@realcaseyrollins It's give Trump all the power, not just over ourselves, but over everybody. It's pure hierarchy, and ensuring ruthless means of enforcement.

@realcaseyrollins Bannon sometimes says idealistic things. No matter how elaborately those things are betrayed, he toes the line. Musk is a transhumanist, a threat to traditional judeochristian ideas of virtuous living, he says. OK. Where's the pushback?

There are lots of grand visions, but no constancy in pursuing anything but expanding and demonstrating power. A movement is what a movement does, destruction of institutions, manufacture of fear, consolidation of power.

ambitious sociopaths are drawn to MAGA. rule by unvarnished, unapologetic exercise of power is their highest ambition made real. there are plenty of ambitious sociopaths among democrats. you can see them. they feign disdain but they slip, pulled toward that bright light of ruthless control.

i wonder a lot what the experience is like in the world of military-to-military contacts, people who perhaps have worked in close cooperation with one another for years.

why is the new administration destroying USAID’s documents? to make it much more difficult to reconstitute programs? https://apnews.com/article/usaid-trump-burn-order-shred-classified-documents-f042a51c0a9f74c96b0259b51a0d4a83#

“if you install egalitarian economic institutions that result in a compressed distribution of income and wealth, the precise regional and sectoral composition of the economy becomes much less important.” #MattBruenig https://mattbruenig.com/2025/03/11/yglesias-on-the-politics-of-nafta/

So is the Khalil case going to end up at the Supreme Court on the whether a Secretary of State's statutory authorization to declare a noncitizen deportable can be Constitutionally exercised based primarily on 1A protected speech?

(Will Khalil have any opportunity to see the sun in the meantime?)

"Overall, we find that gains associated with ideological moderation are relatively modest and likely secondary to turnout effects."

// a bit sad from a persuasionist perspective, but seems consistent with recent experience, e.g. relentlessly moderating Kamala Harris damned by turnout more than swing

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5172049

@Phil oh, you’ve acquired your millions. you’ve definitely been hard done.

i wonder a lot what the experience is like in the world of military-to-military contacts, people who perhaps have worked in close cooperation with one another for years.

@Phil i’m sorry that you feel you’ve been so hard done.

i ❤️ canada.

as an independent friend and partner.

as any american should.

i am grateful they remain a voice of sanity through our lunacy, even at great cost.

i hope we recover ourselves soon, and apologize and thank them properly.

occasionally they tell the truth just to throw you off.

historically it's been great when a perception emerges that elites in government accord jews special protection, even at cost of other people's rights.

heckuva job ADL.

A year ago on March 7 my dear friend Kristine died. This year on March 7 Kevin Drum died. I wasn’t friends with Kevin, we corresponded a bit, argued a lot, I read him pretty religiously. They are both Orange County people. I claim not to be superstitious (or solipsistic) but it’s spooky to me.

democracy dies in oligarchy. https://toad.social/@wdlindsy/114140043656141887

I've sent a note (via webform rather than postal mail, because time feels of the essence) to my Congressional delegation re the detention of Mahmoud Khalil. https://notes.interfluidity.com/PQ4yA2l3QmmUcNZNaJVpqA?view

Even when you're already heartbroken, the world breaks your heart. https://jabberwocking.com/health-update-100/

@realcaseyrollins @dpp we'll probably differ somewhat in our interpretations of things, but i endorse your conclusion.

are we all Keynesians in a foxhole this time, or are our leaders determined liquidationists?