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Reposted by Dan Hirschman

Avishay BSG (Ben-Sasson-Gordis) @avishaybsg.bsky.social · 1h

🧵 I'm excited to share that my article "Democratic Backsliding and the Limits of Civilian Control of the Military" has been accepted @thejop.bsky.social.

It answers the question "how ought militaries act when civilian leaders turn on democratic institutions?"

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#CivMilSky #PolTheory

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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 1h

alan moore hated people like thiel misinterpreting his work so profoundly that he dropped out of public life to become a shaman and worship a snake deity

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 3h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 3h

Bar associations need to start disbarring. There's immediate precedent with Giuliani. To the point @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social has repeatedly made, a polity that allows elites to repeatedly lie, obviously and with impunity, is not sustainable. Feels like the legal profession is at the same juncture.

Dante Atkins @danteatkins.bsky.social · 12h

The case against Comey is beyond weak. The case against James is worse. It is based on a lie, and they know they're lying because exculpatory evidence that contradicts the indictment had already been presented to a grand jury in another jurisdiction. Everyone involved with this needs to be disbarred

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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 22h

If this was happening in any other country you'd have journalists and analysts discussing risks of state failure

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Dan Hirschman @asociologist.bsky.social · 5h

Students from Cheyfitz’s course speak out against his suspension and explain what happened in the classroom leading up to it. www.cornellsun.com/article/2025...

We Took Cheyfitz’s Class on Gaza. His Suspension Violates Academic Freedom.

Nine students who took the course on "Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance" contextualize the dispute that led to the suspension of Professor Eric Cheyfitz. They argue that his treatment by the University am...

www.cornellsun.com

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Craig Harrington @craigipedia.bsky.social · 1d

If this reminds you of an extremely famous book you might have read in high school… yes.

Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 1d

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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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 17h

Unprecedented corruption

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 1d

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job

US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 1d

an affirmative case for trans rights as a pillar of good democratic governance

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 1d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

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daryl "shut down, ass up'" b 🏳️‍⚧️ @hypercubexl.bsky.social · 1d

slim pickens waving his cowboy hat and hooting and hollering as he rides a nuclear bomb down to the ground in dr. strangelove

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Andrew Perfors @perfors.net · 1d

Heartbreaking reading, but this Reddit thread gives a sense of the relentlessness of the horror inflicted by ICE, and the damage being done to so many innocent people that doesn't make the news.

From the AskReddit community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the AskReddit community

www.reddit.com

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

This was today, and these guys knew they were going to fire their own employees because, says Trump, they are "Democrat oriented." bsky.app/profile/atru...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: How many layoffs have you authorized?

TRUMP: It'll be a lot. And it'll be Democrat-oriented.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

RIFs can’t be done without agency leadership so this is RFK Jr extending his purge of CDC scientists to help Vought’s shutdown agenda. Genuine public health risks created by aggrieved men.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 1d

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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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

CNN reporting that 4,000 federal employees were fired on Friday, in HHS, Education, Energy, HUD, Homeland Security, Patent and Trademark Office, EPA.
www.cnn.com/2025/10/10/p...

Trump administration lays off thousands of federal workers during government shutdown | CNN Politics

More than 4,000 federal employees received layoff notices Friday as part of the Trump administration’s broad effort to reshape the government while it remains shutdown, according to a court filing Fri...

www.cnn.com

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 1d

Trump got a Covid vaccine today.

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Lawrence Hurley @lawrencehurley.bsky.social · 2d

A law professor is probably writing an article right now explaining how Trump has the authority to fire the Nobel Committee.

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Laurasaurus @laurasaurus.bsky.social · 2d

It is frankly strange to be this obsessed with college if you no longer attend one and do not work in education. More people in legacy media need to be told that.

Dan Sinykin @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social · 2d

And who is the author of this op-ed? The billionaire CEO of an asset management firm who helped author the compact.

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Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 2d

“We should replace Bad Bunny with Lee Greenwood” is an also a perfect summation of the “deal” they’ve offered universities.

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Florian Scheuer @florianscheuer.bsky.social · 2d

I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics.

🧵 1/7

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Will🇺🇸📎✌️🌲 @econaturalist.bsky.social · 3d

Scholars who study America are saying they won’t visit because it’s too risky.

"Too risky": Scholars who study America say they won't visit

At a recent panel in Vienna, academics who study America said the country has become similar to Russia and China.

www.salon.com

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 2d

If you in any way suggest that we "earned" this upon ourselves you will be blocked faster than you can blink. Profs are being fired, threatened, doxxed, harassed as a years long pattern now but we have reached a new phase with what has happened with Dr Bray, a fellow historian.

Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 2d

Please acknowledge what is happening to American professors right now.

We do not deserve this.

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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 2d

Israel's military said the Gaza ceasefire agreement began at noon local time. Tens of thousands of Palestinians are starting to walk north. Follow AP's live video and updates.

Live updates: In key step, Israeli Cabinet approves Trump’s plan for Gaza ceasefire

Israel’s Cabinet early Friday approved President Donald Trump’s plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of all the remaining hostages held by Hamas, a key step toward ending the war.

bit.ly

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 3d

It really can't be said enough: the goal of the "anti-woke" movement was always to destroy social norms against bigotry. And it worked. And there's a whole lot of purportedly "left" thinkers & commentators who helped it -- indeed, it couldn't have been done without them.

They should feel bad.

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 2d

Just bone chilling. And when the imprisonment of critics is combined with his offer to enrich and immunize his loyalists, this is how democracies die fast.

But it's still our choice. Don't let him silence you.

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Brendan Cantwell @cantb.bsky.social · 2d

“Isn’t horrible that billionaires can’t just buy a university, fire all the tenure faculty, and remake it in their image like Bezos did with the Post?”

That’s the question posed by Trump’s Compact.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 2d

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Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 2d

One silver lining of the last few months has been the courage, clarity, and determination of colleagues across Grounds. It’s a privilege to share this work with them

Kathryn @kathrynlaughon.bsky.social · 2d

Today the UVA School of Nursing passed, with overwhelming support, a resolution demanding that the rector and interim president reject the compact. bit.ly/3KPRMKV

SON resolution against the compact

The University of Virginia School of Nursing places the ethical principles of our profession at the center of its work. The American Nurses Association's Nursing Code of Ethics affirms nurses' obligat...

bit.ly

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