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Some new anti-autocracy reference material.
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Proud to be a coauthor on this important guide for scholars as we face a slide into autocracy in the US. A ton of useful information in here for anyone who wants to speak out against democratic backsliding and injustice, with salient points for those who need to navigate institutional politics.
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— Nina Jankowicz (@ninajankowicz.com) June 19, 2025 at 9:35 AM
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars' Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding. zenodo.org/…
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. It tries to provide guidance to scholars navigating the growing global trend of democratic backsliding and autocratization, in particular in the U.S.
To this end, it sets out how autocracies often follow a common playbook, built around the “3 Ps”: populism, polarization, and post-truth. Leaders present themselves as voices of “the people” against “corrupt elites”, inflame societal divisions, and undermine facts to avoid accountability. This leads to a cascade of dangers for scholarship, including censorship, restrictions on funding and research collaboration, and even violence. The Trump administration serves as a contemporary example, with policies that curtail international scientific cooperation, revoke research grants, and suppress studies related to public health, climate change and minority issues. Because open inquiry and dissent are central to science and academia—qualities antithetical to authoritarian control—academia is often among the first targets of autocrats. To help scholars resist authoritarian developments, the handbook highlights both historic and contemporary measures aimed at attacking scholars, their institutional environments, and their scholarship.
The handbook also sets out a framework for action based on personal risk level—low, medium, high, or extreme. This is designed to help scholars think about their own risk and purposefully choose actions in line with it. The handbook considers tools for enhancing digital safety and highlights the importance of ongoing documentation, preserving imperilled data, and creating distributed archives as a defence against erasure. It also calls on scholars to tell their stories—publicly or anonymously—to inspire others, maintain accountability and preserve a historical record.
Accompanying the handbook is a living wiki that will continue to incorporate new developments and provide updates on global efforts by scholars to push back against authoritarianism and safeguard the democratic foundations that enable free inquiry.
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Posted without comment (so far, I may find words after I pick my jaw up off the floor).
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1) Yes you absolutely must turn on the sound.
2) You may also want to sit down.
3) You may also want to preemptively muzzle yourself if anyone is asleep.
4) I think the unsung hero of this clip is the middle judge. Watch her expression the second time around.
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— National Security Counselors 🕵 (@nationalsecuritylaw.org) June 18, 2025 at 8:53 PM
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World leaders are calling a liar a liar spade a spade.
The man is batcr@p Qray-Qray.
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The story itself is behind a paywall, but:
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Oh, and remember this.
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Reminder how this works: Not only do the Jewish people have to control Israel. We have destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount and rebuild the Temple. Then, when the third Temple is built, Jesus will return and all Jews will be burned in hellfire. We're only a means to an end (of days).
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— Eugene Freedman (@eugenefreedman.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 8:09 PM
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About the ongoing AI debate. The word of the day is "enshittified."
From the article. Republicans want unregulated AI. What could go wrong? www.publicnotice.co/…
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Though both Republican and Democratic state officials have supported state laws to regulate AI, it is Republicans in Congress who are pushing the moratorium. The effort is being led by Ted Cruz of Texas, who in the last year or so has become a full-time podcaster with a side gig as a senator. Cruz confronted a problem after the bill passed the House: the Byrd Rule, which requires that only measures with a direct effect on the budget can be included in a reconciliation bill that can pass the Senate with 50 votes.
Cruz believes he solved that problem by changing the language so that rather than an outright ban on state regulation, the federal government would withhold money for broadband expansion — money every state wants — if they regulate AI.
“All of this busybody bureaucracy — whether Biden’s industrial policy on chip exports or industry and regulator-approved ‘guidance’ documents — is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” says Cruz. “To lead in AI, the US cannot allow regulation, even the supposedly benign kind, to choke innovation or adoption.”
It's being pushed by Cancun Cruz, that tells you all you need to know.
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By law, members of congress are entitled to inspect ICE detention facilities. They do not require a warrant or advance notification (remember the incident in NJ from a couple weeks ago).. Someone is well aware of this fact and has come up with a (questionable) workaround. FIDJT may be surrounded by sycophants and imbeciles, but there are people in there who have thought long and hard how to subvert democracy.
ICE Bars Reps. Goldman and Nadler From Immigrant Detention Area ‘Approaching Capacity’. www.thecity.nyc/…
Two members of Congress were refused entry to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention areas inside 26 Federal Plaza Wednesday morning, despite rules laid out by Congress allowing members to conduct unannounced visits for oversight purposes.
ICE’s explanation: Those staying at the facility, some for nights at a time, are “in transit” and not actually in federal detention.
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Nadler pushed back, “If people are detained for several days, it is a detention facility, whatever you choose to call it.”
Miffed by semantics, Nadler pressed Joyce for more specifics.
“Getting away from your absurd misinterpretation of the statute — why won’t you let us see this? Are you ashamed of what’s there? Why won’t you?” Nadler asked.
“Because we were told not to,” Joyce conceded, saying that the orders had come down from ICE headquarters, and that the congressmembers should appeal the decision to them.
“Well, thank you for your time, we understand you’re following orders,” Goldman said, leaving the building with Nadler shortly afterward. At a press conference after the visit, Goldman and Nadler said the two are considering their next steps, including potential legal action.
The odd exchange, in which Joyce was wearing a button-down shirt featuring a cartoon toucan drinking a beer, came a day after another chaotic scene inside the building. (Asked about his odd choice in attire, Joyce said he bought the shirt on eBay because he “thought it looked nice.”)
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“This is not policy, it is punishment, and it can only result in cruel and arbitrary outcomes ... Already we are hearing stories of innocent fathers and mothers being wrongly deported, with no recourse to appeal.”
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
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— George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 5:44 AM
LA archbishop slams Trump’s ‘cruel and arbitrary’ immigration agenda. www.independent.co.uk/…
The archbishop of Los Angeles sharply criticized the Trump administration’s “cruel and arbitrary” immigration policy, following widespread protests against the White House migration agenda throughout the city.
In a column this week for the Catholic magazine Angelus, Archbishop José Gomez accused the administration of having “no immigration policy beyond the stated goal of deporting thousands of people each day.”
From the flutter comments. This guy is no radical leftist.
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This is brutal and scary AF.
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Skum has been relatively quiet these days. I wonder what he's been up to.
SpaceX Starship explodes again, this time on the ground. www.theverge.com/...
SpaceX’s Ship 36 experienced a ‘major anomaly’ Wednesday night just ahead of a planned static fire test in Texas.
Late Wednesday night at about 11PM CT, SpaceX was about to perform a static fire test of Ship 36, ahead of a planned 10th flight test for its Starship, when there was suddenly a massive explosion at the Massey’s Testing Center site. SpaceX says “A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for,” and that there are no hazards to residents in the area of its recently incorporated town of Starbase, Texas.
The site continues to burn at this time, about two hours after the explosion, with live camera feeds from NASASpaceflight and LabPadre showing the site, as well as the response from local fire departments. According to the people narrating on NASASpaceflight, the explosion occurred before the static fire test was supposed to start, and about 30 minutes or so after the propellant load sequence began. During a static fire test, the vehicle’s rocket engines fire while it remains attached to the launch mount, so Ship 36 was not scheduled to lift off just yet.
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Talk about waste and fraud. Trump's pardons cost victims and taxpayers $1.3 billion, House Judiciary Committee Democrats' review says. www.cbsnews.com/…
President Trump's flurry of recent presidential pardons has cost crime victims and taxpayers approximately $1.3 billion in restitution and payments, according to a review by House Judiciary Democrats.
The pardons absolved hundreds of convicted criminals from having to pay for damages and restitution caused by their crimes. Victims have not been made whole, the Democrats said — including U.S. taxpayers who must now foot the bill for the millions of dollars in repairs and cleanup from the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.
The Judiciary Committee Democrats' investigation, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, also cited several multi-million dollar restitution payments that were cancelled by Trump's recent pardons. The committee's review said, "with a far greater financial effect, President Trump's pardon spree has also swept in big-time corporate fraudsters, millionaire tax evaders, and other white-collar criminals. Thanks to President Trump's pardons, these convicted criminals now get to keep $1.3 billion in ill-gotten gains they stole from their victims and American taxpayers."
The Judiciary Committee Democrats said Mr. Trump's pardons absolved restitution payments to victims by Todd Chrisley, a former reality TV show star pardoned last month. Chrisley, who was freed from a 12-year prison sentence for tax and bank fraud, had been ordered make $17.7 million in restitution payments. Chrisley had denied all charges brought against him.
The president's commutation of former media mogul Carlos Watson not only spared Watson from a 9-year prison term, but also freed Watson from $36.7 million in restitution payments to investors he defrauded when he misrepresented the financial health of his digital start-up, Ozy Media. Watson had pleaded not guilty to all charges. Mr. Trump's commutation of Watson used language that mirrored the orders used in other orders of clemency. The commutation commanded, "An immediate commutation of his entire sentence to time served, with no further fines, restitution, probation or other conditions."
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For those looking for signs the tide is turning, the American Bar Association just dropped a massive federal lawsuit against the Trump regime, naming every single department and every single cabinet member. My write-up on this unprecedented move in the replies.
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— Jay Kuo (@nycjayjay.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 7:46 AM
The ABA Declares War. statuskuo.substack.com/…
The American Bar Association (ABA) just dropped a massive federal lawsuit against the White House. And it’s not messing around. The lead counsel filing suit on behalf of the ABA is Susman Godfrey, one of the firms Trump targeted. The complaint names the Office of the President, but for good measure, it also names each and every high level government department along with every cabinet official.
The list of named defendants alone goes on for eight pages, and I admit that I smiled while flipping through it.
It’s hard to overstate what a consequential, historic and unprecedented move this is. The ABA is a normally quiet, nonpolitical organization. You’d know this if you’ve ever attended and tried to stay awake during its conferences.
To stir it to action and actually file a lawsuit against a sitting president and his entire administration is something I thought I’d never see. For starters, it risks “politicizing” the ABA, with Trump supporters likely to denounce it as captured by liberal, Democratic forces. The organization absolutely understands the Rubicon it has crossed.
The circumstances must be dire indeed for this organization to undertake such a move. As the ABA set forth in its suit, and as it stated in accompanying press releases, it has basically been left with no choice.
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As the ABA emphasizes in its complaint, the judiciary cannot remain strong and independent referees within our system if the White House can undermine the whole system by taking top lawyers off the field.
If ever there were a time for a 9-0 unanimous opinion in support of the basic rule of law and the fundamental nature and importance of our adversarial system, free from political pressures and coercion by the government, the executive orders attacking the legal profession itself should result in one.
I’ll of course take a more likely 7-2 outcome and not complain.
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Tigerupjp has been sounding the alarm about Mike Lee and the GQP efforts to sell of public lands and provisions they're trying to include in the Bigly Big Ugly Budget Bill. I ran across this this morning - both an interactive map of potentially affected lands and also a cunningly simple effort to gum up the works. I don't know if it will be successful, but something to keep in mind and look into, if you're so inclined. Click the flutter to read the whole thing.
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Filing a mining claim could save the public lands you love. This bill sells off every Americans birthright. For $274 you can gain exclusive rights to all the hard rock minerals. In this thread I will show you how you can file a mining claim. 1/?
www.fieldandstream.com/stories/cons...
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— Wombley McCastle (@call-me-oatmeal.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 10:08 AM
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Evening Shade Seekers! Happy Juneteenth and why it's important.
Happy National Garfield The Cat Day!
Happy World Sauntering Day!
Happy National Watch Day! As in clocks, not as in voyeurism.
AND, Happy National Martini Day! Kitteh prefers his meow-tini shaken, not stirred
