Garrett M. Graff
@vermontgmg.bsky.social
Journalist & Pulitzer finalist Historian. Fmr ed, @PoliticoMag & @washingtonian. Author of "Watergate: A New History" and "The Only Plane in the Sky" and other books. garrett.graff AT gmail OR ProtonMail. Subscribe to my newsletter: Doomsdayscenario.co
Pinned
Garrett M. Graff
@vermontgmg.bsky.social
· Jan 24
If anyone in or out of government wants to chat securely as the unraveling unfolds, I’m vermontgmg.14 on Signal. That’s my normal username, everywhere, with an extra Vermont: the 14th state.
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
In a poker game, the most frustrating opponent is one who is so inexperienced/incompetent/inebriated that they don’t even know whether or not they have a good hand. Which is also what it’s like trying to parse these DOJ social media missives.
this is insane to me. the doj had forever to look into this. now they're like liveblogging on x like they have no more information than a random person on social media
December 23, 2025 at 8:02 PM
In a poker game, the most frustrating opponent is one who is so inexperienced/incompetent/inebriated that they don’t even know whether or not they have a good hand. Which is also what it’s like trying to parse these DOJ social media missives.
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
"ICE’s public affairs arm has rapidly transformed into an influencer-style media machine, churning out flashy videos of tactical operations and immigration raids."
A chilling story from @joyceshlee.bsky.social & @drewharwell.com 🎁 wapo.st/4s6YnC5
A chilling story from @joyceshlee.bsky.social & @drewharwell.com 🎁 wapo.st/4s6YnC5
‘It’s a war’: Inside ICE’s media machine
Thousands of internal ICE messages show how its public affairs team has coordinated with the White House to satisfy Trump administration demands for viral arrest videos
wapo.st
December 23, 2025 at 6:07 PM
"ICE’s public affairs arm has rapidly transformed into an influencer-style media machine, churning out flashy videos of tactical operations and immigration raids."
A chilling story from @joyceshlee.bsky.social & @drewharwell.com 🎁 wapo.st/4s6YnC5
A chilling story from @joyceshlee.bsky.social & @drewharwell.com 🎁 wapo.st/4s6YnC5
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
The whole "Bari Weiss tried to smother a story about American concentration camps but forgot to scrub it from international sites resulting in it being massively popular" thing really hammers home that for all the horrors we've seen this past year these people are wildly incompetent and WILL fail
December 23, 2025 at 2:55 PM
The whole "Bari Weiss tried to smother a story about American concentration camps but forgot to scrub it from international sites resulting in it being massively popular" thing really hammers home that for all the horrors we've seen this past year these people are wildly incompetent and WILL fail
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
Scoop: The lone employee behind CISA's Pre-Ransomware Notification Initiative resigned on Friday rather than take a forced reassignment to FEMA.
CISA says PRNI will continue, but sources said David Stern's loss will be a major setback for it.
My story: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-ra...
CISA says PRNI will continue, but sources said David Stern's loss will be a major setback for it.
My story: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-ra...
December 23, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Scoop: The lone employee behind CISA's Pre-Ransomware Notification Initiative resigned on Friday rather than take a forced reassignment to FEMA.
CISA says PRNI will continue, but sources said David Stern's loss will be a major setback for it.
My story: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-ra...
CISA says PRNI will continue, but sources said David Stern's loss will be a major setback for it.
My story: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-ra...
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
Bari Weiss lied in her memo. She said segment didn't report administration's legal justification (it does in the very first sentence) and didn't say how many detainees had been charged with crimes as opposed to just those who were convicted (it does). www.muellershewrote.com/p/watch-the-...
WATCH: The 60 Minutes CECOT Segment
I was sent the CECOT segment anonymously in a group chat.
www.muellershewrote.com
December 23, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Bari Weiss lied in her memo. She said segment didn't report administration's legal justification (it does in the very first sentence) and didn't say how many detainees had been charged with crimes as opposed to just those who were convicted (it does). www.muellershewrote.com/p/watch-the-...
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
really cannot be emphasized enough that bari weiss has literally never done journalism. i don’t mean that in the pejorative sense. i mean that in the “has never performed the job she was hired to do” sense
One explanation for Bari killing the story is that she did so as a public act of fealty to the administration. But another is that, as an inexperienced journalist, she doesn’t understand that a refusal to go on the record is a kind of comment in and of itself
December 22, 2025 at 2:19 PM
really cannot be emphasized enough that bari weiss has literally never done journalism. i don’t mean that in the pejorative sense. i mean that in the “has never performed the job she was hired to do” sense
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
He’s gilded the entire White House, slapped his name on both the Kennedy Center and Institute for Peace, installed a new Trump Gold Card, and now proposing a new “Trump class” of naval vessels.
I know we keep saying this is insane but this is seriously fucking insane.
I know we keep saying this is insane but this is seriously fucking insane.
oh my god its literally Long Beach's wario
December 22, 2025 at 10:20 PM
He’s gilded the entire White House, slapped his name on both the Kennedy Center and Institute for Peace, installed a new Trump Gold Card, and now proposing a new “Trump class” of naval vessels.
I know we keep saying this is insane but this is seriously fucking insane.
I know we keep saying this is insane but this is seriously fucking insane.
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
December 23, 2025 at 1:28 AM
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
Bringing back Limewire to illegally rip copies of reporting suppressed by the government is definitely some cyberpunk shit
December 23, 2025 at 1:08 AM
Bringing back Limewire to illegally rip copies of reporting suppressed by the government is definitely some cyberpunk shit
Congratulations Bari Weiss on ensuring millions more people watch this segment than if it just aired normally.
cc en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisa...
cc en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisa...
December 23, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Congratulations Bari Weiss on ensuring millions more people watch this segment than if it just aired normally.
cc en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisa...
cc en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisa...
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
Bari Weiss saw that famous Malcolm X quote - “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing” - and saw a business model
Her whole thing is “No, it is the executives who are actually oppressed.”
Once you view any decision she makes through that lens, everything makes sense, including how she’s gotten to where she is.
Once you view any decision she makes through that lens, everything makes sense, including how she’s gotten to where she is.
In 2022, Bari Weiss ran this viral first-person piece by a top Levi’s executive. She claimed she was hounded out of the company because of her vocal stance on COVID restrictions.
There are no quotes from the company. Or her colleagues.
Not even a “no comment.”
www.thefp.com/p/yesterday-...
There are no quotes from the company. Or her colleagues.
Not even a “no comment.”
www.thefp.com/p/yesterday-...
December 22, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Bari Weiss saw that famous Malcolm X quote - “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing” - and saw a business model
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
Talking history of conspiracy theories with @vermontgmg.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
When Did We Decide the Government is Hiding Aliens? (with Garrett Graff)
Podcast Episode · Mission Implausible · 12/21/2025 · 45m
podcasts.apple.com
December 21, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Talking history of conspiracy theories with @vermontgmg.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
Every outcome of LLMs has been negative, has been corrosive, has been unwanted.
Ask yourself, ”what possible purpose could be served where this side effect of a technology would/could/should be tolerated?”
There truly are no legitimate use cases; this is a truly useless, truly garbage technology.
Ask yourself, ”what possible purpose could be served where this side effect of a technology would/could/should be tolerated?”
There truly are no legitimate use cases; this is a truly useless, truly garbage technology.
When viewing the fake article in Google scholar on my university network, there is a link to access the article via my uni's library. That link sends me to a library page that makes fake article appear real... Turns out library page is made programmatically from info on Google scholar 🤦
December 21, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Every outcome of LLMs has been negative, has been corrosive, has been unwanted.
Ask yourself, ”what possible purpose could be served where this side effect of a technology would/could/should be tolerated?”
There truly are no legitimate use cases; this is a truly useless, truly garbage technology.
Ask yourself, ”what possible purpose could be served where this side effect of a technology would/could/should be tolerated?”
There truly are no legitimate use cases; this is a truly useless, truly garbage technology.
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
Inside the federal government as Trump and DOGE pushed it past its breaking point in 2025, as told by some of the more than 1,200 federal workers @hannahnatanson.bsky.social and @merylkornfield.bsky.social have spoken to this year
The year Trump broke the federal government
How DOGE and the White House carried out a once-unthinkable transformation of the nation’s sprawling bureaucracy.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 21, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Inside the federal government as Trump and DOGE pushed it past its breaking point in 2025, as told by some of the more than 1,200 federal workers @hannahnatanson.bsky.social and @merylkornfield.bsky.social have spoken to this year
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
Nothing to see here, just a right wing hyper-nationalist government going to their party’s youth event sponsored by a group with a martyred leader they’ve pledged to avenge, recruiting people to join their masked police force devoted to removing auslanders from ze homeland.
December 21, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Nothing to see here, just a right wing hyper-nationalist government going to their party’s youth event sponsored by a group with a martyred leader they’ve pledged to avenge, recruiting people to join their masked police force devoted to removing auslanders from ze homeland.
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
A LEAKED DOJ memo orders federal law enforcement to investigate groups based on their advocacy for immigrants' rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and social justice.
To criminalize dissent and organizing is to criminalize the very foundation of democratic change.
https://bit.ly/48IX6rX
To criminalize dissent and organizing is to criminalize the very foundation of democratic change.
https://bit.ly/48IX6rX
Leaked Memo: DOJ To List, Target Anti-Trump Activists as ‘Domestic Terrorists’
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com
December 20, 2025 at 11:47 AM
A LEAKED DOJ memo orders federal law enforcement to investigate groups based on their advocacy for immigrants' rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and social justice.
To criminalize dissent and organizing is to criminalize the very foundation of democratic change.
https://bit.ly/48IX6rX
To criminalize dissent and organizing is to criminalize the very foundation of democratic change.
https://bit.ly/48IX6rX
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
This is roughly equal to almost $2 billion today. But this was just a downpayment on elaborate efforts to protect critical government operations and personnel from nuclear attack. Ordinary people, however, were mostly left to fend for themselves. Or, as @vermontgmg.bsky.social wrote in 2017, …
December 19, 2025 at 10:11 PM
This is roughly equal to almost $2 billion today. But this was just a downpayment on elaborate efforts to protect critical government operations and personnel from nuclear attack. Ordinary people, however, were mostly left to fend for themselves. Or, as @vermontgmg.bsky.social wrote in 2017, …
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
We hope to continue covering waste and corruption in DHS contracting. Reupping this story we did back in October on a question "self-deportation" contract that went to a new company run by a guy with links to top DHS officials. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
How a new firm with DHS ties won a $915 million contract to help immigrants "self-deport"
The “rushed” deal was handed to a firm with “no track record” as a federal contractor, a rival's lawsuit alleges.
www.motherjones.com
December 19, 2025 at 8:00 PM
We hope to continue covering waste and corruption in DHS contracting. Reupping this story we did back in October on a question "self-deportation" contract that went to a new company run by a guy with links to top DHS officials. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
This is the thing that really gets me. I have absolutely zero doubt whatsoever that if we elect another milquetoast centrist business as usual establishment democrat they will not revert a single one of these things.
There's a series of things (like the ballroom, Gulf of America) that we're going to have to *undo* the moment this guy is out of office.
And yet I can already hear future Democrat presidents saying "I'm focused on the people's work, not the knucklehead stuff" and just leave this man's shit up.
And yet I can already hear future Democrat presidents saying "I'm focused on the people's work, not the knucklehead stuff" and just leave this man's shit up.
The president's name was added to the sign outside the performing arts center.
December 19, 2025 at 8:37 PM
This is the thing that really gets me. I have absolutely zero doubt whatsoever that if we elect another milquetoast centrist business as usual establishment democrat they will not revert a single one of these things.
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
Interesting to consider that if you were to go and deface the Kennedy center by removing Trump’s name, you’d be arrested and charged with a crime, but your act would be no more unlawful than what they’re doing right now.
NEWS: They're adding Trump's name to the Kennedy Center building right now. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
Kennedy Center adds Trump’s name to building
The signage change follows a vote by the board of trustees to rename the performing arts complex the Trump Kennedy Center.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Interesting to consider that if you were to go and deface the Kennedy center by removing Trump’s name, you’d be arrested and charged with a crime, but your act would be no more unlawful than what they’re doing right now.
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
When you ask yourself, why would they go ahead and do things like this, changing signage when there's a question of the legality, you have to remember that it will cost money to undo it, and when people try to do so, they will be met with complaints that they're looking backwards and wasting money
Wasting no time, the Trump administration begins adding his name to the Kennedy Center building, ignoring the understanding that it would require an act of Congress. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12...
Trump Administration Live Updates: Kennedy Center Adds Trump’s Name to Facade
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:55 PM
When you ask yourself, why would they go ahead and do things like this, changing signage when there's a question of the legality, you have to remember that it will cost money to undo it, and when people try to do so, they will be met with complaints that they're looking backwards and wasting money
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
We should enforce all the laws & uphold the Constitution, even for this One Special Boy
December 18, 2025 at 8:16 PM
We should enforce all the laws & uphold the Constitution, even for this One Special Boy
Reposted by Garrett M. Graff
"We are going to reverse every renaming, pull down the gold leaf, and rebuild the East Wing" should not be the Democrats' main 2028 plank, but there are worse things to run on. It's one of those visuals you can actually start executing in Week One. Do it, put it on TV, rub it in, hurt some feelings.
Trump on getting his name added to the Kennedy Center: "Well, I was honored by this. The board is a very distinguished board, most distinguished people in the country. And I was surprised by it. I was honored by it."
That board includes Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo.
That board includes Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo.
December 18, 2025 at 7:30 PM
"We are going to reverse every renaming, pull down the gold leaf, and rebuild the East Wing" should not be the Democrats' main 2028 plank, but there are worse things to run on. It's one of those visuals you can actually start executing in Week One. Do it, put it on TV, rub it in, hurt some feelings.