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Rural communities deserve a seat at the table before decisions are made. Basic transparency, not unlimited veto power, notice, and disclosure aren't radical asks. They're the bare minimum for how we should govern in a democracy.

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Some may argue: if we tell communities upfront, they'll just block it anyway. Maybe. But if a project can't survive public scrutiny, that's information developers need. Building infrastructure people actively oppose creates long-term problems.

Even if you support data center expansion, keeping projects under wraps isn't helping your cause. Secrecy obviously breeds resentment. Transparency breeds understanding. You can't build public support for infrastructure people don't know exists until it begins.

A township supervisor who learns only after the deed is recorded that his community's commercial tax base was sold to the federal government was never told beforehand. Simply making people aware of what’s being built in their communities isn’t NIMBYism.

Some may quickly dismiss pushing for disclosure as furthering NIMBYism. Fair point, when communities block affordable housing or renewable energy, that is definitely NIMBYism. But NIMBYism requires knowing something is coming and choosing to fight it. This is different.

The problem isn't that detention centers or data centers exist. The problem is they're being built in secret; communities don't get to know who's buying their land, what it will be used for, or what the economic consequences will be.

A Kentucky family was offered $26 million for their farmland for AI infrastructure—10 times what the land was worth—but the company used NDAs to hide what it was actually building from everyone else in the county. Rural America is being carved up in the dark.

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A Pennsylvania town supervisor learned his community's largest commercial property was being turned into a 7,500-person ICE detention facility only after the federal government had already bought it. Population of Tremont: 300. He found out from the deed recording days before.

Opinion | Rural America Is Getting Blindsided by Something New

Congress should pass a simple law: before building detention or data centers in rural communities, corporations and federal agencies must disclose who they are and what they're building. No secret deals; this should be bipartisan. My latest in @nytopinion.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/05/02/o...

nytimes.com

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

This open threat of war crimes is pure sociopathic bloodlust and sadism but it's also another sign that he's failing and that he's in a fury about it.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Listening in to the birthright citizenship oral arguments. I won't be fully live-posting through them, but will highlight some comments. I'll have a quick analysis up after the arguments, later this afternoon.

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Josh Kovensky @joshkovensky.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

New details here on how DHS gave two men who had spent years attending, livestreaming, and praising the Proud Boys exclusive access to ridealongs with ICE talkingpointsmemo.com/news/inside-...

talkingpointsmemo.com

Inside the Bizarre Feedback Loop Between DHS and MAGA Influencers

As DHS officers flooded into Minneapolis on an early December day, Mahamed...

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The goal of "House by 30" is to help young people achieve homeownership and stability. Not every policy fits everyone. That has never stopped us from passing programs that move the ball for millions. Not everyone likes bagels. We still make them. The last thing this one needs is everything on it.

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Some will say, that homeownership should not be the only path to wealth. I actually agree. It should not. I would rather build a program that meets people where they are than wait for a country where homeownership no longer matters. That country is not coming anytime soon, and people want help now.

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The point of "House by 30" was to move housing policy out of policy and into a short political promise voters can understand. There are a good ideas in the housing world right now from people like Ned. Very few of them are things a candidate can say on a doorstep, that voters can clearly understand.

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The GI Bill created a generation of liberal voters who believed government worked for them. People who own something defend the institutions that helped them get it. That is the New Deal coalition, and no policy paper in the last thirty years has come close to rebuilding it.

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Next, he says homeownership is a "socially conservative value" progressives should abandon. I disagree, most Americans say they want to own a home when you ask. Telling people their aspiration is wrong is not progressive, it lands on voters like the kind of intellectual elitism cost Dems elections.

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He says my I am implying renters are lesser. I simply did not say that. He suggests a baby bond instead, okay. That is a different program. A baby bond is another submerged benefit voters do not immediately connect to government. That is the exact problem I am trying to fix.

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The design questions about caretakers and people who choose not to buy is a fair question. The accrual could credit caregiving. Funds could convert to retirement savings after a certain age. Programs get refined. That does not invalidate the idea. I hope policymakers take these concerns seriously.

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To be clear: this only works if it’s binding. No increase in housing production and zoning reform, no benefit. The risk with policies like this is demand without supply, but this is different demand side help is the incentive for the supply side reform. An abundance program with a gate on it.

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He says the program is not tied to supply. It should be. I spent time talking about supply, but could have been clearer, alas, word limits. Funds should flow to communities building new housing of all types, with aggressive, enforceable supply requirements to stop localities from getting in the way.

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Against Homeownership Populism

@resnikoff.bsky.social wrote a thoughtful response to my NYT piece, so I figured I would respond. I appreciate the engagement, and we spoke before the piece ran. I disagree with most of his objections and want to explain why. publiccomment.blog/p/against-ho...

publiccomment.blog

Solving for

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Matthew Segal @segalmr.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

When SCOTUS justices lack criminal defense experience, they might struggle to imagine why criminal defense lawyers sometimes bite their tongues.

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Rotimi Adeoye @rotimia.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

I’m just so confused why some people are calling this guy a moderate, seems progressive to me!

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 31/03/2026

sam alito looking at the voting rights act

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Gingrich won a majority with the Contract with America. Obama won the presidency on health care. The promise came first, the power came after. Democrats do not have a post-Trump agenda voters can name. A house by 30 is something voters can say back to you on a doorstep.

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That answers the supply argument directly. Yes, we need to BUILD more housing. This program makes receiving federal help a condition of building. Zoning reform alone lowers the price. It does not help someone with nothing saved walk through the front door.

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House by 30 works like this: for every year you work full-time, $5k goes to your first down payment, capped at $50k over 10 yrs. The money shows up at closing, only in communities addressing the housing supply crisis. Not a tax credit. Real money that gives you a key to a home.

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The programs that built the middle class worked because they were visible. The GI Bill, Social Security, the Homestead Act; you got a house, a check, a road. Nobody had to read the tax code to know the government was on their side.

For decades, Democrats have delivered many GOOD policies through tax credits and subsidies that voters never see, never feel, and never connect to Washington. That is why people say the government does nothing for them. It does, but they just cannot point to it.

House by 30 says: building more housing is obviously imperative, and anyone serious about this issue agrees, but that is not the question. The question is whether Democrats lead with a policy position or a promise. Fixing supply is how you solve the crisis; it is not the promise to win an election

In 1981 the median first-time buyer was 29. Today they are 40. That is not just a housing market problem. That is a country telling an entire generation to wait a decade longer for the life their parents had at their age. We cannot allow this to continue.