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grantbabcock.bsky.social
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it would be great if we had a democratic party willing to go out and say “this is an insane lie to get you to irrationally hate a minority group trying to just exist peacefully” rather than start throwing us under the bus and twiddling their thumbs

There is literally no point in passing an appropriations bill if your position is the president can ignore it.

yep. and this is the basic problem with trump being psychologically incapable of perceiving a positive sum relationship. everything is a dominance game for him.

And their failure to do so is a betrayal of their oath. The only constitutionalist position is removing Trump from office. Shrugging that off as unrealistic is forfeiting the whole idea they have any obligation to defend the Constitution.

The Springfield bullshit nudged us into a new frontier of lying. It isn’t just that they don’t back down from the lies. It’s that every lie is increasingly exaggerated to the point of absurdity. Shameless lying is a demonstration of your loyalty. The more shameless the lie, the more loyal the liar.

They should resign, and the very public resignation letter should read “I have no intention of lying about our journalism in order to provide Paramount with a pretext for paying Donald Trump a bribe.” Which is transparently what this is.

can't believe it's 2025 and i'm stressed about tariffs and measles, like am i a character in an american girl book

The fundamental problem with Dem messaging is that they are making it crystal clear they don’t take seriously their own rhetoric about the existential threat Trump poses. Which is perverse, because it’s true. But if they don’t why should anyone else?

Democrats have a one-time chance to be both the "tough on crime" party *and* the anti-authoritarian party. But it's looking like most of their leadership needs to be primaried before they can capitalize.

Hear me out: it’s time for America to be sealed under a giant mysterious dome

Also, Lycurgis was a weird freak who built a civilization that left behind nothing but some mythical stories of sweaty men, an empty field where his city once stood, and a memory of really bad porridge.

Somehow this has produced zero reflection either from Democrats or the media class about what makes something "presidency-ending," which is not the substantive severity of the scandal, but HOW OTHER ELITE POLITICAL ACTORS REACT AND TALK ABOUT IT

There’s a reason that the phrase is “limited government” rather than “small government.” The smallest but most unlimited government is despotism.

When individuals and publications labor to construct the intellectual and moral justifications for genocide, I think they should be treated like people doing that.

Put me out of my misery.

Look, Caligula considered making his horse a consul, so there’s precedent.

The first two steps in attempting to implement communism, in the most practical sense, are: 1. Eliminate legal protection for ordinary people 2. Select leadership on the basis of ruthlessness/willingness to commit violence

American Christians have complete religious freedom, tax-deductible tithing, and widespread acceptance. It seems like a majority also convinced themselves that they're horribly oppressed.

They do Nazi salutes because they’re Nazis.

Absolutely this. None of this madness is what you’d do if you were really interested in meaningfully reducing the size of government. It’s what you’d do if you wanted to consolidate power over a federal apparatus sufficiently compliant to execute corrupt or unlawful commands.

When a far-right politician does something that seemingly aligns with liberatory values (peace talks, decentralization, etc.), you should always assume: A) It’s not actually what it’s propagandized as, and B) It’s as part of a larger fascist strategy to expand power and violence.

"In the long run the privilege accorded to a definite class of producers loses its power to create specific gains. The privileged branch attracts newcomers.... Thus the eagerness of the law's pet children to acquire privileges is insatiable." --Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Ch. 29

Impeachable offense, after impeachable offense, after impeachable offense, after impeachable offense, after...

Today FIRE is promoting Ilya Shapiro’s new book, accepting at face value his posturing as a hero for pushing back against “illiberalism” in academia. Meanwhile:

I can’t say I’ve thought about inflation that much since the US Attorney in the district you and I both live in had to resign because the President wanted to make a corrupt deal with the Mayor, backed by the threat of a dangling DOJ prosecution, to terrorize immigrants and people of color here.

This really gets to the heart of it: suing Musk in his official capacity to establish and challenge what the hell his official capacity even is.

How to bring down prices and raise our standard of living: 1) Trade with everyone, and do it a lot. 2) Welcome tons of immigrants, of all skill levels. 3) Stop listening to NIMBYs. How to increase prices and lower our standard of living: 1) Slap tariffs on everything. 2) Scare off immigrants.

is the goal merit or is the goal segregation?

in what meaningful way can we say that the constitution is in effect when an unelected and unaccountable billionaire is wielding state power to unilaterally cancel congressional appropriations?

GITMO preceded Trumpism but shares one of its central themes: there should be people outside the law, people with no rights anybody is bound to respect. That accompanies belief that there should also be people with rights superior to all others, people not bound by any law.

Purging dissent in the security services and giving loyalists power is something we *instantly* recognize in other contexts.

Ten years in the making. Hundreds of thousands of pages of USG records reviewed & underpin the research & conclusions. My latest book, The Triumph of Fear, available for preorder now. Your baseline for measuring how bad Trump is compared to his predecessors. press.georgetown.edu/Book/The-Tri...

These are the only refugees we’re now taking. So guess it’s just full-on white nationalism.

*I'm* saying we need to worry *more* about it because it's not legal. The flagrant lawlessness is much of the point--like school-yard bullies, they're flexing power and status by showing off what they can do without being held accountable. Same with the openly racist language and gestures.

This energy. 👇🏻

Apple should just pull out of the UK. Call their bluff. Compared to the whole of the global market for iPhones, the UK is small. Just say, "Rather than endanger the privacy and security of the people of the UK, we're going to turn off their access to Apple services entirely."