Benj
@splatterthought.bsky.social
We are contumacious diodes with mercurial biases, and we are transfixed by our borealis.
PNW, Go Hawks
PNW, Go Hawks
Reposted by Benj
If you don't take his 2026 threats seriously, IMO it's either because you lack imagination, or because you don't truly grasp how Competitive Authoritarianism works.
January 17, 2026 at 7:16 AM
If you don't take his 2026 threats seriously, IMO it's either because you lack imagination, or because you don't truly grasp how Competitive Authoritarianism works.
Reposted by Benj
Tribes have been here longer than any of us, they are quite literally the opposite of immigrants.
Tribal leaders are still unable to locate their missing members.
January 17, 2026 at 5:10 AM
Tribes have been here longer than any of us, they are quite literally the opposite of immigrants.
🧵⬇️
🤔 In 2021, Kip Mock of Moscow ID accidentally set his pal, Elijah Froh, on fire by pouring diesel on a fire. Mock & Froh were later were hired by Valar Atomics—founded by their pal, Isaiah Taylor, a high school dropout from Moscow, ID who somehow landed a DOE contract to build a nuclear reactor. 1/
January 17, 2026 at 4:25 AM
🧵⬇️
Reposted by Benj
"The best hope for keeping America’s NATO and Ukraine policies in their holding patterns until U.S. politics changes is for Europe to become, in Trump’s eyes, too much trouble to be worth it."
Europe’s Only Hope Is to Stand Up to Trump
Time for some transatlantic hardball.
lnk.thebulwark.com
January 17, 2026 at 4:00 AM
"The best hope for keeping America’s NATO and Ukraine policies in their holding patterns until U.S. politics changes is for Europe to become, in Trump’s eyes, too much trouble to be worth it."
Reposted by Benj
NEW: The DOJ has filed a motion to block the appointment of an independent monitor to release the Epstein files in the Ghislaine Maxwell case.
The DOJ argues that federal courts lack the authority to enforce the Epstein Transparency Act… 1/
The DOJ argues that federal courts lack the authority to enforce the Epstein Transparency Act… 1/
January 17, 2026 at 4:13 AM
NEW: The DOJ has filed a motion to block the appointment of an independent monitor to release the Epstein files in the Ghislaine Maxwell case.
The DOJ argues that federal courts lack the authority to enforce the Epstein Transparency Act… 1/
The DOJ argues that federal courts lack the authority to enforce the Epstein Transparency Act… 1/
Reposted by Benj
At the most recent TPUSA event there were a bevy of holocaust deniers and Proud Boy aligned streamers. Consider what it means that THAT gathering was considered pretty tame and overly mainstream oriented by many college Republicans.
January 17, 2026 at 3:59 AM
At the most recent TPUSA event there were a bevy of holocaust deniers and Proud Boy aligned streamers. Consider what it means that THAT gathering was considered pretty tame and overly mainstream oriented by many college Republicans.
Reposted by Benj
The future of the Republican Party is incredibly bleak. Imagine a “conservatism” in which the Nick Fuentes-curious TPUSA kids (overwhelmingly women) are the normies, while the Nick Fuentes fanboy incels are running the predominantly male College Republicans. nymag.com/intelligence...
Inside the Conservative Campus Revolution
How Charlie Kirk’s youth movement was overwhelmed by darker forces after his death.
nymag.com
January 17, 2026 at 3:53 AM
The future of the Republican Party is incredibly bleak. Imagine a “conservatism” in which the Nick Fuentes-curious TPUSA kids (overwhelmingly women) are the normies, while the Nick Fuentes fanboy incels are running the predominantly male College Republicans. nymag.com/intelligence...
Reposted by Benj
Three generations of law professors making history up is enough.
Scholars spend decades researching and writing history with nuance and care.
American law professors will take a couple of months to relearn all of science to explain why the world is, in fact, flat.
Scholars spend decades researching and writing history with nuance and care.
American law professors will take a couple of months to relearn all of science to explain why the world is, in fact, flat.
January 16, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Three generations of law professors making history up is enough.
Scholars spend decades researching and writing history with nuance and care.
American law professors will take a couple of months to relearn all of science to explain why the world is, in fact, flat.
Scholars spend decades researching and writing history with nuance and care.
American law professors will take a couple of months to relearn all of science to explain why the world is, in fact, flat.
Reposted by Benj
This is insanity. They are being investigated for *making statements* critical of ICE.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
January 17, 2026 at 3:50 AM
This is insanity. They are being investigated for *making statements* critical of ICE.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Reposted by Benj
it is true that Lizza is not an entirely good faith actor himself; it is also true that this is a massive journalistic scandal of the kind that gets no attention because it implicates the entire decision making process of the powerful. www.telos.news/p/part-9-cov...
Part 9: Cover-up
Combat Journalism
www.telos.news
January 17, 2026 at 12:05 AM
it is true that Lizza is not an entirely good faith actor himself; it is also true that this is a massive journalistic scandal of the kind that gets no attention because it implicates the entire decision making process of the powerful. www.telos.news/p/part-9-cov...
"I’m generally pretty optimistic about the outlook here. But it’s important to understand clearly the theory that is being advanced, the aim that its authors have in mind."
Succinct piece.
State sovereignty is being criminalized.
Succinct piece.
State sovereignty is being criminalized.
Watch What They’re Doing: Trump Threatens to Make War on the States talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/watch...
Watch What They’re Doing: Trump Threatens to Make War on the States
We have late word this evening that the Department of Justice has...
talkingpointsmemo.com
January 17, 2026 at 3:50 AM
"I’m generally pretty optimistic about the outlook here. But it’s important to understand clearly the theory that is being advanced, the aim that its authors have in mind."
Succinct piece.
State sovereignty is being criminalized.
Succinct piece.
State sovereignty is being criminalized.
Reposted by Benj
Christ, this (from Lizza's latest) is pretty fucking damning of...literally the entire media(?) What the fuck?
January 17, 2026 at 1:09 AM
Christ, this (from Lizza's latest) is pretty fucking damning of...literally the entire media(?) What the fuck?
Reposted by Benj
The hostile Supreme Court notwithstanding, lower courts have really been the constitutional superstars of the third American Civil conflict. May they continue to hold the line.
BREAKING: Judge enters TRO blocking feds from interfering with or arresting peaceful protesters in Minnesota. Judge Kate Menendez, Biden appointee. Order: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
January 17, 2026 at 1:46 AM
The hostile Supreme Court notwithstanding, lower courts have really been the constitutional superstars of the third American Civil conflict. May they continue to hold the line.
Reposted by Benj
“We could fix Portland in 45 minutes”
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts”
“There’s very fine people on both sides”
“STAND BACK AND STAND BY”
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts”
“There’s very fine people on both sides”
“STAND BACK AND STAND BY”
Trump has long talked about using violence against Americans (and obviously immigrants)— Old enough to remember when Trump inquired about shooting protesters in the legs amid the protests that took place after George Floyd's murder in 2020
Trump taking the oval was journalistic malpractice — and 👇🏼
Trump taking the oval was journalistic malpractice — and 👇🏼
a poster that says hold those who orchestrated the jan 6 attack accountable on it
ALT: a poster that says hold those who orchestrated the jan 6 attack accountable on it
media.tenor.com
January 17, 2026 at 12:03 AM
“We could fix Portland in 45 minutes”
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts”
“There’s very fine people on both sides”
“STAND BACK AND STAND BY”
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts”
“There’s very fine people on both sides”
“STAND BACK AND STAND BY”
Reposted by Benj
I genuinely don't understood how America took the emoluments clause -- the common-sense bar on a president using his powers to line his own pockets, a law children can understand -- and just said, nah, that doesn't apply for our Very Special Boy.
He’s turned the presidency into the world’s largest ATM machine.
January 17, 2026 at 1:26 AM
I genuinely don't understood how America took the emoluments clause -- the common-sense bar on a president using his powers to line his own pockets, a law children can understand -- and just said, nah, that doesn't apply for our Very Special Boy.
⬇️⬇️⬇️
Over the last year the entire "free speech on campus" beat has been revealed as an utter fraud. Years of punditry puked out in ignorance and bad faith.
Yet even as the fraud becomes undeniable we still get stories about wide-eyed idealists who just wanted 'ideological diversity' and 'open debate'.
Yet even as the fraud becomes undeniable we still get stories about wide-eyed idealists who just wanted 'ideological diversity' and 'open debate'.
January 17, 2026 at 1:44 AM
⬇️⬇️⬇️
Reposted by Benj
Same with DOGE — it’s so weird when people are Iike “gosh it failed to meet its goal of government efficiency” rather than “looks like its real goal was to steal data while breaking federal agencies and ending support for black and brown people abroad”
Decent story but infuriating that this is still being cast as a good-faith institution that failed to achieve its lofty goals rather than a fundamentally cynical right-wing project.
Look what Bari Weiss is doing to CBS! Why would you assume her goal here was any different?
Look what Bari Weiss is doing to CBS! Why would you assume her goal here was any different?
January 16, 2026 at 11:56 PM
Same with DOGE — it’s so weird when people are Iike “gosh it failed to meet its goal of government efficiency” rather than “looks like its real goal was to steal data while breaking federal agencies and ending support for black and brown people abroad”
Reposted by Benj
Funniest thing I could possibly have seen when checking the page
January 17, 2026 at 12:52 AM
Funniest thing I could possibly have seen when checking the page
Reposted by Benj
I wrote to Hilton demanding the closure of my account and used the online portal to demand the deletion of my personal information and consequentially the termination of my account. That was four days ago. They just sent me spam promo email about my account.
I guess they want the hard way.
I guess they want the hard way.
In case you missed this thread last night: you can ditch your Hilton account by writing to [email protected] or, if you’re in a state that allows it, by demanding deletion of your personal data through this link
www.hilton.com/en/hilton-ho...
www.hilton.com/en/hilton-ho...
January 17, 2026 at 1:32 AM
I wrote to Hilton demanding the closure of my account and used the online portal to demand the deletion of my personal information and consequentially the termination of my account. That was four days ago. They just sent me spam promo email about my account.
I guess they want the hard way.
I guess they want the hard way.
You should really listen to this...
This whitewashing in textbooks goes back decades, & is still happening, and is central to out troubles today...
So infuriating... enraging really.
This whitewashing in textbooks goes back decades, & is still happening, and is central to out troubles today...
So infuriating... enraging really.
"He was at that really specific age of young boyhood where you maybe might be sort of interested in kissing a girl, but you still like Spider-Man....And the textbook says he was a 'young black man.'"
Wright Thompson talks Emmett Till with @timmiller.bsky.social:
Wright Thompson talks Emmett Till with @timmiller.bsky.social:
January 17, 2026 at 1:37 AM
You should really listen to this...
This whitewashing in textbooks goes back decades, & is still happening, and is central to out troubles today...
So infuriating... enraging really.
This whitewashing in textbooks goes back decades, & is still happening, and is central to out troubles today...
So infuriating... enraging really.
Reposted by Benj
REQUEST: If you have or have seen the subpoenas or know of any other information about this investigation, please reach out. If you are in DOJ, ASAO, White House, Minn Gov or AG’s Office, or Minneapolis mayor’s office or legal dep’t, and have any relevant info, I am on Signal at crg.32
January 17, 2026 at 12:19 AM
REQUEST: If you have or have seen the subpoenas or know of any other information about this investigation, please reach out. If you are in DOJ, ASAO, White House, Minn Gov or AG’s Office, or Minneapolis mayor’s office or legal dep’t, and have any relevant info, I am on Signal at crg.32
Reposted by Benj
People who are speaking up, in the right way:
fallows.substack.com/p/the-rhetor...
By me. First 4/5ths before paywall.
fallows.substack.com/p/the-rhetor...
By me. First 4/5ths before paywall.
The Rhetoric of Leaders: Meeting the Moment.
'In the life of the human spirit, words are action.' So said a US president during the Iron Curtain era, supporting all who spoke up for human dignity and human rights. Who is speaking up now? A list.
fallows.substack.com
January 17, 2026 at 1:09 AM
People who are speaking up, in the right way:
fallows.substack.com/p/the-rhetor...
By me. First 4/5ths before paywall.
fallows.substack.com/p/the-rhetor...
By me. First 4/5ths before paywall.
Reposted by Benj
Reposted by Benj
Judge Accuses Trump, Rubio, and Noem of “Unconstitutional Conspiracy”
A Reagan-appointed federal judge says the Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestinian activists is an “unconstitutional conspiracy.”
newrepublic.com/post/205402/...
A Reagan-appointed federal judge says the Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestinian activists is an “unconstitutional conspiracy.”
newrepublic.com/post/205402/...
Judge Accuses Trump, Rubio, and Noem of “Unconstitutional Conspiracy”
A federal judge says the Trump administration was violating the Constitution with its targeted deportations of pro-Palestine activists and academics.
newrepublic.com
January 17, 2026 at 1:00 AM
Judge Accuses Trump, Rubio, and Noem of “Unconstitutional Conspiracy”
A Reagan-appointed federal judge says the Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestinian activists is an “unconstitutional conspiracy.”
newrepublic.com/post/205402/...
A Reagan-appointed federal judge says the Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestinian activists is an “unconstitutional conspiracy.”
newrepublic.com/post/205402/...
Reposted by Benj
January 16, 2026 at 11:45 PM