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Reposted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Dan the Gnome @brewergnome.bsky.social · 9h

This is happening right now, to a friend of mine in Chicago. This is a peaceful area, with no previous unrest or crime problem. Just people trying to live their lives. My heart hurts. They're having conversations no family should have to have.

A white box with text. "Y'all. They're tear gassing my neighborhood. Right by the place we get hummus from. Right by where we get the extra large pizzas for sleep overs. Tell your people."

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Reposted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 1d

What an emblem of the billionaire class—descending on a peaceful city in a private jet on the horn to NYT asking for the place to be invaded by federal authorities because the rent-a-cops you employ for a week to harass a few junkies outside the convention center cost too much.

Mr. Benioff spoke as his annual Dreamforce conference is set to begin Tuesday in downtown San Francisco, bringing 50,000 visitors to the city. He is scheduled to deliver a keynote address about the benefits of "agentic enterprise," a business model in which humans and artificial intelligence bots work together.
Speaking by telephone from his private plane en route to San Francisco, he lamented that he has to pay for nundreds of off-duty law enforcement officers to help patrol the convention area and said that San Francisco needed to "re-fund" the police.
The city never actually "defunded" its police force, and San Francisco's violent crime rates are below those in many other U.S. cities.
But San Francisco has struggled to recruit and keep officers, and it still has problems with lower-level crimes and open-air drug use, especially in neighborhoods like the Tenderloin near City Hall. It has about 1,500 police officers, and Mr. Benioff says it ne → another thousand.

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · 2d

A diseased population is easier to control

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 2d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 2d

It was great working with Zeteo’s editors and rigorous fact-checker.

And I’m most grateful they let me say this in the last graf, something I’ve been try to get at with these ICE flights for awhile.

The disparity between the luxurious aircraft and its shackled, vilified passengers must have been quite a sight, but they are not unrelated. Corrupt officials transferring state funds to personal accounts, governments with empty treasuries and desperate citizens, luxury highrises, the criminalization of the unhoused and undocumented, billions spent on political campaign pageantry, aiding genocide from a faraway ballroom and calling it "charity," tax breaks for flying masked agents and nameless prisoners under cover of darkness - all are the spoils of oligarchy.

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · 2d

Sign you live in a police state

Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 2d

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.   It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’

During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...

chicago.suntimes.com

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Reposted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 2d

Israeli-American billionaires Michael and Gil Dezer’s Gulfstream IV plane flew 10 migrants to the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, flight data shows. The Dezers made billions on Trump-branded condos. Now they're cleaning up with no-bid contracts to fly prisoners to foreign concentration camps.

This Family Made Billions on Trump-Branded Condos. Now Their Private Jet Is Taking Shackled Migrants to a Far-Flung African Prison

Israeli-American billionaires Michael and Gil Dezer’s Gulfstream IV plane flew 10 migrants to the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, flight data shows.

zeteo.com

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · 2d

💕

Josh Moody @byjoshmoody.bsky.social · 2d

MIT rejects "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.
MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart

orgchart.mit.edu

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Reposted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Justin Salhani @justinsalhani.bsky.social · 3d

Israeli attacked a residential building in Gaza City and, according to Al Jazeera, killed and injured more than 70 civilians with most of them still under the rubble.

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · 7d

Things authoritarian states do.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 8d

Jesus Christ. DHS has held this guy in the hospital handcuffed to a bed and under constant guard for over a MONTH without ANY warrant or even ANY steps taken towards putting him into the removal system!

Petitioner’s counsel has requested documentation of a judicial warrant for his arrest, any charging documents, or other authority supporting his detention. See Santiago Decl. ¶¶ 18–20. ICE has provided no response. Id. To date, ICE has not placed Petitioner in removal proceedings, charged him with violating immigration law, set bond, issued a Notice to Appear, or otherwise processed him. See Pet. ¶¶ 16, 49. In Respondent’s Opposition brief, the government states “ICE intends to take further action consistent with the laws prescribed under the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) once Petitioner is released from medical care and it can conduct the examination as [prescribed] in 8 C.F.R § 287.3.” Opp. at 4. Neither Petitioner nor Respondents have provided the Court with information about Petitioner’s citizenship, whether he has violated any law or regulation, or any information that would suggest that Petitioner is a flight risk.

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Reposted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 8d

Today, I drove an hour and a half with my wife and a couple friends to pick up a neighbor who was summarily, inexplicably arrested by ICE at a check-in ten days ago and then just as inexplicably released, 100 miles from home today. It was a happy occasion, all things considered, but...

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Reposted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 8d

An 84-year-old said she sustained a concussion and was hit with a projectile after she and her husband, a Vietnam vet, were knocked down by federal officers.

Federal agents knock down elderly couple during Portland protest

An 84-year-old said she sustained a concussion and was hit with a projectile after she and her husband, a Vietnam vet, were knocked down by federal officers.

www.oregonlive.com

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Reposted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 10d

In case it wasn’t clear, the anti-DEI crusade has never been about merit. Zero news experience. Never been a reporter. Elevated to Editor in Chief of CBS News, one of the most storied news institutions in the nation. www.mediaite.com/media/news/p...

Paramount Officially Acquiring The Free Press and Making Bari Weiss CBS News Editor in Chief: Report

Paramount Skydance will be officially acquiring The Free Press and hiring its founder Bari Weiss as editor in chief of its CBS News division, with the deal to be announced this coming Monday, accordin...

www.mediaite.com

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Reposted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 10d

Donald Trump knows what he is doing in attacking democracy. Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat shares a warning about Trump's next authoritarian moves and we discuss how we can fight back.

Please watch and share. youtu.be/ovorLE6E494

SCARY: Trump Knows What He's Doing | Ruth Ben-Ghiat

YouTube video by Democracy Docket

youtu.be

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 10d

Carrie A Lee: It underscored the admin’s intention to shift its focus... toward homeland issues, and provided the clearest indication yet that US partners and allies will have to contend with a military increasingly operating outside of international law. www.gmfus.org/news/rough-s...

Rough Seas Ahead

www.gmfus.org

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Reposted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Frogs Together Strong 🐸 @basil45.bsky.social · 11d

Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook

Fascism expert @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

youtu.be/ovorLE6E494?...

SCARY: Trump Knows What He's Doing | Ruth Ben-Ghiat

YouTube video by Democracy Docket

youtu.be

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Reposted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · Sep 6

Called it last week: The true rationale for the change to Department of War is the war Trump is waging on America:
lucid.substack.com/p/trumps-war...

Trump's War on America

To allow Trump's autocratic allies to prosper, our military and intelligence must take on new roles at home. We can sound the alarm with those who serve.

lucid.substack.com

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Jenn (^_^)/ 🇨🇦🎃🍁 @canadacobrachicken.bsky.social · 24d

"Strongmen" by @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social is an invaluable read right now. The whole playbook we're seeing in the US is laid bare for all of us to see.

"On Tyranny" & "On Freedom" by @timothysnyder.bsky.social are also both must reads given the current moment.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/53...

Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present

Ours is the age of authoritarian rulers: self-proclaime…

www.goodreads.com

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Reposted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 25d

PSA: A "Major Terrorist Organization" (MTO) is not a thing. The Immigration and Nationality Act *delegates* power to the State Department to designate *FOREIGN* terrorist organizations (FTOs) based on certain criteria. It doesn't apply to domestic orgs.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

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Joanne Freeman @jbf1755.bsky.social · 27d

They don’t have the power to do what they’re threatening on a grand scale.

But they want us to think they do.

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · Sep 7

Once Donald Trump gets the citizens of this nation comfortable with the current atrocities committed under the color of law – what comes next?

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · Sep 8

Don’t say “Dems aren’t doing anything.” There’s just little attention to the courage of these Missouri Dems resisting the extreme gerrymandering of Republicans desigmed to increase Republican numbers in the House.
www.kfvs12.com/2025/09/05/m...

Missouri House Democrats plan to continue sit-in over weekend

Missouri Democrats have surpassed 24 hours of their sit-in on the House floor protesting a special session.

www.kfvs12.com

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Alex Zucker @alexzucker.bsky.social · Sep 8

Alt text here: bsky.app/profile/alt-...

Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · Sep 8

My collaboration with Ivan Ehlers for the @latimes.com

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · Sep 8

My collaboration with Ivan Ehlers for the @latimes.com

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · Sep 6

Called it last week: The true rationale for the change to Department of War is the war Trump is waging on America:
lucid.substack.com/p/trumps-war...

Trump's War on America

To allow Trump's autocratic allies to prosper, our military and intelligence must take on new roles at home. We can sound the alarm with those who serve.

lucid.substack.com

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · Sep 4

This excellent essay is published by Lucid but it is written by @marceldirsus.com

Susan McPherson @susanmcp.bsky.social · Sep 4

"In Trump’s America, it could be ICE. Thousands of armed men, comparatively loyal to the great leader – perhaps even willing to put him above the constitution."

Terrifying read from @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social.

open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/...

Why Trump Might Want ICE To Be His Private Militia

Seeing ICE as a coup-proofing corps

open.substack.com

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