I did a whole series of stories for the Washington post late 2020/early 2021 about coup attempts, democratic backsliding and authoritarianism, and got a lot of grief from reactionary centrists about how that was "just the opinion of some elite academics"

FYI: Central bank independence and aggressive Fed leadership is the only reason we didn’t spend 2008-10 eating boiled shoe leather. This isn’t a hypothetical risk.

Something vile has been released on the world and the work of this generation is to contain it.

Well, Adams did say he wanted to teach people about crypto, and I can hardly think of a more complete lesson in the technology than this

If there's one empirical insight I'd want everyone to understand about American politics, it's this: America's problems are solved problems. Just not here. What would change if the US simply matched the average of 31 peer democracies? Not Denmark or Norway. Just the middle of the pack. 🧵

Fun fact: David Sacks got the SEC to functionally deregulate meme coins in February 🙃 www.sec.gov/newsroom/spe...

Trump’s stated pretext for “acquiring” Greenland — so Russia or China can’t take it — only makes sense if NATO can’t defend the island, which in turn only makes sense if America leaves the alliance or it dissolves. Right?

Trump's thugs are going hog wild and tossing gas around in one of the busiest commercial districts in Minneapolis, just a mile or so from where I live. Complete insanity. (vid via Ford Fischer on X)

Another consequence of rising inequality: Nearly every adult-adjacent hobby that’s even minimally collectible has pivoted to catering to “whales” as their core business model — people who chuck huge piles of money into Acquiring Stuff — rather than making things for the average hobbyist.

This is one reason a shutdown isn’t on the table (so far) as a way to discipline the increasingly manic Administration. Some of the major funding legislation is already “baked.”

this is a very good sign

Call me an optimist but this latest blitz — Minneapolis, Venezuela, the Fed — feels like desperation, not power. That makes them more dangerous for now, but beatable. Context:

Look I know that “diversity is our strength” is cringe but: diversity is our strength. People who come from distinct cultural practices actively serving in community with one another. What a blessing to live in a world where that happens.

It’s just all so dumb and exhausting

Wall Street isn’t going to be able to deny the havoc a lawless president can wreak on the country any longer. And so in its hour of need, the nation turns to that most American of creatures — the finance bro — for our salvation.

Ronald Reagan’s budget director.

What can history teach us about what happens when a populist strongman with an idiosyncratic taste for low interest rates undermines central bank independence?

i think powell's response here is a demonstration of the folly of the idea that democratic accountability requires presidential control. what if the president is not acting in the public interest? you want independent agencies to be able to push back and pursue their *congressional mandate*

Attempting to criminalize the actions of an independent public servant, Fed Chair Jay Powell, for the sin of acting independently is an outrage. It's bad economics, bad politics, bad for the rule of law, bad for the public sector, bad for American credibility and bad for Americans.

He said this on Wednesday. It's Sunday now. It's way past time for the full transcript of this interview to be released. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/u...

You called?

Lmfao what an awesome proposal. One reason you need a 90% income tax rate at this level is these guys are too stupid to have the amount of power they do. Like giving a glock to a 4 year old

So when Zohran issues executive orders we’re going to call them Writs of Mamdani, right?

“I know, we’ll take this one American city, regarded as a hotbed of seditious sentiment, and subject it to a heavy-handed punitive crackdown. and that will cow the rest of the Americans into quiet submission and snuff out the embers of opposition at their source” the ghost of General Thomas Gage:

“Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. [….] On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn.“ - Dr. Joseph Warren (Boston, 1775)

Not an exaggeration at all to say that the feeling in Minneapolis is that the entire metro area is being treated as occupied territory by federal agents. Impossible to overstate how overwhelmingly people here do not like it. This does not feel sustainable.

“We’ll Have Our Home” again is a song that’s extremely popular with white nationalists. It’s all over Telegram. I think the first time I heard it was from a video of a secretive group called the Mannerbünd.

Common Sense, published 250 years ago today.

They seem to have decided early on to sit back and let the administration implode. And in a sense it’s working. Except for one big problem. When Democrats do take power, they’ll preside over nothing but ashes with no mandate on how to rebuild.

Doomerism: not even once

Deeply disturbing thread. This is a tool that fundamentally should not exist.

Good journalists being done dirty by their editors

This is the heart of it. Any press coverage that gullibly paints this partisan punitive campaign of retribution as "fighting crime" or "enforcing immigration laws" is actively complicit in a government campaign to punish dissent.

I appreciate the analogies Anthony is drawing to the founding era, which should be source of understanding and inspiration for us. As Paine said, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”

Such a good quote!

Looks like ICE is now cracking down on … Native Americans. This letter was just posted by the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North/South Dakota: “Our Nation is a sovereign government and our members are not immigrants. We are not subject to immigration enforcement on our own lands.”

Thread. This is something that’s important to get right.

It was, in fact, one of their chief concerns and the impetus for *every single one* of the justice amendments in the Bill of Rights. "Why did we even have an American Revolution" is now apparently beyond the educational boundaries of the right wing pundit class.

“The federal government should not have a national police force to harass state residents” is an argument that would be both legible to and enthusiastically supported by every member of the founding generation

yeah the feds shot a husband and wife at my gynecologists office. right where i walk with my kids to the train to go downtown or to buy chocolate chip cookies at the middle eastern deli where the owner gives them high-fives. i didn't hear a damn thing. i was reading The Moffats aloud

Meanwhile, the federal government is actively trying to sabotage social services in New York and four other blue states. Three more years of this. www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Best TikTok thing going is the two dudes trying food from every country without leaving NYC. If you haven’t seen them yet, it’s incredible. My favorite so far is last week’s. Legit got me emotional.

In escalating spree of violence against civilians, MAGA extremist group paramilitary forces shoot two in Portland just one day after murdering woman in Minneapolis

I'm glad to see this pressure on Google and Apple. If any other company was running an active CSAM generator in public you better believe it would have been removed from their app stores by now www.wired.com/story/x-grok...

New York acting like a blue state instead of a blue city stapled to a red state that hates it. By God I thought I’d never see the day.

Time to consult the Declaration again