The Last Bastion...
@twainspatriot.bsky.social
680 followers 670 following 1.4K posts
Father, partner, geophysicist, orogen/volcanophile with occasional irrational urge to tip the scales toward egalitarianism & social justice. Kinda happy-go-Loki. Firm proponent of human engagement with objective reality. No DMs pls.
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twainspatriot.bsky.social
They will do whatever they can to intimidate the American people against using their collective voice. They know, as we know, that We the People are all that stand between us and their dreams of dictatorship.
atrupar.com
Mike Johnson: "We're so angry about it. I mean, I'm a very patient guy, but I've had it with these people. The theory we have right now -- they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people ... "
twainspatriot.bsky.social
Okay now THAT’S cool. The fundamental root of adaptive behavior.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
If there is a hell, Trump is more deserving of it than anyone… And being listened to rather than laughed at will not be part of his hellscape agenda
twainspatriot.bsky.social
That’s not a matter of “psychologists fear”… The patterns of increasing bullying, domineering, intimidation and violence at all levels of human interaction from interpersonal to statecraft are demonstrable.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
No doubt this will come as a great relief to the National Guard and conscripted LEOs (such as FBI drawn from drug enforcement and other task forces that used to do good in the world).

Less so perhaps the MAGA folks and former domestic terror militia members in ICE.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
RFK is correct that Trump Derangement Syndrome is a pathology, but he’s bass-ackwards in thinking that the Columbia Associate Professor is among those directly suffering its effects…
atrupar.com
RFK Jr: "Somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman at 8 months pregnant -- she's an associate professor at the Columbia Medical School -- and she is saying 'F Trump' and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta. The level of Trump Derangement Syndrome is now a pathology."
twainspatriot.bsky.social
*Donald Trump, and the Republican Congress and lawless Supreme Court that enables him in the complete absence of a Constitutional Order.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
It’s an unfair playing field for a competition though. Sen. Howell (NE) proposed radio broadcasts of proceedings in 1924 but Teapot Dome was sensationalized even without that.

Nixon raised televised lying to an art form, but MAGA? In the social media era? Hoo boy.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
That one‘s a punch to the gut…
thetnholler.bsky.social
CARTOON OF THE DAY 😕🇺🇸
twainspatriot.bsky.social
"Ethics, shmethics..."

This is the Trump Administration we're talking about, after all.
jennycohn.bsky.social
An NYU legal ethics professor has “called the arrangement ‘rather bizarre.’ Pointing to rules of professional conduct for lawyers that prohibit conflicts of interest, he said Mr. Ellis… could not ethically give himself legal advice about…whether policy actions he wants to take would be lawful.” 2/
twainspatriot.bsky.social
“SCOTUS says so” no longer seems to have any coherency nor any correlation whatsoever with what the Constitution and/or Legislation would mandate…
joycewhitevance.bsky.social
Partisan gerrymanders may be legal, but only because SCOTUS said so. They are anti-democratic measures used by a party that fears losing power to hold onto control, a mechanism that lets parties choose their voters instead of letting voters choose who will represent them.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
The Trump Administration considers intimidation and terror tactics to be their most effective tool for achieving policy goals.

Let that sink in. The current US government is a terrorist organization.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
“or suggesting that individuals are inherently privileged, oppressed, racist, sexist, or victims based on personal identity characteristics.”

If that’s prohibited, historical reality might like to have a word with Utah’s state legislators…
twainspatriot.bsky.social
I also wonder whether ICE leadership understands that Puerto Ricans are, in fact, American citizens
twainspatriot.bsky.social
Nothing says equal justice under the law quite like posting blatantly illegal notices at the top of your website!
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
Using the DOJ website for hatch act violating propaganda
Democrats have shut down the government. Department of Justice websites are not currently regularly updated. Please refer to the Department of Justice's contingency plan for more information.
An official website of the United States government
twainspatriot.bsky.social
I was struck by the realization this morning that— for both the persecutors, and the persecuted— this generation of college students considers the term "debate" to be a valid euphemism for "hate speech".

It is a deeply saddening commentary on where American society has arrived.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
Internal resistance/intransigence is arguably one of the most effective ways to stymie an Authoritarian regime.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
If on the other hand the words Hegseth spoke today make your heart sing, you should do the treasonable thing and follow the orders he’ll be giving in the coming days…
atrupar.com
Hegseth: "If the words I'm speaking today are making your heart sink, they you should do the honorable thing and resign."
twainspatriot.bsky.social
Certainly seem to be a lot of Stephen Miller fingerprints gumming up the Oval these days.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
Makes one wonder whom they think this buffoonery appeals to, besides a handful of goons in the MAGA base and Trump himself...
Results of Pew polling on attitudes toward climate. Toplines: 80% of Americans are frustrated by political disagreement on climate change; 73% are unhappy about what is happening to the Earth.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
One nice thing about Bluesky is that those toxic posts (RW-violence, misogyny, bigotry etc.) are not receiving amplification here like they do on e.g. X. Folks over there have become accustomed to that toxicity being right up top of their feed... And engaging with it in ways that are unhealthy.
twainspatriot.bsky.social
That’s what worked well from roughly 1933 to 1980…
mcopelov.bsky.social
Nothing makes folks here on Bluesky angrier than rightly noting that what we need to solve our authoritarianism problem & have a durable democracy is a center-right pro-democracy party full of Bill Kristols, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
mcopelov.bsky.social
👇🎯🧵

Nothing makes all kinds of very online people here on Bluesky more angry than the very true, utterly banal, & deeply unpopular belief, often articulated by smart mainstream Democrats like Pete Buttigieg & Nancy Pelosi, that durable 🇺🇸 democracy requires a healthy center-right pro-democracy party
twainspatriot.bsky.social
The Unitary Executive theory is a simple restatement of the premise that, if you disagree with the will of the People, the best way to thwart is via dictatorship.

Antebellum redux.
david.noll.org
Unitary executive theory does have deep roots, as scholars like Andrea Katz and @narosenblum.bsky.social have traced. But the version we're seeing now was cooked up but by lawyers whose core belief was that Nixon was treated unfairly, and that the legislative reaction to his abuses was illegitimate.