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Virginia's Proposed Constitutional Amendment Here's the ballot question we are deciding today in the Old Dominion: >Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to tem...

I voted no on the Virginia redistricting amendment. I don't feel super strongly about it one way or another. Some scattered thoughts.

blog.mattglassman.net/virginias-pr...

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...

I have been shouting with only moderate degrees of coherence about this very point so you should all read @mattglassman312.bsky.social's cogent written version.

The erosion of the division between mandatory and discretionary $$ is, in short, an extremely big deal.

The Dawn of Partisan Appropriations Winners and losers in a brave new world of discretionary spending

Despite all the ways Trump has sought to aggrandize the spending power, the real institutional changes to appropriations are actually happening in Congress.

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

Transmitting tacit knowledge Nate Meyvis makes the very good point that a lot more tacit knowledge is built into everything we do, and thus prompts for Claude Code (or to another human) ...

Building off a post by @natemeyvis.bsky.social, I have a strong sense of the importance of tacit knowledge in both driving a car and playing card games, but little or no sense of the most efficient way to transmit and hard-wire such knowledge.

blog.mattglassman.net/tacit-knowle...

There is no doubt in my mind that the best writings of any U.S. President are Grant's memoirs, and his recollections of Lee's surrender in Appomattox---161 years ago today---are perhaps the best parts of those memoirs.

I thought the @DouthatNYT interview with @BenSasse was excellent. Ben touched on the problem of nut picking, and that spurred me to opine on how you should approach political discussions.

blog.mattglassman.net/ben-sasse-nu...

Iran, nuclear brinksmanship, and modern media fragmentation This very nice Nate Silver piece about Trump's nuclear brinksmanship is a must-read.[^1] The failure to factor long-shot massive negative-EV outcomes int...

A conjecture about the Trump/Iran standoff from yesterday: I'm worried the structure of 21st century media can't put a national crisis in focus:

blog.mattglassman.net/iran-nuclear...

Fair, although the landing itself was at like 4:15pm Eastern / 1:15pm Pacific, so everyone was up for that. And they stepped out onto the surface before 8pm Pacific time. Lots of young kids wide awake.

I don't mean to sound flippant---this is high stakes and very dangerous---but my honest first reaction to this was literally "this is the culmination of putting a narcissist carnival barker in charge of national security." It reads like the voiceover from low-budget reality TV.

Confusing the normal and the exceptional In an excellent interview with Arthur Brooks, Tyler Cowen suggests that our current politics is the norm, rather than the exception: I consider myself a cla...

Is our current politics an outlier or a return to normal? I’m not sure, but it is very common for all of us to observe a change from X to Y and assume Y is a deviation from normal X, rather than Y being a return to normalcy from an exceptional X.

blog.mattglassman.net/when-the-exc...

The main thing I'm surprised about here is the absence of the moon landing. Do you actually not remember or was that an oversight?

Yeah, but it was more "celebrity has AIDS" whereas my prohibition is intended to exclude "Giants win the Super Bowl."

Where were you when you found out about [X]? The nine national news events for which I can recall precisely where I was when I found out about them. Excludes sporting events, elections, court decisions,...

By my count, there are 9 national news stories--- excluding sports, elections, court decisions, and legislation passing---for which I can remember precisely where I was when I heard the news. Some thoughts:

blog.mattglassman.net/where-were-y...

Procedural and Political Notes from the Hill The SAVE Act and the DHS appropriations have more in common than you think

Procedural and political notes from a wild week in Congress. The SAVE Act and DHS Appropiations have more in common than you think.

fivepoints.mattglassman.net/p/procedural...

On the use of records/CDs as identity signals Talkin with my middle daughter---who loves music---something obvious but profound occurred to me: she doesn't have a record collection.[^1] Instead, like ...

Obvious but profound thing I've been thinking about this week: my daughter---who *loves* music---doesn't have a physical record collection. Nor does she understand the role a record collection played in the 80s.

blog.mattglassman.net/on-the-use-o...

1/ It's not just that unilaterally paying TSA agents is illegal.

It's that Trump has now repeatedly undermined the core of the congressional power of the purse. He's not spending money that has been appropriated by law (impoundments) and he's spending money that has not been appropriated.

Sportsbooks increasingly look like slot machines, DK Replay edition Back in November, I did an extended Substack post with my thoughts on sports betting. One of my points was that sports betting is increasingly looking like s...

DK Replay is just a slot machine, not sports betting, and should be regulated as such.

blog.mattglassman.net/sportsbooks-...

Incredible that 30 years ago today—March 24, 1996—was the original namesake “Michigan” hockey goal *and* the premiere of the Simpson’s Planet of the Apes episode. #DrZeusDrZeus #Michigan

David Sklansky, RIP Legendary poker author and thinker David Sklansky has passed away. People always point to The Theory of Poker but for me the book that changed my life was ...

David Sklansky has passed away. Finding his book absolutely changed my life.

blog.mattglassman.net/new-post-new...

Siena I grew up within walking distance of Siena’s old campus basketball arena—the one they played in until 1995, when they permanently moved the games to the big ...

Ugh. Duke. It had to be Duke. I thought we had them.

blog.mattglassman.net/siena/

Notes on yesterday's alleged talking filibuster Yesterday, the Senate took up S.1383, as amended by the House, and began consideration of it. The bill is the controversial SAVE America Act, which has major...

My quick thoughts on yesterday in the Senate: not a talking filibuster, not regular order, just a dressed-up show pony version of the 60-vote Senate.

blog.mattglassman.net/notes-on-yes...

Just to be perfectly clear here, this is not how you go about trying to break a filibuster.

Well, the Senate just structured four hours of debate, equally divided and controlled by leaders, by unanimous consent. Talking filibuster—or whatever you want to call five Republicans holding the floor for an hour—on pause. 🤷‍♂️

At some point, Republicans will stop filibustering and let a Democrat speak. But that has not happened yet.

SAVE Act Talking Filibuster so far: a Republican Senator is giving a speech about Iran. 🤷‍♂️

Senate is now on the SAVE Act. Thune did not file cloture. He did fill the tree. A Republican has the floor and is debating.

Are we now in a talking filibuster? A regular order consideration of a bill? A 60-vote Senate charade?

Trick question, it's in the eye of the beholder!

It would be great to watch Senators deliberate in an open floor environment! Offering and tabling amendments, working deals. Part of problem nowadays is leadership top-down control over bills.

Upshot: even if talking filibuster's doomed, it could be good for Senate. /end

While I don't think this will work, I have nothing against the GOP trying it. Putting a bill on the floor and letting people debate it and offer amendments is the Senate at its best!

Upshot: talking filibuster entails Senate working, in some sense, as ideally envisioned. 13/