Radley Balko

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

Journalist. Quattrone Center journalism fellow.
Author: Rise of the Warrior Cop.
Co-author: The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist.
New podcast: Collateral Damage
Substack: [radleybalko.substack.com](http://radleybalko.substack.com )
Signal: radleybalko.52

🌉 [bridged](https://fed.brid.gy/bsky/radleybalko.bsky.social ) from 🦋 [radleybalko.bsky.social](https://bsky.app/profile/radleybalko.bsky.social ), follow Bridgy Fed for Bluesky (npub1pqr…2sck) to interact

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Link: http://radleybalko.substack.com

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Last Notes

2026-01-09 16:20:02 UTC

💯
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreid5rki7tjbdmtfiuvcecyvhz3hdze5jmf4ymw62xysru7qm2qah4i

2026-01-08 20:27:01 UTC

Yes, JD. Let’s ask them if they think a stay at home mom, avowed Christian, and widow of a veteran deserved to be shot in the face and left to bleed out in her own car after dropping her 6-year-old off at school, for the crime of looking out for her neighbors. Let’s ask everyone running for office.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreid5jz3l42azrgdduvc25b7fdcnb3weqlgjk32gwkdqhutt7gjitoa

2026-01-08 15:45:39 UTC

Ugh. This is from Brian Stelter's newsletter.
One side says this an unjustified shooting, based on video footage. The other is calling the victim a domestic terrorist who intentionally ran over an ICE officer, based on zero evidence.
This is "nuanced" in the way the flat-earth debate is nuanced.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreibmekg7367jjmag7xbdebad2emnxxbkeuxeaf74v7tf52mult7ngu

2026-01-08 14:52:29 UTC

A few thoughts on this important NYT analysis:
First, the officer who killed Good is shown running up the *passenger* side of the car seconds before he killed her. He shot her first from the front, then the driver's side. This means he *put himself* in the path of the vehicle when he shot her.
[Video: Videos Contradict Trump...](https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010631041/minneapolis-ice-shooting-video.html )

2026-01-04 18:45:47 UTC

I still don’t understand how it could possibly be a violation of U.S. law for a foreign head of state to own or to conspire to own any type of gun in his own country.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2rrp7amblhg3xoly5n5huiqv/post/3mbla6e7sv22b
#note1h7j…gvv2

2025-12-24 15:08:49 UTC

So I have the cover story in next month's TNR.
I interviewed the heads of police groups; immigration defense attorneys, ex-judges and ex-prosecutors; former DOJ and DHS officials, and the former head of Border Patrol.
They're all horrified at what we've seen, and they all fear what's coming.
[Trump’s Immigration Nightmare:...](https://newrepublic.com/article/204227/trump-immigration-nightmare-happening-here )

2025-12-16 23:13:47 UTC

An incomprehensibly stupid own goal. Healthcare, eldercare, and childcare are about to get a hell of a lot more expensive. And it's going to hit rural areas especially hard.
Hope the racism was worth it!
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2vtbmhmrwzbqcfv4we4uxzzt/post/3ma4yjzxzxc2i

2025-12-15 13:27:00 UTC

Looking through Rob Reiner’s otherwise amazing filmography, I found this unintentionally funny line.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreidqz37ncbtc2x7jwgjvrngxiso4glzh7z52mpg6b36v55pro4et2y

2025-12-13 14:32:19 UTC

Bovino, the man overseeing mass deportations, publicly declared that we must all have our papers on us, at all times, or we could be stopped, harassed, kidnapped, and detained, as they did with the man in this case, who is a US citizen.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreif7muwlvthqg6z2ypyajvmnvdhfhtfv3oagq7itg3gvsacaolhsnu

2025-12-03 02:30:46 UTC

A +14 shift to the Dems in a very red district applied nationwide next year means a solidly blue House and a chance to retake the Senate against an extremely unfavorable map.

2025-11-29 16:06:53 UTC

The president is about to start a war for no real reason. All of the things he has blamed on the country he’s targeting — fentanyl distribution, “emptying the asylums” and sending patients to the U.S., alignment with Tren de Aragua— are provably, obviously false.
Lots of people are going to die.

2025-11-25 18:03:48 UTC

Video of her being dragged by authorities in Ghana:
[www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna245596 )
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:zhcfq6acrvb6ermtjt644w2n/post/3m6hrso7mgk22
[Woman deported from Maryland s...](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna245596 )

2025-11-23 00:34:04 UTC

Kavanaugh stop. Smashed the kid’s car windows and arrested him. He told them he was a U.S. citizen. The officer replied “I don’t care.”
[www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...](https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2025/11/high-school-senior-in-oregon-a-us-citizen-detained-by-ice.html )
[High school senior, a U.S. cit...](https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2025/11/high-school-senior-in-oregon-a-us-citizen-detained-by-ice.html )

2025-11-22 04:39:33 UTC

Dipshit is smashing out a car window with his gun, barrel first. Just rogue, cowboy stiff.
There were two US citizens in the car. They were apprehended and detained for “obstructing” ICE by honking their horn to let people know ICE was in the neighborhood.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreicq3mnebjbbp46jr7xsrwcwxfyem7lielarog75aq737kxaupyphu

2025-11-22 02:15:26 UTC

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation seems to be throwing some shade at ICE.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreicgst3nd4a3m3yhwjderxjjcs2djrv7eaiff45x3cwdpqfsmywbea

2025-11-21 12:22:22 UTC

This is a pattern with black police chiefs. But none dare call it racism.
[www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/21/california-vallejo-police-department )
[‘Toxic’: California ex-police ...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/21/california-vallejo-police-department )

2025-11-21 02:37:49 UTC

This is bizarre
[apple.news/AHfALvDKsSY-...](https://apple.news/AHfALvDKsSY-N0XrZQgsA5Q )
[Kristen Bell, Malcolm McDowell...](https://apple.news/AHfALvDKsSY-N0XrZQgsA5Q )

2025-11-20 04:59:12 UTC

Amazing. Dude is just winking at Cassidy and telling him what a schmuck he is while he kills children.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:flwgfsh2mhpoqwjwwt2mesjv/post/3m5zxwmjpcs2g
#note127x…py2p

2025-11-19 19:32:37 UTC

It's hard out there for a lickspittle.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreih5h3u754tvrwfogqi4dytvs5ovhj3e6c5pbzcqmntjlatiycbzpi

2025-11-16 16:17:59 UTC

DHS is diverting money appropriated to fighting terrorism and child trafficking to deportations.
[www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/u...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/us/politics/dhs-agents-reassigned.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare )
[Homeland Security Missions Fal...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/us/politics/dhs-agents-reassigned.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare )

2025-11-14 15:02:03 UTC

We're living in a deeply, aggressively stupid time.
[slate.com/life/2025/11...](https://slate.com/life/2025/11/animal-pet-autism-vaccine-covid-rfk-jr.html )
[A Growing Number of People Ref...](https://slate.com/life/2025/11/animal-pet-autism-vaccine-covid-rfk-jr.html )

2025-11-14 12:00:02 UTC

My brain has this embarrassing habit of mixing up similar names that have nothing to do with one another.
Recent whimsical example, pointed out by an amused editor: Meant to write Elbridge Gerry, co-founder of the country. Instead wrote Eldridge Cleaver, co-founder of the Black Panthers.

2025-11-13 16:03:25 UTC

According to the car wash owner, agents arrested employees before they could obtain their documentation from their work lockers. So many were likely here legally.
Here's hoping this article on Zac boasting about how he ruined some immigrants' lives follows him around for a very long time.
[BU College Republicans preside...](https://dailyfreepress.com/11/13/10/216199/bu-college-republicans-president-says-he-called-ice-to-detain-these-criminals-at-allston-car-wash/?utm_campaign=linkinbio&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=later-linkinbio )

2025-11-10 15:27:29 UTC

Here's a fundraising email I received for some reason.
Turning Point is really embracing the civil, non-incendiary discourse we were told Charlie Kirk championed.*
(*He didn't really champion those things, and I'm sure he would have been fine with this email.)
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreib7gvxkwn2kwfbtj2l6ywg6fwvkgkyal3wjvdo5yfg6yvyk63clti
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreiagufutowcb5oeh4ipzrovoqanahew6elsioy4nx4oyisevm3za7u

2025-11-10 12:56:25 UTC

Trump has threatened to bomb or invade 7 countries with a shot to play in the 2026 World Cup. He *has* bombed one (Iran) and said he'd deny them visas. He's preparing for war with another (Venezuela). He has summarily executed citizens from at least 3. He has imposed tariffs on nearly all of them.
[FIFA head says 'you will see' ...](https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/g-s1-96755/fifa-new-peace-prize )

2025-11-10 12:16:41 UTC

I think my Word of the Day email might be trolling the Democrats.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreifxth2nw4lnyxwj2nw4t4af5izhdzhtdqowiua4ax2myyg4i5jjgq

2025-11-10 12:10:34 UTC

Congrats to the eight Democrats who gave this regime a huge win over the weekend. Here’s your reward.
[www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/u...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/us/giuilani-pardon-trump-john-eastman-sidney-powell.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare )
[Trump Pardons Giuliani and Oth...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/us/giuilani-pardon-trump-john-eastman-sidney-powell.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare )

2025-11-09 02:20:38 UTC

40 men Trump sent to CECOT tell the NYT they were beaten, tortured, and sexually assaulted. The details are worse than you can imagine.
We can’t let them get away with this. Miller and the other architects of this sadism need to go to prison.
[www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/world/americas/el-salvador-prison-migrants.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare )
[‘You Are All Terrorists’: Four...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/world/americas/el-salvador-prison-migrants.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare )

2025-11-06 04:40:48 UTC

Holy crap. MAGA diehard Danielle Jurinsky lost her city council seat in Aurora, Colorado. She more than anyone is responsible for ginning up the false claim that Tren de Aragua had "taken over" the city. She also repeatedly tried to dissolve the city's groundbreaking public defender office.
[Progressives may flip Aurora c...](https://denverite.com/2025/11/05/aurora-city-council-elections-progressive-flip/ )

2025-11-05 04:49:57 UTC

Relieved that voters resoundingly rejected this fascist bullshit.
Angry that we still have at least another year of it, probably another three, and that we're by no means in the clear.
Livid that it all could have been avoided if we had simply not reelected the asshole who tried a coup.

2025-11-04 22:57:34 UTC

In Chicago, DHS refused to pause the raids and arrests so kids could go trick-or-treating without the risk of getting tear-gassed or subjected to violence.
Meanwhile, DHS agents in Los Angeles celebrated the holiday by conducting raids while wearing horror movie masks.
Sadism as public policy.
[We Asked DHS if Federal Agents...](https://lataco.com/federal-immigration-agents-halloween-masks )

2025-10-31 16:35:59 UTC

Mind-blowing stuff from Robby Soave.
"Podcasters should not avoid Fuentes." Of course they should. Deplatforming Nazis is good. Not amplifying them is not censorship.
Also laughable to claim Fuentes has been deplatformed. His growing reach is directly tied to MAGA destigmatizing naked racism.
[Deplatforming Nick Fuentes Won...](https://reason.com/2025/10/30/deplatforming-nick-fuentes-wont-stop-antisemitism/ )

2025-10-29 22:00:54 UTC

This is ugly. But the reason this lady was protesting is even worse. ICE thugs detained two children and their father on their way to school. One child appears to have been beaten in detention, and no one seems to know where the 12-year-old girl is right now. The family had been seeking asylum.
[Shock Video Shows ICE Agent As...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ice-agent-assaults-woman-christian-jesus_n_69023736e4b03f34d7f8fe8c?lxi )

2025-10-29 17:14:51 UTC

Federal conspiracy charges because an ICE goon had to drive a little slower.
What an absolute joke.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreihnamwq3265i62xzdsy2p6mve5lpl5izvln5o5uqjr36jjps2xcym

2025-10-28 23:41:16 UTC

A source familiar with this incident told me today that not only did they arrest and charge the comedy club manager, but the Latino man he was defending from ICE -- who was also arrested and whisked away -- **is also a U.S. citizen.**
It's unclear where the Latino man is now.
[Laugh Factory manager charged ...](https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/laugh-factory-manager-nathan-griffin-charged-assault-border-patrol-agent/ )

2025-10-28 14:36:20 UTC

This administration has now carried out more than 50 extrajudicial executions
[abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-...](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-strikes-alleged-drug-vessels-killing-14-people/story?id=126935020 )
[14 dead in more strikes agains...](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-strikes-alleged-drug-vessels-killing-14-people/story?id=126935020 )

2025-10-27 12:55:47 UTC

New from me:
Elite law firms, multiple media outlets, the D.C. attorney general, and a group of parents accused a teacher of molesting 15 kids. They were wrong.
This piece is two-and-a-half years in the making. And as you'll see, it took some incredible turns, even as I was reporting it.
[Accusing Jordan Silverman](https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/accusing-jordan-silverman )

2025-10-26 15:49:44 UTC

I don’t know how you characterize this any way other than that they’re lying to cover up their illegal executions.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreibgwjvwpa5uncxxpimrljls7573r7rz7pegarakwhefrn5tjngupm

2025-10-26 00:27:57 UTC

I mean sure he’s bankrupting me and people like me, but he’s also making immigrants suffer. So as you can see, it’s a hard choice.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:rgzw2gfpyanm42hqkxvewh7l/post/3m42n5vnih226
#note1ssl…f6rh

2025-10-24 13:31:34 UTC

This has been around since March, but I was just made aware of the Lawyer Support Project, a venture by the Association of American Law Schools to aid attorneys who are targeted by this administration.
[www.aals.org/lawyer-suppo...](https://www.aals.org/lawyer-support/ )
[Lawyer Support Project | Assoc...](https://www.aals.org/lawyer-support/ )

2025-10-24 13:02:39 UTC

When Trump hears what Ronald Reagan said about immigrants he’s going to have DOJ arrest him for mortgage fraud.

2025-10-21 21:25:53 UTC

I’ve written about people who were exonerated after being imprisoned for 20, 30, and 40-plus years. Some were nearly executed. None of them ever saw anything near $320 million.
[www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/u...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/us/politics/trump-justice-department-compensation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare )
[Trump Said to Demand Justice D...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/us/politics/trump-justice-department-compensation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare )

2025-10-19 12:59:49 UTC

The Peace President threatens to invade a country he whose name he can’t spell.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreigczvqrf6qtlcqkiikrgakzlqb25qxo4uk5qiu7mx7r4uibibgf6a

2025-10-18 20:11:05 UTC

Those men are super dangerous drug smuggling terrorists, which is why . . . we are letting them go.
[www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/u...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/us/politics/boat-strike-survivors.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20251018&instance_id=164706&nl=breaking-news&regi_id=68665547&segment_id=208179&user_id=a5bcbf840fc25258871157dcc0de7b17 )
[U.S. Is Repatriating Survivors...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/us/politics/boat-strike-survivors.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20251018&instance_id=164706&nl=breaking-news&regi_id=68665547&segment_id=208179&user_id=a5bcbf840fc25258871157dcc0de7b17 )

2025-10-17 12:38:46 UTC

Kinda seems like whether or not the president has the power to assassinate people with no due process, no input from Congress, no review, no oversight, and with no obligation to provide anyone with any information or evidence other than “trust me” is an important test of our democracy.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2amnkge5a6hplfwyesmxqkfl/post/3m3f6vcjuv222

2025-10-15 21:56:58 UTC

The Supreme Court’s majority right wing indicated in oral arguments that they think racism is over on the same day that the vice president defended the “I love Hitler” guy, and that the NYT reported that the current administration plans to accept only white, English-speaking refugees.

2025-10-15 17:19:38 UTC

When all of this is finally over, I hope the people who ordered and carried out these extrajudicial assassinations are given the due process they don't believe in before they're punished for murder.
[www.newsweek.com/donald-trump...](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-venezuela-military-strikes-hit-a-colombian-ship-report-10884545 )
[Donald Trump's Venezuela Milit...](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-venezuela-military-strikes-hit-a-colombian-ship-report-10884545 )

2025-10-15 14:18:31 UTC

Fascinating. Politico notes that when notified of the texts, many state-level Republicans fired or condemned these cretins. Now Vance emerges to excuse the racism, and calls the reaction to it "pearl clutching."
He seems determined to purge the party of its last enclaves of decency.
[‘College Group Chat’: JD Vance...](https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/college-group-chat-jd-vance-dismisses-pearl-clutching-over-young-republicans-leak-to-attack-jay-jones/ )

2025-10-14 22:09:04 UTC

Good. Even if this doesn’t work, it’s time to go on offense.
[www.newsweek.com/jb-pritzker-...](https://www.newsweek.com/jb-pritzker-looking-at-prosecuting-ice-agents-in-chicago-10877062 )
[JB Pritzker looking at prosecu...](https://www.newsweek.com/jb-pritzker-looking-at-prosecuting-ice-agents-in-chicago-10877062 )

2025-10-09 12:55:54 UTC

Nothing remotely resembling an insurrection is happening anywhere in the country. Any violence associated with protest has been isolated, mild, and, in nearly every case, instigated by federal law enforcement. If we let Trump get away with calling dissent an insurrection, our republic is over.
[BREAKING: Trump Admin 'Serious...](https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/breaking-trump-admin-seriously-considering-using-the-insurrection-act-reports-nbc/ )

2025-10-09 11:13:27 UTC

No clearer indication of the right’s moral rot than the swift evolution from angrily denying any association with buffoonish bigots like like Posobiec and Fuentes, to “there’s no harm in having a conversation,” to openly praising and promoting them.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic/post/3m2qz4r5wp22d
#note1alc…a43x

2025-10-09 11:04:56 UTC

Not the least surprised by this. I’d hope it might finally wake up some mainstream libertarians to what Smith is really about. But it probably won’t.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreiglqtumshgifik7734wxbjnr7esawxy53nvwykvykzllxj5zydeiq

2025-10-07 11:48:44 UTC

Absolute failure of our system that a federal judge can be “very concerned” about Trump’s unlawful attempt to send troops into a city, but also powerless to stop it.
The default should be to protect us from government abuse, not to protect government from temporary inconvenience.
[National Guard deployment move...](https://apple.news/As1roNLuAQouKOpfx8DE_EA )

2025-10-06 14:09:59 UTC

If Dems win in 2026, we need hearings to publicize the abuses by federal law enforcement. Then pass a bill creating a path to sue for those abuses. Trump will veto it. Let him. Let the public see these videos & hear from victims, & then learn there's no way to hold the abusive officers accountable.

2025-10-06 12:29:37 UTC

Jeff Landry asking Trump’s permission to deploy Louisiana National Guard troops to New Orleans that he could have sent himself is the epitome of weird MAGA masculinity — powerful men earn social and political capital by by performatively debasing themselves for Trump’s benefit.

2025-10-04 23:33:25 UTC

This story about the FBI director handing out challenge coins that celebrate vigilante violence came out the same week that he fired an agent for having a small rainbow flag on his desk.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreifbe5rtn5e3t7vtnapundzyfxxl2ckrmxr6jxzgure7gevwt7przy

2025-10-04 21:51:58 UTC

Gonna have to call in the National Guard to protect blue cities from Trump-supporting celebrities.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic/post/3m2fklbczwc2o
#note10ke…m0e6

2025-10-04 21:45:19 UTC

Plot twist
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2025-10-02 11:59:38 UTC

The United States should not be funding authoritarian regimes.
[www.theunpopulist.net/p/democrats-...](https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/democrats-should-do-the-honorable )
[Democrats Should Do the Honora...](https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/democrats-should-do-the-honorable )

2025-10-01 23:15:10 UTC

Capitulation isn’t going to win them over. Stop doing it.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic&cid=bafkreidkikdqhkld6z2p76aggnft7hlh52j7jrefbjql7sjubvadqakq3y
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2025-10-01 20:24:50 UTC

President Pritzker is going to get record ratings when he takes a wrecking ball to that ballroom on prime time TV.

2025-10-01 13:10:36 UTC

Finally read this, and the reporting is as good as everyone says it is. It’s also terrifying, confounding, and deeply weird. The most powerful people in American politics right now — including the guy who has all our personal data — aren’t just evil, they’re absolutely bonkers.
[The Real Stakes, and Real Stor...](https://www.wired.com/story/the-real-stakes-real-story-peter-thiels-antichrist-obsession/ )

2025-09-30 16:15:16 UTC

In a sane country with competent leadership, the 50 highest-ranking Democrats would call a press conference to denounce what just happened as a threat to the republic and demand Trump's immediate impeachment and removal from office.
I don't know he could make his intentions more clear.

2025-09-30 15:56:54 UTC

The president just gathered the highest ranking officers in the military to tell them that he may order them to kill American citizens -- and that they better follow his orders. All in response to a series of crises that have no basis in reality.
I don't know how to yell any louder.

2025-09-28 17:24:48 UTC

The idea that the "beer summit" was a point of radicalization for right-wingers is utterly incomprehensible.
[When the right broke, accordin...](https://smotus.substack.com/p/when-the-right-broke-according-to?r=bigl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true )

2025-09-27 13:09:34 UTC

Yesterday The Intercept posted the piece I wrote for them to X. That account has 800K followers. As of now, the post has 5,500 impressions, 8 likes, and the only reply includes a Pepe the Frog image and the n-word.
So yes, seems like the algorithm is working as intended!
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2025-09-25 20:57:38 UTC

One of the truly weird culture war flashpoints of this era is how an anti-parasitic on the market for 35 years became the right's cure-all snake oil and popular way of signaling contempt for modern medicine.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cuowqu3bimpxo4plxd4pg3eh/post/3lzosyj3wzc2t

2025-09-25 10:58:51 UTC

I’d seen the nutty excerpts of Miller’s speech at Kirk’s memorial, but hadn’t seen the whole thing. It’s easily the most unhinged, unapologetically fascist rhetoric I’ve ever seen from someone in US government.
It’s more of a discount, Dwight Schrute Goebbels than Goebbels. But still.
['Scary as all hell': Onlookers...](https://www.rawstory.com/goebbels-stephen-miller/ )

2025-09-23 15:32:26 UTC

Trump is going to try to take credit for this.
[jasher.substack.com/p/the-fbi-wi...](https://jasher.substack.com/p/the-fbi-will-likely-report-the-lowest )
[The FBI Will Likely Report The...](https://jasher.substack.com/p/the-fbi-will-likely-report-the-lowest )

2025-09-22 00:10:21 UTC

The presidential historian the NYT quotes as an authority can’t correctly recall what happened five years ago.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cak4klqoj3bqgk5rj6b4f5do/post/3lzegjdd6xc2x
#note12vq…raf6

2025-09-21 01:10:05 UTC

“We’re fine with corruption if comes with terrorizing brown people.”
Really sums up the MAGA punditocracy.
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2025-09-20 22:53:14 UTC

John Roberts's "there's no such thing as corruption" and "the president has the right to use the DOJ as his personal law firm" jurisprudence is really working out well for us.

2025-09-20 22:47:45 UTC

lol. Emil Bove intervened. The guy that Senate Republicans just confirmed for a lifetime position on the federal bench.
[www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/u...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/us/politics/tom-homan-fbi-trump.html )
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2025-09-19 12:41:03 UTC

What a ridiculous statement. Kimmel wasn't pulled from his home, moved across the country, and detained for months. He won't be deported to Algeria.
Kimmel's suspension is a dangerous threat to free speech. But he'll be fine. What you *can* say is that Khalil is far braver than the cowards at ABC.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:qrllvid7s54k4hnwtqxwetrf/post/3lz65cx4n4k2e
#note133h…n6ha

2025-09-18 13:56:47 UTC

Remembering that time all the right wing influencers (including Elon Musk, multiple times) kept showing that clip of news anchors at Sinclair-owned TV stations reading verbatim from the same script . . . and claimed it was proof of a vast left-wing conspiracy.

2025-09-18 01:49:20 UTC

Trump: Jimmy Kimmel is next
Trump admin: We will definitely exploit this murder to censor our critics
Carr: ABC must fire Jimmy Kimmel
ABC, minutes later: We have suspended Jimmy Kimmel
Anti-cancel culture crusader: I sure wish this clear business decision didn’t look so much like censorship!
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2025-09-17 23:38:17 UTC

This is eliminationist, genocidal rhetoric. There’s nothing ambiguous about it. And it didn’t come from a random Bluesky account with 28 followers. It came from a sitting member of Congress.
[talkingpointsmemo.com/news/texas-c...](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/texas-congressman-says-trans-people-need-to-be-taken-off-the-streets-after-charlie-kirk-shooting )
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2025-09-16 17:45:46 UTC

One pretty foolproof way to know your government is fascist is when your government tries to punish you for calling it fascist.

2025-09-16 16:50:05 UTC

For no particular reason, I’ve been thinking about the guy who obsessed about killing racial justice protesters, searched online about killing racial justice protesters, & told friends he may kill a racial justice protester.
Then he killed a racial justice protester.
And Gregg Abbott pardoned him.
[The smearing of Garrett Foster](https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/the-smearing-of-garrett-foster )

2025-09-15 20:50:12 UTC

They used Kirk’s podcast to praise his alleged commitment to free speech, while announcing that they’ll be using the full force of the federal government to silence the left.
Just so we’re clear on how disingenuous this is: Vance mentioned Soros by name. Soros has never promoted violence.
[White House Plans Broad Crackd...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/politics/jd-vance-charlie-kirk-show.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mE8.ECY2.ho44YW7iayr1&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare )

2025-09-15 12:30:52 UTC

We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.

2025-09-14 20:28:56 UTC

The name is revealing. Anyone who criticized Kirk is now one of his murderers.
They're claiming they'll turn this over to "federal officials."
Meanwhile, Republicans just introduced a bill that 1A advocates say would empower Rubio to strip U.S. citizens of their passports over speech.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:gvda6fem6r7selm4gzjjww4a/post/3lyt2qkd35226
#note10yp…dten

2025-09-13 22:19:02 UTC

After Cox vetoed an anti-trans bill, and cited the high suicide rate among trans youth.
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2025-09-13 16:20:04 UTC

Imagine seeing the wave of firings for insufficient deference to Charlie Kirk (in some cases by merely quoting him), then watching right-wing influencers demand state and personal violence for speech, all based on a false assumption
. . . and then writing this.
[www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-bluesk...](https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-bluesky-ization-of-the-american )
[The Bluesky-ization of the Ame...](https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-bluesky-ization-of-the-american )

2025-09-12 16:38:38 UTC

Kirk didn't serve in the military or hold office. The war hero treatment -- half-mast flags, military guard, Air Force Two escort, calls for a statue at the Capitol or to lie in the Rotunda -- shows that for MAGA, service to Trump has become the highest, most honorable form of service.

2025-09-11 10:42:00 UTC

Losing my goddamned mind.
We can condemn political violence without valorizing a destructive, hateful bigot.
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2025-09-11 02:24:11 UTC

Driscoll should get an “insufficiently based” tattoo.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cak4klqoj3bqgk5rj6b4f5do/post/3lyjjp7deyc2v
#note16ls…epx2

2025-09-11 01:32:32 UTC

Which work? Calling for gay people to be stoned to death? Blaming airplane crashes on black pilots? Anti-vax bullshit? Election denialism? Pushing Great Replacement Theory?
Kirk’s murder is awful and ominous for this country. But no, we don’t need to honor him or “continue his work.”
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2025-09-10 21:17:59 UTC

My feed is almost entirely people condemning violence and telling others not to celebrate this.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5crnmuynyoly62tsimfxnl6k/post/3lyj5qs2q5c2l

2025-09-10 21:13:37 UTC

When a right-wing man murdered Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, progressives asked MAGA to tone down the rhetoric to prevent more violence. Within hours of Kirk’s murder, motive still unknown, the right is demanding that the government wage a campaign of violence against their enemies.

2025-09-07 16:48:58 UTC

Darkly amusing that the president who pardoned Ross Ulbricht also says illicit drugs are such a threat to national security that he can use the military to assassinate suspected drug dealers with no due process.

2025-09-07 14:22:55 UTC

From Kaufman's bio: "He has qualified as an expert witness in local, state, and federal courts."
Gotta' love Daubert.
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2025-09-07 14:15:07 UTC

New:
I wrote for Rolling Stone about the "rapid deployment units" Trump has ordered Hegseth to have at the ready.
[www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-order-national-guard-protests-rapid-reaction-force-1235422636/ )
[Trump's Most Dangerous Executi...](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-order-national-guard-protests-rapid-reaction-force-1235422636/ )

2025-09-07 14:09:46 UTC

Silly TDS sufferers can't handle the president making an *obvious joke* about invading Chicago as if it were Vietnam as he vows to illegally send troops there, converts a nearby military base into a staging area, and regularly demeans the city and its residents.

2025-09-02 14:37:20 UTC

Not crazy about this framing. Yes, point out that Trump's justification for NG troops is bullshit, that red states have higher crime rates, and that it's all dangerous posturing.
But deploying the military to Memphis would also be destructive and anti-democratic. And crime is dropping everywhere.
[Crime Festers in Republican St...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/us/politics/crime-republican-states.html?smtyp=cur&smid=bsky-nytimes )

2025-08-26 02:46:46 UTC

The anti-war president and aspiring Nobel Peace Prize winner . . .
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:26tsf647wqnoo7umh4ywwz7a/post/3lxadgym2tk2c
#note1gac…zf3p

2025-08-25 15:06:36 UTC

It's hard to take that because of a 1.5 percent margin in one election, our country will now commit suicide -- and take a good chunk of the rest of the world down with it.

2025-08-24 19:33:44 UTC

Silly as this is, there is a version of it that would actually reveal something about the person answering:
Would you publicly praise Trump if it meant he’d exempt you from the bad policy he’s inflicting on everyone else?
That’s an actual measure of principle. And it’s one too many are failing.
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2025-08-24 16:15:56 UTC

MAGA is about to learn that refugees have been propping up rust belt cities and towns in red America for 20 years. Ending TPS for these immigrants isn't just cruel and clearly motivated by bigotry, it's going to wreck these places.
[www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/u...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/us/springfield-ohio-haitian-immigrants-trump.html )
[An Ohio City Faces a Future Wi...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/us/springfield-ohio-haitian-immigrants-trump.html )

2025-08-24 12:52:22 UTC

It's telling that as Trump threatens a military takeover of cities, actively censors universities, imposes his politics on private companies, and weaponizes the DOJ against his critics, reactionary centrists who've made free expression their core issue . . . are still focused on wokeness.