Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

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Environmental Rights

Environmental Projection Protection Open Thread: Throwing Mud At A Ground-Breaking Effort

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They just can't leave anything alone, they have to shit on everything:
How the world's largest wildlife crossing became the target of right-wing hate
flip.it/aIlaWy

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— dwise1970.bsky.social (@dwise1970.bsky.social) March 27, 2026 at 1:45 PM

Reader, you will not be surprised to learn that Christopher Rufo is at the center of yet another manufactured right wing outrage cycle.

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— Chris Kluwe (@chriswarcraft.bsky.social) April 6, 2026 at 12:15 AM

Boondoggle! Importing horrors into ‘our’ community!… Christopher Rufo has started a new grift, so I guess the damp-eyed, wet-lipped Think of the children! anti-LGBT+ peddlers market is officially overcrowded. (When Rufo’s heart is weighed by Maat, even Ammit will reject it.)

Per SFGate, “How the world’s largest wildlife crossing became the target of right-wing hate”:

Last week, the newly launched California Post ran an opinion piece headlined “California’s unfinished wildlife ‘bridge to nowhere’ tops $100M.” The authors, both with the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute, dedicated roughly 750 words to attacking the Agoura Hills wildlife crossing northwest of Los Angeles for two key reasons: Costs are higher, and the completion date is later than initially estimated when the project was first announced five years ago.

None of this was new information, and all of it had previously been reported by various local, state and national news outlets over the past few years. But the opinion piece added sharp new language to describe an inflation-fueled price increase and one-year timeline extension, calling the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (the largest such crossing in the world) a “jobs program for environmentalists,” a “patronage program” and a “multimillion-dollar bridge to nowhere.”

And crucially, it also left out key details about the project’s updated timeline and price increase.

Within 24 hours, the wildlife crossing — the result of a yearslong, bipartisan effort to protect endangered mountain lions and restore habitat connectivity in California — had become a flash point in America’s ongoing political and cultural divide, fomenting online rage across social media…

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Heartbreaking / Infuriating Read: ‘In a town plagued by an environmental crisis, a local abortion debate consumes public attention’ – STOCKPILE

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Heartbreaking / Infuriating Read: ‘In a town plagued by an environmental crisis, a local abortion debate consumes public attention’ – STOCKPILEPost + Comments

A little YIMBY win

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Last night, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted 6-3 to modify the town’s land use management ordinance (LUMO).  The big change is to allow by right duplexes and cottage apartments on most of the land that had been zoned as of yesterday morning as detached single family housing only plots.  Other chunks of the proposal made it easier for triplexes and quadplexes to be approved in areas that are already zoned for multi-family housing.

The intent of this process change is to modestly (and I mean modestly) increase density and new construction in pre-existing neighborhoods.  Most of Chapel Hill once you get more than half a mile from the UNC campus is car dependent suburbia.  These neighborhoods have been built during periods of very restrictive and structurally exclusionary zoning which made building with any density difficult.  There had been a few windows in the town’s history in the past two generations where some density was temporarily allowed and those periods have created most of the current inventory of not outrageously expensive housing.

The driver of the change is a simple recognition that the town is part of a rapidly growing region.  There is massive demand for housing in the greater Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle.  Home prices are soaring and a lot of construction is happening in green fields 40 to 60 minutes of daily driving away from the job centers. The new construction in town has mostly been either single family detached housing at a half million or more price points or 5+1 apartment blocks where studio apartments start at $1500/month.  The newly allowed housing concepts aims to allow for within neighborhood construction of smaller and more affordable housing units. In Chapel Hill, the limited construction  means home prices have sky rocketed.  My family bought our home in 2019 in Chapel Hill.  We could not afford to buy the same property today even if I was working at my regular salary instead of my grad student stipend.

Will it solve every housing problem in the town?

HELL NO!

Is it a reasonable step in a direction to increase supply and relieve some of the price pressure as well as reduce regional vehicle miles driven on the margin?

HELL YES!

Has it been an ugly ugly fight for a necessary but grossly insufficient step?

YEP!

Is this a political fight that should be taking place in pretty much every town that is home to a flagship state university/med school complex?

INDUBITABLY!

This has been one of the things that I’ve been spending some of my time and attention on besides grad school and instead of health policy writing over the past six months as I think it is important to live our values by changing policy.  Zoning determines whether or not diversity and inclusion is a slogan or a reality.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Earth Day in the Biden Administration

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Per the Associated Press:

… “Environmental justice will be the mission of the entire government woven directly into how we work with state, local, tribal and territorial governments,” Biden said in remarks at the White House.

The order tells executive branch agencies to use data and scientific research to understand how pollution hurts people’s health, so that work can be done to limit any damage. Under the order, executive agencies would be required to inform nearby communities if toxic substances were released from a federal facility.

As part of the announcement, Vice President Kamala Harris is separately traveling to Miami, Florida, to announce $562 million to help protect communities against the impacts of climate change.

The EPA last year formed its own Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, merging three existing EPA programs to oversee a portion of Democrats’ $60 billion investment in environmental justice initiatives created by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.

The order puts more pressure on federal agencies — and the White House itself — to deliver on promises the Biden administration has made to clean up the environment in communities of color and poor communities and prepare them for the effects of climate change….

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Everything Was, In Fact, Not Fine

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I’m not sure if you all are aware of the little Bhopal disaster we have going on here in my neck of the woods up in East Palestine, Ohio, but if you are not, you can hardly be blamed. The media is barely covering it and it’s actually fucking flabbergasting. Most of the information I have seen has come from twitter and tiktok.

At any rate, about fifty miles from mere as the crow flies, up in East Palestine, Ohio, a Norfolk Souther train derailed last week. Here’s a handy map showing where I live and where the accident occurred:

Everything Was, In Fact, Not Fine

The trains were carrying a load of toxic chemicals that are dangerous in their own right, but when on fire, are basically the gas used in WW1 in trench warfare. Don’t take my word on it, here are a bunch of nerds at Chemical and Engineering News breaking it down for you:

An evacuation order issued following the derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying vinyl chloride in Ohio was lifted Feb. 8 after state and federal authorities determined that air and water quality were safe for residents to return to their homes. But questions remain about the safety of transporting the hazardous chemical.

People living near the accident, which occurred Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, a town of about 4,700 residents on the Pennsylvania border, began leaving immediately as a column of black smoke rose over town. In an effort to avoid an explosion, railroad and state authorities began a controlled release and burn of the vinyl chloride Feb. 6. Earlier that day, the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania ordered an immediate evacuation of a 1- by 2-mile area that crossed the state line.

In all, about 50 cars—20 of which were carrying hazardous materials—left the tracks in the accident. Of most concern were the 5 carrying vinyl chloride. In a statement announcing the evacuation order, Ohio governor Mike DeWine warned that people closest to the derailment faced “grave danger of death.”

While vinyl chloride itself is a carcinogen, the burning of the chemical, which releases hydrogen chloride and phosgene, can be immediately lethal. Phosgene, a highly toxic, colorless gas with a strong odor, was notoriously used as a weapon during World War I.

It’s bad. There were evacuations, but they were too little too late, Norfolk Southern and Gov. DeWine are assuring people it is safe now and the water is fine, but it’s not. And to prove their transparency, they arrested the only national reporter covering the press conference:

A NewsNation correspondent was arrested on Wednesday after he began reporting live during a news conference held by Ohio authorities regarding a train derailment – an incident police said involved a confrontation between him and a National Guard official after he was told to stop speaking during the governor’s remarks.

Law enforcement officers interrupted NewsNation correspondent Evan Lambert as he broadcast from the event, where authorities announced they were lifting a multiday evacuation order near the site of a fiery weekend derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

An argument then broke out between Lambert and Harris, who pushed the reporter away from him as Lambert was approaching Harris “in an aggressive manner,” police said.

After Harris reported the interaction to law enforcement, officers told Lambert he needed to leave the building because the situation had “evolved into a physical confrontation and required law enforcement intervention,” police said. After Lambert refused, the officers tried to de-escalate by asking him to step outside to talk, but Lambert did not, police said.

The reporter was then advised he was under arrest and escorted out of the building, at which time he tried to pull away, according to police.

This is, of course, bullshit coverage. An argument didn’t break out. A fucking cop and a meathead in the National Guard came and told him he was not allowed to do his job and then they arrested him.

At any rate, a direct line can be traced from this disaster to the policies of Norfolk Southern, which, conveniently, is majority owned by hedge funds (Vanguard, Blackrock, JP Morgan, etc), who have slashed maintenance, slashed crews, and done all the usual shit to maximize profits. This is exactly what rail workers were protesting last summer that… got shut down by congress.

@nipplebottomjeans #stitch with @pearlmania500 #fyp #news #environment #pa #trains #ohio ♬ original sound – Thoms

So, yeah.

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Late Night Open Thread: Environmental Stewardship

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Continuing the not-so-great American tradition where Repubs break things, and Democrats come in to fix the mess as best as can be done… literally!

A U.S. judge’s surprise decision this week to annul the Biden administration’s first Gulf of Mexico oil lease auction because of its climate change impact has raised questions about the future of the nation’s federal drilling program – and played directly into the president’s hand.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, made a campaign pledge to end federal oil and gas drilling to fight climate change, and he quickly announced a suspension of all new lease sales pending a broad review of drilling’s impact on global warming after taking office. Some 25% of U.S. oil and gas production comes from federal lands and waters.

But this administration was later forced into the sale after several drilling states successfully sued in federal court in Louisiana. They argued that U.S. law requires the federal government to hold auctions on a regular basis to enhance energy independence and generate revenue…

This week’s ruling, from a judge in the District of Columbia who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, came after a challenge by environmental group Earthjustice. The judge vacated the auction entirely, saying the Interior Department failed to properly account for its impact on global warming.

Biden’s Interior Department must now do what it originally intended: take a fresh look at environmental and climate impacts of drilling. It has not yet said yet whether it will suspend other planned drilling auctions pending review, or how long the review will take…

Chevron CEO Michael Wirth, whose company was one of the high bidders in the Gulf of Mexico sale, said Chevron was reviewing the decision.

“We’re disappointed because these lease sales have been conducted successfully in the Gulf of Mexico for decades now and have resulted in us being one of the largest leaseholders out there with over 240 leases,” he said.

One’s heart just breaks at the thought of this man’s suffering, no? (No.)

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Senator McConnell Moves To Contact: The President’s Nominee “Will Receive a Vote On the Floor of the Senate”

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Senator McConnell has placed his marker on the table.

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ABC news is reporting that the President will announce his nominee shortly.

I expect that the President will announce his nominee no later than Wednesday and that Senator McConnell will have that nominee up for a vote before the full Senate no later than the Wednesday after that so that the new justice can be seated before the Supreme Court starts its new term in October. And to try to do sort of a judicial nomination shock and awe campaign by moving so quickly that no one can respond to what McConnell is doing.

I’ve seen Senator Murkowski’s statement, and it was nice to read, but the simple reality is that for Senators Collins, McSally, Gardner, Tillis, and Graham it is ride or die. They cannot let go of the tiger that is the President and his base at this point because it will not get them the Democratic votes to either save them in the case of Collins, McSally, and Gardner, nor to open up their reelection campaigns from the statistical ties that Tillis and Graham are in. Abandoning the President and his base of supporters on this will cost them more support and votes, then trying to look like they’re standing on principle.

The question is not what can be done to stop it, though I definitely believe as much hell as possible should be raised over what Senator McConnell is going to do. The question is what you are willing to do after Senator McConnell does what he is going to do to install a sixth conservative associate justice on the Supreme Court.

I expect there will be violence over this. Violence between senators. Violence directed at senators. And violence between Americans. I’m not calling for it, but as a nat-sec professional who works on low intensity warfare, this is what I expect.

Updated at 10:30 PM EDT

I just want to clarify and elaborate a bit on what I think is likely to happen. I expect that the violence directed at senators will come from the hard core and extreme right. It will be directed at the Republican senators who are being reported as potentially not supporting the President and Senator McConnell on confirming a new justice before the election and the inauguration; Gardner, McSally, Collins, Murkowski, Romney, Graham, Grassley, and Alexander. It will start with threatening emails, voicemails, and direct messages. And it may escalate to actual attempts at physical intimidation to send a message: get or stay in line or else… Similarly, I expect that violence between Americans will originate from the same direction. Some MAGA asshole will decide to gun his car through a vigil being held in memory of RBG or a demonstration and rally to demonstrate to Senator McConnell and his GOP majority that they have to abide by the rules McConnell established in 2016. Or that, as we’ve seen with the MAGA truck/vehicle rallies in Portland, that those supporting the President will show up and pepper spray and paintball those standing vigil for RBG or rallying to pressure McConnell and his GOP majority to not be hypocrites. This violence will be stochastic terrorism, but if it happens, I expect it will originate on the hard core and extreme right.

Open thread.

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