Jake Levitan
@jlev.bsky.social
3L at Berkeley Law, interested in the (critique of) law and political economy/ecology. Incoming fellow at the Center for Protest Law & Litigation. More active at the other place: https://x.com/jklev_
Reposted by Jake Levitan
Something in the latest LRB. It's not the cheeriest of pieces but I hope some find it worthwhile. Thanks for reading.
‘Politics and political life require not only a future, but a future in which what we do today can matter. Questions of meaning and mattering are unavoidable in a life lived in the shadow of end times.’
@geoffmann.bsky.social on how we think about the end of the world:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@geoffmann.bsky.social on how we think about the end of the world:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Geoff Mann · Good Failures: With a Whimper
Does anything matter if we’re done for? We are not the first to wonder. Contemporary fictions are preoccupied with...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 15, 2026 at 1:44 AM
Something in the latest LRB. It's not the cheeriest of pieces but I hope some find it worthwhile. Thanks for reading.
Reposted by Jake Levitan
Adam Hanieh with a more sophisticated take on the question of oil and Venezuela than many others that have been circulating thus far.
www.versobooks.com/en-ca/blogs/...
www.versobooks.com/en-ca/blogs/...
Venezuela’s Oil in the Grip of US Empire
The Trump administration’s kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro has refocused global attention on Venezuela and its enormous oil reserves. Yet to simply accept Trump’s bellicose language at face value – inclu...
www.versobooks.com
January 14, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Adam Hanieh with a more sophisticated take on the question of oil and Venezuela than many others that have been circulating thus far.
www.versobooks.com/en-ca/blogs/...
www.versobooks.com/en-ca/blogs/...
Reposted by Jake Levitan
What connects Trump‘s Caracas kidnapping with the fatal ICE raid in Minneapolis? They are twin components of what Nikhil Pal Singh describes as America’s new “Homeland Empire”. www.equator.org/articles/hom...
Homeland Empire • EQUATOR
From Venezuela to Minnesota, Trump is trying to create a borderless American power, collapsing the foreign and the domestic into a single domain of impunity
www.equator.org
January 14, 2026 at 6:00 PM
What connects Trump‘s Caracas kidnapping with the fatal ICE raid in Minneapolis? They are twin components of what Nikhil Pal Singh describes as America’s new “Homeland Empire”. www.equator.org/articles/hom...
Reposted by Jake Levitan
A competent opposition political party would cut together the footage of what ICE had been doing in the twin cities with Mike Johnson saying "ICE is doing what ICE is designed to do" and have it in ads all across the country
Mike Johnson comes out against additional guardrails on ICE as Democrats call for it.
“I think there's a lot of Democrats playing games right now with national security and with law enforcement. And I think it's dangerous. Ice is doing what ice is designed to do by its very name.”
“I think there's a lot of Democrats playing games right now with national security and with law enforcement. And I think it's dangerous. Ice is doing what ice is designed to do by its very name.”
January 14, 2026 at 11:58 PM
A competent opposition political party would cut together the footage of what ICE had been doing in the twin cities with Mike Johnson saying "ICE is doing what ICE is designed to do" and have it in ads all across the country
Reposted by Jake Levitan
ICE AGENT: “I love my job. I can’t believe they pay me to do this. I’d do it for free. I only went to high school and I make $200,000.”
January 14, 2026 at 12:28 AM
ICE AGENT: “I love my job. I can’t believe they pay me to do this. I’d do it for free. I only went to high school and I make $200,000.”
Reposted by Jake Levitan
"I’ve argued this is central aspect of Trump’s climate politics: not merely trying to slow transition, but using its power to coerce rest of world into believing it will never happen, because America won’t let it"[email protected]
Fits Venezuela to a T
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...
Fits Venezuela to a T
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...
The Anti-Climate Common Sense | Ted Fertik
How a new climate common sense was built and how Trump’s assault threatens its unraveling
www.phenomenalworld.org
January 14, 2026 at 12:34 AM
"I’ve argued this is central aspect of Trump’s climate politics: not merely trying to slow transition, but using its power to coerce rest of world into believing it will never happen, because America won’t let it"[email protected]
Fits Venezuela to a T
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...
Fits Venezuela to a T
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...
Reposted by Jake Levitan
Sorry to keep everyone waiting. Here it is. @thepolycrisis.bsky.social take on venezuela.
Ofc it’s about oil. No, not like that
@katemac.bsky.social
buttondown.com/polycrisisdi...
Ofc it’s about oil. No, not like that
@katemac.bsky.social
buttondown.com/polycrisisdi...
It's about oil, no it isn't, yes it is
Also, sovereign creditors
buttondown.com
January 11, 2026 at 2:49 AM
Sorry to keep everyone waiting. Here it is. @thepolycrisis.bsky.social take on venezuela.
Ofc it’s about oil. No, not like that
@katemac.bsky.social
buttondown.com/polycrisisdi...
Ofc it’s about oil. No, not like that
@katemac.bsky.social
buttondown.com/polycrisisdi...
Reposted by Jake Levitan
This is magic thinking. This law does basically nothing to rein in local cops.
It would take a two-word amendment to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to subject ICE agents and other federal law enforcement officers to the same liability for constitutional violations that local and state officers currently face.
If Congress actually cared about what it's seeing, it could pass that overnight.
If Congress actually cared about what it's seeing, it could pass that overnight.
January 13, 2026 at 12:56 AM
This is magic thinking. This law does basically nothing to rein in local cops.
Reposted by Jake Levitan
It may not seem like it, but right now is a great time to think about the different world we want.
January 10, 2026 at 2:35 PM
It may not seem like it, but right now is a great time to think about the different world we want.
Reposted by Jake Levitan
It is an absurd thing for federal agencies to undertake a targeted war on domestic populations and to see a tacit expectation that state / local officials should nevertheless behave as if the old rules of the game still apply.
January 8, 2026 at 11:09 PM
It is an absurd thing for federal agencies to undertake a targeted war on domestic populations and to see a tacit expectation that state / local officials should nevertheless behave as if the old rules of the game still apply.
Reposted by Jake Levitan
This above all. An infrastructure in which many of the most important power resources — including, in the US, trust in government — are simply not in the federal government’s control. But in order to realize that potential, states have to activate it via repertories of contention.
This is the REAL power of federalism.
Not the 10th Amendment, or the commerce clause (dormant or otherwise), or any of that stuff.
It's staffing. For all its bluster, fed law enforcement is REALLY thinly staffed for a nation of our size. Structurally, makes SUSTAINED authoritarianism REALLY hard.
Not the 10th Amendment, or the commerce clause (dormant or otherwise), or any of that stuff.
It's staffing. For all its bluster, fed law enforcement is REALLY thinly staffed for a nation of our size. Structurally, makes SUSTAINED authoritarianism REALLY hard.
January 8, 2026 at 5:51 PM
This above all. An infrastructure in which many of the most important power resources — including, in the US, trust in government — are simply not in the federal government’s control. But in order to realize that potential, states have to activate it via repertories of contention.
Reposted by Jake Levitan
They have, to be sure, been rebuffed over and over again in court and they often just abandon the effort once it has served its promotional purpose. But the point still holds: the Trump theory of intergovernmental grants is the protection racket, which voids federalism.
If the executive branch can unilaterally cut off federal funding to specific states the union has already been dissolved.
January 10, 2026 at 1:39 AM
They have, to be sure, been rebuffed over and over again in court and they often just abandon the effort once it has served its promotional purpose. But the point still holds: the Trump theory of intergovernmental grants is the protection racket, which voids federalism.
Reposted by Jake Levitan
I am a critic of the cost benefit analysis approach described here but the core point remains the same: when you hinge regulations on "monetized" costs & benefits, capriciously stopping monetizing the core benefit while keeping the process the same tilts towards effectively killing the clean air act
Now Trump EPA head, Lee Zeldin, enters the scene with rank dishonesty & theatrical indignation to dispute the NY Times' correct, accurate reporting.
But I've read the EPA smoking gun document, I'm a 30+-year clean air lawyer, I understand its meaning better than Zeldin, & I have the receipts. 1/
But I've read the EPA smoking gun document, I'm a 30+-year clean air lawyer, I understand its meaning better than Zeldin, & I have the receipts. 1/
January 13, 2026 at 2:13 AM
I am a critic of the cost benefit analysis approach described here but the core point remains the same: when you hinge regulations on "monetized" costs & benefits, capriciously stopping monetizing the core benefit while keeping the process the same tilts towards effectively killing the clean air act
Reposted by Jake Levitan
It's so fucking convenient that they get to "fear for their lives" anytime they want to absolve themselves of anything and when we actually fear for our lives because of them and do anything a scared person would do it's justification for our death.
January 7, 2026 at 6:43 PM
It's so fucking convenient that they get to "fear for their lives" anytime they want to absolve themselves of anything and when we actually fear for our lives because of them and do anything a scared person would do it's justification for our death.
Reposted by Jake Levitan
Increasingly it's clearer to a lot of people what i have been saying for a while: people use "inflation" and "prices" to talk about their own difficulty making ends meet or affording big ticket items once "inflation" became a big media news story. It's not actually about CPI or even increases.
New YouGov polling shows more people say inflation is their #1 issue now than said the same at any point in 2023-2024 today.yougov.com/politics/art...
January 12, 2026 at 10:33 PM
Increasingly it's clearer to a lot of people what i have been saying for a while: people use "inflation" and "prices" to talk about their own difficulty making ends meet or affording big ticket items once "inflation" became a big media news story. It's not actually about CPI or even increases.
Reposted by Jake Levitan
I am begging Democratic leadership to recognize that funding and legitimizing your authoritarian opponent’s secret police is a bad idea.
This should not be a difficult concept.
This should not be a difficult concept.
Top Democrats decline to say if they would rein in ICE after Minnesota shooting
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries denounce the killing but offer no concrete pledges
www.independent.co.uk
January 9, 2026 at 2:24 AM
I am begging Democratic leadership to recognize that funding and legitimizing your authoritarian opponent’s secret police is a bad idea.
This should not be a difficult concept.
This should not be a difficult concept.
Reposted by Jake Levitan
The facts are absolutely screaming at you that training is not the core problem here
January 12, 2026 at 10:42 PM
The facts are absolutely screaming at you that training is not the core problem here
Reposted by Jake Levitan
I think the history of police reform provides a very clear cut counter example
maybe an unpopular position on this website but i think the moderate dem focus on ICE training can be, with political pressure, the pathway to more fundamental reforms. rhetorically it is not too hard to move from “more training” to “turns out they’re untrainable and we have to start all over.”
January 12, 2026 at 4:41 PM
I think the history of police reform provides a very clear cut counter example
Reposted by Jake Levitan
"A dying empire is a dangerous beast and will extract a big price in blood for its decline. The more desperate it becomes, the more reckless it grows, even without such a notoriously dozy, incompetent and self-aggrandising leadership." -
@leninology.bsky.social
@leninology.bsky.social
The Donroe Doctrine and US decline
Podcast Episode · Politics Theory Other · 01/12/2026 · 53m
podcasts.apple.com
January 12, 2026 at 1:44 PM
"A dying empire is a dangerous beast and will extract a big price in blood for its decline. The more desperate it becomes, the more reckless it grows, even without such a notoriously dozy, incompetent and self-aggrandising leadership." -
@leninology.bsky.social
@leninology.bsky.social
Reposted by Jake Levitan
Online today @JewishCurrents: my examination of how nearly a century of cooperation between American universities and the military-industrial complex has made a mockery of the concept of academic freedom jewishcurrents.org/higher-eds-b...
Higher Ed's Bad Bargain
To salvage academic freedom amid Trump’s attacks, universities must break from their Cold War compromise with US militarism.
jewishcurrents.org
January 12, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Online today @JewishCurrents: my examination of how nearly a century of cooperation between American universities and the military-industrial complex has made a mockery of the concept of academic freedom jewishcurrents.org/higher-eds-b...
Reposted by Jake Levitan
1: An introduction by @alejopedregal.bsky.social, Nemanja Lukić and I opens the issue. Our article rejects both ecomodernism and anti-modernism, arguing instead for an anti-imperialist politics of popular development. Open access: brill.com/view/journal...
December 18, 2025 at 3:51 PM
1: An introduction by @alejopedregal.bsky.social, Nemanja Lukić and I opens the issue. Our article rejects both ecomodernism and anti-modernism, arguing instead for an anti-imperialist politics of popular development. Open access: brill.com/view/journal...
Reposted by Jake Levitan
Reposted by Jake Levitan
Darryl Li, University of Chicago
youtu.be/zNT-5E7zXF4?...
youtu.be/zNT-5E7zXF4?...
Politics and Poetics on the Ruins of Gaza (3) EV - Didier Fassin (2025-2026)
YouTube video by Sciences sociales - Collège de France
youtu.be
January 1, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Darryl Li, University of Chicago
youtu.be/zNT-5E7zXF4?...
youtu.be/zNT-5E7zXF4?...
Reposted by Jake Levitan
We had our Annual Lecture last week where Adam Hanieh examined the Middle East’s central role in today’s fossil-fuel-centered world and the accelerating climate emergency.
You can watch the lecture in full on our YouTube channel here: youtu.be/WhAcYNZlkOo
You can watch the lecture in full on our YouTube channel here: youtu.be/WhAcYNZlkOo
IGDC Annual Lecture 2025: Capitalism, Conflict and the Climate Emergency
YouTube video by Interdisciplinary Global Development Centre
youtu.be
December 15, 2025 at 1:04 PM
We had our Annual Lecture last week where Adam Hanieh examined the Middle East’s central role in today’s fossil-fuel-centered world and the accelerating climate emergency.
You can watch the lecture in full on our YouTube channel here: youtu.be/WhAcYNZlkOo
You can watch the lecture in full on our YouTube channel here: youtu.be/WhAcYNZlkOo
Reposted by Jake Levitan
We are far past the stage of permissiveness with white-supremacist violence inside DHS. We are witnessing ICE transition into a death squad.
This cannot be reformed. The only question is who will fight to abolish it, and who will accommodate it instead.
This cannot be reformed. The only question is who will fight to abolish it, and who will accommodate it instead.
Either ICE Is Abolished or It Will Kill Many More Renee Goods
Minnesota is just the beginning of ICE's transformation into a right-wing death squad. But it can be the end
www.forever-wars.com
January 12, 2026 at 6:46 PM
We are far past the stage of permissiveness with white-supremacist violence inside DHS. We are witnessing ICE transition into a death squad.
This cannot be reformed. The only question is who will fight to abolish it, and who will accommodate it instead.
This cannot be reformed. The only question is who will fight to abolish it, and who will accommodate it instead.