Ben Kyber

they didn’t leak it to make the shooter look innocent, but to make the victim look guilty. not guilty of a crime. guilty of having a visibly queer wife. guilty of liberalism. guilty of opposing the regime. they don’t seek to exonerate themselves, only to demonstrate who deserves to die.

The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.

With the exception of Tankie types, no one on the left is mourning the downfall of Maduro.

They’re angry about the recklessness, the risk taking, the legal issues, the occupation, and the inevitable corruption.

The story was always already about an impoverished unmarried couple facing a pitiless bureaucracy, having a baby in a barn, and then having to hide from a tyrant. The baby grew up to say that the poor were blessed and the neighbor is he who shows mercy. You can’t hide from the politics of all that.

Nothing will happen to any of the prominent people who continued to fraternize with Jeffrey Epstein after he was convicted of sex trafficking. Here’s why cancel culture has gone too far.

Both politically inexplicable and morally vacuous. How could he misread the moment so badly? It's mind boggling.

With all due respect, Senator, from someone who's supported you for decades at this point: This is spineless and embarrassing, and it's offensive that your comms staff thinks we're stupid enough to buy this nonsense explanation for what amounts to total capitulation.

Explanation #2 is that they're trying to build a non-competitive autocracy, and they don't care about the political wisdom or popularity of their actions because they don't think it'll matter one way or another.

These two explanations are not mutually exclusive and both seem likely to be true.

These people leveraged inflation and the public decline of a sitting president into a 1.5% popular vote win and interpreted that as confirmation that they're political geniuses (they're not) and a mandate to do whatever they want, no matter how stupid and unpopular. That's explanation #1.

AOC: We have a future to fight for, and we're either going to do that together or you're going to be left behind. It's not about Progressive. It's not moderate, it's not liberal. This is about do you understand the assignment of fighting fascism right now? And the assignment is you come together…

Growing up in Chesterfield County, Virginia in the 90s and early 00s and seeing a Democratic candidate for ANYTHING winning there by 17+% is truly surreal. It's hard not to feel vindicated.

Lindsey Bluth on Arrested Development at a fundraiser for her anti-circumcision organization, H.O.O.P. (Hands Off Our Penises)

idk i read in the free press that the real risk to free speech is three oberlin undergraduates who say geometry is ableist. this is pretty confusing to me.

It takes a lot to shock me these days. This did it though. My God...

This guy couldn’t be bothered to say a single word when one of his political allies assassinated the Speaker of the Minnesota House.

I don't remember seeing any calls for violent retribution after a Minnesota state senator was assassinated, and it would have been nice not to see any today.

Acts of political violence aren’t acceptable. Non-political school shootings aren’t acceptable. Sacking the legislature isn’t acceptable. Military occupation of peaceful American cities isn’t acceptable. Abductions conducted in courthouse hallways by masked agents of the state aren’t acceptable.

"Who Will Move Our Weight When We're Gone?"

This is really important to understand. Some of the people “bending the knee to Trump” are in fact doing what they feel they must to protect people and institutions they love from the vast (and increasingly unreviewable) power of the President of the United States.

Seeing some more centrist folks imply that it was solely the focus on affordability that won the race for Mamdani. Absolutely bread and butter issues are key. But it was also his moral clarity.

Economics and ethics. Prices and principles. Freeze the rent AND free Palestine.

Dear Dems: this is what we want. This is who we want. Listen to us.

Mamdani: Tonight, we made history. In the words of Nelson Mandela, it almost seems impossible until it is done. My friends, we have done it. I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City.

This is correct.

Underrated in politics:

1. Saying stuff you actually believe whether or not it is the stuff that polls best

2. Not counting on billionaires to buy you a victory with TV ads

3. Spending time campaigning

My hot take about Zohran is that people want authentic candidates who seem like they give a shit about improving their lives. Ideology aside, people are willing to take risks—they just want somebody they think is going to fight for them in a world where very few are. That's why he's winning.

what’s funny is that if pro-cuomo centrist democrats were less myopic they might see that mamdani was running the kind of campaign that could help rebuild the party brand — accessible with an outsider persona and a focus on “kitchen table” issues.

What they have in common is a willingness, that Democratic leaders in Congress lack, to vociferously fight back against Trumpism. For some voters, it's about ideology. No question. But for the median Democratic voter, it's about willingness to stand up for first principles. That's the lesson.

Hegseth: this mission was not and has not been about regime change

Nine hours later….

Trump: It’s not politically correct to use the term regime change, but if the current Iranian regime is unable to make Iran great again, why wouldn’t there be a regime change? MIGA

They’re going to try to make you feel insane for opposing this war. They’ll ignore protests and downplay any opposition. They’ll try to strongarm you into submission.

They did it with Iraq and they’ll do it again.

And then a few years later they’ll pretend they were with you all along.

Netanyahu has spent the better part of two decades trying to strong arm the United States into an unprovoked war against Iran and finally found a president stupid enough to do it for him. Unbelievable.