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Reposted by Bill Kristol

27909.bsky.social @27909.bsky.social · 7h

The silver lining for MAGA of the failed 2020/21 coup was that it revealed all the points in the system that prevented them from succeeding, and they and their allies have spent the last 5 years slowly buying, winning, or destroying each and every one of them

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 9h

“The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are, arguably, the two greatest American films ever made, a portrait of America told from the perspective of outsiders peering in. But that works in large part because we see the Corleones through the eyes of Keaton’s Kay.”

www.thebulwark.com/p/diane-keat...

Diane Keaton, 1946–2025

The leading lady of the 1970s.

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 9h

One feature or authoritarian movements: They get more extreme.

"The highly unusual request appears to have originated from a letter sent from 25 Republican members of Congress asking [the EPA] to investigate how mifepristone might be contaminating the water supply."

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

The E.P.A. Followed Up on an Unusual Request About Abortion Pills

www.nytimes.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 10h

“The Trump administration said that its immigration crackdown is hurting farmers and risking higher food prices for Americans by cutting off agriculture’s labor supply.”

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Trump administration says immigration enforcement threatens higher food prices

U.S. farmers face labor shortages and potential food price hikes due to Trump’s immigration policy, the administration acknowledged in a Federal Registry document.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 12h

Illinois law requires all registered vehicles to display front and back license plates, without exception. But to evade accountability, masked federal immigration agents are driving around in unmarked cars without plates.
chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/10...?

Federal immigration officers wear masks, no name tags — now some drive cars without license plates

The Sun-Times has documented four unmarked cars carrying federal officers without required plates, offering another way to shield their identities. Federal officials say they’re meeting regulations.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

“.. Inside the White House, top advisers joke that they are ruling Congress with an “iron fist,” according to people who have heard the comments. Steve Bannon, the influential Trump ally, likened Congress to the Duma, the Russian assembly that is largely ceremonial.”

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

The shameless GOP lying about the No Kings gatherings scheduled for next Saturday reveals how deeply hostile much of the Republican Party is to “the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” I look forward to our local No Kings event, and urge my fellow Americans to attend in their communities.

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

"It is truly sickening to speak to somebody who raised three boys to go into the Marines because of how much he loved and believed in this country, only to be treated like that."

@jacobsoboroff.bsky.social discusses Narciso Barranco, ICE, and more with @timmiller.bsky.social on today's Bulwark Pod

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

When Trump came along—a fellow oligarch, looking to use the power of the American presidency to enrich himself and his cronies as much as possible—these figures jumped at the chance to share in the spoils. www.thebulwark.com/p/why-our-te...

Why Our Tech Overlords Took a Hard Right Turn

A new book tells the story of how Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs became angry admirers of authoritarianism.

www.thebulwark.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

"To focus on the 'woke left' as a threat to liberalism in America in late 2025 while soft-pedaling the threat from the authoritarian/populist right that now holds the levers of power is a sign of either extraordinary myopia or bad faith."

Bari Weiss, CBS News, and the Triumph of Faux Balance

The record of the Free Press shows her journey from independent to MAGA fellow traveler.

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

“‘It breaks your heart,’ Bart Giamatti said. ‘It is designed to break your heart.’ I love that quote, but I’ve never really believed it. Yes, baseball will break your heart — but baseball is designed to give you hope. Spring training will come again.”

www.joeposnanski.com/p/baseball-w...

Baseball Will Break Your Heart

But, even though it doesn't always feel that way, its real design is to make you believe again.

www.joeposnanski.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

“So we fight on just the same. With Dylan Thomas, we refuse to go quietly into that good night, but rather rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Or, as another poet put it, ‘Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.’”

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Is This What ‘Late-Stage Democracy’ Looks Like?

What if the Constitution *is* a suicide pact?

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

George was just trying to get to work.

ICE pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from his car, locked him in a detention center, and placed him on suicide watch. He even missed his young daughter’s birthday in the process.

This man is a veteran and American citizen. Don't look away.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

"They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I'm naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7."

@timmiller.bsky.social talked to a veteran who ICE wrongly detained and brutalized

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

"In the U.S. the risks of stepping forward pale compared to those faced by dissidents elsewhere. Surely it’s not too much to hope that some heretofore timid Americans could find inspiration from the example of María Corina Machado and 'refuse to stay silent.'”

www.thebulwark.com/p/insidious-...

The Insidious Effort To Rationalize Trump’s Lawfare

This is not a president justified in going after those who went after him. It’s a person making a mockery of our justice system.

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

"Indeed, the sounds we’ll hear today will be the pitter-patter of GOP feet scurrying as fast as they can to cameras to curry favor with their neon god by complaining loudly that he didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize they have to say he deserved."

www.thebulwark.com/p/insidious-...

The Insidious Effort To Rationalize Trump’s Lawfare

This is not a president justified in going after those who went after him. It’s a person making a mockery of our justice system.

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

"It’s important to be lucid about where we are. This isn’t Trump escalating a fight James started. It’s Trump being Trump the only way he knows how: smashing, smashing, and smashing until the last irritating opponent is gone from his sight."

www.thebulwark.com/p/insidious-...

The Insidious Effort To Rationalize Trump’s Lawfare

This is not a president justified in going after those who went after him. It’s a person making a mockery of our justice system.

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2d

"It turns out that free government and good government also depends on guardrails within the executive...

The second-term Trump administration understands the importance of these internal guardrails, and has moved aggressively to neuter or dismantle them."

www.thebulwark.com/p/the-good-f...

The Good Fences Trump’s Destroying

Plus: Can a president bombing boats in the Caribbean—boats a fellow world leader says had random citizens aboard—really win the Nobel Peace Prize?

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2d

"The fences or guardrails that secure a free government may not be lovely. Yet they are necessary for liberty and justice.

But the guardrails can crumble, and the guardians of the guardrails can falter. And in 2025, they’re crumbling—and we’re faltering."

www.thebulwark.com/p/the-good-f...

The Good Fences Trump’s Destroying

Plus: Can a president bombing boats in the Caribbean—boats a fellow world leader says had random citizens aboard—really win the Nobel Peace Prize?

www.thebulwark.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 3d

#WarRavagedPortland

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2d

"We are facing a clear and present authoritarian danger.

Don’t Democrats need to demand that provisions curbing the administration’s authoritarian moves need to be attached to legislation funding the government?"

www.thebulwark.com/p/the-rule-o...

The Rule of Law vs. The Rule of Trump

A crisis moment in the defining debate of our time.

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2d

"The consensus forged in the aftermath of World War II effectively closed with Jan. 6. What followed is the reemergence of older tendencies in American conservatism: protectionism, isolationism, and a growing hostility to pluralism and liberal democracy itself."
www.theunpopulist.net/p/is-a-liber...

Is a Liberal Realignment Emerging from the Rubble of MAGA Authoritarianism?

Democrats have an opportunity to champion a confident, forward-looking market liberalism given that the GOP has fully returned to its reactionary roots

www.theunpopulist.net

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2d

"We have a WWE president...Kash Patel: He’s a performer. Hegseth: He’s a performer. People leading a lot of these agencies are performers. Everything we’re seeing is a performance, but with real guns and destroying real people’s lives.”

www.thebulwark.com/p/ice-propag...

The ICE Propaganda Campaign Goes Into Overdrive

MAGA commentators are stepping up as soldiers in Trump’s culture war to provoke confrontations against “Antifa” with the backing of DHS.

www.thebulwark.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

Ray Glennon OFS @rayglennon.bsky.social · 3d

Had a great evening at @thebulwark.com Live event in DC. @jvl.bsky.social @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social and @timmiller.bsky.social were on their game. We’re in this fight against Trump’s authoritarian project together.

Photo of JVL, Sarah, and Tim at Bulwark Live event in DC

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 3d

I prefer governments that don’t try to “take the freedom of speech away.”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Trump: "We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the courts said you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they burn a flag it agitates and irritates crowds."

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 3d

JVL:

"Just once, I’d like to send out a bonus after-hours Triad that’s something like, 'Democracy Saved! Liberalism Is All Good Now. We Can Relax.'”

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

A Non-Emergency Note from JVL

No Triad, a late TNL, and another thing.

open.substack.com

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