thatpatchwork.com, the one newsletter on political decentralization. words in wsj, wapo.
Joined September 2019
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May 18
NEW from me: I wrote about the Austin housing miracle and how supply only explains part of the huge drop the city has seen in rents. The neglected part of the story is that demand plummeted at a time when developers were banking on the opposite.
thatpatchwork.com/p/the-aust…
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The line from Teddy Roosevelt “America” cultural nationalism to this is a straight line.
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The best thing Trump can do is sully the dignity of an office that's gotten out of control for the last century-plus. Strip the presidency of its cultural influence and the best we can hope for is that it has the downstream effect of weakening its legal power.
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The conscious decision of a cable news network to invest in a segment that sensationally pours over polling data in an effort to scrape a fraction of the audience it does for election night coverage but year-round.
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The spectacle the media ecosystem has turned the presidency into, starting at least with Teddy Roosevelt, unsurprisingly set the groundwork for attracting a candidate for president that knows nothing except grotesque spectacle. No wonder.
Jun 15
“Michelle Obama is a man” shouted on the White House lawn in a ring sponsored by Bud Light only available on Larry Ellison’s Paramount Plus. What a way to celebrate America 250 and the twilight of liberal democracy.
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Jun 14
My response to this is that we should absolutely 100% burn the White House down.
Jun 13
"The UFC event captures something about this moment in our history.
After all, it’s vulgar, it’s violent, it’s commercial, it’s grandiose, it’s tacky, and it dishonors a place once thought worthy of care and respect. In other words, it’s Donald Trump."
open.substack.com/pub/thebul…
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Jun 14
While they’re here for the World Cup, if the British want to burn the White House down again, please by all means. We’re sick of the president, the faux outrage and the aggrandizement of national and federal symbols.
Jun 14
The thing that makes this particular picture so funny and so Trumpian is that that isn't even the White House. It's a giant fake facade of the White House they put up to block the view of the arena that they erected in front of the actual White House.
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Jun 14
Europeans ogling at the charm of American single-family, car-centric suburban neighborhoods, towns and cities has to be devastating for the YIMBYs.
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Jun 14
Wait until the Europeans discover Cheesecake Factory — and learn that all the savory items are made from scratch in-house.
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Jun 14
It's such a banal observation at this point but if Elon Musk were a Democrat there'd be very little newsroom interest in how he used his wealth just as there was in the fact that Kamala Harris earned the backing of more billionaires than her opponent.
forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2…
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robert retweeted
Jun 13
It’s strange to see this genre of post coming from people who routinely defend politicians.
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Jun 13
Fact check: True.
Jun 11
Tucker Carlson called Lebanon “probably the most beautiful country in the world”.
A man of class and good taste.
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Jun 12
This might be correct in theory, but in practice what Pete is suggesting is highly partisan institutional arson.
The "moderate Democrats" are often institutional arsonists. They openly discuss bulldozing as many mediating federal institutions as possible for the sake of policy.
Buttigieg: Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that there have to be nine Supreme Court justices. That one doesn't even take a constitutional amendment. It just takes a readiness to set up a court that fits this country.
We could have 13 seats matching the district structure of the federal judiciary, but also a process that makes it less partisan. We cannot have partisan warfare every time there's an opening on the court
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Jun 11
If a group of terrorists killed 1% of the Israel population we'd hear non-stop rhetoric likening that to a genocide.
Jun 11
This is my favorite argument.
In Hiroshima, roughly 140k people died due to the nuclear bomb out of 350k. That’s 40% of the city.
In Nagasaki, 80k people died out of 263k. That’s 30% of the city.
In Gaza, 73k people have died (according to GHM) out of 2.3 million. That’s about 3% of the population. A substantial percentage of that are terrorists.
So Israel has dropped an amount of bombs on Gaza that exceeds the power of the nuclear bombs we dropped on Japan and yet the death toll is far lower both proportionally and on a raw numbers basis.
How is that possible if Israel is committing genocide? Maybe it’s because they’re not.
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Jun 11
The hardest 180-degree on ethical acceptability, for what? A shot at passing an illegal federal law to tax unrealized capital gains?
Jun 11
The Israelis, Joan Walsh, Joe Walsh, Jonathan Turley, and David Remnick are all calling Platner a Nazi and he stomped it in the primary. Just crushed it.
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Jun 11
As a Biden stan this hurt but here's the post-war presidents ranked:
Clinton
Carter
Obama
HW Bush
Reagan
Eisenhower
Kennedy
Truman
Ford
Nixon
Biden
Johnson
W Bush
Trump
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Jun 11
6 seats is the likeliest plausible maximum for Senate Dems to pick (NC, ME, OH, TX, AK, IA) = 53 seats
1 = 54 if Osborn wins in NE and caucuses with Dems
1 in 2028 = 55 if Dems flip WI.
So 55 likeliest ceiling for Dems through 2020s (absent Senate-packing).
Jun 11
NEW Crystal Ball Senate Rating Changes
Alaska Leans R to Toss-up
NC Toss-up to Leans D
Ohio Leans R to Toss-up
GOP still favored because they only need one of the four Toss-ups, while Ds need all four
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Jun 11
If so, we've had way far fewer scandalous elected officials than we claim.
Jun 11
If nobody actually cares about a “scandal” and it doesn’t change any votes, is it actually scandalous?
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Jun 11
Apparently, only one team has ever come back from 3-1 deficit in the finals to win the championship and it was the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.
OG ANUNOBY WITH THE PUTBACK.
KNICKS COMPLETE THE 29-PT COMEBACK FOR THE WIN.
LARGEST COMEBACK IN NBA FINALS HISTORY 🤯
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Jun 10
Is there any reason for anyone to believe this will be anything closer than a 60-38 election?
Jun 10
Conservative commentator @SteveHiltonx is headed to California’s gubernatorial general election, facing off against @XavierBecerra, former President Joe Biden’s health and human services secretary.
MORE: trib.al/AWlEysr
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