An unpopular president is making more absurd power grabs like the "weaponization" fund. Civil society may feel obliged to speak out. But Greg Berman says nonprofits should think long and hard. hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/nonprofits... 1/3

Much of the nonprofit sector is reeling from indiscriminate disruptions to the federal funds that support so many of its organizations. But there's a deeper problem below the sabotage. Nonprofits at large are less trusted than business. So how should they navigate this moment?

The future we feared is already here, but we can still change it. @gabemenchaca.bsky.social explains what the Anthropic mess tells us about contracting in the age of AI; browse around for all of our essays on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/hegseths-w...

To what extent was the U.S. already in crisis before the rise in populism we've seen over the past few years? It's a serious debate among defenders of the liberal-democratic order. Recent responses to Brink Lindsey's new book have brought it to the forefront. ⬇️

Can we create a digital economy that strengthens democracy instead of eroding it? This week in Hypertext ⤵️

Incredible courage from these witnesses, whose fear of retaliatory or preemptive violence is 100% justified.

The logic of the escalating violence & rhetoric is to force max number of R's and nonattentive folks into the pro-paramilitary corner because they either like what they see or just believe the lies, and/or to set off a confrontation w/ local/state authorities that provides pretext for worse. 1/2

But if you listen to Goldsmith and Bauer today, it becomes clear just how much of an own goal this will be. He is in a loss-overreach spiral that will badly wound us but exposes the limits of his power, and thereby degrades it.

The demagogic response to the ICE killing is the domestic side of Stephen Millerism. This administration cannot recognize the category of “victim” in regard to its policies or the agents carrying them out; any victim must be immediately converted into an enemy. 1/4

I am thankful for the heroes of Jan. 6 and all who worked so hard for accountability. Their America will outlast the mob and its leader.

Domestically, this may prove Trump's biggest blunder. How will MAGA isolationists take his plans to occupy Venezuela? A cowardly Congress refused to pass a law that would have prevented this intervention, but if Venezuela's new leader refuses to play ball, will they support a bloodbath? 1/3

Statement from Cato VP Clark Neily: Courts probably won't rule against the rendition. Yet Trump has chosen to bypass the constitutional provisions designed to cabin the president's powers in using force against other countries. And an indictment does not supply him with those powers.

The guy who ran against the Iraq War is offering us Iraq on steroids. The congressional abdication. The thin pretext. The myopia about the potential for a bloodbath. All caricatures of 23 years ago. And the caricature of 2003 - the oil play - is now real.

Earlier this month, Ross Douthat argued that “the liberal order can’t heal itself.” The next day, @jvl.bsky.social told liberals to stop the masochism. But the answer is neither despair nor restoration, but a liberal reconstruction. hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/lets-bake-...

Examining how our elite went wrong is not masochism and New Right flirtation. The question is precisely how our leadership class wound up allowing these people anywhere close to power, and caving repeatedly to the predations of the Trump administration in recent months. 1/2

Joining the Black Friday Amazon boycott this weekend led me to rediscover @kanopy.com! Double-win! @awscloud.bsky.social

You don't have to be a genius to understand why DOGE was a disaster. But even serious people can get government reform badly wrong. To do it right, we need to study the pitfalls - and I'm jazzed about this Hypertext issue doing just that.

Read the whole thing!

ABC has joined the slackjaw club, dismayed at being called on its proclaimed principles, incapable of retort. It joins law firms, broadcasters, and Fortune 500 corporations that have all been exposed as suffering from an advanced stage of moral rot. Trump sensed that spinelessness and pushed. 1/2

One of the most baffling points in the @ezraklein.bsky.social piece on Kirk: "We can live with losing an election because we believe in the promise of the next election." But Kirk didn't! And yet Ezra concludes: "We were on the same side on the continued possibility of American politics."

I mourn Kirk's killing. I admire his charisma, organizing genius, & commitment to debate. THAT was right about his way. I also believe he used his talents to promote lies that damaged our democracy and bigotry that divides us. THAT was wrong about his way. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

It can be a trap if you make it a trap. It's a gift if you make it a gift. The line is: We have a big crime problem and we'd love more cops to help solve it. But Trump is cutting money for cops and sending troops because he isn't coming after criminals - he's coming after democracy.

Big new paper from Steve Teles @niskanencenter.bsky.social today niskanencenter.org/abundance-va.... Steve outlines six types of “abundance” thinking he predicts will shape US politics. As in the Progressive Era, broad principles will attach to distinct cultural and political economic projects.

This is getting very bad: *FBI raids top Trump critic's home *Trump loyalist gins up "mortgage fraud" pretexts for DOJ probes of Schiff, Letitia James, Lisa Cook *Bannon says ICE will monitor 2026 voting *DHS memo vows LA operations "for years to come" New from me: newrepublic.com/article/1994...

I spent a lot of time trying to level-set on how we reached the point of starvation in Gaza. First of several posts: daviddagan.substack.com/p/why-are-ga...

Some racial profiling was happening from the start, but the operation was supercharged in mid-May when the White House ordered ICE to stop using warrants, targeted operations, and just "go out on the streets" and arrest people. These arrests shot from 500/week to 1,500/week

The BLS firing is one of Trump's most chilling moves yet. He is demanding that we be lied to about the most material facts of most Americans' lives - how they earn a living. And it will come at the expense of that living, because it destroys the foundations for investing in the United States.

I want to enthusiastically endorse this piece from @cselmendorf.bsky.social & @profschleich.bsky.social. Thus far YIMBY has been almost entirely focused on More Housing, but ultimately, if you want people to accept density, you have to make it *nice*, and that means more than just housing.

The great @henrymjtonks.bsky.social cranked up his time machine and came up with really critical lessons for Democrats. But not only Democrats. 1/2 hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/lessons-fr...

As @mattyglesias.bsky.social notes today, certain interest groups certainly built the polarization machine deliberately, but @jmcrosson.bsky.social wrote this great piece for us about how many just got sucked into it, even as single-issue orgs. 1/2 hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/when-lobby...

YIMBYism needs to become more party-like, @cselmendorf.bsky.social and David Schleicher argue in today's Hypertext. Here's why. Shoutout to @dbroockman.bsky.social & @jkalla.bsky.social.

Hypertext—Niskanen’s intellectual journal—is turning two! We launched it to tackle one big question: How do we make America’s institutions work for the 21st century? Now we’re sharpening that mission 🧵

The "TACO" shorthand for thinking about Trump is not just annoying as an acronym - I also think it misreads the moment. I think it grows out of confusion that comes with being in what I'm thinking of as The Warp Zone.

Iraq and Afghanistan from the beginning were conceived as regime-change invasions involving ground troops. A war goal of destroying Fordow aerially is limited and (I think!) achievable. Whether we should do it hinges on nonpublic intel IMO - but that's the question on the table.

MAGA's Massive Ordnance Penetrator - thoughts on the American crisis meeting war in the Middle East. daviddagan.substack.com/p/magas-mass...

Early in the war that began on Oct. 7, a friend said to me: “It’s like Covid, but with bombs.” That's more true than ever now that the fight is directly with Iran. But Israelis know why they are going through this. daviddagan.substack.com/p/what-israe...

My latest Israel-Gaza post - taking seriously the problem of Hamas diverting aid, and condemning the prolonged blockade that has driven Gazans to the brink. daviddagan.substack.com/p/the-blocka...

The Trump administration caved on the Abrego Garcia case because the courts did not cower. Now they are using their politicized DOJ to save face with hyperbolic criminal charges. This is at once a big win for the rule of law and a reminder of the danger we still face.

The travel ban for the administration is a convenient distraction from reconciliation and infighting, but still worth reflecting on. It's a measure of how far we've fallen that in Trump II, this wouldn't even make a top 10 list of abuses.

I think the smart version of this is not "too much constraint" but "the wrong constraint in the wrong places." But it's hard to be schematic about what those wrong places are - as the well-taken critique of Marc's schema higher in Sam's thread indicates.

This seems to be getting more traction over at The Bad Place but it really needs to resonate here. The usual story we tell about primaries being the source of our woes has looked deeply flawed for a while: Primary voters are not more "extreme" as a general matter. 1/2

"No president in living memory has attacked the sources of American strength and dynamism in the way that Trump already has done." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/o...

Today on Hypertext: the long history of American YIMBYism, and what we can learn from it. hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/yimbyism-i...

My latest thoughts on the depressing Israel-Gaza situation - hard to put into a social media post, and titled "It's still complicated." daviddagan.substack.com/p/its-still-...

Inconvenient truth from @dolanecon.bsky.social : "There are no bright lines between “unwilling to work,” “willing and able to work, but not working” and “unable to work.”" Esp true for a gov that often struggles to execute on basic bureaucracy. Esp inconvenient for a party that harps on this fact.

This is a point rule-of-law Republicans should try to amplify as much as possible, as fast as possible: the Trump administration has officially committed to respecting Supreme Court decisions as universally binding. When/if they renege, this is important rhetorical cover for those who will oppose.

One justification for this Air Force One bribe is that we can't build the plane. Is that America First? That one of the premier symbols of US power and prestige needs to be a foreign gift? A humiliating flag of surrender raised on the most basic government functioning and on American know-how.

Take that jumbo outrage, @jacobtlevy.bsky.social argues, and channel it toward reform of the underlying, rotten system of presidential inaugural and library grift. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202... And remember Shelley... 1/2

Today on Hypertext: The deep roots of the legal vetocracy that is snarling the supply side of the economy in housing, energy, healthcare, and elsewhere. hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/abundance-...