Naomi Schalit
@democracyeditor.bsky.social
Senior Politics & Democracy Editor, @us.theconversation.com; co-founder w/hubby John Christie of The Maine Monitor. Family of journos & writers. We proofread menus.
Have you been bingeing West Wing? You're not alone. @kvanderson.bsky.social & @marxnick.bsky.social write about what its "transition from broadcast TV behemoth to bittersweet comfort watch" tells us about the US today theconversation.com/why-the-west...
Why ‘The West Wing’ went from a bipartisan hit to a polarized streaming comfort watch over 2 decades, reflecting profound shifts in media and politics
‘The West Wing’s’ transition from broadcast TV behemoth to ‘bittersweet comfort watch’ in today’s streaming era reveals how much media and political landscapes have changed in the past 25 years.
theconversation.com
February 9, 2026 at 1:48 PM
Have you been bingeing West Wing? You're not alone. @kvanderson.bsky.social & @marxnick.bsky.social write about what its "transition from broadcast TV behemoth to bittersweet comfort watch" tells us about the US today theconversation.com/why-the-west...
Reposted by Naomi Schalit
Peggy Noonan is brilliant on why all Americans should be worried about the killing off of @washingtonpost.com (h/t @democracyeditor.bsky.social) www.wsj.com/opinion/a-la...
February 6, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Peggy Noonan is brilliant on why all Americans should be worried about the killing off of @washingtonpost.com (h/t @democracyeditor.bsky.social) www.wsj.com/opinion/a-la...
Add to the list of crises affecting American politics: "In dozens of states, an increasing number of state legislative seats are going completely uncontested by one of the two major parties -- a genuine crisis for political representation" from @charlesrhunt.com theconversation.com/theres-a-com...
There’s a competition crisis in America’s state legislatures – and that’s bad for democracy
In dozens of states, an increasing number of legislative seats are going completely uncontested by one of the two major parties.
theconversation.com
February 6, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Add to the list of crises affecting American politics: "In dozens of states, an increasing number of state legislative seats are going completely uncontested by one of the two major parties -- a genuine crisis for political representation" from @charlesrhunt.com theconversation.com/theres-a-com...
Reposted by Naomi Schalit
The first American to win an Olympic medal in ice hockey + the Stanley Cup.
The U.S. flag bearer at 1924 Olympics.
Yet largely forgotten from public memory.
Why? Because he fought racism & stood up for labor dignity a century ago.
Me in @theconversation.com today
theconversation.com/clarence-taf...
The U.S. flag bearer at 1924 Olympics.
Yet largely forgotten from public memory.
Why? Because he fought racism & stood up for labor dignity a century ago.
Me in @theconversation.com today
theconversation.com/clarence-taf...
Clarence ‘Taffy’ Abel: A pioneering US Olympic hockey star who hid his Indigenous identity to play in the NHL
Despite being a foundational figure in American hockey, Taffy Abel – who hid his Ojibwe heritage so he could pass as white – has been largely erased from national memory.
theconversation.com
February 5, 2026 at 2:02 PM
The first American to win an Olympic medal in ice hockey + the Stanley Cup.
The U.S. flag bearer at 1924 Olympics.
Yet largely forgotten from public memory.
Why? Because he fought racism & stood up for labor dignity a century ago.
Me in @theconversation.com today
theconversation.com/clarence-taf...
The U.S. flag bearer at 1924 Olympics.
Yet largely forgotten from public memory.
Why? Because he fought racism & stood up for labor dignity a century ago.
Me in @theconversation.com today
theconversation.com/clarence-taf...
"Despite being a foundational figure in American hockey – an Olympic silver medalist and a two-time Stanley Cup champion – Abel has been largely erased from the national memory," writes historian @michaelsocolow.bsky.social. There's a reason, and it's ugly theconversation.com/clarence-taf...
Clarence ‘Taffy’ Abel: A pioneering US Olympic hockey star who hid his Indigenous identity to play in the NHL
Despite being a foundational figure in American hockey, Taffy Abel – who hid his Ojibwe heritage so he could pass as white – has been largely erased from national memory.
theconversation.com
February 5, 2026 at 2:09 PM
"Despite being a foundational figure in American hockey – an Olympic silver medalist and a two-time Stanley Cup champion – Abel has been largely erased from the national memory," writes historian @michaelsocolow.bsky.social. There's a reason, and it's ugly theconversation.com/clarence-taf...
"Constitutional stress test"-- How what's going on with immigration forces in MN constitutes a full-on assault against the Constitution, including the First, Second, Fourth and 10th Amendments, write Yohuru Williams and Michael J. Lansing theconversation.com/ice-and-bord...
ICE and Border Patrol in Minnesota − accused of violating 1st, 2nd, 4th and 10th amendment rights − are testing whether the Constitution can survive
In Minnesota, can constitutional protections withstand the actions of a federal government seemingly intent on aggressively violating the rule of law?
theconversation.com
February 4, 2026 at 8:58 PM
"Constitutional stress test"-- How what's going on with immigration forces in MN constitutes a full-on assault against the Constitution, including the First, Second, Fourth and 10th Amendments, write Yohuru Williams and Michael J. Lansing theconversation.com/ice-and-bord...
Intellectual city: My brother Joel has been covering anti-government/anti-fascism protests in Torino, and when I saw this photo of his, I thought: I don't think I've ever seen a protest against the repression of CRITICAL THINKING thebattleground.eu/photo/
February 3, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Intellectual city: My brother Joel has been covering anti-government/anti-fascism protests in Torino, and when I saw this photo of his, I thought: I don't think I've ever seen a protest against the repression of CRITICAL THINKING thebattleground.eu/photo/
"Publicly available facts and evidence raise significant questions about whether federal agents acted contrary to established principles of policing and constitutional law in the deaths of Good and Pretti" -- Luke William Hunt, scholar, lawyer, former FBI agent theconversation.com/im-a-former-...
I’m a former FBI agent who studies policing, and here’s how federal agents in Minneapolis are undermining basic law enforcement principles
A policing scholar and former FBI special agent lays out the established principles of policing and constitutional law that govern how federal immigration enforcement efforts should be carried out.
theconversation.com
January 31, 2026 at 3:49 PM
"Publicly available facts and evidence raise significant questions about whether federal agents acted contrary to established principles of policing and constitutional law in the deaths of Good and Pretti" -- Luke William Hunt, scholar, lawyer, former FBI agent theconversation.com/im-a-former-...
From Portland, ME to Portland, OR, citizens are organizing to protect their communities; @oliverkaplan.bsky.social says the nonviolent groups he's studied in war zones teach lessons about surviving danger that Americans have discovered instinctively theconversation.com/anti-ice-pro...
Anti-ICE protesters are following same nonviolent playbook used by people in war zones across the world to fight threats to their communities
Americans are learning and doing the kind of work that civilians in war zones worldwide have done for decades: dealing with threats by organizing to help protect their neighbors and communities.
theconversation.com
January 29, 2026 at 7:13 PM
From Portland, ME to Portland, OR, citizens are organizing to protect their communities; @oliverkaplan.bsky.social says the nonviolent groups he's studied in war zones teach lessons about surviving danger that Americans have discovered instinctively theconversation.com/anti-ice-pro...
Administration lies @ Minnesota led Sam Martin to Hannah Arendt: "The normalization of blatant dishonesty & systematic withholding threaten democracy & corrode the factual ground on which democratic consent is built." A distrustful public is "less able to act." theconversation.com/repeated-gov....
Repeated government lying, warned Hannah Arendt, makes it impossible for citizens to think and to judge
When officials lie time and again, people don’t know what to trust. And when this happens, citizens cannot deliberate, approve or dissent coherently, because a shared world no longer exists.
theconversation.com
January 27, 2026 at 1:46 PM
Administration lies @ Minnesota led Sam Martin to Hannah Arendt: "The normalization of blatant dishonesty & systematic withholding threaten democracy & corrode the factual ground on which democratic consent is built." A distrustful public is "less able to act." theconversation.com/repeated-gov....
ICE says it only needs an administrative, not judicial, warrant, to enter a home and arrest someone. Former federal judge & Dickinson College President John E. Jones III says that turns settled law "on its head" - it's unconstitutional theconversation.com/we-want-you-...
‘We want you arrested because we said so’ – how ICE’s policy on raiding whatever homes it wants violates a basic constitutional right, according to a former federal judge
Since the republic’s beginning, it has been uncontested law that to invade someone’s home, the government needs a warrant reviewed and signed by a judicial officer. ICE is turning that law on its head...
theconversation.com
January 23, 2026 at 2:41 PM
ICE says it only needs an administrative, not judicial, warrant, to enter a home and arrest someone. Former federal judge & Dickinson College President John E. Jones III says that turns settled law "on its head" - it's unconstitutional theconversation.com/we-want-you-...
Can democracy tolerate persuasion? Sam Martin writes "the constitutional tradition of free speech says go ahead and speak. The alternative is a politics in which the state survives by making dissenters illegitimate as citizens. That’s what happened to Renée Good" theconversation.com/a-government...
A government can choose to investigate the killing of a protester − or choose to blame the victim and pin it all on ‘domestic terrorism’
Renee Good’s death was the consequence, writes a First Amendment scholar, of a kind of politics in which the state survives by making dissenters illegitimate as citizens.
theconversation.com
January 22, 2026 at 6:01 PM
Can democracy tolerate persuasion? Sam Martin writes "the constitutional tradition of free speech says go ahead and speak. The alternative is a politics in which the state survives by making dissenters illegitimate as citizens. That’s what happened to Renée Good" theconversation.com/a-government...
Tracing the history of US alliances since the American Revolution, former diplomat Don Heflin @fletcherschool.bsky.social asks whether Trump will now abandon the fruitful postwar cooperation that characterized the 20th century theconversation.com/trumps-green...
Trump’s Greenland ambitions could wreck 20th-century alliances that helped build the modern world order
How the US treats its allies has been a crucial question for every president. What evolved over the centuries into an official embrace of friendly nations is now being reversed by Donald Trump.
theconversation.com
January 20, 2026 at 12:16 AM
Tracing the history of US alliances since the American Revolution, former diplomat Don Heflin @fletcherschool.bsky.social asks whether Trump will now abandon the fruitful postwar cooperation that characterized the 20th century theconversation.com/trumps-green...
Does Trump have the authority to send the military into US cities? asks con law expert Jennifer Selin. "The answer to this question involves a web of legal provisions that ... simultaneously try to balance presidential power with the power of state leaders" theconversation.com/the-insurrec...
The Insurrection Act is one of at least 26 legal loopholes in the law banning the use of the US military domestically
Can the president use the Insurrection Act and send the military into U.S. cities? A web of legal provisions try to balance presidential power with the power of state leaders.
theconversation.com
January 16, 2026 at 3:10 PM
Does Trump have the authority to send the military into US cities? asks con law expert Jennifer Selin. "The answer to this question involves a web of legal provisions that ... simultaneously try to balance presidential power with the power of state leaders" theconversation.com/the-insurrec...
On a day when the FBI raided a Washington Post reporter's home, here's a story about how "most modern autocrats have worked to silence free speech and crush independent media," writes Konstantin Zhukov theconversation.com/searching-re...
Searching reporters’ homes, suing journalists and repressing citizen dissent are well-known steps toward autocracy
President Donald Trump’s threats against independent media and free speech look a lot like the actions of autocrats elsewhere intent on undermining the institutions meant to keep them in check.
theconversation.com
January 14, 2026 at 5:53 PM
On a day when the FBI raided a Washington Post reporter's home, here's a story about how "most modern autocrats have worked to silence free speech and crush independent media," writes Konstantin Zhukov theconversation.com/searching-re...
Maurizio Valsania: how Trump's harsh vision of US national interest diverges from Washington's respectful, modest one "Washington...forged a vision that treated restraint, not self-justifying unilateralism, as the truest measure of American national interest" theconversation.com/george-washi....
George Washington’s foreign policy was built on respect for other nations and patient consideration of future burdens
For the nation’s first president, friendliness was strategy, not concession: the republic would treat other nations with civility in order to remain independent of their appetites and quarrels.
theconversation.com
January 9, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Maurizio Valsania: how Trump's harsh vision of US national interest diverges from Washington's respectful, modest one "Washington...forged a vision that treated restraint, not self-justifying unilateralism, as the truest measure of American national interest" theconversation.com/george-washi....
"For Congress’ most intricate issues" -- especially health care -- "rank-and-file members do not have the time, resources or, frankly, the interest to dedicate to meaningful problem-solving," writes SoRelle Wykoff Gaynor theconversation.com/congress-tak...
Congress takes up health care again − and impatient voters shouldn’t hold their breath for a cure
Why does health care reform keep failing despite decades of attention and expanding costs? A scholar of Congress has some answers.
theconversation.com
January 8, 2026 at 12:05 PM
"For Congress’ most intricate issues" -- especially health care -- "rank-and-file members do not have the time, resources or, frankly, the interest to dedicate to meaningful problem-solving," writes SoRelle Wykoff Gaynor theconversation.com/congress-tak...
What's next? "Perhaps no one outside of Venezuela or Cuba should care more about the U.S. capture of nominal President Nicolás Maduro than the Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei," writes Aaron Pilkington @uofdenver.bsky.social theconversation.com/today-venezu...
Today Venezuela, tomorrow Iran: can the Islamic Republic survive a second Trump presidency?
Perhaps no one outside of Venezuela should care more about the US invasion and capture of President Nicolás Maduro than the Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
theconversation.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:13 PM
What's next? "Perhaps no one outside of Venezuela or Cuba should care more about the U.S. capture of nominal President Nicolás Maduro than the Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei," writes Aaron Pilkington @uofdenver.bsky.social theconversation.com/today-venezu...
"Removing a leader – even a brutal one – is not the same as advancing a legitimate political order," says Monica Duffy Toft @fletcherschool.bsky.social. Force "may deliver short-term obedience, but is a counterproductive strategy for building durable power" theconversation.com/can-the-us-r...
Can the US ‘run’ Venezuela? Military force can topple a dictator, but it cannot create political authority or legitimacy
If Washington governs by force in Venezuela, it will repeat the failures of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya: Power can topple regimes, but it cannot create political authority or legitimacy.
theconversation.com
January 5, 2026 at 12:42 PM
"Removing a leader – even a brutal one – is not the same as advancing a legitimate political order," says Monica Duffy Toft @fletcherschool.bsky.social. Force "may deliver short-term obedience, but is a counterproductive strategy for building durable power" theconversation.com/can-the-us-r...
So did an editor miss this (clear/unclear), or was it on purpose: “…Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday made it clear that it is somewhat unclear what’s next for the Latin American country” www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
Rubio remains vague on transition plan for Venezuela
“We want Venezuela to move in a certain direction, because not only do we think it's good for the people of Venezuela, it's in our national interest,” he says.
www.politico.com
January 4, 2026 at 5:02 PM
So did an editor miss this (clear/unclear), or was it on purpose: “…Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday made it clear that it is somewhat unclear what’s next for the Latin American country” www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
Congress has "a legal, constitutional, one might even say moral, responsibility to assert themselves as a branch" and say, “We have a role here" says war powers expert Sarah Burns in an interview with me about the US attack on Venezuela theconversation.com/i-wrote-a-bo...
I wrote a book on the politics of war powers, and Trump’s attack on Venezuela reflects Congress surrendering its decision-making powers
Congress has a legal, constitutional and even moral responsibility to assert itself as a branch when it comes to military actions by the US, says an expert on war powers.
theconversation.com
January 3, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Congress has "a legal, constitutional, one might even say moral, responsibility to assert themselves as a branch" and say, “We have a role here" says war powers expert Sarah Burns in an interview with me about the US attack on Venezuela theconversation.com/i-wrote-a-bo...
With more Trump administration pressure on the Smithsonian this week to sanitize US history, George Orwell, via historian Laura Beers, helps you understand what's going on: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” theconversation.com/the-orwellia...
The Orwellian echoes in Trump’s push for ‘Americanism’ at the Smithsonian
Donald Trump aims to rewrite America’s official history, including at one of the nation’s key sites of public history-making: the Smithsonian. George Orwell would recognize Trump’s impulse.
theconversation.com
December 21, 2025 at 4:20 PM
With more Trump administration pressure on the Smithsonian this week to sanitize US history, George Orwell, via historian Laura Beers, helps you understand what's going on: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” theconversation.com/the-orwellia...
Headlines in the past focused on unidentified elites who may be exposed or embarrassed, rather than on the people whose suffering made the case newsworthy in the first place: the girls and young women Epstein abused and trafficked, writes Sam Martin at Boise State theconversation.com/as-doj-begin...
As DOJ begins to release Epstein files, his many victims deserve more attention than the powerful men in his ‘client list’
Powerful men connected to Jeffrey Epstein are named, dissected and speculated about. The survivors, unless they work hard to step forward, remain a blurred mass in the background.
theconversation.com
December 20, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Headlines in the past focused on unidentified elites who may be exposed or embarrassed, rather than on the people whose suffering made the case newsworthy in the first place: the girls and young women Epstein abused and trafficked, writes Sam Martin at Boise State theconversation.com/as-doj-begin...
Are Americans about to be led again into a war with Venezuela based on misrepresentations and lies? It’s happened before, writes Betty Medsger, who describes the run-ups to the wars in Iraq and Vietnam theconversation.com/deception-an...
Deception and lies from the White House to justify a war in Venezuela? We’ve seen this movie before in run-ups to wars in Vietnam and Iraq
Two US wars based on lies, in which tens of thousands of American troops and millions of civilians died, offer a cautionary tale about the rush to war.
theconversation.com
December 19, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Are Americans about to be led again into a war with Venezuela based on misrepresentations and lies? It’s happened before, writes Betty Medsger, who describes the run-ups to the wars in Iraq and Vietnam theconversation.com/deception-an...
What to do when Orwell is all I can think of while watching Karoline Leavitt? Ask Orwell expert @fieryparticle.bsky.social
to analyze the "transparency," doublespeak, doublethink & constant reminders of “WAR IS PEACE; FREEDOM IS SLAVERY; IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” theconversation.com/karoline-lea...
to analyze the "transparency," doublespeak, doublethink & constant reminders of “WAR IS PEACE; FREEDOM IS SLAVERY; IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” theconversation.com/karoline-lea...
Karoline Leavitt’s White House briefing doublethink is straight out of Orwell’s ‘1984’
A historian analyzes how White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s claims about her boss and his administration are ‘doublespeak’ straight out of the pages of George Orwell’s ‘1984.’
theconversation.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:55 PM
What to do when Orwell is all I can think of while watching Karoline Leavitt? Ask Orwell expert @fieryparticle.bsky.social
to analyze the "transparency," doublespeak, doublethink & constant reminders of “WAR IS PEACE; FREEDOM IS SLAVERY; IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” theconversation.com/karoline-lea...
to analyze the "transparency," doublespeak, doublethink & constant reminders of “WAR IS PEACE; FREEDOM IS SLAVERY; IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” theconversation.com/karoline-lea...