Karl Rove in the WSJ: "‘They’ Didn’t Kill Charlie Kirk" www.wsj.com/opinion/they... JD Vance again today: "they" killed Kirk www.wsj.com/opinion/they...

An open endorsement of hate - precisely what you do not want the President to do after an assassination when messages from leaders disavowing violence are especially important www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/u...

Trump at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service: “He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I HATE my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry.” Again, this is a memorial service.

I’ve heard the same chilling message from broadcasters across the country. This is what government censorship looks like.

We have learned nothing

This new essay by @mashagessen.bsky.social sadly strikes all the right alarm bells: we are in our Herschel Grynszpan moment, in which violence by a lone angry young man is used as a pretext for state violence against entire groups deemed terrorists or sympathizers. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/o...

This is a straightforward argument for fascism. "The lefties are decadent and won't change unless the state pressures the institutions against them."

Harm reduction move: Push people to predict game outcomes on Kalshi (fees < vig, no parlays or prop bets where the house's take is greater). Future societies will look in horror at how we turned social media AND sportsbooks loose on a generation of kids and young adults.

Latest projection suggests that more than 505,000 adults and kids have died due to USAID's illegal dismantling by Musk, Rubio, and Lewin Source: www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...

Can’t believe this cost 50 grand but people say the Homan special is worth it

We are fast becoming a banana republic, with two standards of justice. If you oppose the leader, you go to jail just for speech. If you're a loyalist, you get immunity for your crimes. That's what happens in Iran - not the United States. This is a decision moment for America.

Another example of the same phenomenon; they are killing people so they can make videos of them killing people. There is not actually any policy that Venezuela or Colombia can enact to satisfy them, because the purpose is just content creation. Podcasters with the power of the Federal government.

Sen. Chris Murphy: "We are quickly turning into a banana republic. POTUS is employing the full power of the federal government—the FCC, the DOJ—in order to punish, lock up, take down off the air all of his political enemies. This is what happens in Iran, Cuba, and China."

This is literally false

Also true of ... humans and human institutions. AGI hype has lured both critics and advocates into setting insane, unreasonable benchmarks

There's huge news today-- Trump demanding his AG prosecute his enemies in public, Holman's possible bribe, allies recognizing Palestinian state-- and the WaPo and WSJ are currently leading with the memorial service for someone the WH is deliberately and carefully making into a martyr.

this is crazy; police officers don't wear masks right now in CA as far as I know. is he saying they are going to start?

No, it shouldn't be just another Saturday. We demand our leaders to treat this like the abuse of power it is.

Must-read; important to interpret recent events in terms of how Trump could turn the US into a competitive authoritarian state where the government abuses its powers to undermine the opposition even as elections continue to be held

What's crazier is that you can be assured that no one in US military wants this airbase back while Taliban in power. Absent reoccupation of whole country - which would mean return to forever war - it wld be a perpetual security liability. Absolutely barking mad.

Channeling @brendannyhan.bsky.social to ask: “what would you say if you saw this in another country?”

Against defeatism.

Lemme be absolutely clear *every* H-1B visa employee at my (large cap) US firm was summoned back to the office from wherever they were in the world today for this crap. For some, it was utter panic. Appalling.

Personalist regime tries to set up another mechanism of control. Silicon Valley firms will be subject to the whims of the mad king.

"journalists must sign a pledge not to gather any information, including unclassified reports, that hasn't been authorized for release" or lose their press credentials - openly authoritarian www.npr.org/2025/09/20/g...

Ray Dalio built a giant company ostensibly devoted to making research-based decisions and is just flipping coins www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/b... Eliezer Yudkowsky created a movement ostensibly devoted to rational thinking & then didn't update his priors for 20 years asteriskmag.com/issues/11/ia...

just saw a tiktok from a disney adult reading from On Tyranny and asking their followers to cancel their d+ and disney trips omg

Confessing right out in the open, as always

Debunking Myths of Political Violence in America - new podcast interview with @milkepescs.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lghi... (YouTube)

"Why Support for Political Violence Is Not as High as It May Seem" www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/u...

Can anyone recommend a Wordpress expert for a quick site fix? LLMs aren't quite getting me all the way there

The systematic destruction of the rule of law

"What we're seeing is an unprecedented attempt to silence disfavored speech by the government. Donald Trump is trying to dictate what Americans can say." Professor @brendannyhan.bsky.social comments on President Trump’s support of ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, via @apnews.com.

Must-read; important to interpret recent events in terms of how Trump could turn the US into a competitive authoritarian state where the government abuses its powers to undermine the opposition even as elections continue to be held

Wordle streak moms are the 2026 swing voters Cold plunge dads are the 2026 swing voters Pickleball parents are the 2026 swing voters

Our own cultural revolution

Yikes. 🚨🚨🚨This is beyond extreme: legitimizing extrajudicial killings against anyone who *seems* bad (not proven in any court of law) based on the murky decision-making of known conspiracy theorists who want to punish their perceived enemies. So incredibly dangerous.

This is a Rule 8 dismissal, which is not common when you’re represented by a lawyer, but is very common when you’re a sovereign citizen suing without a lawyer. This judge is treating the president of the United States as a pro se litigant.

Useful thread on differences in authoritarian attacks on the media in the U.S. versus abroad

an attempted authoritarian takeover is happening *right now* the world we'd like to live in: <All the President's Men reporting> (much of) the actual media:

Authoritarians abuse government powers to punish people and institutions who resist them.

I would call this “consciousness of guilt” in an eventual domestic trial or international war crimes tribunal.

Ted Cruz on Brendan Carr threatening ABC over Jimmy Kimmel: “That’s right out of Goodfellas… We shouldn't be threatening government power to force him off air. That's a real mistake.”

Russia breaching the airspace of a NATO treaty ally while the mad king has the nuclear codes. What could go wrong?

LOLOL

How many "cancel culture is bad, both left and right do it" pieces like this are we going to get that minimize the GIANT FIRST AMENDMENT VIOLATIONS this time? www.natesilver.net/p/the-politi... Cancel culture can be bad; liberals should reflect. But this is more than just a reversal of 2020.

This coverage also finally moves past claims of “unprecedented” — NONE of this is unprecedented. The only way to see it as such is to ignore the rest of the world, much less history.

Headlines matter. Framing matters. AP: it’s about democracy NYT: it’s about a political fight