Reposted by RandomUser7752
yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.
Right.
If you want a good explanation of why the American system of government worked well enough for 200 years and then suddenly stopped, it's because Republicans in Congress suddenly started letting their partisan interests COMPLETELY override their institutional interests
If you want a good explanation of why the American system of government worked well enough for 200 years and then suddenly stopped, it's because Republicans in Congress suddenly started letting their partisan interests COMPLETELY override their institutional interests
a lot of problems wouldn't exist if we had a congress with even an ounce of self interest
January 4, 2026 at 11:52 PM
yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Right.
If you want a good explanation of why the American system of government worked well enough for 200 years and then suddenly stopped, it's because Republicans in Congress suddenly started letting their partisan interests COMPLETELY override their institutional interests
If you want a good explanation of why the American system of government worked well enough for 200 years and then suddenly stopped, it's because Republicans in Congress suddenly started letting their partisan interests COMPLETELY override their institutional interests
a lot of problems wouldn't exist if we had a congress with even an ounce of self interest
Honestly insane they didn't brief the gang of eight until it was underway
January 4, 2026 at 10:47 PM
Right.
If you want a good explanation of why the American system of government worked well enough for 200 years and then suddenly stopped, it's because Republicans in Congress suddenly started letting their partisan interests COMPLETELY override their institutional interests
If you want a good explanation of why the American system of government worked well enough for 200 years and then suddenly stopped, it's because Republicans in Congress suddenly started letting their partisan interests COMPLETELY override their institutional interests
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Almost 20 years ago, I warned we were heading toward a world where states invade each other at will, and that America had an obligation to restore the higher bar for going to war. Not gonna say I told ya so, but...well, okay, I will.
There's a reason I chose these quotes to open the book.
There's a reason I chose these quotes to open the book.
January 4, 2026 at 3:50 AM
Almost 20 years ago, I warned we were heading toward a world where states invade each other at will, and that America had an obligation to restore the higher bar for going to war. Not gonna say I told ya so, but...well, okay, I will.
There's a reason I chose these quotes to open the book.
There's a reason I chose these quotes to open the book.
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Metaphor alert
another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls
December 27, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Metaphor alert
Reposted by RandomUser7752
This is perfect. The DOJ's embarrassing snafu with disappearing redactions was the fault of Elon Musk. Musk cancelled government subscriptions to Adobe programs that would have made the redactions permanent. What a pack of fools.
December 26, 2025 at 9:02 PM
This is perfect. The DOJ's embarrassing snafu with disappearing redactions was the fault of Elon Musk. Musk cancelled government subscriptions to Adobe programs that would have made the redactions permanent. What a pack of fools.
Reposted by RandomUser7752
60 Minutes is one of only two documentary-style public affairs programs left on the air. The other is Frontline on PBS, which saw its funding gashed by the Trump admin and Congress. They have a matching donation rn.
www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontli...
www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontli...
FRONTLINE | PBS | Official Site | Documentary Series
Watch full episodes of FRONTLINE, the PBS documentary series, and explore news investigations from FRONTLINE's award-winning journalism team.
www.pbs.org
December 21, 2025 at 10:24 PM
60 Minutes is one of only two documentary-style public affairs programs left on the air. The other is Frontline on PBS, which saw its funding gashed by the Trump admin and Congress. They have a matching donation rn.
www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontli...
www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontli...
Reposted by RandomUser7752
2/ The Danish head of its CDC is like: are you fucking crazy? We are a small country with universal healthcare. You shouldn't do what we do. We should do what you used to do.
December 21, 2025 at 2:57 AM
2/ The Danish head of its CDC is like: are you fucking crazy? We are a small country with universal healthcare. You shouldn't do what we do. We should do what you used to do.
Reposted by RandomUser7752
👇🎯 Again, this man’s incredible disdain for academics - & especially female academics - is pathological & we should simply not reward it with invitations & lucrative honoraria until he decides to grow up & act like an adult.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
December 17, 2025 at 3:17 AM
👇🎯 Again, this man’s incredible disdain for academics - & especially female academics - is pathological & we should simply not reward it with invitations & lucrative honoraria until he decides to grow up & act like an adult.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Competitive authoritarianism tilts the playing field
Also, I get why the networks caved and agreed to air a clearly political speech not related to breaking news: They're scared, it's his first year back, and it's not worth the blowback. But the same networks refused to run Biden's Democracy speech and Obama speeches on health care + immigration.
In case you missed it, Trump's speech tomorrow will interrupt the finales of SURVIVOR and THE FLOOR for people in the Eastern and Central time zones. He could've easily started the speech at 8, and I'm sure the networks suggested that to the WH. The WH didn't care; viewers of both shows will suffer.
December 17, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Competitive authoritarianism tilts the playing field
Reposted by RandomUser7752
This is what I mean when I say the Trump era has made me “more conservative”: He is taking a wrecking ball to norms and institutions he does not understand, on the premise that American power, prosperity, and stability are some ineluctable law of nature rather than hard won & fragile achievements.
Kori Schake: “The men who built this international order weren’t leftist college professors sitting around the faculty lounge. They were the people who had fought World War I and World War II and saw the damage of an unstable order.” www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/fea...
The Fear and Weakness at the Heart of Trump’s Strategy
A Conversation With Kori Schake
www.foreignaffairs.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:04 AM
This is what I mean when I say the Trump era has made me “more conservative”: He is taking a wrecking ball to norms and institutions he does not understand, on the premise that American power, prosperity, and stability are some ineluctable law of nature rather than hard won & fragile achievements.
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Kori Schake: “The men who built this international order weren’t leftist college professors sitting around the faculty lounge. They were the people who had fought World War I and World War II and saw the damage of an unstable order.” www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/fea...
The Fear and Weakness at the Heart of Trump’s Strategy
A Conversation With Kori Schake
www.foreignaffairs.com
December 16, 2025 at 4:56 AM
Kori Schake: “The men who built this international order weren’t leftist college professors sitting around the faculty lounge. They were the people who had fought World War I and World War II and saw the damage of an unstable order.” www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/fea...
Reposted by RandomUser7752
The leading scholars of democratic decline say the US "has descended into competitive authoritarianism" - we "ceased to be a full democracy in the way that Canada, Germany, or even Argentina are democracies" - but caution that it can be contested and reversed
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
December 12, 2025 at 9:25 PM
The leading scholars of democratic decline say the US "has descended into competitive authoritarianism" - we "ceased to be a full democracy in the way that Canada, Germany, or even Argentina are democracies" - but caution that it can be contested and reversed
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Democrats would be crazy not to make this comment super-famous tomorrow when the Senate debates health care. Republicans don’t want you to be cared for as a patient when you’re sick. They think of you as a “consumer”—and tough luck if you don’t have the money for the care you need.
Roger Marshall: "We want patients to become consumers again. We want patients to see what the actual prices are. We believe that if we would add the price tags to this bill, that it would save the country a trillion dollars a year."
December 11, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Democrats would be crazy not to make this comment super-famous tomorrow when the Senate debates health care. Republicans don’t want you to be cared for as a patient when you’re sick. They think of you as a “consumer”—and tough luck if you don’t have the money for the care you need.
Reposted by RandomUser7752
a very good point
It’s striking how many of the most mundane features of American democracy, built centuries ago to protect against remembered tyrants from centuries prior, are still the bulwark against Trumpian fascism, while all the newfangled modern institutions simply collapsed on first contact with him
JUST IN: Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Snell just confirmed, at the prodding of U.S. Magistrate Judge Keri Holleb Hotaling, that this motion for dismissal followed a "no bill" from a grand jury.
That means the grand jury refused to indict.
That means the grand jury refused to indict.
December 10, 2025 at 5:43 PM
a very good point
Reposted by RandomUser7752
The current Supreme Court has forfeited all legitimacy.
Democrats (and everyone) need to address that reality.
John Roberts > Roger Taney.
Court needs to expand. And have fixed terms—like *every* other supreme court in developed world. And have ethics rules, like all normal organizations.
Democrats (and everyone) need to address that reality.
John Roberts > Roger Taney.
Court needs to expand. And have fixed terms—like *every* other supreme court in developed world. And have ethics rules, like all normal organizations.
Democrats need to lay the groundwork for reform by attacking the villains on the Supreme Court - loudly, angrily, personally, relentlessly. And they should start now.
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/democrats-...
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/democrats-...
Democrats Need to Treat the Supreme Court Like the Villain It Is
The Court is out of control, and we'll never see reform unless we build the case for it. Starting now.
paulwaldman.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 7:00 PM
The current Supreme Court has forfeited all legitimacy.
Democrats (and everyone) need to address that reality.
John Roberts > Roger Taney.
Court needs to expand. And have fixed terms—like *every* other supreme court in developed world. And have ethics rules, like all normal organizations.
Democrats (and everyone) need to address that reality.
John Roberts > Roger Taney.
Court needs to expand. And have fixed terms—like *every* other supreme court in developed world. And have ethics rules, like all normal organizations.
Reposted by RandomUser7752
They are beating people who maybe once had a broken taillight and sending them to foreign slave prisons while freeing the worst fraudsters and every corrupt pol. The juxtaposition is so stark and appalling.
NEW: The commutation Trump issued to David Gentile wipes away all further fines & restitution.
Gentile had been sentenced to 7 years for his role in a $1.6B scheme that defrauded thousands of investors.
Prosecutors had been seeking $15.5M in forfeiture.
www.justice.gov/pardon/media...
Gentile had been sentenced to 7 years for his role in a $1.6B scheme that defrauded thousands of investors.
Prosecutors had been seeking $15.5M in forfeiture.
www.justice.gov/pardon/media...
December 3, 2025 at 5:39 PM
They are beating people who maybe once had a broken taillight and sending them to foreign slave prisons while freeing the worst fraudsters and every corrupt pol. The juxtaposition is so stark and appalling.
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Absolute debasement of academic standards
*student submits opinion in psych class
*gets bad grade
*instructor says she can make whatever arguments she wants but must draw on empirical sources
*student & Turning Point says her religious freedom & first amendment rights violated
*professor suspended
*student submits opinion in psych class
*gets bad grade
*instructor says she can make whatever arguments she wants but must draw on empirical sources
*student & Turning Point says her religious freedom & first amendment rights violated
*professor suspended
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
November 30, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Absolute debasement of academic standards
*student submits opinion in psych class
*gets bad grade
*instructor says she can make whatever arguments she wants but must draw on empirical sources
*student & Turning Point says her religious freedom & first amendment rights violated
*professor suspended
*student submits opinion in psych class
*gets bad grade
*instructor says she can make whatever arguments she wants but must draw on empirical sources
*student & Turning Point says her religious freedom & first amendment rights violated
*professor suspended
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Being among the first interrogated and ultimately fired by DOGE, I certainly felt we were facing the business end of a right-wing conspiracy theory 🧵
DOGE was not a money-saving effort. It was an effort to chase down and prove right-wing conspiracy theories. They went after USAID to prove conspiracy theories about foreign aid. Then they went after SSA to, again, pursue conspiracy theories about Dems paying "illegals" to vote. 1/2
All DOGE accomplished was purging critical government staff, handing private data to outsiders, and sentencing thousands in developing countries to death by gutting USAID.
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
I don’t say this lightly: if there were any justice in this world, the people responsible for this devastation would be in jail
November 26, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Being among the first interrogated and ultimately fired by DOGE, I certainly felt we were facing the business end of a right-wing conspiracy theory 🧵
Reposted by RandomUser7752
In this piece, I tackle three myths / building blocks of the misleading “realignment” narrative: The idea that U.S. society moved right in accordance with the broader outlines of Trumpism’s vision; that Trump is the tribune of the working class; that he is building a stable multiracial coalition.
November 27, 2025 at 12:09 AM
In this piece, I tackle three myths / building blocks of the misleading “realignment” narrative: The idea that U.S. society moved right in accordance with the broader outlines of Trumpism’s vision; that Trump is the tribune of the working class; that he is building a stable multiracial coalition.
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Biden was old, tired, sick, stuttered, & clearly wasn't what he once was, even ten years ago.
But everyone, especially Tapper, Thompson, Nuzzi, & the rest of the elites, who made it something else & pretended he was just like Trump should be deeply ashamed. But we don't seem to do shame anymore.
But everyone, especially Tapper, Thompson, Nuzzi, & the rest of the elites, who made it something else & pretended he was just like Trump should be deeply ashamed. But we don't seem to do shame anymore.
Look I don't want to say you're a rube if you fell for the "Biden's incompetent" trope but it was clearly a con coming almost exclusively from bad faith actors and had almost zero solid evidentiary basis.
November 26, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Biden was old, tired, sick, stuttered, & clearly wasn't what he once was, even ten years ago.
But everyone, especially Tapper, Thompson, Nuzzi, & the rest of the elites, who made it something else & pretended he was just like Trump should be deeply ashamed. But we don't seem to do shame anymore.
But everyone, especially Tapper, Thompson, Nuzzi, & the rest of the elites, who made it something else & pretended he was just like Trump should be deeply ashamed. But we don't seem to do shame anymore.
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Lots of people are calling out the fact that X is filled with fake MAGA influencers from far away countries, but I wanted to point out that this, not "ideological censorship," is why companies have trust & safety teams that work on stopping inauthentic behavior.
X’s New Feature Reveals Why Trust & Safety Work Was Never About The ‘Censorship Industrial Complex’
For the last few years, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and their allies have spent considerable energy attacking both academic researchers studying disinformation and the trust & safety teams…
For the last few years, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and their allies have spent considerable energy attacking both academic researchers studying disinformation and the trust & safety teams…
X’s New Feature Reveals Why Trust & Safety Work Was Never About The ‘Censorship Industrial Complex’
For the last few years, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and their allies have spent considerable energy attacking both academic researchers studying disinformation and the trust & safety teams at social media platforms working to identify and remove coordinated inauthentic behavior—particularly foreign influence operations. They've insisted that any attempt to study and limit such operations is actually just "censorship" with various forms of cover, whether academic or operational.
www.techdirt.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Lots of people are calling out the fact that X is filled with fake MAGA influencers from far away countries, but I wanted to point out that this, not "ideological censorship," is why companies have trust & safety teams that work on stopping inauthentic behavior.
Reposted by RandomUser7752
Targeting Kelly is one of those “this is why we’ll win” moments, bc it shows how politically impetuous this admin is.
There’s clearly no adult in the room to say “wait, maybe don’t go after the charismatic war hero turned literal astronaut who ran after his wife was a victim of political violence.”
There’s clearly no adult in the room to say “wait, maybe don’t go after the charismatic war hero turned literal astronaut who ran after his wife was a victim of political violence.”
Mark Kelly: "My wife, Gabby Giffords, meeting with her constituents, shot in the head. Six people killed around her, a horrific thing. She spent six months in the hospital. We know what political violence is and we know what causes it too, The statements that Donald Trump made incites others."
November 25, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Targeting Kelly is one of those “this is why we’ll win” moments, bc it shows how politically impetuous this admin is.
There’s clearly no adult in the room to say “wait, maybe don’t go after the charismatic war hero turned literal astronaut who ran after his wife was a victim of political violence.”
There’s clearly no adult in the room to say “wait, maybe don’t go after the charismatic war hero turned literal astronaut who ran after his wife was a victim of political violence.”
Reposted by RandomUser7752
For thirty years I worked in the post-Soviet successor states in Central Asia and observed over and over again precisely the cycle that Bill Kristol describes. Corruption leads to authoritarianism, directly. The path is utterly predictable.
November 17, 2025 at 12:02 AM
For thirty years I worked in the post-Soviet successor states in Central Asia and observed over and over again precisely the cycle that Bill Kristol describes. Corruption leads to authoritarianism, directly. The path is utterly predictable.