The fact that Karen Bass dropped her “climate plan” for Los Angeles days before she reaffirmed her commitment to killing local transit oriented development is a sick joke.

This Data Center is Getting a $77 Million Tax Break to Create One Job No other project in the country has gotten such a large subsidy to create so few jobs, according to watchdogs.

America’s largest bank is expanding its data center in Orangeburg, NY, near the New Jersey border.

In exchange for $77 million in tax breaks from the state and county, the bank promises to create exactly one permanent job.

My story in @nysfocus.com: nysfocus.com/2026/04/20/d...

it's really an extraordinary statement of where we are - and of what ideas are circulating in some circles - that a prominent public company said this out loud

Absolutely.

"These people are stealing your tax money, robbing you of services you paid for to enrich themselves. I will stop that."

That's a pretty simple and effective message.

“Pay to play” politics is an old story in Washington.

In 2017, “Stay to play” & “play to play” on Trump properties made “frontroom deals” a new illiberal norm: Emolumental corruption.

Patronizing the businesses of a strongman’s family in an authoritarian regime is an old story around the world.

We're learning this over & over in the age of the internet: if you ask people what they want (in the "what will you click on?" sense) whether information or art, they will opt for the comforting squirt of dopamine. But on both counts, in the long term, pain & uncertainty & friction serve us better.

The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

This is both

(1) some of the most important SCOTUS reporting ever, and

(2) far too generous to the Republican justices in framing of many pieces and omissions of Trump-era developments

You can give me just one of those millions, I promise my viewpoint would bring some diversity to Harvard

1,392 days to approve 91 units of housing in Seattle. This is just for the land use permit. Construction permit will take another ~300 days to approve. This was through “administrative” design review which is supposed to go faster. Took 6 correction cycles. We have to fix this stuff.

Transgender discrimination is, by its very nature, sex discrimination. Discrimination based on sex is expressly prohibited under Montana’s unique Nondiscrimination Clause––“[n]either the state nor any person, firm, corporation, or institution shall discriminate on account of . . . sex . . . .” Thus, Article II, Section 4 is unequivocal in its intolerance for discrimination based on sex. Because sex discrimination involves a fundamental right under Article II, the appropriate level of judicial review is strict scrutiny. Snetsinger, ¶ 17. ¶28 Being transgender is also a suspect class under the Equal Protection Clause of Article II, Section 4,––“[n]o person shall be denied equal protection of the law.”

MONTANA SUPREME COURT: “Transgender discrimination is, by its very nature, sex discrimination,” and is subject to strict scrutiny under the Montana Constitution.

It's remarkable how most of the world's English-speaking democracies seemed to have gotten together and decided "let's destroy the main thing that led us to unprecedented prosperity: our systems of higher education."

5

The transnational right-wing admiration for autocrats like Orbán is a crucial reminder that the struggle over democracy and multiracial pluralism is indeed playing out not just in the United States, and that the reactionary counter-mobilization is an international phenomenon.

That’s the thing about competitive authoritarianism: The “authoritarianism” is serious – but so is the “competitive” part. Politics hasn’t ended in such regimes. The rules have been changed significantly, giving a massive advantage to the ruling regime; but the political conflict is not over.

One of the most consistently infuriating things about the criminal legal system is how little anyone in a position of authority cares about determining what does and does not work.

The Orbánist is deeply entrenched across the Hungarian government: courts, bureaucracy, regulators, tax agencies, even cultural organizations were all part of it.

If Magyar does not use his power to enact sweeping constitution changes, much of that system could survive.

Hungary under Orbán was not a classic fascist or monarchical regime. It was a species of what political scientists call "competitive authoritarianism" — where elections are generally free, meaning not formally rigged, but held under extremely unfair conditions.

Illiberalism Is Not Inevitable If Viktor Orbán can lose, then his Russian and American admirers can lose too.

Illiberalism is not Inevitable

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Viktor Orban accomplished so much of what the Trump movement wants to accomplish here

he ruled for 16 years and rewrote the rules in his favor

and still, they threw him out

and you know what? they did it by voting

don’t let anyone tell you voting doesn’t matter

Hungary’s Orban, Beacon to the Right, Concedes Election Defeat

Orban lost despite
“eliminating many checks and balances by stacking the judicial system…, and taking control of most news media outlets. He also worked to export his model of ‘illiberal democracy,’ promoting himself as an invincible guru…”

Sketching a big book project (two volumes!) on the history and political dynamics of American constitutional federalism. Novel in focusing on both state and federal con law. Begins with the Voting Rights Act.

Sounds amazing (and overdue!) — what a treat for us. Would love to chat sometime! Doing some similar work about an earlier period. I’ll shoot you a note!

I've studied so many concentration camps through history that held vulnerable people in just this kind of crowded squalor. You demonize people, you demand more arrests, this is what you get. It already has its own budget and its own momentum, and is on track to go much further, unless we stop it.

USPS shouldn't even calculate "profit."

It's an essential service that should be fully funded by the government.

"The central finding is clear: when these four states nearly doubled their minimum wage, restaurant employment largely stayed stable, even as pay grew substantially."

This is the truth. And everything about it explains basically all of America, Con Law, etc.

We believe Jefferson Davis to be the worst man in all history.

On Confederate Surrender Day, I give you the Liberator's take on Jefferson Davis: "We believe Jefferson Davis to be the worst man in all history. He was a repudiator and slaveholder. He has been a secessionist, a traitor and rebel....He has sedulously endeavored to subvert our free institutions."

Unprecedented corruption

Labor behind bars is usually mandatory, and workers earn just pennies per hour.

Nationwide, incarcerated people earn between $0.86 and $3.45 PER DAY for most prison jobs. And in some states, they earn nothing for their work.

"Better choices instead of excuses."

Would like to again congratulate John Roberts & co. for making this lunatic immune to criminal prosecution, immune to (mandatory!) electoral disqualification, and immune to Congressional limitations on his control over executive branch agencies.

Going absolutely splendidly!