Democrats planning to run in November’s midterm elections have been advised not to antagonise pro-AI campaign groups that have amassed more than $300mn to fight for the industry’s priorities. The warnings by top party consultants, corroborated by people close to four different campaigns and party strategists speaking on the condition of anonymity, come despite internal polling for Democrats showing widespread public support for tougher AI rules.

They're calling it the best democracy ever.

www.ft.com/content/7529...

When a pro-democracy, pro-republic coalition takes control again in Washington, Judgment Fund reform needs to be on the agenda. Now that Trump has shown how the Fund can be used as a massive tool of corruption, there's no going back to relying on norms of restraint.

How do you blockade-run a Senate majority? You stockpile your cargo in floating storage ahead of time

The GOP doesn't have to wait for Alito to retire. They can nominate and confirm his successor right now. I've been hesitant to write this, because I think it'd be a bad development, but here we are: all about Senate nomination blockades and appointment stockpiles.

open.substack.com/pub/mattglas...

FWIW, since March, Smiley’s official mayoral email account newsletter been far more active; though whether that’s in response to criticism over storm communications or in preparation for the election campaign (or [insert third reason here]) is open to debate.

Mayor Smiley email announcing his veto of the city council rent stabilization ordinance

I’m always surprised what gets an official mayoral email and what doesn’t.

I saw a Reddit post where someone had bought a returned box and the scammer had gone through the trouble of resealing the plastic bags with the pasta inside.

John Kerry ordered a $4 Yuengling instead of a $3 Coors Light & our political media spent months tarring him as an out of touch elitist

Given Mejia's reputation as an outspoken progressive, it's notable that she'd on track to outperform the moderate Sherrill.

Still some votes left to be counted, but Mejia's final margin will likely wind up around 20 points.

That would be better than Harris (+9), Biden (+17), or Sherrill ever did in the district. Sherrill won it by 15 in #NJGov last year, 15 when she ran for reelection to the House in '24, and 19 in '22.

RESULT: Analilia Mejia is heading to Congress.

The AP has promptly called the NJ11 election for Mejia, the left-wing advocate who won a tight primary earlier this year and just easily won the general election. Mejia will replace Mikie Sherrill, who of course is now governor.

Exactly one year ago today:

What did *your* neighbors get up to today?

not only did he say this, but he went on to offer an extremely detailed description of what re-parenting means. The example he gave was a 10,000-acre organic farm in Italy where you could also work in a furniture factory.

A post about Brett Smiley's budget not raising taxes with the text "He’s not raising taxes because he’s gonna be the first Providence mayor to lose an election as an incumbent."

I understand the sentiment of this post, but the most recent example of this is Joseph Doorley getting beat by Buddy Cianci.

Oh no not the dreaded pied-à-terre tax that barely affects anyone and that was championed by noted communist Andrew Cuomo.

Happy Tax Day folks. As I pointed out here, the technical arguments about having free tax filing is over. Direct File proved it. What we are seeing now is just rent-seekers bribing policymakers to be allowed to keep extracting money from you.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/what-the-d...

Almost every city that boomed after the car grew outward, as if hit with a centrifugal force.

I wonder if newer cities that grow after the mass adoption of e-bikes will return to urban density under a countervailing, centripetal force.

Former Trump Attorney John Eastman Disbarred in California - States United Democracy Center

Lol

statesunited.org/eastman-ca-d...

Yeah, I think one of the most incredible things about the pope-off is that when previous popes have done similar things, it had to go through a translation barrier, but no nuance and no shade is lost when the American pope is being bitchy [complimentary]

Shot from a mission intro of an Age of Empires II Frederick Babarossa campaign: "This too was not enough, for pope and antipope promptly excommunicated each other."

Where we're headed:

i feel like a lesson from the economy these days is that you can just say things and then you will make money

The bottom line is that each candidate should be considered on his or her merits, and no candidate for a judgeship should be barred simply because they have served or are serving as a legislator. After all, Chief Justice John Marshall, arguably one of the greatest judges who has ever served this nation, was himself a former elected legislator before President John Adams nominated him to the US Supreme Court. Once he ascended to our nation’s highest court, he presided for decades and wrote decisions for that court that are still cited and revered as controlling precedents to this very day.

I don't have a strong opinion on the base issue (legislators becoming judges) either way but "John Marshall was appointed by a lame duck president from a party that never again held power and then rewrote the powers of the court" is not a great argument.
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/15/m...

MEDICARE FOR ALL IS A FILM STUDIO RETENTION ISSUE

The Pope should stick to sports and leave religion to the politicians.

Truly remarkable how many people have told the Pope, in some way or another, to "shut up and dribble." Or corrected him on the Bible, despite their thin education on theology. Or told him to stay out of US affairs, despite him being a US citizen. The hubris is amazing.

Agree, and I think this is one topic that should split one form of conservatism (encouraging vices is bad, people need constraints) from another (extracting wealth from the vulnerable is good)

DOGE destroyed much of our government and killed a lot of people, but on the plus side it also cost the government a ton of money

Like, there was a point in 2011-2012 where it was hard to imagine if the GOP could get much worse.

A local press personality (an old-timer) shared a photo of Obama and Boehner talking in 2011 with the wistful caption "Those days are gone forever it seems" and I feel like I'm the only one who remembers that at the time, the consensus seemed to be it was an exceptionally combative period.

Strong political parties that bend the rules to entrench their power and succumb to corruption are a consistent feature of democracy qua democracy. And if your entrenched ruling party can lose everything in a wave election, you are not living in an authoritarian state.

Nope. Nope. Nope. This post is just two false statements.