Seth D. Michaels

@sethdmichaels.bsky.social

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Bert of the Intellect, Ernie of the Will

he/him, DC based, comms at @ucsusa.bsky.social, ambivalently Online, still People Magazine's Seth D-est Man Alive. please don't argue in my notifications

Posts Replies Media

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Seth D. Michaels

Oil companies have been pushing "we don't have enough grid energy to handle EVs!" through all their propaganda channels, luckily for us, it's not true.

If you do the math, electrifying *all* ground transportation in the US would increase electricity demand by less than 20%. HVAC, especially in heating climates, is going to be a considerably bigger challenge for the grid. Easily shiftable EV load could actually help make the grid stabler!

"What the Founders of the United States did not intend to do...was establish a government that would allow someone to declare themselves president for life if they felt like it." - @adamserwer.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

The Supreme Court Puts Trump Above the Lawwww.theatlantic.com And gives him permission for a despotic second term.

"The ruling must be understood as a permission slip for the despotic power that Trump has vowed to assert if he is reelected."

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Seth D. Michaels

“These decisions, coupled with two others issued last week, could sharply curtail the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies to limit air pollution, govern toxic substances, and set climate policy.” grist.org/politics/the...

These Supreme Court decisions just made it harder to solve climate changegrist.org Four key rulings limiting federal power will curtail the ability of the EPA and other agencies to write and enforce climate policies.

winning swing seat state Houses has real upsides for people in these states at the policy and budgetary level; it contributes to overall statewide margins; it acts as an insurance policy against state GOP leaders trying to upend a result they don’t like; and it’s a big ROI for a modest investment

We have a 102-101 Democratic majority in the Pennsylvania State House, winning that last seat by 58 votes out of 33K+ cast (a 0.18% margin), and fell short on the 103rd seat by 76 votes out of ~31K cast (0.24% margin). Every vote matters here, and every dollar helps.

I just gave to Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee!secure.actblue.com Show your support with a contribution.

at this point I’m taking “national Dems are not sufficiently responding to the task of Trump-proofing the country” as axiomatic and the germane question is “so what now”

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Seth D. Michaels

I just had to gently but firmly correct someone who got mad at me for "nitpicking" and clarify that what I was actually doing was being pedantic

surprisingly good - brief and clear - explanation of Chevron deference and the Loper ruling in PEOPLE Magazine: people.com/supreme-cour... some comfort in this breaking through more than i feared

Supreme Court Overturns 40-Year Precedent You Didn't Know Existed: 'You Could See Things Descend into Chaos'people.com The 'Chevron deference' has long been the backbone of how corporations are regulated. The Supreme Court's new landmark ruling strips federal agencies of their power to determine what's best for Americ...

for those of us who don’t work directly in campaigns and elections, but want to contribute, a good way to direct your $ is to state House campaigns in MI, PA, AZ, & WI, which are all very close and could fall either way, and your effort to direct voter contact (I like @votefwd.bsky.social for this)

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Seth D. Michaels

Bush condescendingly spoke of the “soft bigotry of low expectations”, a thing he and his party and fellow pathetic president Trump have only benefited from

I mean, I know this is useless to say almost but if Biden were retweeting right now a meme grown out of a violent conspiracy theory movement that says Republicans and Hollywood are running a satanic pedophile cult, he’d be immediately forced out but it’s Trump so media & politicos are all 🤷‍♂️

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Seth D. Michaels

Reply to

Brendan Cantwell

18/End My summary: - Make college less affordable - Make it easier to discriminate - Make it easier fraudulent universities to rip off students - Allow the President to put ideological tests that target individual institutions or whole states for funding cuts. Fun!

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Seth D. Michaels

Russ Vought, head of Trump's OMB, was the person who gave Chris Rufo and his "critical race theory" propaganda campaign it's big break in September 2020. Rufo, an obscure figure previously, had a Tucker Carlson appearance, then a few days later Vought reached out. www.yahoo.com/news/the-man...

lotta names from the grim recent history of the far right - Cuccinelli, Von Spakovsky - but it’s striking to me how much a minor functionary from the first time around, Russ Vought, is rising up to be a Big Bad

The man behind Trump’s campaign against 'critical race theory'www.yahoo.com The programs Rufo targeted are intended to improve communication, defuse tensions and promote equal opportunities among co-workers of different races and ethnicities, and are analogous, or identical t...

Trump: I don't know anything about Project 2025 Here is a list of all the Trump officials who authored the Project 2025 blueprint, Mandate for Leadership. 25 of 36 were part of the Trump administration. project2025istheocracy.substack.com/p/project-20...

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Seth D. Michaels

Reply to

Don Zeko

one of the most dishonest things people in my profession do is pretend as if “the story” and “the narrative” isn’t something they have direct control over

“We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be gained from the past, we are welcome. But now is the time, the important time.” www.blackpast.org/african-amer...

(1852) Frederick Douglass, "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July" •www.blackpast.org On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to address the citizens of his hometown, Rochester, New York. Whatever the expectations of his audience on that 76th anniversary of the signing of the D...

Reply to

Jenn Lyons

I’m like a 0.2 on the Kinsey scale but Amos could fix me

(slams proverbial laptop shut for four to five days)

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Seth D. Michaels

I would like to once again remind everyone that the DNC is a bureaucratic services organization and keeper of the rules for nominating processes, not a shadowy back room strategy organization. They don’t decide who’s running or what the message is.

Reply to

Jonathan Bernstein

I’m ambivalent and trepidatious about a switch and agree generally with your point but: a possession where you don’t score is much worse when your team is behind than when your team is ahead. Status quo ante doesn’t mean much when it’s the result of a missed opportunity to change things.

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Seth D. Michaels

this is one of my least favorite tropes and it is especially ridiculous when the heroes have just shot their way through an army of mooks to get to the villain oh, you can kill 475 henchmen but the guy who is actually responsible for ordering them around is a step too far? do you hear yourself?

the whole ‘actually, killing the villain makes us just as bad as him’ trope had done incomprehensible damage to society and i’m not kidding

I think about this every time I get to the “we’re not so different you and I” villain speech in a movie.

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Seth D. Michaels

kind of amazed at how confident people are at predicting which candidates and what political moves will win after the past decade. humans are resilient

couldn’t be me, well into my 10th year of fully acknowledging I don’t know shit

every goggle-eyed God-and-Man-at-Yale-pilled evangelical apparatchik on the federal bench is going to have a free hand to say “mmmm no, the law is too ambiguous, because Loper” about any of their hobbyhorses

The Biden administration cannot enforce new anti-discrimination rules in health care for transgender Americans, a Mississippi federal judge ruled, citing a recent landmark Supreme Court ruling that weakened the power of federal agencies.

Judge cites new Supreme Court ruling in blocking health care anti-discrimination protections for transgender Americans | CNN Politicswww.cnn.com The Biden administration cannot enforce new anti-discrimination rules in health care for transgender Americans, a federal judge in Mississippi ruled Wednesday, citing a recent landmark Supreme Court r...

Reply to

Flat Pluto Society

she was both in the White House during the Benghazi attack and in the embassy, unlocking doors

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Seth D. Michaels

One of the biggest frustrations with the ongoing “Biden’s too old” story is that there are so many damn things to hit Trump on and none of them can get any oxygen

The Biden Campaign needs to blare this constantly. Trump is a pedophile who openly associated with Epstein.

Reply to

Micah

Just picturing him (talking like Politician with a Secret from an episode of a mid-tier police procedural) standing in between Gretchen Whitmer (talking like the funniest person at your neighborhood barbecue) and Wes Moore (talking like the coolest coach on campus)

Reply to

ApocalypticaNow

he rubs me the wrong way so much that I don’t understand who he’s for. All smarm, zero have-a-beer-with, not progressive enough to lead the biggest blue state, yet too easily caricatured as a slick CA liberal. I genuinely don’t know if he’s a national liability or if he’s just eating crackers for me

this, and: if we take as a given that mainstream national Dems aren’t proving themselves up to the challenge of beating him (which I’m inclined to agree with), that’s an argument for engaging *more*, not less

I'm just like... not even remotely prepared to concede that Donald Trump winning in November is a foregone conclusion.

this is perhaps my hottest take