Your Mid-Week Experiment

In which we exist in a liminal state between voting and counting

The election was so weird, y’all. Democrats seem to have won by not losing too badly. And Republicans are still likely to win back control of congress, but with such a slim margin that will likely make things harder on themselves rather than the White House.

Thanks, everyone, for the positive feedback on last weekend’s essay about how the Democratic Party’s system to enforce message discipline results in cookie-cutter candidates who approximate real people. One reader, inestimable consultant Dave Gold, shared this piece that reached a similar confusion a few years ago.

Let’s get to it:

Have you ever heard of the blobfish?

“‘These are conditions ripe for political violence’: how close is the US to civil war?” (The Guardian)

This is evil, and our government did it.

This is disturbing and should be illegal, but it wasn’t in Texas. (Texas Monthly)

This is so smart. (Prof G.)

This is so stupid, and people fall for it every year. (The Atlantic)

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Thanks to Noom, I lost 40 pounds over 2020-21 and have kept it off since then. Click on the blue box to get 20% off. Seriously, this works. No, this isn’t an ad. Yes, I really lost all that weight with Noom.

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We’ve also got a tip jar, and I promise to waste every cent you give me on having fun, because writing this newsletter for you is some

Buy the book Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick banned from the Bullock Texas History Museum: Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of the American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and myself is out from Penguin Random House. Out in paperback now!