Sean Aday

Many good takes on Bari Weiss' dumpster fire at CBS (e.g tinyurl.com/245qx5z9). But for a tonally perfect evisceration see The Ringer: tinyurl.com/2bvz4emv. All expose her as a pseudo-intellectual, vacuously contrarian amateur prone to self-fluffing (a statue--to herself!)

“And that’s why I’m cravenly endorsing a republican in the Alaska senate race to ensure that this authoritarian menace remains unchecked”

I show it every semester -- same reaction!

This SDE clown doesn’t need a nazi tattoo, he IS a nazi tattoo

Liking this pope more and more every day

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

Waiting for the same Very Serious People in the media, WH, & GOP who scolded Dems to "lower the temp" after Kirk's death to condemn this & other examples of racist, authoritarian, & violent rhetoric (incl. Kirk's) w/the same intensity & self-righteousness www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Everyone in this administration is competing for the SDE Poster child award

Good for the generals. No one is impressed with this insecure, limp, utterly weak display of warrior cosplay. Certainly our enemies aren't (nor our dwindling number of allies). Typically pathetic, which makes it even more dangerous.

Sadly true but needs to be said, from
@paulwaldman.bsky.social :
"We Were Right: The savvy scolds said lefties were overreacting to Trump a year ago, and calling him "fascist" was crazy. How's that looking now?" paulwaldman.substack.com/p/we-were-ri...

Excellent must-read from Coates (esp. for those who claim to prize "debate.")
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/c...

As with everything about this criminal clown show of a presidency, at once abhorrently authoritarian and laughably stupid. "You have a lot of hate in your hate!"

Opinion | Can Trump’s ‘War Department’ Win a War? What matters isn’t the name but the erosion of U.S. hard power.

One can argue with their prescription, but have to hand it to WSJ editorial writers for nailing the Freudian insecurities underlying the "War Department" nonsense (& really everything about Trump/MAGA ftm): "(S)peaking loudly and carrying a small stick" www.wsj.com/opinion/depa...

These days, it's Sleater-Kinney covering "Fortunate Son" during an encore at the 9:30 Club in around 2003 and dedicating it to our last blue blood disaster of a president.

Yeah ok: first song that comes to mind at the thought "I'm glad I heard that live," go

Of course he ended up voting for it in the end. Because if it walks like a little bitch, and squawks like a little bitch, well...

The hilarious implications of the Supreme Court’s new porn decision The Court’s opinion has disturbing things to say about privacy, but the biggest losers are likely to be judges themselves.

So basically Clarence Thomas, the same Thomas that allegedly sexually harassed Anita Hill and other work colleagues by describing in detail the porn he watched, crafted a ruling that will force judges, including he and his SCOTUS brethren, to watch porn. Well played, sir
www.vox.com/scotus/41806...

The New York Times' "100 Best Movies of the Century" series is a fun diversion from The End Times. Impossible to feel good about a top 10 list when you must leave out so many great films (hardest omissions for me: Beau Travail, Moonlight, Mulholland Drive), but FWIW here's mine:

Dispensable Nation America in a post-American world.

"If it stays on the path Trump has started down, the United States risks becoming too brutal to love but too irrelevant to fear." Depressingly important analysis of Trump's disastrous foreign policy from @kschake.bsky.social‬: www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Much as I would not dare to predict the consequences of this war, I do think we can summarize it thusly so far:

A smart and evil man manipulated a stupid and evil man into a war against a fanatical and evil regime.

Bill Clinton told David Maraniss that based on his reading of the Bible blowjobs didn't count as adultery.

Homan, ICE goons, and MAGA allies maybe should watch this interesting doc:

And they'd be punished by the presidents at GW, NYU, and Columbia

Opinion | Graduates speak their minds. Universities freak out. In punishing students who make pro-Palestinian commencement speeches, schools lose their way.

CC GW president Ellen Granberg & the other university
mucky mucks who once again forgot their mission & First Amendment principles in punishing a student for the temerity of speaking her mind: "(D)on’t call that higher education. Call it what it is: cowardice" www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

GW investigating student speaker’s call for divestment from Israel at CCAS graduation Officials said Cecilia Culver, an economics and statistics graduate, read remarks that were “materially different” than the speech she submitted to the University ahead of the ceremony, and officials ...

I was on stage for this. Some disagreed vocally/strongly w/the speaker as was their right. But IMHO this was not hate speech. No one was harmed. It'd be a travesty of cowardice, bullying, and hypocrisy for #GWU to punish her. Sadly that'd be on brand for this GW admin. gwhatchet.com/2025/05/17/g...

And guess what? They are going to hire the locals who used to work for us and glean all sorts of info from them. A nice counterintelligence bonus.

This sadly all-too-believable breach of operational security by the dangerous dunderheads running national security for this clown show of an administration reminds me of a sign at the PRT in Mosul when I was there in 2009:

I am also happy to add my name to this letter advocating for the value of higher education and encouraging university leaders to be vigilant in its defense against current threats from the White House and its allies.

YouTube video by IPDGC Public Diplomacy and National Security: Lessons from 21st Century Conflicts and Emerging Challenges

"Public Diplomacy and National Security...." a great conversation with Drs. Katherine Brown and James Pamment, two contributors to the new "Handbook on Public Diplomacy"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFuf...
@ipdgc.bsky.social #publicdiplomacy

Public Diplomacy Handbook Webinar 2 Please click the link to complete this form.

What: Me & @profmiskimmon.bsky.social talk #AI, #publicdiplomacy + #strategicnarrative with @adaystew.bsky.social
When: 25 March 12 PM EST
Link to register and join: form.jotform.com/250565460458...