Casper ter Kuile

Fran Lebowitz on the billionaires: “Every time someone suggests [a wealth tax] they say I’m moving. Go! They add nothing to New York. In the 19th century, those robber barons, they employed people. All this money magic employs no one. Goodbye, go. We don’t need you”

Imagine a legal system so fucked up that the president can be both plaintiff and defendant and award himself whatever he wants. That sounds kind of like a king, doesn't it?

Insane. Just insane.

The most corrupt administration of all time. They’re using your tax dollars to reward insurrectionists.  Insanity.

I hope this isn’t true. There are times when it’s more important to put country before party. This is one of them. Burnham’s longstanding commitment to a fairer voting system could transform our democracy & counter dire threat of a Reform UK government theguardian.com/politics/2026/…

Everyone in the US took a 30% pay cut and didn't even know it.

Who has moral authority? joyfulbelonging.substack.com/p/who-has-mora…

🚨 NEW: Zohran Mamdani to permanently fund NYC libraries and parks. Libraries will no longer have to plead for funding each year.

I know someone who works at a risk management firm who told me that influence ops he'd witnessed in other countries looked something like: go after the most popular elected officials critical of XYZ, make them look hypocritical or fake among their own base, neutralize whichever elected officials voters might actually organize around. Bots, TikToks, rage-bait. The sudden social media surge behind certain presidential candidates in fall 2024 -- and their equally sudden disappearance the morning after Election Day -- is worth sitting with.

Well that’s one of the most compelling answers to that question I’ve ever heard.

The best story you'll watch all week: apparently the Italian town of Punta Marina in Ravenna has been suffering from a peacock "invasion" and residents are not amused. The editing alone is Primetime Emmy-worthy. Sound on. You can thank me later. 😎

It's really funny how debt is forgivable when it's tied to yachts, hedge funds, or failed businesses, but suddenly becomes a character flaw when it's tied to education, healthcare, or survival.

White boys who say inshallah go back go the 700s

walking in new york is more like being a car than a person: passing on the left, checking your blind spot and rear view before merging, no standing any time zones, getting to walk slower if you’re taking the scenic route, high gas prices (coffee)

@TomZohar i fucking love you hahahhahaha :)

Imagine watching Son Swap (2014) here

Q. How many fabricated assassination attempts does it take to change a lightbulb? A. Epstein files

How I Read: My slow, joyful approach to taking notes and keeping track of ideas joyfulbelonging.substack.com/p/how-i-read

I LOVE YOU OLD GAYS. THANK YOU for fighting in the 80s/90s while losing your family, friends in a nightmare world standing up for our rights!🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Today there’s still homophobia, I grew up being discriminated horribly, but y’all took the fire for us. You are our angels on earth.

He's not wrong and it's not even close.

Reporter: What do you make of Republicans saying that Virginia— AOC: Wah wah wah. We have asked Republicans for 10 years to ban partisan gerrymandering. And for 10 years, Republicans have said no. Republicans have fought for partisan gerrymanders across the United States of America. And these are the rules that they have set. And so if the Republican Party wanted to start this, they did this in North Carolina. They drew out three Democratic members of Congress in North Carolina. They did it in Texas. What they’re just mad at is that they have been accustomed to a Democratic Party that rolls over, doesn’t fight, and takes everything sitting down. And what they’re mad at right now is that we are here in a new day. And we have been asking the Democratic Party to stand up and fight, and now they did—and now the Republican Party doesn’t like the fact that they are fighting against someone who actually will stand up for the American people. So if Republicans decide that they would like to revisit a ban on partisan gerrymandering, I welcome them. We have the bill right here to end this all today. But they don’t want to, because they like pursuing and continuing to enact an unfair electoral landscape. And so we have an obligation to defend ourselves.