Austin Ahlman

Canceling My Billionaire Donors for Being in the Epstein Cabal Just Further Shrinks the Democratic Tent

-my latest for the Searchlight Institute substack

Amid DSCC Pressure, Democratic Populist J.D. Scholten Exits Iowa Senate Race Scholten, who is among a small coterie of progressive to outperform Kamala Harris in deep red states, will endorse Josh Turek on Monday.

New from me: an interesting tale from Iowa, where anti-establishment populist and serial electoral overperformer JD Scholten is dropping his bid for Senate to back the DSCC pick, relative newcomer Josh Turek. theintercept.com/2025/08/18/j...

it’s kind of funny just how cooked the party is. using diversity loopholes to throw out the election of someone who said we should do something about the olds, while any semblance of a popular economic agenda gets muscled aside by a warmed over neoliberal astroturf project

The Centrist WelcomeFest Was Everything That's Wrong With the Democratic Party At WelcomeFest 2025, centrist Democrats railed against progressives and activists for making too many demands of their elected representatives.

🎶What can I say except you're welcome, you're welcome🎶 www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

"Corporate support was a cynical marketing ploy to tap into the perceived disposable income of LGBTQ+ Americans," writes @austinahlman.bsky.social.

one of the biggest red flags of this project is the politicians who are being tapped to champion it

How America Lost Control of the Seas Thanks to decades of misguided policy choices, the U.S. has an astonishing lack of maritime capacity.

NEW: 🚢⚓️ Our transportation policy analyst Arnav Rao has a big, new report out today on why U.S. maritime power declined - and how to effectively revive it.

Read the report & his corresponding piece in @theatlantic.com: www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...

Cloud computing is too important to be left to the Big Three Unlike traditional utilities, Amazon, Microsoft and Google operate with minimal transparency

I have an article in the @financialtimes.com today highlighting cloud computing's systemic role in our economies and societies, and the grave dangers of concentrating this critical infrastructure in the hands of a few monopolistic U.S. tech giants.

www.ft.com/content/5c93...

Analyzing Week One of Google Search's Antitrust Remedies Trial | TechPolicy.Press Karina Monotoya analyzes the first week of the Google Search antitrust remedies trial.

It's week 2 of #googlesearch remedies trial. I'll miss the DOJ resting its case this morning but will be back for Google's first witness: Heather Adkins, Google VP of Cybersecurity (part of the session might be closed).

🗞️In the meantime, my recap of week 1: www.techpolicy.press/analyzing-we...

Court Ruling Against Google Ad-Tech Monopoly Is a Victory for Journalism | Washington Monthly Antitrust advocates rejoice at the second decision against the $1.8 trillion behemoth in less than a year.

CJL reporter @austinahlman.bsky.social explains why yesterday's ruling against Google's monopoly over digital advertising is a major win for journalism. READ: washingtonmonthly.com/2025/04/18/c...

I think it is reasonable for the leader of the United Auto Workers to support a tax on foreign car imports

I think blocking people liberally is just fine and probably creates a healthy experience, but the idea of “blocklists” is so insane to me. like what do you mean you are outsourcing the decision about what voices you should and shouldn’t hear from to other people?

I stand by it

Don't love the informal convention that writers on staff at a publication cannot criticize other writers there. Give me a magazine full of writers who all openly hate each other and spit at each other in the hallway

Pentagon fails 7th audit in a row, yet insists it "has turned a corner in its understanding of the depth and breadth of its challenges" and that "momentum is on our side" to eventually pass one.

need a couple people to drop obscenities and unhinged rants in my mentions once or twice a day for the next few weeks to help ease me into the new platform

so who do I follow on this site to make it feel less like a nonprofit happy hour?

new dragon age game goes unbelievably hard, woke nonsense and all

seems like people are doing lil intro tweets, so here’s mine:

I’m a journalist who’s done a bit of everything, with a bg heavy in elections/legislative politics. these days I mostly write about creating markets that foster democracy and shared prosperity. on these apps I mostly just shitpost though

here I finally am. it appears you have won (for now)

about half a million great sandhills cranes pass through the Platte River valley in Nebraska each year, making it the best place in the world to see one of the coolest birds in the world

bluesky trial period let’s go