Sign in

Alexander Stille

@astille.bsky.social
622 followers 204 following 64 posts

Columbia Journalism Professor, writes a lot on Italy. Author of The Sullivanians and other books

PostsRepliesMedia
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Trump Administration Moves to Allow Logging in Pristine National Forests www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/c.... It seems like someone in the #Trump administration wakes up each day and thinks: How can I make life in this country worse? Every day it’s something.
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Moves to Allow Logging in Pristine National Forests
The move to repeal the ‘roadless rule’ would pave the way for road construction and logging in nearly 45 million acres of untouched back country.
032
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
The real headlines in our read as if they were in the Onion: Trump prepares to hold a cage fight on the lawn of the White House.
100
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Official who could have warned of imminent forced into early retiredment by DOGE: As the Texas Floodwaters Rose, One Indispensable Voice Was Silent www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | As the Texas Floodwaters Rose, One Indispensable Voice Was Silent
021
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
The Trump administration has cut 100s of jobs at NWS, with staffing down by at least 20% at nearly half of the 122 NWS field offices nationally and at least half dozen no longer staffed 24 hours. 100s forecasters were encouraged to retire early.https://shorturl.at/FkMlu
110
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate
010
Reposted by Alexander Stille
AlwaysACivilServant @drneuro.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Greyhound, I promise I will never talk smack about you ever again. Bravo
111231244732
Reposted by Alexander Stille
Saganism @sagan.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Carl Sagan on how humanity can create its purpose and make its existence meaningful.
592295567
Reposted by Alexander Stille
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.
"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?"
"Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."
246188206426
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
@nathantankus.bsky.From conversation on @pkrugman.bsky.social 's substack: "this is an extraordinary financial crisis because it is a financial crisis, more than any other financial crisis ever, that is directly connected to the erratic and bizarre and dangerous behavior of one person."
021
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
From ultramoderate D. Brooks: "It’s time for a national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement." www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Time for a Civic Uprising
It will take a concerted effort by every sector of our society to respond to Trumpism’s threat.
064
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
shorturl.at/HYPjD Trump is killing a major export: Colleges and universities are among America’s most competitive international exporters. In dollar terms, last year, the US sold more educational services to the rest of the world than it sold in natural gas and coal combined.
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | Trump is killing one of our strongest exports
The president wants to balance U.S. trade deficits? He can’t do it without this industry he hates.
062
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Incredible: you would think you should a little something about the thing you shoot your mouth off on national TV. Survivor benefits: an essential feature of social security
010
Reposted by Alexander Stille
Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
18059071197
Reposted by Alexander Stille
Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
You may be fearing your 401k is no longer enough for you to retire. But with all the cuts to NIH and Medicare you also won't live as long. So the policies are integrated.
810336737195
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
“Target destroyed!” On #FoxNews you would never know that #Trump tanked stock market in the worst week since the pandemic. It’s not a news network. www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...
foxnews.com
Trump touts airstrike on Houthis, showing video: Will 'never sink our ships again'
President Trump on Friday shared a video that showed a U.S. attack on Houthi rebels as the administration continues its daily attacks on the terrorist organization.
000
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
In 73 days Trump started a trade war, poisoned our closest alliances, threatened Canada and Greenland, blown up NATO, offered Ukraine to Putin, gutted scientific research & tanked the economy. If U wanted to destroy our country couldnt have done better than #Trump
1257
Reposted by Alexander Stille
Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Can’t help but feel that if President Bernie Sanders pulled this move the entirety of American business would try to get him pushed out of office immediately.
1065366784408
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
2 months in: Start a trade war with our closest allies, blow up NATO, hand Ukraine to Putin, crash the economy, kill scientific research, threaten to invade Canada and Greenland. If you wanted to design a president to destroy our country you could do much better than #Trump
000
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Along with gutting IRS to make it harder to collect taxes, Trump using IRS to track down illegal immigrants -- individual returns have ALWAYS BEEN PRIVATE -- now illegal immigrants who work, pay taxes without getting benefits will get arrested..https://shorturl.at/xxMBz
shorturl.at
The IRS is in turmoil. Taxpayers are taking notice. - The Washington Post
The IRS is bracing for a $500 billion drop in tax revenue this year, in part due to President Donald Trump’s rapid demolition of parts of the agency. And a look at the unprecedented deal brewing betwe...
010
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
The problem is that the #Trump administration is likely to keep moving the goal posts to make #Columbia make concession after concession. It is not a good faith actor. If they cared about antisemitism and hate speech they wouldnt have released the 1600 people who stormed the capitol
031
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
if this isnt McCarthyism, what is it? "the administration is targeting legal immigrants who have expressed views that the government believes threaten national security and undermine foreign policy." Crackdown Expands to Legal Immigrants and Tourists www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/u...
nytimes.com
Trump’s Deportation Agenda Expands to Legal Immigrants and Tourists
U.S. border officials are using more aggressive tactics at ports of entry as the administration scrutinizes green card and visa holders who have expressed opposition to its policies.
031
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
More tribute to the Sultan: The firm agreed to contribute $40 million in legal services to causes Mr. Trump has championed, including “the President’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/u...
nytimes.com
Law Firm Bends in Face of Trump Demands
Paul, Weiss — one of three law firms targeted by President Trump as part of his retribution campaign — said it resolved the conflict by agreeing to a range of commitments.
011
Reposted by Alexander Stille
The Borowitz Report @borowitzreport.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
I don’t want to exaggerate my powers of prediction but I posted this ten years ago:
20895162
Reposted by Alexander Stille
Lakota Man 🪶 @lakotaman.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Exactly
422505431
Reposted by Alexander Stille
Lin.in.SW.France 🦋 🇨🇵💙🇪🇺 @linmet.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
13710
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
I just subscribed to 5 Calls Newsletter! buttondown.com/5calls
buttondown.com
5 Calls Newsletter
The 5 Calls Newsletter breaks down what your representatives are voting on and what you can do to influence them. From your friends at 5 Calls
000
Reposted by Alexander Stille
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
I think some in the Senate have convinced themselves that the backlash to folding will be limited to “the left” and therefore ignorable. Those people are deeply and profoundly misreading the moment and the stakes. Virtually every swing district House Dem walked the plank to vote NO for a reason.
491513102524236
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
I just subscribed to 5 Calls Newsletter! buttondown.com/5calls
buttondown.com
5 Calls Newsletter
The 5 Calls Newsletter breaks down what your representatives are voting on and what you can do to influence them. From your friends at 5 Calls
120
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
All you have to do is ask what would Mitch McConnell do if the shoe was on the other foot? Sad to say, the GOP knows much better how to play power politics. Chuck is hopeless
021
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Pretty funny that Meta-- champion of free speech who has given up content moderation (allowing all manner of sludge on its platform) under the banner of combatting censorship tries to keep a former FB employee from telling her story www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/t...
nytimes.com
Meta Tries to Stop Sarah Wynn-Williams From Further Selling Scathing Memoir
An arbitrator has prevented the employee from promoting her book and disparaging the company until private arbitration concludes.
041
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Why would anyone think that #trump -- of #trumpsteaks, #trumpairlines, a failed casino business, 6 bankruptcies, the man who, according to his own tax returns, lost more money than any other American taxpayer for several years -- should run our economy?
040
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Market drops another 2.7% - after six weeks of #Trump chaos -- mass firings/rehiring/tarrifs, hold the tarrifs -- when are people going to figure out that this guy has no idea what he is doing?
130
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
As Ravitch explains, Milton Friedman wrote The Role of Government in Education, in 1955 the year after Brown v Bd of Ed offering a sophisticated intellectual justification for segregration academies
010
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
The latest effort of the GOP to destroy public education in our country. Read Diane Ravitch's excellent piece in the @nybooks.com (www.nybooks.com/articles/202...) /https://wapo.st/3XvZuNK
wapo.st
GOP voucher plan would divert billions in taxes to private schools
Donations to scholarship programs would be fully reimbursed through a new tax credit, creating the largest federal tax incentive for charitable giving.
041
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Thank for your very kind words. I think it is true that Berlusconi pioneered much of what we see w/#Trump: politics as reality TV, billionaire populism, transgression as authenticity. But Trump is much more dangerous
140
Reposted by Alexander Stille
Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu · 28/02/2025
Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You are never alone, dear President Zelenskyy. We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.
16107340214669
Reposted by Alexander Stille
Tristan Snell @tristansnell.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
This is Winston Churchill visiting the White House during World War II. Funny how he isn’t wearing a suit either. Almost like he was a wartime leader defending his country from being slaughtered and wiped out by an authoritarian aggressor.
7274290012232
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Jeff Bezos throws the Washington Post under the bus and climbs aboard the Trump train alexanderstille.net/jeff-bezos-t...
alexanderstille.net
Jeff Bezos throws the Washington Post under the bus - Alexander Stille
When Donald Trump became president for the first time, the editor of the Washington Post at the time, Martin Baron, said that the newspaper was “not at war but at work.” At the same time, its ultrawea...
011
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Yes, Ray @rfisman.bsky.social Berlusconi was a warm-up act for Trump who has taken not just sycophancy but so much else to a whole other level
110
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Another disgrace: armchair generals Trump and Vance rebuking and bullying Zelensky, who has courageously defended his country against all odds.https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02/28/us/trump-news?smid=bs-share
nytimes.com
Trump and Vance Rebuke Zelensky During White House Meeting: Live Updates
010
Reposted by Alexander Stille
Social Security Works @socialsecurityworks.org · 28/02/2025
The ongoing bloodbath at the Social Security Administration has only one goal: The total annihilation of Social Security by firing half of the work force and closing the field offices. Wall Street billionaires want to destroy Social Security so they can give themselves trillions in tax handouts.
55845451
Reposted by Alexander Stille
SpyTalker @spytalker.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
It will be known as the “Price is Right” administration.
0118
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Can we go any lower?
000
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
No one was angrier at #Trump on Jan 6 than McConnell but a days later read the polls showing most Republicans still favored Trump and he cynically refused to back impeachment. Had he shown backbone and principle we would be spared the current nightmare.
000
Reposted by Alexander Stille
WIRED @wired.com · 15/02/2025
Last night, we broke the news that the top US election security watchdog has frozen all of its election security work and is reviewing everything it has done to help state and local officials secure their elections for the past eight years. wrd.cm/3QkfGh3
wrd.cm
Top US Election Security Watchdog Forced to Stop Election Security Work
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has frozen efforts to aid states in securing elections, according to an internal memo viewed by WIRED.
21538072082
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
shorturl.at/ePN2j This will go down as one of the most shameful days in our history: an American president sides with a brutal dictator over a democratic ally resisting aggression: imagine if FDR had chosen Hitler over England and Poland
shorturl.at
Trump Flips the Script on the Ukraine War, Blaming Zelensky Not Putin
As he seeks to negotiate a peace deal with Moscow, President Trump is rewriting the history of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.
020
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Less than a month into Trump2 we can already see an Orwellian 1984-like dystopia taking shape. Lying as a key arm of rule. The latest: Ukraine started the war with Russia. The slogans of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth: "War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," and "Ignorance is Strength.”
031
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Finally someone with some backbone and principles: willing to lose her job for the idea that bribery is still a crime -- rather than let Adams buy his way out of jail in a seamy deal with #Trump www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/n...
nytimes.com
Danielle Sassoon and Other Officials Resign After Order to Drop Eric Adams Case
The interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan and two officials with the federal public integrity unit quit after the Justice Department ordered the charges against Mayor Eric Adams to be dropped.
031
Alexander Stille @astille.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
HL Mencken said “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people". What would he have made of Fox, Newsmax and social media?
060