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ajayadler.bsky.social
Writer. Roper of stars. Professor of English. New York and Los Angeles. #Essays, #poetry, #fiction, #creative nonfiction, #memoir, cultural commentary. Poetry collection *Waiting for Word*. Substacks: Homo Vitruvius & American Samizdat. ajayadler.com
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My latest from American Samizdat. We’re down to essentials now. We always are in the face of tyrants. "Are humans bored of their freedom ...? It’s what Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor would say. Freedom is too much for the people." #politics #democracy open.substack.com/pub/ajayadle...

“European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: ‘Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.’”

Another 75000 cancel Washington Post subscriptions since Wednesday. Democracy does die in darkness. Jeff Bezos is now the darkness. www.npr.org/2025/02/28/n...

Donald Trump has disgraced the United States of America in countless ways since he first entered political life ten years ago. But he had never disgraced the nation as badly as he did today. He has brought shame on this country to an extent I had never thought possible. And he has only just begun.

This.

Have you ever seen a country disintegrate before your eyes?

Our national shame, forever and ever. Trump and Vance berate and seek to dominate Zelensky in public. www.nytimes.com/video/us/pol...

Anyone you know have cancer? It's impossible to overstate the reactionary brutalitarian cruelty of the regime now destroying the country. www.cancertherapyadvisor.com/features/can...

Trump Administration Live Updates: Judge Says Mass Firings of Federal Workers Are Illegal www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

Such a festival of malign degeneracy that brought us to this moment.

The White House Correspondents Association should expel as members any organization and reporter who covers the White House under this new regime. Simply to issue statements but otherwise submit is ineffectual and a wholly inadequate response.

On day one of the Trump White House choosing the "press pool," the WH replaced HuffPost with Axios as the print rep. HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte tried to cover Trump's cabinet meeting anyway, but he was denied entry, since it was open only to the "pool." www.cnn.com/2025/02/26/m...

Read the whole thread. This is fundamental.

Trump’s "rare-earth” deal with Ukraine is not a peace plan; it’s extortion. And it’s not the first time Trump has tried to extort Volodymir Zelensky. The first time got Trump impeached. open.substack.com/pub/charlies...

Evergreen.

I shared this note with the owner of the Washington Post this morning.

Note here that Musk is now literally assigning himself new contracts based on the use of his DOGE wrecking crew and the associated micro-bros. this isn't a "conflict of interest". it's just handing yourself federal money www.cnn.com/2025/02/25/b...

Never has the despotic overthrow and foreign conquest of a republic been carried out more openly and to greater inaction by the conquered. Trump Dismantles Government Fight Against Foreign Influence Operations www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/b...

Trump announces he will now choose reporters who may be part of the White House Pool — another step toward despotic government. Who does he think he is, Saddam Hussein? whca.press/2025/02/25/w...

The fascism is coming from inside the house amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/02/...

You can't just tell people to organize. People and organizations need leaders, always. Vision, voice, inspiration. The democratic leadership class of the country is failing the country and the people. Are they afraid to give name to what's happening, that speaking out will make it real?

When I began this past May to publish on Substack my memoir Reason for Being in the World, my "experiment in intellectual and spiritual accounting," I didn't suspect how as I reached its conclusion its considerations would so intersect with America's demise. ajayadler.substack.com/p/reason-for...

It’s imperative at this point that Europe develop a defense posture independent of the United States, which should be treated as the ally of Russia that it has now become.

Europe's politicians are openly discussing how they could tackle the threat of nuclear attack without American help, in a dramatic sign of the deep crisis engulfing the transatlantic alliance under Donald Trump.

All the opinions fit to be printed on a flyer, but at least we were neutral!

Psychopath.

Hate to break it to you, Senator, but Trump is not Neville Chamberlain. As misguided and naive as Chamberlain was, he was at least acting in good faith and in what he believed was the cause of peace. Trump is Joachim von Ribbentrop—or worse.

Rise up or be crushed beneath the heel.

Bernie Sanders: "The struggle against Trump, the struggle against oligarchy, which is led by Elon Musk ... that's not gonna be won here in Capitol Hill. It's gonna be won by millions of people all over this country standing up and saying, 'we fought and died for democracy.'"

Another billionaire weighs in on the side of corrupt government.

What you get when sociopathic billionaires hold government power, a worldwide syndicate of oligarchic corruption holding “peace talks” in the capitals of billionaire theocracies to divide up and conquerer a free land and people. And this. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/w...

The Imaginary American past. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/w...

AMERICAN BRUTALITARIAN INTERREGNUM NOTES PRESIDENTS DAY WEEKEND EDITION, DAYS 26-29 “The Destruction of America by Oligarchic Terrorists” Our forebearers, our grand and great parents who gifted us post-World War II America, would disown us for letting this happen. substack.com/@ajayadler/n...

THERE IS NO STAVING OFF THIS CRISIS. it's here. We're in it. Those who haven't need to learn. Trumpism ends with a stake in the heart. In Moving to Stop Adams Case, Career Lawyer Sought to Stave Off Deeper Crisis www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/u...

First IRS, Now DOGE Busts Its Way Into the Social Security Administration talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/doge-...

Today on American Samizdat: The terms of the pledge are stark. So is our situation. A purpose of the pledge is to make that clear. It’s happening. It’s really happening, and people need to decide how they are going to act in the face of it. #politics ajayadler.substack.com/p/the-americ...

Contempt is the definitive word. Vance, all of them, just have so much contempt, for other Americans, Europe, Africans, the Chinese. It just drips from them. Not Putin, though, or Kim Jong Un. No contempt there.

Tesla paid $0 in federal income tax last year. 2022: $0 2021: $0 2020: $0 2019: $0 2018: $0 Tesla reported $6.7 billion in profit in those years.

NEW: Over 100 Jewish organizations just released a statement ringing the alarm bell over the Trump admin’s attacks on democratic norms & values. We know where this leads, for Jews & others. I’m proud @thejcpa.bsky.social brought together this broad coalition. jewishpublicaffairs.org/news/major-j...

#OnThisDay in 1943 the leadership of the anti-Nazi White Rose Group were arrested by the Gestapo. Most were put on trial and executed, including siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl Find out more about resistance to the Nazis via #TheHolocaustExplained 🔗 https://buff.ly/4jDYsbR

Can't we all just get along?

History has come for us, and it isn’t waiting for our decision. open.substack.com/pub/ajayadle...

Finally, some good news.