"Strongmen" by @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social is an invaluable read right now. The whole playbook we're seeing in the US is laid bare for all of us to see. "On Tyranny" & "On Freedom" by @timothysnyder.bsky.social are also both must reads given the current moment. www.goodreads.com/book/show/53...

PSA: A "Major Terrorist Organization" (MTO) is not a thing. The Immigration and Nationality Act *delegates* power to the State Department to designate *FOREIGN* terrorist organizations (FTOs) based on certain criteria. It doesn't apply to domestic orgs. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

They don’t have the power to do what they’re threatening on a grand scale. But they want us to think they do.

Once Donald Trump gets the citizens of this nation comfortable with the current atrocities committed under the color of law – what comes next?

Don’t say “Dems aren’t doing anything.” There’s just little attention to the courage of these Missouri Dems resisting the extreme gerrymandering of Republicans desigmed to increase Republican numbers in the House. www.kfvs12.com/2025/09/05/m...

Alt text here: bsky.app/profile/alt-...

My collaboration with Ivan Ehlers for the @latimes.com

Called it last week: The true rationale for the change to Department of War is the war Trump is waging on America: lucid.substack.com/p/trumps-war...

This excellent essay is published by Lucid but it is written by @marceldirsus.com

While our podcasts are on a summer break, we’re re-posting our fav eps of the year so far. In May, @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social joined us to discuss Trump’s authoritarianism: prospectmagazine.sub...

For more on the international parallels between Trump and other authoritarian regimes I recommend subscribing to @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social's Lucid. This from today's newsletter: lucid.substack.com/p/trumps-war...

The news from the past few days is a stunning example of what happens when the state decides it wants to crush just one guy

Things delusional authoritarians do. They create the self-serving reality they need for their ego. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/u...

oh

Appalling and also on brand for Trump/Miller

@ruthbenghiat.bsky.social 👏👏👏

“Trump is deploying classic strongman tactics in Washington D.C.: inventing a crisis to justify his expansion of power, and turning the capital into a laboratory for state repression.” @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social

💯

Another shakedown, the more you cave to the autocrat the more empowered he feels.

Economist Amartya Sen won a Nobel in part for asking: Why did India avoid the mass famines that killed tens of millions in China? His answer: a free press. Journalists could expose suffering and shame governments into action. Silence and avoidance, by contrast, can be deadly.

How climate messaging should be done

Hi Everyone, on Aug 1 at 1-2pmET over at Substack I am doing an AMA about authoritarianism and #Strongmen. Just download the app, enable notifications and look for the join link at 1!

1/ Very moving interview. Coach of a college prep baseball team on UWS NYC speaks about half dozen armed ICE agents approaching and harassing the kids (Latino and black youth, all U.S. citizens). "I am willing to die today" to protect the kids.

Hotline callers were saying, “I do not want to be part of pointing a gun at US citizens and maybe shooting it.”

Network of concentration camps would be fascist Miller's dream come true

Bye!

Mystified as to why DOJ’s withholding of the Epstein files so upsets Trump’s base? It’s simple. 👉 A third of MAGA Republicans are QAnon. 👉 QAnon teaches that government, media, and financial elites are Satanic sex-trafficking pedophiles. prri.org/spotlight/th...

DHS posts explicitly Christian nationalist and violent video about how ICE/CBP is delivering the Lord's justice

An example of not obeying in advance.

Holocaust Survivor Bernard Marks, 87 survivor of Auschwitz & Dachau confronting elected sheriff & I.C.E. Director

Personal bond (Bolsonaro's son was at the WH on Jan 5 2021 meeting with Jared and Ivanka 🤔) and Brazil holding Bolsonaro accountable is deeply threatening to Trump.

Too many things happening today are exactly what she's talking about. @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social nails it. Just sad it took me so long to find this video.

Sounds like Fascism

Love the whole pod, and of course the best bit is the #teslatakedown shout out at about 1:03:00! Thanks @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social and the Sounds like a Cult crew! #MuskMustFall open.spotify.com/episode/5K3V...

There will now be 10,000 new ICE agents & 100,000 new detention beds--and few safeguards protecting people from constitutional violations by the feds. Time for states to pass laws allowing people to sue fed agents. Read about it these "converse-1983" statutes here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

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Fascist Dynamics: criminality is institutionalized

A diseased and impoverished nation is easier to control.

Trump now copies Putin's gold phone. This is pathetic.

Original!

Read my latest Lucid essay, The Iran Strike as a Holy War: open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/...

We're not just trying for harm reduction anymore. There's a future now. open.substack.com/pub/virginia...

Since May: Federal district courts have ruled against Trump admin 94% of the time. Supreme Court has sided with the Trump admin 94% of the time. A judiciary at war with itself.

Clinton, Clyburn, Summers, Palantir, Bloomberg, NYT, Wall St, AIPAC...all tried their best. The entire establishment went full racist and Islamophobic in the end. Still Mamdani won. Biggest F U to the Democratic Establishment and 1% since AOC win. Wow.

Taking $ meant to help the population and using it for mass incarceration is kind of the essence of authoritarian priorities and goals.

I am looking forward to the discussion!

Marco Rubio needs to be asked whether he believes his grandfather who remained in the U.S. after receiving a deportation order from our govt should have been treated the way the father of 3 Marines was treated by ICE this weekend in California. ASK HIM. Make him confront his lack of character.

In a 4 minute address gloating over US bombing of Iran, President Trump made this statement: “We love you, God, and we love our great military.” This is Holy War language. He was flanked by Hegseth, who has the Crusades motto “Deus vult” tattooed on his arm. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...

Why are no headlines focusing on the unconstitutional and dictatorial nature of this action?

Netanyahu has spent the better part of two decades trying to strong arm the United States into an unprovoked war against Iran and finally found a president stupid enough to do it for him. Unbelievable.