This is probably the best story I have read on Oregon's public defense crisis. People don't realize how much the laggard bureaucracy around this grinds up the people actually caught in the system.

New at @flux.community: President Trump's deranged attack on Pope Leo XIV will have dire consequences for the president and GOP that outlast the ill-begotten war on Iran. 1/x plus.flux.community/p/donald-tru...

Donald Trump’s belligerent attacks on the Pope are backfiring badly Picking a fight with a peace-mongering pontiff may well pay massive future dividends — for opponents of the president and MAGA. Via @jtccarroll.flux.community:

SCOOP: The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, U.S. officials said, as thousands of American soldiers and Marines arrive in the Middle East for what could become a dangerous new phase of the war should President Trump escalate. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

ProPublica has found multiple cases of women with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions. Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old mother, was told by doctors there was no emergency before preeclampsia killed her. (Published Nov. 2025)

ICYMI at @flux.community: As Trump's conduct of his illegal Iran war spirals downwards, the case for Democrats opposing budgetary support for more mayhem in the Middle East (and very possibly beyond) is overwhelming. 1/ plus.flux.community/p/as-trumps-...

on the jim crow travesty that is the SAVE act (gift link)

It would be particularly fitting if Trump’s war—coming after years of promises to the contrary from Trump and MAGA chief ideologist Vance—ends up playing its own critical role in causing the Trump/Maga coalition to come undone. 7/7 newrepublic.com/article/2076...

A great point in @lkatfield.bsky.social's book on MAGA right is how all this grandiose playacting reflects a hyper-masculine ethic that’s deeply solipsistic and juvenile—so much so that it's actually “unmanly.” WH and DHS twitter feeds traffic in this constantly. 6/ newrepublic.com/article/2076...

A big reason that the war will continue dividing the Trump coalition is that MAGA's weird "Western civilizational emergency" rhetoric is like white noise to most ordinary people. You see this on both the Iran war and immigration. 5/ (Commenting on Douthat's latest) newrepublic.com/article/2076...

Trump and Vance's promise of "no new wars" was ubiquitous. It clearly helped drive young people to Trump. But now, youth pollster John Della Volpe tells me that his interviews with young men reveal a deep sense of betrayal. Fascinating stuff from him here. 4/ newrepublic.com/article/2076...

The "realignment" thesis was always overstated. Trump made inroads among young and nonwhite working class voters, but they were clearly temporary. The evidence of this is now overwhelming. Trump's war is further proving the point. /3 (h/t @gelliottmorris.com) newrepublic.com/article/2076...

Trump's invasion is the most unpopular war in modern US history. That matters. It shows the public is not reflexively pro war even at moments of intense propaganda bombardment. It's really tanking with groups Trump made inroads among. Look at the numbers below! 2/ newrepublic.com/article/2076...

Trump's Iran war is breaking up the MAGA coalition. Among young and nonwhite working class, only *one in five* approve, per new data I've obtained. That's extraordinary and heartening to see. It's also delivering another blow to Trump's "realignment." 1/ (new piece) newrepublic.com/article/2076...

My latest @flux.community: Democrats who are considering funding the illegal attack on Iran risk tossing the opposition into a moral abyss, while betraying the American people in favor of the president. 1/ plus.flux.community/p/assenting-...

After condemning Trump's unauthorized attacks on Iran, some congressional Democrats are talking about funding it. This would severely undermine their moral credibility with voters, @jtccarroll.flux.community writes plus.flux.community/p/assenting-...

New — I spoke to eight trans people in Kansas about the new state law that invalidated their driver’s licenses overnight, what’s it’s like to live there right now, plus details of two DMV emails exclusively obtained by The Handbasket that shed light on the law’s chaotic and cruel rollout:

"Not only has the United States vowed “resistance” against multiracial democracies in Europe, but the United State government is also treating issues of national purity and “civilization” as vital to national security. This is Fascist thinking." lucid.substack.com/p/when-white...

The federal occupation of the Twin Cities, and residents' valiant response, shows that a determined opposition to Trump can change minds, rally an anti-MAGA majority, and clarify the stark conflicts our nation faces. New from me at @flux.community: 1/ plus.flux.community/p/after-twin...

My latest at @flux.community: In the Trump administration's elevation of lawless federal agents, we can see a parallel denigration of the meaning of American citizenship. 1/ plus.flux.community/p/all-the-ki...

It's a sign that things are changing that Dems are now circulating strategy memos saying they can take this issue on directly.

Great stuff here from @gregsargent.bsky.social.

Please read 👇👇👇

This is the second account - the first being in Chicago - of DHS agents mass detaining people and then *sorting them by race*.

NEW: This was the last essay I was supposed to publish at the Washington Post. But they fired me. I'm publishing it anyway-- about my family's connection to a sword the British looted from Ghana in 1874. If youve ever wondered why I love swords, here's why. open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

There is a major political organization allied with the president that got so mad a Latino artist was tapped to play at the Super Bowl they made a whole alternative show. We should all take a moment to reflect on that. It is so blatantly racist.

1. It was not an accident. 2. It was not a staffer. 3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia. 4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares. 5. His base agrees with him. 6. He will do it again. 7. No one in power will hold him accountable.

Essential read from @thomaszimmer.bsky.social on the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism on the streets of Minneapolis: a granular accounting of recent events, contextualized within Zimmer’s description of a MAGA assault on American democracy. 1/x democracyamericana.com/posts/fccbc0...

It’s spreading. Kids will die because of RFK Jr and Trump

4 federal agents pull over an elderly US citizen for the suspected crime of being brown, break her car window, throw her to the ground, then drive off after they find her US Passport in her purse. The Salem Police, when called, say there’s nothing they can do. www.salemreporter.com/2026/01/31/u...

The agents who killed Alex Pretti are now identified by ProPublica. The man who shot Pretti in the back ("A4"), is Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa. The man who instigated the confrontation, then shot Pretti's prone body, is CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez. Not new hires - 8 and 12 years service. 1/

The Trump admin wont name the agents who killed Alexi Pretti. So we are.

BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

As Congress Begins to Grapple With Restrictions on ICE, States Take Matters Into Their Own Hands talkingpointsmemo.com/news/state-a...

New at @flux.community: Don't believe the president's talk of de-escalation in Minnesota — violence against citizens is the inevitable by-product of a war on blue America conducted under cover of immigration enforcement. 1/x plus.flux.community/p/president-...

This administration is stark raving mad, and it is controlled by men - Vance, Miller, Bovino - are all-but-publicly taking orders from neo-Nazis bent on violent removal of nonwhite Americans. The admin barely hides many of these links. And it is driving a campaign of ethnic violence in our country.

I know all eyes are on Minneapolis, but there's a fast-approaching nightmare in Springfield, Ohio. Trump is revoking protected status for tens of thousands of Haitians living there on Feb. 3. Reportedly, on Feb. 4, 1000 ICE agents are arriving to remove this population. Ethnic cleansing.

Trump is dispatching Border Czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to "manage operations on the ground." In case you missed it, here's our investigation into Homan and his relationships with government contractors/consultants cashing in on the deportation business:

From @matthew.flux.community @flux.community, a great overview of the bigger picture behind MAGA violence on the streets of Minneapolis: the U.S. is in an unsettled transitional period, with the reactionary Trump regime at war with modern America. 1/x plus.flux.community/p/the-limina...

As @jtccarroll.bsky.social wrote, Democrats must shape public defiance into something meaningful and real. We have to educate people about why government is the ultimate life hack, and that government must listen to them also. /end

Even if you don't like Zohran Mamdani's issue positions, the fact that he is out there proposing brand-new policies and really mixing it up with the public is what all Democratic politicians should be doing. You can't protect democracy if you don't listen to the people .

But we cannot just oppose fascism. We must advocate for something better. And a centerpiece of that must be restoring community and helping others. Isolated, impoverished people will look anywhere for help--even from someone seeking to imprison them.

The big thing we have going for us, however, is that while people can be tricked into voting for anti-democratic candidates like Trump was in 2024, people don't like totalitarianism. Ironically, dictators need popular support to implement dictatorship. This is why I said fascism is a state of mind.

And finally, there is a third significant psychological impulse that Trumpism has going for it, and that is the appeal to "naturalism." Many people have deep suspicion of technologies they don't understand. RFK has weaponized this for Trump, as @nataliapetrzela.bsky.social and I noted:

Beyond the biology, there is a core philosophical dilemma at work here, the "problem of other minds." We don't have access to other people's thoughts, and so it's easy to think their desires aren't justified. This has political implications as @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social and I discussed:

Because humans were originally pack animals, many of us have biologically ingrained desires to follow leaders. This is what authoritarians use. And, as @mattpolprof.bsky.social and I have discussed, controlling the masses is the centerpiece of all right-wing philosophies.

Trump has been an extraordinarily effective advocate for American fascism because his vaudeville demeanor and marketing sense make him trustable to people who do not follow politics. But some people, like Tim Pool, have deep sexual fetishes to be dominated. There are millions like him.

Dictatorship is a state of mind, not just for the ruler, but also in the people. To win, democracy advocates must: 1) Know and tell the full fascistic agenda of the people who puppet Trump, and 2) Understand and advocate for their own values

🧵 The people of Minnesota, especially Renee Good and Alex Pretti, have shown that American democracy still has a lot of strength left within it. But the battle is far from over. The US is in a liminal moment, a time of transition. We can do this, but there's much to know and to do.