Wait! Stop! Wait!

We're trying to get 500 new subscribers in the first week of our Prime sign up drive. And to get there this weekend, we really, really need to get to 400 today. We only need eight sign ups more to get to 400 today. 8! As in, just two fours. Don't scroll, don't do anything. Click this link and sign up. Don't wait till later. There are a bunch of cool things you get. But mainly, you're supporting the existence of this site. Stop what you're doing right now. Click this link and sign up.

Thank you.

We really appreciate it.

Corrupting Everything

It's serendipitous because our current top story about prisoner-gerrymandering to oust a black member of Congress just landed this afternoon. But today's live chat in The Hive (sub req), with Eli Hager of the Marshall Project, delves further into the core issues here which are both mass incarceration and the perverse incentives created by the privatization of the prison system - which is inextricably tied to evolution of mass incarceration over the last 35 years. Check out the conversation. Fascinating stuff.

Amazing

White Republican says GOP can finally beat prominent black Democrat by adding more prisoners to her district!

Can You Spare Us One Moment?

We kicked off our Prime membership drive on Monday. And so far so good. But we need a lot of people who've always thought, "Yeah, I'll sign up at some point" to take a couple minutes right now and join our club, our team. It's not much: just a touch more than a pricey cup of coffee each month. ($50 annually; $4.99 monthly) As I noted, there are lots of features and site enhancements you get by joining Prime (more details on that here). But the best and most important reason is that it's critical to the future of TPM - because TPM is that rare thing, a truly independent publication. There's no big corporation behind us, no VC money, no generous philanthropist or foundation. We need to balance the books the old fashioned way. And to do that, we need a significant amount of our revenue to come from our readers. So can you stop for a moment, right now, and sign up? Just click right here. And from all of us, thanks.

You Lie, Pope!

Rep. Steve King tells CNN Pope doesn't believe in the "nation-state", can't be trusted on immigration policy.

Live Chat at 3pm EST in The Hive

Criminal justice reporter Eli Hager will be chatting with Prime members at 3pm in The Hive. Hager is a staff writer for the Marshall Project, a nonpartisan news site focused on criminal justice reform. Eli’s primary interests are the criminalization of poverty in the United States and the politics of criminal justice. He also focuses on the intersections between criminal justice and education.

Drop a question in now or join us at 3 PM. If you're not a Prime member yet, you can register here!

This Is a Must Read

Amidst all of the coverage of Pope Francis' visit to the US this week I want to particularly call your attention to this piece by novelist and columnist James Carroll. It's about another time a Pope, Paul VI, addressed the United Nations. That was in 1965, almost exactly fifty years ago. That moment half a century ago has deep parallels to today and it also opened a breach between Carroll and his father - one, a young man studying for the priesthood and another, a top Pentagon general, who had himself once studied for the priesthood. Definitely give this a read.

There's a second part of publishing this piece for me personally, which is not connected to the piece itself but my own relationship to the author. I would be remiss if I didn't mention it. Like one billiard ball hitting another at a certain angle and in so doing shifting its own trajectory, we all have certain people in our lives who we encounter and, through the encounter, the trajectory of our own lives changes. For me, Jim is one of those people.

Read More →

Slouching Toward A Shutdown

With less than a week to go before the end of the fiscal year deadline, here's the latest on the shutdown prospects, including this observation from budget expert Stan Collender: “Boehner may need to allow a shutdown to occur for a few days to give the Freedom Caucus a victory before he can work with Dems on a clean CR."

Introducing the Unicornstitution

Seeing so many stories like this one I've become increasingly convinced of the existence and the importance of what I will call the Unicornstitution. Related but by no means synonymous with the US constitution, the Unicornstitution exists as a sort of ersatz Platonic ideal form of the Constitution which exists in the ether and is ready at hand to give a big thumbs up and attaboy and 'you go girl' to whatever crazy bullshit thing you already decided to do, especially if you're really angry and stupid and fundamentally see life in America as as matter of other undeserving people taking away your stuff and your not being able to do anything about it.

Read More →

Good Times

Moderate House GOPer (yes, they exist) calls anti-Boehner coup plotters (yes, they're back) "right-wing Marxists."

Stop the Presses! What's a Server?

As I've said before, I'm something of a Hillary Agnostic. There's no question that the email story has done her a great deal of harm, regardless of the merits of the story itself. But it's worth stopping now and then and taking a look at just how nonsensical most of the coverage of the story is at this point. Beside the point that the relevant Inspector General has said that none of the stuff the DC press corps has been hyperventilating about can, by definition, have violated any law, you also have stories like this new one today from Bloomberg.

Read More →

Excellent News for Chris Christie!!!

Just in time to take advantage of Scott Walker's departure from the race, Chris Christie gets a heaping new spoonful of BridgeGate news.

What Happened To Scott Walker?

Ed Kilgore on why Scott Walker flamed out.

Watch Live

Pope Francis arrives at the White House.

Prime Drive Update

Thanks to everyone who signed up for Prime in the first 24 hours of our drive. We've got a long way to go. But we're making great progress. TPM needs you. You get a bunch of great features and enhancements with Prime (more on that here.) But the biggest and best reason is that TPM needs your support to thrive and be the best it can be. You can read my full pitch here and just click here to sign up. It's just $50 a year or $4.99 a month. I know it's easy to think, 'Sounds great. I'll do it when I have a moment.' But if you can please take a moment, right now, to join us we'll appreciate it no end.