John Ma 🇺🇦

"The collapse of American democracy is like the pandemic: Whatever you say at the beginning will sound alarmist – but likely prove inadequate by the end."

Stuart Stevens

Those who were outraged at the federal government using its lethal power at the Waco siege of 1993 are not bothered when in 2025 Trump sends in federal troops into US cities.

It is a fascinating contrast.

The 2008 financial collapse's delayed effect from funding cuts led to a sharp reduction in hiring in history that, for ideological reasons (university administrations prioritizing supposedly more 'market oriented' majors, mostly STEM) never recovered afterwards.

I know it is early in the season, but the job market for this year already seems to be looking pretty barren. Not a surprise - I wonder how many universities are operating under formal or informal hiring freezes or caps (mine is), because of the grant funding catastrophe.

So, in LA, I think I know what they wanted - they wanted a rowdy or violent mass demonstration to turn out to give them 'soldiers vs. chaos' optics to justify broad urban crackdowns, but the folks in LA were too smart to give them the visuals they needed.

Which is to say, no one in the citizenry apart from university presidents seems to be seriously worried they will face blowback from criticizing Trump in public or voting against him.

I don't think the farce of federal agents looking bored on the National Mall helps him there.

What I'm seeing is folks saying he is trying to 'normalize' this, which I don't think this accomplishes or that the goal here is to use the aesthetics of tyranny to establish the real thing - in which case, it isn't working, the generic ballot looks awful for the GOP.

this book explains a lot about what we are seeing right now: donald trump is projecting the appearance of tyranny, which is substantially what tyranny-in-practice consists of.
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

JB Pritzker: “I reject criticism from Donald Trump who inherited his money and then went bankrupt six times and then defrauded his buisness partners. And by the way he cheats at golf too.”

ICE Agent Caught on Camera Disguised as a Construction Worker The Intercept confirmed that a federal agent caught on camera wearing a hardhat and safety vest works for ICE.

“I find it outrageous. It’s indefensible. This is where we are crossing a dangerous line on immigration enforcement into these paramilitary type tactics with a secret police force,”
@patriciafahy46.bsky.social‬ told @theintercept.com

theintercept.com/2025/08/11/i...

Some Thoughts on the Consent of the Governed President Trump’s decision today to federalize the DC police and deploy National...

@joshtpm.bsky.social: It's time for Blue State America to use political power as ruthlessly and as maximally as Red State America does.
Elected officials, especially in the states, need to be thinking seriously about where the limits of their compliance will be.
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/some-...

lol of course

DC Statehood should be a non-negotiable for every Democratic federal candidate in ‘26 and ‘28. What this fascist and his minions are doing to our nation’s capital is gut-wrenching — and we can’t stand by while they trample democracy at its front door.

bottom 20% poorer, top 10% 2.7% richer, everyone else 0.1 to 1.5% better off.

New analysis from CBO of the "Big Beautiful Bill" shows the bottom 20% get poorer, not much change for most of America, & the top 10% get meaningfully richer - and that's before tariffs

The "Big Beautiful Bill" was the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in history

Trump's attempt to militarize and federalize D.C. is an incredibly dangerous acceleration of his fascist takeover of the nation

AND

It's clear he's pursuing it to distract from the Epstein Files

His craven personal self-preservation is driving this escalation and that makes it all the scarier.

In autocracies, terrorizing citizens is never a waste of time or money. It’s the way.

Drug Enforcement Administration officers patrolling the National Mall.

If you know DC you understand how tremendously goofy this is

(h/t @lorenzohall1.bsky.social)

You sign up with the DEA, imagining you're going to be involved in some amazing Sicario-style midnight raids on a cartel, and then President Clown Makeup has you out patrolling a park getting side eye sneers from lone women joggers.

Ah, he's going to deploy the police in a strategic perimeter around the Epstein Files. Now I get it.

Trump pardoned Jared Wise, a January 6th rioter who repeatedly urged the mob to “kill” police officers there. He called the cops Nazis and “the Gestapo”

The same Jared Wise currently serves as a senior adviser in Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice.

Oh it's a "flex" huh

Every day, it's a new Mad Lib from the Mad King.

This is a thing I have asked my reps for months.

"What will you do when Trump tries to nationalize the NYPD?"

This is a real question everyone should be asking every local rep.

Cuomo and Adams would absolutely let him do this in NYC.

This is a good point for everyone, uhhh, not Black, Brown, and/or from the US.

When people in the suburbs especially talk about crime, they are not talking about the wild ass shit going down in the Walmart parking lot at night. They're talking about me fumbling with my keys at my own front door.

Without Putin having made any concessions but on the basis of dumbwit Witkoff's misunderstandings, Trump is now inviting sanctioned international criminal Putin to meet him on US ground for the first time since 2003.
What an embarrassment for the US! /5

2. Putin demanded Ukraine withdraw from the rest of Zaporizhzhe & Kherson oblasts, but Witkoff thought he offered Russia to withdraw.
3. Witkoff thought Putin agreed a trilateral meeting with Trump & Zelensky, but he did not. /2

Actually watch this whole clip, the way he weaves mindlessly between catty insults including about weight loss, other bullshit, and his autocratic declarations of using the U.S. military as his personal plaything is… both annoying and chilling

6-FINAL/ Sudden and repressive crackdowns breed violent responses, which breed more crackdowns. Crime in America is going down (again, like it has since the 90s), and we should let that keep happening. Police are still getting paid.

4/ Wander the streets after school potentially getting into trouble. Anybody who lives in a neighborhood with teenagers basically sees your bored teen population peaks during summer break, but if you get your teens into a summer program that's a huge help too. 4) Gen Z doesn't like outside.