Make the news round up good enough that I can cancel the NYTimes. Their preening, officious tone is annoying af. Cover the news of the day in “Yglesias voice.” I understand the analysis won’t be as deep but just hearing the news presented in an open-minded, factual way without all the virtue signaling and “young knowledge workers conceit would be nice.
There was not an option for this in the survey, but my feeling is a bit more “maybe” than yes or no on the idea of SB PM.
I like that you are trying new things, and experimenting with ways to find things that the readership will find valuable. Bravo for creative discovery!
Of the things that you have tried so far, I like the news roundups the most.
One thing I think would be interesting is to find and highlight takes that are different from Matt’s, but not just stupid. I feel like I regularly see people left of Matt with their takes. But Matt has pointed out that they just aren’t that many conservative writers on the Internet, and to me that’s a bit frustrating.
It feels like the Trump administration is just a mindless chaos monkey. But I would imagine that there must be at least some intellectual underpinning to some parts of what they’re doing. In the same way Matt provides insight into the internal factions of the Democrats I would like to understand better what the heck is going on inside the Republican Party. As long as we’re stuck with a two party system it feels important to try and understand them both.
This note by Lyman Stone really puzzles me. Basically, a woman writes an op-ed saying, I’m a Republican, but I rely on Medicaid to take care of my disabled son. Hanania, in his trademark style, says the disabled son is a disgusting drain on society. And Stone criticizes Hanania’s viewpoint because everyone in society deserves compassion. So … is Stone in favor of Medicaid? Does he oppose the Trump cuts to the program? Or does he support Medicaid cuts but just opposes saying mean things about why you’re doing it?
Wow, Rufo's gone off the deep end! The redesign didn't look good to me -- it reminds me *A LOT* of when Skipper's changed the design of its restaurants in the late 1980s or early 1990s, which I thought was terrible because it lacked character -- but I can't imagine calling it "woke."
Rufo's specific tweet is interesting because unlike some of the other far-right influencers who were offended by getting rid of the old white farmer, he *doesn't* seem to think the redesign was "woke". But he goes on to say that it doesn't matter whether Cracker Barrel is "innocent" or "guilty," they should be punished regardless because of the exemplary effect it will have on all companies. If even an "innocent" company can be brought to its knees by accidentally doing something that "smells like" wokeism, then all of the companies will proactively stay hyperaware of wokeness and give it a wide berth. It's very Nikolai Krylenko: "We must execute not only the guilty. Execution of the innocent will impress the masses even more."
I wonder if the evening posts could have minimal overlap with Matt Y's own offerings while providing some value but I understand it may be hard.
- Pieces that center actual frontline democrats and independents fighting swing seats (at any level) and listen to what they are actually saying, especially if it is not what liberals want to hear. Reported pieces instead of takes if possible would be great!
- Less navel-gazing around intra-party turf wars with other blue-city elites (who of course may be wrong on the internet at various times)
On the topic of state and local disfunction, I think Matt's Xitter take on California is basically correct - the state is beautiful, the people are mostly good and the politics are simply impossible. I've lived in the state most of my life and despite the Democratic trifecta I've never been more pessimistic about the future here - it's just a place where nothing valuable, literally, can be accomplished. I'm not really in a position to relocate, but I'm curious - what states/regions in the US do the SB commentariat consider to be both well-governed and interesting? (Excluding Tulsa of course, which we already had a good discussion about a few weeks back...)
I hate to see it, don’t live there obviously, no stake. But ideally, dominated by Democrats, they could be a lab for some of the most promising liberal ideas. I know that’s Pollyanna-ish, something that I don’t think I’m normally afflicted with, but it feels like some version of that should be possible (and in a beautiful place to live, no less).
So I’ve wrote a lot about how tracking instruction seems unfair and this year I got placed with a top form class from the bottom and it feels absurd.
My students receive instruction plus one year ahead of schedule and are still destroying it. 86/88 on their first unit pretests.
They’re all in completion math and science clubs and even little things like making a craft intelligence makes a huge difference on cutting and folding. My birthday was Tuesday and I got a grab bag of foods and gift cards. So much so I had to bulk order thank you cards after getting literally all the listed supplies by the end of the first week.
People are like you seem so happy this year…it’s wildly unfair.
One of my many Dark Liberal beliefs: Some people are smarter in some ways than others, it's almost entirely genetic (and thus, not really "earned"), it has potentially huge effects on their life trajectories, and we pretend it's all about quality of instruction in school or "grit" or socioeconomic class, etc. rather than, you know, having a robust welfare state. (Oh shoot, am I channeling FdB?)
I feel like a dummy, but can you explain “top form class from the bottom” please? Sounds like a top form class, I don’t understand the “from the bottom”.
It would be flattering to believe that and maybe I have an aptitude for high performers.
But like it’s so night and day that it’s bizarre. Like over 15 years I’ve hated crafting lessons because someone can’t follow fold on the dotted line cut on the black line.
I agree with a couple comments here that said news roundups is probably not a good choice. The trick is to pick the one news story that most folks want to say something about. You'll figure it out.
I want my news and opinions separated. A targeted short news story on something relevant to what Matt's writing about is probably the best option, but it's best to be forced to pick a different source for news IMO
In general - quickly scannable (clear headings with brief details) is better than lots of detail
Make the news round up good enough that I can cancel the NYTimes. Their preening, officious tone is annoying af. Cover the news of the day in “Yglesias voice.” I understand the analysis won’t be as deep but just hearing the news presented in an open-minded, factual way without all the virtue signaling and “young knowledge workers conceit would be nice.
There was not an option for this in the survey, but my feeling is a bit more “maybe” than yes or no on the idea of SB PM.
I like that you are trying new things, and experimenting with ways to find things that the readership will find valuable. Bravo for creative discovery!
Of the things that you have tried so far, I like the news roundups the most.
One thing I think would be interesting is to find and highlight takes that are different from Matt’s, but not just stupid. I feel like I regularly see people left of Matt with their takes. But Matt has pointed out that they just aren’t that many conservative writers on the Internet, and to me that’s a bit frustrating.
It feels like the Trump administration is just a mindless chaos monkey. But I would imagine that there must be at least some intellectual underpinning to some parts of what they’re doing. In the same way Matt provides insight into the internal factions of the Democrats I would like to understand better what the heck is going on inside the Republican Party. As long as we’re stuck with a two party system it feels important to try and understand them both.
This note by Lyman Stone really puzzles me. Basically, a woman writes an op-ed saying, I’m a Republican, but I rely on Medicaid to take care of my disabled son. Hanania, in his trademark style, says the disabled son is a disgusting drain on society. And Stone criticizes Hanania’s viewpoint because everyone in society deserves compassion. So … is Stone in favor of Medicaid? Does he oppose the Trump cuts to the program? Or does he support Medicaid cuts but just opposes saying mean things about why you’re doing it?
https://substack.com/@lymanstone/note/c-147866612?r=7ednr&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
I think Hanania's point is that she should have chosen to have an abortion once the severity of the defects became clear.
Stone is a super catholic or something like that, right? I'm sure he would just say the community should care for the child, not the government.
So I just learned about this whole Cracker Barrel thing. Something is seriously wrong with these people. https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1958629455125258479
Wow, Rufo's gone off the deep end! The redesign didn't look good to me -- it reminds me *A LOT* of when Skipper's changed the design of its restaurants in the late 1980s or early 1990s, which I thought was terrible because it lacked character -- but I can't imagine calling it "woke."
https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackPeopleTwitter/comments/1mvp8jx/when_you_take_out_the_cracker/ was glued to the top of reddit for a day.
Apparently, this wasn't just Rufo. It was the outrage of the day among the whole universe of far-right influencers. So much so that Cracker Barrel's stock tanked. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cracker-barrel-cbrl-stock-down-200-million-loss-new-logo-change
Rufo's specific tweet is interesting because unlike some of the other far-right influencers who were offended by getting rid of the old white farmer, he *doesn't* seem to think the redesign was "woke". But he goes on to say that it doesn't matter whether Cracker Barrel is "innocent" or "guilty," they should be punished regardless because of the exemplary effect it will have on all companies. If even an "innocent" company can be brought to its knees by accidentally doing something that "smells like" wokeism, then all of the companies will proactively stay hyperaware of wokeness and give it a wide berth. It's very Nikolai Krylenko: "We must execute not only the guilty. Execution of the innocent will impress the masses even more."
"Florida ordered to dismantle Alligator Alcatraz over environmental impact"
No law makes me cackle as much as NEPA. Just pure chaos, all the time, for everyone. Excited to watch (er, read) NEPA vs Supreme Court: Round 2.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/08/21/florida-alligator-alcatraz-immigration-detention/
Halina, I think you’re doing great. Not a complaint but I agree with others who prefer a single relevant and/or interesting story to a news roundup.
I wonder if the evening posts could have minimal overlap with Matt Y's own offerings while providing some value but I understand it may be hard.
- Pieces that center actual frontline democrats and independents fighting swing seats (at any level) and listen to what they are actually saying, especially if it is not what liberals want to hear. Reported pieces instead of takes if possible would be great!
- Less navel-gazing around intra-party turf wars with other blue-city elites (who of course may be wrong on the internet at various times)
On the topic of state and local disfunction, I think Matt's Xitter take on California is basically correct - the state is beautiful, the people are mostly good and the politics are simply impossible. I've lived in the state most of my life and despite the Democratic trifecta I've never been more pessimistic about the future here - it's just a place where nothing valuable, literally, can be accomplished. I'm not really in a position to relocate, but I'm curious - what states/regions in the US do the SB commentariat consider to be both well-governed and interesting? (Excluding Tulsa of course, which we already had a good discussion about a few weeks back...)
Most of the states are roughly average in quality of governance. California is an extreme outlier.
I hate to see it, don’t live there obviously, no stake. But ideally, dominated by Democrats, they could be a lab for some of the most promising liberal ideas. I know that’s Pollyanna-ish, something that I don’t think I’m normally afflicted with, but it feels like some version of that should be possible (and in a beautiful place to live, no less).
Washington state is well-governed, though Seattle city likes to flirt with irresponsible anti-business governance
So I’ve wrote a lot about how tracking instruction seems unfair and this year I got placed with a top form class from the bottom and it feels absurd.
My students receive instruction plus one year ahead of schedule and are still destroying it. 86/88 on their first unit pretests.
They’re all in completion math and science clubs and even little things like making a craft intelligence makes a huge difference on cutting and folding. My birthday was Tuesday and I got a grab bag of foods and gift cards. So much so I had to bulk order thank you cards after getting literally all the listed supplies by the end of the first week.
People are like you seem so happy this year…it’s wildly unfair.
One of my many Dark Liberal beliefs: Some people are smarter in some ways than others, it's almost entirely genetic (and thus, not really "earned"), it has potentially huge effects on their life trajectories, and we pretend it's all about quality of instruction in school or "grit" or socioeconomic class, etc. rather than, you know, having a robust welfare state. (Oh shoot, am I channeling FdB?)
Absurd? As opposed to how it should be?
I think maybe at some like cosmic level it’s how it should be but the inequality of it all feels terrible.
I feel like a dummy, but can you explain “top form class from the bottom” please? Sounds like a top form class, I don’t understand the “from the bottom”.
I understood it to mean “last year I was teaching a bottom-performing class, this year I was moved to a top-performing class”?
Ah, gotcha.
Are you sure it's not because you've become a profoundly better teacher since last year? Maybe your classroom management has improved?
It would be flattering to believe that and maybe I have an aptitude for high performers.
But like it’s so night and day that it’s bizarre. Like over 15 years I’ve hated crafting lessons because someone can’t follow fold on the dotted line cut on the black line.
It’s all feels a bit upside down right now.
I like SB PM. I usually read it on the bus ride home around 8 PM—the amiable short-form pieces are a nice evening transition!
I really liked yesterday’s single-topic news round-up. I’d love more of that in the future.
The topics based news round ups are useful to me! I’m teaching a class on homelessness and the update about housing was helpful!
I think the Chinese government isn't even pretending to not be trying to sabotage the US economy at this point.
Matt's post re Teamsters and driverless trucks: https://x.com/mattyglesias/status/1958664167990194468
Chinese bot reply (note that the reply was written in Chinese): https://x.com/Bqxtc777/status/1958667567607992333
Halina, keep up the good work.
I agree with a couple comments here that said news roundups is probably not a good choice. The trick is to pick the one news story that most folks want to say something about. You'll figure it out.
I want my news and opinions separated. A targeted short news story on something relevant to what Matt's writing about is probably the best option, but it's best to be forced to pick a different source for news IMO
"...what Matt's writing about..."
What's "what Matt's writing about"?
Thanks, Ken! I appreciate your feedback.
I do love the housing update post idea