September 25, 2026 at 1:08 PM EDT
The AI Economy - Not An Exaggeration

The AI Economy - Not An Exaggeration There's an article (gift link) out today in The Wall Street Journal about infrastructure spending on AI and data centers. We know the stock market is fueled, dominated by the AI boom. We know about the politics of data centers. But the details here, largely based on a recent Brookings study really boggle the mind. I'm going to share two charts to illustrate the story. But the gist is that AI is already year over year the biggest infrastructure build in American history, dwarfing the US highway system, the data transmission build out for the internet, canals and being substantially bigger than the railroad buildout in the years after the Civil War. And by many measures the entire economy is now dominated by AI spending. Not only is the non-AI economy doing pretty poorly, at least showing less spending than before. But to a great degree that's because AI spending is crowded out other spending and driving up prices. (If you've tried to buy a computer or computer memory recently you knows this.)

September 25, 2026 at 11:32 AM EDT
Don't You Just Hate Seeing Aileen Cannon in a Pickle?

Don't You Just Hate Seeing Aileen Cannon in a Pickle? A Funhouse Mirror of Corruption Let's end the week with an intriguing -- and even amusing -- new development in the bogus investigation out of south Florida into the "grand conspiracy" against Donald Trump.

September 25, 2026 at 11:00 AM EDT
TPM Video: 2028 Dem Contenders, Tattoos, and How the GOP Is Grappling With Its Midterm Woes

TPM Video: 2028 Dem Contenders, Tattoos, and How the GOP Is Grappling With Its Midterm Woes In case you've missed it, we relaunched our Weekender newsletter earlier this year, adding some fun recurring segments (trivia! "This Effing Guy!") and refocusing it on the "funny, surreal, and strange in U.S. politics and culture." I joined publisher Joe Ragazzo this afternoon for a little preview of tomorrow's Weekender, which will categorize the different ways Republicans are trying to cope with their grim prospects in the midterms.

September 25, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT
How the Smithsonian Became the Latest Front in Trump's Culture War

How the Smithsonian Became the Latest Front in Trump's Culture War This article was originally published by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive their biggest stories as soon as they're published.

September 24, 2026 at 5:37 PM EDT
Extremist Sheriff's Seizure of Ballots on California Redistricting Was Illegal, Court Rules

Extremist Sheriff's Seizure of Ballots on California Redistricting Was Illegal, Court Rules 'I Would Underscore the Seriousness Of the Violation Here' Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco's election meddling scheme was declared unlawful by the California Supreme Court, which just issued unanimous decisions in two cases focused on Bianco's seizure of 650,000 ballots in California this spring.

September 24, 2026 at 3:56 PM EDT
A Quick Poll Follow Up

A Quick Poll Follow Up I promise not to be writing a post about every new theory or hot take about contemporary polling. And I'll make this one quick. Nate Silver has a post up today (I think paywalled) in response to a new batch of polls released by Times/Siena. These polls are broadly in line with other recent polls, with the exception that they show Susan Collins a few points ahead in Maine. But Silver notes something interesting: in Blue States November looks like a wave while in Red States it looks like a Tsunami. Is that odd? Not necessarily. There are three or four very concrete reasons that explain that why would be the case - stuff with shifts in specific constituencies, etc. But it's also true that when we talk about poll misses in recent cycles some of the most extreme ones were in Red States. So perhaps the Tsunami is a mirage? My best guess is that that is not the case. And Silver doesn't really seem to think so either. But I think it's worth keeping in the back of our collective minds. As I noted in yesterday's piece, the best evidence that a big storm is coming is that Republicans themselves are telling us one's coming. They're telling us with their actions. I think they know. Of course, at a more fundamental level none of us know the future.

September 24, 2026 at 2:13 PM EDT
Trump's Big Attempt To Be Savvier About Stealing the Election This Time Around Failed

Trump's Big Attempt To Be Savvier About Stealing the Election This Time Around Failed Hello, and Welcome Back to the Franchise Just over a week since the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's effort to take over and/or break mail-in voting, I still don't think the magnitude of the president's loss has been recognized.

September 24, 2026 at 11:34 AM EDT
White House Defies Court Order Lifting Its Media Ban

White House Defies Court Order Lifting Its Media Ban Reporters Rebuffed at White House Gates The White House immediately defied an overnight court order lifting President Trump's purported ban on three news outlets from covering the White House.

September 24, 2026 at 8:12 AM EDT
Judge Blocks Trump's 'Ban' on Three News Outlets

Judge Blocks Trump's 'Ban' on Three News Outlets White House's After-the-Fact Justification For Ban Falls Apart Overnight, U.S. district court judge Timothy Kelly granted the temporary restraining order sought by three news organizations -- MS NOW, Politico and CNN -- that President Donald Trump had "banned" from the White House.

September 24, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT
Other Presidents Have Let White"'Collar Criminals Dodge Financial Penalties""But Not Like Trump

Other Presidents Have Let White"'Collar Criminals Dodge Financial Penalties""But Not Like Trump This article is part ofTPM Cafe,TPM's home for opinion and news analysis.It was originally published atThe Conversation.

September 23, 2026 at 5:56 PM EDT
Chicago Mayor Bets on Political Potency Of Data Center Resistance

Chicago Mayor Bets on Political Potency Of Data Center Resistance 'We Are Not For Sale' Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson officially kicked off his reelection campaign last Sunday for the Feb. 23, 2027 mayoral election where he will face a crowded field of challengers. At least 14 people have announced their intention to run for mayor of the Windy City, though that number is expected to drop once nominating petition filing deadlines pass in late October.

September 23, 2026 at 5:35 PM EDT
Who Knows What the Midterms Will Bring: But You Can Enjoy the GOP's Sweet Agony Today!

Who Knows What the Midterms Will Bring: But You Can Enjoy the GOP's Sweet Agony Today! We don't know what's going to happen in the midterms. But we know for a fact that today you can watch the hilarity of the collapse of so many of Trump's plans and cheap, or corrupt, midterms gambits. Even the inside D.C. sheets can sense the energy. Here's a piece -- Trump officials weigh rolling back beef import plan as GOP midterm panic spreads. A picture of an angst-ridden, wayward Trump adorns the article. This is the plan Trump rolled out last month to institute a 90-day import bonanza of foreign beef that was apparently some kind of sweetheart deal with a Brazilian beef lord named Joesley Batista. The Wall Street Journal has a good story on that part of the tale. Here's a New York Times op-ed questioning the safety of what was first called Trump's mystery meat. In any case, the point was to engineer an extremely short-lived drop in the price of hamburgers. But it drove beef producers -- an extremely GOP constituency -- crazy since, of course, the whole point was to lower the price of the product ahead of the midterms. Now they're getting so desperate at the White House they're apparently considering scrapping the whole plan, with, I guess, a sort of mass deportation of beef.