Amanda C 🥄

wellstone was the first politician i ever got to volunteer for. people love to quote “we all do better when we all do better” but i try to live by this one: “If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them.”

My $4 million ad campaign has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my $4 million ad campaign

As a self-styled bureaucromancer, this speaks to my soul.

Listen. You stay the HELL AWAY from my car.

When flying, I always ask people sitting behind me if it’s okay if I recline my seat during the flight. A lot of folks are really surprised that I’m asking at all, but appreciate it. Does anyone else do this or am I the weirdo?

Deep Purple’s “Child in Time” sure is a morning music choice, MSP airport

obviously many more important takeaways from the French approach to protest, but much respect to the absolute varsity level Whimsy of throwing a whole ass piano at the cops

Add "for Tax Purposes" to a movie: Save the Last Dance for Tax Purposes Spirited Away for Tax Purposes Love, Actually for Tax Purposes

Similarly, I think "HYPERKERATOSIS?" is one of my sleeper agent activation words.

This references many of my favorite government things: building internal capacity, de-privatization of public services, and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)! A regulatory attorney dropped the banger “Plain language increases compliance.”

I'm in the sub-generation of people who quote "Wayne's World"... often. Some faves: 1. "Hey Mr. Donut-head man, who's trying to kill ya? I don't know, but they'd better not." 2. "I don't even own A [object], let alone many [objects] that would necessitate a rack." (Related: "Get the net!")

Some unexpected wisdom dropped by maptap.gg today: "An empire held together by terror needs an army everywhere. An empire that lets people keep their gods mostly runs itself."

you KICK the data center? you kick its building like the football?

New open-access paper: Direct File showed that govt could build its own user-centered platform without relying on contractors. But the product was killed after a DOGE lead spoke with the private tax preparation industry lobbying against a private option. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Hey if an attorney needs special training about the need to support legal claims with evidence, maybe that person shouldn't be allowed to keep being an attorney?!?!?

My "strange snack food" desire has been activated. Past snacks in this category have included: Coca-Cola Tic-Tacs, cranberry-blueberry cold brew, and "tailgate party"-themed candy corn.

Charming local moment: my neighbor across the street is slowly patching up a crack in his driveway. He figured out that the garage next to the driveway casts a shadow across the work area, so he works in the shade and scoots down the driveway as the shadow moves with the sun.

"bully crumples after being hit at all" is such an interesting story, i wonder if there are any analogous ones that are already popular that would make doing something like this everywhere seem intuitive

I'm I-35 becoming a single interstate far enough north to completely end the Mississippi River. (I guess if you combine 35W and 35E plus gobble up Hwy 52, you can do that.)

Unfortunately, it got me.

MAKE MINNESOTA BIGGER! cc/ @curlworks.net , makers of some of the best bumper stickers.

“Thank you for calling Comcast.”

Just saw someone say their AI runs their fantasy football team and I can’t stop laughing. Like, I’m sure everyone’s doing it or something but it’s very funny to me that pretending to be a team manager was so hard that you needed to pretend to pretend to be a team manager

Heard this one from my then 4th grader: What do you say when you lose 25% of your roof? OOF!

Ignorance comes at a cost. Everpure's 'stuck in the Dark Ages' stereotyping (on left) shows how little they know about the early provision of data (on the right). Why does ushering in technologies mean mocking those upon whose knowledge we build? Clearly, these companies need trained humanists!

Great chance to post my all-time favorite headline

Got to describe a meat raffle to a friend this afternoon, since I guess they don't have them in Ohio? We discovered meatraffles.com which honestly has a pretty good way to tell if you'd enjoy a meat raffle.

Did more research and am totally loving Seattle's page about all of this, especially the little templates and notes you can fill out and give to neighbors (or leave at their door if they're not home).

I mean, it's one health care, Michael. What could it cost, a hundred dollars?

MSP: where can my kid meet and spend time with some rabbits? He’s been obsessed with watching the wild rabbits in our yard all spring/summer, loves videos of pet rabbits being silly. Are there like… therapy rabbits? Rabbit meet and greet? (Absolutely NOT getting a pet bunny tho)

To lose visitors in the year you HOST THE WORLD CUP and celebrate a big anniversary is truly incredible.

Alert Sir Mix A Lot.

There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...

Taking a beat to appreciate Fat Bear Week. Likely the all-time most successful government social media campaign by every metric. NASA has to send people to space to get the same amount of attention. Remarkable work from NPS every year to coordinate the public observation of fat bears.

McCall's Costumes unlicensed Dr. Strange Men's Costume Multisize will return in Avengers: Doomsday.

if we keep inventing new terrifying names for our problems then no one can be mad if we don't do anything about them

ABSOLUTELY SCREAM CACKLING at this search prompt and image combo on the new trashbasket america.gov

New, from me: Once memory-holed, DOGE is now the subject of revisionism. To better understand why DOGE failed, I talked to people in the civic tech movement that DOGE displaced, who continue to offer the alternative model for how to modernize govt. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/doge-vs-ci...