Weekend Reading: The Of Course It Happened Again Edition

My heart is heavy for the kids of Santa Fe High School in Texas. I don't have anything to link to with new insight or comforting words. It has been said before, and we'll all say it again when it happens again.

I'll just say that there are a lot of policy ideas that we could try that experts think might help and a majority of Americans support.

That we aren't trying them is a failure of our political system.

I actually view our inaction on guns as another symptom of the same malaise that is giving us the lack of any meaningful oversight of the Trump administration, even as they do things that look blatantly corrupt (e.g., that ZTE deal, just about everything Pruitt does, and on and on) and the Russia investigation gets ever more alarming.

I was going to write more about that, but my heart is not in it. I'm sorry. I think I've said everything I would have written before, anyway.

The 2018 elections are really important. I hope everyone will really reflect on what their vote will mean, on many levels.

And now on to the other links I'd saved to share this week.

Paul Waldman on why Democrats can't ever "respect Trump voters" enough - they don't get to talk directly to those voters.

This is an interesting and informative comparison of the state of the Mueller investigation to past political investigations.

My recommended listening this week: Ezra Klein's interview with political science professor Lilliana Mason about "mega-identities" and American politics. I actually found this interview hopeful - particularly Professor Mason's point that we're probably in the early stages of another party realignment.

This thread from Noah Smith is really good. In fact, it is my "if you read only one thing" pick for this week. I think this is the first time that pick is a thread!

1/OK, a quick thread about Aaron Schlossberg, the scumbag who threatened to call ICE on people for speaking in Spanish: https://t.co/mGx8aI9AEB

— Noah Smith (@Noahpinion) May 18, 2018

Does anyone else remember Red Dawn? This made me laugh, but I saw that movie more than most due to my sister's fondness for C. Thomas Howell.

In the Red Dawn re-enactment happening in their heads, the NRA wants you to think they are the Wolverines, when they are actually Darryl who helped the Russians https://t.co/lTn86524XW

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) May 16, 2018

This is beautiful.

Stouffville, Ontario - aerial perspectives by Zach Baranowski pic.twitter.com/7G0tMLiHA3

— Rabih Alameddine (@rabihalameddine) May 13, 2018

Muppet outtakes!

you haven't experienced life until you've seen Muppet outtakes pic.twitter.com/D4b2OAgVJm

— The MilanTooner (@TheMilanTooner) May 16, 2018

Bunny!

Sup frens? 🙃 https://t.co/2UzBHMCnWn pic.twitter.com/mMWREeYQW0

— Jonny and Jay (@jonnyandjay) May 15, 2018

That's all I have today. I'll be hugging my kids a little tighter tonight. And writing some more postcards tomorrow, I think.