Today in life under competitive authoritarianism

Oh, Rep. Ann Johnson (D-TX) ate this right on up! I think imma call her L'DonnaKaren because she's clearly demanding to speak to the GOP's manager, chile! When she said "Don't shake your head!" I went UP!

Good evening from outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview, IL. The scene at the moment m calm but very tense. Federal agents and several dozen protestors separated by the large fence that was erected - Broadview officials say illegally - earlier this week.

If I have a point, it's that the science of sex and gender is very complex, beautiful, and diverse. It really is amazing! And it would be such a testament to the beauty of the universe if we just stood in awe at all of these diverse ways of being alive.

Many things are wrong about this, but one important one is that you can no longer teach about plants or fungi in Texas. Algae and amoeba are out too. Some fish. Probably also Birds and Snakes, if we literally interpret it to mean only XX and XY sexes are allowed.

"Love took many shapes that morning...."

Many of those killed will be children.

ACOG reaffirms that acetaminophen is safe for managing pain and fever during pregnancy. No reputable studies support suggestions like those in HHS’s recent announcement linking acetaminophen use in pregnancy to autism; in fact, high-quality studies show no such risk. https://bit.ly/47Wxc59

The dead won't be here after they die. This is something these "wait until after" tactics don't understand. After Trump leaves office, after the Dems take the House, the dead will be dead, the deported gone, and the wounds will remain. You can't enjoy the future when dead.

Unless I'm reading this badly wrong and the administration puts out contrary implementation, it would appear that starting tonight, anyone with an H-1B who doesn't write a $100,000 check to the US government is banned from reentering the country if they're currently outside the US.

A message to Vince Gasparro, who has banned us from Canada, and our many fans there. 👇

A lot of what he means rests in the word “we”. “YOU are not free to live here with US,“ is all I hear. And it is functionally what it means if Klein and Shapiro get to live together while “they” deport and incarcerate “us”. The white moderate, right?

In response to Trump’s DEI bans, Canada’s medical schools will now fall entirely under Canadian oversight.

Trump is discovering that lawless criminal organizations who murder always also terrorize the innocent. In the absence of the law, everyone is a potential victim. The sick joke, though, is that it is the President of the United States who is the criminal murdering people with US military thugs.

The president is intentionally killing non-combatants who pose no direct threat in violation of domestic, international and military law and his VP and chief policy adviser are promising an authoritarian crackdown on his political opponents. Just today. Democracy and the rule of law are on the line

President Trump and the US military just murdered 3 more people in international waters. This is right-wing political violence, and I'm appalled that the US military is following these illegal orders and committing murder.

I get why one would go to Hitler for comparison, but i hear Bloody Kansas and the rhetoric of Confederate secession.

Canadian media is widely reporting on a U of T professor’s tweet inaccurately and without the correct context, as part of a deliberate campaign to get her fired. This is a classic conservative cancel culture campaign and media are collaborating. pressprogress.ca/university-o...

President Trump assassinated 11 people on a boat in the Caribbean 9 days ago. We should include that in our discussions of contemporary political violence.

Most of the politicians saying that violence is never acceptable are the same politicians who accept the necessity of a lot of violence. It's all about who counts and who doesn't, and who they will count and who they leave uncounted says a lot.

Horrors of Trump detention centre: Lisburn man tells his story after arrest for 'looking like a Mexican' Lee Stinton was lifted by US immigration police on an American street — in an incident he compared to a kidnapping. Here, he tells us his story.

Elie Wiesel: "We were no longer allowed to go into restaurants or cafes, to travel on the railway, to attend synagogue, to go out into the street...."

"Harvard can't use race as a factor in admissions, but ICE can use race as a factor in detentions" is a retrenchment essentially to a pre-Civil War understanding of the Constitution. It's vanishingly few steps removed from "Latinos have no rights which the white man is bound to respect."

I've had numerous conversations in the university classroom about gender like the one in the news from Texas A&M. A lot to say, but what struck me is the loss of trust and mutuality within the classroom. You can't learn that way. Nor can we teach like that...

Happy 71st Birthday to Ruby Bridges, who at the age of 6 desegregated the New Orleans public schools. She’s younger than 30 senators and our last two presidents—and only 7 years older than Barack Obama. The past isn’t past.

Israel "is destroying about 300 residential units daily in Gaza City and Jabaliya, using around 15 robots carrying nearly 100 tonnes of explosives." "[A]t the current rate, the rest of [Gaza City] could be destroyed within two months." #Gaza #Palestine #Israel #USA #Housing #Healthcare #Genocide

When your moral rightness depends on producing the death of children, you are working on the side of evil.

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

1/ I worked at DoD. I literally cannot imagine lawyers coming up with a legal basis for lethal strike of suspected Venezuelan drug boat. Hard to see how this would not be "murder" or war crime under international law that DoD considers applicable. Read expert analysis by @bcfinucane.bsky.social⤵️

Who is a medical doctor to tell you what pills to take? I mean, why even be a doctor if you won't accept that responsibility? You went to school in order to be trusted by those of us who need medical advice and help.

This is not heroic; it’s criminal. Make no mistake: denying people due process who are not enemies of the United States through extra-judicial executions is repugnant to everything this country is supposed to stand for like the rule of law.

This was a war crime. There is no question about it. The President and Secretary of State and others committed a war crime. Sure, other presidents have committed similar acts, but they admitted it and we should acknowledge what they did.

What is different is, as the drive by truckers sing, the bragging and who it’s done to.

Teens calling Idaho's suicide hotline are being told they can't proceed with the conversation without parental consent. Many of the callers are then hanging up. Idaho approved a strict parental consent law last year. idahocapitalsun.com/2025/08/29/i...

Related to my thoughts yesterday is the fact that I think too many USians think that some feature of their identity will save them, as this guy says “I’m a veteran, I’m a citizen” while being arrested for speech acts protected by law and the constitution.

The DeSantis administration currently has at least seven Florida Highway Patrol troopers just on anti-chalk duty: Two watching from a Dunkin Donuts next door and five more parked in the lot right behind them.

Incredible piece of reporting that gets at something i am regularly experiencing: white USians (mostly) don’t get the levels of fear—not viscerally. It’s all abstract to them. I say hundreds of Canadians are in detention and they say, “well not you or her of course!”

Appalling....

One must retain the ability to be shocked by how much of the harms they are causing—all around the world—will fall on children.

BREAKING: Social Security Administration chief data officer and whistle-blower Charles Borges has resigned after bombshell report that SSA put highly-sensitive data at risk. He sent out an email to colleagues moments ago. Here is the text of his email shared with me:

“Kennedy would be less hazardous if he decided to do cardiac surgery. Then he would kill people only one at a time rather than his current ability to kill by the thousands. Why is it that killing a single person is seen as murder but killing masses is excused if you are a politician?” Dr Bill Foege

USian media and elites will speculate for decades about motive, but do literally nothing about means. It does not matter why someone wants to do something that is impossible for them to do, and it doesn’t matter much why they do something that is easy to do. Just ban guns!

NEW: The Liberal govt’s misleading statements and policies have created much confusion about 🇨🇦 military exports to 🇮🇱 In this timeline, I explain what we know about the exports and track how the spin and deception has evolved over the past 2 years. www.readthemaple.com/canadas-arms...

I have printed copies of my syllabi for next week's start of term, so any minute now, critical information requiring changes to the schedule will be shared with me.

No one has ever seen this. This has never happened, and if someone believes that it has happened, it is because the Confidence Machine sells confidence.

Open Access for this new exited collection Beyond Sanctuary. Please read and circulate. nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

If you want to put back statues and memorials and names of Confederate traitors while tearing down museum exhibitions on slavery because they don't show the greatness of the nation... the nation whose history you're celebrating is whiteness. The kind of nationalist you are is a white nationalist.

So here's the discussion where John Kruk asks Tom McCarthy how the person who invented the first clock knew what time it was

What do you even say anymore? The US is simply not a free or safe country if you have unaccountable and anonymous and partisan police forces.