Nostr notes by Julian Sanchez

We could just scrap TSA and go back to having airports & ...

2026-03-24T16:41:26Z

We could just scrap TSA and go back to having airports & airlines be responsible for their own security. We wouldn’t have this chaos when there’s a government funding gap, and as a nice perk we’d ditch a lot of time-consuming theater that adds little meaningful security benefit.

<Giant cockroach monster bursts out of Trump flesh suit> ...

2026-03-02T20:08:52Z

<Giant cockroach monster bursts out of Trump flesh suit>
Fox: President’s bold new look too tough for simpering libs
NYT: In the insectoid president’s new “devour all humans” initiative, a break from tradition

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ul5n745uxwymqppvpiwtpoa5/post/3mg3zeqfamk2j

They beat a blind refugee who speaks no English for failing to ...

2026-02-25T20:48:32Z

They beat a blind refugee who speaks no English for failing to obey police commands he could not understand. Then instead of apologizing, they charged him with possession of a “weapon”—HIS WALKING STICK. Then they dumped him miles from home without notifying anyone, after which he was found dead.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vn3p3ydk5zgywye3focmlf64/post/3mfpk6ir5hc2q

A consistent pattern of Trump 2 has been exploiting the slowness ...

2026-02-20T22:19:50Z

A consistent pattern of Trump 2 has been exploiting the slowness of the courts to just do illegal stuff and then drag out the process whereby the courts actually compel him to stop. With tariffs it looks like he's going to combine that with a kind of bullshit-legal-theory musical chairs.

So SCOTUS, with its fabricated-out-of-thin-air immunity doctrine, ...

2026-02-19T10:50:30Z

So SCOTUS, with its fabricated-out-of-thin-air immunity doctrine, has actually made American presidents less accountable than LITERAL royalty.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:eclio37ymobqex2ncko63h4r/post/3mf7fkw4ih52z

Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Pearl ...

2025-12-28T00:27:34Z

Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden or Alice In Chains.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:dmxyy2z3kyd446dbg7cu6yrz/post/3maz2l2nnxk22
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:jdfwnosj5tavojrkinbcor6h&cid=bafkreig6jv7ut2qe63e53tkpxs7tfsw7fgoq5jjeroxarphzreud4n2b2i

A vital point here, first driven home to me by Cory Doctorow in ...

2025-12-12T16:44:56Z

A vital point here, first driven home to me by Cory Doctorow in the context of copyright policy, is that many forms of tech regulation that strike lots of folks as appealing and commonsensical would in practice require a fairly massive surveillance apparatus to meaningfully enforce.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ifsuximqaivczh4fie2opnuk/post/3m7sfp6en5k2i

This is doubly stupid because… Trump can just order the DCI to ...

2025-12-11T00:31:55Z

This is doubly stupid because… Trump can just order the DCI to brief him on whether the Agency is still doing anything via USAID. He doesn’t need to send in some kook to play truffle pig.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lafbr3dznxdyvgup2umwssht/post/3m7lxc7vpss2l

quoting
note1rpm…ps29

Conspiracy theorist Mike Benz will start looking for proof of non-existent plots at USAID. He won't find any. What then?
[www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/12/usaid-mike-benz-cia/685195/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3-PBBtI0DtncGhdtYTfrzTQ )

[USAID Hired the Right-Wing Inf...](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/12/usaid-mike-benz-cia/685195/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3-PBBtI0DtncGhdtYTfrzTQ )

Hundred bucks to the first reporter who interrupts one of ...

2025-11-18T18:26:22Z

Hundred bucks to the first reporter who interrupts one of Trump’s nonsensical rants with “Quiet, Piggy.”

Bad headline aside, this is a pretty damning portrait of an ...

2025-11-14T11:17:49Z

Bad headline aside, this is a pretty damning portrait of an institution decisively abandoning any real pretense to be a quasi-scholarly outfit in favor of manufacturing whatever slop power demands this week, like a ChatGPT made of meat.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:6y2b4lqfw2j3oyycegx3ey7q/post/3m5j6fytzcs2l

quoting
note1n80…rddf

Calling this a "gaffe" is the #BrokenTimes' way to dismiss and forgive the right-wing defense of a white supremacist. Credulity in the excuse of racism is racism.
In Explaining His Gaffe, Heritage Foundation Leader Pleads Ignorance [www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/us/politics/in-explaining-his-gaffe-heritage-foundation-leader-pleads-ignorance.html?smid=tw-share )

[In Explaining His Gaffe, Herit...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/us/politics/in-explaining-his-gaffe-heritage-foundation-leader-pleads-ignorance.html?smid=tw-share )

Mamdani's opponents have been so ostentatiously, ...

2025-11-04T20:13:46Z

Mamdani's opponents have been so ostentatiously, unnecessarily loathsome that they have succeeded in making me much, much more sympathetic to him than I otherwise would be, and I can't be the only one in that boat.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:twjze4qqf6fgxz33ct52wlnl/post/3m4tdnvwbt22x

quoting
note18ln…ey3h

Boy Mamdani's race is really a vivid reminder that anti-Islamic bigotry is 100% accepted in US public discourse. People don't even bother dog whistling, it's just right out in the open.

I’m sorry, why are we using “critics accuse” language here? ...

2025-10-25T14:58:31Z

I’m sorry, why are we using “critics accuse” language here? These are factually, unambiguously, extrajudicial killings. It’s not an opinion. It’s not a disputed or disputable claim.
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:jdfwnosj5tavojrkinbcor6h&cid=bafkreibcwaxumsrhsvgxfqfuze3vi4dym6pixsim4ugumpi4yjti2borka

Trump claims the power to murder supposed “narcoterrorists” ...

2025-10-17T13:51:59Z

Trump claims the power to murder supposed “narcoterrorists” by fiat, without trial or evidence. In what is surely an unrelated matter, he is also calling his political opponents “terrorists”. We are nine months in.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:c7ozmxoc5b2ky4iam2o36uic/post/3m3fc3wijds2q

quoting
note1sfv…gryw

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

One thing that comes through awfully clearly in these ICE videos ...

2025-10-03T21:44:18Z

One thing that comes through awfully clearly in these ICE videos is how many of these goons gravitated toward the job because being able to assault people with impunity is a big thrill for them.

I'm basically an opinion writer, but I'm pretty sure I ...

2025-10-02T20:31:53Z

I'm basically an opinion writer, but I'm pretty sure I have more experience doing actual news reporting than Bari Weiss, and I would never suggest I'm qualified to head a major hard-news bureau.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jmte4w4x7ukciit6lci6ziau/post/3m2adglgfe22u

Every headline talking about Kimmel being suspended for his ...

2025-09-18T17:58:47Z

Every headline talking about Kimmel being suspended for his “Kirk comments” is journalistic malpractice. He was suspended for comments about MAGA opportunists exploiting Kirk’s death, after the FCC chair issued a Mafioso threat.

Since Antifa isn’t really an “organization”, this is just ...

2025-09-18T01:14:14Z

Since Antifa isn’t really an “organization”, this is just carte blanche to arbitrarily declare people terrorists.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:36eqtmzysqf7wsslczw4uxcd/post/3lz353acwns2j

Among myriad problems with this ruling, can we pause to ...

2025-09-08T20:01:45Z

Among myriad problems with this ruling, can we pause to appreciate the childlike naïveté exhibited by Cavanaugh on the barely-worth-mentioning inconvenience of being detained and interogated by ICE? We are approaching Plessy levels of obtuseness, or feigned obtuseness.
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An entire government department has been derailed from its ...

2025-09-05T17:46:21Z

An entire government department has been derailed from its extremely valuable work and is now dedicated to validating the risible delusions of a single crackpot.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:pnx2fjuannbdpy3337ggthpp/post/3ly476xebtk22
nostr:note1ag0p8yw4nugkskuhasqzp4q5essck8kfj77l9hgggfpxwhdxfslsvqh5kw

A depressing number of news outlets are reporting this without ...

2025-08-07T12:53:42Z

A depressing number of news outlets are reporting this without mentioning the minor detail that it would be unconstitutional.
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:jdfwnosj5tavojrkinbcor6h&cid=bafkreigurjekp475qu2fdnzxbmiyblxzsekd5lbuqbi4yod26gkwt473ke

Sigh. NPR just quoted Trump saying tariffs mean “billions of ...

2025-08-07T11:13:22Z

Sigh. NPR just quoted Trump saying tariffs mean “billions of dollars will be flowing into the U.S.” without any indication that this is a lie. Zero dollars “flow into the U.S.” because of tariffs.

We are seven months in, and the speed with which vital civic ...

2025-07-25T22:26:03Z

We are seven months in, and the speed with which vital civic institutions are capitulating to authoritarian demands we once would have regarded as inconceivable in an established liberal democracy is jawdropping. I hadn't thought I was polyannaish about America, but it's really stunning.

So if I understand the Trump strategy correctly, they want their ...

2025-07-24T00:04:35Z

So if I understand the Trump strategy correctly, they want their base to buy that Obama, Comey, and (somehow) Hillary Clinton deviously placed his name into the casefiles about his best friend Jeffrey Epstein, but then never breathed a word about it through 3 elections? Is that right?

Is there any remotely plausible explanation for the way Trump is ...

2025-07-16T22:20:07Z

Is there any remotely plausible explanation for the way Trump is handling the Epstein stuff other than “he’s implicated”? Because I’m trying and failing to come up with one.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:gwp6bu7iye2o73q5smpdawyz/post/3lu46vngtms27

Here’s the thing about Grok: I’m 99% sure Musk did not tell ...

2025-07-08T21:24:19Z

Here’s the thing about Grok: I’m 99% sure Musk did not tell his AI team “make our house LLM an overtly Nazi conspiracy theorist who pines for Hitler to return.” That’s just the side-effect of whatever mix of training weights & directives needed to stop it giving “bad” answers.

Careful guys, if you don’t control migration you might turn out ...

2025-06-25T15:01:45Z

Careful guys, if you don’t control migration you might turn out like <checks notes> the greatest, wealthiest city in the world.
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:jdfwnosj5tavojrkinbcor6h&cid=bafkreibppu6dnoo3grzrxjrmxsjksrcff6ikan4hqriplsngmzwow7pooa

This important whistleblower account (from the DOJ attorney fired ...

2025-06-24T14:38:25Z

This important whistleblower account (from the DOJ attorney fired for being honest in court) paints an absolutely damning portrait of an administration engaged in a conscious and calculated effort to defy federal court orders.
[static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...](https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/e285ec96adf8d443/5868d536-full.pdf )

[static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/d...](https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/e285ec96adf8d443/5868d536-full.pdf )

If the United States is preparing to join a direct attack on ...

2025-06-17T01:13:43Z

If the United States is preparing to join a direct attack on Tehran, that is madness. If we aren’t, publicly signalling that we are likely to is also madness.

Everything that is happening and will happen with Iran is a ...

2025-06-17T00:44:26Z

Everything that is happening and will happen with Iran is a direct consequence of Trump’s first-term decision to shit on American diplomatic credibility by impulsively shredding a hard-won nuclear agreement.

Once again, it seems to me that when a court finds the president ...

2025-06-13T14:43:37Z

Once again, it seems to me that when a court finds the president is doing something wildly unconstitutional, it is dangerous and unhealthy that we default to “but let him keep doing it until multiple layers of review all agree.”

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:k5nskatzhyxersjilvtnz4lh/post/3lrifvt3e522v

Every serious conversation between educated people is ...

2025-06-09T02:11:39Z

Every serious conversation between educated people is “unrepresentative”. There’s some anthropological value in slumming occasionally, I guess, but engaging in a “repesentative” discursive environment it a good way to waste your time & get dumber in the process.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:x2xmijn2egk5g67u3cwkddzy/post/3lr5c4edi3r2p

quoting
note1d6c…lzeh

Even if Bluesky is a bubble, and even if it's not representative of the full range of politics, that's okay. Really. Especially if getting that full range in your social media would mean hanging around people who make you miserable. [www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/echo-chamb...](https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/echo-chambers-and-the-ethics-of-blocking )

[It's Okay if Your Social Media...](https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/echo-chambers-and-the-ethics-of-blocking )

Yup. There are certainly some benefits to having a single unified ...

2025-06-08T22:23:05Z

Yup. There are certainly some benefits to having a single unified Town Square, but there’s also a lot to be said for having a bunch of distinct communities with different rules and norms. As Nozick memorably observed, people are too diverse for Utopia to be singular.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:o4pdps2jkn7uhrdgadni7djk/post/3lr4tdigvbc2c

quoting
note1djw…qfuv

I think it’s a huge misconception we need a single app that grows infinitely and makes everyone happy. This is a “business” mindset. And that model has consistently failed. It’s also driven families apart. This is Threads model now and it’s a censorship machine. I’m good with the community we have.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:y5xyloyy7s4a2bwfeimj7r3b/post/3lr4s7j5x4c2q

I feel like Musk could really blow MAGA's collective minds ...

2025-06-05T20:13:48Z

I feel like Musk could really blow MAGA's collective minds just by continuing to tweet out facts the rest of us have known for years but never penetrated their media bubble.

What a relief we've done away with DEI and are now assigning ...

2025-06-02T21:39:23Z

What a relief we've done away with DEI and are now assigning government posts purely based on merit.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xk3rxieyepfbapwxddejhuta/post/3lqnoi2eghmi2
nostr:note172pk6kjvla6dlpye5uu4q3v3wc63t36xde3a2yste3g4w2vvh7ns0zd3nf

I think this points up some of the failures of coverage of ...

2025-05-29T17:45:11Z

I think this points up some of the failures of coverage of Trump's lawlessness: You could've read dozens of articles on Trump's tariff policy with no inkling of how unprecedented & legally dubious was the legal authority he claimed to impose them. [www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/b...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/business/trump-tariffs-blocked-federal-court.html )

[Trump Tariffs Ruled Illegal by...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/business/trump-tariffs-blocked-federal-court.html )

Y’know, I think some ideal Platonic form of “originalism” ...

2025-05-22T23:02:12Z

Y’know, I think some ideal Platonic form of “originalism” is an important component of good jurisprudence. But the folk most eager to claim that mantle are conspicuously sort of shit at serious historical analysis, & seem deeply uninterested in learning from actual historians how to do it better.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:46o2lbomxz6im7g2ijw554cy/post/3lps42e46422i

Well, he’s certainly right, but not in the way he thinks. ...

2025-05-21T11:31:43Z

Well, he’s certainly right, but not in the way he thinks.
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:jdfwnosj5tavojrkinbcor6h&cid=bafkreifvpg74ocwxk2jchats2wop54xratmebdluyuqp4c436kgwzpxmi4

I’ve said this a million times but one of the funnier aspects ...

2025-05-18T15:18:56Z

I’ve said this a million times but one of the funnier aspects of the right-wing propaganda ecosystem is that they complain incessantly about a “mainstream media” upon which they are utterly and completely parasitic.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:nh6kqdulovv72kon3qsvnjzg/post/3lphdpotjmc2w

"Democrats" don't say that. The Constitution says ...

2025-05-16T17:35:01Z

"Democrats" don't say that. The Constitution says that, and for 150 years, everyone agreed the Constitution says that.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4usmserhjqkvhldgedfjb3jw/post/3lpcirrq2fs2a

quoting
note1jve…7ncw

It’s funny that Stephen Miller mentions “the boys at Normandy” because I would bet a significant percentage of the Americans who fought in World War II were the children of immigrants. That was the case in my family.
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“Before the Trump presidency, there was broad consensus that ...

2025-05-14T21:46:48Z

“Before the Trump presidency, there was broad consensus that the 14th Amendment established birthright citizenship for children born in the United States.” This falsely implies that consensus has somehow collapsed. It hasn’t! virtually all scholars still think that! [www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/u...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/us/politics/supreme-court-birthright-citizenship.html )

[At Supreme Court, a Once-Fring...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/us/politics/supreme-court-birthright-citizenship.html )

The modern media ecosystem exacerbates the problem, but this is a ...

2025-05-06T22:21:04Z

The modern media ecosystem exacerbates the problem, but this is a broader problem inherent in having brains evolved for groups of a couple hundred existing in interconnected societies of hundreds of millions. If you grew up in the 80s you can think of plenty of pre-Internet examples.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2xzjzuyrgz6dmjy2xdhlawgl/post/3lojtw7t3gc2d

I see the already historically unpopular president is exploring ...

2025-04-29T01:30:04Z

I see the already historically unpopular president is exploring how to get the military invovled in “assisting” local law enforcement just a few weeks before the real shortages caused by his inept economic policy start hitting. Probably nothing to worry about.

Yeah, I think there’s essentially no going back from the damage ...

2025-04-24T15:01:30Z

Yeah, I think there’s essentially no going back from the damage Trump has done. Even if he were removed tomorrow, America has proven it can be duped into electing a dangerously unstable person, and you can’t really make long term plans centered on an “ally” like that.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:fnmp5exqnf6uo3gmfkqij6if/post/3lnkpiqsbyk27

This drives me mad. If polls say voters don’t disapprove of ...

2025-04-22T22:15:47Z

This drives me mad. If polls say voters don’t disapprove of disappearing people to gulags, then the voters are fucked up and need to be persuaded or shamed into decency. You can’t just treat a view like that as an unshakeable given. There’s no modus vivendi with a fundamentally indecent electorate.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cak4klqoj3bqgk5rj6b4f5do/post/3lngejlfvik2b

quoting
note1kgz…qcge

This is why it's stupid for dem consultants to keep insisting "don't hit them on immigration." Hit them on what they're strong on, *because they're doing terrible shit and you can make them not so strong any more*

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2amnkge5a6hplfwyesmxqkfl/post/3lngbl63arc2q

The way the question needs to be framed to Bukele is: “So if ...

2025-04-14T18:33:22Z

The way the question needs to be framed to Bukele is: “So if the Trump administration requested the return of some prisoners, you would refuse?”

El Salvador is a contractor providing the United States with a ...

2025-04-14T17:30:55Z

El Salvador is a contractor providing the United States with a paid service. The idea that we couldn’t get anyone they’re holding back with the snap of a finger just by asking is so ludicrous on its face, it seems less like a real excuse and more like a test of how much shit the courts will eat.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:t4x2ruk2qmob2b2cx55h4v7r/post/3lms3aafmpc2o

One of the striking things about the Abrego Garcia case is that ...

2025-04-11T21:56:56Z

One of the striking things about the Abrego Garcia case is that would be trivially easy for the government to demand his return and give apologists an easy talking point: "Yes, sure, mistakes happen but see, they care about getting it right & doing it legally after all." But nope.

JFC. So the White House now confirms that their ...

2025-04-03T00:51:55Z

JFC. So the White House now confirms that their not-actually-at-all-reciprocal tariffs are totally unrelated to actual tariffs imposed on us, and just calculated based on our trade deficit, on the assumption that this is a proxy for “cheating”. [nypost.com/2025/04/02/u...](https://nypost.com/2025/04/02/us-news/trump-slaps-at-least-10-tariffs-on-all-imports-in-declaration-of-economic-independence-half-of-what-they-could-be/ )
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A reminder to reporters: Because Trump tariff numbers are made-up ...

2025-04-03T00:35:49Z

A reminder to reporters: Because Trump tariff numbers are made-up nonsense, using the phrase “reciprocal tariffs” is lying to your audience. The phrase itself is propaganda. They are not reciprocal.

Gotta confess, I’m sort of mad I didn’t think of the headline ...

2025-03-25T00:56:15Z

Gotta confess, I’m sort of mad I didn’t think of the headline “New Phone, Houthis” until just now. [open.substack.com/pub/juliansa...](https://open.substack.com/pub/juliansanchez/p/but-their-texts?r=5g74e&utm_medium=ios )

[But Their Texts!](https://open.substack.com/pub/juliansanchez/p/but-their-texts?r=5g74e&utm_medium=ios )

When someone writes the definitive book about DOGE & Musk’s ...

2025-03-08T00:38:16Z

When someone writes the definitive book about DOGE & Musk’s foray into politics, it absolutely has to be titled “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly.”

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xfqduyitzszsvbgkgzsrywu5/post/3ljt5qpbcrk2a

Poked my head in at the hellsite for the first time in a while, ...

2025-02-19T14:40:51Z

Poked my head in at the hellsite for the first time in a while, where it’s clear the only story many folks are seeing/buying is that Musk & co. are rooting out billions in fraud & waste, while any complaints are just panic at being found out