Ian Russell
@ianrussell.bsky.social
Law student, writer, progressive Christian, Oxford comma enjoyer. he/him
Reposted by Ian Russell
Senator Kelly is correct.
Plus a Public Service Announcement:
KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.
The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."
Plus a Public Service Announcement:
KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.
The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."
November 30, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Senator Kelly is correct.
Plus a Public Service Announcement:
KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.
The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."
Plus a Public Service Announcement:
KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.
The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."
Reposted by Ian Russell
Ordering no quarter, as Hegseth effectively did, isn't a newfangled modern war crime. It was understood as a crime as far back as the Revolutionary War. Washington threatened to do reprisals over it. The bad guy in 'The Patriot' is (very loosely) based off a British officer who was notorious for it.
November 28, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Ordering no quarter, as Hegseth effectively did, isn't a newfangled modern war crime. It was understood as a crime as far back as the Revolutionary War. Washington threatened to do reprisals over it. The bad guy in 'The Patriot' is (very loosely) based off a British officer who was notorious for it.
Reposted by Ian Russell
“I’ll fight until hell freezes over and then I’ll cut the ice and fight on”
November 17, 2025 at 7:55 PM
“I’ll fight until hell freezes over and then I’ll cut the ice and fight on”
Reposted by Ian Russell
I think any story about Trump's autocracy should be mostly about the people and institutions who failed to stop it. This guy isn't a political genius, everything else just happens to be rotten. 'Toddler Consolidates Power In Household' is a story about incompetent parents, not shrewd maneuvering
October 28, 2025 at 2:07 PM
I think any story about Trump's autocracy should be mostly about the people and institutions who failed to stop it. This guy isn't a political genius, everything else just happens to be rotten. 'Toddler Consolidates Power In Household' is a story about incompetent parents, not shrewd maneuvering
Reposted by Ian Russell
Here's a key exchange. Rep Chip Roy smeared protesters for not believing we have "no king but Jesus," but @anamariecox.bsky.social reports seeing many protesters in his district on No Kings' side with signs bearing more pious religious messages than his.
Transcript:
newrepublic.com/article/2020...
Transcript:
newrepublic.com/article/2020...
October 21, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Here's a key exchange. Rep Chip Roy smeared protesters for not believing we have "no king but Jesus," but @anamariecox.bsky.social reports seeing many protesters in his district on No Kings' side with signs bearing more pious religious messages than his.
Transcript:
newrepublic.com/article/2020...
Transcript:
newrepublic.com/article/2020...
Reposted by Ian Russell
1)You may remember the articles criticizing liberal students for their hesitancy to make friends with conservative students—alleging that they were less open-minded than their conservative counterparts.
October 15, 2025 at 8:53 AM
1)You may remember the articles criticizing liberal students for their hesitancy to make friends with conservative students—alleging that they were less open-minded than their conservative counterparts.
Reposted by Ian Russell
The very first statute authorizing domestic use of the military during domestic emergencies, enacted in 1792 by a Congress full of the same folks who wrote and ratified the Constitution, expressly provided for judicial review in certain circumstances *before* the President could even send troops.
October 5, 2025 at 2:58 PM
The very first statute authorizing domestic use of the military during domestic emergencies, enacted in 1792 by a Congress full of the same folks who wrote and ratified the Constitution, expressly provided for judicial review in certain circumstances *before* the President could even send troops.
Reposted by Ian Russell
The story of 2024 is this: Trump had a plan to destroy American government called Project 2025, which had, literally, not a typo, a 4% approval rating. He lied constantly and said he wouldn't do it.
Then he entered office and immediately implemented AN EVEN MORE EXTREME VERSION OF IT.
Then he entered office and immediately implemented AN EVEN MORE EXTREME VERSION OF IT.
October 3, 2025 at 2:14 AM
The story of 2024 is this: Trump had a plan to destroy American government called Project 2025, which had, literally, not a typo, a 4% approval rating. He lied constantly and said he wouldn't do it.
Then he entered office and immediately implemented AN EVEN MORE EXTREME VERSION OF IT.
Then he entered office and immediately implemented AN EVEN MORE EXTREME VERSION OF IT.
Reposted by Ian Russell
Returning to a subject I was discussing this morning on X, I think a single video like this does more to radicalize people against ICE than any loaded rhetoric any politician has ever used, and DHS should think very hard about the consequences of supporting this kind of behavior from its agents.
I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)
September 25, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Returning to a subject I was discussing this morning on X, I think a single video like this does more to radicalize people against ICE than any loaded rhetoric any politician has ever used, and DHS should think very hard about the consequences of supporting this kind of behavior from its agents.
The number of people who claim to follow the Prince of Peace and then cheer for stuff like this is… well, not that surprising, but still disturbing.
Hegseth: "Maximum lethality -- not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct. We're gonna raise up warriors. Not just defenders."
September 5, 2025 at 10:56 PM
The number of people who claim to follow the Prince of Peace and then cheer for stuff like this is… well, not that surprising, but still disturbing.
Reposted by Ian Russell
A decade ago, the Heritage Foundation went full meltdown about how Obama was an imperial president when he had issued about the same number of executive orders -- though he had reached it after six years, not six months.
September 5, 2025 at 5:15 PM
A decade ago, the Heritage Foundation went full meltdown about how Obama was an imperial president when he had issued about the same number of executive orders -- though he had reached it after six years, not six months.
Reposted by Ian Russell
great work bill cassidy this would have been an excellent question to ask him at the confirmation hearings which you greased the wheels for
September 4, 2025 at 4:50 PM
great work bill cassidy this would have been an excellent question to ask him at the confirmation hearings which you greased the wheels for
Reposted by Ian Russell
The American experiment is based on the idea that citizenship is not based on ethnicity. We tried to conflate the two with slavery and the constitution failed as a result. The reconstruction amendments made this principle explicit. This shit is fundamentally anti American and anti patriotic.
man. if Eric Schmitt's speech to NatCon isn't a sign of the times, i don't know what is
!["America is not a 'universal nation.' ... [American] principles are not abstractions. They are living, breathing things — rooted in a people and embodied in a way of life."
Senator Eric Schmitt got a standing ovation at Nat Con DC for saying America as a nation is the property of a distinct ethnic people.
Americans are a mix of “the most adventurous, the most courageous, the most curious and innovative” of the English, Scotch-Irish, and continental Europeans, who came as settlers and have spent hundreds of years building, fighting, and dying for "a homeland for themselves and their descendants."
"We’re a nation of settlers, explorers, and pioneers — born on the ocean waters that carried the first ships to our shores and forged in the crucible of a wild frontier. Our people tamed a continent, built a civilization from the wilderness, and wrote our nation’s name in history.
"Our ancestors were driven here by destiny, possessed by urgent and fiery conviction, by burning belief, devoted to their cause and their God."
"The Continental Army soldiers dying of frostbite at Valley Forge, Pilgrims struggling to survive in the hard winter soil of Plymouth, pioneers striking out from Missouri for the wild and dangerous frontier, [and] outnumbered Kentucky settlers, repelling wave after wave of Indian war band attacks from behind their stockade walls, would be astonished to hear that they were only fighting for a 'proposition.'
"They believed they were forging a nation — a homeland for themselves and their descendants."
"America, in all its glory, is their gift to us, handed down across the generations.
"It belongs to us. It’s our birthright, our heritage, our destiny.
"If America is everything and everyone, then it is nothing and no one at all."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hbpefio3f5csc44msmbgioxz/bafkreif3x7re3lubuj7kzurj3ayotcnq2l46kwb2p5hp2zid2dagzth5nu@jpeg)
September 3, 2025 at 12:58 AM
The American experiment is based on the idea that citizenship is not based on ethnicity. We tried to conflate the two with slavery and the constitution failed as a result. The reconstruction amendments made this principle explicit. This shit is fundamentally anti American and anti patriotic.
Reposted by Ian Russell
A pre-dog-walk 🧵 on the pandemic.
To me, the lesson of the pandemic is a very familiar one, although as far as I can tell, no one is talking about it or learning it (which is also familiar). It's about the contrast between America's two political parties.
To me, the lesson of the pandemic is a very familiar one, although as far as I can tell, no one is talking about it or learning it (which is also familiar). It's about the contrast between America's two political parties.
September 1, 2025 at 7:12 PM
A pre-dog-walk 🧵 on the pandemic.
To me, the lesson of the pandemic is a very familiar one, although as far as I can tell, no one is talking about it or learning it (which is also familiar). It's about the contrast between America's two political parties.
To me, the lesson of the pandemic is a very familiar one, although as far as I can tell, no one is talking about it or learning it (which is also familiar). It's about the contrast between America's two political parties.
Reposted by Ian Russell
It’s weird that we have an entire term called the “war on Christianity” but it’s only applied to the sexy green M&M and not something that both materially harms Christian churches and offends the theological background of them
NEW from @alejacorazonhm.bsky.social and me: As Trump seeks to flood DC’s streets with federal agents and troops, churches are seeing attendance drops, fear, and detentions.
Seven members of one church have been detained — including an usher on his way to worship. religionnews.com/2025/08/19/a...
Seven members of one church have been detained — including an usher on his way to worship. religionnews.com/2025/08/19/a...
Attendance drops, fear rises in immigrant churches as Trump takes over DC
WASHINGTON (RNS) — ‘I never thought I had one day to cancel Sunday worship because it is not safe for our Latino siblings to come to church. But here we are … ,’ wrote one pastor on Facebook.
religionnews.com
August 21, 2025 at 2:45 PM
It’s weird that we have an entire term called the “war on Christianity” but it’s only applied to the sexy green M&M and not something that both materially harms Christian churches and offends the theological background of them
Reposted by Ian Russell
The people who say we talk too much about slavery are the same ones who insist that we need public monuments and statues of men who are famous solely for waging a war of treason in defense of slavery.
Statues that were created explicitly to deny any sense of "hope and progress" after the Civil War.
Statues that were created explicitly to deny any sense of "hope and progress" after the Civil War.
White House official Lindsey Halligan: "While slavery is obviously a horrible aspect of our nation's history, you can't really talk about slavery honestly unless you also talk about hope and progress ... we need to stop focusing so much on the lack of progress."
August 21, 2025 at 2:34 PM
The people who say we talk too much about slavery are the same ones who insist that we need public monuments and statues of men who are famous solely for waging a war of treason in defense of slavery.
Statues that were created explicitly to deny any sense of "hope and progress" after the Civil War.
Statues that were created explicitly to deny any sense of "hope and progress" after the Civil War.
Reposted by Ian Russell
from chandra manning's wonderful book "what this cruel war was over"
August 19, 2025 at 11:39 PM
from chandra manning's wonderful book "what this cruel war was over"
Reposted by Ian Russell
Something that really stuck with me from the early pages of BLACK RECONSTRUCTION is Du Bois writing about slaveowners who knew deep down exactly what they were guilty of and who resorted to dissipation and alcoholism to drown the voice they heard inside themselves.
August 19, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Something that really stuck with me from the early pages of BLACK RECONSTRUCTION is Du Bois writing about slaveowners who knew deep down exactly what they were guilty of and who resorted to dissipation and alcoholism to drown the voice they heard inside themselves.
Imagine if someone proposed ceding Texas back to Mexico and framed it as “redrawing the maps.”
Doocy asks Zelenskyy an insanely loaded question: "Are you prepared to keep sending Ukrainian troops to their deaths for another couple years, or are you going to agree to redraw the maps?"
August 19, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Imagine if someone proposed ceding Texas back to Mexico and framed it as “redrawing the maps.”
Reposted by Ian Russell
Creating a "national police force" was for decades a right-wing bogeyman, the feared unconstitutional federal usurpation of states' rights, the very thing "support your *local* police" and fetishizing elected sheriffs was all about.
August 16, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Creating a "national police force" was for decades a right-wing bogeyman, the feared unconstitutional federal usurpation of states' rights, the very thing "support your *local* police" and fetishizing elected sheriffs was all about.
Reposted by Ian Russell
Every activated Guardsman has a family, a job, school, or something that they are leaving to do their duty.
It’s one thing when it’s a war… or a real mass civil disturbance, which those only last a few days.
But to rip these people from their lives for a show… is awful.
It’s one thing when it’s a war… or a real mass civil disturbance, which those only last a few days.
But to rip these people from their lives for a show… is awful.
August 12, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Every activated Guardsman has a family, a job, school, or something that they are leaving to do their duty.
It’s one thing when it’s a war… or a real mass civil disturbance, which those only last a few days.
But to rip these people from their lives for a show… is awful.
It’s one thing when it’s a war… or a real mass civil disturbance, which those only last a few days.
But to rip these people from their lives for a show… is awful.
Reposted by Ian Russell
if you're reporting on the UCLA shakedown, you should ask the gov. what the legal basis for the $1 billion demand is. if they point to title VI, ask how a billion dollar demand squares with the limited remedies available by law. if they say the False Claims Act, ask which specific contracts.
So reporters and editors should look to scholars of authoritarianism in covering these stories. The deal-making frame is playing right into the hands of these autocrats. @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social
Another shakedown, the more you cave to the autocrat the more empowered he feels.
August 8, 2025 at 9:46 PM
if you're reporting on the UCLA shakedown, you should ask the gov. what the legal basis for the $1 billion demand is. if they point to title VI, ask how a billion dollar demand squares with the limited remedies available by law. if they say the False Claims Act, ask which specific contracts.
Reposted by Ian Russell
“Hey quick follow up for the History Respecter — what aspect of the Confederacy are you *most* proud of?
The treason against the United States? The defense of slavery? All the losing? I bet it’s the losing.”
The treason against the United States? The defense of slavery? All the losing? I bet it’s the losing.”
Hegseth on restoring a Confederate monument in Arlington cemetery: "We recognize our history. We don't erase it. We don't follow the woke lemmings off the cliff that want to tear down statues ... we're proud of our history."
August 7, 2025 at 11:17 PM
“Hey quick follow up for the History Respecter — what aspect of the Confederacy are you *most* proud of?
The treason against the United States? The defense of slavery? All the losing? I bet it’s the losing.”
The treason against the United States? The defense of slavery? All the losing? I bet it’s the losing.”
Reposted by Ian Russell
Police officers have fully internalized the mantra that their job is to get home safely at the end of their shift, yet they still want to be treated as if they're putting themselves in the line of fire even though they rarely do.
They waited *more than an hour* to enter the Hortman home after watching Mark Hortman get shot in the doorway
Unbelievably tragic & heartbreaking
And, of course, they publicly congratulated themselves on a great, lifesaving police response when they’d let a lawmaker bleed out. Uvalde is everywhere
Unbelievably tragic & heartbreaking
And, of course, they publicly congratulated themselves on a great, lifesaving police response when they’d let a lawmaker bleed out. Uvalde is everywhere
New details about police activity after lawmaker shootings raise questions about response
The Minnesota Star Tribune found that Brooklyn Park police waited more than 60 minutes to enter the Hortman home and that several law enforcement agencies were unaware of the situation for hours.
www.startribune.com
July 27, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Police officers have fully internalized the mantra that their job is to get home safely at the end of their shift, yet they still want to be treated as if they're putting themselves in the line of fire even though they rarely do.
Reposted by Ian Russell
One of the many contradictions of Trumpism is that the whole appeal of Trump is that he is waging TOTAL WAR on every other part of society. But then it's totally unfair if anyone else wants to fight back.
The guy behind Punk In The Park shared a statement after bands like Dropkick Murphys said they’ll never play it again due to his support of Donald Trump.
“We don’t have to see eye to eye on everything to come together and enjoy what unites us, great music, good times, and mutual respect,” he says.
“We don’t have to see eye to eye on everything to come together and enjoy what unites us, great music, good times, and mutual respect,” he says.
Punk In The Park Owner Explains Trump Support After Bands Protest
Punk In The Park, a multi-city music festival, has been facing backlash after owner Cameron Collins was called out for donating money to Trump’s 2024 campaign. Bands are dropping off the lineup, and l...
www.stereogum.com
July 24, 2025 at 9:22 PM
One of the many contradictions of Trumpism is that the whole appeal of Trump is that he is waging TOTAL WAR on every other part of society. But then it's totally unfair if anyone else wants to fight back.