1. Anyone who thinks that Biden could just drop out and the Dems would pick the perfect replacement at a 4-day lovefest in Chicago is utterly delusional

For all his flaws, it wasn't an accident that Biden a) won the 2020 nomination and b) defeated Trump, which Hillary could not 2. After SC showed his support from middle-class Black voters made him unbeatable, he moved left, brought in Bernie and Liz, and built a fragile coalition of everybody who opposed Trump that held together

Trump just visited the gun company (Palmetto State Armory) that supplied August's racist Jacksonville mass murderer of 3 Black people at a Dollar General store with the gun he painted a swastika on wistv.com/2023/08/29/lea… Ryan Palmeter, the racist Jacksonville gunman, was able to buy an AR-15 style rifle at the Palmetto State Armory despite his past mental health problems. Its model as billed as “our interpretation of the legendary AR-15 rifle that you have grown to love” the-independent.com/news/world/ame…

1. We are so understandably caught up in the present - Jordan Neely, Proud Boys, Justice Thomas, etc. - that it's easy to forget what happened on this day 53 years ago. But we should never forget May 4, 1970. It made us what we are today. A short thread because... 2. ...last year I did a long thread which is still relevant, so it's linked here. We should, every year, mourn the four lives senselessly cut short when National Guardsmen fired a volley of shots at Kent State University students protesting the war...

https://twitter.com/Will_Bunch/status/1521541066150797312

Two days after a horrific fire in Mexico killed 38 human beings desperate to reach the United States for a better life, not one word about it on the Washington Post homepage

I'm disgusted by our tepid reaction and by Biden's broken promises. I'm writing about it tomorrow Also the New York Times. Just one 24-hour news cycle

1. Until now, I've merely found newish NYT columnist Pamela Paul annoying, but her newest piece is outrageous: A long apologia for fascism in Ron DeSantis' Florida 2. You would think a columnist for America's preeminent news org would be up and arms over DeSantis' assaults on free speech on campus. Nope, Paul says that a Republican governor destroying academic freedom is the fault of liberals

1. I guess this is the column I'm not writing as I use up all my union-won 2022 vacation time, but we're starting to get some surprising clarity about what the 2024 election (I know, I know...) could look like 2. The observation I made two days after the midterms has only been bolstered by good news on inflation, marriage equality, etc. -- it's getting harder to imagine a scenario in which Biden isn't the Dem nominee, unless there's a health issue inquirer.com/opinion/commen…

1. The right-wing wants to wage class war over student debt, painting a picture of elite leftist 'gender studies' majors working as Starbucks baristas

The reality? California's desperate middle-class kids living in their cars in the Walmart parking lot, or couch surfing (Thread) 2. My new column asks how the hell the American Dream of an affordable college education in the Golden State devolved from free tuition to this fall's hellscape of thousands of struggling, unhoused students from San Diego to Santa Cruz inquirer.com/opinion/colleg…

FACT CHECK: The death of their heiress to the throne that Americans fought a bloody revolution to cast off has not caused a "huge void" in the U.S. WTAF, you sleazebag British tabloids?
thesun.co.uk/news/19754089/… I've really had enough. I was hoping to ignore this, but I'm writing my column tomorrow about the utter absurdity of the American media obsession with the monarchy we once fought to cast off, and what this all says about the future of U.S. democracy

1. The backlash of white supremacy remains the irresistible force of American politics -- even after the remarkable 2020 protests after George Floyd's murder. Instead of a racial reckoning, we get a push for more cops and a war on public schools inquirer.com/columnists/att… 2. There was something that the far right instinctively understood about Black Lives Matter marches - that this was a revolution of the highly educated. At some protests, researchers found more than 80% held college degrees. This has inspired a Big Lie...

Paramilitary posturing. Voter suppression. Enlisting state power to go after his enemies. Ron DeSantis has brought full-on fascism to Florida, and now he's taking it national

The GOP's DeSantis and Trump are racing into rock bottom for 2024. My new column inquirer.com/opinion/commen… Here's an excerpt. Take a break from preseason football and read the whole thing, And THEN... (next tweet)

Imagine what the FBI could do to YOU after raiding Mar-a-Lago, GOP leaders ask. Seriously?? We know what cops already do to everyday folks like Breonna Taylor

What's with the right's new take on 'law and order'? Who are police really for? My new column inquirer.com/opinion/commen… Here's an excerpt -- I hope you can take a second to read the whole column on this lazy Sunday. And two more things...

America crossed a point of no return with the stunning FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, with the hope that finally a crooked president can be brought to justice. Not a moment too soon, after a Dallas speech exposed Trump's slide into full-on fascism

My new column inquirer.com/columnists/att… Here's an excerpt that I hope will inspire you to read the whole newsletter

1. Ever hear of Shamaine Daniels?

Me neither...before tonight 2. So with all the talk for months, reaching a crescendo today, about how central Pa. Rep. Scott Perry is a curse upon U.S. democracy, you'd think there'd be talk about the best way to get rid of him

@ShamaineDaniels is his Democratic opponent in the November election

The nearly flawless Jan. 6 have convinced me: Donald Trump and wacko inner circle committed felony fraud to stage an attempted coup amid a $250M scam

What I'm not convinced is whether it matters to a nation Giuliani-level drunk on lies. My new column inquirer.com/columnists/att… Here's an excerpt -- take a moment to read the whole piece and tell me what you think

1. Let's be clear: This is woefully inadequate.

This fall, millions -- disproportionately Black and Brown, convinced the American Dream was hopeless unless they borrowed tens of thousands of dollars -- will likely have to resume payments, and be worse off washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022… 2. What's more, it's a plug-a-small-leak fix for a collapsing dam. This deserves a lot more attention, but the American Way of College is melting down. Enrollment is plunging. There must be a radical fix for higher education, by which... nytimes.com/2022/05/26/us/…

1. In my column and my upcoming book, After the Ivory Tower Falls, a main focus has been how America has failed its young people (especially young men). What I've come to strongly support is a government-backed universal "gap year" for 18-year-olds. Why?

https://twitter.com/Will_Bunch/status/1529208649801170944

2. At 18, we go from schooling as a public good to throwing teens out into the world, most often either a) telling them they're "worthless" if they don't go to college or b) saddling them with a massive debt before many really know what they want to do

1. I may be the national columnist, but the fate of the nation and what happens this fall in Pennsylvania are inextricably linked. I've been on the story for the last 18 months, and with all the interest I want to highlight some of what I've written 2. Way back in December 2020, I tried to warn readers about the threat that Doug Mastriano posed to Pennsylvania and our democracy inquirer.com/columnists/att…

Sure, voters care about inflation and whatnot, but what they REALLY care about is sending a giant middle finger to the educated elites that much of the U.S. middle class now despises

My column on how Pa.'s John Fetterman became that middle finger inquirer.com/columnists/att… Here's an excerpt -- read the whole piece and tell me what you think

Even though it sparked a lively (and good!) discussion, I deleted a popular tweet because it contained an error. Joe Manchin did not endorse Connor Lamb, but Lamb held "a high-profile fundraiser" with Manchin in the spring of 2021 politico.com/news/2021/04/3… Lamb had also played up his relationship with Manchin in the past, then after Manchin blocked the Democratic agenda he has tried to distance himself. Since it's unlikely he'll win tomorrow we'll never know facebook.com/watch/?v=13035…

There's also a couple of doodads from today's newsletter that I want to call attention to, so... If you need a cool, quick introduction to the patriarchy's war on women's reproductive rights, and think about an important solution, check out this video from @Alyssa_Milano and @nowthisnews

1. Tomorrow is the 52nd anniversary of a tragic watermark in U.S. history, the government killing of 4 students at Kent State. I just dropped this piece on an important, little-discussed part of that story. It's so critical that I'm also doing a thread inquirer.com/columnists/att… 2. For the nation, the tragedy of Kent State would go beyond the realization that America could murder its children for dissenting. The backlash gave fuel to a war on higher education and critical thinking that has lasted 50-plus years and ripped America in two. I learned...