Independent, nonpartisan, pro-democracy, Christian. Certified translator of Spanish and Portuguese into English koevtranslations.com
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The last 2 weeks have seen many articles clearly stating Trump has taken US into some state of authoritarianism, even dictatorship, some by indie journalists, but also, major international media. Today on 1A, Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine & Spain’s La Vanguardia. 🧵 www.faz.net/aktuell/poli...
Perfect.
On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout. On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar. This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media. Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵
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Let's do this Gratitude to history teachers who taught us to love history I'll start. Mrs. Paul. 8th grade history teacher Made us write re: Hamilton & child labor. Got my attention! MANY years later I got to thank her for helping me learn to love history Getting to thank your teachers? The best!
🧵 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.
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.
Related:
what a mess and a stupid way to run a country
Are you electing a prosecutor this fall? Find out with our database of all elections for prosecutor this fall, and who’s running. boltsmag.org/whats-o...
“Disaster money is just sitting,” one FEMA employee tells WIRED. “Every single day applicants are asking their FEMA contact ‘where’s my money?’ And we are ordered to just say nothing and redirect.” Must-read by @mollytaft.com
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Openly telling us that the goal is to completely politicize the Federal Reserve and monetary policy.
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Egads.
(1/3) Pediatric health care and strong public health agencies are two planks in the foundation of children’s health and wellbeing. CDC has long been a leading resource for research and evidence-backed recommendations on how to keep children healthy.
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Democracy Atlas Rule 4 - Cambodia’s civic leaders embody the virtues of active and engaged citizens by harnessing leadership from all backgrounds to continue driving change, even in the face of continued repression. https://www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/rule-4-leadership-lives-in-everyone
Why is President Obama amplifying an Ezra Klein essay in which Klein eliminates from history the fact that hundreds and hundreds of journalists asked Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign if his agenda was Project 2025 and *he lied to every single one of them, and every single American voter*?
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“.. democracy often erodes slowly at first .. But with each concession, autocrats become bolder.. and reversal becomes harder. Responses that, early on, can feel pragmatic—waiting it out, remaining silent, cutting a deal—only embolden ..” @dziblatt.bsky.social www.foreignaffairs.com/germany/hitl...
New, from me: America is no longer a functioning democracy. It is a competitive authoritarian system, hurtling rapidly toward authoritarianism. This was a hard piece to write but we can't move forward if we don’t acknowledge where we are. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-author...
Surreal
I think it shows more weakness to stay silent than to speak up and lose a particular battle. But that's just me.
Trump's use of red state National Guards in DC is really about viciously turning Americans against each other, about stoking hate and violence *among Americans.* JB Pritzker's response is so good because it lays *this* bare. Me and @brianbeutler.bsky.social on this: newrepublic.com/article/1997...
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I found an analogy that helped today. Teaching kids to use AI to "help" with thinking or research before they have learned to do it themselves, but warning them to check its work is like giving them a faulty calculator before they can add and subtract, but warning them to check its work
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:
Yes. This weakens our national security, which is what Putin wants.
Steven Miller calls the Democratic Party an “extremist organization.” Don’t be surprised if Trump moves to ban the party as a danger to America. Can’t happen here? After the last 8 months, that seems a very thin reed to hold onto.
⬇️ @ivodaalder.bsky.social is not someone who one would consider to be an alarmist. So when this 👇 statement just popped up on my timeline, I heard 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 going off in my head! 😳 Take heed, America!
I don't read a lot of novellas, but I read Elder Race by Tchaikovsky this year and really liked it.
In our August newsletter, we're exploring: -The science of floating solar farms -Which trees are best at storing carbon (hint: young ones!) -An underrated aspect of conservation 📩 All in 784 words, a 4-minute read. Subscribe to the Global Insights newsletter: https://nature.ly/4mW9ASm
Yellen not at all pulling her punches in this op-ed for the FT www.ft.com/content/d2ea...
Press Freedom Watch Documenting actions that affect freedom of the press in the U.S. www.poynter.org/press-freedo... A pretty comprehensive list from the @poynterinstitute.bsky.social Makes it clear how expansive the press coercion/intimidation/suppression is. #PressFreedom #Journalism
In my view, the question is: consensus among whom? If both authors of the seminal works on "competitive authoritarianism" put the US in that category today (and they do), that says more to me than a broader academic consensus would. Personally, I agree with them, but we'll see how things unfold.
Nope. A very purple area.
What the...
One of the most important and urgent pieces I have written! contrarian.substack.com/p/our-guardr...
@nicklifeafloat.bsky.social - "Exploring Scotland's beauty, one adventure at a time. Advocate for mental health awareness & suicide prevention." So many lovely photos (and sometimes videos) from his journeys around Scotland by land and sea. 🚶♂️➡️🚣♀️
I for one don't know what you're talking about. Maybe people in my area are... basically nice...? 🤷♀️
But now that he's started saying it, they will.
What are some of y’all’s favorite NON POLITICAL accounts on here? (Because we could all use a break). Here’s three to get started: @joenewberry.bsky.social @thekentacorn.bsky.social @coachdancasey.bsky.social Give us your best recommendations!
1/ A high-profile rightwing activist, who pushed to overturn Trump’s loss in 2020, has been appointed to a top position in the Department of Homeland Security helping oversee U.S. election security, I reported for @propublica.org. 🧵👇 www.propublica.org/article/heat...
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I believe this is the third time in two days that he's talked like this (about being called a dictator and stopping crime).
"The most striking thing is his sneering dismissal of the counter argument 'freedom.'" 😞
Trump & Bondi versus the Rule of Law: This is why we Americans live in fear today The Honorable Thomas Cullen, the judge from the Federal District Court in Virginia who was brought in to decide Donald Trump’s and Pam Bondi’s corrupt and unprecedented lawsuit against the Federal Court in Maryland,
@chrischirp.bsky.social Can't remember if there's a spot for rhetoric in your framework.
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Just casually laying the groundwork for violent repression of the opposition
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I appreciate that the first Bluesky post in my feed this morning is truth from a historian, reposted by another historian. Sad truth, but truth.
YES! It's time for proportional representation. @upvoteva.bsky.social @andycraig.bsky.social @fairvote.bsky.social
JUST IN: President Trump says he's firing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, after a Trump ally accused Cook of making false statements on a mortgage application. The president's authority to remove a Fed governor may be challenged in court.
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Trump wants the FCC to revoke the licenses of ABC and NBC because they don’t praise him enough MAGA calls that “free speech”
Once again, Trump is threatening to pull the broadcast licenses of networks for being very nasty and unfair to him. Of course, there's one broadcaster who hasn't faced those same threats... www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
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CNBC: So we should expect the US government to be taking more equity stakes in businesses around the country? KEVIN HASSETT: It's possible, yeah. That's absolutely right.
I am constantly getting tagged to share posts from "rescues" that are obviously fake. Please learn to recognize the signs so you are not wasting your money and sympathy on scammers! 🧵 1. They have no website, search results, phone #, or physical address - only a PayPal or other donation account.
Democrats should be doing press conferences every day with people hurt by Trump and his policies. Scientists, struggling people, the disabled, etc. Also with WWII veterans and Holocaust survivors who remember fascism. They should be telling people’s stories to humanize the damage.
Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has been released, have been informed by ICE that he could now be subject to deportation to Uganda, and he's been told to report to ICE next week, a source confirms to me. A few points about this, because there will be a lot of bullshit about it. 1/
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Thank you for your work, Marisa.
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NOT NORMAL
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“Instead, the FBI enlisted the local police and stormed Bolton’s house at dawn. To send a message. Not to Bolton. But to the rest of us. If you are not nice to President Trump, he will bring the full force of the state down upon your life.” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
There is so much bad news we need to mourn and evil to resist. But there is also good news. What good news, or beautiful observations, do you have? We can encourage each other to look for the good. I'll start first: I have brilliant, and kind, and just, coworkers & students at Northeastern Seminary.
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This would be a good time to remember Trump’s comments on Tiananmen Square: “When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it, then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength.”
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this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like
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"You know, like everything else, grass has a life... Do you know that?... You know, we have a life, and grass has a life..."
"Here legally, engaged in a sanctioned process to determine their eligibility for asylum, they have committed no crime. They are arrested anyway, and the lives they’ve risked to come to the United States are thrown into chaos."
It's not all bad news! @stevevladeck.bsky.social has a short, helpful explainer: www.tiktok.com/@steve_vlade...
Just posted a video to TikTok about what #SCOTUS did in the NIH funding case. It’s too long to embed on Bluesky, but here’s a link: www.tiktok.com/t/ZPHG57sTnM...
Speaking in Georgia today, Vice President J.D. Vance said that due to President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” “Your take home pay is going to go up over $10,000 over the next few years." However, independent estimates have projected a much smaller bump.
A reference to "cockroaches" is telling. They see Black citizens of DC, migrants, and the unhoused as pests in need of removal, never mind the preceding centuries of inequality, slavery, death and terror. Please stay vigilant and feel free to report anything you see to us or tag us in your post
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Remarkable open letter from Bill Burns. "If intelligence analysts at the CIA saw our rivals engage in this kind of great-power suicide, we would break out the bourbon. Instead, the sound we hear is of champagne glasses clinking in the Kremlin and Zhongnanhai." theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔 = Propaganda = Full corporate surrender @timkarr.bsky.social explains our rating system and what it will take to save America’s Fourth Estate in his report "A More Perfect Media": www.freepress.net/sites/defaul...
On Monday the government officially called upon the AI industry to tell the government how to “revolutionize federal contracting” with AI. In other words, government is asking how to outsource itself. It is asking companies who want government money how the government should spend money.
I've been wondering why I never hear about protests at Fox. They absolutely share the blame for our current mess.
All the president had to do was not take a wrecking ball to our country's world-class research ecosystem.
"How much does it cost for a fascist country?" Quite a lot, apparently.
The US electorate is used to thinking of partisan combat as a choice between two slightly different flavors of constitutional liberalism deal...vanilla vs. strawberry...rather than a choice between constitutional liberalism or authoritarian illiberalism...vanilla vs. arsenic. Messaging that is hard.
Vanilla vs. arsenic - YES. This is the choice of our times, and most people think we're still doing politics as usual. I don't really understand why getting that message out should be hard.
Asylum seekers face escalating threats—from mass DHS motions reopening closed cases to arrests in immigration courts. Join L4GG’s Aug 28 webinar (3–4pm ET) for legal tools & strategies to defend migrant rights. CLE pending in CA. Register: L4GG.org/AsylumWebinar
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"The rollout of the new policy last week appears to have caught staff on the ground by surprise, as they were suddenly unable to register people for aid without email addresses."