Nicholas Grossman
@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
69K followers 860 following 16K posts
International Relations prof at U. Illinois. Editor of Arc Digital. Author “Drones and Terrorism.” Politics, national security, and occasional nerdery.
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Reposted by Nicholas Grossman
gtconway.bsky.social
There is absolutely zero chance that a man who took $50,000 in cash in a paper bag from an FBI agent on camera would have been appointed to any position by any other president.
Reposted by Nicholas Grossman
ouij.bsky.social
The fact that protests now feature people who don’t normally have to worry about what might happen to them in an adverse encounter with security forces is a HUGE DEAL.

It means that the “real” victims don’t have to suffer alone. It means that some people care about something more than themselves
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Someone in my mentions is upset because these people haven’t suffered the worst at ICE’s hands and therefore they shouldn’t be praised for being out on the streets?

Yeah, no. To push back on these people we need everyone — especially those with relative privilege — to get up and get involved.
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Portland, you magnificent weirdos
Reposted by Nicholas Grossman
dov.bsky.social
What it means is quite literally that you can, in fact, find people of physical traits you wouldn't expect in almost every ethnic group in the world. There are Saudis who are natural blondes and Finns whose grandparents were all born there who are remarkably swarthy. It just happens.
Reposted by Nicholas Grossman
laprofmme.bsky.social
Courtesy of colleagues at Penn
A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 engraving in the Pennsylvania Gazette, published in Philadelphia, in an effort to foster cooperation among the various colonies against the tyrant king of Britain, with the American colonies replaced by the nine universities selected for special collaboration opportunities
Reposted by Nicholas Grossman
noturtlesoup17.bsky.social
The inflatables have made it to Broadview.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
That’s a good way to put it.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
That’s a pretty good analogy, though in the Suicide Squad, when Peacemaker is fully into his own BS, not show Peacemaker when he’s reckoning with it.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Yup. That often means “they were so good at the performance it even worked on me, a jaded political media figure.”
Reposted by Nicholas Grossman
jamellebouie.net
a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society
thomaszimmer.bsky.social
What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
With a generous accounting of “peacemaker,” the best an honest person can say about the U.S. president is he failed badly in Ukraine after insisting it’d be simple, lied about conflicts that are still going or he wasn’t involved in, and helped broker one Israel-Hamas deal that may or may not hold.
reuning.bsky.social
Trump straight up murdering people in the Caribbean and the NYT writes this
The Trump Split Screen: A Peacemaker Abroad, a Retribution Campaign at Home
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Everyone saw Jan. 6 was Trump supporters trying to overthrow the Constitution, everyone saw him lie a lot, without which Jan. 6 never would’ve happened.

Ironically, Biden was the least powerful president-elect in modern US history, because all previous presidents did the transition rather than lie.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Yes, that’s it, that’s what I’m getting by “post-truth.” A deep indifference to truth and lies, even hostility to the notion that such a distinction matters.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
All the “Trump doesn’t remember the recent past, his mind is gone” comments work as a bit, and possibly as an appeal to voters, but it’s post-truth lying, not accidental forgetfulness.

He was doing the same thing when his mind was in better shape a decade ago. Fans are acculturated to it. Into it.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Yeah, that’s… That’s not what Watchmen is about.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
I’m certainly not claiming we’re in a totalitarian country right now. But the movement we face is totalitarian in its desires and efforts.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
The fact that this isn’t new—except for some specific details—that it’s happened multiple times and has been documented, analyzed, and understood, makes all this even worse.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Yes. The lie itself, and untethering the public from the truth more generally, is the point.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
You shouldn’t. I said “no institutional design can overcome,” not “nothing can.”
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Maybe to “who was running the U.S. government?” but not to “who was president?”

At minimum, we can say with certainty that Joe Biden was neither.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
She published that in 1951, and it’s eerie reading it today.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Hannah Arendt distinguished totalitarianism “from other forms of political oppression known to us such as despotism, tyranny and dictatorship” in that totalitarianism seeks to subjugate civil society and private lives, not just political opponents, using psychological, not just physical, repression.
editorialboard.bsky.social
I saw the new George Orwell documentary last night. It’s called 2+2=5. I have been a little bit squeamish about applying the word totalitarian to Trump and the Republicans. Not anymore. We are experiencing a totalitarian movement. There’s no question.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
“Who was president in 2020?” remains one of the most pertinent questions in American politics—absurd, yes, but here we are—and that extends to “who was president January 1 - 19, 2021?”
joycewhitevance.bsky.social
That’s a nice trick, since Biden wasn’t the president on Jan 6.