"The trading debut was most likely the biggest financial success for the president's family since the inauguration" is a very bad way for a journalist to describe the pathological corruption exclusive to this specific family.
Political theorist studying democracy, ethics, & institutions. Author of Democracy for Busy People (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo194847654.html); more at kevinjelliott.net. Generally poasting my way through this thing
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"The trading debut was most likely the biggest financial success for the president's family since the inauguration" is a very bad way for a journalist to describe the pathological corruption exclusive to this specific family.
What a gang of mindless amateurs in Washington accomplished in Beijing:
Modern problems, modern solutions, etc.
Wanting to pretend things are 'normal' is a powerful bias, and believing that persisting in prior political patterns ('if we stay here, we can make our perspective heard') will revive them is a related form of rationalizing inertia?
Happy Labor Day, the Trump administration hates unions more than basically anything www.gravityisgone.com/a-lot-of-fol...
Is it on the agenda in terms of Lords reform?
Effectively adding a democratically legitimate second chamber seems like a much bigger change than canning FPTP! Given the recent/current presence of LibDem, SNP, Green, DUP, etc. MPs the Commons has had multipartyism a long time; PR would just grow it. Meaningful bicameralism is way more alien
Would never discount that Plus, electoral reform is extremely rare; the people in a position to do it are always the ones who've won under the current rules and so are predisposed not to see any reason to change them
Reminder: the apparent plan was to spirit these children away in the middle of the night without them ever seeing the inside of a courtroom to challenge their deportation. Children.
Seems like starting right now would give Labour enough time to run a process that results in electoral reform without forestalling total electoral defeat being the unavoidable motivation
Criteria will matter a lot.
Me, whenever I add a new argument to a draft. h/t @evanbernick.bsky.social
Pritzker out here giving a master class in countering the right wing propaganda machine’s efforts to justify further federal invasions and occupations of American cities: he’s effectively reframing the discussion (beyond debates re: crime rates) to one of rising authoritarianism & federal overreach.
The political disconnectedness of many Americans, which we often deplore when the republic's collapsing, does actually have an upside. Combined with the manifest lack of the sort of emergencies Trump invokes legally, it means Americans might just not be very scared by the terror tactics
The full paper, where I try to develop a constitutional theory for a democracy full of busy people, is here: bsky.app/profile/kjep...
And the key diagnostic point is this: bsky.app/profile/kjep...
I developed a small political theory of constitutionalism in a recent article (link below). The key analytical point is this: bsky.app/profile/kjep...
This underlying conventionalism of all constitutions is the mechanism turning these editorial choices into real transformations of the American constitution. If the 'paper of record' defines unprecedented power grabs as within the conventional bounds of American politics, that almost *makes it true*
What's dangerous about these accumulated choices to cover the end of constitutional rule of law as a debate between reasonable sides is that it reflects a deep truth about constitutionalism: that the rules of the game are established purely by convention & the alignment of mutual expectation.
If you want to find that @brendannyhan.bsky.social line made actual—what would you say if you saw it in another country?—look no further than global headlines & front page stories about the US. The world isn't missing what's happening here. (See alt-text for translation)
Death of a tyrant is always worth celebrating
Nah
Yes. Only watched it once but it was great. I can only imagine it's gotten better in the circumstances, looking forward to watching again
Maybe: Argentina, 1985 (2022)? It's all about putting the junta generals on trial
Ah! Missed this one, looks great
Was it a bit dirty? I suppose. Were there gross members? Absolutely. But mostly the people were interesting and great—indeed, I met my favorite person ever there (my wife). Plus, the food was decent & plentiful. Also, it's still around 20 years later, virtually unchanged as of a couple years ago
So what would you call it when a government department dedicated to "war" directed its activities against the people that government is supposed to protect, what's sometimes called "civil" society
...did you make it to the end
Tell my wife...hello
This (great) thread confirms my sense that the priority now is not to patch up coalitional differences. That's step two. The priority is to get everyone across the opposition to understand that we're not in a pluralist, politics-as-normal world. We're in a zero-sum world. The stakes are existential.
Maybe Pritzker's little bit of swagger is enough to enjoy, his baiting and teasing of Trump. As I'm thinking about it, the joy of the fight might be key to the enjoyment available thru FE politics. In that case, a good fighter may generate the requisite fun.
We're looking at the same politics, aren't we. Mamdani's politics are fun, but he's manifestly not doing friend-enemy politics. Newsom is certainly so far the only major figure trying to do it with any elements of the fun I think you're alluding to. Pritzker's great & inspiring & maybe that's enough
Dark movies that are actually sort of weirdly hopeful relative to where we are: Garland's Civil War Death of Stalin Others?
this point—that this era is not forever and accountability can come in many forms—has for some reason proved bizarrely elusive for democrats
I lived in a co-op for four years in college, it was easily the best place I've ever resided. Every rewarding thing about communal life were the wages for my contribution of a bit of labor & cleaning a couple bathrooms sometimes. Oh, also, I paid maybe $500 a month for my room *& 3x meals a day*
Being mildly anti-slavery reflects an immense failure of character
Must read. I don't endorse every word, but it's exactly right about the big picture:
i think about the “do not split” principle from hong kong often
America finding and defining the line between civil society and barbarism
average Dem strategist: we must focus on bipartisan policies that undercut Republican attacks average Dem voter: having studied the denazification of Germany, we must raze the RNC and leave JD Vance clutching a single wool blanket in a cell after we strip him of everything
Trump did this
Spot-on from @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social (www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...)
Man orders 18,000 waters from an AI drive thru The hero we need
State supreme courts are so important right now. We put together a guide of every single high court: it answers 20 questions for each state! Crucial resource for people who care or work on this!
But by far and away, the biggest priority for a Heritage Foundation-captured CDC is going to be using the agency's legal frameworks for access to medical data, and weaponizing them to control women. *Most* of the Project 2025 plan for CDC is a witch hunt against abortion on an unprecedented scale.
“Texas Democrats lost. But they drew attention to Republicans’ efforts to put their thumb on the scale, and demonstrated a valuable tactic for galvanizing their beleaguered party. They lost, but they lost loudly. Losing loudly has been a crucial feature of successful political movements.” Gift:
With O'Neill (apparently) taking over CDC (if they ever get around to firing Monarez), I think it's worth looking back to Project 2025 and asking what they actually intend to *do* to CDC. So, I went to remind myself today. Here's what's in store:
Hello, I am furious www.liberalcurrents.com/let-it-burn-...
A few. You can search for my name in the program; I still need to input them into my calendar.
Oh ho! Perhaps we'll meet
Of all the “honestly I never expected” things — Congress absolutely rolling over and abdicating its power to the White House — any White House — is one of the most shockingly unnecessary. It will not be remembered well in history, by either side, ironically. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...
Free speech
"Why does he still stand so weird"
If you know anything about Prague, it probably includes that there's a lovely old bridge and they have a long history of throwing people out of windows
Thrice
In fact, no. See "further defenestrations" bsky.app/profile/kjep...
Patrick Henry expressed concern that the President “may easily become king,” James Madison replied that this would not occur because “[t]he purse is in the hands of the representatives of the people.” Full Henry quote on "you Senate" below: teachingamericanhistory.org/document/pat...
See, that's clean wholesome fun
Oh damn, I forgot about milkshaking. Remember when people were throwing milkshakes at right wing freaks the world over
The Helsinki Formula
Right. Liberal arts colleges should be the most insulated from the big cuts to research grants
Fuck me, I missed not just the Third Defenestration, but an entire series of "Further defenestrations": en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenes...
It fits naturally with the reactionary-fascist project of re-imposing gender, racial, & class hierarchies, which likewise attempt to re-inscribe inequality into political & social spaces from which it had at least somewhat retreated
Okay, maybe we will be laughing a little
Eugenics in the present context is a small government ideology that excuses public health sabotage, privatization, & retrenchment. It does political work of alleviating the urgency of protecting human health by inserting a naturalized unequal valuation of human life
Read up on the beginning and end of the Thirty Year's War, Prague features prominently
It's been so many years, I shoulda checked
Oh shit thanks
We're all laughing & joking around here, and then he comes back on Monday with his consciousness downloaded as AI into an immortal mech suit We won't be laughing then
Old Soviet joke for today: A man walks into a newsstand every day, looks around, and leaves. After a long time of this, the owner says “Can I help you find something?” “I’m looking for the obituaries.” “The obituaries are in the back of the newspaper, comrade.” “Not the one I’m looking for.”
The second post didn't pop up till after I posted, sorry And you're totally right; I read a book many years ago about German politics and how it had become much more personality-focused and less programmatic in emulation of American politics
The anticipated horror here strongly suggests you have a boy
Don't do that
Which ones are you thinking of, and when Very striking how little emulation post-WWII for instance, yet spread of judicial review in that period hasn't been catastrophic
The fact that we must differentiate the First from the Second Defenestration of Prague remains an all time flex of that lovely city
Why are Schumer and Jeffries still pretending that the appropriation process is real? It isn't. All it will do is produce fake documents that Trump doesn't even view as advisory. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Right. It might be worth reflecting on what issue or condition would allow us to tell the difference between the Roberts Court substantively liking what Trump's doing with autocratic power and fear of his ignoring their own power, though I get it maybe doesn't matter?
To be clear, I'm not just standing, I'm, like, shimmying and flapping my arms and stuff. Moving my body keeps my mind moving
That presumption is more or less all that's holding things together at present And it's precarious
People bad mouth social media in so many ways, but have they truly considered how it allows Some Guy to annoy the rich & influential
DOGE wasn’t a cost-cutting venture. It was a data mining operation for private interests. Trump opened the gates to the castle from inside for invaders with bad and greedy intent to plunder and exploit.
Look, I know the "but stay in place" part is due to a familiar practice of delay, but it also just about sums up the fundamental state of play in American 'law' & constitutional politics
To put this in terms Ham-Face might get: Declaring one's actions to be purely reactions to the actions of others is an affront to God & the human freedom he placed in each of us. It's to deny your own freedom to choose, & to reject the responsibility for your decisions that's yours by natural law
All signs point to my standing desk having shaved a couple pounds off me in just a few weeks, phew
Every time your electricity bill goes up for the next 10 years, it can be traced back to this Administration’s actions. They are making solar and wind power illegal to build in the United States. They are artificially restricting supply while demand is going up.
That's the stupidity part
Lol, get fucked, everyone hates you
Sure, but his dad started losing his marbles very shortly after Trump's current age
Whenever I visit my family in Southern California, I go through the same period of thinking, the mountains! the grape vines in the backyard! shorts and t shirt on Christmas! why don't I live here? And then, of course, I have to go somewhere, and remember: that's why.
On one hand, reducing car use reduces urban pollution. But on the other, everyone likes it and cities become more livable
WTF
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.
Right, it's not even original in its evil
The Republican Party simply does not believe in representative democracy anymore. It’s turned its back on a bedrock principle of our country in favor of grabbing power by theft.
Big yikes
Meta AI made naked pictures of underage celebrities. Hard to see this being much worse. All the tech lords are bad, but Zuck always manages to be somehow the stupidest & least original