In their recent New York Times essay, Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt argue that the United States has crossed over into a form of competitive authoritarianism, a system that may have elections but in which dissent is costly and the playing field is tilted against the opposition. Civil rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill has long sounded the alarm about the “grave crisis of democracy” in the United States, due to the influence of racism and the erosion of the rule of law. They all cite the importance of civic engagement and “getting off the sidelines” in confronting authoritarianism. But how have people in this country and globally turned around autocratic systems? Often, it’s been through broad democratic fronts and collective mass action.

Iconic pro-democracy movements include the U.S. civil rights movement, the Polish Solidarity movement, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, and the “No” campaign that ousted Augusto Pinochet in Chile. More recent examples are the successful civic uprisings against autocratic leaders in Brazil (where the slide to autocracy under President Jair Bolsonaro was stopped), South Korea (where an autocratic President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and removed from power), and Serbia (where a corrupt Prime Minister Milos Vucevic was removed, though the democratic turn-around remains incomplete). All featured these key elements:

• Sustained mass participation by diverse groups and sectors in society.
• Tactical innovation including the use of organized noncooperation, like boycotts and strikes, that directly remove a regime’s sources of power.
• Defections within key pillars upholding authoritarian regimes like businesses, religious organizations, unions, professional associations, bureaucracies, and security forces.
• Resilience and discipline in the face of rising repression.

[...]Civil resistance “works” by raising the costs of tyranny and systematically removing the sources of power for an autocrat and his enablers. All authoritarian regimes rely on support from key institutions in society, including political parties, businesses, unions, religious organizations, bureaucracies, courts, media outlets, and security forces. When members of these pillars stop cooperating with the regime – workers deny their labor and skills, businesses withhold financial contributions, bureaucrats do things slowly or ineffectively, faith organizations stop providing moral approval, soldiers defy orders to use violence against protestors – it becomes difficult or impossible for autocrats to stay in power.

That explains why organized noncooperation by key pillars is so key to the success of pro-democracy movements. In South Korea last year, mass action by key sectors played a critical role in stopping an attempted coup. Actions included the Confederation of Trade Unions, which threatened an indefinite general strike unless President Yoon Suk Yeol lifted martial law, then launched sector-specific, time-bound strikes and walk-outs by cafeteria workers and others.

‘I think what Trumpism is about, is an understanding that the system in America is not working for working-class people,” says Bernie Sanders, sitting in the Guardian’s offices in London. “In a phoney, hypocritical way, Trump has tapped into that. His quote-unquote ‘solutions’ will only make a bad situation worse.”

In person, Sanders’ 83 years read differently than in photograph, perhaps because of how conversational he is. His voice is magnetic – a Brooklyn accent that feels both warm and tough. “But what I have been aware of, and I’ve talked about it for years, is that in America, the very richest people are doing phenomenally well, while 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck.”

Later, he will say the same thing to an audience in London – only with more emphasis and passion. “Sixty per cent. Six-zero. Do you know what paycheck to paycheck means?” It’s exhilarating to hear Sanders speak to a crowd: his zeal is reflected back in their faces, his moral clarity is such a relief, set against the cynicism and resignation of most of the Democratic party’s opposition to Trump and his administration. Class war is as old as time, but it’s a peculiarity of this age that you rarely hear a politician name it. “I do,” he tells me. “There is a class war going on. The people on top are waging that war.”

A reminder to support your local public broadcast station, and of Mr. Rogers testifying before Congress (and actually making a conservative switch stances - that won't happen today)

One week ago, Emerson College released their latest survey of the Democratic Primary for New York City Mayor.

The poll showed insurgent Zohran Mamdani (22.7%) trailing heavy favorite Andrew Cuomo (35.1%) by only twelve percent in the first round of voting, before ultimately falling short in the final round (following the ranked-choice simulation) by a margin of 54.6% to 46.4%.

The remainder of the survey was far less noteworthy: Comptroller Brad Lander returned to double-digits (10.5%) for the first time since February, Scott Stringer scraped his way to nine-percent, with City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (8.3%) rounding out the top-five. All in all, the race’s multi-month trajectory had barely changed: Cuomo hovered in the mid-thirties (Tier I), Mamdani stormed into the twenties (Tier II), while everyone else remained far behind (Tier III). Nonetheless, this marked the closest survey of the entire campaign, with topline dynamics mirroring an internal poll released by Mamdani’s campaign earlier in the week.

For a brief moment, Andrew Cuomo was no longer inevitable.

Was the close margin an outlier? Or a sign of things to come?

I'm not going to include an excerpt here, because the whole thing is batshit. But the main takeaway is turning it into a slick, Faux News-style video for his viewing pleasure, as he doesn't like to read.

archive.is link

As part of a sweeping reorganization of the State Department, the Trump administration is creating an Office of Remigration. Remigration is an immigration policy embraced by extremists that calls for the removal of all migrants—including “non-assimilated” citizens—with the goal of creating white ethnostates in Western countries.

The details of the plan are contained in a 136-page notification document sent by the State Department to six Congressional commitees—including the House Foreign Affairs and Appropriations Committees and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—for approval by July 1, according to a copy reviewed by WIRED.

“The Office of Remigration will serve as the [Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration]’s hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking,” the document reads. “It will provide a policy platform for interagency coordination with DHS and other agencies on removals/repatriations, and for intra-agency policy work to advance the President’s immigration agenda.”

The notification says that the Office of Remigration “will also actively facilitate the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin or legal status,” which is a key aim of remigration ideology.

The document, which was first reported on by Reuters and The Handbasket, also outlines dramatic changes to the US diplomatic services, including the elimination of much of the Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Bureau, and the addition of a new deputy assistant secretary position to oversee “Democracy and Western Values.”

WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

Attest.

CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.

https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/resources/text

Earlier this month, I testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on the subject of antisemitism on campus. This was the eighth such hearing the Republican-led committee has held in two years. The first, as many will recall, featured the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT—and ultimately led to the presidents of Harvard and Penn losing their jobs. The committee is still at it. But like a reality-television show that has gone on far too long, the hearings, never particularly edifying, are now dominated by tired tropes. The moment it became clear that the hearings had jumped the shark came when Representative Rick Allen (R-GA) offered a biblical exegesis:

“Jerusalem is the center of the universe. A lot of people think Washington is, but, uh, that’s where it’s gonna happen. Uh, and of course, uh, you know, for those who are familiar with the, the Bible, a book of, uh, of, uh, the word of God, uh, uh, Genesis 12:3 states, ‘I’ll bless those who bless you,’ talking about Israel and whoever curses you, I’ll, I’ll curse.… In fact, in John 4:22, Jesus said, salvation, even for Gentiles will come through the Jews. And so, Dr. Paul, you know, this is a serious, serious issue we’re talking about. In fact, it has eternal consequences.”

By “Dr. Paul,” he apparently meant the president of DePaul University, Robert Manuel. Dr. Manuel had been called, along with the presidents of Haverford College and California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, to testify about, in the committees’ words antisemitism “beyond the Ivy League.” I was invited by the Democrats to provide some legal perspective.

More bread, less circus, please.

If enacted, Donald Trump’s Big Ugly Bill as it emerged on Thursday from the House of Representatives would result in the largest redistribution of income and wealth in American history – from the poor and working class to the rich.

Hidden within the bill is also a provision that would allow Trump to crown himself king.

For months now, Trump has been trying to act like a king by ignoring court rulings against him.

I really thought we'd make it to 250 as a country. I'd like to say it was nice while it lasted, but the more you learn about our history, the less that's true.