International Relations prof at U. Illinois. Editor of Arc Digital. Author “Drones and Terrorism.” Politics, national security, and occasional nerdery.
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2026-08-17T03:58:06Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Alito, paraphrased: You say the president’s blatantly racist statements are evidence of racist intent, and therefore illegal violation of rights? Yeah, well, whatabout this clip of a TikTok I saw on Fox News where some lib with 17 followers said something I don’t like? Whatabout that, huh? npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Trump going to China, kissing up to Xi, asking for help with Iran, and not getting it is another sign of America's decline. [email protected] : npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Eric Trump joining Donald Trump on an official state visit to China is much more corrupt than anything involving Joe and Hunter Biden, yet New York Times coverage indicates the opposite. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Iran’s *trying* to crash the economy, you naive Pollyanna banker. That increases their leverage and the chance of getting concessions. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman One big vibecession theory will get a test. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Considering how many times White House claims of imminent peace have proven false, maybe media shouldn't make their claims the headline? But I guess that ship has sailed. (Metaphorically. The real ships aren't sailing, which should be a bigger factor in describing the situation than "Trump says"). npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Even with the Virginia court reversing the state's redistricting referendum—pretty undemocratic, no?—I stand by this argument I made in @[email protected] in February. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Stuff like this makes me feel optimistic that: npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Oil futures open for trading at 6:00pm Eastern time on Sunday nights, if anyone's curious. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Trump is seeking a deal with Iran, presumably to stop the economic damage, but what if Iran doesn't want the war to end yet?[email protected] : npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman @charlesgaba.com, we talked a bit about the book. Did you see the movie? If so, what’d you think (no spoilers for those who haven’t read or seen it please, not even stuff that was in the movie preview). npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The US sending more troops to the Middle East, including a few thousand Marines, illustrates the White House's stupid, short-sighted incompetence. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman If in the future there's an Iran-linked terrorist attack against the US, or if Iran get nuclear weapons, it will be Donald Trump's fault. But there will be immense social pressure against saying so, because while factually accurate, it'll be considered partisan, biased, and old news. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Oil price spiked then mostly went back down. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman All that diplomatic capacity the Trump regime denigrated, degraded, and dismantled would’ve been awfully useful when launching a war involving a dozen countries and impacting the global economy, argues @[email protected] . npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman War hype videos mixing footage of real world violence with scenes from movies and video games are messed up.[email protected] . npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman “Who could’ve seen this coming?” is highly unpleasant when the answer is “most people who know anything about this big topic and they’ve been saying so for years.” npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Paradise on Hulu: 👍 npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Suez Crisis underrated as an analogue for Strait of Hormuz. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman One of the best things about America is that people of any religion (or none) belong here. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman “Muslims don’t belong in American society,” says GOP Rep. Andy Ogles. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman It really sucks that the president of the United States is not a reliable source on U.S. foreign policy. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Morbidly fascinating and pretty unsettling how many people hear "I have a plan for everything" with no details or explanation at all, and fill in the blanks with "oh good, this must be a brilliant plan that'll work, I'm relieved" rather than "so you have no idea, huh, or you'd be able to say it." npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Global energy markets are like COVID — too big, with too many second- and third-order effects impacting too many people for Trump to bully into submission or lie his way through. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is 56, which means he was 10 in the 1979 revolution. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Strait of Hormuz is why various advocates of opposing Iran urged against all out war. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Could the US Navy sail ships through the Strait of Hormuz, and could they counter fire that targets them? npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The US Navy will reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic? npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman war ≠ tariffs npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Believe me yet? npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman It's doubly frustrating because the many ways FDD and other advocates of a regime change war on Iran were wrong could be seen in advance. And were. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Everything the Iran hawks of “Foundation for Defense of Democracies” said was wrong. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Some Kamala Harris supporters and critics both badly want to believe that 2024 was a foreign policy election—and not foreign policy overall, but one war the US wasn’t fighting in—and I’m sorry, but the evidence just isn’t there. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Special operations raids to secure Iran's uranium would be a lot more challenging than action movies make people think.[email protected] explains how: npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The Harris campaign performed well, as far as campaigns go, in that she was multiple points closer in the swing states the campaign focused on, and had a smaller loss than most of the world's incumbent parties. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Good visual reminder that war not only has large human and economic costs, it can have environmental impacts as well. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman RUSSIA GETS: npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Our warfighters at the Department of War won't be held back by political correctness saying their warmaking activities are "war." npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman In the worst drone war errors the US accurately hit wrongly identified targets. A wedding party in a group of vehicles, for example. But in those terrible instances we could go back and figure out exactly who made what informational errors and why. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Hoovering up info that's outdated as well as relatively current and not knowing the difference is an unsurprising AI error. If the change was relatively recent, there's more old info, and the system lacks the judgment to find and emphasize the new. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Iran is not Ukraine, but the United States is acting more like Russia.[email protected] on the uncomfortable comparison: npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The US govt mixing video of real violence in a war it started with a video game scene feels like crossing a(nother) line. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman 1) Militaries lose wars because of wokeness and win because of traditional conceptions of gender roles npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman I like @[email protected] because they take a focused media angle on stories I follow from a primarily politics/IR frame. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman US Cultural Revolution, the elites, the Cathedral, wokeness as radical leftists executing a long march through the institutions, etc. It sounds insane, like a fringe conspiracy theory. But today's New Right says it so much. Accept that they mean it, and a lot of what they do makes more sense. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman And since I've heard @[email protected] and @[email protected] encourage people to share writing they're proud of... npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman With Bari Weiss, start from a premise that she believes the stuff she's said for years: she's a victim, radical Maoists took over everything and imposed a Cultural Revolution, free speech in the US was nearly dead. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The Roberts Court even did that with the Constitution — which is insane — taking the part of 14A that says insurrectionists can’t hold office unless Congress passes something saying this one can, and turning it into insurrectionists can run for office unless Congress passes something this one can’t. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman To pick one of many possible examples, US radar installations in Qatar are in Iranian range and can't be moved. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman "Militarily closing the Strait of Hormuz—i.e. preventing US Navy access to it—would be hard, but Iran doesn’t need that for an economic impact. Hostilities make ships afraid to sail, and insurance companies refuse to cover the risk." npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman 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. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Years of explaining that oil is a global commodity, a lot runs on day-of delivery schedules, crude isn't the same as refined products, the US both exports and imports, and more domestic drilling can't insulate the US economy from oil supply shocks elsewhere. And people rescued to believe it. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman When Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022 and when Hamas attacked Israel in 2023, that was Joe Biden starting wars. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Xi: Did you hear? npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and Iran firing at Israel and US bases, are one front. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman If a US military partner goes "we're gonna start a war and it'll blow back on you," American officials could easily respond "don't, and if you do anyway, we'll hold you responsible for our deaths and it'll ruin our relationship," instead of "ok, give us a month or two for a giant military buildup." npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Can't believe any Democrats think this moment calls for handing Republicans "whatabout your Nazi symbols?" and "'Nazi' is just a partisan insult, the left likes the quote 'Nazis' on their side," and joining the redefinition of "working class" as all about aesthetics, unrelated to income or job type. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman DC journalists have a golden opportunity. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The US has fewer counterintelligence officers who have experience with Iran because a few years ago those US officers did their jobs properly and assisted with a judge-signed search warrant regarding a criminal theft of US defense secrets, which the search found a lot of evidence of. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Iran's strategy appears to be: Don't have the air defenses to counter US and Israeli attacks, don't have enough strike capacity to get through their air defenses and impose serious military costs, so hit whatever you can, including in US-partnered Gulf Arab states, and hope they push the US to stop. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Pre-war CIA assessment predicted that killing Khamenei would likely lead to Revolutionary Guard hardliners taking over. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The trend of increasing presidential power at the expense of Congress did not start with Trump, but this attack on Iran brings it to new heights, with the legislature not even consulted on a consequential use of one of its core responsibilities. And the GOP majorities are apparently fine with that. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Iran ≠ Iraq npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Many critics of Trump's attack on Iran wrongly focus on means, not the big picture, argues @[email protected] . They "imagine that a reasonable, justifiable war with Iran exists somewhere... They entertain the fantasy that there’s a reasonable version of Trump capable of thinking [that] through." npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman War is not a morality play.[email protected] . npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman War is not a morality play. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman "If the US ends up withdrawing [from the Iran nuclear deal], it sets the Middle East on a path to two possible futures: npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Airstrikes alone have never caused regime change. They can do a lot of damage, but can’t create conditions that last. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Big congratulations to the “no new wars” crowd. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman “Nobody [in media is] coordinating this. It’s a set of professional habits designed for a political environment where officials operate in roughly good faith. Applied to a bad-faith actor, those same habits actively obscure what’s being said”[email protected] , on missing/distorting the big picture npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The DoD (sorry "DoW") response to Anthropic is that govt should be able to deploy AI for "any lawful use" npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman On oligarch media consolidation, TV networks matter, but don't sleep on: npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman This is very good, focusing on the specific components of ICE’s capacity, and how people can counter it. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman "A bluff to generate leverage and preparation for a real attack look the same until someone starts shooting or backs down."[email protected] npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman I've been following (and teaching about) US-Israel-Palestine for many years, and the biggest factors are Bibi, Trump, and generational turnover. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Full article (gift link for those without a subscription) here: npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Good job, New York Times. Directly calling Trump's case for war with Iran based on "false" claims that "do not hold up." In the headline, top of the homepage. And no hedging with "critics say." npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Hollywood productions have never been anywhere close to as left-wing as culture warriors claim. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman I’m skeptical that mass producing MAGA content will actually happen, at least in a highly noticeable, national culture and politics shifting way. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Media consolidation under right-wing oligarchs sure isn’t good, but… npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Well, shit. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman A person’s info environment unavoidably influences which topics they think about, who they choose to engage, and their sense of what matters to other people. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman It is extremely difficult for human beings to spend a lot of time in an informational/social environment without adjusting to it at some level. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Trump has attacked Iran twice already. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman This pattern of risk-averse bullying—using force when it's short and relatively easy, backing down in the face of resistance, shying from anything longer or hard—doesn't mean Trump definitely won't attack Iran. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Trump has shown a willingness to use force—including illegally—but only when it’s short, low risk, with little-to-no follow through. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman It probably doesn't help GOP efforts to turn out the entire MAGA base for the midterms that Trump told his supporters they'd never have to vote in an election again, and that they can't trust that their votes will count. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Congressional Republicans' reactions to Trump's SOTU lies, threats, and jeering "was a display worthy of Mussolini’s Blackshirts," writes @[email protected] in @[email protected] . npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The US had a deal curbing Iran’s nuclear program, but Trump scrapped it in 2018, letting Iran out of restrictions in exchange for nothing. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Trump envoy Steve Witkoff on Iran: "Why haven't they capitulated?" npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Demanding people surrender their drivers licenses because the state decided to discriminate against them as a class, and threatening jail time if they're caught driving without a legitimate license—because the state revoked them discriminatorily—is a wholly unjustified, cruel, bigoted action. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman Looks like I jumped the gun on this one, and while Anthropic has made some changes, it has not altered its policies in the ways the Pentagon has demanded. My apologies.[email protected] npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The Trump regime looks like it's hoping to bully Iran into a deal, and are genuinely confused why that hasn't worked. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The Trump regime is not only going against the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Revolution. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The people of Minnesota vote for representatives to Congress. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman I don’t think the important thing about opposing ICE is defending the slogan “defund the police” (see replies and quotes). npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman One thing to add: Democrats really shouldn’t fear to be anti-ICE. It’s specific, unlike “defund the police.” npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman I used to be a State of the Union nerd. Found it interesting as both policy vision and political theater. Started watching with my parents, later hosted watch parties. We made up drinking game rules, and made fun of the pageantry. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman By promoting the writer who says Blacks need to be policed harder and dismisses Epstein concerns as a hysterical attack on age gap relationships, Jared Polis, Matt Yglesias, Gavin Newsom etc. signal their anti-woke bonafides. npub15awg2xe33qlpld8qd7mku8kkp8c5swflldeyykevqe7e45vc0e2qsgspcf Nicholas Grossman The US is weaker due to Trump, but is it more feared?