A data point to remember re: “popularism” is that the popular position on what is happening in Iran and happened in Venezuela is “no war, this is insane, full stop” and the moderate elected officials we are supposed to like are saying contorted, legalistic, unpopular word salad instead of that.
“My meetings with notorious rapist and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein were solely in service of my fraudulent research agenda” might be the weakest defense any of these people have come up with yet
Okay I think I've mapped out ICE politics as of Monday night
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.
"Please get the truth out about our son."
States can create citizen militias independent of the National Guard. I’d like to see governors and state legislators think creatively about that power when it comes to monitoring federal agents operating in their state, particularly if they don’t trust police forces to do so.
Mass pardons are coming. There will be no accountability without treating those as null and void. And that means a future administration taking an official position that Trump is not the legitimate president right now because he is disqualified by the 14th Amendment. The two things are inextricable.
Part of me thinks “yeah, primary every last one of these fuckers!!!”
And the other part of me thinks “eh, fuck it. We’re gonna need wholesale constitutional reform anyway. Just abolish the damn Senate.”
one thing i find crazy-making is the idea that getting rid of the filibuster would make congress a purely majoritarian institution. bicameralism itself is counter-majoritarian! equal state representation is counter-majoritarian! the fact that senate elections are staggered is counter-majoritarian!
I find this distraction discourse unhelpful. Trump's video was appalling and significant and should be analyzed and denounced, and part of the work of politics is to turn it into a major controversy in its own right, as a symbol of Trump's autocratic disdain for the people.
New editorial from me and @keithschnak.bsky.social.
“Why Washington University must not sign Trump's 'compact'”
google paid a twenty million dollar bribe to the fucking president to tear down the white house
W/ @genevievelakier.bsky.social, the @aaup.org today released a letter to the Offices of the General Counsel at US colleges & universities. We detail why the Compact violates the Constitution & urge that no one signs it.
www.aaup.org/sites/defaul...
“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”
-Article 1, Section 8, US Constitution
Not a "norm" violation. A legal and constitutional violation.
No Kings in Sonora, CA (pop. 5000).
Not being even vaguely sarcastic:
At some point, a journalist needs to ask Johnson “you regularly claim you have no idea what your own government is doing. If we take you at your word, how are you so poorly informed, and do you this level of ignorance should disqualify you as speaker?”
Agree 100% @stanfordaaup.bsky.social!
“When it inevitably comes time for Stanford to choose, we must remember that we owe our loyalty not to any executive branch official but to our own foundational principles. We must be ready, when it’s our turn, to walk away.”
stanforddaily.com/2025/10/12/f...
From @gjmartin.bsky.social (writing for @stanfordaaup.bsky.social) laying out why no university should sign Tr*mp’s “Compact” stanforddaily.com/2025/10/12/f...
or we could just move to proportional representation, make one statewide multimember district for Utah, and stop all this goddamn endless litigation.
At the time, scholars of this topic noted that, in Trump's first term, the independence of institutional media orgs from him went with a surge in trust in the media from Democrats. Major media org's cooption and capitulation in Trump's second term has gone with a drop in Democrats' media trust.
They are stealing taxpayer dollars from blue states because Democrats in Congress refuse to give Trump a blank check for his authoritarianism.
Corruption. Coercion. Blackmail. Lawlessness.
I won’t bend the knee to a wannabe dictator and his cronies. We will prevail.
Blue cities should tear up the roads in front of ICE facilities and then start decades of community engagement and input sessions to rebuild them. Let's harness our core competencies.
This is a crime. The Supreme Court has foolishly decided that Trump can commit crimes with impunity, but that is NOT true of anyone who works for him. Stephen Miller, Hegseth, Noem and anyone else who declares war on the US and our Constitution must not be let off the hook. Two years in prison
I tried to listen to this but couldn’t make it this far in. Asked to justify the policy, she makes vague, nonfalsifiable claim about universities promoting a “culture of victimhood” (source: 90’s talk radio) and then rambles about social media for a while
Top 10 American Fears of 2024 (Chapman Survey) Horizontal bar chart ranking the top fears of Americans (percentage “afraid” or “very afraid”): 1. Corrupt government officials (65.2%, top fear for years). 2. Loved ones becoming seriously ill (58.4%). 3. Cyberterrorism (58.3%). 4. Loved ones dying (57.8%). 5. Russia using nuclear weapons (55.8%). 6. Not having enough money for the future (55.7%). 7. U.S. becoming involved in another world war (55.0%). 8. North Korea using nuclear weapons (55.0%). 9. Terrorist attack (52.7%). 10. Biological warfare (52.5%). Red bars display percentages; small arrows indicate change from 2023 rankings.
Top Public Worries in the U.S. (Yale & GMU poll, May 2025) Stacked bar chart of worries among U.S. adults. Categories ranked by share “very worried”: • Government corruption (54% very worried, top issue). • Other leading concerns: cost of living (48%), the economy (47%), state of democracy (44%), disruption of federal services (44%), cultural/social divisions (36%), treatment of immigrants (35%), global warming (29%), crime (26%). • Lower worries include job security (17%), health (16%), and being targeted because of identity/beliefs (15%). Green shades show “very/somewhat worried,” yellow/orange shades show “not very/not at all worried.
Perceptions of Federal Government Problems (AP-NORC poll) Bar chart showing the percentage of U.S. adults who consider various issues in the federal government to be a major problem, minor problem, or not a problem. • Corruption: Overall 70% major, 22% minor, 7% not a problem. Higher among Republicans (78%) than Democrats (63%). • Inefficiency: 65% major overall, with Republicans (81%) much higher than Democrats (55%). • Red tape (bureaucracy): 59% major overall, with Republicans (73%) higher than Democrats (47%). • Civil servants unwilling to implement president’s agenda: More partisan split—Republicans 56% major problem, Democrats 20% major problem; overall 34% major, 36% minor, 28% not a problem. Title: “Majority of the public believe corruption, inefficiency, and red tape are major problems in the federal government.
Word Cloud of How People Describe American Government (Berkeley Democracy Policy Lab) Large central word: “Corrupt.” Other prominent words: Broken, Chaotic, Dysfunctional, Shit, Clueless, Divided, Inefficient, Crooked, Hijacked, Justice, Woke, Bloated, Untrustworthy, Hopeless, Frustrated, Disastrous, Messy, Sneaky, Turmoil, Delusional. Smaller scattered words include both negative and neutral terms such as Crap, Important, Poder, Resilient, Unfocused, Needs Help. Visual emphasizes “Corrupt” as the dominant public perception.
I’m starting to notice a trend in the polling data…
—Top Public Worry: Corruption
—Biggest problem in Fed Gov: Corruption
—Top fear: Corruption
—What one word would you use to describe American government?: “Corrupt”
It’s almost like voters are trying to tell us something.
The political implications of this cannot be overstated. One of the most important media platforms, now under direct control of the current government and its allies.
In all seriousness, I'd love to see a reporter try to get comments from all of these people about their initial impulse to declare a literal war on half of their fellow citizens and to see if any of them regret it, apologized for it or learned anything at all from it.
“awful people don’t deserve to be killed, but they don’t deserve to be praised, either” is apparently a thought too complex for the pundit mind
