Today’s Executive Order creating a *nationwide* military “quick reaction force” and setting up an online portal to permit random fascist vigilantes to join soldiers is one of the scariest things I’ve seen in U.S. politics in my adult life. Why is it not getting more attention?

Looking forward to this!

Medicaid work requirements are just bad. But, as I wrote for @motherjones.com, there’s an extra level of vileness going on with them being implemented as more work-from-home jobs disappear. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I too am struggling these days to plan for the future.

The Brookings Institute found that Charlie Kirk was the 2nd largest misinformation spreader among podcasts they analysed. "Mr. Kirk, a conservative activist and the founder of Turning Point USA, ranked second, with 17 percent of his episodes containing an unsubstantiated or false claim." Gifted:

Literally the authoritarian playbook: 1. Call your opponents terrorists. 2. Deploy state power against them. There's nothing subtle or confusing or complex about what's happening. The *outcome* is uncertain but the authoritarianism is right out in the open.

hate to say i told you so share.google/4FfpeWYJ8kEF...

the worst fuckin people being extremely frustrated

Honestly, he got it. This is an impossibly hard thing to get right. I can quibble about some parts, and it’s impossible to do normie content that’s also sufficient for the moment, but he did as good a job as is possible. Especially glad he rightfully called out the threat to journalists.

“Let's dedicate ourselves to what the ancient Greeks wrote so many years ago, to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that.”

@ryanlcooper.com this @leftanchor.bsky.social with Phil Christman is way, *way* better than I thought it was gonna be. everyone should listen to this ep regardless of whether/how they consider themselves religious imo

oh.

ICYMI

Several times this year more than 100,000 people have been out in the streets in particular cities to protest this regime and the NYT & MSM barely covered those protests. I wonder why [I don't actually so no need to respond].

Several folks discuss what kind of future we need to make in order to survive climate change and have lives with more freedom and dignity – in this forum opened by a provocation from @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social with @bostonreview.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/forum/climat...

NEWS: The Congressional Progressive Caucus — which represents nearly 100 members in Congress — has just voted to endorse the Block the Bombs Act, to block weapon sales to Israel. First time any major congressional caucus has backed legislation to end US aid for Israel’s destruction of Gaza.

Wait they chased off an ICE raid in WHEATON?????????? WHAT???????????????????????????? For people who don't know Chicago imagine like Brigham Young or Liberty University chasing off an ICE raid this is fucking WILD Moreover, ICE must be destroyed

this should go well

I'm furious about Jimmy Kimmel but fyi here's another free speech thing that happened to day and also is extremely not good www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

A bookstore in Montclair, New Jersey, canceled a recent promotional event with a Palestinian author because of pressure from local community members and concerns over the safety of its employees and customers, according to the shop.

free speech for me, but not for thee

You’re not allowed to criticize Dear Leader. bsky.app/profile/acyn...

This mf’er is a hugely unpopular lame duck and people and institutions with actual power are out here acting, for eight months straight, like he’s some goddam immortal emperor. Fuck that noise.

But wait, there’s more

they don't have the capacity to compel obedience by the process of law. they don't have the capacity to compel obedience by violence. the only lever by which they can obtain obedience is fear. do not offer it to them.

This is so incredibly clear to some and i think perhaps still obscure to others. It's not an abstract thought or a gotcha. It's a sinking, gut feeling re: a causal pattern you recognize playing out on a much greater scale. Exactly how it felt in fall 2023 in the first place.

I usually believe in "slow news" and tend to write about things the next day, but this Kimmel shit is such a mess, I put this together quickly. Key points: 1. Most people are pretending Kimmel said stuff he didn't. 2. SCOTUS just last year said that you can't do shit like this.

I was like ‘wow’ I wonder what horribly offensive joke Kimmel made, and, uh, he just said that right wingers are trying to capitalize on Kirk’s murder? lol okay cool

Literally, Trump's FCC goon Brendan Carr said on a podcast TODAY that ABC can "do this the easy way or the hard way". The Trump administration is a mob organization shaking people down. We are so fucking cooked unless officials fight back on this bullshit.

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say. This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand. All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

It is illegal to criticize the right.

ICYMI

You want to be alive, but they want you dead. We’re a new, well, funded democratic group that thinks you can meet them halfway.

preview here! www.leftanchor.com/e/why-christ...

fresh @leftanchor.bsky.social bonus episode, we have @philipchristman.bsky.social on to talk about his book Why Christians Should Be Leftists www.patreon.com/posts/139047...

Q: Do you think it would've been fitting to lower the flags to half staff when Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota House Speaker, was gunned down by an assassin? TRUMP: I'm not familiar. The who?

Kash Patel’s FBI puts two pounds of methamphetamine in the incinerator at an animal shelter, sending 14 people to the hospital, and exposing some 75 cats and dogs to the narcotic. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Another takeaway from this week, for the right, is that if lone wolves take out recognizable right-wing figures, it can be quickly reframed and redirected towards their enemies. Inter-Nazi violence basically becomes an engine of retribution to justify pogroms and genocide.

Interviewed myself about my new book for my newsletter, v easy assignment philipchristman.substack.com/p/publicatio...

"content-free" liberalism is going to always be pro-oppression liberalism.

Not now, Merriam-Webster

As information comes to light suggesting Trump may not be able to exploit the Charlie Kirk shooting to hurt unrelated people he hates, he no longer thinks it’s worth focusing on.

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil's Bolsonaro sentenced to more than 27 years in prison after Supreme Court panel convicts him of attempting coup.

i just sent this email to @ezraklein.bsky.social

seems like a big step forward, even though the dollar amount is low

Do your mental health a favor and turn this on for today. You really don't want to watch this. It is awful.

Great episode and re-freshing to hear from someone writing a book on COVID that isn't a total grifting crank

ICYMI

Highest level of support since Gallup started asking this question a quarter century ago

It's incredibly weird that folks have convinced themselves that the Covid vaccines - which had an ~82^% take up rate - were unpopular.