I figured that was at least part of the reason he wouldn't release the taxes. But I'm willing to go with "owes a ton of money to Russia" as an alternative.

i've been assured that marriage equality was going to happen via the Supremes right around now no matter what, so nyah to voting as a means to bring about change.

You got to start at local elections, build grassroots organizations, convince millions of people to join your cause and also that change takes time and steady, diligent work, over decades.

It's worth noting that Trump is explicitly running on the importance of wacky unpredictability in a chief executive.

All governors look alike.

I care about taxes (across elections and parties) because I want some minimal evidence that if the wannabe president is corrupt, they are able to scrub obvious evidence of this off 10 years of tax returns. It is a very low standard, one I wish both parties would formally adopt as a condition of running. (It is a…

When she left office, Clinton should have entered a bubble in which she had no contact with anyone, lest it in some way influence her someday. Same for Chelsea and any other relatives she had. (The Clinton family is small; this would be wildly awkward for the Bushes who'd have several dozen people crammed into…

It is very, very worth clicking the link at the top of that story to the annotated transcript of the entire press conference. In which a dryly exasperated reporter points out what is true, false, or so weird they don't even know what this is supposed to mean.

People (of all political stripes) really should look up his 1 hour WaPo interview from the primaries. No gotchas, he's right off given a chance to talk about any topic he feels is important to address (the classiness of marble as a trim, it turns out) and asked about his stated positions on foreign and domestic…

Re the Lingering of the Bros, I think they have moved into Kim Davis territory.* That is, there will always be a hard core saying "Yeah, if you don't like the people asking for a marriage license you should be able to refuse. And her first several marriages happened when she was a Baptist, which is not a Christian…

But now the election has a Boris and Natasha Badenov element that it was missing before.

Tax returns: Across elections, parties, and candidates, I have always wanted every person presenting themselves as a serious candidate for president to release 10 years worth of tax returns. I would hope that if you can become the candidate of a major party your tax returns would not show that you are in debt to the…

I think this is really evident in online discussions, where an idiotic comment by someone roughly aligned with oneself gets "well they're crazy, skipping on" and one from someone oppositely aligned gets torn to shreds as proof of how crazy those people are.

How much damage do so-called "SJWs" actually cause?

A shift I think I've seen over the past decade: It used to be if someone was shot by the police on the steps of their apartment building for the suspicious action of reaching into their pocket as they stepped indoors, people could assure each other that while it was bad it was a one-off event with no broader…

I think a real shift in the last few years is that someone used to be able to freely share their -ist views and people would smile and nod and they could later assert "why everyone I know agrees with me on this!" Now people whose opinion actually matters—family, friends, colleagues or boss—will shush them.

Discuss whether to refinance. Discuss sore on dog's foot—should we go to the vet? Try to figure out where to go on the holidays.

I think if everyone responded to "sorry, just not working for me" with "okay, thanks for being upfront" it would get used more. Arguing with someone about whether you have a good enough reason to break up with them is a good way to convince them to handle the next break-up by vanishing.

Both the far right and far left have been embarrassing in terms of believing that the President is like Sith Emperor in terms of his absolute power to do whatever he wants.

Night 1 of RNC: Benghazi night.
Day 1 of DNC: Trump announces plan to leave NATO, which will cause all the other countries to run after us with wheelbarrowloads of money and offer anything we want if we come back. (This is the international version of his plan to supercharge the American economy via defaulting on US…