Since it’s a holiday weekend and this published on saturday, I wanted to reshare this essay about a culture of nihilism that seems to be evolving. Maybe it’ll help connect a few dots for you as it did for me writing it (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

"UK Labour over the past couple years has tried to out-fash the fascists in many ways—particularly on immigration, where Labour officials sound a lot like far-right German parties—and now their popularity has plummeted" liberalcurrents.com/a-blaring-wa...

i’ll end this little brainstorm by just asking what it is, exactly, that the MAGA right likes about the United States, since it explicitly rejects those things that make this nation distinctive — its pluralism, its revolutionary heritage and egalitarian aspirations, and its republican institutions

Names of my colleagues from DRI were in here. Shameless stuff from the US government but we should hardly be surprised at this point

The recent US report on 'EU censorship' left dozens of names of civil society and EU officials unredacted in emails – while carefully hiding company employee names.

"In his egoism, Trump exhibits an overarching desire to squeeze the nation dry, including by converting as much of America’s wealth to himself regardless of the consequences. What Trump can’t take with him, he would just as soon ruin."

Insane

A Reuters photographer captured this image of a page from Pam Bondi's "burn book," which she used to counter any questions from Democratic lawmakers during an unhinged hearing today. It looks like the DOJ monitored members of Congress’s searches of the unredacted Epstein files. Just wow.

With lots of attention on the increasingly brutal US deportation regime, it's important to remember the EU is employing similar tactics (and consulting with the US on how best to do it). Great reporting by Caitlin L. Chandler here:

I just wrote about two recent NYT articles that create a misleading picture of public opinion by centering Republicans and suggesting ICE reform proposals are unpopular. www.findinggravity.net/the-new-york...

The refugee camp long take in Children of Men is the single best take in cinema and it’s not even close.

And no one got fired. "An immigration court dropped its case against Turkish graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, her lawyers said, a little less than a year after masked federal agents in plainclothes arrested her on a street near Tufts University where she was studying." www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

This is what we’re doing to people. We are the bad guys.

I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.

“Terror is not only masked men and arbitrary detention. It also operates through fear. Policies are designed to make people more compliant, more submissive.” @janinedigi.bsky.social writing in @theguardian.com Opinions.

Regardless of one’s feeling about it, such a public response to a political leader is news, and deliberately failing to mention it is self-censorship. It’s like if reporters agreed not to report on the man who threw a shoe at George Bush. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Concentration camps: stories of as many as 50 people to a cell — men and women in some cases — with no windows and limited airflow, a single camera-monitored toilet, aluminum blankets, no showers and poor quality food.

Of course he did

over the next 3 years, be ready for seeing a lot of coverage of Republican lawmakers, business leaders, university leaders who did absolutely nothing to stall Trump (on the contrary) — about how *actually* they were wringing their hands all along. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/u...

there's no such thing as "a softer touch" when you're trying to institute the largest mass deportation campaign in American history.

The @nytimes.com coverage of France's Grok investigation casts it as part of a conflict between U.S. & European speech rules. That's true only if you buy Elon's version. This is a case about CSAM and NCII. Those are crimes in France, and crimes in the U.S. There's no transatlantic divide here. 1/

Elon Musk’s flagship artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, continues to generate sexualized images of people when users explicitly warn that the subjects do not consent. In 17 tests, Grok generated images after being told they would be used to degrade the person. www.reuters.com/business/des...

They're acting like Don Lemon detonated the church with gay telekinesis

For me, the most interesting element here are the AI images – the moment when a story becomes a visual meme. While memefication works without genAI, it appears to supercharge participatory propaganda, allowing people to visualize their imaginary fears and hopes, making them much more shareable

Given it now seems beyond doubt that the cancel culture/wokeness panic was an all-or-nothing elite defence of - variously - important sex offenders, police impunity, official racism, various forms of hate and bigotry, and actual fascism: is anyone planning to apologise for their personal role in it?

the socialism of fools eventually converges on the socialism of fools

These fucking animals are drawing guns on people for the non-crime of following them while following all traffic laws

NEW: Meet the private-equity firm -- and its billionaire immigrant CEO -- making millions off some of ICE's cruelest deportation flights. After a five-month investigation, my story for @motherjones.com: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

So QAnon spent years spreading conspiracy theories that the government was run by a cabal of elite pedophiles and it turns out they supported the actual cabal of elite pedophiles to get into power and destroy democracy.

Bingo

The violent occupation of Minneapolis started with a vlog. I've wanted to find a framework to describe Nick Shirley & others like him: "Influencer" is too quaint. "Journalist" is obviously wrong. I landed on "slopagandist." Gift link (open in a web browser) www.theverge.com/news/869824/...

Great point from @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social: The spectacle of ordinary people in Minneapolis courageously protecting each other from the ICE invasion is itself inspiring and contrasts powerfully with Miller/Bovino totalitarian cruelties. Check out this exchange: newrepublic.com/article/2058...

Reporting the Trump had “pivoted” was journalistic malpractice popular.info/p/how-legacy...

approaching the problem of "roving death squads" from an incrementalist point of view is just a slow form of suicide

Sadly, this may well work

SCOOP: ICE Has Failed to Disclose Info About 8 Immigrants’ Deaths, Defying Congress Trump has ICE detaining more people than ever. The agency keeps failing to report information about immigrants’ deaths in its custody, writes @justinglawe.bsky.social. Read now: zeteo.com/p/ice-immigr...

I was invited to give a talk in the community last night on Trump's second-term foreign policy. I thought I'd share my slides and bullet points here too.

Finally. A comprehensive look at the “neo-Nazi .. ethnic cleansing” content coming out of “the offices of the White House .. using official government accounts ..” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/u...

I wrote about how murders of people seen as “good” tend to galvanize the public against state violence in helpful ways. But to establish a just system in the long run, it's critical to recognize harm done to those who would never make the cut as saints.

The killing of Alex Pretti and the grotesque lying was an overreach by the administration. They've paid a price and had to pull back a bit. But it's when there's some disarray that the democratic opposition needs to intensify the offensive, and turn a marginal tactical success into a major victory.

The Trump admin is scrambling because the secret police it sends out for kidnappings and rioting has been killing people on video then brazenly lying about it, but Schumer's instinct is to whip his caucus into taking a position *more conservative* than that held by the median voter. He's got to go.

"The randomness is the difference between a regime based on terror and a regime that is plainly repressive. A regime based on terror...deploys violence precisely to reinforce the message that anyone can be subjected to it."

I don't think it matters whether or not Alex Pretti had a gun www.theverge.com/policy/86745...

Banger

This is one of the most amazing videos yet. Every single person willing to risk death

Goddamit I should have known it was too good to last. Some senior editor decided to both-sides it after all. Cowards! Charlatans!

Kudos to the NYT editor who took “Appears to” out of the lead headline (finally)

years and years of avoiding plain language and the active voice do make the choice to use it more impactful, I suppose

i suppose it makes sense but it is completely demoralizing that we live in a moment where there is more video/photographic evidence (often from multiple angles) than ever before and also a durable system in place for propagandists to gaslight or convince others into not believing their eyes

Treat the US government and ICE claims like you'd treat a Russian government claim after they've shot down an airliner or bombed a hospital. America 2026.