Folks look at you like you're crazy when you say we're in the midst of the worst, most unprecedented Article I constitutional crisis in American history, & well, 👇
I study (agrarian) politics in the former Soviet states. Long-term policy advisor in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Tajikistan. Resident director of 5 USAID-funded projects. Democratic institutions are hard to build and keep. Berkeley PolSci PhD eons ago.
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Folks look at you like you're crazy when you say we're in the midst of the worst, most unprecedented Article I constitutional crisis in American history, & well, 👇
That's a *chef's kiss* of a community note, though.
this is almost certainly under Title 32 authorities (meaning the TX guard will be nominally under TX state control but on a federal mission), meaning the posse comitatus issues that came up in California will not apply. that said, it raises a whole lot of other legal problems
Congressman Jerry Nadler would more than likely have been reelected to an 18th full term in Congress. He's long had the support and confidence of NYC voters. Instead, he's passing the torch and doing his part to center and strengthen the next generation of Democratic leadership. (thread)
Someone here said Obama should demand Trump's death certificate.
senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, former chief economist to Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) & director of budget and spending policy for Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign👇🏽
TY and fair enough. I hope I’m just being paranoid, but my best read is still that Trump has switched sides, and lots of folks in DoD likely knew the plans. Of course, everyone in Kyiv knows where the Artem plant is, which is why RF keeps hitting the Luk’ianivs’ka metro. Industry is hard to hide.
If this is so, I wonder if that intel is partly leaking from the US.
Thread: this is Russ Vought giving himself permission to ignore Congress and the constitution
Washington's speculation about Trump's health is at a fever pitch. We've seen multiple reasons this summer to ask questions — and the media doesn't seem to care. What's really going on? www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/it-s-time-...
I'm going on record. You don't cover up dead. He's not dead. However, he's sick as shit. That you can cover up for a bit. But just a bit. Mostly I hope he feels like absolute shit and is very scared of death. That I can work with.
Actually, he thinks that he is the state, and that everything should be controlled by the state, as long as he's the state.
Nice to see Weber used well. TY. Political analysts have argued that regimes like the USSR after Lenin try to “routinize” charisma, to pass it to new leaders. (The model for this is the Catholic Church). If MAGA holds enough of the state, this could work until the movement burns out. (50+ years).
Judge Sooknanan: As I said at the start of this hearing, I got a call at 2:36 am [last night] because the government chose the wee hours of the morning on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend to execute a plan to move these children. That's why we're here.
In a society where the media is controlled, as the US now is, it’s the timing of the publication that’s interesting. Trump has been old and infirm for years, but AFAIK no major MAGA-friendly publication has speculated about successors until now — when we’ve just noted his disappearance.
Fence looks too damn familiar. Of course the guards listen. They want info they’re not getting from Luka’s censors. Nice move by the EU.
The White House comment is code for “The Ukrainians won’t roll over and surrender no matter how much we threaten.” I hope this is not “stepping back” the way the US did from plans to seize Greenland.
Funny that an American Worker looks like he just stepped out of a 1960s Soviet factory somewhere in eastern Siberia , full of determination to fulfill a five-year plan in four years and conscious of the dangers of too much alcohol and talking to foreigners.
The extent to which ICE is ignoring all civil rights and due process is astounding — and indicative of a culture where they’ve been told they can do literally no wrong. Agency and admin leaders must face sanctions and legal consequences.
If you don’t believe that Trump’s authoritarianism can be defeated, look at how scared MAGA is of chalk:
Interesting and reasonable analysis. Also lessons about how authoritarian patrimonialism works in general. This is the system MAGA is implanting in the US.
I’m purposely not linking the post. But I noticed that my morning mailing from _The Hill_ included an article on likely GOP nominees in 2028 to succeed the President. He’s not young or in good health. Somebody in MAGA has noticed.
I got arrested yesterday! (real drop off from being a corporate law firm associate five months ago. or upgrade.) I was blocking vehicles leaving from ICE’s Broadview, IL, staging ground and de facto detention center at 1930 Beach St. full statement (for now) below.
It’s actually perfect because they are clearly annoyed but can’t help marching to the beat
L.A. Taco is an incredible locally sourced organization that does a lot of old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting.
Whatever the accuracy and value of “Democracy Indices”, this is truly remarkable and again shows the striking disconnect between the U.S. legacy media and U.S. political reality.
I interviewed Flint Taylor, Fred Hampton's & the Chicago Black Panther Party's, lawyer who helped uncover the CPD/FBI's role in his execution and the execution of other members. We discussed historical & present day policing issues in this piece: truthout.org/articles/50-...
I cannot stop... 😅😅😅✌️
The non vaccinated maga campaign people sent me their “terms and conditions”. (I didn’t ask for it). This is a campaign they launch with paid posts, promoted content with ten influencers launching at a time to support RFK Jr’s nonsense. So expect a wave of bs.
Jeremiah may never come home 😭
Image caring more about stopping a memorial for people killed in a mass shooting than stopping mass shootings. #Priorities
Spot-on from @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social (www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...)
I can just barely see “him,” and not for long. A double seems likely. BTW. Epstein.
Freaky to hear US officials channel unadulterated Ru propaganda. Let's use the right words-- Ukraine and the Europeans are indeed stopping Trump from trying to force Ukrainian surrender while calling it "a deal".
Let that number sink in. This is how to do it when you’re fighting for the future of your democracy.
MIIS going away is still v bad news. It did good work. Besides, Middlebury is about the wealthiest liberal-arts school there is, and their retrenchment is a big warning.
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.”
Late on the Friday before Labor Day, hundreds of VOA journalists were told they're being terminated in 30 days. Kari Lake, the 'acting CEO' of USAGM, says "this will help reduce the federal bureaucracy, improve agency service, and save the American people more of their hard-earned money."#SaveVOA
When Yeltsin was too ill/drunk to be seen in public, the official explanation was: "The president is working with documents." Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Meduza & Mediazona: "according to the National Inheritance Registry, about 93,000 Russian servicemen were killed last year — almost twice as many as in 2023, when the death toll was roughly 50,000." meduza.io/en/feature/2...
Correction: I believe this report confuses the Monterey Institute of International Studies and the DoD Defense Language School at Monterey. MIIS is a private college that has had financial trouble for many years and was saved when Middlebury College acquired it.
In the first Gilded Age, the wealthy wanted hospitals named after them. In this shit 2.0 version, Elon racks up dead kids like it's points in a game he hired someone else to play.
Gonna ask kindly but emphatically that Trekkies please listen to my close and dear friend Girafe’s words about Star Trek Strange New Worlds treatment of biraciality.
NYC please note…
IMO a must-read. NB: “The authorities themselves are destroying the foundation that underpinned the successes of 2022−2023…” Reminded of Putin’s quip in 2000: “Anyone who wants it [the Soviet Union) restored has no brains.” ridl.io/sovietizatio...
Like I said. They aren’t embarrassed by history, it’s their playbook.
They have a buddy system. So older children were paired with the little ones. They got them under the pews-or lay on them- quickly. “It could have been so much worse.” A buddy system. Even the sweetest parts of childhood distorted in horrifying ways. www.npr.org/2025/08/28/n...
⚡️ Trump is a 'Russian asset,' Portuguese president says. Questions about Trump's possibly shady relationship with Russia and the country's security services have long swirled.
1/ Russian refugees deported by the United States back to Russia have experienced intensive interrogation, threats, violence, and torture, according to Russian sources. Thousands of Russians have fled to the US to escape the war and political persecution by the Putin regime. ⬇️
It didn’t take long to get Soviet numbers.
Looking very Don Martin Illustration there, chief.
Super cool and probably not anything to worry about that the new Star Trek, when it isn't revisiting story arcs about showing mercy and coming to mutual understanding with "some Others just need killing" is now doing "genetics ARE destiny actually"
So many bigger things today. But I am still seething about the RFK thing about fluoride. It’s not new or remotely the worst thing today. But I have pretty great and functional teeth despite growing up low income with no insurance thanks to fluoride and I swear his ilk just want people to suffer.
I’m interested that everyone seems to be reading this comment the way I would read it in the the Soviet press — as a prediction by somebody (Vance) in a position to know.
i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.
Waking up to the news that the guy who really wants peace killed sleeping women and children, again, and bombed the office where a dear old friend of mine works. www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...
There aren't many stories that prompt gasps at our editors' daily budget meeting. But this was one.
Abbe Lowell and I represent CDC Director #SusanMonarez. Contrary to govt statements, Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor yet been fired. She will not resign. We have issued the following statement:
The mind reels at which takes to have about this "Great, fighting concentration camps can win!" "Think of all the money wasted on this fascist boondoggle" "Will this headline make them reverse course and double down?" "They're all being moved or deported, so why does this matter?"
Works with cats also
Insult to injury www.militarytimes.com/news/pentago...
Ds should make it crystal clear that anyone who carries out corrupt/illegal orders for Trump can't count on bureaucratic obscurity to evade accountability later. Yes, he might preemptively pardon. But Ds should say: Do you really want to stake your future on Trump? newrepublic.com/article/1996...
I’m afraid this is fair. And a reasonable explanation of current US events.
This absolute queen got officially voted in today. I'm overjoyed. Lithuania gets the most left-wing PM of any post-Soviet country. A new generation of rad, new left trade unionists. International support and coverage is a must, she's such a beacon of hope. 💞 www.politico.eu/article/poli...
I will only accept guns from now on, Dems
Impeach, convict, remove!
It is important to understand this as what it is: a political project to help far right parties in Europe. “Censorship” is the frame they chose because it worked well here. This doesn’t mean the DSA is great. But that’s not the point.
I grew up in the UK. Been thinking about the shadow cabinet idea a lot recently. Unlike the UK, opposition parties in the US are almost leaderless for 4 years until the completion of the next presidential primary. The Dems desperately need to get organized. A shadow cabinet is an obvious solution.
Trump on deploying the National Guard to Chicago: "I have the right to do anything I want to do. I'm the president of the United States."
Witkoff: "There's only one thing I wish for: that that Nobel committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate since that Nobel award was ever talked about."
Possible causes of your problems. It’s a diagram that (sadly) still seems relevant in 2025, so reposting a year and a bit on.
@vermontgmg.bsky.social’s piece is worth another read. I have spent most days of my life since I was 12 learning about WWII and I must agree with him. “So far, after years of studying World War II, I fear that America’s trajectory feels more like Berlin circa 1933 than it does Budapest circa 2015.”
To make the stakes clear, potential Dem Presidential candidates should say that if SCOTUS allows this they will fire any Trump Fed appointees in 2028. Because that is the logical endpoint.
Today’s Executive Order creating a *nationwide* military “quick reaction force” and setting up an online portal to permit random fascist vigilantes to join soldiers is one of the scariest things I’ve seen in U.S. politics in my adult life. Why is it not getting more attention?
Going to be wild to have Clarence Thomas and other members of the court write that even the appearance of impropriety is sufficient to allow the President to remove Federal Reserve members from office, and then head off to Harlan Crow’s yacht
Folks are rightfully worried that President Trump is compromising the Federal Reserve's independence. As I wrote a year ago for @wpr.bsky.social, because the Fed is arguably the most powerful economic entity in the world, it needs to be as far removed as possible from political machinations.
This is a tremendously insulting, ignorant, and consequential moment from Trump. Trump clearly has no idea what he has done. But starting w the 50+ million people in South Korea, many throughout Asia and the rest of the world are aware. Even SecState/NatSecAdvisor little Marco must know.
They could ask Boris Berezovsky or Mikhail Khodorkovsky about that. Well, not Berezovsky. He died under mysterious circumstances.
Did the founding fathers want a king? Here's what a group of originalist legal scholars had to say.
2/ 🧊😲✈️ GITMO ➡️ CAIRO ⛓️🇪🇬 👉 Omni 767 (tail: N846AX) begins an ICE rendition mission from Louisiana to Egypt with a stop to pick up some human cargo in Guantanamo 👀
Georgia's imprisoned journalist Mzia Amaglobeli, co-founder of Batumelebi & Netgazeti, has been shortlisted for the 2025 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize. She is joined by Ukrainian journalist Maksym Butkevych and Azerbaijani journalist Ulvi Hasanli. The winner will be announced on 29 Sept. #FreeMzia
The American land forces are not sized or trained to impose control over the country. What Trump can muster in one city is insufficient for real control, impossible at any scale. So any presence is token. The troops are the "weak" link politically, so their hearts and minds are in play. Win over...
EU Digital Services Act.
EUDigital Services Act.
Hard to convince younger generations, but for decades, Republicans went on and on about how two of the worst things imaginable were (1) state intervention in the market and (2) DC using federal troops against US states; both so bad the people should be ready for armed rebellion in case it happens.
I wish people could understand that if trump dies tomorrow, this will barely even slow down. It won't stop.. It's so much bigger than him.
Folks, I have to share this dog toy I saw in the store. There is way more going on here than you may think.
This appears to be the same man who burned the flag in front of the White House today avlwatchdog.org/army-veteran...
Rachel Maddow pointing out that when Trump wants to get rid of someone they aren’t fired, but made an ambassador. This is what the USSR did under Brezhnev. I’m really beginning to believe Trump has a cadre of Russian advisors.
(Unfortunately) well worth reading.
Appropriate that Woody Allen turns up morally compromised again just now. The guy made really interesting films but as a human being…
Let’s be clear about what is happening: This man is being punished — and disappeared — because he embarrassed our pretender king. They trumped up a criminal case against him because he was embarrassing.
fucking hell first I have to feel a modicum of pity for Bolton and now MIKE POMPEO??!!
And at Jackson State.
yeah this is what fascism looks like
www.citizen-times.com/story/news/l...
Here, fixed it.
kristinekenyon.bsky.social 