Kenneth Silber

Worry, Don't Panic, Over Trump's Efforts to Subvert the Elections America's system is quite foolproof but he can still try to delegitimize it

Crucial read on election security by @andycraig.bsky.social. open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

How to Avert the Tragedy of Great-Power Politics Germany knows the costs of a world governed by power alone.

Doesn't mention Trump or Stephen Miller, but it's clear to whom this is a rejoinder. www.foreignaffairs.com/europe/how-a...

Not only did they murder hundreds of thousands of people. They also stole the money.

Oppressions Across Centuries Readings on historic and current attacks on liberty. || Kenneth Silber

I write of troubled times. www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

Oppressions Across Centuries Readings on historic and current attacks on liberty. || Kenneth Silber

I write of troubled times. www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

Yep. Many of us who weren't sufficiently Trump-curious had to find other places to work.

The libertarian movement had one job, and it failed, and now it wants credit for success.

Epstein files show a complicated relationship with science and journalism Jeffrey Epstein aggressively sought access to publishers, mentions of Scientific American and other media in Department of Justice files show

Epstein files show a complicated relationship with science and journalism

Jeffrey Epstein aggressively sought access to publishers, mentions of Scientific American and other media in Department of Justice files show

www.scientificamerican.com/article/epst...

Memories of Souls and Particles Recalling Martin Gardner’s contemplations of the afterlife. || Kenneth Silber

What would personal immortality be like? Gardner contemplated various theological debates about the afterlife, noting for example that Muslims and Christians have broadly differed on whether there’ll be sex there (the former saying yes, the latter no). www.splicetoday.com/writing/memo...

Understanding MAGA’s Furious Minds Laura K. Field examines Trumpism as an intellectual movement. || Kenneth Silber

Background: I reviewed @lkatfield.bsky.social's book recently. www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

CIA ends publication of its popular World Factbook reference tool The CIA is ending the publication of its popular World Factbook reference manual

In keeping with the trend of US govt ceasing to be a reliable info source. abcnews.go.com/Politics/wir...

The Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP The mainstreaming of transgressive ideas is the culmination of a yearslong conservative project.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0... Insightful by @lkatfield.bsky.social.

Memories of Souls and Particles Recalling Martin Gardner’s contemplations of the afterlife. || Kenneth Silber

Notes on immortality. www.splicetoday.com/writing/memo...

Excerpt from the Atlantic: The new Nazi commissar wasted no time on the amenities. He immediately announced that Jews would be forbidden to enter university premises and would be dismissed without salary on March 15; this was something no one had thought possible despite the Nazis’ loud anti-Semitism. Then he launched into a tirade of abuse, filth, and four-letter words such as had been heard rarely even in the barracks and never before in academia. He pointed his finger at one department chairman after another and said, “You either do what I tell you or we’ll put you into a concentration camp.” There was silence when he finished; everybody waited for the distinguished biochemist-physiologist. The great liberal got up, cleared his throat, and said, “Very interesting, Mr. Commissar, and in some respects very illuminating; but one point I didn’t get too clearly. Will there be more money for research in physiology?” The meeting broke up shortly thereafter with the commissar assuring the scholars that indeed there would be plenty of money for “racially pure science.” A few of the professors had the courage to walk out with their Jewish colleagues, but most kept a safe distance from these men who only a few hours earlier had been their close friends. I went out sick unto death—and I knew that I was going to leave Germany within forty-eight hours.

R/P @cdelawalla.bsky.social from an Atlantic article by Peter Drucker.

cdn.theatlantic.com/media/archiv...

"What about the funding?" is the wrong question.

Science needs funds, but it needs democracy first and foremost.

Sometimes I think, "DHS can't be lying about ALL of these incidents, right?" Well, just about EVERY time, this is what happens:

Cato study: Immigrants reduced deficits by $14.5 trillion since 1994 Immigrants have cut deficits by nearly one third over three decades.

‪Walter Olson:‬ The fiscal effects of immigrants, both legal and illegal, on federal budgets builds upon a National Academies model. First of its kind in 30 years, it finds that the fiscal effects of immigration remain strongly positive and have helped keep federal deficits from being even higher.

Dystopian. www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

The Personalist Global Order When individual whims drive great-power policy.

"The emerging global system is one in which three nuclear-armed leaders, insulated from dissent, pursue risky gambits." www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Kent State shootings - Wikipedia

They're listed at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_St...

Israel's space program is falling behind – just as the global space race accelerates Internal Documents and Testimony Obtained by Haaretz Show How Years of Policy Decisions Hollowed Out Israel's Space Capabilities – Just as the Global Sector Enters a Period of Rapid Growth

Right-wing nationalism also not good for space programs. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

DOJ has since killed this link. This is what was there:

Glimpses of a Better Future Notes on some positive developments. || Kenneth Silber

The National Science Foundation will receive $8.75 billion, compared to $9.06 billion last year, not the administration’s proposed $3.9 billion. This means, for one thing, that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) will not be crippled. www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

Glimpses of a Better Future Notes on some positive developments. || Kenneth Silber

I look at some good news that might be overlooked.
www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...

Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities degrading | The Jerusalem Post The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities warns of the danger of losing independence and being left out of research collaborations.

Right-wing nationalism isn't good for science anywhere. www.jpost.com/science/arti...

Prediction market bearish on Noem. www.predictit.org/markets/deta...

FMR SOCOM General Tony Thomas replying on twitter to the lies of Stephen Miller with a photo of a U.S. citizen 37-year-old Alex Pretti was murdered, shot in the head and killed by a federal agent in Minneapolis.

General Tony Thomas is a retired general of United States Army and former commander of US Special Operations Command.

He participated in numerous combat operations; Operation Urgent Fury 1983, Operation Just Cause 1989, Gulf War 1991, and since 2001 Iraq & Afghanistan.

Replying to Stephen Miller:

In Trump's 'Dual State,' Dissenters Face Extrajudicial Executions, Loyalists Enjoy Protections America's system of justice has fundamentally broken because the regime believes it can justify attacks on citizens via lies rather than in a court of law

This analysis deploying the Fraenkel framework might be single best thing written on the Pretti execution thus far. At @theunpopulist.net. Must must read:
open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

Saying there must be trials isn't just an emotive aspiration.

Congress can:
- Create a new court (complying w/ 6A jury vicinage)
- Give it jurisdiction over defined category of crimes
- Also create dedicated prosecutors for the same
- Strip SCOTUS of appellate jurisdiction

It can be done.

Another brick of a piece by M Gessen. Few voices are as indispensable now.

They're openly hostile to our civic creed and the legacy of the American Revolution, but many of them are also genuinely, absurdly, "how did you make it through middle school?" ignorant of the most basic highlights of American history.

Them, but also more directly: 285 people out of 535 could end all this (218 + 67). That fact should not be treated as an "oh they'll never do it" shrug, as if they don't have agency. They should be hammered constantly as traitors and cowards every day they don't.