Nice roundup of election visualizations this year. (A bit shocking to see Stamen of all places moved their blog to Medium)

Paul Ford, who is a delight, has some thoughts and dare I say hopes about what’s in store for tech.

A sharp piece by Harris Mayersohn drawing a through-line from the nihilistic ironic detachment of the Bush era to a certain return to decency here at the end of the Trump horrorshow through Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G and Borat. Honestly, not the worst framing, even as it necessarily skips the Obama years and the rise of tech oligarchs who allowed Trump (among other sins) to happen.

This is a fine move, even if it’s pretty late and in response to the DOJ antitrust investigations. I’d still like to see something like a 5% fee for devs that make less than, say, $100k a year. I’d also like to see these changes made permanent, not just in response to the economic fallout from the pandemic (which doesn’t seem like something that’s affecting small business software developers all that much?).

Kyle Chayka on television you keep on in the background while scrolling through your phone.

Ashley Southall, Ali Watkins and Blacki Migliozzi reporting for the New York Times:

This pattern of lenient punishment holds true for about 71 percent of the 6,900 misconduct charges over the last two decades in which the agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, recommended the highest level of discipline and a final outcome was recorded, according to an analysis of recently released data by The New York Times.

The citizen review board, put into place in the early 1990’s, has no real power to reign in officers who abuse their authority. It’s clear the NYPD has no interest in policing themselves, so the review board or some other outside agency should be granted that power.

Bill de Blasio campaigned on bringing more accountability to the NYPD back in 2014 but has managed to achieve basically nothing.

As protests swept the city and nation this summer, both Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea urged the public to have confidence in the city’s ability to hold officers accountable. But the data offers further evidence of the challenges that outside oversight agencies face in going up against police forces.

Mr. Shea, who was appointed a year ago, has imposed the board’s recommended penalty in only two of the 28 cases in which charges were brought, records show.

The idea that the people we have entrusted with the power and privilege to maintain our laws should be held to a high standard of accountability should not be controversial, but of course it’s become a weaponized and highly politicized aspect of modern American life. There is some good news — at least 20 police-reform ballot initiatives in places from Los Angeles to Columbus, Ohio were put in front of voters this year and many of them have passed.

A city as big and diverse as New York should be a model of oversight and accountability. Instead, the city appears to be almost uniquely disqualified to protect its citizens.

Selling merch and vinyl (and cassettes???), and offering an in-the-know newsletter seems like a great approach. You can always go visit the one remaining location in Tokyo.

The specifics of this are worth a glance, even if the hindsight of knowing the Amy McGrath and Jaime Harrison campaigns were “doomed” is a little much (I was certain McGrath was going to lose, I believed the bad polls that showed Harrison had a chance). But this story speaks to some bigger dynamics, namely how much of politics has been nationalized and how important local races remain. People who live in big, liberal cities often seem to place themselves above local politics beyond the mayor, and take for granted how quickly things can change.

Yglesias is a smart fella and rigorous thinker who sometimes gets a bit out over his skis, especially on Twitter; generally, I’d say that’s a good thing for a pundit. I appreciate his holistic view and insight as a left of center moderate and expect he’ll feel right at home with his new blog.

TPM remains one of the best, and to my mind, purest distillations of online publishing in the short history of the medium. Josh has a keen understanding of not just his beat — politics — but how journalism can and should work on the internet. The past twenty years have seen one seismic shift after another for publishers and TPM has remained steadfast throughout, not chasing trends, and doing fantastic work. It’s hard to overstate how groundbreaking the site has been, I have no doubt it will continue to be so over the coming decades.

Andrew Golis, one of _TPM_’s first hires, has a mini-appreciation that highlights some of the site’s influences.