I had so much fun listening to this episode *as a listener*! Ian & Elora are such great experts and it was a treat to get to listen to them share their expertise.

i swear this gov is a TV show. the head of intelligence got hacked and used his real name for a porn account. the head of dept of war accidentally texted war plans to a journalist. and now former head of homeland security grappling with husband's secret cross-dressing double life in anti-LGBTQ admin

This is called “strategic defeat.” You have ended up in a worse position than before you began, with your adversary, while battered, emerging in a stronger position than before.

This week @ianbassin.bsky.social is absolutely looking around corners to the midterms and then beyond. Nobody as clear-eyed about the challenges and the path as the team at Protect Democracy.

“When you see brave actors willing to not engage in anticipatory obedience...then the cloud of fear lifts and people inside institutions feel that they can actually do their jobs." @ianbassin.bsky.social on reversing the vicious authoritarian spiral and more on @strictscrutiny.bsky.social

Let me get this straight. Republicans want to take health insurance away from hundreds of thousands more Americans to pay for a war Congress never authorized. They want to gut Medicaid and raise your premiums to write a $200B check for a conflict Trump started without asking. This is insanity.

The danger grows each time ICE is used in ways it’s not supposed to be. Video: xcancel.com/rpsagainst.....

The Chair of the FCC bragging about the removal of media outlets and voices from the marketplace (and essentially claiming credit for it as a regulator) is about as unamerican as you can get. The man wouldn’t know the constitution if it smacked him in the face.

Look how aggressively we are sanitizing Kushner's conflicts. The NYT described Kushner as "having business interests" in the Middle East. KUSHNER IS BEING DIRECTLY PAID TENS OF MILLIONS ANNUALLY BY MIDDLE EASTERN GOVERNMENTS

This is absolutely outrageous and also absolutely wild. ICE had basically completely mislead their own attorneys at DOJ who are now totally throwing them under the bus. Courts can't trust DOJ anymore. As @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org famously coined: Malevolence tempered by incompetence

This is just an incredible visual model of what being on X is like

Jesus. Entirely deserved but whoa.

So actually using ICE at airports for security is not permissible. My colleagues @protectdemocracy.org explain: protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/u...

A Dem-sponsored poll of California's governor race shows the two Republicans ahead, at 16% and 14%. Eight Democrats follow: Swalwell, Porter, Steyer are at 10%, & everyone else below that. (Reminder this'll go to a 'top 2' runoff, regardless of party. cadem.org/wp-content/u...)

Russia is sending ships to Cuba in a game of chicken with the US to test America’s commitment to blockading the island. Yes, that's a story from today not 1962. Good thing that just like 1962, we can count on the cooler heads in charge today averting a crisis. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

The real story… under any other president this would be jail time…

President Trump, who is in the midst of pressuring senators to curb the use of mail-in voting, voted by mail ballot in Tuesday’s special election in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Looks like Democrats and Republicans on the Hill had agreed on a deal to fund DHS and end the airport security madness and Trump rejected it. Pretty clear now that Trump is the sole cause of all the chaos that is ensuing.

Remember when his Sieg Heil was just a gesture of heartfelt joy?

I know everyone is reposting this same article, but I don’t get how you can write this article and not highlight that the new war goal is the status ex ante.

It wasn't that long ago this kind of overt endorsement in another country's elections, even if favoring the incumbents, would have been a major diplomatic incident and political scandal. A norm now demolished by the supposed defenders of national sovereignty.

Trump Vowed to Crack Down on Fraudsters, but He’s Pardoned Dozens www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/u... Bob Dylan, “you still a little and they put you in jail you steal a lot and they make you a king”

As a Marine platoon leader in Vietnam, Mueller was shot and later returned to lead his platoon after his recovery. He received a Bronze Star for valor, a Purple Heart, 2 Navy/Marine Commendation medals, Republican of Vietnam Cross of Valor, and numerous other medals.

"The dictator's trap" is term for when a leader demands such loyalty from those around him that they avoid giving him accurate but bad news and instead feed him only cooked books to stoke his ego. That leads him to make self defeating mistakes. Case in point:

Approaching a dictator-level cult of personality here. Can't overemphasize how un-American this is.

Oh my God. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/u...

And if you don’t say “thank you” our media censors will revoke your broadcast license.

Exactly how Orban dismantled independent media in Hungary: 1. Crush: harass media outlet with govt regulatory pressure. 2. Buy: Have political ally acquire outlet once it’s distressed. 3. Supplant: fire independent journalists and hire cheerleaders for regime. Steps 1-2-3, or perhaps just C-B-S.

Three major new studies on democracy and freedom all find the U.S. is slipping further away from democracy. Leaders of two of those studies say President Trump's goal is to rule as an autocrat. n.pr/4uG99Am

So the Trump Admin claims Anthropic Is an ‘Unacceptable’ National Security Risk in wartime but is relying on it in the current war in Iran that the Admin claims is going spectacularly well? That’s gonna be a tough argument to sell. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/t...

Trump Doctrine, ladies and gentlemen.

Every accusation is a confession with these people

Let me ask you one question Is your money that good? Will it buy you forgiveness Do you think that it could? I think you will find When your death takes its toll All the money you made Will never buy back your soul

He’s at war in Iran without congressional authorization. He overthrew Venezuela by force. He threatened to invade a NATO ally. Now he wants to take Cuba and thinks he can do “anything he wants” with it. Where the hell are my Republican colleagues?

just plainly evil.

Federal records show 0.04% of voter verification cases involve noncitizens. The harm of the SAVE Act to legitimate voters is 6,000 times greater than the problem being "solved." Yet the Senate will spend days fighting to pass it while giving trump free rein to destroy Iran & the world's economy.

As I've posted, it's baffling the confidence with which establishment finance and political types dismiss me when I've expressed concern about the dollar being replaced as the global reserve currency. People lack imagination I guess. But maybe not the Iranians: www.thebulwark.com/p/the-war-de...

How Minnesota beat Trump, and what the people of Minnesota can teach all of us. This is the way. by @thomaslfriedman.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/o...

Remarkable opinion quashing subpoena of Fed Chair Powell. The lower courts have caught on to Trump's tactics. They're now just stating the obvious that we all know instead of entertaining the legal fictions Trump lawyers use as fig leafs for bullying. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Saying the quiet part out load. The Trump Admin wants their ally David Ellison to take over media to turn it into propaganda for Trump. And they've wielded govt power over the market to manipulate that outcome. This is how Orban took over media in Hungary. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/b...

This is both remarkable and totally unsurprising. Here’s a person Trump hired to advise him on war and peace (though realistically probably just war) who has absolutely no idea what the Constitution says on the topic. Hard to capture Idiocracy more perfectly than this clip. Heaven help us.

You know it’s bad when a dozen insiders start leaking who is to blame. Not unlike Trump miscalculating on how bad Covid would be, now it’s: “How Trump and His Advisers Miscalculated Iran’s Response to War” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/u...

A masterclass by @davidjbier.bsky.social on how to maintain your composure and principles in the face of people unable to do either. We don't need to yell or mock because the facts, the law, and common decency are on our side, as David made apparent before someone unfit to hold the seat he's in.

Im sure no one in the Admin was gambling their own money on this little episode to get rich while messing with the global economy and world order. They wouldn't do such a thing.

The AI for Democracy Action Lab @protectdemocracy.org represented these principled scientists and researchers on this brief today in what we hope will be continuing stances of solidarity like this within the industry on red lines for democracy and human freedom.

Some AI competitors are coming together to oppose Trump's strong-arm tactics against Anthropic. This is a very important development and critical to how a pro-democracy coalition defeats authoritarian threats. Gift link wapo.st/4dhLr74

Pretty sure this is what they used to call war profiteering.

Called it!

Six years ago this week, an unplanned disaster engulfed the world. Trump catastrophically mismanaged it. The economy collapsed and 1m+ died. Now reelected, he’s on the verge of topping that, only this time the disaster is entirely of his own making. The results may be even worse.

Please please read this from the archbishop of Chicago www.archchicago.org/statement/-/...