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Nick Mortensen @nickmortensen.com · 14h

Jack Smith testified in front of the Senate yesterday & it was televised. 2 takeaways from the Jack Smith testimony, according to the media: 1. Missouri Sen. f*cks up & doubles down - could he be JD Vance’s VP pick in 2028? 2. Alabama Senator watches #1 in horror w/mouth agape. We zoom in!

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That makes sense. Perhaps it is living in the cold confines of Green Bay, WI -- but I've never encountered anyone with a pet snake. I suspect they'd be more cokeheads than stoners.

Next week we'll get to that. This week we're talking Netanyahu at the UN, my pursuit of the world's greatest pants, & the fact that Craig has exclusively carried around a Devo-themed Tyvek Wallet for upwards of 20 years.

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The episode I wrote was Dr. Craig (@cajohnson-craig.bsky.social) & I going through Stanton's "10 Steps of Genocide" to see how many of those matched up with what's happening in Gaza. Then I was going to do a sweet pivot into discussing the 2nd edition of the book "Unhumans" & intro to Jack Posobiec

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Autocratic Despair: The Podcast

No ads. No requests for listener sponsorship. If we were optimizing for that algorithms -- I'd never shoehorn a lengthy aside about how I almost achieved peak dad this weekend when I nearly bought a pair of pants at the Home Depot. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

podcasts.apple.com

Society & Culture Podcast · Stare into the abyss of the United States' descent into Authoritarianism with a truly funny comedian from Green Bay, WI and a very serious PHD in Global Fascism Studies fro...

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Last week's "Autocratic Despair: The Podcast" established a new high for first 7 day downloads. Improving on the previous high (from the week before) by 15%. We only advertise through our BlueSky feeds, so do us a solid and repost this, will you? I'll attach a link.

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She does add a nice new layer of animus to the Curtis Yarvin “older cousin who smokes weed and makes you uncomfortable” archetype, but the better reptile for this scenario is an Iguana. Seen a lot of people pulling tubes / blowing smoke in their iguana’s face in my time.

I spend a lot of time trying to quanitify how bad things are, so it pains me to say that it is so far beyond fucked up that we would allow the word "Remigration" into our vernacular without a massive demonstration against it. Demoralizing doesn't begin to capture it. I can't believe I missed it

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The True Texas Project is Our AfD & It's Taken Over Fort Worth

I don't know of any podcast that so regularly discusses the term "Remigration" as "Autocratic Despair: The Podcast", so I am sad that I missed that Miller is actually calling it an "Office of Remigration". Talked about the word at length in this episode: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

podcasts.apple.com

Podcast Episode · Autocratic Despair: The Podcast · September 10 · 1h 3m

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Most of your favorite characters from the Progressive and Democratic Socialist universe can be tied to the Singham Network in 3 or less hops. Just putting that out there so nobody is shocked when it happens.

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That’s a great way to sum it up. Most of us know that the legal system is barely a charade, but I never realized how much I respected the effort it made to obfuscate that until I learned about this.

Never ceases to amaze me that calling someone a “pussy” as an adult is a shot-for-shot remake of calling them a “scaredy cat” in 3rd grade.

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None of us are obligated in any way, shape, or form to have an opinion on Pat McAfee. Free yourself from this burden.

Did I share my conspiracy theory about the WWE's Danhausen being a psyop on our children so that all of Peter Thiel's creepy mannerisms will read as "madcap"? Why, yes I did. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

peter theirl says evil can be kind of good

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Naomi Klein’s ‘Doppelgänger’ book about being constantly mistaken for Naomi Wolf had some fascinating turns, digressions, & meditations. No brainer to use a credit on Audible to purchase this one. Yet to start it, but I look forward to it.

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Both Empower Field and Ball Arena are Jones Sports projects, if you’re watching football tonight and wondering who did all that signage. Never gets old pointing this stuff out. Should’ve a while ago, but it does not.

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Do you guys think there are actually any people out there living their lives like they would have us believe the people who use Facebook’s ‘Muse’ A.I.? There’s gotta be a couple of people, right? 335 million people in this country, surely there are at least a few of every person. Right?

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I’m reminded that some 100 years ago, there was a candidate that smeared his opponent by calling him a “thespian” and a “homo sapien” during the campaign. May have been other words as well, but you get it - words that sounded like words that simple folk would actually know and dislike.

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The Republicans in Texas know that this is a craven & cynical demonstration of their disrespect for their base of voters — but they also know that their base lacks the sophistication to understand the depth of the offense and the temperament to allow anyone to explain it to them.

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This isn’t some mid-July “throw shit at the wall & see what sticks campaign advertisement. They focus-grouped this messaging. This is what they KNOW will work. Not only do they know it will work for them against Talarico in Texas.

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I can hardly pretend to be shocked at the stupidity of Evangelical Christians when it comes to understanding Christianity. I am gobsmacked, however, that Republicans candidates are cynical enough to know that they can bank on it.

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Paxton has an attack ad running right now that features an A.I. Talarico admitting that he said that “God wasn’t Christian”.

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Paxton’s ex-wife is telling people in Texas that they should “Vote Republican even if you are mad at them.” Tantamount to endorsing her ex-husband. Who she divorced on Biblical grounds.

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Ever see a rockabilly Grandpa? It’s grim. At what do you going to judge yourself for not updating your look? Related: Gave some real consideration to buying a pair of pants at Home Depot yesterday. Milwaukee brand. Only reason I didn’t was That it seemed too ‘Dad’ to me - a father of 3

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Musk has killed hundreds of thousands. Not with his bare hands, sure. But about as close to ‘directly responsible for their death’ as it gets without actually stabbing them to death. What’s the equivalent? Say it’s “2000 deaths responsible for” = 1 “actual murder”. The man’s a butcher.

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I think this collective moment we’re about to have where we all point & laugh at Elon Musk won’t work. He’s capable of masking by being self-deprecating & that’ll be the only logical way to approach it if that doc comes out. We should be afraid of this guy. Anything less is denying reality 1/2

Was a time when he was a principled newsman. I suspect he’ll be one of the personalities to stick around in order to “fight the good fight” when Bari Weiss takes over CNN.

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Came in at a tight 35 minutes, too. We talked the AfD election performance in a couple German elections, the Paul brothers, Gen Z mustache sincerity, & Trump accusing the Democrats of being behind the Butler assassination attempt — how it barely registered as a ‘New Low’, but almost certainly was.

5th consecutive week, “Autocratic Despair: The Podcast” has an all-time high in first 7 day downloads. Dr. Craig @cajohnson-craig.bsky.social stuck both the cold open and the landing this week. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/autoc…

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Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

When despots feel their grip loosening, the loyalty tests become more frequent.

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Reposted by Nick Mortensen

Netanyahu directly attacks Zohran Mamdani (and his wife) from the UNGA podium, calling him the "antisemitic mayor of New York City," parroting The Free Press's stories about Rama Duwaji, tying Mamdani to Hasan Piker, and claiming the mayor is "buddies" with Hamas.

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Reposted by Nick Mortensen

mrspanstreppon @jamiepeppard.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I read this article about Oracle claiming force majeure on Project Jupiter, a proposed $22B data center in New Mexico that has stalled over permitting etc. I would think those issues should have been resolved first. www.krwg.org/krwg-news/20...

krwg.org

Oracle cites 'force majeure' on Project Jupiter, seeking protection from loan debt

Abigail Salas speaks with NMSU Economics Professor Dr. Chris Erickson about the state of Oracle's $18 billion loan.

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You’re right, but since I started doing the Autocratic Despair podcast I have been pretty conscious of defamatory remarks. As far as I know, Swisher never knew what Epstein was up to when she ran in his circles. I don’t believe that, I believe what Xeni Jardin said about her, but what do I know?

My house just got bumrushed by a bunch of 15 year-old girls. Scavenger hunt for the local high school homecoming. Hope that means I’m a guy who reads as “adult & safe” but I don’t know because kids are so goddamn stupid now they may not even know they need to make that assessment at all.

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Still staggering that all these great minds are putting their thoughts out in written form. The readers are already convinced. It’s the non-readers they need to connect with.

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I sure do not think it is a good thing that 90% of the most legitimate thinkers & writers about our current slide into Authoritarianism are using Substack as their platform. Seems like a mistake. Would be good for them to parallel publish on a different platform less problematic than Substack.

Dr. Craig - @cajohnson-craig.bsky.social & I looked at the attempted assassination of Trump at a Butler, PA campaign rally in summer 2024. No conspiracy theories. It is weird, though. Invites them podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/autoc…

I have been thinking about QAnon lately & how many people were desperate to play that mixed-reality game without understanding what they were getting themselves into. This kind of seems like that, on a micro scale. Especially the people unwilling to believe her when she tells them the truth.

I’m looking forward to discovering Trump was a “longtime subscriber to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter” if you know what I mean. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/autoc…

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Are we talking Kara Swisher here? Is invoking her name going to get you in trouble? Are people going to post photos of her at all those Edge Foundation dinners in a way that’ll insinuate she was friendly with Jeff Epstein way back before he started doing terrible things?

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If this dude cared at all, he’d have spent the last year getting jacked. You know the dude understands what works and what doesn’t in short-form video. If he doesn’t, he’d have had to have been avoiding the data. It’s not the content, it’s the presentation. This is bad presentation.

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Holy shit is Sexton cooking in this thread! Some superfan or TikTok go-getter ought to turn this into a short form video.

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Gratifying to see Jared discussing some of the topics @cajohnson-craig.bsky.social have been diving into over at “Autocratic Despair: The Podcast”. Tells me that we are on the right track. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/autoc…

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Craig & I felt like it was worth doing a deep dive on the Tucker Carlson thing a few weeks ago & did we ever. I’d link it, but it’d be bad form. Last week we talked controlled opposition. Incredibly glad you are using your platform to discuss it here. People need to understand it.

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I appreciate the Green Bay Packers giving me a heads up that I don’t have to be emotionally involved with the team this season. I’m not calling for any firings. The Parsons trade was a big balls move that hinged on him being in the lineup for a whole season.

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