TY, Garry
..."Aspiring authoritarians never ask for permission; they see what they can get away with. The only way to ensure the integrity of the 2026 midterms is to demonstrate, now, that the ideals of the American Constitution are still worth fighting for."
One of the most prescient statements you made, that has stuck with me as I've watched the collapse of critical thinking in America, was this:
"The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth."
"The Constitution is a piece of paper."
Or Russia. Not a coincidence that dissidents from authoritarian nations and reporters that covered those places have been waving their arms over what the Trump White House has been doing since 2017 while most US opposition and media have been sedately concerned. Itβs not confusing to us at all.
A factory burns at night
Ukrainian Navy Command has confirmed that the carnage inflicted on the Karachevsk Electrodetal plant in Bryansk last night was the result of R-360 Neptune subsonic long range cruise missiles.
Today, Ukraine commemorates the Babyn Yar massacre - one of WWIIβs darkest chapters.
In Sept 1941, Nazis executed tens of thousands, mainly Kyivβs Jews, along with Roma, POWs, and civilians.
Babyn Yar stands as a symbol of Holocaust horrors. We remember to prevent history from repeating.
Congress and judges will not save you. The GOP has rolled over every time, despite the unpopularity of Trump and most of his key policies. The Supreme Court has already demonstrated enough loyalty to Trump to give him unprecedented powers. This process accelerates unless stopped.
Those actively working for Trump's takeover are the clear and present danger, but complacency is also a threat. "He hasn't done x yet, so he won't" is a fallacy. Don't confuse an autocrat's attempts with his successes. "What would he do if not stopped?" is the right question.
Talking about 2028 is dangerously naive; the danger is now. Trump is directing the military and justice department to go to "war" on US cities and his enemies, from TV hosts to former FBI directors. Keeping the 2026 midterms fair may be the last stand. My latest: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
By the way, if you don't protest Trump weaponizing the Justice Department against his critics because they are people you don't like or agree with, you are assisting this fascist takeover. Wait until it happens to someone you like and it's too late.
While Ambassador Bolton's episode will be popular today for some reason, the new Autocracy in America is an important one. My chess Grandmaster and grandmaster-politician guest, Viktorija ΔmilytΔ-Nielsen, speaks from the frontline of Russia's next war, Lithuania. www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...
AI is being used to fabricate quotes and attribute them to real people, Yair Rosenberg reports. Here's what he did when it happened to him:
Ukraine is a secondary topic for both Trump and Putin in Alaska. This is a mafia meeting arranged by war criminal Putin to restore Russia internationally & economically. Trump wants his "peace" glory and Putin used that to get this summit. But it's mainly about money for both of them, as always.
I write for the @financialtimes.com on Europe's fundamental problem when making tough decisions about war and peace: the persistent refusal to ask simple first-order questions and the tendency to ignore them entirely. www.ft.com/content/a6aa...
With Russia on the march in Europe, Trump Putinizing the US, and KGB man Putin (and foreign minister Lavrov in a USSR shirt) in Alaska, no better time to talk to a man whose office is next to the Berlin Wall's infamous death strip. Please listen (or read) and share.
Europe is a sleeping beauty, with Putin and Trump handing out poisoned apples (and tea). Can it awaken to become the defender of democracy we need today? Listen or read my latest Autocracy in America podcast with Axel Springer CEO Mathias DΓΆpfner. www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...
He is just an insecure little fascist, that Elbridge Colby.
Making Putin feel quite at home with the Trump White House, in more ways than one.
The space between crusading global policeman and βAmerica Firstβ isolationism is where the founder of Geopolitical Futures plants a flag. Is realism really realistic? Americans can look at Russia to see what happens when a leader puts personal power over national interests and calls it pragmatism.
I grew up admiring the moral stands of Soviet dissidents like Sakharov, and what I saw as the beacon of individual freedom, America. My guest this week, foreign policy expert George Friedman, instead talks concrete interests and analysis in our conversation: www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...
Russia is ramping up its drone attacks on Ukraineβand this is just a glimpse.
A nonstop, terrifying swarm of buzzing engines fills the sky.
Simply using the absurd phrase βthe Ukraine conflictβ says a lot. Calling out the opportunism and hypocrisy of other nations doing business with Russia is fine (China, ahem), but admit you are funding a dictatorβs unprovoked war by choice.
Excellent interview with John Bolton in the Atlantic today. I never thought I would miss John Bolton. Gift article. @radiofreetom.bsky.social
@ericowens.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...
Lost elections are rigged, won elections are fair. Good job numbers are real, bad ones are fake. Sex trafficking is bad, unless the traffickers will blame your enemies. Crime is bad, unless the criminals are pro-Trump. This isnβt 4D chess, or even tic-tac-toe, just Autocrat 101.
I lived through the bizarre whipsaw of Republican Russia hawks like McCain pushing back on Obamaβs ideological distaste for US power to Dems supporting aid to Ukraine out of opposition to Trumpβs support from Putin and βAmerica Firstβ nationalism. My constituency flipped while I stayed the same!
US power, including hard power, has been a force for good in the world. Yes, I said it. My latest Autocracy In America guest Amb John Bolton also says it, with plenty to back it up. From Iran to Russia to Hamas, what Trump's isolationism gets wrong.
www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...
Trumpβs appointees are all competing for the Nobel Prize in kissing ass.
πΊπ¦π The number of injured of the Russian attack on the capital has increased to 82. At least 10 children were injured, 5 of them in hospitals. The Russians killed six people.
βΌοΈ Russians damaged the mosque of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine "Umma".
The rapid decline of American science has few precedents in history, argues @rossandersen.bsky.social. We are witnessing an unparalleled act of self-sabotage:
The real Liberation Day will come if the courts liberate us from all these tariffs imposed without congressional authorization. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
