Dems care, and try, and for that are punished. GOP lies, hurts people, doesn't give a shit, and is rewarded.
Scientist, policy wonk, member of the Rebel Alliance. Expecting to need this forum to outwit the Visigoths, oligarchs, & authoritarians for the next few years. Can't believe we are going to have to do this again. #WaitingforTheDoctor
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Dems care, and try, and for that are punished. GOP lies, hurts people, doesn't give a shit, and is rewarded.
But it's always like this. Democrats try to do the right thing. They fall short, like humans do. Everyone teams up to shit on them. Republicans don't even bother pretending. They lie, they smear, they destroy lives, they get people killed, & they face NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT.
President Trump has ended collective bargaining rights for more than one million federal workers. Unions have sued to block the move, but agencies are terminating contracts as litigation continues.
I have an opinion piece in the New York Times today on how the labor movement has failed to step up to the moment in countering Trump, even as Trump unilaterally strips public sector workers of collective bargaining. Labor will die as a movement if this continues. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
Get to DC if you are able to Sept. 6! Info: WeAreDC.net ❤️🩹 Please share on socials and push this out through other channels to any peeps who might like to march. @thekattalk.bsky.social
Unfortunately our authoritarian state is going to be of the medieval variety rather than the techno-future variety.
A very clear roundup of the corruption of the presidency as of June. It’s already much worse now, and there is no recourse since the Calvinball Court declared this president to be a king. www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-maki...
But granting student debt relief was an intolerable overreach when it was a Democratic President, per the same Calvinball Court.
We do not fully grasp how damaging the SCOTUS’ presidential immunity decision was. What we know is it was a disaster and the huge damage it has caused is being compounded daily. That is because the result is a collaboration between corrupt justices, a supine Congress and a demented President.
Campaigning for president, Donald Trump assured workers he would fight for them, write Robert L. Borosage and Sara Steffens. But ahead of Labor Day weekend, it is worth summarizing how extensive his assault on labor has been in his first months in office.
9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
Today we celebrate the strength and resilience of working people everywhere. Nearly 300,000 federal employees have lost their jobs this year not because of necessity, but because of a political agenda. And while people’s lives were destroyed in the name of “saving money,”
If you enjoy… Weekends Safe working conditions Retirement benefits Paid vacations Breaks at work Sick leave Paid holidays … then you’re part of the labor movement. Happy Labor Day.
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Tomorrow (9/1). Stop the billionaire takeover. More than 1,000 protests nationwide. Find one near you. MayDayStrong.org.
New Mexico has issued a public health order that removes federal restrictions to COVID-19 vaccine access so that pharmacies in New Mexico can vaccinate people of all ages and risk profiles. Every state need to do this!
Look at this graph. The share of national income going to the richest 10 percent was lowest (and share to lower 90 percent highest) when union membership was at its highest. As unions have weakened, inequality has widened. This is why we must build back union power.
All government is either based on mutual trust or based on raw power. For representative democracy to work, there must be a reasonably high level of societal trust. For the other forms of government, the ruler must hold physical and psychological power & be willing and able to use it.
All government is either based on mutual trust or based on raw power. For representative democracy to work, there must be a reasonably high level of societal trust. For the other forms of government, the ruler must hold physical and psychological power & be willing and able to use it.
Americans know solidarity is the key to defeating authoritarianism. Yet despite having constantly been seeded with this fundamental lesson, the second Trump administration has been marked by a remarkable failure of spine across all the institutions www.crisesnotes.com/powell-will-...
Fascism is here, and it’s going to take all of us to stop it. • Get connected to the resistance: fiftyfifty.one • Get trained on non-cooperation: nokings.org/rise • Get bold by joining protests: maydaystrong.org • Get politically activated: pol-rev.com • Get started: Choosedemocracy.us
This is well written with strong comments about why autocrats throughout history suppress basic science and promote applied science / tech development. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/s...
This “explicit” is a weird editorial choice. The constitution gives the president no power over this at all. It’s not ambiguous.
Yup. It was a lie and a psy-op. But it worked. Now people won’t know that it’s the loss of the quietly competent civil service that killed them.
Yup. It was a lie and a psy-op. But it worked. Now people won’t know that it’s the loss of the quietly competent civil service that killed them.
Russ Vought said he wanted civil servants “traumatically affected” and to lose the will to work. Now Rubio puts him in charge of closing out USAID. This is not reform. It is the final nail in the coffin of American generosity and America’s standing in the world.
Trump is again threatening Chicago with a takeover on social media. We will again say those who trade liberty for the illusion of temporary safety deserve neither. We are not, and will not become, a military state. Remember freedom is something they can never take away, no matter what they tell you!
That whole thread is essential reading. People need to wake TF up and realize the field we are on now is different. No time for preciousness. There’s just pro democracy or anti. That’s all that matters now. We need everyone who is pro democracy to work together without scolding or division.
it would be nice if, in this limited respect, power-political necessity and republican virtues align. Because the rules are shredded, the norms are gone, and our institutions are subverted. We are in a power-political struggle between fascist authoritarianism and pluralist democracy. Period. /end
I don't know what the correct balance is. But I do know that we need to expand the pro-democracy coalition, and I suspect that this *will* require approaches that abandon stigmatization of allies and potential allies in favor of empathy and persuasion.
And that gets at a larger point. Competitive authoritarian regimes benefit from reduced social trust — which is why they actively try to destroy it.
There are virtues to working with people you otherwise disagree with. It's much harder, for example, for people to "other" religious, sexual, ethnic, & racial minorities when they spend time working with them as allies. It's no accident that the authoritarian right now wages a war against empathy.
But remember, none of this requires that we abandon the causes we believe in. None of this requires backing candidates we don't trust* in nomination contests. *I do mean "trust." We don't need politicians to say the all the right things. We need them to "do" the right things more often than not.
If we are going to prevail against them, we need as large an opposition tent as we can get. We need disciplined counter-mobilization. That means protests where SJP doesn't get on stage and tell people that if they don't support the destruction of the state of Israel, then they need to go home.
But it's the truth: the choice is between a small-d democratic coalition — one in which a majority either supports or is sympathetic to the causes we're talking about – and a fascist authoritarian regime that will use every tool at its disposal — including violence — to suppress vulnerable "others."
Pro-democracy politicians will *fail* if they don't have space to form alliances with people who don't share our beliefs and room to blunt successful wedge issues. That sucks.
There's no point in punishing the nominees of the opposition for stances that we consider beyond the pale — let alone ones that are problematic. The logic of "teaching them a lesson" presupposes that we still have a system in which the opposition can win elections.
We have a decades of scholarship on how pro-democracy forces win in competitive authoritarian systems: they form a united opposition that brings together people with otherwise profound political disagreements.
🧵 Authoritarianism, Democratization, and Coalition Politics. The consensus around here is, more or less, that the United States is currently a consolidating authoritarian regime controlled by a mix of reactionary populists and fascists.
Attacks on due process, rule of law, checks & balances grow louder every day. Democracy can’t defend itself—it needs us. We call on every citizen to stand with us: defend democracy. empower voters. Protect free and fair elections open to all. #DemocracyMatters @lwvus.bsky.social @lwvva.bsky.social
“I want a Nobel Prize. Nominate me or I will extort your country.” Embarrassment does not begin to cover it. www.financialexpress.com/business/mod...
This whole comment thread is A+
Nathan’s right. The Fed is not up to the task of an actual threat. They operate inside a cozy structure of norms, and have absolutely no tools when someone sets those norms on fire.
“Alarmed.” 🙄 They learned nothing from history. You cannot give a dictator enough to keep him out. Appeasement never works. They always come back and take whatever they want, regardless.
“Alarmed”
This had me at the Expanse, but it is exactly right. I hadn’t thought about it this way before. But yes, here we are: the cascade. Next Q: is it possible to set up a liberal democracy that is robust to the cascade? Founders thought ours would be but the failure point was hyperpartisan politics.
You had me at the Expanse, but this is exactly right. I hadn’t thought about it this way before. But yes, here we are: the cascade. Next Q: is it possible to set up a liberal democracy that is robust to the cascade? Founders thought ours would be but the failure point was hyperpartisan politics.
(Also: LOL)
ALAS
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“Control is the goal, amassing power in the hands of the president & removing /neutering any institution/ person that could stand in his way. That is the guiding logic that explains Trump’s every action…including his wars on media, courts, universities & civil servants of the federal government.”
“The administration has sought to restrict funding for programs that help families reduce their home energy bills, mothers buy food for young children and laid-off workers find training.” The true values of the Christian theocrat Russ Vought, ladies and gentlemen.
“The administration has sought to restrict funding for programs that help families reduce their home energy bills, mothers buy food for young children and laid-off workers find training.” The true values of the Christian theocrat Russ Vought, ladies and gentlemen.
At some point in the not too distant future the conventional wisdom will be that this was a period where the US focused on dumb shit while China took the lead in multiple domains
Raiding retirement savings. Pondering job changes or even marriage. People who buy their own health insurance are strategizing ahead of major price hikes in 2026. Open enrollment starts Nov. 1.
The vast majority of these agencies (including the ones from the similar March EO) do not have national security as a “primary function.” Just finding another way to distort the law to reach a preferred political outcome / attack enemies. The Calvinball Court will of course say this is fine.
The vast majority of these agencies (including the ones from the similar March EO) do not have national security as a “primary function.” Just finding another way to distort the law to reach a preferred political outcome / attack enemies. The Calvinball Court will of course say this is fine.
Yup that’s the reason. Follows on from the March EO. It’s all union-busting. And bad faith on its face yet of course SCOTUS said fine. Calvinball.
August 29, 2025
A lot of politically connected vendors literally made hundreds of millions of dollars off taxpayers through no bid contracts in just two months of Alligator Alcatraz operating. Waste, fraud, and abuse.
The ruling, however, doesn’t take effect immediately. The court withheld the mandate for its decision until *Oct. 14*
I’m really sick of the courts finding this administration broke the law in some unprecedented way, but they get to keep doing illegal things for a few months as a little treat. They’re defaulting to rewarding lawbreaking.
🚨BREAKING: Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) reinforced GOP power grabs sweeping the country, calling a special legislative session Friday to redraw congressional districts and weaken the ability of voters to pass laws through ballot initiatives. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Absolutely true. Absolutely chilling.
Sums up America in 2025 pretty well I’d say
That’s true for this entire regime. We told people what they were going to try to do. And people said, “nah.”
Good.
someone should put together a "kennedy death count" for everyone who dies of a preventable disease and just plaster it everywhere www.statnews.com/2025/08/28/c...
Just want to make sure the discussion in the community doesn’t get one-sided!
Don’t assume risks aren’t being considered - people are aware! There are not enough terrible things to assume about Vought. Truly one of the worst humans alive in this country right now.
The questioning of assumptions must go both ways. No one is uncritically accepting the potential for limitations. But folks are looking to different ideas / outside of previous boxes to maximize support for the next generation during a bad time. Don’t assume bad motives for those trying new avenues.
OMB’s work to micromanage all agencies’ expenditures is unprecedented. It’s not the same as it always previously been so the expectations of behavior / process that applied in the past do not apply now.
There are more layers & stages to the story of “same budget” than most people are aware of. OMB is being very specific with all agencies about what spending they approve on a month to month basis. That includes w/ respect to Fellows. And the premise of the question exactly applies to future years.
Yes. Rural voters keep making themselves clear: they do not want shared prosperity, they want everyone else to suffer. Look at PA. Rural legislators broke public transit and are promising to keep it broken forever. Why? Because their voters want us to suffer. www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/transpo...
And yes, it’s “in addition to” not a replacement. As mentioned via a vis the honorable mentions.
Yes I know about the second round. This is what I mean about being too anchored in the status quo ante in a bad time, and not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. If the choice is: get additional Fellows targeted for some specific areas, or get no additional Fellows, which do we choose?
The CDC is gutting a program that monitors foodborne illnesses. The program will now only track infections caused by two pathogens, rather than eight. Hello? How does this “Make America Healthy Again”?
I’ve never applauded jury nullification. Until now. Free DC.
Not acting like. Governing as a dictator. “Acting like” makes people think it’s cosplay but not happening in a serious way. It is happening in a serious way. We have already transitioned from democracy to autocracy.
In other words, more than ever we all need to stop letting perfect be the enemy of the good.
That is not what this is. There is a lot of misinformation on this being put forward by well intentioned individuals who insist that they will only accept the status quo ante rather than consider options for expansion under difficult conditions in which the other options could be fewer Fellows.
Please read the whole letter. Our most personal data is being pillaged by this illegitimate administration.
Learn to decipher the codespeak.
Lots of right-wing political pastors and charlatans about to get rich from FEMA money.
When a president decides to disregard the will of the American people, you’re right, that’s the mark of authoritarian rule. The White House has notified Congress that it plans to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid funding that lawmakers had already approved, doing so without their consent.
First direct attempt to nullify the last remaining power of Congress. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...
What a cursed sentence (gift link) “The A.I. companies selected to oversee the program would have a strong financial incentive to deny claims. Medicare plans to pay them a share of the savings generated from rejections.”
This is all true. We are in for some dark times, unless something dramatic changes, quickly. AND: those of us in the field of public health, are needed more now, than ever. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/o...
I mean, nothing matters any more, but it's worth pointing out that preventing demagogic leaders from controlling the money supply was one of the *central issues in the American Revolution*.
Don’t know that would have stopped the shameless double standard, but still, this x 10000000.
This x 1000000
It never happens with GOP, but too damn often in our party folks try to build themselves up by tearing Dems down. You can demand better from us without pissing all over the house we’ve built together. I’m sick of it. If you make a name for yourself by trashing the party, I’m calling you out.
Truly