David Durant
@ddurant.bsky.social
Librarian, avid reader, background in history, "Never-Trumper human scum." All opinions are entirely my own.
Pinned
David Durant
@ddurant.bsky.social
· Feb 14
Image 1 of James Madison to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822.
www.loc.gov
I'm reminded of James Madison's famous quote:
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
www.loc.gov/resource/mjm...
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
www.loc.gov/resource/mjm...
Reposted by David Durant
One of the few silver linings that have come from this harsh year of deportations and ICE raids is that it has clarified which people and institutions will use their voices to push back and which will choose accommodation.
Defiance in a Time of Cowardice
She sang the national anthem in Spanish as deportation forces assaulted L.A. Now she’s headed to Sundance.
lnk.thebulwark.com
December 30, 2025 at 7:00 AM
One of the few silver linings that have come from this harsh year of deportations and ICE raids is that it has clarified which people and institutions will use their voices to push back and which will choose accommodation.
Reposted by David Durant
MAGA folks and their dreams of dictatorship are so boring. But I guess it shows how desperate they're getting, and how much they know they're losing.
December 30, 2025 at 2:03 AM
MAGA folks and their dreams of dictatorship are so boring. But I guess it shows how desperate they're getting, and how much they know they're losing.
Reposted by David Durant
Trump offering states a "deal" like the higher ed compact that would vastly and unconstitutionally expand the federal government's powers (in this case, over election administration)
Here's the deal, says USDOJ to states: we're going to send you lists of voters we think are ineligible, and you're going to take them off the rolls. That "would hand the federal govt a major role in election admin, a responsibility that belongs to the states under the U.S. Constitution." [Stateline]
Trump’s DOJ offers states confidential deal to remove voters flagged by feds • Stateline
The U.S. Department of Justice has sent confidential draft agreements on voter data sharing to more than a dozen states, part of the Trump administration’s effort to obtain unredacted voter rolls, wit...
stateline.org
December 26, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Trump offering states a "deal" like the higher ed compact that would vastly and unconstitutionally expand the federal government's powers (in this case, over election administration)
When your white nationalist, authoritarian agenda demands military action somewhere in Latin America, and it doesn't particularly matter where:
".. When you hope and wait for something to develop that doesn’t, you start looking at countries south of Mexico,” said the current official, who, like nine others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity ..
@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Stephen Miller’s hard-line Mexico strategy morphed into deadly boat strikes
President Donald Trump’s homeland security adviser, Stephen Miller, had a plan to target Mexican drug cartels. That strategy morphed into lethal boat strikes.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 27, 2025 at 2:18 AM
When your white nationalist, authoritarian agenda demands military action somewhere in Latin America, and it doesn't particularly matter where:
Reposted by David Durant
Reposted by David Durant
Imagine watching Sinatra, son of Dolly & Antonini born in Genoa & Sicily, respectively, and Martin, son of Gaetano & Angela, born in Montesilvano, Italy & Ohio respectively, (Angela to parents born in Monasterolo, Italy), and crusading against the value of children of immigrants to the U.S.
December 26, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Imagine watching Sinatra, son of Dolly & Antonini born in Genoa & Sicily, respectively, and Martin, son of Gaetano & Angela, born in Montesilvano, Italy & Ohio respectively, (Angela to parents born in Monasterolo, Italy), and crusading against the value of children of immigrants to the U.S.
Reposted by David Durant
The President of the United States is very seriously mentally ill, and elected Republicans are so afraid of him that they won’t do or say anything about it.
December 26, 2025 at 12:14 AM
The President of the United States is very seriously mentally ill, and elected Republicans are so afraid of him that they won’t do or say anything about it.
Reposted by David Durant
The genocide will continue until morale improves.
"We’re monitoring what you do online. Disseminating, writing, or publishing inciting content online is considered a terrorist crime in every sense and may lead to arrest or imprisonment. We have warned you."
Israel warns Palestinians that posting about their suffering will be considered terrorism.
Israel warns Palestinians that posting about their suffering will be considered terrorism.
December 25, 2025 at 3:11 PM
The genocide will continue until morale improves.
JD Is truly building a broad front, combining those who hate Blacks, Latinos, Muslims and immigrants in general, with those who hate Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, immigrants and Jews:
“.. On Sunday, J. D. Vance was presented with the simplest moral test: denounce commentators who traffic in medieval blood libels, who deny the Holocaust, and who endlessly harp on evil Jewish cabals.”
@theatlantic.com
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
@theatlantic.com
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
December 25, 2025 at 4:56 AM
JD Is truly building a broad front, combining those who hate Blacks, Latinos, Muslims and immigrants in general, with those who hate Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, immigrants and Jews:
Applying business best practices to ethnic cleansing and human trafficking. This regime hits a new bottom every day:
“.. We need to get better at treating this like a business,” ICE acting director Todd M. Lyons said .. as efficiently as Amazon moves packages: “Like Prime, but with human beings.”
@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
December 25, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Applying business best practices to ethnic cleansing and human trafficking. This regime hits a new bottom every day:
Reposted by David Durant
Nina Jankowicz: “They’re not doing this because they have any evidence of censorship — they lost a Supreme Court case that made those claims… They’re doing this because the group of researchers and advocates have stood up to liars like Donald Trump and the platforms that enable them.”
“Chilling and unconstitutional” — @attorneynora.bsky.social @freepress.bsky.social
U.S. Bars 5 European Tech Regulators and Researchers
www.nytimes.com
December 24, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Nina Jankowicz: “They’re not doing this because they have any evidence of censorship — they lost a Supreme Court case that made those claims… They’re doing this because the group of researchers and advocates have stood up to liars like Donald Trump and the platforms that enable them.”
Turning the likes of VOA into authoritarian transmission belts for the regime and its agenda. Yet another chilling development:
The self-proclaimed head of USAGM, Kari Lake, who this year destroyed nearly all of the Voice of America, tells the agency's few remaining journalists the White House National Security Strategy will "guide our interview subjects, story selection, and coverage going forward."
December 25, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Turning the likes of VOA into authoritarian transmission belts for the regime and its agenda. Yet another chilling development:
Instead of sanctioning the purveyors of radical right-wing disinformation, the Trump regime sanctions those combating it. Trumpwellian insanity at its worst:
The US State Department says it will deny visas to five people, including a former EU commissioner and the heads of three European organisations combating online misinformation, for seeking to "coerce" US social media platforms into "censorship".
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
US denies visas to ex-EU commissioner and others over social media rules
Thierry Breton, the former top tech regulator at the European Commission, says a
www.bbc.co.uk
December 25, 2025 at 4:44 AM
Instead of sanctioning the purveyors of radical right-wing disinformation, the Trump regime sanctions those combating it. Trumpwellian insanity at its worst:
It was never about "cancel culture." It was merely about who gets to do the canceling:
The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
December 25, 2025 at 4:10 AM
It was never about "cancel culture." It was merely about who gets to do the canceling:
Sad to say, the MAGA kids are anything but alright. I had a recent real world encounter that only reinforced this:
Read @jvl.bsky.social on "a focus group so vile that if it hadn’t been published approvingly by a Trump-loving publication, you’d have thought it was parody."
www.thebulwark.com/p/behold-the...
www.thebulwark.com/p/behold-the...
Behold! 🔥 The Focus Group from Hell 🔥
Hitler! Fuentes! Jews! Dating problems! Young Republicans tell you who they really are.
www.thebulwark.com
December 25, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Sad to say, the MAGA kids are anything but alright. I had a recent real world encounter that only reinforced this:
Reposted by David Durant
As we welcome white Afrikaners from South Africa and deny entry to any other refugees. There is nothing subtle about what is happening here.
The US Administration has banned Americans from *adopting babies* from much of the African continent.
Adopting.
Babies.
What trait do those babies have that, when they grow up as fully American adults, would make them a threat to our country in any form?
Adopting.
Babies.
What trait do those babies have that, when they grow up as fully American adults, would make them a threat to our country in any form?
On that last post: I genuinely cannot think of any good-faith reason to bar international adoptions from those 39 countries. Under this new ban, consulates will refuse adoption visas for any baby from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Nigeria, or any of the 39 other countries.
December 17, 2025 at 3:19 AM
As we welcome white Afrikaners from South Africa and deny entry to any other refugees. There is nothing subtle about what is happening here.
Reposted by David Durant
The "free speech warriors" continue to push for censorship
The self-proclaimed head of USAGM, Kari Lake, who this year destroyed nearly all of the Voice of America, tells the agency's few remaining journalists the White House National Security Strategy will "guide our interview subjects, story selection, and coverage going forward."
December 24, 2025 at 1:54 AM
The "free speech warriors" continue to push for censorship
Reposted by David Durant
These are staggeringly bad Bush-in-07 kind of numbers.
And the grim part of me wonders how unstable things are going to get when this administration plows forward and these numbers probably keep getting worse.
We're not quite in uncharted unpopularity territory yet, but we're fairly close.
And the grim part of me wonders how unstable things are going to get when this administration plows forward and these numbers probably keep getting worse.
We're not quite in uncharted unpopularity territory yet, but we're fairly close.
![Gallup poll | 12/1-12/15
President Trump approval crosstabs (%)
🟥Overall (59/36 disapprove) [-23]
🟥Democratic (93/3 disapprove) [-90]
🟩Republican (89/8 approve) [+81]
🟥Independent (68/25 disapprove) [-43]
🟥18-34 (68/25 disapprove) [-43]
🟥35-54 (59/36 disapprove) [-23]
🟥55+ (53/43 disapprove) [-10]
🟥No college (55/37 disapprove) [-18]
🟥College graduate (59/37 disapprove) [-22]
🟥Male (53/42 disapprove) [-11]
🟥Female (64/30 disapprove) [-34]
🟥White (52/46 disapprove) [-6]
🟥Non-white (71/21 disapprove) [-50]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hbpefio3f5csc44msmbgioxz/bafkreifnv6vxufu6icjvsd5toirz3lmqkzertdpdnlqh7q44momevhfjqq@jpeg)
December 24, 2025 at 5:12 AM
These are staggeringly bad Bush-in-07 kind of numbers.
And the grim part of me wonders how unstable things are going to get when this administration plows forward and these numbers probably keep getting worse.
We're not quite in uncharted unpopularity territory yet, but we're fairly close.
And the grim part of me wonders how unstable things are going to get when this administration plows forward and these numbers probably keep getting worse.
We're not quite in uncharted unpopularity territory yet, but we're fairly close.
Reposted by David Durant
“.. A backlash from Canadian consumers .. has virtually stopped the sale of American whiskey in what was once among the industry’s biggest export markets.”
@nytimes.com 🇨🇦
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/d...
@nytimes.com 🇨🇦
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/d...
December 22, 2025 at 8:44 PM
“.. A backlash from Canadian consumers .. has virtually stopped the sale of American whiskey in what was once among the industry’s biggest export markets.”
@nytimes.com 🇨🇦
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/d...
@nytimes.com 🇨🇦
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/d...
Reposted by David Durant
Literally un-American and the opposite of originalism in every way:
"Nearly 250 years after American colonists threw off their king, this is arguably the closest the country has come during a time of general peace to the centralized authority of a monarch."
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/u...
"Nearly 250 years after American colonists threw off their king, this is arguably the closest the country has come during a time of general peace to the centralized authority of a monarch."
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/u...
Trump Takes America’s ‘Imperial Presidency’ to a New Level
www.nytimes.com
December 22, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Literally un-American and the opposite of originalism in every way:
"Nearly 250 years after American colonists threw off their king, this is arguably the closest the country has come during a time of general peace to the centralized authority of a monarch."
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/u...
"Nearly 250 years after American colonists threw off their king, this is arguably the closest the country has come during a time of general peace to the centralized authority of a monarch."
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/u...
Reposted by David Durant
After saying the administration has “relegated DEI to the dustbin of history,” Vance says, “You don't have to apologize for being white anymore” — a declaration that resentment itself is now justified. Authoritarian movements routinely recast social change as persecution. #holdfast
JD Vance: "In the United States of America you don't have to apologize for being white anymore"
December 22, 2025 at 4:33 PM
After saying the administration has “relegated DEI to the dustbin of history,” Vance says, “You don't have to apologize for being white anymore” — a declaration that resentment itself is now justified. Authoritarian movements routinely recast social change as persecution. #holdfast
Reposted by David Durant
A hateful appeal to intolerance, all the more loathsome because he knows exactly what he's doing
Vance: "We are outraged at the injustice of Tim Walz allowing Somalian immigrants to defraud that program to the tune of billions of dollars. It ought to go to Americans because that's who it's there for."
December 22, 2025 at 4:32 AM
A hateful appeal to intolerance, all the more loathsome because he knows exactly what he's doing
Reposted by David Durant
By releasing less than 1% of the files in the custody of DOJ, and doctoring even those released to eliminate references to Trump and his entourage,Trump is further inflaming his Epstein problem. He's behaving like a man who believes the files, if released, will destroy him. Maybe they will.
Epstein files release leaves Trump facing fresh row over limited disclosures
Critics complain of heavy redactions to thousands of documents held by the US justice department
www.ft.com
December 21, 2025 at 4:23 AM
By releasing less than 1% of the files in the custody of DOJ, and doctoring even those released to eliminate references to Trump and his entourage,Trump is further inflaming his Epstein problem. He's behaving like a man who believes the files, if released, will destroy him. Maybe they will.
Reposted by David Durant
This, for the record, is what goes into a footnote. It’s the key part of the research process where I examine the practical, methodological, ethical implications of my sources before I join the stream of interpretation. It cannot be outsourced to an LLM.
Rare footage of a footnote being born in the wild.
December 21, 2025 at 5:53 AM
This, for the record, is what goes into a footnote. It’s the key part of the research process where I examine the practical, methodological, ethical implications of my sources before I join the stream of interpretation. It cannot be outsourced to an LLM.
As the saying goes, Everything Trump Touches Dies:
“.. After a series of public humiliations delivered to her by President Trump .. Ms. Stefanik on Friday afternoon announced she’d had enough.” 🤡
@anniekarni.bsky.social #NYgov
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/u...
@anniekarni.bsky.social #NYgov
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/u...
December 20, 2025 at 6:52 AM
As the saying goes, Everything Trump Touches Dies: