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

2026-03-04 14:07:58 GMT

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

2026-01-29 16:18:43 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

"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 GMT

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 GMT

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.
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2025-12-14 14:51:31 GMT

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.
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne&cid=bafkreihy6ex6ziysmhkcwuxlpi3xhrg7w536wqlc5cdszr3hv7usqw46ai
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2025-12-11 02:44:13 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

“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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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.
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2025-12-05 14:42:59 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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
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2025-11-11 13:09:32 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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
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2025-10-18 14:50:21 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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.
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2025-09-15 14:43:07 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

“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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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 GMT

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

2025-06-26 03:40:26 GMT

I keep telling people, a lot of monied interests are not political ideologues sacrificing to keep opposing ideologies down.
They’re cynics who believe they’re being savvy, buying access and favors. They’re not pushing ideology, they’re kissing up to power. Get it, and they’ll do the same with you.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ccrabc6xdnjx4l7btvynnng4/post/3lshtfuqn6k2s

2025-06-24 16:05:14 GMT

The Speaker of the House insisting that Congress doesn't and shouldn't have a say in use of military force abroad is a pathetically weak abdication of Constitutional duty.
The Founders anticipated the possibility of a tyrant. But they didn't think Congress would eagerly forfeit its own power.

2025-06-22 03:15:31 GMT

Serious answer: The percentage of Americans who actually care about the legality of presidents ordering military action is quite small. Plus, presidents ordering use of force without proper Congressional authorization, and Congress acting like that's okay, has been bipartisan for decades.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4aeruxx4muee4e3y5snjqp5b/post/3ls62dje5us2o

2025-06-22 01:12:45 GMT

Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) had Congressional authorization.
ISIS (2014) had authorization only under a stretched interpretation of earlier authorizations.
Libya (2011), Syria (2017) and now a bigger attack on Iran (2025), didn't have Congressional approval. Done unilaterally by presidents.

2025-06-21 19:39:49 GMT

Every time a rich person tries a threat like "if you do [political thing I don't like] then I won't try to make money anymore" I don't believe them. Why would anyone?
Yeah buddy, you'll forgo that extra million simply because it isn't the $1.1 million you originally thought you'd get. Sure Jan.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:6arqeda2f5piwu7zien3b2hq/post/3ls5c2zhvhc2m
#note1c9e…3k06

2025-06-21 12:43:46 GMT

“Viewpoint diversity”: Promoting white nationalists, banning ideas white nationalists don’t like
“Viewpoint discrimination”: Holding white nationalists to basic standards of evidence and logic
“Free speech”: If white nationalists speak, others are obligated to listen, treat it as worthy of respect

2025-06-18 17:01:47 GMT

<pointedly taps sign>
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:756gaaeewovgn4axja34ajne/post/3lfcz2pslck2w
#note1ptm…k5t5

2025-05-13 15:39:45 GMT

Never lose sight of how weird and corrupt it is for the president to have his unelected, unconfirmed oligarch friend—his biggest campaign donor—conduct US foreign policy.
No other US president did that, and there’s no reason to think he’s representing the American people rather than himself.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:gvda6fem6r7selm4gzjjww4a/post/3lp2ntnzw3s2r
#note17yq…mamt

2025-05-13 14:53:33 GMT

Of all the ridiculous things people say with a straight face, the most ridiculous might be "you can't bribe him, he's rich."
You think rich people don't like money, and don't do things for people who give them a lot of money? Are... Are you serious?

2025-05-12 17:56:31 GMT

My take on "Abundance" is that every time I hear the authors speaking about the book, it sounds like a dispatch from an alternative universe where Obama's fourth electoral victory was his narrowest yet, so the big national concern is how to make technocracy successful and more politically appealing.

2025-05-09 18:29:46 GMT

Unmarked, masked government agents who don’t show ID when grabbing someone, and Stand Your Ground laws that say it’s legal to shoot someone if you feel threatened, seem on a collision course.
I’m a little surprised no one’s shot at ICE agents already, and worry what happens after someone does.

2025-05-05 11:25:55 GMT

Not seeing Glenn Greenwald is one of the pleasures of leaving Twitter. And this sort of sequences is why.
1) Pretend to care about Palestinians to use as cudgel against Dems
2) Praise Trump for ceasefire Biden brokered
3) Ignore issue now that it might make Trump look bad
(see also: drone strikes)
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ny5mscvguz4r636nekozpqac/post/3log6qsn24k24

2025-05-01 13:25:43 GMT

Since fentanyl kills any police officer who comes within 100 feet of it, if the US seized 5 grams of fentanyl coming from Canada, that’s enough to instantly kill 2.6 million cops, times 86,400 seconds in a day, divided by 50 states, carry the one, and we’re talking billions of officers’ lives saved.