TY, Garry ..."Aspiring authoritarians never ask for permission; they see what they can get away with. The only way to ensure the integrity of the 2026 midterms is to demonstrate, now, that the ideals of the American Constitution are still worth fighting for."

One of the most prescient statements you made, that has stuck with me as I've watched the collapse of critical thinking in America, was this: "The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth."

"The Constitution is a piece of paper."

Or Russia. Not a coincidence that dissidents from authoritarian nations and reporters that covered those places have been waving their arms over what the Trump White House has been doing since 2017 while most US opposition and media have been sedately concerned. It’s not confusing to us at all.

Ukrainian Navy Command has confirmed that the carnage inflicted on the Karachevsk Electrodetal plant in Bryansk last night was the result of R-360 Neptune subsonic long range cruise missiles.

Today, Ukraine commemorates the Babyn Yar massacre - one of WWII’s darkest chapters. In Sept 1941, Nazis executed tens of thousands, mainly Kyiv’s Jews, along with Roma, POWs, and civilians. Babyn Yar stands as a symbol of Holocaust horrors. We remember to prevent history from repeating.

Talking about 2028 is dangerously naive; the danger is now. Trump is directing the military and justice department to go to "war" on US cities and his enemies, from TV hosts to former FBI directors. Keeping the 2026 midterms fair may be the last stand. My latest: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

While Ambassador Bolton's episode will be popular today for some reason, the new Autocracy in America is an important one. My chess Grandmaster and grandmaster-politician guest, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, speaks from the frontline of Russia's next war, Lithuania. www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...

AI is being used to fabricate quotes and attribute them to real people, Yair Rosenberg reports. Here's what he did when it happened to him:

Ukraine is a secondary topic for both Trump and Putin in Alaska. This is a mafia meeting arranged by war criminal Putin to restore Russia internationally & economically. Trump wants his "peace" glory and Putin used that to get this summit. But it's mainly about money for both of them, as always.

I write for the @financialtimes.com on Europe's fundamental problem when making tough decisions about war and peace: the persistent refusal to ask simple first-order questions and the tendency to ignore them entirely. www.ft.com/content/a6aa...

Europe is a sleeping beauty, with Putin and Trump handing out poisoned apples (and tea). Can it awaken to become the defender of democracy we need today? Listen or read my latest Autocracy in America podcast with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner. www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...

He is just an insecure little fascist, that Elbridge Colby.

Making Putin feel quite at home with the Trump White House, in more ways than one.

I grew up admiring the moral stands of Soviet dissidents like Sakharov, and what I saw as the beacon of individual freedom, America. My guest this week, foreign policy expert George Friedman, instead talks concrete interests and analysis in our conversation: www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...

Russia is ramping up its drone attacks on Ukraine—and this is just a glimpse. A nonstop, terrifying swarm of buzzing engines fills the sky.

Simply using the absurd phrase “the Ukraine conflict” says a lot. Calling out the opportunism and hypocrisy of other nations doing business with Russia is fine (China, ahem), but admit you are funding a dictator‘s unprovoked war by choice.

Excellent interview with John Bolton in the Atlantic today. I never thought I would miss John Bolton. Gift article. @radiofreetom.bsky.social @ericowens.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...

Lost elections are rigged, won elections are fair. Good job numbers are real, bad ones are fake. Sex trafficking is bad, unless the traffickers will blame your enemies. Crime is bad, unless the criminals are pro-Trump. This isn’t 4D chess, or even tic-tac-toe, just Autocrat 101.

US power, including hard power, has been a force for good in the world. Yes, I said it. My latest Autocracy In America guest Amb John Bolton also says it, with plenty to back it up. From Iran to Russia to Hamas, what Trump's isolationism gets wrong. www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...

Trump’s appointees are all competing for the Nobel Prize in kissing ass.

🇺🇦🙏 The number of injured of the Russian attack on the capital has increased to 82. At least 10 children were injured, 5 of them in hospitals. The Russians killed six people. ‼️ Russians damaged the mosque of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine "Umma".

The rapid decline of American science has few precedents in history, argues @rossandersen.bsky.social. We are witnessing an unparalleled act of self-sabotage:

The real Liberation Day will come if the courts liberate us from all these tariffs imposed without congressional authorization. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

I think of this whenever I hear that Trump is going to take steps against Russia “soon”.

Increased spending on defense and a new Russian conscription law are signs of the Kremlin's increasingly aggressive posture and preparations for future conflict with Europe and NATO states, according to analysts.

🎯 And only then.

It’s war.

The new episode of Autocracy in America is out and my guest is the remarkable Masih Alinejad, a fierce fighter for rights and democracy in Iran who can help Americans stop taking their own rights and democracy for granted and fight to defend them. www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...

🤪

"When chief executives start accusing their opponents of treason, it is time to throw them out." --Kevin Williamson thedispatch.com/newsletter/w...

As a Russian living in the US, the story of Derek Huffman—an American who moved his family to Russia—got my attention. This anti-woke crusader followed in the footsteps of American Communists who once flocked to Stalin's USSR. Now as then, a bad choice! www.thenextmove.org/p/anti-woke-...

Tick tick tick… ⏰

The new episode of Autocracy in America is out and my guest is the remarkable Masih Alinejad, a fierce fighter for rights and democracy in Iran who can help Americans stop taking their own rights and democracy for granted and fight to defend them. www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...

I'll allow the dubious chess metaphor in this case! But no matter how bad whatever is in the Epstein files is for Trump--and clearly it's bad--I'm sure whatever Putin has on him is worse.

Every day.

How Ukraine’s boxers crushed legends and took over the world stage.

If the Trump admin continues to follow the Russian authoritarian scripts he loves, Maxwell will exonerate Trump, incriminate Dems, get a pardon, and fall out a window. Not necessarily in that order.

My latest, on Trump’s AI-fueled Obama arrest fantasies: Surrounded by sycophants and with the two other branches paralyzed, the operative question should not be *why* would Trump arrest his opponents, but rather, *why not*? Read and subscribe to The Next Move. www.thenextmove.org/p/its-all-fu...

One can certainly debate the degree to which the Trump campaign knew about or encouraged Russian operations to influence the 2016 election, or the relevance they had to the outcome. But the evidence that such operations were real is overwhelming and widely attested by non-US intel agencies.

As the saying goes, just when you think he can't get any lower, there's a knock on the floor!

Why is it often so difficult to listen to people who literally know what they are talking about because they have lived through it? Read Kasparov's "Winter is coming" (www.kasparov.com/winter-is-co...).

Fair enough, as sending poor and ignorant people to the front lines is a traditional Russian value!

🙏

We failed in Russia, but democracy is worth saving in America!

Fantástica, aclaradora y moderadamente terrorífica conversación sobre qué hace a Donald Trump tan valorado por tantos en EEUU. Y cómo y pq ese país se abalanza hacia el autoritarismo. Entre Gary Kasparov y Frank Luntz, en el podcast "Autocracy in America" de The Atlantic pod.link/1763234285/e...

You've inherited a movie theater, what's your first double feature? My Cousin Vinnie From Russia with Love

"Russian cruise missiles, along with ballistic missiles, continue to pose a persistent and serious challenge to Europe’s security environment...Urgent action is needed to close the current gap in Europe’s missile defense architecture." missilematters.substack.com/p/countering...

Well, Colbert could run as a Republican with updating this sticker!

Stephen Colbert can always change careers with great success. Who can forget when he defeated me over the board!? 🤖🥊