Don't hear me! Don't hear my thoughts!
Tenser said the Tensor!
Tenser said the Tensor!
Tension, apprehension, and dissention have begun!
My arguments in this essay are as follows:
First, the crisis of American democracy is now squarely upon us.
Multiple illegal and unconstitutional acts are happening, and the guardrails that check and restrain authoritarian abuse are rapidly falling away.
Second, it is going to get a lot worse.
Trump is following an authoritarian playbook for destroying constitutional government that has been widely deployed over the last two decades and that in some respects dates back not only to the political calamities of the 1920s and ‘30s
but all the way to Machiavelli, as Jeff Bleich has recently explained.
The pathway to authoritarianism in America lies in subverting our constitutional checks and balances.
Trump has moved rapidly on that front and there will be much more to come.
Third, democratic backsliding is moving quickly now in part because of the lack of resistance. Part of this void owes to confusion and division within the opposition (the Democrats),
part to opportunism and submission among congressional Republicans,
and part to the tactical decisions of key actors in business, the media,
and the bureaucracy to comply in advance,
again partly out of opportunism but also heavily out of fear.
Fear is the common denominator in all of this—palpable, paralyzing, and quite justifiable fear.
Fear now stalks the land.
This is the most visceral indication that America has entered an existential era for the future of democracy.
The threats to American democracy in the United States are now immediate, serious, and mounting by the day.
However, it is possible to contain them.
Doing so will require a national, multifront bipartisan strategy.
But time is of the essence.
Such a strategy must be assembled and activated expeditiously, because the longer and further Trump and his acolytes proceed with their authoritarian ambitions, the harder it will be to resist,
and the greater will be the risk not just to our democratic process but to our basic liberties.
The key is to unite in defense of our democratic checks and balances, rather than to argue that every one of Trump’s policy initiatives is illegitimate.
The markets will take care of stupid and self-harming tariff policies.
They will not on their own save American democracy.
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/trumps-america-is-in-a-free-fallnot
"It's becoming increasingly clear that the Trump regime is turning away from our allies in order to embrace our enemies. They are dismantling our institutions and rule of law for the sole purpose of protecting and enriching a small cabal of extremely rich, extremely corrupt and extremely anti-american traitors."
— Mary Trump
#StopTrumpNow #TrumpDidThis #RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #GOPWeirdos #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol
On Aaron Swartz: “He stood for freedom of access to information, especially for scientific research — things the public had already paid for.” - Lisa Rein, co-founder of @creativecommons
Learn more: https://sfstandard.com/2025/02/08/aaron-swartz-marble-statue-unveiled-internet-archive/
okay, I'm beyond mere pleas to wear a mask today. there's a quad-demic going around, a new H5N1 pandemic on the horizon, fucking polio and measles and shit popping up because people's immune systems have been collectively weakened by getting COVID several times a year, and the CDC now essentially compromised.
we're beyond "just" COVID now. it's our responsibility to take care of our own. wear a fucking respirator.
Uh, yeah, I'm ticked off at the pusillanimous whining of the D-party and groups like MoveOn.
I attended a MoveOn meeting. And it was like they talked at us, not *with* us. And it was all "oh we are going to file lawsuits" and other things that amount to campfire songs against an earthquake.
As for D-party members of Congress - yeah, you are a minority. But you have voices and bodies. In Congress you can block business as usual and try to starve the monster. You may fail, but you've got a bigger pulpit than we do. And you can go out and make your faces the face of active resistance - figure out where the Musk-ites are sleeping and keep them awake - do something apart from saying "we are powerless waifs who can do nothing more than plea before powerless courts."
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/12/democrats-jeffries-move-on-indivisible-trump
You've probably read lots of stories about how the upstart Chinese AI chat company DeepSeek could be a security threat, but where's the beef? Well, the people at the mobile app security firm NowSecure have published a security and privacy analysis of the app's design and behavior, and it's not pretty. Here's the lede:
"New mobile apps from the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek have remained among the top three “free” downloads for Apple and Google devices since their debut on Jan. 25, 2025. But experts caution that many of DeepSeek’s design choices — such as using hard-coded encryption keys, and sending unencrypted user and device data to Chinese companies — introduce a number of glaring security and privacy risks."
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/experts-flag-security-privacy-risks-in-deepseek-ai-app/
Netanyahu Gives Trump ‘Golden Pager’ After Assassinating Enemies With Similar Device https://www.mediaite.com/politics/netanyahu-gives-trump-golden-pager-after-assassinating-enemies-with-similar-device/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon
Robinhood seems to be taking a lesson from the crypto world. “Sports bets” are now “event contracts”, and “gambling” is now “an emerging asset class”. Perhaps the next pickpocket to be caught by police should try informing the officer that they’re merely democratizing finance!