“We are the Axis now.”

I gave a campus talk last night on Trump's first 100 days for the WUD Society & Politics group. A student asked me if I thought that, at some point, we might start to describe the US as a competitive authoritarian regime. I said that we were already there, it's just that most folks haven't noticed:

New from me: It is not just that the US is experiencing democratic backsliding. Authoritarianism has emerged more quickly than in other benchmark countries.

This graph from John Burn-Murdoch sums it up. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/autocracy-...

"I didn’t realize, in the hours before his name was released to the public, that the man millions of people had seen lying facedown on the pavement from multiple angles of eyewitness video was my childhood best friend."

Read more from @kristenradtke.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/policy/86856...

Ukraine gave up all its nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances from the United States which turned out to be worthless.

Now, Ukraine is supposed to give up its fortifications in Donbas in exchange for a security guarantee given by Putin puppet Trump.

No. Just no.

When grand juries have been impaneled to hear testimony and evidence on the killings of Renee Good & Alex Pretti, then we can begin to talk about the Trump admin doing something tangible. Until that, all this is just PR damage control that only the extremely naive will fall for.

The country which chose to have more guns than people, elected a convicted felon & rapist as their president, who then paid thugs to murder citizens with guns.

I still can’t work out how people didn’t see this coming.

Hopefully, once the regime is gone, 🇺🇸 will make sure this never happens again.

This sums it up.

He’s like America’s Prigozhin.

Needless to say that Renee Good and Alex Pretti will go down as heroes here in Minnesota and nationally, their names synonymous with sacrifice and caring for vulnerable neighbors even at the risk of your own life. And hopefully no more innocent lives are lost.

Stephen Miller called the victim, an ICU nurse at the VA filming ICE, a “domestic terrorist who tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.” Greg Bovino said he “wanted to massacre law enforcement.” You saw the videos. How can any Republican not call for their resignations?

They think they can provoke us into abandoning our values. They are wrong. We will keep the peace. We will secure justice for our neighbors. And we will see this occupation end.

One thing that is clear is that the Trump administration wants outrage and a violent response to this.

Don’t give them what they want

“Heartbroken but also very angry… sickening lies by the administration… reprehensible and disgusting… Alex is clearly not holding a gun… please get the truth out about our son, he was a good man…”