Ben Raderstorf

politico.comMamdani is using NYPD gym to host pickup basketball games with friendsThe choice of location has scrambled NYPD training operations, angering a police union and a Republican lawmaker.

I mean…

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com

RFK: "There's five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature."

Ben Raderstorf reposted

mtsw

@mtsw.bsky.social

15h

Politico wrote up Zohran playing basketball with the uncovering-a-big-scandal tone the same day the NYTimes wrote up "credible allegation that The President of the United States raped a woman" as a political strategy story. Broken media in a nutshell

Chris Sommerfeldt@c-sommerfeldt.bsky.social

New: Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a group of his friends have been secretly using the NYPD Police Academy’s gymnasium in Queens to play pickup basketball — scrambling some operations at the facility. w/ @grahamrayman.bsky.social & Joe Anuta www.politico.com/news/2026/10...

washingtonpost.comBolsonaro effectively concedes in Brazil after Trump suggests he won’t helpTrump says the presidential election looked “rigged” but did not say he planned to intervene on behalf of the right-wing politician.

14h

Watching Brazil go through the loser crybaby autocrat supercycle of "polls close -> unsubstantiated claims of fraud -> impassioned pledges to fight -> quiet concession" in like 18 hours does make me kind of jealous

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com

Breaking news: Brazil’s leading right-wing politician, Flávio Bolsonaro, effectively conceded defeat to the incumbent left-wing president, after President Trump indicated he wouldn't intervene despite saying that the vote “looked like another rigged election.”

14h

I know there are a million reasons why our election system is and can be nothing like Brazil. But we could also learn a thing or two...

Ben Raderstorf reposted

16h

Why is the DOJ targeting local election officials in California just a week before Election Day? @annalovesvoting.bsky.social breaks down what you need to know ⬇️

16h

“[Trump] has not won the argument with anybody except the core MAGA base about elections being fraudulent and needing this kind of [intervention]” - the great @timmiller.bsky.social and @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social on @protectdemocracy.org’s new poll on election disruption & denial

ifyoucankeepit.orgNEW POLL: Donald Trump's midterm deception campaign is failingVoters, including Republicans, strongly disapprove of election disruption and denial

16h

See the full poll toplines and crosstabs here: www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/new-poll-d...

@brianbeutler.bsky.social

20h

And I love my kid, but it’s the season of the sickness / He's bringing home bugs and I’m on my last tissues / And it’s half my fault, ’cause I can’t resist the kisses / We'll drink tylenol til we all get a break at Christmas

Ben Raderstorf reposted

Brian Beutler

21h

It really is too bad that more high-profile Dems didn't come to Elissa Slotkin's defense last week. A huge amount rids on whether the narrative we propound about the election is 1) Dems won to hold Trump accountable or 2) Dems won because prices are too high. 🧵 www.offmessage.net/p/wheres-the...

offmessage.netWhere’s The Music?This election is a referendum on Trump’s attempt to rule as king. Democrats should close on putting down his rebellion, no matter what happens to the price of diesel.

Ben Raderstorf reposted

Rahel Freiburghaus

@rfrbrghs.bsky.social

"Today was the best day for global democracy in quite a while“, writes @stevelevitsky.bsky.social re. election results in Serbia and Brazil. This graph shows why. Between 2012 and 2022, 🇧🇷 #6 and 🇷🇸 #9 had some of the steepest LDI declines in the world, in the same group as Hungary, Turkey and India

Ben Raderstorf reposted

@adamjschwarz.bsky.social

NEW POLL: Overwhelming majorities of voters oppose possible efforts to disrupt or deny the midterms. The takeaway? Be ready to speak out against efforts to delay election certification or block official results — you won't be alone. Dive into the full analysis here: https://protdem.org/3UkxKgP

Ben Raderstorf reposted

Adam Schwarz

The achievement of Serbian students overthrowing Aleksandar Vučić can't be overstated. In 2024, they began protesting. In 2025, they transformed a protest movement into civil dissidence. In 2026, they became a political party — and two months later, crushed a corrupt state-entrenched authoritarian.

Ben Raderstorf reposted

Adam Bonica

@adambonica.bsky.social

Anti-corruption politics has ousted yet another corrupt authoritarian.

apnews.comSerbia’s strongman leader Vucic concedes defeat to student-led movement in seismic political shiftThe long-serving strongman leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has conceded defeat in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent ...

If you have the mega bucks, I kinda get shelling out to live in SF, Oakland, Berkeley, even Marin. But choosing to buy a home in much of the Bay is baffling to me. For $6-700k in Sacramento you can buy an awesome house in midtown or a streetcar suburb *way* more livable than Fremont or Sunnyvale.

Urban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰@urbanlandrent.bsky.social

I understand it’s all proximity to jobs but It’s still so funny to me that someone would pay $3 million to live next to a highway in Cupertino. Like it sucks so bad. So much of the Peninsula is just unremarkable mid century suburbs and strip malls and you have to be rich to live there.

Meanwhile, the Los Altos ranch house is a 25 minute walk with no sidewalks to this, the nearest restaurants and stores

Oh, and by the way, my understanding of the current market is Los Altos will probably go for $1-2 mil over asking while Sac one will probably take a discount

Dammit, I messed up and didn’t cover the monthly estimate. Re-posting also with no answers in alt text since it’s hard not to see that either. Money’s no object: which of these two houses would you rather live in?

Ben Raderstorf@raders.bsky.social

Seriously though, as an exercise: I blacked the prices out, so ignoring money, which of these two houses would you personally rather live in? (Price hidden in the alt text if you’re curious)

Urban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰@urbanlandrent.bsky.social

Seriously though, as an exercise: I blacked the prices out, so ignoring money, which of these two houses would you personally rather live in? (Price hidden in the alt text if you’re curious)

For context, the Sacramento Queen Anne has two coffee shops within two blocks and is a six minute walk from what was voted the best farmers market in California

Urban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰@urbanlandrent.bsky.social

San Francisco is arguably the greatest city on the continent, I get it. Breaks economic rationality. San Jose and everything it touches is just Dallas with billionaires and cooler weather

(And yes, I know, you can’t live in Sacramento and get paid $700,000/yr at your Facebook job but still that does not mean your life choices make sense to me)

Sacramento!!! Do you care about safe streets? Do you have kids in your life you care about? See you this afternoon at KIDICAL MASS Pwkb.org

sfchronicle.comProp 45 would make major changes to CEQA. But many CEQA reformers don’t support itKey CEQA reformers are concerned about Prop 45’s unintended consequences, in particular that it could lead to more suburban sprawl in California.

Absolutely incredible turnout

Ben Raderstorf reposted

Patrick Siegman

@siegman.biz

I've long advocated for reforming #CEQA to speed up environmentally-beneficial projects, from bicycle, pedestrian and transit improvements, to apartments near transit. But I'm opposing Prop 45. Many other CEQA reformers are too. Here's why (🎁link):

Ben Raderstorf reposted

Our new poll found one thing clearly: Donald Trump's efforts to deceive the country about the veracity midterms has failed. Tova Kaplan and I talk about why: www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/poll-talk-... @protectdemocracy.org

denverpost.comBoulder to shift gears on protected bike lanesBoulder to shift gears on protected bike lanes

Boulder also was an early mover on excellent cycling infrastructure in the 90s and 00s, but paired with strict single-family zoning and parking mins. Housing prices skyrocketed, it became a traffic snarl of commuters, now most famous for ripping out bike lanes: www.denverpost.com/2016/01/17/b...

Patrick Siegman@siegman.biz

Davis was a pioneer in adding bike facilities, but it layered them on to auto-oriented zoning that includes strict minimum parking mandates & bans apartments on most land. The resulting housing shortage and parking surplus pushed many workers into long-distance car commutes from other cities.

Anyway, big lesson is when you live in a nice place, you have two choices: -Engage in the constant and hard work of making it nicer for more people. More housing, more density, fewer cars. Cambridge. Berkeley tiptoeing there (also Sacramento!) -Try to hoard the niceness for yourself. Boulder, Davis

Oh, also, another great example of the enlightened path: Bend, Oregon! Was there for the first time and *holy smokes* are they doing a ton of good work to make it nicer for more people (cc: @melaniekebler.bsky.social)

denverpost.comBoulder to shift gears on protected bike lanesBoulder to shift gears on protected bike lanes

Patrick Siegman@siegman.biz

peopleforbikes.orgHow Pro-Bike Policies Transformed Cambridge, Massachusetts, Into a Top City for Biking | PeopleForBikesBicyclists enjoy the newly redesigned Inman Square. Photo Credit: City of Cambridge

Pretty interesting to contrast Boulder/Davis/Berkeley's bike lane wars with somewhere like Cambridge, MA which has in recent years taken a radical turn towards bikeability. Was there for the first time in five years and was *shocked* at how good it's gotten www.peopleforbikes.org/news/city-on...

cambridgema.govCambridge Zones for Multifamily Housing CitywideOn February 10, 2025, the Cambridge City Council voted to adopt zoning amendments that allow multifamily housing in all Cambridge neighborhoods.

(Cambridge, of course, has also undertaken by-far the most radical pro-housing turn of any of the would-be NIMBY ritzy college towns. 6 story apartments citywide!) www.cambridgema.gov/news/detail?...

denverpost.comBoulder to shift gears on protected bike lanesBoulder to shift gears on protected bike lanes

Patrick Siegman@siegman.biz

The problem, IMO, is that the boomer/hippie types who flocked to places like Davis, Boulder, Berkeley, etc. in the second half of the 20th Century never saw cycling as an urbanization project — they saw it as ANTI-urbanism. Part of a much larger anti-growth project

See also: Berkeley's invention of exclusionary zoning (which is thankfully now dead) and Boulder and Davis' extraordinarily strict municipal growth boundaries (which are still very alive)

@aedwardslevy.bsky.social

Ben Raderstorf reposted

Ariel Edwards-Levy

i wish i was a little bit taller/i wish i was zaller i wish i achieved fame as a mass opinion scholar

Ben Raderstorf reposted

Zombie lawsuits? Our team unpacks the new frontier of election subversion litigation and how we can all push back on this tactic: 🧟 Help spread the word, share our zombie lawsuit explainer 🔗 https://protdem.org/4zaT0F6 🧟 If and when there’s an attempt to raise the dead, be ready to speak out

slate.comThe DOJ Just Telegraphed Trump’s Biggest Election Target (Gift Article)Baked Alaska.

I agree with the emerging consensus on here that Alaska is probably one of Trump's two biggest target states (along with California), but worth remembering it has a unique political bulwark. It's not actually a red state. It's literally purple. The state leg is governed by a bi/tri-partisan caucus

Rick Hasen@rickhasen.bsky.social

My new one @slate.com: Baked Alaska: The DOJ Just Telegraphed Trump's Biggest Election Target: slate.com/news-and-pol...

The more important bulwarks are still the legal ones @rickhasen.bsky.social nods to here, not the politics. But if push really does come to shove, I would be very surprised if the Alaska state government rolled over before federal attempts to overturn its elections

Ben Raderstorf reposted

Rick Hasen

@rickhasen.bsky.social

Replying to @rickhasen.bsky.social

From my @slate.com piece on Alaska: slate.com/news-and-pol...

democracydocket.comPoll: Trump’s attempts to challenge midterm election integrity are failingDespite Trump administration's claims that the results of the midterms cannot be trusted, a poll suggests voters aren't convinced.

"The majority of voters, 56%, believe President Donald Trump wants to extend his influence over state election rules to 'ensure Republicans win elections, regardless of whether they are free and fair.'" @democracydocket.com www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Zombie lawsuits used to at least sound *plausible,* something that you could squint and see some vague legal claim, even if the context makes the bad-faith intent to overturn results clear. This one is just literally "we're filing a bonkers lawsuit so we can try to overturn the election."

Jen Bendery@jbendery.bsky.social

👀 WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration sues to block Alaska Senate race certification if Republican loses, citing candidate name confusion.

electionlawblog.orgCiting preamble to NVRA, DOJ sues to enjoin certification of Alaska's Senate race (it won't go anywhere) #ELBThe Department of Justice has filed United States v. Alaska in federal court. The gist of the case is this: there’s a risk of voter confusion from having two Dan Sullivans on the ballot, and the State...

@derektmuller.bsky.social's comments here are spot-on bsky.app/profile/jben...

Jen Bendery@jbendery.bsky.social

Election Law Blog contributor and Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller says the Trump admin's legal argument in this case is “one of the worst I’ve ever seen” and “absurdly thin.” electionlawblog.org/2026/citing-...

Forty one percent of REPUBLICANS say they would be less likely to vote in the next election for any official who attempts to delay election certification or block official results. More: www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/new-poll-d...

Ben Raderstorf reposted

Scrambling to figure out your rights at the polling place is the last thing you need when casting your ballot. Watch and share these 3 essential legal rights every in-person voter should know before heading to the polls ⬇️

This is the textbook example of a zombie lawsuit — a vague, placeholder suit filed far too late to change election rules and instead designed only to be used to try to overturn results if the preferred candidate loses.

Taniel@taniel.bsky.social

The Trump administration is preemptively suing to block Alaska from certifying a Mary Peltola victory, should she win. Their argument is that the double Dan Sullivan thing is confusing voters. www.reuters.com/world/trump-...

ifyoucankeepit.orgNEW POLL: Donald Trump's midterm deception campaign is failingVoters, including Republicans, strongly disapprove of election disruption and denial

These findings surprised me — in a really good way!

Protect Democracy@protectdemocracy.org

📊 NEW POLL: Voters overwhelmingly reject Trump’s efforts to disrupt the midterm elections, according to a new national @today.yougov.com poll, sponsored by Protect Democracy’s If you can keep it newsletter. What does this mean for the midterms? @raders.bsky.social and Tova Kaplan break it down ⬇️

Ben Raderstorf reposted

29 U.S.C. § 157

@organizingpower.bsky.social

Replying to @organizingpower.bsky.social

This is a “zombie” lawsuit, meant to be revived after Nov 3, as explained by @raders.bsky.social www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/the-zombie...

ifyoucankeepit.orgThe zombies are backTrump’s California lawsuit is meant to die — then be resurrected

Ben Raderstorf reposted

Sean O’Kane

@okane.fyi

Already ~50% more than he spent supporting Trump in 2024

David Gura@davidgura.bsky.social

NEW, from Bloomberg News: “Elon Musk has now given more than $445 million in the current election cycle.”

bloomberg.comMusk Giving Tops $445 Million in Midterm Election Push for GOPWith a fresh infusion of cash to his super political action committee in the first two weeks of October, Elon Musk has now given more than $445 million in the current election cycle and become one of ...