dougmuder.bsky.social

Despotic Encroachment It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutio…

This week: SNAP, shutdown, tariffs, elections, and a parody of a Paul Simon classic. weeklysift.com/2025/11/03/d...

The Shutdown Gets Serious If you’re poor in America, food and healthcare just got way more expensive. Up until Saturday, most Americans had been able ignore the government shutdown. If you didn’t work for the fe…

It's all a political game until children start missing meals.
weeklysift.com/2025/11/03/t...

Could a Third Term Happen? It’s far-fetched but not impossible. For months Trump has alternately encouraged and then tamped down speculation that he might seek a third term. Wednesday, he acknowledged the constitutiona…

It's unconstitutional. Or is it? weeklysift.com/2025/11/03/c...

In Free Countries For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other. – Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776) No Sift next week. The next …

This week: No Kings, shutdown, Gaza, voting rights, Montana Plan, and the greatest performance in baseball history. weeklysift.com/2025/10/20/i...

The Resistance Stiffens Chicago on Saturday. The No Kings rallies were the most obvious signs of resistance to Trump’s authoritarian rule, but congressional Democrats, Pentagon reporters, major universities, and an …

The Trump-invincibility narrative hit a few bumps this week. weeklysift.com/2025/10/20/t...

Who will protect us from our protectors? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? – Juvenal, 2nd century AD This week’s featured posts are “Only Trump represents the People” and “Fantasies of a vast, violent left-wing …

This week: Gaza peace, attack on Chicago and Portland, shutdown deadlock, Trump’s dementia, and some dancing frogs. weeklysift.com/2025/10/13/w...

Only Trump represents the People Pam Bondi’s disrespect of the Senate is only one example of a larger principle. If you watched Pam Bondi’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, you saw a number of t…

Fascists believe in a mystical union between their Leader and the People. weeklysift.com/2025/10/13/o...

Fantasies of a vast, violent left-wing conspiracy Trump’s security memorandum projects his friends’ behavior onto his enemies. Executive Order NPSM-7 got past my attention when it was first released on September 25. Seeking to exploit …

Trump fears his reflection in the mirror.
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Companions and Instruments A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive, will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence [against] foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at ho…

This week: Trump and the generals, Chicago, shutdown, Gaza, dementia, Argentina, and 20 great dances. weeklysift.com/2025/10/06/c...

Trump Comes for Chicago Whatever this is about, it’s not public safety. I went to graduate school in Chicago during the 80s and lived there for six years. I’ve been back many times since and marveled at how mu…

The regime’s invasion of Chicago cuts deeper if you know something about the city. weeklysift.com/2025/10/06/t...

The Silence of the Generals Lack of response leaves a lot of room for projection. Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hosted an unusual meeting: America’s top generals and admirals, 800 or so of them, were called to…

We can only imagine what the generals and admirals were thinking as they heard Trump describe his fantasy world.
weeklysift.com/2025/10/06/t...

The Show Must Go On This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this. – Jimmy Kimmel This week’s featured posts are “What to M…

Due to a vacation, I haven't posted a summary for three weeks. Has anything happened? weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/t...

The Show Must Go On This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this. – Jimmy Kimmel This week’s featured posts are “What to M…

Due to a vacation, I haven't posted a summary for three weeks. Has anything happened? weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/t...

I’m catching up on the news of the last three weeks. Most of what I’ve seen about Kirk is way too shallow, so I thought I’d give my own impression. weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/w...

Is Kimmel’s return a turning point? For the first time, Trump used autocratic power in a way that the public couldn’t ignore, and a popular pushback forced a big corporation to stand up to him. Is that an anomaly or the start o…

Can we read anything more into Jimmy Kimmel’s victory over Trump? weeklysift.com/2025/09/29/i...

Speed without rigor No Sift for the next two weeks. New articles will appear September 29. Judges in the trenches need, and deserve, well-reasoned, bright-line guidance. Too often today, sweeping [Supreme Court] rulin…

This week: Trump loses in court, the Epstein story is back, invading Chicago, blowing boats out of the water, RFK, and some baby animals.
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Will the courts hold the line? The Trump administration has suffered a series of defeats in court recently. Will that matter? It’s been a bad week or two for Trump in court. Jay Kuo counts the ways: A major ruling from the…

Trump's lower-court defeats will only matter if the Supreme Court backs up the lower-court judges. weeklysift.com/2025/09/08/w...

It's not to soon to start planning for the looming crisis at the end of the fiscal year. weeklysift.com/2025/09/08/t...

Waking up to the difference I think many Americans wrongly believe there would be one clear unambiguous moment where we go from “democracy” to “authoritarianism.” Instead, this is exactly how it happens — a blurring here, a n…

This week: Lysenkoism, Chicago resists occupation, Trump's post-Palestinian Gaza fantasy, illegal tariffs, Fed firing, and a far-out view.
weeklysift.com/2025/09/01/w...

Lysenkoism Comes to America As RFK Jr. purges the CDC and cancels billions in research grants, Americans need a refresher course on what happened to Soviet biological research during the Stalin years. In many ways, Trofim Lys…

To understand what RFK Jr. is doing to American health care and research, you need to recall a powerful figure from the Stalin regime. weeklysift.com/2025/09/01/l...

Accusations Tyrannies don’t always get their way by establishing a secret police force that arrests people at will — although we’re getting that too. Much of their power comes not from overt violence but from …

This week: redistricting, the Bolton raid, forbidden words, nationalizing Intel, troops still in DC, and a denial we may all need to make someday. weeklysift.com/2025/08/25/a...

Policies to Make the Planet Hotter You may think that Trump’s policies are just indifferent to climate change. You would be wrong. Not so long ago, conventional wisdom said that an administration should focus on one goal at a …

It's not just that Trump has no plan to mitigate or delay climate change. He's actively making it worse.

weeklysift.com/2025/08/25/p...

Groundwork If we show weakness today in front of Russia, we are laying the ground for future conflict. – President Emmanuel Macron of France This week’s featured post is “The Timescale of Ne…

This week: new format, Putin summit, DC takeover, redistricting, and what a John Brennan show trial might look like. weeklysift.com/2025/08/18/g...

My recent dissatisfaction with my own blogging led to a meditation on what news is or ought to be. weeklysift.com/2025/08/18/t...

Adapting to Decline We can expect the governing class to adapt pragmatically to the electorate’s collective decline in rational capacity, for example, by retaining the rituals associated with mass democracy, while qui…

This week: Trump fixes the numbers by firing the number-crunchers, Gaza, Smithsonian, gerrymandering, trade deals, and Samuel L. Jackson's new ad. weeklysift.com/2025/08/04/a...

Shaping Ourselves In a democracy, the people shape their government. But in the long run, the government also shapes its people. What kind of citizens does a democracy need to have, if it’s going to sustain it…

What happens to a democracy when it can't produce people with the ability to think deeply and clearly? weeklysift.com/2025/08/04/s...

Choices It’s alright for you if you run with the pack.It’s alright if you agree with all they do.If fascism is slowly climbing back,It’s not here yet, so what’s it got to do with yo…

This week: some court victories, trade deals, Gaza, Epstein, and a final tribute to Tom Lehrer. weeklysift.com/2025/07/28/c...

“Unitary Executive” is a euphemism for Tyrant How a conservative legal theory set us on a path to fascism. If you clear your mind of preconceptions and read the Constitution end to end, I think you’ll see not just a list of rules and pro…

Restoring American freedom will require not just a new president, but a new majority on the Supreme Court. weeklysift.com/2025/07/28/u...

Fear Itself There is a terrifying amount of hate in our country, yes. But there is far more fear. Hate is the end of a conversation. Fear isn’t always. I’ve been on the lookout for moments when an honest and r…

This week: strife in MAGAland, Colbert, rescission, Bolsonaro, Andrea Gibson, and the Coldplay kiss-cam. weeklysift.com/2025/07/21/f...

Yes, he does think you’re stupid Democrats should avoid the substance of the Epstein controversy and focus on a single point: If his supporters feel Trump is insulting and disrespecting them, they’re right. The best thing th…

How can Democrats take advantage of the strife roiling MAGA without seeming as inauthentic and opportunistic as Trump himself?

weeklysift.com/2025/07/21/y...