Jennifer N. Victor

ICE under Trump 2.0 built an unprecedented media operation - deploying videographers to raids, pumping out edgy social posts, swiping pop music for hype videos - and the main metric for evaluating its impact shows that Americans now hate ICE more than ever

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/i...

Under cooperative leadership acting in good faith, the US—with the globe’s largest military—(occasionally) made the world safer. Under bellicose leadership strong-arming peers, the US has made the world significantly less safe than it was just two years ago.

More leadership like Spanish PM Sánchez, please!

Israel Is Blowing Up Iran’s Police State to Clear the Way for a Revolt Airstrikes have targeted organizations responsible for suppressing protests and cracking down on separatists, though analysts are skeptical the strategy will work.

“Israeli officials.. are looking to do enough damage to Iran’s police state from the air that the people can take over on the ground.” Degrading state capacity increases likelihood of state failure, not democratic change -Israel fine with chaotic collapse, US/Gulf not.

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Obama is the only president to date born when there were 50 states

Amazing and cool observation

Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump all born the same year.

uld you support or oppose abolishing ICE? (%) Somewhat or strongly supportNot sureSomewhat or strongly oppose U.S. adult citizens 39 Party ID Democrats 14 Independents 35 Republicans 68

Per The Economist/YouGov, half of Americans support ABOLISHING ICE.

Literally, "abolishing."

yougov.com/en-us/articl...

if uhhh any journalists need an academic to talk about trade flows and naval logistics the 18th-century maritime world is becoming rapidly more analogous in alarming ways

remember when FIFA made up a peace prize to give to this guy

Trump's trying to find the guy who did this.

Virginia Lawmakers Should Pass Citizens United Trigger Law Challenging the Supreme Court’s mistaken Citizens United ruling will help spur legal change and curb the influence of big money in state politics.

Trigger laws enabled some states to ban abortion the second the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Now Virginia is considering one that would limit political spending if the Court ever overturns Citizen United. bit.ly/3OYOEOV

I’m so sorry.

But sometimes Tuesdays are good, you know? 🌮

Just throwing this out there. It’s Tuesday.

Constitution schmonstitution

It’s not that the dead were not always there with us (in books, for ex.), but that the “interactions” are now in forms that solely belonged to the relationalities of the living (correcting a paper, for ex.). And yes, absolutely cringe and grave robbery.

Look, he has been president for over five years now, committing unprecedented crimes with absolute impunity on a daily basis.
As it turns out, people respond to incentives.

If you know Mark Warner, you know this is a pretty serious statement. He is EXTREMELY level-headed and doesn’t make hyperbolic statements. He is from a state with a bunch of military contractors too. If he is mad about this, then imagine how mad everyone else is.

This is the stuff parties are made of.

U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” Return of Jesus Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military

EXCLUSIVE: At more than 30 installations, U.S. commanders told troops the war on Iran is a Christian war.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been “inundated” with more than 110 complaints.

One NCO said they were told the U.S. war is to bring about Armageddon and the return of Jesus…

Anti-trans hostility to people making the simple request that they be called the name they prefer to be called is such a huge tell as to the indecency of their project.

Before today, no F-15 had been shot down in more than 35 years — since January 19, 1991, during the Persian Gulf War.

Before today, the U.S. had never had more than one aircraft shot down by friendly fire in a single day, let alone three.

Why Attack Iran? Our Authoritarianism and Our Corruption

In which @timothysnyder.bsky.social explains how a likely explanation for Trump’s war on Iran is personal profit and corruption.

open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

If America still had the rule of law, this would be the easiest prosecution ever, but we all know absolutely nothing will happen.

We are currently clean on OpSec.

X Is Drowning in Disinformation Following US and Israel’s Attack on Iran WIRED has reviewed hundreds of posts on X that promote misleading claims about the locations and scale of the attack.

“Almost all of the most viral posts reviewed by WIRED on Saturday came from accounts with blue check marks, meaning they…could be eligible to earn money based on how much engagement their posts generate, even if the content is false.”

From @davidgilbert.bsky.social

This map shows widely dispersed dots representing the guesses of US survey respondents about the location of Iran on a world map. 23% placed a dot in the correct area.

Where is Iran?
Each dot represents an American's guess.
pro.morningconsult.com/articles/can... 🌐

I think if I'd gotten away with attempting a coup, suffered no consequences for it, then won an election four years later, got away with executing citizens in the streets and foreigners in boats, and successfully abducted a head of state, I too might think I could just bomb my way to regime change

Yeah. It might be more accurate to say it’s 2022 and the US is Russia.

"The war was launched this weekend, not because there was a breakdown in the negotiations, rather because there was a breakthrough in the negotiations."

Al Jazeera's Marwan Bishara on the joint attack by Israel and the US on Iran.

Catastrophic Success by Alexander B. Downes | eBook | Cornell University Press In Catastrophic Success, Alexander B. Downes compiles all instances of regime change around the world over the past two centuries. Drawing on this impressive data set, Downes shows that regime change....

This is an extremely robust and well-studied finding.

World history is littered with attempts at imposing democracy by force.

While there are some notable counterexamples (Germany, Japan), there are many more failures.

www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...