Nicholas Grossman

https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/nicholasgrossman.bsky.social

International Relations prof at U. Illinois. Editor of Arc Digital. Author “Drones and Terrorism.” Politics, national security, and occasional nerdery.

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Last Notes

2026-05-03 20:48:55 UTC

We're now down to begging Iran to let ships through the Strait of Hormuz to benefit other countries, calling it "Humanitarian," as if that will trick them into it.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:u4o26nximjdtgooqshfz45zr/post/3mkxzdwotss2z

2026-04-22 14:40:17 UTC

<taps sign, rather frustratingly>
(written a month ago in [@liberalcurrents.com](https://bsky.brid.gy/ap/did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk ), full piece here: [www.liberalcurrents.com/what-if-iran...](https://www.liberalcurrents.com/what-if-iran-doesnt-want-the-war-to-end-yet/ ))
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreie2ebkixynct6jvwiax24pb2uxagc7f2irkbf6tvbhqhacb6j6l2i

2026-04-09 13:49:21 UTC

The ceasefire is on Iran's terms, promising to lift sanctions and accept Iran's control of Hormuz, and getting nothing.
So in this article I ask: is this America's worst loss ever? 1812 and Korea were more like draws. Vietnam and Afghanistan didn't make any big concessions to geopolitical rivals.
[Trump Surrenders to Iran](https://www.liberalcurrents.com/trump-surrenders-to-iran/ )

2026-04-05 00:24:29 UTC

Ah, too bad.
Great run, Illini.

2026-03-26 12:31:45 UTC

Am I crazy, getting ahead of myself, or is the Iran war already shaping up to be systemically significant?
Unless the US gets a military victory or clear concessions—not looking good—then Iran keeping Hormuz closed breaks the post-WWII US military dominance in the Gulf, with wide reverberations.
[What If Iran Doesn’t Want the ...](https://www.liberalcurrents.com/what-if-iran-doesnt-want-the-war-to-end-yet/ )

2026-03-21 16:07:13 UTC

Americans' sympathy for Palestinians is higher than Americans' sympathy for Israelis for the first time ever.
Is that because of big spending by the Palestine lobby?
Or is it possible that money isn't everything in politics, and millions of Americans form opinions based on reaction to events?
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreifhlqcnpooikbdgatxgvgxdhip63rier4znonqa5ft677azkctfbq

2026-03-10 13:19:16 UTC

Long-time buddies Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were out for a pleasant van drive in Oklahoma when, all of a sudden, their lives would change.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:mauyb6lpeigsu7ddlvjs5dzg/post/3mgpg7q63l227

2026-03-07 22:33:57 UTC

Good visual reminder that war not only has large human and economic costs, it can have environmental impacts as well.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:gvda6fem6r7selm4gzjjww4a/post/3mgipjydllc2e
#note13ct…k09e

2026-03-06 15:26:42 UTC

"Unconditional surrender" is what the Union got from the Confederacy, what Putin demands from Ukraine, and what Trump thought he got from Venezuela, so that's what the US is demanding now from Iran. It sounds tough on TV, you see.

2026-03-04 14:07:58 UTC

I think war is serious business, real life-and-death stuff, and should be taken seriously by people who initiate and prosecute it.
Sorry to get so partisan, but that’s how I feel.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3mgaebx7jud23

2026-03-04 14:05:20 UTC

Americans love blaming any increase in gas prices on the president, and it’s usually not the president’s fault—because no one controls gas prices—but this time the increase in gas prices really is the president’s fault, directly caused by his entirely unnecessary policy choice.

2026-02-26 00:08:22 UTC

The Founders were so concerned about bribery that the Constitution forbids it three separate times (the two emoluments clauses and as the only name impeachable offense besides treason).
Exactly for this reason. A US president pocketing funds from foreign govts leads to actions against US interests.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:y77n77kdqzhbg647blkfypyr/post/3mfnbzu7nhs2k

2026-02-06 18:40:04 UTC

VA Gov. Spanberger (moderate, was in CIA) and NYC Mayor Mamdani (left, is in DSA) both taking steps to block local law enforcement from helping ICE as it violently violates people's rights is a good example of how the relevant divide in the Dem coalition isn't center-left, it's fight-don't fight.

2026-02-06 17:27:43 UTC

No, no, the White House explained, the president isn't an egregious racist posting egregiously racist stuff. He just gives others control of his public communications, including egregiously racist staffers he chose to hire then not fire after they communicated egregiously racist stuff on his behalf.

2026-01-29 16:18:43 UTC

If it's true Iran has killed tens of thousands or protesters in the last month—hard to know in the chaos, especially from the outside, but multiple estimates put it that high—that's a faster rate of civilian killing than recent cases in Ukraine or Gaza, topped only by El Fasher in Sudan.
[Disappeared bodies, mass buria...](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead )

2026-01-28 15:35:17 UTC

Ah, imaginary whataboutism, the best whataboutism.
You're asking me about a bad thing that really happened? Well, whatabout a different bad thing that didn't actually happen, something I've imagined? Whatabout that, huh? I'm a victim here.
OK, now that these things are balanced out, let's move on.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3mdijvytrce2d

2026-01-19 02:22:26 UTC

I’m sorry, but I don’t think the top priority for the opposition party in Congress should be appealing to a white middle-aged couple Chuck Schumer imagined who think everything is basically fine-to-good except groceries should be a bit cheaper.
I accept that many on this website disagree with me.

2026-01-18 01:19:04 UTC

I don’t understand how that wasn’t a catch and down by contact. Or maybe an incomplete pass. How is the ball alive through the defender wrestling it away from a receiver who is down?

2026-01-15 16:35:06 UTC

NATO countries deploying forces to deter and if necessary defend against aggression from the United States seems like a watershed moment. A line that can't be uncrossed.
The Western alliance had a good run. Maybe a version can be reconstituted some day.

2026-01-14 13:23:16 UTC

The United States needs military access to Greenland, which it already has, to defend the Arctic, which it already does, from Russian and Chinese ships, which aren’t actually there, and this is so important we should destroy the Western alliance to get it, do I have that right?

2026-01-10 17:03:11 UTC

It's a website, not an ancestral home occupied by foreign invaders. Just log off that one and log on somewhere else, which reduces the network effects attracting people to the first one.
The perverts and pedophiles relegated to a fringy echo chamber with no one to harass sounds bad because... ???
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:of56nmyuqzvjta7qlf7gwht6/post/3mc3fh4hyd22c

2026-01-08 14:56:19 UTC

No one who treated "wear a mask when you enter this store" as horrific tyranny actually believe in deference to state authority.
It's Schmittian friend-enemy politics all the way down. "We" should be able to do whatever we feel like without consequence. "They" should be harassed, repressed, killed.

2026-01-07 21:09:12 UTC

"Secret police" is often misunderstood to mean a force that operates covertly, with all their operations secret.
But a secret police force's actions are often public. The secret part is hiding their identities, because they're breaking laws to hurt politically disfavored people, and fear reprisals.

2026-01-01 17:36:27 UTC

Big protests going in Iran, and the state is trying to put them down with force, already killing 3.
I don't know where this is going, and the Iranian government has survived big protests before. But whatever happens, it's admirably brave when people take on violently repressive regimes.
[At least 3 reported killed dur...](https://apnews.com/article/iran-protests-economy-israel-us-nuclear-8533eacbc3c502ccc5f5339ae4384399 )

2025-12-20 13:00:45 UTC

Americans in their 20s and 30s may not feel that they’re richer than their equivalents 60 years ago, but they’re objectively wrong.
It’s fascinating how important it is to some people not to say “I’m struggling, it’s hard” or “I need help”—objectively true—but to instead insist they have it worse.
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreifazjm7icgzedbeir4sia7f3krnfe44zfftvubvrkvwmuequtmpha

2025-12-14 14:51:31 UTC

But David French, the guys flipping out over Drag Queen Story Hour are the weak men creating hard times.
If they think something has gone terribly wrong, and that the thing is people reading books to kids at a voluntary family event, that's insanely weak. And an excuse to act on irrational hatred.
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2025-12-11 02:44:13 UTC

Stuff with the US and Venezuela is bad and likely to get worse, but this seized tanker is reportedly owned by a Russian oligarch, and was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 due to suspected involvement in illegal oil smuggling with Iran. Plus breaking maritime law re: flags.
Not piracy. Not war.

2025-12-08 00:39:18 UTC

The president who watched Jan. 6 violence on TV and responded to Kevin McCarthy's desperate call from inside the Capitol with "well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you" doesn't think death threats against anyone even a little in his way is a bad thing?
Huh.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3m7gr557pae2m

2025-12-06 14:59:48 UTC

41 minutes of watching two shipwrecked men trying to flip a boat and signaling for surrender/help before firing on them again reminds me of the 9.5 minutes Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck, in that it’s an agonizingly long time to be killing helpless people who clearly posed no threat.

2025-12-06 00:24:33 UTC

The only legitimate judicial response to challenges to birthright citizenship is “what, are you kidding, it’s in the Constitution.”
Though that also was the only possible legitimate response to claims that the president is above the law and cannot face punishment for crimes he definitely committed.

2025-12-05 20:59:25 UTC

“Stick to sports” means the NFL should punish Colin Kaepernick for quietly kneeling in protest of police violence and that FIFA should give Donald Trump an award for geopolitical actions that aren’t real.

2025-12-05 20:09:31 UTC

Regarding Gov. Josh Shapiro’s plans to run for the Democratic presidential nomination on a platform of Americans who still support Donald Trump matter more than everyone else and must be catered to:
[an elderly man with a mustache...](https://media.tenor.com/FSqCg1YAcOAAAAAC/shrug-good-luck.gif?hh=312&ww=460 )

2025-12-05 17:44:04 UTC

Trump's hateful rant and violently repressive action targeting Somali-Americans, ending free national park admissions on MLK day and Juneteenth, and an NSS calling for Europe to be whiter—all this week.
No doubt it's extremely racist. The only question is whether Americans think that's good or bad.

2025-12-05 16:39:16 UTC

BREAKING: Insurrectionist who planted pipe bombs in Washington DC during Trump's lie-based coup attempt is a Trump supporter who believed Trump's lies and used violence to try and advance his attempted coup.
Once again, it turns out to be exactly what it looked like.
[Pipe bomb suspect told FBI he ...](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/pipe-bomb-suspect-told-fbi-believed-2020-election-conspiracy-theories-rcna247544 )

2025-12-05 16:24:16 UTC

Remember, some prominent media figures believe they personally are the most important thing in US politics and possibly the whole world. The real Biden Old accusation was "acting older than a White House staffer told me." So when Trump falls asleep on camera, that's no biggie, because media sees it.

2025-12-05 15:14:58 UTC

What a strange public figure Nikki Haley is. Supports US leaders who are trying to help Russia defeat Ukraine—strongly endorsed them, in fact, when their pro-Putin stance was clear—while continuing to say factually accurate, anti-Russia, pro-Ukraine things, as if no one will notice the combination.
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreie7yyw6ivmaax3h2twgxnpdtwuhhy3tanuuxzjlj3qxa55j4to32a

2025-12-05 14:42:59 UTC

The US govt is screaming—in words, actions, and now a strategic document—that America has switched sides in the world, preferring authoritarians and a transnational white nationalism over liberal democracy.
Like Russia, a US foreign policy goal is to undermine the EU.
Will Europe finally listen?
[‘Civilisational erasure’: US s...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/05/civilisational-erasure-us-strategy-document-appears-to-echo-far-right-conspiracy-theories-about-europe )

2025-12-05 13:30:36 UTC

Netflix getting Warner Bros. is bad for art, but right-wing oligarchs not getting it is bad for fascism.
The Ellisons already got Paramount and Fox-ified CBS, plus a big stake in TikTok USA and more.
On balance, avoiding more Orban-style media consolidation is a good outcome.
Such are the times.

2025-12-05 03:47:40 UTC

Nothing in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the drone campaign was like this, directly killing such unambiguously nonthreatening people on direct orders from the very top, who openly celebrated it after.

2025-12-05 03:08:01 UTC

I think everyone can stop debating if the U.S. government is controlled by fascists.
It was apparent a while ago, but there’s should be no doubt now.

2025-12-04 15:16:01 UTC

Wow, Adm. Holsey didn't leave of his own accord, Hegseth pushed him out. What looked like the SOCOM head resigning rather than do war crimes now looks like SecDef canning him to facilitate war crimes.
Congress should have him testify, and would've already if war-crime-sympathetic GOP didn't run it.
[Exclusive | Hegseth Asked Top ...](https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/hegseth-asked-top-admiral-to-resign-after-months-of-discord-9e7b357f )

2025-12-01 14:56:33 UTC

John McCain couldn’t have possibly gotten hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians into the streets for months, even as regime forces killed over 100 protestors, nor get Ukraine’s then-president to try banning free speech and assembly.
If you think about the conspiracy theory at all it is very stupid.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4r3grjtsnef3xoqntcqsn4eo/post/3m6vi45tdtk2z

2025-11-30 03:15:20 UTC

The White House’s new anti-media website includes denunciations of:
-ABC, which bribed the president
-CBS, which bribed the president and moved away from fact-based journalism trying to appeal to him and his fans
-WaPo, which spiked a Harris endorsement and tilts coverage in Trump’s favor
Fools.

2025-11-29 17:56:24 UTC

Is the United States about to shoot down commercial jets flying over South America?
This, unfortunately, is now a serious question.

2025-11-24 15:29:40 UTC

Really looks like the United States is about to launch a regime change war against Venezuela with:
-No casus belli
-No authorization from Congress
-No allies or international support
-No plan for a post-Maduro Venezuela
-No preparation for any sort of stabilization or containment of the fallout

2025-11-19 18:23:02 UTC

Now that Congress passed a bill to release the Epstein files by a veto-proof supermajority, the White House will presumably shift to "part of an investigation, but we can release them as soon as that's over," and the recourse for that is going to court, where they can do their usual delay moves. No?

2025-11-13 05:56:28 UTC

If only our society took major crimes by rich people as seriously as minor crimes by poor people. Ideally more seriously. But as seriously would be a big improvement.

2025-11-12 03:36:07 UTC

Aurora just north of Urbana, IL.
My phone enhanced the colors a bit, but they were very visible to the naked eye.
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreihh4bonzbnsl43e6vs2jo552cb4chxfozhzfyq4o4rh72w5bz5j2u
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreif22gzj34yzgov6hrjyeq7zhmt7hgzbllo4dpcmql2ddygolyjmwy

2025-11-11 13:09:32 UTC

It’s insane to treat the filibuster as the most sacrosanct.
Article 1 power of the purse, oversight, and war? Nah.
Emoluments clauses? Bribery prohibition? Meh.
Criminal law? 14A? Doesn’t count.
But maybe the Senate changes a rule it has multiple times before? Gasp! Not that. Anything but that.

2025-11-10 04:21:08 UTC

It’s not left v. center or progressive v. liberal or anything like that. It’s fight v. don’t fight.

2025-11-10 00:12:20 UTC

Teaching the Trump administration that disrupting air travel gets them what they want would be a bad idea. They’d pull that lever again.

2025-11-09 20:52:46 UTC

The real choice, no matter how much Senators wish it weren't:
"Unfortunately, making things better for the American people coming out of this shutdown is probably not an option. Either Trump makes things worse with Democratic affirmation, or Trump makes things worse despite Democratic opposition."
[Opinion | Democrats shouldn’t ...](https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/democrats-trump-government-shutdown-fight-rcna235478 )

2025-11-09 18:53:57 UTC

Regular reminder that Axios stories saying Dems are about to cave are likely sourced from GOP staffers trying to make it happen.
Doesn't mean it definitely won't happen. But it's like those NYT stories that Harvard is considering caving (they haven't). The anonymous source was trying to manifest it.

2025-11-09 13:13:31 UTC

Trump called Biden “sleepy,” because Trump is an old man who struggles to stay awake.
Trump called Hillary “crooked,” because Trump is incredibly crooked.
Trump called Ted Cruz “lyin’” because Trump is a serial liar.
We’re a decade into this. How do people still not get it?

2025-10-31 14:10:29 UTC

Of all the dumb Trump apologetics, sanewashing, and support for a fantasy version that diverges from the real thing, "no new wars" might be the single dumbest.
He was already president! To know it's BS, just look at what he repeatedly says and already did.
And yet, some really wanted to believe it.
[U.S. poised to strike military...](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article312722642.html )

2025-10-26 14:08:16 UTC

The fact that some prominent Democrats defend a Maine Senate primary candidate’s Nazi tattoo while he isn’t even leading in polls, but not defend a NYC mayor primary winner from false smears even as he’s leading general election polls says a lot.
That doesn’t seem driven by voter preference.

2025-10-25 15:43:01 UTC

Reagan's approach to the world prominently featured two things:
1) Russian aggression bad, Western democratic alliance good
2) Free trade good, tariffs and other barriers to trade bad
Pretending it's the opposite is the sort of reality inversion only someone who rejects truth itself could buy.

2025-10-23 17:57:25 UTC

The US froze aid to Colombia
Much of which is used to fight drug cartels
Because the president of Colombia said the US killed Colombian fishermen
In what is supposed to be a US military campaign to stop drug cartels

2025-10-21 15:56:09 UTC

What, if anything, did the No Kings protests accomplish?
I've seen that pop up in everything from genuine inquiry to sneering dismissal. For anyone asking or facing that question, here's an answer.
Everything isn't all fixed, of course. But the protests accomplished at least these seven things:
[7 Things the No Kings Protests...](https://www.arcdigital.media/p/7-things-the-no-kings-protests-accomplished )

2025-10-20 13:15:40 UTC

How much post “peace deal” armed combat and failure to follow through on supposed commitments has to occur before the situation can be called an active conflict, rather than merely a “tested” or “fragile” ceasefire?

2025-10-18 20:00:24 UTC

Inflatable costumes out in force at No Kings--Urbana, IL
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreifkjweoil4ynlci6nebwhkq6tpefbgpjpfichbqfeebae2gtsth4u
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreicfo24wc36whsya3gjbpzo7rhjcdxweve32mf5lwyketekm77xbwq
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreihse7hz4gajsdhkvcmht54w56p6nxjyyghherm34vcoctdtr7tmly
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreicosbmapypu3e3vtqemreiof4yd6ybmirhbmipk3sya6noznf2yt4

2025-10-18 14:50:21 UTC

Is politics weighing on you? Does it ever make you feel alone, like "everyone" is on board with awful things and "no one" cares (or close)?
Then you should go to a No Kings protest. That feeling isn't uncommon, but it's a trick. Go be around some of the many people who agree with you. You'll see.

2025-10-18 13:05:13 UTC

I’ve got a nervous energy in anticipation of No Kings protests, an excitement I haven’t felt with these things before.
They’ll be big. The regime has taken notice and broken out its go-to move: blatantly lying. Media will cover it more.
This won’t be the end, of course, but something is happening.

2025-10-13 12:23:50 UTC

Police officers who publicly declare that they’ll quit if a mayoral candidate they dislike wins the election are (1) usually bluffing—sure buddy, toss away that paycheck and pension—and (2) exactly the sort of cops cities would be better off without, ones who don’t see themselves as public servants.

2025-10-12 11:34:42 UTC

No institutional design can overcome a lawbreaking president, a Congress defending lawbreaking and forfeiting its own power, a Supreme Court that pretends legal text doesn’t count to facilitate lawbreaking, and a citizenry that votes for all that.
Need at least one that wants rule of law. Maybe two.

2025-10-10 11:10:54 UTC

The widespread media decision to frame international affairs as "will Donnie get the prize he wants?" is pathetic.
He's not the protagonist of human events. And to the extent he's a significant character in world affairs, whether or not he gets a prize is one of the least important things about it.

2025-10-08 14:09:24 UTC

We’re not dealing with brilliant strategists cleverly laying traps, we’re dealing with impulsive whiners whose advantage is contempt for laws, norms, and morality.
They’re not pulling some elaborate trick, they’re just willing—even eager—to do things regular, principled people consider off limits.

2025-10-06 14:52:52 UTC

CBS/Ellison/Weiss and Kimmel/Sinclair/Nexstar can be viewed as part of the decline of broadcast television. Not exclusively, of course, but that's part of it.

2025-10-06 12:36:22 UTC

If U.S. states have any degree of sovereignty, if there’s any states’ rights at all, it is the right not to be invaded by the armed forces of another U.S. state.

2025-10-04 19:54:08 UTC

America did not collapse into authoritarian rule all that quickly. It’s been in democratic backsliding since at least 2016, with lawbreaking, norm violations, dismantling of checks-and-balances, attacks on rights, etc.
A lot of this is just building on Trump’s first term. Too many discounted that.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:zerjm7wpqubzvvrcgszlcmev/post/3ljxxfqdoak2w

2025-10-01 14:10:29 UTC

Much of the public, and apparently White House, doesn't know that many of the US military's general and flag officers are intellectuals. Study history and theory, get that war, politics, economics, and culture intertwine, etc.
Or maybe the White House does, and that's what they're trying to change.

2025-09-30 13:28:55 UTC

The reason for military rules of engagement and adhering to laws of armed combat is not “political correctness,” it’s better strategy, serves long-term national interest, and is a way to make an awful part of the human experience a little less awful, based on lessons learned from centuries of blood.

2025-09-27 01:54:07 UTC

Crazy how the executive branch goes “if we can’t break the law it’s irreparable harm to our lawbreaking,” 6 Supreme Court Justices go “yeah sure,” often with no further explanation, and 3 are left doing an eloquent version of “but checks and balances, duly passed statute, what are we doing here.”

2025-09-25 23:40:08 UTC

Bailing out Argentina clarifies "America First." The transnational right is first, everyone else is an enemy.
The Trump admin defends it by calling Argentina an ally. But while US-Argentina relations are friendly, they're not allies. US allies are states Trump is antagonizing, such as South Korea.

2025-09-20 22:33:06 UTC

If I were a company that owns Star Wars and planned on capitulating to fascist threats, I wouldn't have provided Star Wars fans with two seasons of well-written anti-fascist inspiration right before doing so.

2025-09-20 19:29:40 UTC

You know what didn’t happen?
Pundits going on Gab, Parler, Gettr, or Truth Social to repeatedly say “no one cares about this site, you’re in a bubble, you forfeited your influence, things are awesome on the site you don’t use anymore, so awesome that I come here to tell you you’re dumb unlike me.”

2025-09-18 15:02:19 UTC

The Third Reich didn't last 1,000 years.
Pinochet was ousted with a referendum.
And the US isn't exactly dealing with the smartest, most competent fascists.
Those of you insisting that 2025 is forever need to read a book, touch grass, go to therapy, anything other than trying to make others quit.

2025-09-18 00:15:38 UTC

Don't buy the canard that this is about Charlie Kirk. Abusing state power to lean on corporate leaders and get Jimmy Kimmel off the air because he told jokes about the president and made him feel bad was always the plan.
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreia6kslb7i5shpa3uhoidwo3fe4t5adh2svx6ae367xjsi6fk7zlr4

2025-09-15 14:43:07 UTC

The free speech activist who built a list of professors he worked to get fired for their speech must be celebrated for his support of free speech, and anyone who quotes his speech accurately in context will be fired and/or face state punishment by the champions of free speech, do I have that right?

2025-09-12 12:22:20 UTC

An antisemite shot two kids in Colorado, at least one of whom is Jewish.
The White House “fighting antisemitism” doesn’t care, because the shooter was a student radicalized online into far right beliefs, which the regime is cool with, rather than a student verbally criticizing Israeli govt policy.
[‘Radicalized’ Evergreen High S...](https://www.denverpost.com/2025/09/11/evergreen-high-school-shooting-colorado-updates/ )

2025-09-11 02:26:01 UTC

Trump lying in an Oval Office address that Charlie Kirk’s killing was caused by people comparing him and his organization to Nazis—lying because he has no idea, but declared it anyway—pairs interestingly with some prominent Trump fans saying they hope this can be their Reichstag Fire.

2025-09-10 19:06:35 UTC

Political violence is bad. It usually begets more political violence.
Celebrating political violence is bad. It usually encourages more political violence, against various targets.
Campus shootings are bad. They make everyone on campus less safe.
It's bad that what I wrote here is controversial.

2025-09-09 11:51:36 UTC

What a sick joke. A loud swath of Americans made child sex trafficking their top issue, said powerful figures were covering it up. A wealth child sex trafficker gets caught, the president was obviously involved with his crimes and trying to cover it up, and the anti-pedophiles like and defend him.

2025-09-07 11:58:43 UTC

The Founders who wrote and passed the legal language "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" actually meant "Congress shall mandate a national religion, and it's 21st century evangelicalism mixed with some catholic converts," they just accidentally wrote something else.

2025-09-04 17:57:29 UTC

Wild when New York Times reporters are or are not allowed to opine.
If you think antivax lunatic RFK Jr. "makes good points" about COVID and vaccination, you can say so.
If you think the Trump administration's egregious rights violations are bad, you keep that out of the paper, don't be biased.
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreid7tv56y5m3lmplnc4d3gznjddzsaboyfh3ylm474z4qnu7f5xdxe

2025-08-24 17:27:11 UTC

If someone writes a pro-RFK Jr. article after the 2024 election and another article that's pro-DOGE — which this "case for staying on Twitter" writer did — then they were either always part of X's target audience, or they're not influencing people on there so much as being influenced.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cak4klqoj3bqgk5rj6b4f5do/post/3lwyuumz4mc2m
#note1tmw…937c

2025-08-17 14:34:43 UTC

Controversial opinion: When it comes to US presidents, "blatantly breaking laws and violently violating people's rights" is a bigger deal than "is old," meriting greater public concern and a higher percentage of attention.

2025-08-17 01:44:12 UTC

Thinking about the DC takeover in light of Jan. 6.
How will the next legally required transition of power go?

2025-08-14 11:25:32 UTC

Will be hard to explain in the future that the US government went antivax, causing a lot of avoidable suffering and death, not in response to any negative incident with vaccines, but to the biggest, fastest, most successful, most impressive vaccine rollout in history.

2025-08-13 12:56:40 UTC

Fair to lay some, if not blame, then responsibility on Jon Stewart for above the fray, too cool for school, pox on both your houses, this whole thing’s dumb let’s snark from the sidelines political culture, promoting both false equivalence and complacency.
South Park too, with a different audience.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jb2q4yqmgpmefxd4xx66gepm/post/3lwaiucsm3s2o

2025-08-09 13:36:26 UTC

The CEO of a a multi-trillion dollar company went to the White House, openly handed the US president a gift made of gold, and his company got a special exemption to tariffs the president has illegally imposed.
Also, the Founders took bribery so seriously the Constitution bans it 3 separate times.

2025-08-03 02:27:20 UTC

I’m very pro-education, but this thread is correct. Many Trump voters got civic education in school, probably better than today’s.
The issue is not lack of understanding, where if someone just explained how US Constitutional democracy works, they’d support. They reject it, and chose to tear it down.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:kbmf4lv4o6uvuvrfzpw2jbhj/post/3lvhlo2vkqs24
#note1u0l…swek

2025-07-24 12:01:21 UTC

Columbia law prof David Posen puts the agreement in context: Shifted US higher ed from regulation based in law to regulation by ad hoc deal and extortion.
First time a university’s paying the govt money to get money from the govt. First time DEI and antisemitism invoked as reasons. More firsts too.
[Balkinization: Regulation by D...](https://balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/regulation-by-deal-comes-to-higher-ed.html )

2025-07-22 15:37:22 UTC

Russian casualties (deaths + injuries serious enough that they can't get back into the field) reportedly over 1 million now, in 3.5 years of war.
To put that in perspective, it's more than US casualties in all post-WWII conflicts combined over many more years.
Biggest: Vietnam ~200k, Korea ~130k.
[General Staff: Russia has lost...](https://kyivindependent.com/general-staff-russia-has-lost-1-044-250-troops-in-ukraine-since-feb-24-2022/ )

2025-07-18 17:08:25 UTC

Uh... I'm pretty sure there's no line in Othello that goes "I'll let loose the forces of Iago." Though it is iambic pentameter.
(why I was googling that exact phrase is a longer story, but I was struck to see this laughably false answer pushed to me at the very top of the page)
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreihnsjgdvv32tux6sa4uuo3heqwqsv7cgy5jah5bslxt4i6xupqjqi

2025-07-17 22:36:39 UTC

“Democracy is messy, slow, and often staffed by people who don’t understand technology. Wouldn’t it be better to have someone in charge who just… gets it?
No. No, it would not.”
@npub1x7v…70d5 is right, it really isn’t. That’s true even if you gain in the short-term and like the main goals.
[Fascism For First Time Founder...](https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/17/fascism-for-first-time-founders/ )

2025-07-07 16:43:42 UTC

The tension between not wanting to be a downer online most of the time and genuinely feeling negative about serious things that warrant concern.

2025-07-06 23:55:03 UTC

One of the stupidest, most ridiculous, yet incredibly impactful things about this era is how many people’s politics is little more than “I don’t like some replies I see on social media.”

2025-07-04 12:32:07 UTC

He has refused his Assent to Laws…
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world…
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury…
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences…
A Tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

2025-06-28 18:10:50 UTC

There are only three political positions in America today
1) I like the fascism
2) I'll acquiesce to the fascism (reasons for this one vary: cowardice, access, denial, misguidedly thinking that acquiescence is savvy, etc)
3) I oppose the fascism
The rest is details