You become right-coded once you break from any consensus, which is very stupid. Taibbi criticizes the left often, but he's fundamentally a liberal on virtually every social and economic question of note. His free speeh absolutism would've made him a leftist into the 2000s.

https://twitter.com/walterkirn/status/1602485667321511936

The media is dumb about ideology. Bari Weiss can be called a conservative writer. She's an Israel hawk, skeptical of heavy government spending. Taibbi is none of those things. He's a liberal w/ a Bernie affinity who often criticizes the mainstream left on free speech grounds

I'm in the middle of writing a story on Asian American voters moving to the right in New York. Ron Kim, one of the most progressive members of the state legislature, had some fascinating things to say.

https://twitter.com/rontkim/status/1601958512636170242

Kim is unique in that he has genuine left view but is not enamored with large nonprofits and labor unions, which govern most talking points of Democratic pols. There are a lot of great nonprofits and unions but they aren't infallible. Many NY Dems treat them like the church.

Taibbi has a lot of explaining to do on why he wrote out a whole story on Twitter - seems to be it was some deal with Musk, but TBD - but the ferocity of liberals toward his work and career continues to astound me. Many of these people probably haven't read him in the last decade A writer I respect a while back denounced Taibbi somewhat furiously on Twitter, pointing to a Substack piece he'd written. I *assumed* the writer had read the piece and it turned out, no, the denouncement was based on a headline. A single headline.

The red wave in NY, for a variety of reasons, didn't come for the State Senate. The special master drew favorable maps for them and they survived the Long Island losses. There will be, at the minimum, a 40-member majority. This is big for the left. There are two ways Democrats in Albany can go. They can look at the disaster on Long Island and attempt some weakening of criminal justice reforms - or they can simply give conservatives and moderates the finger. They got 40 seats. Why bother?

One odd reality of Tuesday night is that New York may have experienced a red wave but not the rest of America. In NY, Republicans took almost every single toss up House seats and came closer to winning the governor's race than in purple states like Michigan. It's funny to think my feelings of a red wave building were probably skewed by living in deep-blue New York. A red wave absolutely built here. It just didn't crest as high in many other states.

It's notable Zeldin is already at 45%, with Suffolk County yet to report. He has already performed better than any Republican candidate in NY in two decades. Had he not been a hardcore Trumper - or a moderate run instead - Hochul may have lost. The alarm around Hochul was real, as well as the Zeldin energy. It's plausible he ends the night in the high 40s. It just was not enough in a very Democratic state.

Intense excitement for Lee Zeldin in Midwood. Orthodox Jewish voters are mobbing him, chanting his name, calling him a hero. A Zeldin truck just drove by.

AOC is here with Kathy Hochul in Queens. Massive amount of pressure following them both

Hochul is next due in Washington Heights. Rep. Adriano Espaillat is here, along with many members of 1199 SEIU, the healthcare workers union. "Who got the power? We got the power!" they cry out Kathy Hochul arrives to chants of "Kathy! Kathy! Kathy!"

Hochul is in the Mansion Diner on 2nd Avenue, meeting voters one on one. It's like a City Council race. These people are apparently tourists. Kathy Hochul quotes the Taylor Swift song, "Welcome to New York"

First stop today is the 86 st Q on the Upper East Side. Kathy Hochul will be here with local politicians. It's a key neighborhood that used to vote Republican and has been trending D. There still could be a Zeldin vote here. Hochul will be in Washington Heights, Woodside, and downtown Brooklyn today. Zeldin will be in Midwood, where there's expected to be a heavy Orthodox turnout for Zeldin. This all has a NYC mayoral race feel.

Jay Jacobs kicking off this rally for Kathy Hochul, with Bill Clinton headlining. A lot of organized labor. Rosie Perez up now. It's the trot out the celebrities phase of the campaign, which does feel like 2016 rerun.

A Kathy Hochul campaign literature table in Sunnyside, Queens. Hochul has arrived at the Sunnyside Greenmarket. A crowd forms around her. "Governor, we're with you all the way," a woman says nearby.

Hillary Clinton takes the stage at this Barnard College rally for Kathy Hochul. Clinton says this election will have "far-ranging repercussions" and says "every issue" is on the ballot. Now Kathy Hochul is up. Kamala due after. She talks Roe and warns against "complacency" setting in for the electorate. "How will we be judged by what we do in 2022?"

Stray election thought.

Kathy Hochul should win but all my random anecdotal evidence is not good for her. Several life-long Democrats (certain Cuomo voters, people who watch MSNBC, Jan. 6 obsessives) are voting Lee Zeldin for governor. We'll see what this means! Crime has 100% overtaken other issues and Democrats in NY who (rightfully) changed the bail laws never figured out how to properly message around them. GOP is winning the message war. Every crime, pretty much, is blamed on the 2019 law.

"Delete your account" "this you?" "read the room" there's something special about Twitter discourse that feels frozen in time, a bunch of aging millenials and gen X'ers chasing the lingo of their faded youth as they remain terminally online "Take the L" yes, I'll take it right back to 2002

The thing about SABR nerds is you have to periodically re-evaluate your arrogance because stats change. I grew up reading @KenTremendous mock the hell out of David Eckstein but you go back and look and lo and behold, he was worth 5.2 bWAR in 2005. Pretty good! @KenTremendous The subversive/cool thing in like 2004 was to read Moneyball and go "hehe Scott Hatteberg is a STEAL" and you go back with current stats and realize he was a slow, mostly worthless player with the exception of one season. Couldn't run or play defense, was a marginal hitter

Now that certified election results are in, I am still waiting for NGO world to reckon with how much Asians swung toward the Republican Party in NYC. The shift is honestly stunning. Everyone has been focusing on AD40, in Flushing, which Sliwa narrowly flipped against Eric Adams. But Sliwa, the Republican, also dominated two Democrat-represented AD's in Brooklyn that are Asian-majority, AD47 and AD49.

The argument for getting people vaccinated is it will save the lives of the unvaccinated, not that it will make your precious vaccinated life safer. The variants are here and vaccinated people spread Covid too. The vaccine keeps you from getting really sick. So much liberal rage is like IF FLORIDA GOT VACCINATED THERE'D BE NO DELTA ARGGHGH ARGHGH.

No? Delta came from other countries and was going to spread here like wildfire anyway. Vaccines keep you from getting very sick from it. They don't stop you from spreading it.

I'm in Midwood today where Andrew Yang is getting endorsed by two leading Orthodox Jewish politicians, Simcha Eichenstein and Kalman Yeger "We need a fresh face," Eichenstein says of Andrew Yang. "Someone who is focused, capable, and driven."

What @AndrewYang did when he first ran for president was seek out a bunch of popular podcasts on different ends of the political spectrum. Why? Because he was a nobody, and major newspapers wouldn't bother with him. Not a bad strategy.

politico.com/states/new-yor… Liberal writers and voters don't really get Yang, but there's a reason he's leading the 2021 field and became popular running for president. Many voters don't hit neat ideological boxes - they hunt for a compelling message and a person to deliver it.