Melissa S. Williams

Test run for 2026. Here's what I wrote in the NY Times about the federal government potentially interfering with the 2026 elections and what we need to do about it. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/o...

Gold leaf Steinway piano in East Wing of White House

🧵Let's talk about the obvious:

Where in the fuck did all the historic artwork and priceless furnishings go, including the gold leaf Steinway piano that was presented to FDR from the Steinway family?

Did Trump steal all this when he demolished the East Wing?

Why aren't Dems demanding to know?

Pritzker: "People of Illinois, we need your help. Get our your cell phones, record and narrate what you see. Put it on social media. Peacefully ask for badge numbers and identification. Speak up for your neighbors. We need to let the world know that this is happening and that we won't stand for it."

I fully understand how difficult it is to remain focused on any one particular atrocity but this really ought to be a serious scandal and people need to pay heavy prices for this

I was assured these interactions would be “brief” and easily resolved.

Likely suspects?

Yes

Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE                THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Read this. Seriously, read it.

The Trump regime is declaring open season on its critics - NGOs, philanthropists, activists. They will be harassed, arrested, jailed. The silencing effect on others who might speak out will be huge.

This is authoritarianism.

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Twilight of American Democracy Mapping A Democratic Breakdown in the United States

Bernard Harcourt with a helpful analysis of different conceptual frameworks and theoretical models trying to make sense of what is happening in the US:

I have approximately zero following on this app, sharing in the hopes it can get in front of the right person. A man I went to college with’s wife was kidnapped by ICE at a green card hearing, and he’s trying to find a reporter who will speak to him about the situation

National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders Honored for rejecting illegal orders during martial law, Marine death probe

The South Korean Ministry of Defense has awarded medals of merit to 11 officers for disobeying direct orders of superiors during the martial law fiasco, orders that they deemed to be contrary to the constitution and endangerment to democracy.
www.chosun.com/english/nati...

I feel like this needs to be said, as I don’t feel many Americans get this:

THIS IS NOT NORMAL!!!

No, not even for authoritarian leaders in nominally democratic regimes.

In Hungary, Poland, even Turkey*, authoritarian leaders do/did not regularly send the military into its peaceful cities!

Sure seems like the president just instructed the military to use lethal force against US citizens.

the president just said the military should start shooting american civilians if they want to

Who are the political scientists talking most insightfully about Israel/Palestine?

Justice Dept. Official Pushes Prosecutors to Investigate George Soros’s Foundation

This is, without any exaggeration, exactly how Putin and Orbán proceeded — using antisemitism to discredit the idea of civil society and political opposition, and as an excuse to undo the rule of law.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/u...

You know things are rough when the AAUP's advice on how to use social media is just "set all your accounts to private."

Opinion | When Universities Become Informants A practice from the McCarthy era makes an ugly return.

Judith Butler:"It is important to refuse the notion that this is just how things are..invoking a feckless realpolitik that justifies complicity with a brutal & rising authoritarianism. It is time to resist the injustice that now threatens to be normalized" www.chronicle.com/article/when...

Here's a partial list of university faculty who have been fired or suspended this week. 🧵

How are free speech and academic freedom doing at your university?

#academicsky #edusky #aaup #freespeech

1/x

1. A tenured Professor at Florida Atlantic:

U of T prof's tweet, assumed by some to refer to Charlie Kirk killing, was bad, but so is the University's reaction [Note: a commenter has pointed to this PressProgress report suggesting that the media’s coverage of this story, including the CBC story linked below, may be in fundamental error, as the tweet in quest...

new from @emmettmacfarlane.com

emmettmacfarlane.substack.com/p/u-of-t-pro...

Post now updated with a note at the top, and with a slightly changed headline, because apparently almost every media outlet also may have gotten the story wrong.

Stephen Miller fascism

JD Vance fascism

Yeah, you can call it fascism

Full text of the International Association of Genocide Scholars Resolution on the Situation in Gaza:

genocidescholars.org/wp-content/u...

Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world’s top scholars on the crime say Almost 90% of leading academics on subject back resolution stating that Israel’s actions meet legal definition An overwhelming majority of members of the world’s leading genocide scholars’ association has backed a resolution stating that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of the crime. Eighty-six percent of those who voted in the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) supported the motion. The resolution states that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948).” Continue reading...

Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world’s top scholars on the crime say

Hirsch, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, is now thinking of leaving the classroom:
“A university that treats criticism of Israel as antisemitic & threatens sanctions for those who disobey is no longer a place of open inquiry … I just don’t see how I can teach about genocide in that environment.”

Can Anyone Hear Me? - Boston Review Palestinians are only allowed to exist if we don’t cause discomfort for those who seek to erase us.

Almost a year ago, Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, lamented that while “it may be just and moral” to starve Gaza’s two million residents, “no one in the world would let us.” What an incredible shame on us all that he was wrong.

"Much of it is the unspeakable stuff nobody admits to but is clear to anyone who reads or observes: ... that it’s more expedient to be against evil after it’s over; that western countries preach justice and democracy, but act to protect wealth and power."

Former Green Beret officer who was engaged in humanitarian work in Gaza:

“I witnessed the Israel Defense Forces fire a main-gun tank round from a Merkava tank into a crowd of people.”

"I was shocked to see one of the nurses who I worked with carrying my daughter... she was dead."

This broke me. Dr Khaled Hamouda, Gaza surgeon, in tearful testimony to 'Gaza: Doctors Under Attack,' the film they didn't want you to see.

Full film, that the BBC dropped, from Zeteo: gazadoctors.film

Why are no headlines focusing on the unconstitutional and dictatorial nature of this action?