Elizabeth N. Saunders

A reminder that the Kennedy Center is the literal and legal and congressional designated presidential memorial to JFK. This would be like Trump tearing down the Lincoln Memorial to build something “better.”

One hell of an elite cue, on the side that needs more of them. The judges have done more than most.

This judge does the thing quoting the Declaration of Independence at the Trump regime then adds for good measure: "Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power & the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds & are bereft of human decency."

Not to take away from the ridiculously-on-point righteousness of this order, but it is also clear that these judges are writing for maximum exposure, and that is GREAT.

Order – #9 in Conejo Arias v. Noem (W.D. Tex., 5:26-cv-00415) – CourtListener.com OPINION AND ORDER OF THE COURT--The Court finds that the Constitution of these United States trumps this administration's detention of petitioner Adrian Conejo Arias and his minor son, L.C.R. The Grea...

NEWS: Judge Biery has ordered the release of 5-year-old Liam Ramos. A thunderous rebuke against ICE’s violent campaign in Minnesota. Read the order below.

Link:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Steve Levitsky, the co-author of How Democracies Die, on the dangerous place we have reached as Trump escalates:

“Orbán doesn’t arrest journalists,” he said. “And in Hungary if you walk the streets of Budapest or other Hungarian cities, you will not find heavily armed masked men abducting people."

when we say complex processes of repression & violence are highly contingent & dynamic, we mean they depend on active choices people make—nothing is inevitable.

we know from lots of research that people can interrupt violent processes by making choices that reflect their values. this is an example.

This is an important thing and valid point. Explosions in Iran in no way should automatically mean the U.S. is bombing it. I didn't imply or say that. To find out, we need to confirm: a. If there were explosions across cities; b. Who did they target. Then of course wait for claims and denials.

Harvard professor Steven Levitsky, who studies democracy backsliding, on Don Lemon's arrest:

“This is a new dimension. In democracies, journalists don't get arrested. In authoritarian regimes, journalists get arrested."

More in @status.news: www.status.news/p/don-lemon-...

Oh god

Thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Minneapolis in protest of federal immigration enforcement for the second consecutive Friday.

📷️: Aaron Lavinsky

Live: U.S. opens civil rights investigation in Alex Pretti’s death President Trump labeled Pretti an “agitator” after new video showed the Minneapolis man clashing with federal agents.

A judge has ordered the release of Twin Cities independent journalist Georgia Fort this afternoon, rejecting the U.S. government’s claims that her allegations constitute a crime of violence that necessitate keeping her detained.

Here's an opportunity to support the other journalist arrested today; Georgia Fort, who will have far fewer resources available to her than Don Lemon.

The Minnesota Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio, the Minnesota Reformer, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, Sahan Journal, Center for Broadcast Journalism and Minnesota Newspaper Association today released the following statement: “We strongly condemn the arrest of journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon, as well as any attempt to intimidate members of the press. The First Amendment recognizes the press as holding a distinct and protected role in our democracy. In America, we do not arrest journalists for doing their jobs. The Minnesota journalism community stands united in defense of press freedom and the essential role reporting plays in holding power to account.”

The Minnesota Star Tribune, @mprnews.org @minnesotareformer.com , @spokesmanrecorder.bsky.social, @sahanjournal.bsky.social, Center for Broadcast Journalism and Minnesota Newspaper Association today released the following statement:

Support Independent Journalism | GF

Georgia Fort's is chilling, and it's being overshadowed by the equally chilling arrest of Don Lemon.

A GoFundMe is being set up for Fort. In the meantime, you can support her work directly – without paying massive fundraising platform fees – through her website:

www.georgiafort.com/support

DEA agents at her door.

The good news is this means things are going terribly for them. The bad news is they’re going to become increasingly desperate, violent, and brutal. And have three years to escalate unless Trump can be removed first.

That would be Harmeet K. Dhillon, the AAG overseeing the DOJ's Civil Rights Division.

(The same person who compared the Jewish president of Dartmouth to Hitler when she was the EIC of the Dartmouth Review, and who declined to investigate Renee Good's death.)

We often assume that a democratic transition is the clear end goal in Venezuela.

Yet, Prof. Moncada challenged that assumption by asking whether geopolitical alignment with the U.S. might matter more than breaking from illicit practices, raising important questions about democracy and power.

As Prof. Daly pointed out, any deal with the Chavista elite is held together largely by U.S. military pressure. But that pressure won’t last forever.

When it fades, there’s little to stop actors from reverting to old practices. Short-term leverage doesn’t guarantee long-term political change.

Recall that Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered not long ago by a fake cop who showed up at their door looking like this guy

Voting in Authoritarian Elections Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025 TURKULER ISIKSEL Open the ORCID record for TURKULER ISIKSEL [Opens in a new window] and THOMAS B. PEPINSKY Open the ORCID record for THOMAS B. PEPINSKY [Opens in a new window] Show author details Article Figures Supplementary materials Comments Metrics Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window] Abstract Democratic theorists hold that voting contributes to some political good: individual and collective autonomy, equality, justice, pluralism, stability, better policies, and many others. But elections are common under authoritarianism, and empirical research finds that holding elections can stabilize authoritarian regimes. This creates what we term the democrat’s dilemma, where citizens who vote in authoritarian elections may bolster the regimes they wish to unseat, even when they cast a vote for the opposition. We identify three major ways of thinking about the democratic value of electoral participation—justice-based, epistemic, and proceduralist approaches—and use them to examine the complex moral considerations that confront voters in authoritarian regimes. We contend that authoritarian elections’ residual democratic value can justify voting, even when doing so could further entrench the autocrat. Our argument also implies that the democratic principles that justify voting in authoritarian elections oblige citizens to choose the most democratic alternative.

Alarmingly relevant new paper out in @apsrjournal.bsky.social by Turku Isiksel and @tompepinsky.com. They take on the question of whether citizens of authoritarian states should vote in their often unfair elections, & find reason to do so.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Masked men arriving at the door of dissident journalists in the middle of the night.

(see too that is a DEA agent: the president is weaponizing all parts of the US government against his political foes).

Yes. There was another set of footage from her Nest camera too.

Really not great every Fed is now masking

The Venezuela attack was less than one month ago. The use of language like "narco-terrorism" to label and justify violence is a theme the student producers of @chalkboardpolitics.bsky.social pick up on in their first episode.

Only gets more relevant by the day.

They want everyone to know it came from the top, that it's corrupt and anti-1A, and they like that.

Because they don't have anywhere close to the capacity to silence everyone by force. So they use a show of intimidation to try to chill speech, and to try to raise their supporters' flagging spirits.

Good read on the relevant concepts of political obedience, hegemony, great power dominance, Hobbesian anarchy. the zero sum of the current degradation of democracy in our country. Consider constant, grass roots, organized community efforts and firm civil rights the guardrail. It will take all of us.

I don't think there are good arguments against this position

“Nasty, brutish and shortsighted.” Trump in a nutshell