Max Berger (@maxberger.bsky.social) reposted
“Washington serves as a template and we’re going to do it everywhere.” - Trump on his future military invasion and occupation of cities.
Class Politics reporter at The New Republic. Past: 538, The American Prospect. BUY: The Forgotten Girls monicapotts.com
2,209 followers 542 following 436 posts
view profile on Bluesky Max Berger (@maxberger.bsky.social) reposted
“Washington serves as a template and we’re going to do it everywhere.” - Trump on his future military invasion and occupation of cities.
Michael Hobbes (@michaelhobbes.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
Yep a good-faith critique of learning loss would lead to proposals for a massive, New Deal-scale investment in public education. The people pushing the narrative are doing precisely the opposite.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
I'm very sorry to tell everyone that one of my dogs found the toad that had been living in our basement
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
I don't know who needs to hear this, but no one should be basing their electoral strategy on any social media site.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
People didn't think of Trump as old because Trump yells. Literally thats it. It never made sense.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
I'm as excited about the -ber months as anyone, but it's still summer (the worst season) until Sept. 22. Don't let meteorologists and school schedules lie to you.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
Absolutely. Justice for Bogdan.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
This used to make me so angry and it still does for different reasons: basically buses aren't funded properly any more and bus service in too many districts absolutely sucks
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
Also there are some very important characters that got short shrift. I like the movie less the further I've gotten from it, but a new book comes out next week so that'll be good.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
Elizabeth is actually pretty terrifying. Joyce is really hilarious. Ibrahim is pretty sad about some things, and Ron still has fire without a place to direct it. None of that really came through in the movie.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
Just thinking about The Thursday Murder Club again. The books are cozy mysteries, but they're also about what it means to age, how to build community, etc. they're really very good. They don't play the fact that the characters are old for laughs, and don't make them plucky and cutesy.
Isaac! At the Butler! (@isaacbutler.bsky.social) reposted
If you are, like me, generally opposed to how Large Language Models are being positioned and used (and not regulated currently) one very simple thing you could do is to stop using the term “AI” to describe them. When you do, you’re buying into the linguistic and conceptual framework of your enemies.
Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) reposted
Black women have every right to be furious. The irresponsible choices of white voters has for many of us, taken our livelihood with consequences for our homes, the education of our children, our ability to care for parents. It’s unconscionable. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/u...
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
He does not have the power to do this. Certainly not by executive order
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
I don't mind the star power but the books are very charming and quite subtle and laugh out loud funny which is not really Chris Columbus
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
The Thursday Murder Club movie was significantly changed in a bad way and is not nearly as good as the books. Do yourself a favor and read them. They are both delightful and deeply moving.
NY Times Pitchbot (@nytpitchbot.bsky.social) reposted
Donald Trump’s rumored death raises new questions about Joe Biden’s health
David Roberts (@volts.wtf) reposted
Induction stoves are quieter, cooler, and produce less toxic pollution than gas. On the other hand, they also cook better, as a growing number of professional chefs recognize.
Nicole Huffman (@nicolehufman.bsky.social) reposted
Why do politicians obstruct when the public favors compromise? My first first-author publication looks at this. I'm excited to share this incredible project Lauren Olson, Ryan Vander Wielen, and I have been working on! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author... 🧵
Snitty 🎃 (@clofsnitville.bsky.social) reposted
Trusting experts is not, in fact, a feature of religion or totalitarianism.
Will Jennings (@willjennings.bsky.social) reposted
Typical conversation between a client and the landscape architect.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
Apropos of absolutely nothing, just thinking about the "Biden is old" stories again: we actually have a constitutional remedy for a president who becomes unable to do the job for health reasons. We don't have a remedy for a president who doesn't follow the Constitution.
Brian Mann (@brianmannadk.bsky.social) reposted
Long time since average citizens got to talk in a public setting with the NY21 Congresswoman
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
I will take a train anywhere but my goodness do I wish we had faster trains and dedicated rail lines so we could have real high-speed rail.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
Just admit that it's the guns!!!
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
I want a Covid vaccine. Going through all of my diagnoses to see if I can get it
Joshua J. Friedman (@joshuajfriedman.com) reposted
What a cursed sentence (gift link) “The A.I. companies selected to oversee the program would have a strong financial incentive to deny claims. Medicare plans to pay them a share of the savings generated from rejections.”
Alison Stenning (@alisonstenning.bsky.social) reposted
Children are ***82%*** more likely to be killed when hit by an SUV than by a regular passenger car. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) reposted
Susan Collins was heckled and drowned out by demonstrators at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Maine. "Shame! Shame! Shame!" protesters yelled at Collins. Collins asked the crowd to let her "get through this brief ceremony" — but then she was interrupted again.
Will Saletan (@saletan.bsky.social) reposted
“Denmark summoned the head of the U.S. Embassy … after allegations emerged that three Americans with close ties to President Trump were running ‘covert influence operations’ in Greenland.” Is there a Nobel prize for creating a conflict by threatening to seize the territory of a democratic ally?
Schooley (@schooley.bsky.social) reposted
A Pulitzer to the White House reporter who brings up the health rumors and asks what color his feet currently are.
Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel.bsky.social) reposted
i would point to this interview if i was trying to explain how sometimes people who don’t think of themselves as journalists or reject the notion altogether can be the most effective interviewers newrepublic.com/post/199737/...
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
I haven't been feeling great and Tulip 🌷 has been hanging out with me. I wish everyone could have the kind of comfort dogs bring #dogsofbluesky
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
This is so, so dangerous.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
Why are they doing this?
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
I literally thought this was both him at first glance!
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
I am so sick of guns.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
with more staff and better pay.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
I do think rich progressives should buy the awesome alt-weeklies around the country and simply staff them to do the work they once did.
Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) reposted
70 years ago, on this date, Emmett Till was kidnapped and brutally murdered by white men. His family, including his cousin who was with him at the time, is repeating the train ride he took from Chicago to Mississippi in 1955 to mark the anniversary
David Gilbert (@davidgilbert.bsky.social) reposted
SCOOP I spoke to the leader of the 764-linked swatting group that is behind the recent spare of hoax active shooter calls at university campuses across the US. He claims to have earned $100,000 in the space of just six days www.wired.com/story/purgat...
jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) reposted
i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
Please watch this interview @perrybaconjr.bsky.social did with @brendannyhan.bsky.social at @newrepublic.com newrepublic.substack.com/p/democratic...
Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) reposted
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fed Gov. Lisa Cook sues Trump administration to block her attempted firing, launching unprecedented legal fight.
Dave Weigel (@daveweigel.bsky.social) reposted
The local political story around the DC military takeover is rich stuff. The zombie delegate who refuses to retire or appear in public, the mayor who will assent to anything if it gets her football stadium...
Sam Bagenstos (@sbagen.bsky.social) reposted
Tell me again that abortion bans aren’t about controlling women. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
Aaron Fritschner (@fritschner.bsky.social) reposted
It won’t fit in screen shots but linking here the full letter of resignation posted by one of the departing CDC officials, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who ran the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and led efforts to fight COVID, monkeypox, and bird flu x.com/dr_demetre/s...
darth™️ (@darthbluesky.bsky.social) reposted
apropos of nothing but did any body else kind of think about to getting into collecting something but just did not have the money or more importantly the space to store anything in quantity
Mother Jones (@motherjones.com) reposted
"The oft-mentioned tyranny being opposed by gun owners is really just the sense that the wrong people are encroaching on the privileges and prerogatives of whiteness." From 2020:
Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) reposted
Walz: "It boggles my damn mind that in the midst of a military takeover of our cities, the flaunting of the rule of law, that the press finds the need to talk about, 'Oh, there's a division in the Dem Party.' There's a division in my damn house & we're still married and things are good. That's life"
Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew.bsky.social) reposted
remember folks, we cant have gun restrictions because if we do the federal government will occupy our streets, imprison people without due process, ship dissidents to foreign gulags and things of that nature
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
Emily Nussbaum (@emilynussbaum.bsky.social) reposted
Obama should just troll us with his book list and include, say, nine Romantasy titles and Bitcoin For Dummies
John Leavitt (@leavittalone.bsky.social) reposted
FEMA running the Hurricane Pam scenario and finding they’re ill-equipped for a direct hurricane strike on NOLA right before Katrina is a nice mirror to the CDC running the Crimson Contagion scenario and finding out they’re ill-equipped for an airborne flu event right before COVID hit
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
The Christian right were courted by the GOP, started voting for them, & then became the most active, loyal activists & voters, keeping pressure on their candidates and elected officials and remaking the party to reflect their will. The left has never understood this part of electoral politics.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
I want to know where he thinks it is. I would ask him to show us.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
Someone please ask him where the valve is.
David Roberts (@volts.wtf) reposted
"Air pollution from oil and gas causes more than 90,000 premature deaths and sickens hundreds of thousands of people across the US each year, a new study shows..." If MAHA were anything other than dipshit reactionary fantasies & conspiracy theories, it would focus overwhelmingly on air pollution.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
This is me with something recently lately, and since I don't even remember what it is right now, I'm destined to download it again.
Eric Deggans (@edeggans.bsky.social) reposted
Wrote a Substack on how our ongoing amnesia about how race and class affect Americans - exemplified by forgetting/minimizing the horrors of Katrina’s aftermath — have led to our current cultural/political/media moment. https://loom.ly/L60-CV0
Tracie McMillan (@tmmcmillan.bsky.social) reposted
Really proud to work on this piece with the excellent @tatiwm.bsky.social
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) reposted
Breaking: According to Minneapolis police, two children — ages 8 and 10 — have been killed in the church shooting. 14 children and three adults injured. Minneapolis mayor Frey: "Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying."
The New Republic (@newrepublic.com) reposted
The Non-Ideological Majority: Swing Voters Explained Right Now With Perry Bacon 🎙️ | TNR live on Substack trib.al/AVmqJVr
Sam Bagenstos (@sbagen.bsky.social) reposted
Author of a terrific and well-regarded book about Watergate explains why we've had two scandals worse than Watergate just this week.
Alondra Nelson (@alondra.bsky.social) reposted
Out now! Summary Report: Workshop on the Geopolitics of Critical Minerals and the AI Supply Chain www.ias.edu/sites/defaul... The report highlights how AI’s expansion is tied to critical minerals, energy, water, land, and labor—and why interdisciplinary approaches are essential for AI governance.🧵
Brad Heath (@bradheath.bsky.social) reposted
National Guard soldiers called into service for President Trump's law enforcement surge in D.C. have been assigned to spread mulch at federal monuments. Normally the Park Service does that, but the administration laid off the workers. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
Important read: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) reposted
fwiw people are calling this nullification and I don’t think that’s quite fair. they were charging a felony and he didn’t commit a felony. the grand jury did their job faithfully and well.
Dr. Jonathan Foley (@globalecoguy.bsky.social) reposted
This is the single biggest problem with our food system. It is absurdly inefficient. Less than half of what we grow ends up on our plates. Great work by Paul West and other Project Drawdown colleagues. www.newscientist.com/article/2493...
Dana R. Fisher (aka the Apocalyptic Optimist) (@fisherdanar.bsky.social) reposted
More proof that criticism is not permitted under the Trump Administration. www.axios.com/2025/08/27/f...
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
"Trump’s pretense to ownership of public goods and public spaces isn’t some quirk to be ignored or waited out — “There goes our Donald!” — but a direct expression of his autocratic ambitions and despotic cast of mind." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/o...
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
You can still watch them now: the cams are live
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
I feel like that might be Chunk in the middle. He broke his jaw earlier this year. I hope he's ok.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
Fat Bear Week is almost upon us
jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) reposted
“Trump’s pretense to ownership of public goods and public spaces isn’t some quirk to be ignored or waited out — “there goes our Donald!” — but a direct expression of his autocratic ambitions and despotic cast of mind.”
Linda Holmes (@lindaholmes.bsky.social) reposted
Sandwich Guy no-billed.
States Newsroom (@statesnewsroom.com) reposted
With young children particularly vulnerable to the serious health risks of lead exposure, the state is accepting applications to reimburse eligible child care programs for remediation projects. via @newhampshirebulletin.com
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
Oh no
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
And keeps them from being their most. Put another way, anti-fatness and the emphasis on weight and the meanness displayed on The Biggest Loser is another way we keep women down. So it's actually not that distinct from the MAGA movement and it makes sense to me that she is a part of it.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
most important: I exercised and ate vegetables, which are the only things I think people should worry about. All of this is to say that I think it's time we talk about the anti-fatness torture we put people through, primarily women, as a tax on their time, one that robs them of joy and meaning...
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
what I wanted my life to look like, and instead trying to become something else. Also, it would have been ok if I was fat.(I am now), but I need to also interject here to say that I was 90s fat: at my largest I was a totally normal size 8 until I was about 35, when an energy stopped my running...
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
It wasn't until my late 30s when I was fat and happy and realized I should just embrace who I was and be healthy mentally and physically and stop worrying about weight. I probably destroyed my metabolism anyway. I think of all the time wasted not realizing who I was becoming, what made me happy...
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
Think about what other things I should have been doing at 11. Playing, having fun, being social, reading, learning. I was also doing those things, but I devoted some amount of time and energy to fight my own growing body. I continued to do that my whole life....
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
I've seen this making the rounds, and I need to say that I kind of had to look up who she was. I never watched the Biggest Loser. But when I was working on my memoir I read my childhood journals, and realized I started counting calories at the age of ELEVEN...🧵
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
As a train nerd, this hurts
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
The Democratic Party has handcuffed itself with data rather than use it to their advantage. My latest: newrepublic.com/article/1996...
Robert Downen (@robertdownen.bsky.social) reposted
Breaking via NYT: Feds have failed to secure a felony assault indictment against the DC Sandwich Man, a “remarkable failure” and the second time in recent days that it was unable to persuade grand jurors to bring an indictment in a felony assault case against a federal agent.
Jonathan Cohn (@jonathancohn.bsky.social) reposted
" Democrats are so worried about alienating a small slice of the electorate that they’re hesitating to condemn the most abusive act yet by a historically unpopular president from the opposing party." newrepublic.com/article/1996...
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
I very often start with writing things out by hand
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
What if, now hear me out, the government just hired people just to pick up litter. www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/n...
treb (@treblaw.bsky.social) reposted
Cracker Barrel is now HBO Max
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
It is not fall yet y'all stop!!!
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
How is this a real thing happening in the US in 2025?
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
"A profoundly unpopular government is at war with its own people. It is corrupt, immoral, and taking Israel to a place of extremes, where there is might at the expense of morals; messianism at the expense of humanity and hope." newrepublic.com/article/1995...
Hank Green (@hankgreen.bsky.social) reposted
Turns out some of the “we want small government” people kiiiinda wanted the government to be just one guy.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
Now I'm going to have to make chocolate gravy this weekend: eatme.substack.com/p/goin-back-...
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social) reply parent
What are they even doing? That's not a meeting.
Monica Potts (@monicapotts.bsky.social)
American workers don't like trade because they don't have a safety net if they get laid off: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/b...
Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) reposted
Lori Chavez-DeRemer: "Mr President, I invite you see your big beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor because you are really the transformational president of the American worker, along with the American flag and President Roosevelt."