Iñaki

I would rather live next door to someone who speaks another language than live next door to someone who doesn’t want to live near people who speak other languages. I know nothing about Person A but I know person B is a shitbird.

It’s actually fine and admirable to have a college degree. It’s fine to live in a city. Achieving professional success and financial security is laudable. Being civically minded and patriotic about our tradition of democracy and constitutionalism makes you a better person and should be celebrated.

This is an international disaster. They targeted a disabled fishing boat in Colombian territorial waters and killed fishermen.

“Who” is, objectively, the funniest possible response here

what, and I stress, the h*ck

Yes it’s that. The biggest voice on the online left spent 2024 convincing his audience the election made no difference. So now he has to defend that record with this sophistry.

CHOTINER: So your son is 14, is that right?

IKARI: It's complex, Isaac. If—

CHOTINER: And the “robot” he pilots, that’s actually the child of an alien you keep crucified in the basement, which is possessed by the spirit of his dead mother?

IKARI: Look, let me answer the question.

CHOTINER: Sure.

When autocratization is reversed: episodes of U-Turns since 1900 The world is in a “wave of autocratization.” Yet, recent events in Brazil, the Maldives, and Zambia demonstrate that autocratization can be halted and reversed. This article introduces “U-Turn” as ...

“52% of all autocratization episodes become U-Turns, which increases to 73% when focusing on the last 30 years. The vast majority of U-Turns (90%) lead to restored or even improved levels of democracy”

V-Dem data

You have to be willing to say, in effect, "The principles of liberalism means I won't use state power to crush you for your beliefs, but they also absolutely mean I have no intention of letting you into our institutions if you will not commit to the basic premises of liberalism."

It’s telling that of the two people with immediate power to take the actions that Miller/Vance/etc are demanding, one misstated the relevant law (Bondi) and the other acknowledged that the First Amendment prevents fulfilling those demands (Carr)

I’m gonna get started on the authoritarian crackdown just as soon as I finish gutting state capacity

They don’t have the power to do what they’re threatening on a grand scale.

But they want us to think they do.

Use of the word "evil" in official congressional e-newsletters, over time, by party

KIM KITSURAGI - "What is it, detective? Can you make it out?"

BULLET - "if you read this you are gay lmao"

1. "It, um, doesn't say anything."

2. "Transgender ideology. My old foe."

3. [Espirit de Corps - Medium 10] "I think you should read it for yourself, Kim."

going to keep saying: a society that would like to keep functioning has to discourage baldfaced lying, especially by authorities

Has the State Department ever warned a group of people not to mock something? I don’t mean telling State Department employees to be diplomatic, I mean threatening nonemployees with state punishment if they make jokes, bad taste or otherwise.

That’s Putin, Xi, Erdogan stuff.

The murder of Charlie Kirk was criminal, wrong, and should be condemned.

And Charlie Kirk was a horrible, hateful man who spent his life radicalizing young people to embrace their worst demons by targeting women, people of color, immigrants, and the marginalized.

I refuse to sanitize him.

Elizabeth Warren on people who say Dems needs to tone down their rhetoric: "Oh, please. Why don't you start with the president of the United States? And every ugly meme he's posted and every ugly word."

Too bad that our legal and institutional safeguards only work to prevent good policies. It would be cool if they also stopped the evil stuff

I'm putting together a team

Manufacturing empathy through sad movies, to save democracy.

Yeah I don’t care if you’re a socialist, a Blue Dog or Bill Kristol, if you’re an enemy of fascism then you’re my ally, and if you care more about your status in the democratic coalition than about beating fascism then you have to go.

Best case scenario is that Politico is exaggerating, but, like, man. Jeffries is just heaping evidence on the “Dem leadership care more about maintaining control of the party than having the party control the levers of policy.” pile here.

A tweet from Matt Walsh reads: "Dudes like this were already gay. I’ve been married for 14 years and have never been home decor shopping, or even had an opinion on the subject, except for the one time when I had a painting custom made depicting me meeting a group of space aliens. It’s now hanging above a fireplace in our home." He is reacting to a video, where a man and a woman are shopping for home decor. The original poster writes: "when will people finally acknowledge the epidemic of men marrying women and being turned gay"

For a while, it was believed that women and gay men are born with a natural sense for aesthetics. In reality, straight men, particularly American male Protestants, have simply barred themselves from taking an interest in aesthetics because they think this makes them noble.

Not all forms of fascism are the same. Ours, after we thwart it, will go down in history as the stupidest and tackiest iteration.

Russia and Ukraine Are Both Still in This War for the Long Haul With Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine demonstrated it has a lot of fight left. All that means is that the war is set to rage on.

The return of 🧵s!

Each weekend during the summer, I'll post (exclusively on Bluesky) a 🧵 "lecture" that uses my @wpr.bsky.social column to teach about some international relations concept.

Let's start with what can learn in this week's column!

this must’ve been how Winston Churchill felt when Hitler broke Molotov-Ribbentrop

"Trump is all-powerful except in the specific way that might crash the bond market" is incredible jurisprudence.