about the fact that we're fighting a war solely to create content (because it has no other coherent objectives) is that it stunningly unpopular, even among Republicans. You can't help but draw the conclusion that the White House is just a helpless consumer of its own bullshit.

@burness.bsky.social is with the excellent @boltsmag.org, who I ran a fundraiser for not too long ago.

My current fundraiser is for @51st.news - see below.

I wrote a piece on the TVA back in June, woke up early to discover the edits in my inbox...and they were mercifully easy to finish. I wrote it so long ago that it's like somebody gave me work to accept as my own, and I get paid for it.

Anyway, lovely start to the day.

I’ve said this before but it says something about King personally that he hasn’t managed any kind of political comeback, seeing as his views have now been forced into the mainstream

Ngl the rabbit hole I've gone down searching for "tantric clown" feels risky in and of itself

But imagine the chaotic possibilities post-divorce, friend

Hard same, I know it's a marketing gimmick (I hope like most marketing gimmicks all this booktok shit evaporates in the cleansing light of day) but the "tropes checklist" is one of the worst things to happen to the public's relationship to books, every time I see it I feel the call of violence

In fairness that's been my response any time anybody has ever vomited on me, because like you say, what else do you do?

Were you ok?

Jesse singal literally wrote a whole article about an imaginary me and then asked people to be furious at his fantasy version of me.

Spot on.