Sign in

Thaddeus

@democracywork.bsky.social
419 followers 159 following 1.1K posts
PostsRepliesMedia
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
www.indivisiblepeninsulabayarea.org/democracy-ac...
indivisiblepeninsulabayarea.org
Democracy Academy Workshops — October 18, 2025
Join Democracy Academy workshops on October 18, 2025 at Lucie Stern Community Center. Learn effective activism strategies, immigration advocacy, youth engagement, faith-based activism, and resistance ...
010 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
www.indivisiblepeninsulabayarea.org/nokings/
020 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
www.indivisiblepeninsulabayarea.org/democracy-ac...
indivisiblepeninsulabayarea.org
Democracy Academy Workshops on Oct. 18 — Indivisible Peninsula Bay Area Network
Protest is essential. And yet it’s not enough. On No Kings Day, October 18, Democracy Academy will present a series of action-oriented workshops that aim to help participants build the knowledge, skil...
010 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
www.indivisiblepeninsulabayarea.org/democracy-ac...
indivisiblepeninsulabayarea.org
Democracy Academy Workshops on Oct. 18 — Indivisible Peninsula Bay Area Network
Protest is essential. And yet it’s not enough. On No Kings Day, October 18, Democracy Academy will present a series of action-oriented workshops that aim to help participants build the knowledge, skil...
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
www.indivisiblepeninsulabayarea.org/nokings
indivisiblepeninsulabayarea.org
No Kings Parade & Democracy Fair in Palo Alto — Indivisible Peninsula Bay Area Network
In America, we say, “No Kings!” Join the PARADE—a peaceful, patriotic march to celebrate our rights and our values. Then come to the DEMOCRACY FAIR—an action-oriented, family-friendly afternoon in the...
010 0
Reposted by Thaddeus
Leah Greenberg ❌👑 @leahgreenberg.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
This is state-sponsored media shit. Absolutely, shocking, insane dictator overreach
45588181 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Noting for the record that the @espiers.bsky.social piece on Charlie Kirk was word- and pitch-perfect. Any freedom-loving institution should have been proud to publish or fund it. www.elizabethspiers.com/whatta-week-...
elizabethspiers.com
Whatta Week: Charlie Kirk, JD Vance, and My Inbox
I wrote a column for The Nation about why I don't celebrate Charlie Kirk's death, but I won't celebrate his life, either. I'm posting it below in its entirety. Since the column came out, it has been ...
010 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Anti-anti-fascism—can we call it “pro-fa”?— is now the controlling ideology of the GOP, the US government, and various other major American institutions (e.g., ABC, WaPo).
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Crazy. And crazy-making. Nothing that any commentator of prominence has said about Kirk compares in offensiveness to any number of things that Kirk said over many years. We’re being asked to believe not just that up is down, but that up is the wisest, kindest, most generous down that ever lived.
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Stop acting like a Nazi. Stop acting like a fascist. Thank you for playing “Easy Answers to Hard Question.“
031 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
This is an excellent point. But the relevant date range is probably something like 1865-2024.
020 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
What’s the over/under on days until pardon talk for Tyler Robinson enters this-is-legitimate mainstream political discourse?
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
We live in an Orwell Moment, when plain speaking about unpleasant political facts is strangely rare and uniquely valuable—when simple truths, simply told, can have a marvelous tonic effect, even many people deem them hard to swallow. (Orwellian times, of course, open space for an Orwell Moment.) 1/3
100 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
There will be many breaking points before it’s all over (“it” being the Trump-MAGA regime, but like Paul Campos, I feel that we’ve reached a big in Aug-Sep 2025. www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/09/alte...
lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com
Alternatives to ordinary politics - Lawyers, Guns & Money
For some probably random reason I went over a psychological cliff yesterday. I think it may have been this that sent me over the edge: If you haven’t seen the movie, Robert Duvall plays Lt. Col. Bill ...
110 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
“Politics,” Steve Bannon said, “is downstream of culture.” When he’s right, he’s right! This sharp piece delves into the meaning of the larger MAGA project, a key part of which involves using a kitsch aesthetic to eliminate every vestige of liberalism. www.vox.com/politics/459...
vox.com
Trump isn’t just remodeling the White House. He’s rebranding America.
The president’s tacky aesthetic is a window into his quest to become the single most enduring symbol of America.
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
All of this. Very much all of this. One way to understand MAGA is as an erasure of the Second Founding. Allowing Trump to run for president after Jan 6 was an act of constitutional suicide.
010 0
Reposted by Thaddeus
Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Just thinking about how fighting the Nazis in WWII was pretty woke
14772124 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Great point! And don’t forget that the Trump regime has also (illegally) dismantledUS institute of Peace.
131 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Those who forget immunology are condemned to learn it again the hard way. Willful cultural amnesia explains so much of the current catastrophe. (Op. cit. John Roberts Voting Rights Act decisions.)
110 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Ha! Soon will come the day when Murc’s Law will be the only law that we have.
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
MAGA types, including DJT, are the ultimate “ bad fans”: They watch and presumably enjoy perfectly good movies without any conception of who the bad guys are. Nor, as others pointed out, do they have any conception of which side lost this particular guerrilla war.
020 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Brilliantly said. I totally agree with @mehdirhasan.bsky.social. Sweeping out top congressional Dem leaders is a necessary step forward. Yet it’s far from sufficient. It’s far from clear the leaders who would replace Schumer and Jeffries would be much better. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
It’s time for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries to step down | Mehdi Hasan
This fascist moment, this age of Trump, demands outspoken, unrelenting and fearless opposition. We all deserve better
110 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Why we are where we are, in 10 indelible words: “You can't policy your way out of a propaganda problem!”
030 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
For years, the whole phenomenon of Donald Trump has flabbergasted me—because, as this great comment at @lawgunsmoney.bsky.social notes, he embodies every villain trope in modern American popular culture. Again and again,I just want to scream: This guy? www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/09/no-m...
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Great thread. Very smart to connect “deliverism” with Dem leaders‘ current hapless strategy on the funding battle. Common denominator: Congressional Dems cling to the outdated idea that their primary task is legislation. No! It’s all about the info battle. It’s all about the war for attention.
0104 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Shrewd analysis by @joshtpm.bsky.social of feckless Senate Dem maneuvering. "Democrats are in a battle for everything. Helping Republicans remain in total power in Washington, DC in exchange for momentary relief is not the answer." talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/there...
talkingpointsmemo.com
There’s a New Budget Showdown. Senate Dems’ Current Plan Is Bullshit
I agonized for a bit about the point I’m about to discuss....
100 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Amid so many other horrors, renaming a govt dept hardly matter even as a point of trivia. And yet ... At a time when the regime is escalating—and conflating—the War on Terror (tm) and the War on Drugs (tm), going big on the "war" idea strikes an ominous tone. (1) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Is Renaming the Defense Department the Department of War
100 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Important piece by @brianbeutler.bsky.social. Come for this great line: "The future is unwritten, but death remains certain." Stay for a provocative meditation on how Dems should publicly remember Trump when he's gone. www.offmessage.net/p/if-trump-d...
offmessage.net
If He Dies
A dry run before the (actuarial) main event.
2264 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
"I refuse to pretend that any of this is normal.” This, this, this! Since January 20, I’ve been waiting for prominent Dems to commit to this simple, necessary principle.
000 0
Reposted by Thaddeus
Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
The president is tweeting videos of his extrajudicial murders for the sake of entertaining his hordes of followers who cry out for enemy blood.
1131354 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
How it’s going (in one increasingly prominent strand of American conservatism)
100 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Brilliant thread by @anatosaurus.bsky.social. It’s ALL about attention. And for a political party today, the only way to gain and keep attention is to show that you’ll fight for people. Damn talk far too much about “distraction“ and not nearly enough about the laws of (political) attraction.
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Antisemitism watch: Will the Trump regime now force the Holocaust Museum to enter a multimillion dollar settlement? The ironies start to intertwine like the sides of a Mobius strip. (It’s OK to be antisemitic as long as you’re not anti-American. So hard to keep track!)
030 0
Reposted by Thaddeus
Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
The conditions that have led to what’s happening in the US today exist in democracies around the world. They are an inevitable outcome of our collective failure to adapt to fundamental changes in the information ecosystem on which our democracies were originally built.
15956571804 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
It’s truly a wretched, feckless editorial. But it has the virtue of offering a window into the institutional mindset that engenders NYT‘s mealy-mouthed, collaborationist coverage of Trump on both news and editorial pages. 1/2
231 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
If @nytimes.com reporters didn’t have liberals to kick around, how would they fill the empty spot in the pit of their souls? As a survey of what’s happening, it’s a decent piece. But NYT can’t help but frame it in terms of how libs and Dems are doing it wrong. 1/2 www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Resistance? It’s Not a Full Movement, but It’s Growing. (Gift Article)
Despite lacking a unified message or strategy, Democrats, universities, law firms and other institutions are starting to push back harder against the administration.
100 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Incisive, useful effort to convert general, angst-ridden despair over [gesticulates manically] *all this* into a review of specific unconstitutional and anti-constitutional steps taken by Trump and his regime.
010 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
To paraphrase Churchill, we're nowhere near the beginning of the end—but we are at the end of the beginning. Trump has wrought immense damage, and it will get much worse. But, as @joshtpm.bsky.social says, DJT has largely spoiled his bid for autocratic lock-in. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Trump’s Already Lost
There are a number of you who simply don’t agree with me...
100 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
No doubt Trump will love this move, since “tariff“ is the most beautiful word in English language. Tariff, tariff, tariff.
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Bookmark: timely (in more ways than one) warnings from dissidents in other countries. Autocrats use time and uncertainty to their advantage. The trick—so difficult, so necessary—is to be paranoid without being fearful. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
theatlantic.com
A Ticking Clock on American Freedom
It’s later than you think, but it’s not too late.
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
For Donald at 100 Days, Avoiding Waterloo Is the Name of the Game Trump told voters to “take a chance on me,” promising to put more money, money, money in their pockets. Now, wondering whether the winner takes it all, he’s sending out an S.O.S. Momma mia! (Apologies to @nytpitchbot.bsky.social.)
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Bookmark: Here is a useful, trenchant overview of a Trump regime trend that’s mistakenly treated as a sideshow. In fact, the Trump cultural project signals that a deeper, more dangerous game is afoot. hyperallergic.com/991223/donal...
hyperallergic.com
Donald Trump Brings Back “Degenerate Art”
The president’s obsession with cultural control is evidence of a continued fascist creep, and not just another joke exercise in narcissism.
010 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Great column. And an epic subtweet (or “subskeet,” I guess?) from @michellegoldberg.bsky.social, in that NYT notoriously takes the regime’s spurious claims about antisemitism at face value in heds and ledes.
011 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
Look forward to seeing this film. I took a class (“Political Economy of Inequality”) from @rbreich.bsky.social at Berkeley, and it was a highlight of my time there.
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Fun, and disturbingly prophetic: an op-ed cobbled from Twain's actual writing. Highlight: "Here in our democracy we are cheering a thing which of all things is most foreign to it. ... This is patriotism on the Russian plan." www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...
sfchronicle.com
Mark Twain on ‘idiot’ politicians and our current predicament
"We are by long odds the most ill-mannered nation, civilized or savage, that exists on the planet today. Our president stands for us like a colossal monument."
020 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Okay, then! The big fascist guns are coming out, and it should be nigh impossible for any part of civil society to proceed as if it will be safe from their fire.
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Per usual, it’s worth sticking a pin in this messaging guidance from @anatosaurus.bsky.social. I’d add (and I hope she wouldn’t disagree) that the language of “no kings, no dictatorship” fits this model.
000 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
I envision the tapping of a rich new vein of sign messaging material at future #TeslaTakedown events. “Hey, Elon, go back to your compound.” “Your family is WEIRD. Leave our families alone.” That sort of thing.
010 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Yes, this is so very apt. As a default stance, liberals should respect the privacy of people’s private lives. But Musk is conducting his family life as an explicitly political project—a creepy, authoritarian, natalist project at that. As always, extreme misogyny is a strong predictor of fascism.
010 0
Thaddeus @democracywork.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
It’s a great point! Recognizing that the regime is failing to provide even Stalinist-level legal process clarifies the enormity of it all. That said, this particular kind of tyranny reflects the fact that the regime has not yet fully corrupted the judicial system.
020 0