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Nate Schenkkan

@nateschenkkan.bsky.social

5.1K followers 1.1K following 6.9K posts

Independent human rights expert working on global authoritarianism, transnational repression, Turkey and Eurasia. Ex-Freedom House, SPLC. For your freedom and ours. https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-golden-age-of-transnational-repression/

www.journalofdemocracy.org

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · May 29

And here is my first post, explaining what I hope to do with this notebook while writing and looking for work: open.substack.com/pub/natesche...

Now What?

Starting a notebook on the current crisis

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 3h

where we are as a society: former chief prosecutor hints at pressure to bring a meritless prosecution by posting an anchorman meme

Waldo Jaquith, but Spooky @waldo.net · 3h

It turns out that what Todd Gilbert meant by "that escalated quickly" is that he was unwilling to support a grand jury investigation into the origins of the Trump/Russia case. I'm surprised and impressed that Gilbert took this stand. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/u...

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Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

David Burbach 🌹 @dburbach.bsky.social · 6h

For those unfamiliar -- the term is more common w far right movements in Europe than here -- "remigrate" implies not deporting migrants here illegally, which DHS does. It implies pushing legal migrants, naturalized citizens, even people born here to give up US citizenship and go 'home' [sic]

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 6h

X post today from Homeland Security @DHSgov that says "Remigrate."
3:06 PM · Oct 14, 2025

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 5h

Hard to say if this is real or just a vendetta which is not great!

www.cnn.com/2025/10/14/p...

Pentagon contractor charged with unlawful retention of classified information | CNN Politics

A man who worked as a Pentagon contractor and State Department adviser has been charged with removing classified information from a government facility after investigators found over a thousand docume...

www.cnn.com

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 7h

My impression is older people who work in politics/law and are not terminally online

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 7h

My main reaction is there’s a big generational gap in terms of who is surprised by this www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 8h

🎵 What if God was one of us 🎵

Tuffy @smtuffy.bsky.social · 9h

The pivot from “I’m building god” to “I’m building a jerkoff tool” is pretty funny

Reuters @reuters.com · 9h

OpenAI to allow mature content on ChatGPT for adult verified users starting December reut.rs/3J8NTAi

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 8h

One thing we know from that example is this will buttress the justification of extraterritorial killings as a practice by other states

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 8h

The years of scandal over US practice of renditions and torture in the war on terror now seems quaint

Amarnath Amarasingam @amaramarasingam.bsky.social · 9h

The military has now killed 27 people as if they were enemy soldiers in a war zone and not criminal suspects. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/u...

U.S. Military Kills Another 6 People in 5th Caribbean Strike, Trump Says

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Amarnath Amarasingam @amaramarasingam.bsky.social · 9h

The military has now killed 27 people as if they were enemy soldiers in a war zone and not criminal suspects. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/u...

U.S. Military Kills Another 6 People in 5th Caribbean Strike, Trump Says

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Yaqiu Wang 王亚秋 @yaqiu.bsky.social · 9h

In which I commented on the unfortunate convergence between the US and Chinese info environments: high-quality information is increasingly becoming a luxury consumed by the educated and well-resourced, while the rest of us are left to swim in the same trash. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

‘Americans are democracy’s equivalent of second-generation wealth’: a Chinese journalist on the US under Trump

The long read: Once a stalwart of Hong Kong’s journalism scene, Wang Jian has found a new audience on YouTube, dissecting global politics and US-China relations since the pandemic. To his fans, he’s p...

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Xan López @xanlopez.xyz · May 9

Stability is a global public good that must be provided, not a naturally occurring equilibrium. A “New Kindleberger Gap” for a self-destructing hegemon. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

Stability, Kindleberger argued, is a global public good that must be provided. It is not a naturally occurring equilibrium. The leading economy—a “hegemon”, as later thinkers would term it—can capture some of the benefits of this stability for itself, and push the system in a direction favourable to its interests. However, it needs to take on the burden of providing, among other things, an open market for goods, countercyclical finance and the role of lender of last resort. President Donald Trump now appears to reject this thinking altogether. He demands that allies pay for military protection and views a trade deficit as straightforward evidence of being ripped off. Members of his administration have mooted charging countries for the privilege of lending to the American government. All told, he simply does not see the gains that emerge from global stability as being worth their cost.
Hélène Rey of the London Business School identifies a “New Kindleberger Gap”. This time a “self-destructing hegemon” is, she says, uninterested in providing global public goods, while an ascendent one (Ms Rey refers to the European Union, but China is another candidate) lacks the ability. The Fed’s swap lines lie at the heart of her concerns. These offer central banks in allied countries, including the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan, access to dollars in exchange for their own currency. They should help forestall any crisis that bids up the price of dollar borrowing, but are just the sort of burden-sharing to which Mr Trump normally objects. In an attempt to bolster their position, sophisticated policymakers are talking in Trumpian terms. “The reason we do it is it’s really good for US consumers,” Jerome Powell, chairman of the Fed, has said.

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 11h

Had a conversation with someone yesterday whose family member nearly got lost in LLM psychosis

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 12h

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 12h

Given how little he likes to travel, it’s hard to imagine him getting out there, but who knows.

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 13h

Huge story

Ron Deibert @rondeibert.bsky.social · 13h

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

A stunning investigation by @lighthousereports.com of what I call "despotism as a service"👇

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you

We uncovered a massive data trove. It revealed the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe.

www.motherjones.com

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 13h

Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Maia @maiamindel.bsky.social · 14h

one of the weirder american traits is immediately taking any complex philosophical questions to "what has the supreme court said about this". like whether free speech covers covid misinformation or whether affirmative action is good is a deeper question than "is this legal"

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 14h

I have questions, though I’m also sure I know the answers

OC Media @ocmedia.bsky.social · 14h

The UK has lifted its long-standing arms embargo on Armenia and Azerbaijan, citing progress in relations between the two countries and ongoing efforts to support regional peace.

UK lifts arms embargo on Armenia and Azerbaijan

Minister of State Stephen Doughty said that London’s decision aims to ‘elevate bilateral relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan to a strategic partnership’.

oc-media.org

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 14h

Magical realism is mostly colonialist

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 14h

It is deeply silly for an American obviously (this person is American)

Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 14h

For years Cuba's peso was equivalent to 25:1 dollar at official rates and around 30-40 on the black market exchange.

Recent inflation shot official exchange to 125:1 dollar and unofficial rates to 300-400. Then it stabilized just short of 400 for a while.

It's now up to an eye watering 460:1 USD

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 14h

This is the actual policy position of a former colleague!

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 14h

Showing up to No Kings with a sign reading “monarchy is an affront to human dignity but, when incorporated into a liberal democratic system, may nevertheless be a useful safety valve for nationalist and/or authoritarian impulses” and then getting clobbered by a Buttigieg-supporting grandmother

Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 15h

Incidentally, I’ve been chafing a bit at the “No Kings” thing, because there are loads of monarchies that have more limits on executive power than the US does, but it has the great advantage that it makes Americans who want to oppose it sound, well, unamerican….

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Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Defend Democracy @defenddemocracy.bsky.social · 1d

Russia is at ‘hybrid war’ with Europe, warns EU chief.

“It is time to call it by its name. This is hybrid warfare, and we have to take it very seriously.”

#DefendDemocracy

therecord.media/russia-hybri...

Russia is at ‘hybrid war’ with Europe, warns EU chief, calling for members ‘to take it very seriously’

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged the EU to “urgently equip itself with a strategic capacity to respond” to Russian hybrid warfare.

therecord.media

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 15h

I almost put him on the list but I don’t know enough about London!

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 15h

Look at Wu in Boston or Hidalgo in Paris—these are mayors that have had incredible impact and changed lives. Do cool stuff with the power you have.

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 15h

Guy is in his 30s, do 8 years of amazing mayor stuff and you’ll still have an entire career for national politics. The city could use someone interested in the city and not a steppingstone (to be clear, I think this is his plan)

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