Talking with @gideonrachman.bsky.social: Donald Trump and Autocracy in America: Pushing the boundaries of presidential power. Listen here: on.ft.com/43igLNv

And this is what I heard @mikiesherrill.bsky.social say: We have "to try to address the things that are scaring people, to try to make your life a little bit better, to try to just bring some rationality and sanity to a world that right now isn’t making a lot of sense.”

“We want to turn the page past the divisiveness, the angriness, and just focus on brass tacks, good policy, and governance" That was how @abigailspanberger.com began her campaign. From last year: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

“We want to turn the page past the divisiveness, the angriness, and just focus on brass tacks, good policy, and governance" That was how @abigailspanberger.com began her campaign. From last year: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Abby Spanberger will now be governor of Virginia, Mikie Sherrill governor of NJ. I wrote about both of them, and their friend group, last year www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

this is the most successful a CIA officer has been at toppling a government in years.

Georgia Democrats had not won a statewide race that wasn't for a federal office since 2006. They won two races tonight, both against GOP incumbents. The margins? 62% to 38% in both.

Democrats have flipped 2 seats in the Mississippi senate, and in so doing they've broken the GOP's supermajority in the chamber.

Very telling that oligarchs want to be called aristocrats. On the donors who think they deserve to rule: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Huge Democratic party win across the board, but a lot of European newspapers are just reporting on Mamdami

The latest, 11pm: —Prop 50 wins —VA Dems flip Gov, LG, AG; & gain in House —Dems win NJ-Gov —Mamdani wins —PA Dems win supreme court —ME vote-restricting measure loses —Krasner & Bragg win —JD's half-brother loses —GA Dems flip 2 statewide offices + Dem are leading to flip so many local offices.

Democrats are on track to win 64 of Virginia's 100 House seats. That'd be THIRTEEN flips; the chamber is 51/49 right now.

Abby Spanberger will now be governor of Virginia, Mikie Sherrill governor of NJ. I wrote about both of them, and their friend group, last year www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

This is from Autocracy, Inc, about how modern autocratic propaganda works. I consider this every time I decide what to share and how to frame it.

For those asking for background - I was in Sudan twice this year and wrote about it www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

42 million people will lose their SNAP benefits on 1 November.

A horrific mass murder is unfolding in Sudan, where no one can see it. The RSF are murdering civilians in El Fasher, having finally defeated the Sudanese army forces holding out in the city. The BBC has managed to speak to some who escaped www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7fC...

Can't overstate how fucked up it is that unraveling what is arguably the greatest achievement in the history of humanity is now a motivating issue of one of the two dominant parties in the U.S.

Trump is not winning the trade war he started with China @FT: China emerges as US ‘peer rival’ at Xi Jinping-Donald Trump summit - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Waiting for someone to explain why the announcement of a trade relationship that is worse than the one we had a year ago is received as a big success

Dutch liberals, together with the Dutch center-right, fight back www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/w...

Anne Applebaum: Americans Aren't Angry Enough. Yet. open.substack.com/pub/charlies...

Op het feest van de democratie voelen we de dreiging ook. Lees @anneapplebaum.bsky.social's Autocratie bv. Over dictators en de redding van de democratie (Autocracy Inc., vert. Peter Abelsen)! Lees nu de eerste pagina’s en koop dat boek: www.athenaeum.nl/lee...

The Founders knew Congress - especially the House - was the backbone of U.S. democracy. It should be a huge story that Mike Johnson, serving Trump, has all but shut it down From the Reichstag Fire to Putin's toothless Duma, this is what dictators do. My new column www.inquirer.com/columnists/a...

Americans are on the verge of losing their ability to choose their government. But they don't seem to have realized it yet.

#Nonfiction #Books #Booksky #USPolitics “Everyone assumed that in a more open, interconnected world, democracy and liberal ideas would spread to the autocratic states. Nobody imagined that autocracy and illiberalism would spread to the democratic world instead.” @anneapplebaum.bsky.social

“.. In the first half of this year, the Trump Organization’s income soared 17-fold to $864 million .. “.. more than 90% .. came from Trump crypto ventures, including sales of World Liberty tokens.” @reuters.com $WLFI www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Americans are on the verge of losing their ability to choose their government. But they don't seem to have realized it yet.

After the Pentagon forced a mass exit of journalists who understood military finance, tactics and technology, their replacements have arrived: cranks, conspiracy theorists and both foreign and domestic propagandists www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

How many ways could Trump try to subvert the 2026 elections? More than you can probably imagine, and many of them might work. My deep dive in @theatlantic.com, posted today: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Donald Trumps plan to subvert the midterms is underway From David Graham, on the cover of the next edition of @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

After the Pentagon forced a mass exit of journalists who understood military finance, tactics and technology, their replacements have arrived: cranks, conspiracy theorists and both foreign and domestic propagandists www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

I have a very bad feeling about this...

At a time of multiple international crises, the Pentagon’s official positions will be relayed by Timcast, The Epoch Times, LindellTV and the Gateway Pundit, which means that many people simply won’t believe Pentagon statements at all. Which might be the point www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Elon Musk's involvement in politics really hurt Tesla sales. "Without the Musk partisan effect, Tesla sales between October 2022 and April 2025 would have been 67-83% higher, equivalent to 1-1.26 million more vehicles."

The FT's @gideonrachman.bsky.social is running a series on "The Age of the Strongman." I joined him last week megaphone.link/NSR8120418136

When asked about Russia’s war in Ukraine, ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, DeepSeek, and xAI’s Grok all regularly cite Russian propaganda www.wired.com/story/chatbo...

“The Russian can see us just from the other side of the river, and a minute later they hit you - and they are specifically targeting residential areas, kindergartens, hospitals.” read this horrific report from Kherson: open.substack.com/pub/twogrump...

The Washington Post thinks the White House Ballroom is a splendid idea and anyone who thinks otherwise is a NIMBY. In other news Post owner Jeff Bezos is helping to pay for the Ballroom

No matter how much the media rushed to defend Karoline Leavitt the other day, it’s clear that the ballroom is, in fact, Trump’s top priority.

It’s fun to look at this ai slop nazi propaganda and then remember what these guys actually look like. This isn’t what they (or america) looks like and far from loving america, this is an expression of severe self loathing bsky.app/profile/geof...

“A government of the people must be transparent. The public has a right to know who’s paying, how much, and for what,” said Hilary Braseth, executive director of OpenSecrets. www.opensecrets.org/news/2025/10...

Pretty wild that the Republican Party apparently now hates Ronald Reagan — and everything he stood for — and is actively trying to destroy his actual legacy.

A video by #Kharkiv resident Maryna Aheienko shows her little son, who is not yet three years old, recalling a drone attack on their kindergarten. At the moment of the Russian drone strike, forty-eight children were in the shelter,all of them were evacuated to a safe location. 📹marina.aheienko

The amount is meaningless — less than one day of salary. But the principle is important: once the armed services are paid by the oligarchs, they become a private militia, and we no longer have a country. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

The reshaping of the playing field is underway www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/u...

for those who missed it: bsky.app/profile/atru...

Trump's AI video, showing himself as a pilot dumping shit on Americans, fits right in to a long authoritarian tradition www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...