Dan Tynan

Mar 26, 2025 | tynanfiles.beehiiv.com | Dan Tynan

Remember the Tea Party of 2009? Stupid hats? Misspelled protest signs? [1] Angry people in town halls shouting at their Congressional representatives: “Get the government the hell out of our Medicare”? The original Tea Partiers weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed, but they were loud, extremely well funded by Oil and Tobacco billionaires, and eventually led to the mess we’re in today. The Koch Bros got their wish: The tea party is now the party in power, god help us all.

Mar 19, 2025 | tynanfiles.beehiiv.com | Dan Tynan

Allow me to begin with a brief metaphor. Say you have a favorite restaurant you've been going to for years. The cuisine isn't especially haute — closer to Applebee's than Auberge du Soleil — but it has a big laminated menu with pictures of the food on it, and there's always something you can eat. You've gotten to know the waitstaff, and every so often some of your friends and relatives stop by. It's become part of your regular routine. Then, after a while, things start to change. There's a new menu.

Mar 12, 2025 | tynanfiles.beehiiv.com | Dan Tynan

This is a group photo of the boy hackers who are currently helping to dismantle our federal government in the name of “efficiency.”Can you spot the virgins? (Trick question — they're all virgins.) In case you haven't met them yet, here are their names and CVs, from left to far right. Gavin Kliger, 25. He allegedly gave up a 7-figure job at a tech firm to join DOGE, thinks COVID restrictions were "bureaucratic nonsense," and is a huge fan of Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth. Ethan Shaotran, 22.

Mar 5, 2025 | tynanfiles.beehiiv.com | Dan Tynan

Full moon over Tesla. Source: Midjourney. Regular readers of the Tynanfiles (all 12 of you) may recall that I'm taking a hiatus from most social media these days. I don't really miss it much, and I feel slightly more sane as a result. But there have been a few times where I've had to make an exception and dive in, mostly for research purposes. I'm not alone.

Feb 25, 2025 | tynanfiles.beehiiv.com | Dan Tynan

Source: Portuguese cartoonist Zez Vaz. He's selling shirts with this design at his website. Last week, I went to a town hall meeting held by longtime Democrat Congressman Mike Thompson. I was there along with 400 other supremely pissed off people, looking for creative ideas on how to respond to the unraveling of our democracy. We didn't hear any.