Pope Leo Will Spend July 4 Visiting Migrant Crossing Island Pope Leo has spoken out against the treatment of migrants in the United States several times over the last year.

JD Vance personally invited Pope Leo to the U.S. 250th celebration on the 4th of July. Today the Vatican announced Leo will be spending the day with migrants instead.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis says Stephen Miller is like Grima Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings and Kristi Noem is like Delores Umbridge from Harry Potter.

Just say the government is lying. The goal of journalism should be to inform, not gaslight.

Alex Pretti’s coworkers take a moment of silence this morning

I hate the « bad advice » framing but let’s take what we can get

ICE is now responsible for 66% of the homicides in Minneapolis this year.

How to build a radically truthful news outlet The old ways don’t work. Time to declare war on the liars.

My Stop the Presses newsletter calls for a dramatic change of tactics by major media to produce "radically truthful” news that defeats the right-wing disinformation industry. Right now, the media are getting slam-dunked by fascist liars. Here’s a thread with my 10 main points. 🧵🧵🧵

Your cat when you're choking to death in your apartment

I would like to take the course!

7. The media industry is both unwilling and unable to cover this level of corruption rigorously. Treating Trump’s corruption scandals like those of previous presidents would make outlets appear “biased” and strain the resources of an industry that has been contracting over the past 25 years.

Such is the life in social science! My specification is pretty bog standard - and I sure don’t love the measure (Adam doesn’t either I suspect)

bsky.app/profile/trul...

This is several days old. But amidst so much else id missed it. That’s a stunning number. No wonder they about-faced. Reminder of the power of consumers in oligarch era, not subject to the same kind of targeting.

Candidate ideology helps! It is not a cure-all - party label matters a ton! But candidate ideology helps roughly as much as incumbency (and that's even using the NYTimes' highly imperfect measure). Here's my take:

open.substack.com/pub/michaela...

The measures predict congressional voting quite well (that’s what they’re built to do btw)

Hard to do conversation justice in social media. All agree moderates run ahead of president of their party. Question is by how much. Be sure that you look at effects in swing districts - effects in uncompetitive districts muddy the waters. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Hard to do conversation justice in social media. All agree moderates run ahead of president of their party. Question is by how much. Be sure that you look at effects in swing districts - effects in uncompetitive districts muddy the waters. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Here’s the full case for moderate effect of moderation

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Lmk what you think

Aren’t you saying the same thing as the NYT? That purple voters don’t like progressive candidates?

It’s in the Constitution ! Or are you not an originalist? Or was it in the Declaration of independence where they called out King George for not protecting pedophiles?

Actual waste, fraud, & abuse

Opinion | We Warned About the First China Shock. The Next One Will Be Worse.

We Warned About the First China Shock. The Next One Will Be Worse. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/o...

This administration is stuck in the past on China

Musk’s party unlikely to go anywhere. But if he runs in contested states - that helps Ds (as Kevin says). If he runs in red states - Ds will lose anyway or this opens a path up (+hard to be worse than current Rs). Muskies help Ds in blue states too! (They won’t need it). Take the win, people.

Thanks Kevin. I might be more optimistic but still realistic- lots of work to be done !

Dear Elon: About that new party... Elon Musk raised some eyebrows with his tweet about starting a new party -- with a super legit Twitter poll to back it up, no less.

Some thoughts on Elon's new party
michaelabailey2.substack.com/p/dear-elon-...

I agree - interesting possibilities here

bsky.app/profile/trul...

The Electoral Connection to Constraining Executive Power Only Congress can constrain an autocratic President, and only electoral reform will enable Congress to perform this essential constitutional function.

Good stuff from Ned Foley

The Electoral Connection to Constraining Executive Power open.substack.com/pub/edwardbf...

So much for “Trade wars are good, and easy to win!“

Rein In Trump's Pardon Power Before it's too late... And presidential immunity, while we're at it.... Take it to Congress, to states, even to the streets.

A cause worth taking up in earnest, even in the likely event of “failure.” www.offmessage.net/p/rein-in-tr...