Nothing says banana republic quite like trying to throw a comedian off the air, prosecuting a former head of the FBI, and refusing to show a portrait of your predecessor.

The Trump regime orders federal prosecutors to target George Soros' foundation. This isn't the kind of thing that happens in a free country. This is Trump and his fascist hacks trying to crush dissent and build their dictatorship.

The 3 most important things Kimmel said last night were (1) thanking those who don’t support him, likeTed Cruz, for supporting free speech; (2) praising the grace of Erika Kirk for forgiving the killer; (3) saying his show is not imp, what’s imp is living in a country where a show like his can air.

At the UN, the president praises the men and women who crossed oceans and mountains to found the country after saying moments before that the men and women who cross mountains and oceans today are destroying every country.

This is precisely what the 1st Amendment was designed to prevent: the abridgment of free speech about government by government.

With lawsuits against the NYT, the WSJ, CBS, ABC; with the FCC commissioner voicing opinions about what’s acceptable speech; there’s never been an admin more opposed to the First Amendment’s restriction on govt abridging free speech and a free press. McCarthyism was small potatoes compared to this.

“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official…can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.” —Justice Robert Jackson, WV Board of Ed v Barnette (1943), striking down mandatory flag salutes for students.

Kind of astonishing that the AG does not understand the 1st Amendment. Hate speech, like it or not, is protected speech. When progressives have suggested we should emulate the Europeans where hate speech is not protected, conservatives cried you are anti-1st Amendment/anti-free speech.

When you have been pursuing the Gray Lady your whole life and you finally decide your affection is unrequited.

Why are the most adamant defenders of free speech on the right always seeking to punish the speech that they don't like?

I'm going to be measured, because leaders should always be measured in a crisis, but in our entire history as a country, we've never had a president who was less measured in a crisis.

No one would have predicted on the original 9/11 in 2001 that 24 years later domestic terrorism would be a greater threat to the republic than international terrorism.

Political violence has no place in a democracy. Prayers to his family.

The attempt to end US global media, starting with Voice of America, is misguided. They're not perfect, but they're so far superior to the alternative: Russian/Chinese propaganda. The beneficiaries of the cuts are not the American people, but foreign autocrats. Imp piece by @anneapplebaum.bsky.social

I've been to many authoritarian countries over the years, starting with the old Soviet Union in 1978, and one of the hallmarks of all of those places, apart from the lack of freedom of speech and assembly, is soldiers patrolling the streets of their major cities.

When your science and ideology are from the Dark Ages, and you sacrifice 55,000 jobs and cheap electricity for 20 million people because you can't be seen to believe in climate change or get sideways with the boss.

Let's see, you impose tariffs on a foreign government and pressure them to build a factory here, and then you arrest workers from that country who are constructing the factory. Does that seem like a good strategy?

Everything he does is backward-looking and for show.

The Fifth Circuit correctly ruled that Trump cannot invoke the Alien Enemies Act because we are not at war and we haven't been "invaded." But besides Trump's abuse of the law, the law itself is a dangerous anachronism, as I write here:

Each of these red state governors who sent their national guard to Washington have cities with higher crime rates than the nation’s capital.

American presidents of both parties have spent decades courting India as a hedge against China. Now Trump’s petulant and short-sighted policies have pushed India closer to China. Our children and grandchildren will pay the price.

Int'l students do not take the place of American students—they subsidize them by paying full freight & reducing costs for US students. Foreign students contributed $43 billion to the economy & supported 10s of thousands of US jobs. It is one of our key exports and this admin is killing it. Grade: F

Tariffs = tax on US businesses & American consumers = higher prices for household staples = inflation.

FEMA employees write to Congress that Trump adm cuts and mismanagement will jeopardize the safety of millions. The admin says it wants states to manage disasters. Disaster management is where you should concentrate federal power, not in an imperial presidency. They have everything upside down.

Solzhenitsyn recounts how it was difficult for Stalin to have cabinet meetings because no one wanted to be the first one to stop applauding.

The Framers didn’t even want a standing army much less have them patrolling our cities. No healthy republic should have its army in the streets during peacetime.

1. Flag burning is not in the top 1000 problems this country faces. 2. His executive order is a stunt. 3. The Supreme Court has long established that flag burning is protected expressive speech. 4. Even Justice Scalia defended it.

"As with all dictators, Trump's most dangerous opponent is knowledge." —Marc Elias, "Democracy Docket"

Trump's strong-arming Intel for gov't equity is something Mao and Stalin would be proud of. It is Shake-down capitalism. Once, the GOP believed in laissez-faire capitalism and government not interfering in the private sector. Look it up: the state owning the means of production is called Marxism.

The Framers were intent on distinguishing between retribution and justice, pursuing the latter and suppressing the former. Hence, the 5th and 14th amendments and due process and a prohibition of ex post facto laws. Talk about weaponizing DOJ.

The “root cause” of the war in Ukraine is Vladimir Putin.

Peace is not simply a temporary cessation of hostilities, which is what most of these examples are—and some not even that. Wanting to be seen as a peacemaker is different from actually being one. Good piece.

Just saying, in a normal world (pre-Trump), everything we know now about Russia's positions was already known, but we would have discussed it behind the scenes, and then the US would have decided, no, it's not time for a summit because we're too far apart.

The truth is, everything we know now, we knew before Anchorage.

By the way, when Chamberlain gave Hitler Sudetenland, Hitler had not yet invaded Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain was trying to prevent Hitler from invading. Now, this administration is talking about giving Putin land after he invaded with no price to pay.

1. This is essentially an intervention: European leaders gathering to prevent an American president from betraying the Atlantic alliance. 2. He is already halfway there with his acquiescence to Putin's demand for Donbas and that Ukraine never join NATO. 3. A model of how not to negotiate.

This is the diplomatic equivalent of the Eagles "tush push"—everyone gathered around the quarterback to protect him and push him into the end zone.

What you worry about and try to prepare for in diplomacy are unknown unknowns. But everything Putin said and did in Alaska was a known known, and yet they didn't seem prepared for it. Malpractice. Incompetence. My piece in Time:

President Trump thought President Putin had friends, and that he was one of them. President Putin has interests, not friends, and Russia's interests trumped America's. Now Trump has even backed down on a ceasefire. My take:

What’s the Dealmaker-in-Chief without a deal? Some thoughts on the summit—and my interview with Putin in 2007.

Please don't use the description "high-stakes" for the summit. (A.) It's a journalist cliche with virtually no meaning, and (B.) it plays into Trump's theatrical framing of the whole artificial made-for-TV "event."

"Conservatives have for generations used denigrating language to describe the condition of major cities & called for greater law enforcement, often in response to changing demographics in those cities driven by non-white populations relocating in search of work or safety from racial discrimination."

Trump said several times in his press conference that Zelensky has been in power for three-and-a-half years, the implication being he hasn’t ended the war. Let’s be clear, his nation was invaded without provocation by a much larger nation seeking to conquer it.

Crime in DC is at a 30-year low. It's not even in top 10 dangerous cities in US. Throughout history, autocrats use a false pretext to impose government control over local law enforcement as a prelude to a more national takeover. That's far more dangerous than the situation he says he is fixing.

I sincerely hope for a peace agreement, but Trump has already handed Putin a victory. He has invited a fugitive of the International Criminal Court to US territory. He has talked about "land swaps," something Zelensky opposes. Remember, we bought Alaska from Russia for 2¢ an acre. That was a deal.

“They paved over paradise and put up a parking lot.” 🎶 — Joni Mitchell

The head of state choosing CEOs, where factories are built, how much tariffs and interest rates should be, welcome to autocratic socialism in the USA.

Among the many flaws of Trump's tariffs (besides, of course, that they are illegal) is that US companies & consumers pay them; foreign companies & countries will find other markets, hurting the US economy; and the chaos and uncertainty of Trump's policies will deter companies from building here.

Real estate moguls make "deals." World leaders and diplomats negotiate agreements and treaties that are in their own interest. They don't place any value on "deals" that are cosmetic and about publicity. That's why this administration is making no headway in Ukraine and Gaza.

The enduring truth of American history is that people who come here to make a better life for themselves also make life better for the people already here.