Rajan Narang

@rdnarang.bsky.social

1739 Followers 989 Following

Working for a just democracy. We’re mobilized, and now it's time for us to organize. Personal account: sometimes silly, sometimes serious

Go to nba r/nba • 8h ago shreeharis Profile Badge for the Achievement Top 1% Poster Top 1% Poster [Stein] “I'm told that the Lakers were emboldened to go to such lengths to acquire Kessler in large part because they acquired Luka Doncic on such favorable terms. The trade assets preserved in that heist, helped nudge them to a place where they believed they could withstand spending big on Kessler” Source: https://marcstein.substack.com/p/another-burst-of-late-night-nba-intel To establish a pathway so quickly after the marketplace opened to pry Kessler away from the Jazz required them to surrender two future first-round picks (fully unprotected in both 2031 and 2033) and two first-round pick swaps (2028 and 2030) in addition to signing Kessler to a new four-year, $130 million contract. Yet I'm told that the Lakers were emboldened to go to such lengths to acquire Kessler in large part because they acquired Luka Dončić from Dallas on such favorable terms in February 2025. As hard to believe as it continues to be nearly 18 months since The Trade was consummated, Dončić was somehow pilfered from the Mavericks with just one unprotected first-round pick in 2029 leaving Lakerland. That solitary future first was packaged with Anthony Davis and Max Christie to land Luka ... with the Lakers also successfully keeping Austin Reaves out of the trade. The trade assets preserved in that heist, in other words, helped nudge the Lakers to a place where they believed they could withstand spending so big on Kessler. They, too, had promised Dončić a top-flight center in the summer.
Gavin Newsom word salad when asked if he considers Israel an apartheid state
Paramount, for its part, has repeatedly emphasized the prospective deal's success with regulators around the world. Last week, the company said that the transaction had been approved by the relevant bodies in Brazil and Montenegro, as well as the regional competition authority representing 21 nations in Eastern and Southern Africa. The company also noted that it has already gotten various regulatory clearances in more than 20 other countries, among them Australia and Germany. The deal was also approved by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division in mid-June.
Mamdani smirking and shrugging
A Public Option Middle Layer There are countless examples of large IT vendors building the same product, poorly, for 50 states. This model can and should be reimagined – moving towards a vision where governments can opt-in to a shared public infrastructure. We need shared public infrastructure around key legislation and universal platforms. This is a case where states, as laboratories of democracy, would benefit from co-operating with one another. Shared platforms and infrastructure can provide government teams across the country with additional options for delivery at a national scale. This ‘middle layer’ would look at services that are required in multiple jurisdictions or infrastructure necessary to implement new legislation. Such platforms could exist as a public option – government-provided services that coexist with one or more private options. Governments shouldn’t have to build from scratch: Modern income verification infrastructure only needs to be built once and made available to jurisdictions that opt-in and could be used in a countless number of ways, from federal scholarship applications to SNAP. Governments at all levels lose money to payment processing fees. A public option payment platform would cut costs and add a new competitor to the market, saving taxpayers money. Universal moments, such as birth and death registry, could be built centrally and deployed locally. These delivery challenges have been too onerous to tackle. States are often reluctant to share data and platforms. Some jurisdictions have begun planning shared procurement strategies, but radically different, outcomes-based delivery will take reimagined governance and significant political will.
The real corporate hero we need, as I’ve said many times before, is Costco. The company has been unafraid to buck Trump (on both economic and culture-war issues). It also delivers low prices and pays its workers well. At one point Democrats recognized this, when former President Barack Obama cheered the warehouse club’s high pay and low employee turnover. These days Democrats are more likely to namecheck Costco as being among the “giant grocery stores and massive food conglomerates” responsible for high grocery prices and “ripping people off.” (When you’re blaming Costco for high prices, you’ve lost the plot.)
Republicans involved in the effort emphasize how improved they think it is compared to what the party did in 2018, when tensions simmered between CLF and the NRCC and the party was still struggling to embrace Trump’s leadership. Now, they say, there’s no question who’s in charge, and there’s a seamless level of coordination and communication among all the committees, super PACs and the White House. “We kind of compare notes on everything, making sure that we’re all seeing the world the same way. Which we do,” said Joe Pileggi, CLF’s political director. “There’s no fragmentation in our thinking.”
Pope Leo
Here’s an archived ESPN blog post about an unpublished paper by Mike Wohl: Wohl found his advantage in betting the money lines for college football teams that were favored by 20-25 points. He wrote in his paper: “There were 376 games in the last six seasons (approximately 62 per season or approximately 4.5 per week) that had spreads of between 20.0 and 25.0. Of those 376 games, 94.95 percent of the favorites won the game outright. Investing equal amounts on all 376 contests produces six straight years of profitable returns with an average annual (non-compounded and non-annualized) return of 12.24 percent.” That was in the early 2010s, and I have not examined the out-of-sample results, but it is plausible that money-line betting on 25-point favorites [1] in college football still offers bond-like returns. People want to buy lottery tickets (bet on underdogs), so they pay for them; you are selling them the lottery tickets and collecting a positive expected return. (Or: You are taking a lot of risk, by betting $100 to win like $5, and you are getting paid for that risk in the form of positive expected return.) It goes without saying that this is not investing or gambling advice. But I wrote in March 2025 that “I kind of think we are about two years away from a sports gambling ETF.” There is a whole genre of ETFs that provide steady bond-like income by doing weird trades; we have discussed BOXX (selling option box spreads for income) and CAIE (selling autocallables, that is, crash insurance on the stock market, for income). “Selling longshot football bets for income,” sure, why not. If the Securities and Exchange Commission starts allowing prediction-market funds, there’s going to be an ETF that advertises steady 12% annual returns achieved with a diversified portfolio of college football bets.
Stamets stares in fully automated luxury gay space Communism
Pippin asking for second breakfast
Sickos yes
Lovera also told the Times about a recent phone call. John Prevost, the pope’s older brother, rang from Chicago with a computer problem — because Bob, as the family still calls him, has always been the one who fixes these things. “John, I’m the pope,” Leo reminded him. The reply came without a pause: “Oh, sorry pope. My computer is broken.”
CA-11 Wealthy activist Saikat Chakrabarti, who finished a distant third in the primary for California’s open 11th District, has endorsed San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan in the general election and says he’ll fund a super PAC to support her campaign against state Sen. Scott Wiener. Wiener won 41% of the vote in the top-two primary while Chan, who had the backing of retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi, took 30 and Chakrabarti 18. All are Democrats.
@AaronBlake I think I discovered the problem with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool "My company had nothing to do with water, only water proofing and water tightening," Eddie Wood, of Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the company that resurfaced the pool, told CNN. He added that he is proud of the part of the work his company did on the project. Public records show that an Ohio company, Greenwater Services, was hired to install the filtration system. Its website boasts that the company provides "the only water purification system in the world whose patented technology is backed by government and academic research" and that its "breakthrough solutions significantly reduce toxins, algae, microcystins, nitrates, and phosphates from contaminated water." 3:30 PM • Jun 16, 2026 • 32.1K Views
Harden charged with unlawful carrying of weapon
The stakes are bigger than Hilton. Even if he won't win, he can mobilize voters to buoy candidates in state legislative and congressional races and for a voter ID measure that's set to be on the November ballot. "He's got to work with the slate of candidates to turn people out to vote," said Mike Netter, a Hilton-endorsed state legislative candidate and former Newsom recall leader, "for these downstream races."
Andy Dwyer visits the doctor for the first time
@vanhaley_yt says friends w benefits implies the existence of friends w consequences
Moore believes that this Hawaiian law, and others like it in the works in other states, have a good chance of surviving at the Supreme Court. However, some critics disagree, saying this legal maneuver is likely to be struck down. Brad Smith, the chairman and founder of the Institute for Free Speech, a nonprofit that advocates against limits on political speech, including political spending, called the move an “end run” around Citizens United. “They’re gimmicks, and the Supreme Court is not usually impressed by gimmicks. If you want to do it, you probably have to change the makeup of the Supreme Court or be willing to pack the court and have the political muscle to do it,” Smith said.
Screencap from the internet meme about all the shapes going in the square hole
Zachary Donnini from VoteHub says Steyer is hitting his benchmarks to win for the first time and the finish will be close
User completed 82-0
Matt Mahan concedes in speech to supporters: "While this campaign for governor ends tonight, which frankly I'm kind of happy about, our mission has only just begun."
As poll after poll showed Mahan failing to break out of single digits and into the race's top tier, the money chase continued. Mahan flew to make a personal appeal to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who has poured $66 million into a committee that is funding efforts to thwart a proposed wealth tax on California billionaires. Brin gave a second pro-Mahan super PAC $1 million and the maximum possible donation to his campaign. His conservative girlfriend asserted that Mahan apologized to Brin for attending a No Kings rally. A Mahan representative declined to comment on the allegation. へ
Democratic nominating rules award more convention delegates to congressional districts that have been most loyal to the party in recent elections, a set headlined by majority-Black districts. If a candidate can consolidate support from the Black community, he or she can collect delegates by the bushel in cities and states with large Black populations.Memorably, it was South Carolina's majority-Black Democratic primary electorate that revived Biden's flagging 2020 campaign and forced several other top contenders to pull the plug on their own bids and consolidate behind him. In addition to the big cities on her book tour, Harris has beaten a path through Southern states where the Black share of the overall population is high. Her stops have included Birmingham, Alabama; Durham and Greensboro, North Carolina; Jackson, Mississippi; Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee; Savannah and Macon, Georgia; and Richmond, Virginia.
Deedra Meero tells Syril Karn “not right now kitten, the walls are closing in on mommy”
Elsewhere here’s a guy who used Claude to recover his Bitcoin wallet password that he lost 11 years ago while stoned. The circumstances here do not seem especially repeatable, but it would be funny if AI tools were massively inflationary because they recovered all the Bitcoin passwords lost a decade ago under the influence of marijuana. By some estimates that’s 20% of all Bitcoin.
In every case, the Dems who vote for things that strike us as bad, or naive to enact with Donald Trump in power, have some political or substantive rationale. Sometimes the rationale is good, sometimes it’s bad, but very, very frequently it doesn’t account for questions like: Is it a good idea to enact this while Trump is president? Is it a good idea to vest new powers in the presidency at all, given potential for abuse? Are the political circumstances of the moment likely to prevail indefinitely, or will the tide turn predictably? Was this idea conceived under the assumption, and does it depend upon the existence, of a good faith opposition?
"Bringing in James Harden to help you win a championship is like electing Donald Trump to fix your country" - Max Kellerman
Wemby says "I want to have an impact, and I want to counteract this negative carbon footprint through whatever impact I can, financially or socially... investing, yes, but not for profit"
Duggan for Michigan Let's get Mike on the ballot Team Duggan is launching out pretition drive to put Mike Duggan on the ballot for Michigan Governor in 2026. Click the button below to sign up and join the petition drive
Wilson "missing votes is not a sign she's sick or retiring. It's a sign she's Freddy Wilson. She shows up when she wants to and when she has to. She's a force of nature," the source, who spoke to Axios anonymously, said. "People have been saying she's going to retire for 15 years, and it hasn't happened yet. I'll believe it when I see it."
Dril tweet: “go ahead. Keep screaming STFU at me. It only makes my opinions Worse”
Am I out of touch? No, it’s the children who are wrong
Onion article pretending to be Gillette: “F Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades”
“The answer to this moment, to the world we face today, ​is not passive government. Nor is it the populists who look out at the world and offer only easy answers that would make us weaker, or bankrupt,” Starmer wrote on Substack. “​This is a time for patriots.”
"LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I've ever seen," Redick said. "I mean, I've been with him two years now. The smaller guys, because they can be theatric, they typically draw more fouls, and the bigger players that are built like LeBron, it's hard for them. He gets clobbered. He got clobbered again tonight a bunch.
Weyoun says “time to start packing”
Becerra runs an ad: 30 seconds of nature saying "take a break from all those Tom Steyer ads"
OH-07 (D) (55-44 Trump) Eight Democrats are on the ballot to face Republican Rep. Max Miller in a district that includes several of Cleveland’s suburbs and communities to the south, though two have generated the most attention. Brook Park City Councilman Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker who has the support of Sen. Bernie Sanders and the state AFL-CIO, is going up against former Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, who waged a disastrous campaign against then-Gov. John Kasich in 2014. Both frontrunners have brought in similar sums, but Poindexter has benefited from over $400,000 in ads from a group aligned with the AI sector. A super PAC heavily funded by Miller’s father, however, has been meddling in the primary by sending out text messages ostensibly attacking FitzGerald for being “too LIBERAL for Ohio”—framing designed to make Democrats want to nominate him over Poindexter.
Saw Gerrera speech bubble
Schlossberg and Conway, Lasher tells me, promote themselves as politicians who “know how to function in this low-attention economy.” But Lasher isn’t sure that “anybody’s being persuaded in this low-attention economy. We’re generating a lot of content, we’re getting clicks, but I don't know that we’re really moving people that much. The work of change is still work, and it requires relentless persistence. That’s the case that I’m making to voters.”
CA-14 (top-two primary): David Binder Research for the Working Families Party (pro-Aisha Wahab): Aisha Wahab (D): 29, Wendy Huang (R): 9, Melissa Hernandez (D): 9, Dena Maldonado (R): 8, Matt Ortega (D): 2, Rakhi Israni (D): 2, other candidates 1% or less, undecided: 35. The poll was conducted April 1-4.
The Nation published an article in 2024 saying that "The hypermasculinity and violence of football... could repel young voters."
From a prominent conservative on election twitter, 7/22/25 @ChristianHeiens: "I'll take 4-6 GOP pickups in TX, 1 GOP pickup in MO, and 2-3 GOP pickups in OH in exchange for losing 1 GOP seat in MD. The fact of the matter is we hold all the cards here. There is absolutely nothing Democrats can bring to bear that matches our ability to gerrymander Republican-controlled states next year. Why would we not do this?
Trumper says "no one can compete with Nelly"
Jesus, I see what you've done for other people, and I want that for me.
Louise Lucas’ 2025 victory video
Rainbow Virginia that Fairfax will control
Garak says "you're obviously a prisoner of Federation dogma"
"Are You Calling Republicans Hypocrites?", a conversation between Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens
Election denier points out his friends can’t agree which country supposedly stole 2020
Dead Woman Returns from Heaven with a Warning for Americans
Duolingo-branded tea
Seb Gorka says terrorism is somewhere between peacekeeping and thermonuclear war. Brilliant PhD dissertation work right here
Bill Ackman's Pershing Square submitted a bid to purchase Universal Music Group—the record label home to Taylor Swift, Drake, Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter, and more—for about $65 billion.
Matt Mahan is, by a significant amount, the Democrat giving Elon Musk the most advertising money on X