Farce, Again? Some preliminary thoughts on the US-Israeli strikes on Iran

I've written at least two op-eds that are sitting in the mailboxes of editors that may or may not publish them. So here's a preliminary take:

"One can believe the regime deserved to fall and still believe this war is a disaster in the making."

hedgeofstate.substack.com/p/farce-again

Voting in Authoritarian Elections Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025 TURKULER ISIKSEL Open the ORCID record for TURKULER ISIKSEL [Opens in a new window] and THOMAS B. PEPINSKY Open the ORCID record for THOMAS B. PEPINSKY [Opens in a new window] Show author details Article Figures Supplementary materials Comments Metrics Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window] Abstract Democratic theorists hold that voting contributes to some political good: individual and collective autonomy, equality, justice, pluralism, stability, better policies, and many others. But elections are common under authoritarianism, and empirical research finds that holding elections can stabilize authoritarian regimes. This creates what we term the democrat’s dilemma, where citizens who vote in authoritarian elections may bolster the regimes they wish to unseat, even when they cast a vote for the opposition. We identify three major ways of thinking about the democratic value of electoral participation—justice-based, epistemic, and proceduralist approaches—and use them to examine the complex moral considerations that confront voters in authoritarian regimes. We contend that authoritarian elections’ residual democratic value can justify voting, even when doing so could further entrench the autocrat. Our argument also implies that the democratic principles that justify voting in authoritarian elections oblige citizens to choose the most democratic alternative.

Alarmingly relevant new paper out in @apsrjournal.bsky.social by Turku Isiksel and @tompepinsky.com. They take on the question of whether citizens of authoritarian states should vote in their often unfair elections, & find reason to do so.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

People are right that this short report by Anderson Cooper is shocking because it's actually good reporting. www.instagram.com/p/DT_zBaIgAxR/

Two cities under siege Remarkably similar scenes from Boston and Minneapolis, 260 years apart, show a federal government betraying its founding principles.

New at The Watch:

I dug into archival witness accounts of the British siege of Boston prior to the American Revolution.

They are remarkably similar to what we're seeing in Minneapolis.

open.substack.com/pub/radleyba...

It’s cold comfort right now but, if past is prologue, spectacles of violence committed by the state against sympathetic civilians—especially when captured on camera—were the beginning of the end for Bull Connor and Jim Crow, too.

Witnessing Another Public Killing in Minneapolis Videos of Alex Pretti’s fatal shooting, rapidly disseminated on social media, reveal a brazen display of brute power.

So true.

"Our ability to participate in witnessing, to corroborate each other's commonsense... is a threat to the administration's assumption of total power, not only over events but over how those events are interpreted." www.newyorker.com/culture/on-t... — Vinson Cunningham in the New Yorker

Dems should introduce legislation now defunding ICE and CBP operations in Minnesota, so they have to leave the state. One sentence bill. Demand an immediate vote. Maybe refuse to vote for cloture on any funding bills (or other bills) until a vote. Make the GOP Congress break w/ Trump or own it all.

Our country was founded on resistance to a tyrant.

Also, may I say that I don’t agree with people saying ICE and CBP need “more training.” They’re doing exactly what this administration has trained them to—impose a reign of fear in blue cities. They don’t need more training. They need to be ripped up root and branch.

A video of Alex Pretti reading out the final salute of an unnamed veteran he cared for until the end of his life in the ICU, posted to Facebook by his son.

"Wherein is courage required – in blowing others to pieces from behind a cannon or with a smiling face to approach a cannon and to be blown to pieces?.. Believe me that a man devoid of courage and manhood can
never be a passive resister." (From Gandhi's Hind Swaraj)

Finished listening to Bouie read selections from the Declaration with an "Amen."

This was murder. Pretti did not initiate the confrontation. He didn’t strike them. He didn’t brandish his gun. They tackled him, beat him, disarmed him, and shot him.

And what are they learning? Experts on the formation of internal security services in authoritarian regimes point to a sense of impunity as a warning sign. Regime officials abuse their power when they know they will be protected, and even praised, for doing so. Over the course of weeks and months, we have seen images of DHS officials abusing American citizens and immigrants alike, including killing them. What we do not hear is regime officials calling for credible investigations into such abuses, or even expressing any concerns. Renee Good’s killer was announced innocent, and both Good and her wife was instead the subject of an investigation, a perversion of justice so obvious that an FBI agent and half-dozen career Department of Justice prosecutors assigned to Minnesota resigned.

What we are watching is a paramilitary force learning that they can kill with impunity, that the regime will smear the victim and defend them. Unless politicians and the legal system exerts accountability, it will not stop. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/past-the-b...

What's making me really livid right now is thinking back to the years of commentary lecturing us that the rise of MAGA was rooted in a sense of righteous victimization by overbearing liberal elites, and sneering at those who insisted that it was fundamentally about domination and sadism all along.

not really clear what columbia offers beyond the reputation of a credential it devalues day after day after day ..

Opinion | JD Vance Claims One of Our Worst Traditions as His Own

come for the extended intro where i call jd vance a loser, stay for my analysis connecting vance's argument to the most reactionary antebellum views of citizenship

"With this made-up scandal, combined with the pre-election editorial, the Times looks like it’s on a crusade against Mamdani."

That's Margaret Sullivan @sulliview.bsky.social Former public editor of the New York Times, and a shrewd judge of newsroom character. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is not about the merits of Iran’s nuclear program. No president has the authority to bomb another country that does not pose an imminent threat to the US without the approval of Congress. This is an unambiguous impeachable offense.

the destruction of chattel slavery is one of the great accomplishments in our nation's history and the reason conservatives hate celebrating it is because doing so legitimizes the black counter-narrative of the united states

I still can't get past the idea that people in America are now supposed to accept that this is a valid form of law enforcement and just assume it's fine when random dudes in groups with face-coverings, no ID, no warrant, & no uniform grab people off the street and force them into unmarked vehicles

#NoKings

Down with dictators! No Kings march in Madison (complete with the sign my daughter embellished)

tanks

"It's a republic, not a democracy," say the conservatives as they get very excited for a big display of military force moving across the river into the capital.

HERE IS A THING that EVERY American can do:

1. Call your Senator.
2. Say the following: "I am requesting that you place a hold on the nomination of Bill Essayli as U.S. Attorney for the Central District of CA for directing federal agents to assault a U.S. Senator."
3. Call other Senator, repeat

Kristi Noem's threat to do a Jan. 6 to California and the arrest of Senator Alex Padilla YouTube video by Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie

it's like what the image says. they think they're kings — they think they rule us — and they want us to obey youtu.be/ULdUsHB-7VE

3 Lessons From International Protests Amid the L.A. Unrest (Gift Article) Experts who study protest movements say the scenes unfolding in California broadly follow a script that has played out many times in other countries — sometimes with deadly consequences.

“Harsh crackdowns may generate sympathy for protesters, said Omar Wasow, a political scientist at UC Berkeley who studies protest movements. The “spectacle of violence and repression,” he said, can frame states as ‘bullies’ unjustly squashing expression.” Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/w...

I dunno, but maybe Democratic members of Congress shouldn't go the White House picnic tonight and pretend everything's fine and dandy, unless and until Sen. Padilla gets a phone call apologizing for what happened from Donald Trump?