Two things can be true.
Alexandria, VA
Joined February 2009
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My rules for staying sane on Twitter:
1) Block accounts who are jerks to you OR others in their mentions
2) Be polite (not a jerk!) to people in their mentions even when disagreeing
3) Try to follow people who have thoughtful/distinct takes, but also arnt jerks
Argentinian claims about Falklands depend on interpretation of the order of things 200-400 years ago. The thing is. Even if one concedes, which I don't. I dont really care. Self determination is a much more important principle
Democrats have not won a Kansas Senate seat since 1932. Ninety four years. For that reason, I just still have time believing its in play, but of course, it is. Things change slowly, and then all at once, so who knows.
CRYSTAL BALL: Final 2026 ratings
SENATE: 53 at least Leans D, 47 at least Leans R (D+6)
GOVERNORS: 28 at least Leans D, 22 at least Leans R (D+4)
HOUSE: 239 at least Leans D, 196 at least Leans R (D+24)
Details from @kkondik and me here:
centerforpolitics.org/crysta…
My nerdiest take on Voyager is if it came out five years later you could have had an online component that showed the location of the ship & supplies by episode (updating after end of episode) and would have been both a huge hit and would have constrained writers in a good way.
I was today years old when I found out who's running against Mark Warner. May be the lowest-profile candidate the GOP has run here since the days of the Solid South.
Being a mid series single season swap in AND out never turns out well for that person in popular memory. If Pulaski stayed for 6 seasons, she'd be loved.
DS9 is a better series than TNG. But TNG both defined post-TOS Trek, and IMO had more fantastic stand-alone episodes... and I really miss those types of plots about existential questions and the nature of humanity.
I mostly just think the polling industry is broken because of both a very high no response rate - and a separate but related partisan difference in responding.
Maybe Tuesday will be very different, but I expect there to be a bunch of Ann Selzers on Wednesday morning.
🚨 WaPo/Schar Poll
Kansas, Senate
🔵Adam Hamilton 52%
🔴Roger Marshall 43%
802 LVs| 10/22-10/26
MOE +/- 3.9%
washingtonpost.com/tablet/20…
The reason why Matt makes money and a lot of other writers make less, is because most writers are either a) not producing content on a given day or b) so utterly predictable I gain nothing by reading article I cant get from reading headline and byline
A spicy one for this space.
Here's why Matt Yglesias makes so much $$$.
rosselliotbarkan.com/p/why-m…
Forrest Sholars retweeted
So much of the liberal world order's crisis is simply the inability to enforce the rules. On crime, foreign influence, welfare - people at home and abroad found ways to exploit our well meaning systems for personal gain or public destruction, and we refuse to stop it
This @WSJ piece on the UK's runaway disability benefits is something else. Great color from @MaximColch & @davidluhnow
The problem with Ryan, and 90 percent of people who claim to care about the debt, is they've always priorotize other things more. You are never going to get a grand bargain on "let's do my programs and cut yours."
how many millions of manhours have been wasted because @msexcel doesn't have opposite assumption here.
A lot of people here when talking about "American culture" talk about *their version* of American Culture. But American culture has always been multifaceted. It can celebrate both the national winner, and the guy who is great at tuesday bar trivia.
“You don’t study for the spelling bee” is a deep and important aspect of American culture. I was at a baseball game discussing some young players with a buddy one time and he said to me offhandedly, “hard work is fine, but nothing beats talent.”
Americans have this sort of sense that there’s something a little off about working really hard to get good at something that you’re not naturally good at. You’re never really going to be on the same level as the guy who has a natural talent. We have room in our hearts for scrappy little guys who work hard, but we are by default suspicious of grinders and strivers.
If you were really meant to do it, then you’d be naturally good at it. You sign your kids up for little league, but you don’t take it too seriously unless they show remarkable early talent.
Yes, this sounds sort of ridiculous if you take it too literally. No, nobody is saying that there’s any kind of practical test for this or that anybody should be excluded because we found out that they secretly studied too hard.
But this is a part of American culture. And if you can’t understand it, then that just marks you out as foreign to that culture to an even greater degree.
This just isn't true. To excel at most things require both natural talent *and* practice
But the big difference today is that people know about national and state champions & measure themselves against that, so the plucky naturally talented person isn't as happy with a local win
“You don’t study for the spelling bee” is a deep and important aspect of American culture. I was at a baseball game discussing some young players with a buddy one time and he said to me offhandedly, “hard work is fine, but nothing beats talent.”
Americans have this sort of sense that there’s something a little off about working really hard to get good at something that you’re not naturally good at. You’re never really going to be on the same level as the guy who has a natural talent. We have room in our hearts for scrappy little guys who work hard, but we are by default suspicious of grinders and strivers.
If you were really meant to do it, then you’d be naturally good at it. You sign your kids up for little league, but you don’t take it too seriously unless they show remarkable early talent.
Yes, this sounds sort of ridiculous if you take it too literally. No, nobody is saying that there’s any kind of practical test for this or that anybody should be excluded because we found out that they secretly studied too hard.
But this is a part of American culture. And if you can’t understand it, then that just marks you out as foreign to that culture to an even greater degree.
When I was in 8th grade I was "naturally talented" at math. I was selected to go to MathCounts and placed well enough in County to go to state. Where I subsequently got demolished. Why? Because county was natural talent, but state was talent+ practice. I did not practice (enough)