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Whatever this is about, it’s not public safety. I went to graduate school in Chicago during the 80s and lived there for six years. I’ve been back many times since and marveled at how mu…

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · 3d

The regime’s invasion of Chicago cuts deeper if you know something about the city. weeklysift.com/2025/10/06/t...

Trump Comes for Chicago

The Silence of the Generals

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · 3d

We can only imagine what the generals and admirals were thinking as they heard Trump describe his fantasy world.
weeklysift.com/2025/10/06/t...

Lack of response leaves a lot of room for projection. Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hosted an unusual meeting: America’s top generals and admirals, 800 or so of them, were called to…

This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this. – Jimmy Kimmel This week’s featured posts are “What to M…

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dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · 10d

Due to a vacation, I haven't posted a summary for three weeks. Has anything happened? weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/t...

The Show Must Go On

This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this. – Jimmy Kimmel This week’s featured posts are “What to M…

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dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · 10d

Due to a vacation, I haven't posted a summary for three weeks. Has anything happened? weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/t...

The Show Must Go On

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · 10d

I’m catching up on the news of the last three weeks. Most of what I’ve seen about Kirk is way too shallow, so I thought I’d give my own impression. weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/w...

Is Kimmel’s return a turning point?

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · 10d

Can we read anything more into Jimmy Kimmel’s victory over Trump? weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/i...

For the first time, Trump used autocratic power in a way that the public couldn’t ignore, and a popular pushback forced a big corporation to stand up to him. Is that an anomaly or the start o…

No Sift for the next two weeks. New articles will appear September 29. Judges in the trenches need, and deserve, well-reasoned, bright-line guidance. Too often today, sweeping [Supreme Court] rulin…

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Sep 8

This week: Trump loses in court, the Epstein story is back, invading Chicago, blowing boats out of the water, RFK, and some baby animals.
weeklysift.com/2025/09/08/s...

Speed without rigor

Will the courts hold the line?

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dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Sep 8

Trump's lower-court defeats will only matter if the Supreme Court backs up the lower-court judges. weeklysift.com/2025/09/08/w...

The Trump administration has suffered a series of defeats in court recently. Will that matter? It’s been a bad week or two for Trump in court. Jay Kuo counts the ways: A major ruling from the…

The Democrats’ Shutdown Strategy

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Sep 8

It's not to soon to start planning for the looming crisis at the end of the fiscal year. weeklysift.com/2025/09/08/t...

The government runs out of money again on October 1. That gives the Democratic minorities in Congress some rare leverage. What should they do with it? The 2026 fiscal year starts in less than a mon…

Waking up to the difference

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Sep 1

This week: Lysenkoism, Chicago resists occupation, Trump's post-Palestinian Gaza fantasy, illegal tariffs, Fed firing, and a far-out view.
weeklysift.com/2025/09/01/w...

I think many Americans wrongly believe there would be one clear unambiguous moment where we go from “democracy” to “authoritarianism.” Instead, this is exactly how it happens — a blurring here, a n…

Lysenkoism Comes to America

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dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Sep 1

To understand what RFK Jr. is doing to American health care and research, you need to recall a powerful figure from the Stalin regime. weeklysift.com/2025/09/01/l...

As RFK Jr. purges the CDC and cancels billions in research grants, Americans need a refresher course on what happened to Soviet biological research during the Stalin years. In many ways, Trofim Lys…

Tyrannies don’t always get their way by establishing a secret police force that arrests people at will — although we’re getting that too. Much of their power comes not from overt violence but from …

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dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Aug 25

This week: redistricting, the Bolton raid, forbidden words, nationalizing Intel, troops still in DC, and a denial we may all need to make someday. weeklysift.com/2025/08/25/a...

Accusations

Policies to Make the Planet Hotter

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dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Aug 25

It's not just that Trump has no plan to mitigate or delay climate change. He's actively making it worse.

weeklysift.com/2025/08/25/p...

You may think that Trump’s policies are just indifferent to climate change. You would be wrong. Not so long ago, conventional wisdom said that an administration should focus on one goal at a …

If we show weakness today in front of Russia, we are laying the ground for future conflict. – President Emmanuel Macron of France This week’s featured post is “The Timescale of Ne…

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Aug 18

This week: new format, Putin summit, DC takeover, redistricting, and what a John Brennan show trial might look like. weeklysift.com/2025/08/18/g...

Groundwork

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Aug 18

My recent dissatisfaction with my own blogging led to a meditation on what news is or ought to be. weeklysift.com/2025/08/18/t...

We can expect the governing class to adapt pragmatically to the electorate’s collective decline in rational capacity, for example, by retaining the rituals associated with mass democracy, while qui…

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Aug 4

This week: Trump fixes the numbers by firing the number-crunchers, Gaza, Smithsonian, gerrymandering, trade deals, and Samuel L. Jackson's new ad. weeklysift.com/2025/08/04/a...

Adapting to Decline

In a democracy, the people shape their government. But in the long run, the government also shapes its people. What kind of citizens does a democracy need to have, if it’s going to sustain it…

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Aug 4

What happens to a democracy when it can't produce people with the ability to think deeply and clearly? weeklysift.com/2025/08/04/s...

Shaping Ourselves

It’s alright for you if you run with the pack.It’s alright if you agree with all they do.If fascism is slowly climbing back,It’s not here yet, so what’s it got to do with yo…

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dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Jul 28

This week: some court victories, trade deals, Gaza, Epstein, and a final tribute to Tom Lehrer. weeklysift.com/2025/07/28/c...

Choices

“Unitary Executive” is a euphemism for Tyrant

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Jul 28

Restoring American freedom will require not just a new president, but a new majority on the Supreme Court. weeklysift.com/2025/07/28/u...

How a conservative legal theory set us on a path to fascism. If you clear your mind of preconceptions and read the Constitution end to end, I think you’ll see not just a list of rules and pro…

There is a terrifying amount of hate in our country, yes. But there is far more fear. Hate is the end of a conversation. Fear isn’t always. I’ve been on the lookout for moments when an honest and r…

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dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Jul 21

This week: strife in MAGAland, Colbert, rescission, Bolsonaro, Andrea Gibson, and the Coldplay kiss-cam. weeklysift.com/2025/07/21/f...

Fear Itself

Yes, he does think you’re stupid

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Jul 21

How can Democrats take advantage of the strife roiling MAGA without seeming as inauthentic and opportunistic as Trump himself?

weeklysift.com/2025/07/21/y...

Democrats should avoid the substance of the Epstein controversy and focus on a single point: If his supporters feel Trump is insulting and disrespecting them, they’re right. The best thing th…

Probably for the first time since he announced his candidacy in 2015, Trump has found himself on The Elites side of the divide against The People. Instead of leveraging the power of conspiratorial …

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dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Jul 14

This week: Epstein, birthright citizenship, tariffs, banning schools from teaching about Trump, and a solution to the censorship problem. weeklysift.com/2025/07/14/l...

Leverage

Is Epstein what will finally break through?

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dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Jul 14

After all the very real reasons to turn against Trump, a crazy reason is the one that gets traction. weeklysift.com/2025/07/14/i...

For years, Democrats have imagined that someday Trump’s dupes might return to reality and turn against him. But what if they could turn against him without returning to reality? If you were a…

It’s tempting to think that we are living in a new era of lawlessness, but that would fail to capture the change staring us in the face. This is not about the lack of law. It’s about the remaking o…

dougmuder.bsky.social @dougmuder.bsky.social · Jul 7

This week: The Big, Beautiful Bill in all its ugly glory, trade deadlines, flash floods, a melancholy 4th, and red pandas playing in the snow. weeklysift.com/2025/07/07/c...

Colonization