Emery Berger

New York Times editorial board has compiled "a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

This is what "not the odds, but the stakes" was all about.

During the 2024 campaign, those 12 markers could have been in place and operating to guide news coverage everywhere.

Opinion | In Trump’s America, Are We Losing Our Democracy? (Gift Article) Donald Trump has wielded power as no previous president has.

Are We Losing Our Democracy? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Alvin Holsey, who ran bombings as SouthCom head, resigned with no explanation. Rep Adam Smith says Pentagon denied request for testimony and Rs aren't pushing for it.

"We need to hear: Did he quit because he believed he was being given illegal orders?”

New details:

newrepublic.com/article/2025...

This was published one year ago. Everything is, sadly, true today.

So many own goals.
Once again: higher ed is one of our most successful exports. We export more higher ed to China than soybeans. And yet Trump and the mini-Trumps are deliberately destroying the quality of our product

This is true—Bessent owns $25 million of farmland in North Dakota—and a reminder of why farm bailouts are nothing more than a giveaway to feudal lords who demand the government grossly distort agricultural economics to make their tax haven "farms" even more valuable to them.

Ed Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America

Reagan's approach to the world prominently featured two things:

1) Russian aggression bad, Western democratic alliance good
2) Free trade good, tariffs and other barriers to trade bad

Pretending it's the opposite is the sort of reality inversion only someone who rejects truth itself could buy.

BREAKING: new racist Republican groupchat has been leaked to Politico featuring texts from Paul Ingrassia, Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel.

Ingrassia’s texts include vile pro-Nazi & racist messages targeting Black people, Chinese people, and Indian people.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth →© @SecWar X.com On October 17th, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Designated Terrorist Organization, that was operating in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics. There were three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike—which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike. These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people. The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are-they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda. UNCLASSIFIED 11:18 AM • 10/19/25 • 405K Views

🚨🚨🚨Hegseth has now struck a boat belonging to the ELN guerrillas — bringing the US into a shooting war with group that has been fighting the Colombian govt since 1964! Meanwhile, Tump cut off aid to Colombia claiming President Petro was in league with traffickers.🙄
This is insanely dangerous!!!🚨🚨🚨

Front page of NYT on September 22, 2025, with large top-of-page photo of a Charlie Kirk memorial service, and the lead page-one story on the same topic.

Front page of today's NYT, Oct 19, with no story about the nationwide protests, and a "below the fold" montage of two photos, and a link to a story on page 23.

Those with sharp eyes might detect a subtle difference in NYT play last month of an event in one city, w 100,000+ attendees, versus play this morning of some 2500+ events w many millions of attendees, in all 50 states.

See if you can spot it! /s

Then you can find today's story on p A23

notice the general mood of the timeline? how everyone is in a good mood and there’s a lot less misery and dooming? how there’s a lot of “we’re going to beat these assholes”?

anyway that’s why these events are important

YouTube video by Degenerate Art by Andrea Pitzer How to Spook a Fascist

"Think of this as the equivalent of participation in a faith community that meets to worship—a regular practice to guard against loneliness and despair, and check in with others going through a similar experience.”

A young boy holds a sign that simply states in plain handwriting: Trump hit on my girlfriend

when i say that i yelped in shock at this kid’s sign

No Kings-Austin,TX

David Byrne at #NoKings on his bike.

(via @wutangforchildren.bsky.social)

Sign seen at No Kings rally in Amherst, Mass. - “Fascism for Dummies” For all the confused, misinformed, brainwashed, fascism-loving Trump supporters... FASCISM FOR DUMMIES Fa (fascist) <picture of Trump as Hitler> Anti-Fa (Anti-Fascist) <picture of Marines raising flag at Iwo Jima> Over 400,000 American Antifas gave their lives in defense of Democracy during WWII. Don't let their sacrifices be in vain!

#NoKings #Amherst #Massachusetts “Fascism for Dummies”

Two protesters dressed as Tusken Raiders from Star Wars holding anti-Trump-as-emperor protest signs in downtown Amherst Massachusetts

Even the Tusken Raiders have had enough! (#NoKings Amherst Mass.)

Instead of "This is inappropriate!" Democrats - especially those who might run for president - should say right now "Anyone who participates in this should know: You are committing a crime, and in the next administration you will be prosecuted."

That will change the frame of the story.

Again, it is a full-blown federal felony crime for anyone in the White House or Executive Office of the President to order tax investigations into anyone.

And it's not just a crime to DO it, it's even a federal crime for an employee not to REPORT such an order to the Treasury Inspector General.

Old enough to remember when kids being anti-semitic was the basis for a federal government assault on higher education

U.S. Military Kills Another 6 People in 5th Caribbean Strike, Trump Says In a social media post, the president said the people aboard a boat were suspected of smuggling drugs for an unspecified group his team had labeled terrorists.

Trump just bombed six more people in the Caribbean, for a total of 27 civilians who have been killed so far by the US military. It’s illegal for the military to target civilians who do not pose an immediate threat. This is murder.

Unless and until some kind of compelling legal and moral argument is presented as to why this is a legitimate use of deadly force, this is just…mass murder.

www.instagram.com/p/DPm507ljBJ...

That’s a nice trick, since Biden wasn’t the president on Jan 6.

No institutional design can overcome a lawbreaking president, a Congress defending lawbreaking and forfeiting its own power, a Supreme Court that pretends legal text doesn’t count to facilitate lawbreaking, and a citizenry that votes for all that.
Need at least one that wants rule of law. Maybe two.

Should the New York Times be sold to Pennysaver and its editors sent to work in Amazon warehouses? It depends on who you ask.

Yes, America - the president is telling you you’ll be paid to take your meds.

FFS

Could the Supreme Court still apply different rules to a Democratic president? Of course. You don't need to remind me of that. But a lightning-fast blitz that repurposes Trump's new powers for good stands the best chance of standing up in court. Democrats need to start thinking about this right now.

It is pretty galling that the Supreme Court spent four years telling Biden "you can't do that without Congress" then allowed Trump to seize a once-unthinkable amount of power from Congress within nine months and concentrate law-making authority almost entirely in the executive branch.