jonrauch.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

My friend Pastor Chris Davis has put out an appeal for a parishioner in need of surgery to save his spine. Please check it out and consider giving. Chris wouldn't ask if it weren't important. www.gofundme.com/f/help-fund-...

submitted 22 hours ago • 0 comments

Bill Emmott (who's English) is one of the calmest commentators out there, so when he says the G7 and G20 are now the G6 and G19, you know that Trump, Vance, and Musk have shattered confidence in the US-Europe alliance. billemmott.substack.com/p/russian-la...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

In August 2022, I predicted six steps Trump would take in a second term to replace our liberal democracy with something like Viktor Orban's Hungary. Shall we review the bidding a month in? 1/10 www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Trump/Vance embrace of Germany's far-right AfD "would be a blunder of historic, and potentially catastrophic, proportions." Jamie Kirchick - www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/o...

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"The policies now being pursued are most likely to widen future deficits by at least $1.5 trillion over the coming decade, with a high risk of substantial further erosion." www.aei.org/economics/a-...

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This guide to the far right is definite clip 'n' save material. Lots of insight into what's unfolding here and in Europe. So much is known; why were we so unready? From The UnPopulist open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

So much for credit cards.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Words cannot express how extraordinary and weird this is. Memo to everyone who never took civics: judges are NOT supposed to need to ask what to do when a government prosecution is being used as a tool of extortion. apnews.com/article/eric...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Genuinely excellent piece by @mckaycoppins.bsky.social about (odious) Murdoch clan. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc... I reported a limited version on similar theme 20+ years ago. So am all the more impressed by this. Still not sure whether R Murdoch or Mitch M has done more damage overall.

submitted 2 days ago • 23 comments

"The United States under Donald Trump is not retreating into isolationism. It is actively joining the authoritarian camp." Francis Fukuyama in @persuasion.bsky.social www.persuasion.community/p/the-ultima...

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Impressive, hard-digging journalism from @reason.com. Govt charges conspiracy to commit sex trafficking without good evidence of either conspiracy _or_ trafficking. reason.com/2025/02/19/t...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

A searching conversation with one of the country's most thoughtful and self-critical Christians. I'm so grateful to Mark Labberton. comment.org/podcasts/chr...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Six reasons our universities are in trouble...and how to save them. In @quillette.bsky.social quillette.com/2025/02/18/u...

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"All of the evidence points in the direction that neither the Justice Dept nor the White House Counsel is able or willing at the moment to interpose meaningful legal constraints on the president’s will. This is a dramatic change from past practice." executivefunctions.substack.com/p/the-white-...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Economist Warren Coats on the impact of Trump's USAID demolition. "American aid has not only gained respect, good will, and cooperation from the aid recipients but increased trade, income, and security in the US as a result." wcoats.blog/2025/02/17/u...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

I realize we're not supposed to hyperventilate about everything Trump does. Good advice. And yet what's happening at DOJ is blatant abuse of prosecutorial power. Very, very alarming. Just no way around it. apnews.com/article/new-...

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

"The resignation letter of Hagan Scotten, the Bronze Star recipient who was working as an Asst. US Attorney at DOJ in Washington, ends with these words: 'I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.'”

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Here's one of the best conversations I've ever had. "Can Mormonism save American democracy?"...with the Latter-day Saints' most distinguished theologian. youtube.com/watch?v=muP4...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Deeply thoughtful conversation between two of my favorite people - @drmoore.bsky.social and @jonrauch.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Great. $4 trillion in new US debt. Because that's what authoritarian populists do. www.crfb.org/press-releas...

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

This might be the most nakedly corrupt document I’ve seen on DOJ letterhead — and I wrote a history of Watergate!

submitted 12 days ago • 252 comments

MAGA Christians, supposedly pro-life, stand by as Trump's foreign-aid suspension endangers lives. @peter-wehner.bsky.social in @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

Legal harassment succeeds at intimidating news outlets. Unfortunately, there's no way today's GOP-controlled Congress will stop it. www.theunpopulist.net/p/america-de...

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

This is classic authoritarian language from the Trump White House: “Every action of the Trump-Vance administration is completely lawful. Any legal challenge is nothing more than an attempt to undermine the will of the American people.” www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/u...

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

"Donald Trump’s election has created real opportunities for advancing needed change. But the new administration seems intent on squandering those opportunities." From Yuval Levin of AEI, who knows what he's talking about. www.thenewatlantis.com/publications...

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

Today's legal must-read: Jack Goldsmith on the Supreme Court's (accidental?) embrace of executive overreach. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Is belief in God the only rational choice? My review of Ross Douthat's new book, "Believe." arcmag.org/only-a-god-c...

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

In @reason.com, Jacob Sullum has read the transcript of CBS's interview with Harris. Guess what? reason.com/2025/02/06/t...

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Rabbi Michael Holzman: "Bishop Budde wasn't breaching her clerical charge by speaking truth to Trump from the pulpit." www.theunpopulist.net/p/bishop-bud...

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"The likely outcome [of Trump's tariffs on Mexico and Canada] is that the price of the average car in America would rise by $3,000, says Wolfe Research, a consultancy." The Economist (2/1).

submitted 14 days ago • 2 comments

Remember the Magic Asterisk? Voodoo economics? They touch this budgetary legerdemain... www.crfb.org/blogs/3-tril...

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

I'm probably too obsessive to take this advice...but I know I should. "You need a sabbath to survive the coup." substack.com/home/post/p-...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Guess which areas will feel the most pain from Trump's trade wars? (Hint: the ones that voted for him.) www.brookings.edu/articles/chi...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

"Trump isn’t merely issuing orders and enacting policies; he’s launching a constitutional revolution. The object is nothing less than the transformation of the American presidency." David French in @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/o...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Wherein two atheists debate whether the country really needs Christianity. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDGW...

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

How Trump lost his (first) trade war. (Tired of winning yet?) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv... @davidfrum.bsky.social

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Employers now "risk getting sued if talk in the workplace makes some women uncomfortable, but also sued if they resort to training to discourage that and it makes some males uncomfortable." Good luck, guys. www.theunpopulist.net/p/trumps-ant... @walterolson.bsky.social @theunpopulist.net

submitted 17 days ago • 4 comments

Uh-huh. Let's go with that. @ajkeen.bsky.social

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Great interview except the part where I totally muff a question about Max Weber. (Max who??) @ajkeen.bsky.social

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

keenon.substack.com/p/episode-23... the great @jonrauch.bsky.social on why tolerant Christianity is essential to American democracy

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Out today in an updated edition: the late, great David Boaz's landmark guide to libertarianism. www.cato.org/books/libert...

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment