Really psyched to see that @thomaszimmer.bsky.social has launched this full-time newsletter! He's essential reading for understanding our slide into authoritarianism. I just subscribed!

Dear @thomaszimmer.bsky.social we wish you a warm welcome to Steady. Your work is extremely important and we are more than happy to be on this journey together with you. Onwards and upwards!

Historian Thomas Zimmer has been one of the most clear-eyed observers and analysts of US political culture and the global far right over the past 5+ years. He's left Substack and started over at a new site that is NOT a Nazi bar. I encourage you to check out what he's doing there.

Thomas is a terrific independent historian — please take a look!

My friend @thomaszimmer.bsky.social is deservedly revered for his magisterial, in-depth analyses of the crisis of American democracy. Please subscribe to his relaunched newsletter Democracy Americana over on Steady and support his important work!

For those looking for a way to support (and consume) excellent work that genuinely contributes to the conversation, consider tossing a few bucks Thomas' way.

PSA: if you’re in the metro and it’s standing room only, take off your fucking backpack. This shouldn’t be hard.

It's sobering, in its way, to realize that there was truly nobody (save, perhaps, his children) who knew him that loved him as a man. He made himself into content, and he died as content, and his funeral is the most content of all. Soundbites to soundbites, bits to bits

This week's takeover update from @maustermuhle.bsky.social: So...... what happens now? Also: 🚁 That helicopter you've been hearing might be CBP 🚔 Has Congress been stiffing D.C. on police costs?

“All opposing forces seem as though vanished from the face of the earth. It is this utter collapse of powers only recently present, no, their complete disappearance … that I find so staggering.” Victor Klemperer, 1933

New rules for naturalization.. read this

Remember when the hot debate was about what a slippery slope we’d create if Simon & Schuster cancelled one Nazi’s book deal?

I truly don’t think the general public comprehends how all in on Trump the tech oligarchs are… Bro’s want more!

I had a great conversation with @lincolnsquare.media about where we are today: About political violence and the Right’s desire for escalation. But also about how we got here: About the recent history of the GOP and the rise of Trumpism. And, finally, about where America might go from here:

Trump’s threatening a national emergency if DC’s mayor doesn’t comply with ICE agents striping people from their homes and separating families. He’s dead set on trying to turn our nation's capital into a political battlefield but we refuse to let it happen. It's time to Free DC.

Today 31 Democrats chose to side with Donald Trump over DC. We did not ask for this. It will not make us safer. And fueling this fascist president's agenda is dangerous for our entire country. (🧵)

Democrats! Fuck me. Say what you will about the tenets of National Trumpism, at least it's an ethos.

Esri and Space42 Join to Launch "Map Africa Initiative" Collaboration Seeks to Deliver High-Resolution Basemaps to Support Economic Growth and Innovation Across the African Continent www.esri.com/about/newsro...

We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.

People of DC, actual question: Someone will run against Eleanor Holmes Norton, as (non-voting) DC representative next year. Right?

Sunday reading: The Right Wants a Reichstag Fire I wrote about the murder of Charlie Kirk, political violence in the United States, and the Trumpists’ desire to find a pretext for purges and mass arrests. This week’s piece:

We've got Gavin Newsom et al. eulogizing a version Charlie Kirk who did not exist, Trump et al. blaming his death on leftist violence that didnt happen, and the entire media apparatus denouncing Dems for dancing on his grave, something no Dems are doing. Has The Discourse ever felt more unmoored?

I told you so

Portuguese editorial cartoonist Zez Vaz reaches back to Tiananmen Square to call on American defiance.

Thus continues my story from last night: www.lawdork.com/p/doj-in-dis...

“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.” static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics... All of this. All. Of. It.

Listen, Broligarchy is not some cute synonym for oligarchy. It's genuinely different & WAY more dangerous. I'm a sociologist who's been studying the ultra-rich globally for 17 yrs, entering their world as an offshore wealth mgr. Published 2 books abt them. 🧵Broligarchs are distinct in 3 ways:

Canadian MP Charlie Angus: He choked. The market started to tank, and suddenly, he said, “Oh, didn’t you guys already have a plan to deal with the border back in December? I love that—I’ll take that.” This is Mr. Art of the Deal.

The men carrying out Musk's coup are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. Make them famous. And, eventually, when possible, arrest them and charge them with multiple felonies. www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

📢 PODCAST   Into the Trump Regime   We reflect on the Inauguration and the onslaught of presidential executive orders and proclamations in the first 72 hours of Trumpism in power.   Is This Democracy is back!

Into the Trump Regime   We reflect on the Inauguration and the onslaught of presidential executive orders and proclamations in the first 72 hours of Trumpism in power.   Is This Democracy is back!

German reporter shouts: "How long are you going to stick with this shit?" I feel him.

A reminder as Musk-bots, Trump-bots, and other bots start hitting Bluesky: blocking users removes their replies from your posts entirely. The correct way of handlin antagonizing parties is to block. Not reply. Not dunk. Not mute. Block. It stops their reach and effectiveness right there.

THE MAN IN THE RIVER Once there was a wise man, who travelled to strange lands, and as he travelled, he came to the bank of a winding river. Edging the bank were houses, set at distances from one another. The wise man walked upstream, watching the slow current carry leaves and twigs past him.

All the President's men Support for Ann Telnaes By @deAdder Substack: open.substack.com/pub/deadder/...

I just heard that a fellow low-vision nondriver and disability advocate was killed. He and a friend were almost hit in a crosswalk in Burien, WA and when they expressed frustration, the driver got out and attacked Steven. He died from his injuries. I'm heartbroken and so angry.

The New York Times, a right-wing outrage refraction gizmo, has written a feature about Dungeons & Dragons with the explicit framing of “Elon is mad that it’s woke,” formalizing the elevation of him to assignment editor the same way Trump was given the position in 2016. Please don’t read it

ADVENTURER: Dragon! We are here for your gold! Prepare to die! DRAGON: My gold? ADVENTURER: Yes! We climbed this great mountain, swam it's flooded caverns and- DRAGON: Fair enough ADVENTURER: Wait, what? DRAGON: It's yours ADVENTURER: DRAGON: How are you carrying it out of here? ADVENTURER: Um... /1

If the business school professors keep pushing this bullshit on the rest of us, the rest of us are going to have no choice but to push them off our campuses. They’re like termites inside the academy, with no understanding of what we do and no awareness of why this shit is so offensive.

EN RATONES oh wait no i see what you did there

I was promised an echo chamber, yet here's Chuck solidly reigning the ratio feed.

here are my six favorite lies about the economy pushed by the media. I believe all originate in the NYT or WaPo cepr.net/my-six-favor...

Homeboy stopped the wrong lady (H/T @agirlhasnopres.bsky.social )

Since Dobbs, a standard line among “respectable” conservative voices - like Ross Douthat at the NYT - has been to denounce the “partisan” conflation of threats to democracy and abortion rights. But criminalizing abortion inevitably reduces half the population to second-class citizens.

What happened to America? Part of the answer is that a bunch of people whose lives range from fairly comfortable and uneventful to wealthy and influential worked themselves into an insane lather of victimization by things that aren’t real, and that this justified a vicious, anti-democracy response.