"State Terror: A brief guide for Americans" Revisiting a piece I wrote in April 2025 "In the history of state terror, the escape from law into coercion takes three forms... the leader principle; the state of exception; and the zone of statelessness." snyder.substack.com/p/state-terror

This administration is utterly entirely beholden to a few dozen guys absolutely enamoured by this specific scene in Sicario, it's actually nuts.

This is absolutely right on every point and everyone who sits on a governing board or serves as president or provost or similar should please make the time to read it. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Wonder if that counts as "clearly established constitutional right" for purposes of quashing a claim of qualified immunity by the thugs. @gregdoucette.bsky.social ?

In the first quarter of 2025, farm bankruptcies increased by 95% Remember: the policies leading to bankruptcy are purposeful. Our food supply is in danger…there is no better way to bring a country to its knees than having control of its food supply.

My husband was detained by ICE today Juan Muñoz, an American citizen, father of 2, and local government official, was peacefully protesting w. other elected officials. He was assaulted and taken away I have had zero contact or updates since #SOS @duckworth.senate.gov @durbin.senate.gov

This fills me with joy. Little nazi s**t earlier today interrupted a UW psych class to throw sieg heils and call the student degenerates. And the whole class instantly turned itself into a posse to chase him all over campus, then held him till campus police arrived. www.reddit.com/r/udub/s/a4g...

I really did laugh out loud

Age yourself with a film you saw in a cinema as a kid

Larry Ellison envisions a surveillance state in which techbros rule. '“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,” Ellison said in an hour-long Q&A during Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last week.'

At this point, any Democrat who votes to keep this government open without extracting very serious concessions — RFK’s resignation, ICE rollback, Epstein Files release, etc — will absolutely face a primary challenger who will set fundraising records.

Well said by Karl Jacoby, this has been much on my mind, need to think about the absurd meeting of generals in this light

New 2A bro logo just dropped

Do not bow down to these people. Do not allow them to convince you that you must. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/b...

Republicans can’t win on their policies, so they are trying to dodge accountability by rewriting the rules. These lawmakers are going out of their way to silence the will of the people and deliberately undermine our democracy.

No words. I believed in Ryan. We moved to Oklahoma because he promised that my awful sons Enigmus Rex and Pance would be given handguns in kindergarten and then not be given any instruction on how to use them safely. I bought a shitty gray house in Tulsa because he promised they wouldn't be woke.

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

XLVII: Mens insana in corpore obeso.

People focused a little too much on the anger in Stephen Miller's speech at the CK pageant. My main beef with it is how long, redundant it was. He made a speech out of 14 words.

Well, there it is. Sinclair is digging in for a fight, so please help push back -- find stations in your area, watch their local news to see what ads they run, then write those advertisers to tell them you're boycotting as long as they're on a Sinclair station. List here: sbgi.net/tv-stations/

"I have spent the last few weeks addressing and preparing for a military invasion by the President of the United States. No, I’m not a soldier or a foreign adversary. I’m the Governor of Illinois"

Status

John Roberts's "there's no such thing as corruption" and "the president has the right to use the DOJ as his personal law firm" jurisprudence is really working out well for us.

A moose once bit my sister.

One of my favorite moments in the history of free speech: Larry Flynt publishing a satirical Campari ad featuring Jerry Falwell Sr. as an incestuous drunk who first had sex with his mother in an outhouse. Falwell sued. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court found that satire is protected speech.

He's really going for the "Manhattan Brothel Modern" look, isn't he?

SMITE!!!

Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion. Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.

It's important to remember when GOP Reps and Sens are yelling about the 'violent left' that they routinely tell reporters and colleagues how theyre afraid to do this or that because their own supporters routinely threaten violence agains them.

Must-read masterpiece by Maureen Tkacik. prospect.org/power/sugar-...

Dutch late night TV has its take

R’s: WE’RE GONNA KICK EVEN MORE PEOPLE OFF HEALTH INSURANCE D’s: no R’s: I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY’D DO THIS

This commentary offers a clear, powerful statement of why freedom of speech is at the heart of democracy and must be defended, whether the speaker is Charlie Kirk or Jimmy Kimmel, MAGA supporters or MAGA opponents.

Luckily, Sinclair has a helpful database of all their stations, so you can see if they're operating in your area and respond accordingly. sbgi.net/tv-stations/

This is the playbook, folks. If you're not paying attention now and doing something about it, then you're going to have to sit down the rest of your life because democracy is being taken away. Do not be quiet in this moment.

Observers are concerned that TikTok is controlled by corporate oligarchs with close ties to a dictatorial regime. So we’re making them sell it to a different group of corporate oligarchs with close ties to a dictatorial regime.

MUST READ @judgeluttig.bsky.social for Constitution Day 2025 open.substack.com/pub/telos/p/...

This is how they ensure political opponents can't escape when they start rounding them up. If you're in a position to leave, you should do so now before they close the door. theintercept.com/2025/09/13/m...

Here is a report on this that doesn’t require users to enter an email address to read. truthout.org/articles/new...

Fucking nailed it. www.thedailybeast.com/charlie-kirk...

So now that the MSM and the right has decided it's not in their interest to flog this story can we talk about those tens of thousands of Epstein emails that Bloomberg published this week?

Current mood. youtu.be/50GvkAO0OIg?...

Worth noticing that Ukraine defended itself far better than NATO and against a much more extensive Russian attack at the same time. If we want to be safe we have to help and learn from the Ukrainians.

I know Charlie Kirk valued debate and free speech because he blocked me for fact-checking his lies on Twitter and then put me on his organization's Professor Watchlist for writing a book he didn't like.

"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?" A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons. Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.

PNW trails rock

Watched it on Kanopy, actually quite good.

Wow. New NBC poll finds 78% support vaccines, including 72% of independents and 67% of Republicans. As I keep trying to argue, Democrats should polarize the shit out of the vaccine/public health debate. Make people take sides. It will split Republicans and MAGA. See this: