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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://plus.flux.community/p/republicans-treat-politics-like-viral"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://www.allrisenews.com/p/skadden-students-georgetown"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-logic-of-destruction"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/making-microbes-great-again"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/path-american-authoritarianism-trump"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/donald-trump-white-house-strategery"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://theness.com/neurologicablog/who-believes-misinformation/"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://www.thenerdreich.com/"/>
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  </channel><item rdf:about="https://www.wweek.com/news/2026/05/20/this-scholar-takes-oregons-universal-health-care-dreams-seriously-should-we/">
    <title>This Scholar Takes Oregon’s Universal Health Care Dreams Seriously. Should We?</title>
    <dc:date>2026-06-24T21:17:24+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.wweek.com/news/2026/05/20/this-scholar-takes-oregons-universal-health-care-dreams-seriously-should-we/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>health healthcare policy politics government usa hope inspiration inspiring america</dc:subject>
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<item rdf:about="https://www.thebulwark.com/p/heres-what-i-told-the-dnc-autopsy-biden-harris-2024-lessons-democrats-2028">
    <title>Here’s What I Told the DNC Autopsy</title>
    <dc:date>2026-06-18T12:42:37+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.thebulwark.com/p/heres-what-i-told-the-dnc-autopsy-biden-harris-2024-lessons-democrats-2028</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Social Media’s Dead. You Need an Ecosystem, Not Just Content.

Social media is basically over; the friend-to-friend conversations have largely moved underground to texts, Snaps, and DMs. What’s left is a series of endless, personalized feeds that filter you into interest-based niches. You’re watching content or chatting with your friends.

Meanwhile, political ads are predicated on the idea of a captive audience. But there are no captive audiences anymore—even if people are forced to play an ad, they’re not forced to watch it because they often have a second screen.

The implications here are clear: You need a lot of content in a lot of places with a lot of different angles that come from a lot of different people. You just can’t command and control at the scale of a presidential campaign.

Campaigns should be thinking about how to empower staff to create content that people want to consume. But even if you have attractive content, you need an ecosystem to keep people engaged: unbranded fan accounts, clipping accounts, and teams of clippers located in states. Arby’s built out a content series with guys doing stunts at Arby’s. Bissell built a single-purpose TikTok that just shows their tools for cleaning cars. Campaigns should take note. We need to get creative.]]></description>
<dc:subject>political politics media digital tech technology internet socialmedia ai</dc:subject>
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<item rdf:about="https://www.againstallenemies.net/p/the-dead-and-the-dying">
    <title>The Dead and The Dying - Rick Wilson’s Against All Enemies</title>
    <dc:date>2026-04-04T12:52:05+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.againstallenemies.net/p/the-dead-and-the-dying</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[[T]he men behind Trump, Orban, and Putin aren't going away.  The systems that they built to win and hold power aren't going away.  The greed, mania, and will to control aren't going away.

Unless people are willing to truly fight for freedom and democracy to utterly and finally break the systems and the men who put them there, more will arise, powered by money and tech that makes today's systems look primitive.]]></description>
<dc:subject>hope inspiration rightwing fascism politics political systems system</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:577d03303427/</dc:identifier>
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<item rdf:about="https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-with-erica-chenoweth?publication_id=277517&amp;post_id=177055120&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=102rj&amp;triedRedirect=true">
    <title>Talking With Erica Chenoweth - Paul Krugman</title>
    <dc:date>2025-10-26T13:07:03+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-with-erica-chenoweth?publication_id=277517&amp;post_id=177055120&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=102rj&amp;triedRedirect=true</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[I had a conversation with my colleague Steve Levitsky about this on Monday on a webinar that we did, and I asked him this question, “where would you put us right now?” He said, “there’s no precedent for where we are.” I think I largely agree with him because here’s what we’re dealing with: we are in a global period where we’ve seen around the world a democratic recession year over year for every year in the past 17 or 18 years in a row, there have been fewer democracies and more autocracies and hybrid regimes in the world and last year was a pretty big jump in that because the year 2024 was the year of elections around the world. For the first time in world history, in every election and in every established democracy in the world, the incumbent lost vote share. It’s not always the right that lost vote share, the left. But for the most part, this elevated or empowered far right parties around the world. We’re part of that trend.

But we also in the United States have our own historical experience of racial authoritarianism, in the country that we’ve inherited, but has arguably never actually been implemented and consolidated to this degree from the federal level. It’s always been a regional phenomenon in terms of the way that it was institutionalized under Jim Crow, etc. But the federal government at best was an enabler of it, and at times was an opponent of it and in fact has tried to help to dismantle it in the 60s. We’re now at a place that I think the country arguably has never been before, which is to say that that particular version of the country’s authoritarianism has captured the arms of the federal power, and is seemingly not respecting federalism in the same way that one might have expected. So I agree with you that Hungary is not the best reference point. I also think our own history, unfortunately, doesn’t even provide the best reference point because of the scale, scope, and speed of what’s happening.

This is just to say, I think that where we are in kind of uncharted territory, I also think the fundamentals of what we know about how to arrest backsliding probably remain the same. I also believe that the United States has everything, our population has all of the ingredients to do what many other populations around the world have been doing and what people in our country have done in the past which is to build and strengthen the civil society response to what’s happening, to uphold the institutions that need upholding, and to renew and improve the institutions that need renewal and improvement without bloodshed. I truly believe that we have the capacity to do that. It’s up to us to decide whether we can organize ourselves to deliver on that.]]></description>
<dc:subject>fascism political politics activism hope future rightwing democracy inspiration inspiring analysis usa world government</dc:subject>
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<item rdf:about="https://bsky.app/profile/walkerbragman.bsky.social/post/3lxi57ee3j22s">
    <title>Post by @walkerbragman.bsky.social — Bluesky</title>
    <dc:date>2025-08-29T12:21:53+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://bsky.app/profile/walkerbragman.bsky.social/post/3lxi57ee3j22s</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[The right has like, a soup worldview. Anything goes in the pot so long as it erodes demand for and trust in government. 

Believe one part of it, you’ll eventually have to accept the others to stay relevant with the right. Even if it’s contradictory and the sum of the parts doesn’t make sense.]]></description>
<dc:subject>political vaccine science health politics rightwing</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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<item rdf:about="https://x.com/AmoneyResists/status/1960603496539201741">
    <title>Andrew—#IAmTheResistance—Wortman on X: &quot;Trump’s 2AM meltdowns and dictator cosplay aren’t part of a predetermined strategy — they’re collapse. A malignant narcissist, weak and unhealthy, colliding with the one thing he can’t escape: DEATH. A</title>
    <dc:date>2025-08-28T13:57:25+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://x.com/AmoneyResists/status/1960603496539201741</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Trump’s 2AM meltdowns and dictator cosplay aren’t part of a predetermined strategy — they’re collapse. A malignant narcissist, weak and unhealthy, colliding with the one thing he can’t escape: DEATH. And his team knows it, which is why they’re going full-fascist now.  THREAD]]></description>
<dc:subject>government mind brain psychology health political politics world aging</dc:subject>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:aging"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/on-not-surrendering-in-advance-or-during-or-at-any-point-thereafter/">
    <title>On Not Surrendering in Advance (Or At Any Point Thereafter)</title>
    <dc:date>2025-08-25T13:59:21+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/on-not-surrendering-in-advance-or-during-or-at-any-point-thereafter/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[It would have been outrageous of Havel at this point to believe that he could within a few years help topple the Czech regime and become its first president after doing so. And then he did. Don't let what you do be limited by what you assume is possible – what you do has to be governed by common sense and wisdom but those sometimes tell us to not assume we know the limits. The first rule of the future is that no one quite knows what it will be, and major changes not uncommonly emerge from players who were not long before invisible, dismissed, derided.]]></description>
<dc:subject>activism protest political politics future hope inspiration inspiring fascism</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:b673d92b36d9/</dc:identifier>
<taxo:topics><rdf:Bag>	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:activism"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:protest"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:political"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:future"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:hope"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:inspiration"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:inspiring"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:fascism"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://terrymoran.substack.com/p/the-media-and-our-autocratic-presidency">
    <title>The Media and Our Autocratic Presidency</title>
    <dc:date>2025-08-22T18:29:53+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://terrymoran.substack.com/p/the-media-and-our-autocratic-presidency</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[These are the facts. The truth. But mainstream media cannot say it. That is a problem.

There are two reasons for this paralysis in the fourth estate. One is silly, the other is sad.

Silly: Mainstream news organizations are paranoid about being accused of bias by right-wingers. The Trumpist media and its allied politicos have developed an industry of outrage at what they constantly claim is bias in the mainstream media. There is, indeed, some to be found. As I said here recently, the lack of viewpoint diversity in the old media has led to missed stories, unheard voices. But the Trumpist bias police are laughably one-sided. Newsmax is a billion times more biased than anything mainstream media ever did. Fox News, too. And the ONAN network or whatever it is. The right-wing media critics aren’t serious. They don’t want unbiased news. They want news that flatters their biases. Period.

Sad: Telling the truth about Trump has been determined by corporate America to be bad for business. The enormous powers of the presidency and executive branch in the hands of Trump can wreak havoc on even the most powerful American corporations. This has led to abject corporate surrender. The lesson Americans have learned in the the last few months: the corporations will always knuckle under.

Our country has never faced a challenge like this. The only way out of it is the way of truth. Tell it. First to yourself. Then to others. Truth-telling can be contagious. Who knows, one day you might hear it on TV.]]></description>
<dc:subject>media political fascism politics rightwing press journalism usa government</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:8fa837ab9135/</dc:identifier>
<taxo:topics><rdf:Bag>	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:media"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:political"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:fascism"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:politics"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:rightwing"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:press"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:journalism"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:usa"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:government"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/02/self-termination-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse?ref=organizingmythoughts.org">
    <title>‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse | Environment | The Guardian</title>
    <dc:date>2025-08-21T23:07:11+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/02/self-termination-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse?ref=organizingmythoughts.org</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[All Goliaths, however, contain the seeds of their own demise, he says: “They are cursed and this is because of inequality.” Inequality does not arise because all people are greedy. They are not, he says. The Khoisan peoples in southern Africa, for example, shared and preserved common lands for thousands of years despite the temptation to grab more.

Instead, it is the few people high in the dark triad who fall into races for resources, arms and status, he says. “Then as elites extract more wealth from the people and the land, they make societies more fragile, leading to infighting, corruption, immiseration of the masses, less healthy people, overexpansion, environmental degradation and poor decision making by a small oligarchy. The hollowed-out shell of a society is eventually cracked asunder by shocks such as disease, war or climate change.”

History shows that increasing wealth inequality consistently precedes collapse, says Kemp, from the Classical Lowland Maya to the Han dynasty in China and the Western Roman empire. He also points out that for the citizens of early rapacious regimes, collapse often improved their lives because they were freed from domination and taxation and returned to farming. “After the fall of Rome, people actually got taller and healthier,” he says.

---

“First and foremost, you need to create genuine democratic societies to level all the forms of power that lead to Goliaths,” he says. That means running societies through citizen assemblies and juries, aided by digital technologies to enable direct democracy at large scales. History shows that more democratic societies tend to be more resilient, he says.

“If you’d had a citizens’ jury sitting over the [fossil fuel companies] when they discovered how much damage and death their products would cause, do you think they would have said: ‘Yes, go ahead, bury the information and run disinformation campaigns’? Of course not,” Kemp says.]]></description>
<dc:subject>science history collapse democracy economy economics parecon political politics future hope</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:a35070aace88/</dc:identifier>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:collapse"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:democracy"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:economy"/>
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</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-mothership-vortex-an-investigation">
    <title>The Mothership Vortex: An Investigation Into the Firm at the Heart of the Democratic Spam Machine</title>
    <dc:date>2025-08-20T22:32:49+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-mothership-vortex-an-investigation</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[After subtracting these massive operational costs—the payments to Mothership, the fees for texting services, the cost of digital ads and list rentals—the final sum delivered to candidates and committees is vanishingly small. My analysis of the network's FEC disbursements reveals that, at most, $11 million of the $678 million raised from individuals has made its way to candidates, campaigns, or the national party committees.

But here's the number that should end all debate:

This represents a fundraising efficiency rate of just 1.6 percent.

Here's what that number means: for every dollar a grandmother in Iowa donates believing she's saving democracy, 98 cents goes to consultants and o]]></description>
<dc:subject>corruption democrats democracy election money data politics political elections usa government text cellphone</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:96d35377fef1/</dc:identifier>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:democrats"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:democracy"/>
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</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://politicsrights.com/the-hidden-fragility-of-authoritarian-regimes/">
    <title>The Hidden Fragility of Authoritarian Regimes</title>
    <dc:date>2025-08-13T19:32:47+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://politicsrights.com/the-hidden-fragility-of-authoritarian-regimes/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[While the frailties of democracy occupy scholarly debates, comparatively less scholarly focus is devoted to a longstanding question that confronts those living under authoritarian regimes—how do dictatorships end?

Given the focus on democratic vulnerabilities and the comparatively modest attention paid to the mechanics of dictatorship dissolution, this article delves into the various factors and strategies that contribute to the downfall of authoritarian regimes. As it will show, the means to end a dictatorship can come both from within the regime’s internal power dynamics and from external pressures, including international influence and grassroots mobilization.]]></description>
<dc:subject>psychology political politics science research</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:3dfaf1d04619/</dc:identifier>
<taxo:topics><rdf:Bag>	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:psychology"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:political"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:politics"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:science"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:research"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://plus.flux.community/p/republicans-treat-politics-like-viral">
    <title>Republicans treat politics like viral marketing, Democrats don’t</title>
    <dc:date>2025-07-29T09:10:26+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://plus.flux.community/p/republicans-treat-politics-like-viral</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Trump's been saying the same thing for 10 years.

The immigrants are coming to, to kill you and take your jobs. And, and the Democrats are, they're trying to make all your children transgender, and, transgender communists who, worship black people or something like that. That's the message. They've had the same message for 10 years. I think the democratic leadership class and consultant class, they look at that and they just roll their eyes at it instead of realizing, actually that's extremely effective. So you can think it's dumb and you can think that, it's manipulative or whatever. whatever you want to think about it.

But you know what, it, it works because a lot of people don't pay attention. And so if you have to repeat yourself a lot.]]></description>
<dc:subject>politics political analysis podcast republican republicans rightwing democrats usa government election elections media viral marketing</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:0d6350d52230/</dc:identifier>
<taxo:topics><rdf:Bag>	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:politics"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:republican"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:rightwing"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:usa"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:election"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:elections"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:viral"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:marketing"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://fictiongutted.substack.com/p/the-arevolutionary-in-lit?publication_id=2623937&amp;post_id=168566950&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=102rj&amp;triedRedirect=true">
    <title>The Arevolutionary In Lit - by Tony Christini</title>
    <dc:date>2025-07-28T20:18:03+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://fictiongutted.substack.com/p/the-arevolutionary-in-lit?publication_id=2623937&amp;post_id=168566950&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=102rj&amp;triedRedirect=true</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[The rise of the people's media, which is social media at its best, has pushed back on plutocrat ideology and control somewhat, but the heavy hand of the plutocracy still exerts a lot of deadening control over publishing and distribution, visibility and mindsets, including over social media, which is what the most lively and liberatory lit struggles to fend off, escape, and overcome.

There is a constant struggle for human realization both within literature and without, and thus a real need for what might be thought of as resistance literature, let alone revolutionary literature, to fight against the mountains of dreck, vacuous, and retrograde lit — to fight against and dispel the arevolutionary.

We need to make our literature and our lives new and liberatory, rather than merely rehash what we already know and suffer from. Our stories, like our lives, should resist, transcend, and overcome ideally. We need to create an increasingly liberatory culture to vanquish the existing conquered, brainwashed, and destructive terminal one. Out with the arevolutionary. Up with the revolutionary in lit and life.]]></description>
<dc:subject>literature lit book books revolution political politics activism protest inspiration inspiring hope future fiction story stories</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:188ded7ec8fd/</dc:identifier>
<taxo:topics><rdf:Bag>	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:literature"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:lit"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:book"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:books"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:revolution"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:political"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:politics"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:activism"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:protest"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:inspiration"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:inspiring"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:fiction"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:stories"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/22/democratic-resistance-trump">
    <title>I study the resistance against the Nazis. Here’s what the US left can learn from it | Luke Berryman | The Guardian</title>
    <dc:date>2025-06-30T21:48:09+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/22/democratic-resistance-trump</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Like every far-right leader in history, Donald Trump has intoxicated his supporters with nostalgia for a past that never existed in order to push a corrupt and hateful agenda of his own. Eventually, many will realize that he’s lied to them. Perhaps they’ll lose their jobs because of his economic policies, or see law-abiding friends and family deported because of his immigration policies. Perhaps their children will suffer from measles because of his health policies. Whatever the case, when their moment of realization comes, we must be ready to embrace them, and to weep with them for what they’ve lost. If there’s one thing that I learned while writing my book, it’s that effective resistance to the far right is never just about defeating the enemy. It’s about creating a better future for everyone.]]></description>
<dc:subject>future hope inspiration inspiring history politics political left activism parecon</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:f10b0709dc04/</dc:identifier>
<taxo:topics><rdf:Bag>	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:future"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:hope"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:inspiration"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:inspiring"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:history"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:parecon"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://newrepublic.com/article/196176/trump-billionaires-america-wealth-inequality">
    <title>How the Billionaires Took Over America | The New Republic</title>
    <dc:date>2025-06-21T15:25:53+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://newrepublic.com/article/196176/trump-billionaires-america-wealth-inequality</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[The oligarch Donald Trump, in auctioning himself and American government to the highest bidder, may well match or surpass the stew of corruption that Washington created during the Gilded Age. That’s on him. But it’s on the rest of us that over 50 years, through economic policies that coddled the rich under both Democrats and Republicans, American wealth concentrated to such a degree that a Trump presidency—make that two Trump presidencies—was not only possible, but perhaps inevitable.

We have the power to stop, through more sensible tax and regulatory policies and a resurgence of union organizing, the torrent of wealth flowing upward to billionaires. I worry a lot about what will happen if we don’t act soon. Many people fear an abrupt end to democracy under Trump. I don’t, especially. What I do fear, though, is that unless we find a way to correct the wealth-based power imbalance that gave us Trump in the first place, our democracy will flicker out more gradually. To paraphrase Louis Brandeis: We can keep our democracy, or we can hatch our first trillionaire. We really can’t do both.]]></description>
<dc:subject>policy government market markets corporation corporate corporations history economy economics political politics activism money parecon</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:198068bc24bd/</dc:identifier>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:market"/>
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</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.yesmagazine.org/political-power/2025/05/30/ferocious-hope-messages-global-south">
    <title>Global South Activists Offer Hopeful Tips for Facing Political Turmoil</title>
    <dc:date>2025-06-10T19:00:16+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.yesmagazine.org/political-power/2025/05/30/ferocious-hope-messages-global-south</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>tip tips advice reference useful hope future activism protest history political politics</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:463e1f1cf956/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.thebulwark.com/p/whataboutism-is-rotting-our-brains-consciences-politics-trump">
    <title>Whataboutism Is Rotting Our Brains, Our Consciences, and Our Politics</title>
    <dc:date>2025-06-05T22:06:43+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.thebulwark.com/p/whataboutism-is-rotting-our-brains-consciences-politics-trump</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[We must disenthrall ourselves from the whataboutism mindset. There are honorable politicians. There are honest businessmen. There are police and soldiers and teachers and programmers and athletes and judges of integrity. Millions of Americans are appalled and deeply embarrassed by the kakistocracy we’ve elevated. Hold on to that outrage. It’s the road back from this disaster.]]></description>
<dc:subject>psychology political politics rightwing gop protest activism</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://paultshattuck.substack.com/p/stay-sane-80-tiny-moves-to-resist">
    <title>Stay Sane: 80 Tiny Moves to Resist Digital Despair and News Overwhelm in the Trump Era</title>
    <dc:date>2025-06-03T16:32:22+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://paultshattuck.substack.com/p/stay-sane-80-tiny-moves-to-resist</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>reference tip tips psychology news media advice politics political fascism inspiration inspiring</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://archive.ph/4uaT4#selection-413.61-484.0">
    <title>Science Tells Us the U.S. Is Heading toward a Dictatorship | Scientific American</title>
    <dc:date>2025-06-02T01:50:21+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://archive.ph/4uaT4#selection-413.61-484.0</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[“Since Donald Trump’s inauguration, the country has embarked on the slippery slope toward autocracy,” concludes political scientist Daniel Stockemer of the University of Ottawa, in a May report in Politics & Policy. Rather than a coup, Trump’s attacks on law firms, universities, immigrants and others constitute “a more incremental form of democratic erosion,” he writes, one that follows a six-step theory of incremental autocratization based on research on the democratic backsliding seen worldwide in recent decades. The model arose in major part from the work of political scientist Marianne Kneuer of the Dresden University of Technology. She looked at the last quarter-century’s collapse in Venezuela, examining how states turn from democratic to autocratic in stages, as opposed to a sudden coup.

The U.S. has already breached the first three steps of Stockemer’s theory. The first step is one of social turmoil; this originated with the Tea Party movement during the Obama administration. Marked by angry politics, backlash against minorities and immigrants, and distrust in institutions, the U.S. has in the last two decades changed from a “full” to a “flawed” democracy, according to the Economist’s global democracy index.

The second step requires a “project of radical change,” like the populist movement of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez in the 1990s, or in the U.S. case Trump’s MAGA movement, which defends white, male privileges and holds prime loyalty for many Republicans.

The third step is a “decisive electoral victory,” applicable to Chavez in 1999 or Trump in 2024, the latter a vote that also brought Trump control of a subservient Congress.
]]></description>
<dc:subject>political politics science research fascism</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/psychologist-how-to-stop-trump-narcissist_n_682df1cae4b09b7e5013a586">
    <title>I’m A Trauma Psychologist. Here’s How We Stop Trump. | HuffPost HuffPost Personal</title>
    <dc:date>2025-05-31T18:07:35+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.huffpost.com/entry/psychologist-how-to-stop-trump-narcissist_n_682df1cae4b09b7e5013a586</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[But anyone familiar with narcissistic abuse understands the deeper maneuver: Whether consciously or not, narcissists hold power by keeping others in a state of psychological whiplash. And it works.

At its core, emotional control is the narcissist’s primary goal: to protect a fragile sense of self-importance and entitlement by maintaining the grand illusion that supports it — without empathy for others. While it’s important to note that narcissistic pathology by no means equates to abuse, there are more aggressive versions that use confusion, despair and emotional bonds like loyalty to control how others think and feel, secure a constant flow of admiration or reactivity, shield themselves from shame and keep others attached — even against their best interests.]]></description>
<dc:subject>psychology government politics political mind brain health law legal constitution reference tip tips advice useful usa fascism</dc:subject>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.thefarce.org/why-donald-trump-is-so-scared-of-bruce-springsteen/">
    <title>Why Donald Trump is so scared of Bruce Springsteen</title>
    <dc:date>2025-05-26T16:32:47+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.thefarce.org/why-donald-trump-is-so-scared-of-bruce-springsteen/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[MAGA’s greatest advantage is that it came along after, or because, the Republican Party had spent generations building a culture of newslessness. 

The only “consensus” media left in America is the right-wing media, which controls all the big incentives and generally drives what gets covered in what’s left of real journalism. You can watch and listen to right-wing media all day and still be newsless. That’s the whole point.

Newspapers are pretty much done. Whole swaths of the country get their news from Sinclair or other GOP front groups. And the nihilism, contempt, and bigotry coursing through these stories either stimulate the worst instincts in the audience or turn them off entirely to politics—both are huge wins for Republicans.]]></description>
<dc:subject>media politics political gop rightwing republican republicans</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:8c98e484da8f/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://patricemersault.substack.com/p/the-great-maga-unraveling?triedRedirect=true">
    <title>THE GREAT MAGA UNRAVELING - Open Letters by Mersault</title>
    <dc:date>2025-05-26T16:09:11+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://patricemersault.substack.com/p/the-great-maga-unraveling?triedRedirect=true</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[This is your moment — not to gloat, but to guide. To protect what’s fragile. To rebuild what’s been broken. To welcome those waking up, not shame them for being late.

History remembers who lit the fire.
But it reveres those who kept it burning in the dark.]]></description>
<dc:subject>rightwing hope future inspiration inspiring political politics government usa</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/opinion/authoritarianism-democracy-protest.html">
    <title>Opinion | ‘Dictators Are Never as Strong as They Tell You They Are’ - The New York Times</title>
    <dc:date>2025-05-25T12:59:56+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/opinion/authoritarianism-democracy-protest.html</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[1. Humor
2. Highlight their corruption and mismanagement
3. “The Power of One”]]></description>
<dc:subject>activism protest reference useful list lists history inspiration inspiring political politics</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:656c60971701/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.everythingishorrible.net/p/trumps-incompetence-is-incredibly">
    <title>Trump’s Incompetence Is Incredibly Dangerous Part A Billion</title>
    <dc:date>2025-05-21T23:38:55+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.everythingishorrible.net/p/trumps-incompetence-is-incredibly</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[In any case, even authoritarians worry about popular approval, because if support falls to low they risk coups and mass protests and similar unpleasantness. And that’s even setting aside the obvious fact that when you target the health and welfare of the country you’re in, you can actually end up endangering yourself. Trump’s cavalier attitude towards Covid in his first term nearly killed him.

Trump is setting the US up for disaster, and undermining our defenses against financial collapse, pandemics, and weather events because he is a lazy fool who doesn’t understand and doesn’t care about basic cause and effect. Presidents generally try to reduce risks of serious disasters because those risks are their risks. They don’t want recessions because recessions hurt them politically; they don’t want inflation because inflation hurts them politically; they don’t want some sort of nightmarish pandemic for the same reason.]]></description>
<dc:subject>political politics reference usa government</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:e6e14dc3ed66/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/we-have-more-power-than-trump-wants-us-to-believe-heres-what-you-can-do/">
    <title>We Have More Power Than Trump Wants Us To Believe — Here's What You Can Do - Democracy Docket</title>
    <dc:date>2025-05-19T13:51:08+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/we-have-more-power-than-trump-wants-us-to-believe-heres-what-you-can-do/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Trump wants us to believe he is all-powerful. He wants us to believe that opposing him is futile or worse. He wants you to accept that there’s nothing you can do to limit his ability to harm our country and our democracy. But that simply isn’t true.

In truth, Trump is quite weak and afraid.

His greatest weakness is elections. He fears their outcome. That’s why he issued an illegal and unconstitutional executive order to try to seize control of them.

There are things every one of us can do in our daily lives to help ensure free and fair elections — and, in doing so, limit Trump’s power. Some actions are small — so small that you might dismiss them as unimportant. Don’t. Every important journey begins with a single step, and the first is no less important than the last.]]></description>
<dc:subject>election elections hope future inspiration inspiring political politics fascism usa government</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:f6f375290977/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.salon.com/2025/05/10/why-the-democrats-are-still-stuck-in-the-past/">
    <title>Why the Democrats are still stuck in the past | Salon.com</title>
    <dc:date>2025-05-16T17:46:49+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.salon.com/2025/05/10/why-the-democrats-are-still-stuck-in-the-past/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[A light bulb went off recently while I was reading Dan Davies’ “The Unaccountability Machine” (interview here). It’s about that  same tension between present and future orientation, which Davies argues is present in virtually every organization, as described by the Viable Systems Model developed by Stafford Beers. The VSM model describes systems at five levels: The first three dealing with things as they are, the fourth deals with future possibilities and the fifth deals with the tensions between those orientations. 

This was my Eureka moment: Democrats completely lack both fourth- and fifth-level systems, while Republicans don’t. This dovetails perfectly with the party differences described in Matt Grossmann and David Hopkins’ 2016 book "Asymmetric Politics: Ideological Republicans and Group Interest Democrats" (review here), which I'll return to below.]]></description>
<dc:subject>psychology political politics philosophy future activism democrats democracy left rightwing republican republicans gop</dc:subject>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/republicans-hate-you">
    <title>Republicans Hate You - by Paul Waldman - The Cross Section</title>
    <dc:date>2025-05-16T17:28:25+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/republicans-hate-you</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[When hit with an identity attack, Democrats usually respond with “No no, let’s please just focus on the issues.” The proper response to an identity attack is an identity counter-attack, just as Democrats did here when Stothert started campaigning on anti-trans bigotry. The response to “That guy thinks boys should be in girls sports” isn’t “No I don’t,” it’s “Why does that right-wing pervert want to do genital inspections on your daughter?” Talking about issues is good, but you have to lead with identity.

The “Republicans hate you” message isn’t necessarily going to have an instantaneous effect; the GOP has spent years building their identity attacks on Democrats, and they have an extraordinarily powerful media wurlitzer built to repeat them a zillion times a day. But Democrats have to start somewhere, and there’s no better time and place than right here, right now.]]></description>
<dc:subject>republican republicans political politics rightwing gop</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:9d83a13d4814/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/us/david-souter-dead.html">
    <title>David Souter, Supreme Court Justice Who Allied With the Left, Dies at 85 - The New York Times</title>
    <dc:date>2025-05-10T16:00:42+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/us/david-souter-dead.html</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Reading history remained a cherished pastime. “History,” he once explained, “provides an antidote to cynicism about the past.”]]></description>
<dc:subject>history supremecourt law legal political politics</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:c611cf5be64c/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://tomdispatch.com/trump-harvests-autocratic-powers/">
    <title>Trump Harvests Autocratic Powers - TomDispatch.com</title>
    <dc:date>2025-05-05T04:50:25+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://tomdispatch.com/trump-harvests-autocratic-powers/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>republican politics political government usa rightwing war prison</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:12dadc5e1517/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/04/could-we-be-entering-a-movement-moment-against-trump/">
    <title>Could we be entering a 'movement moment' against Trump? | Waging Nonviolence</title>
    <dc:date>2025-04-27T12:18:15+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/04/could-we-be-entering-a-movement-moment-against-trump/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[How to recognize the characteristics that make for powerful whirlwinds of protest against injustice and tyranny.

===

Various scholars and social movement participants have called these “ruptural moments,” “upsurges”or “movement moments.” In social science research, political scientist Aristide Zolberg dubbed them “moments of madness” in a 1972 article describing the exuberance of the student left in France in 1968, where pamphlets declared that “all is possible.” Other examples from throughout the world abound. But even within the U.S., the past generation has seen a sequence of these intermittent outbursts on the political stage: from global justice protests in Seattle in 1999, to historic antiwar demonstrations in 2003, to mass immigrant rights marches in 2006, to Occupy Wall Street in 2011, to the subsequent Women’s March and resistance during Trump’s first term, as well as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. 

In our book “This Is An Uprising,” we call these periods of intense activity “moments of the whirlwind.” We argue that they are of critical importance and should be incorporated into our conception of how social change happens. Unfortunately, these moments have often been downplayed or overlooked by many political pundits, elected officials and the public at large. 

In fact, they are regularly underappreciated by organizers as well. Because whirlwinds break the conventional rules of organizing and require strategists to recalibrate based on an entirely new set of conditions and opportunities, established organizations are often not prepared for these periods of escalated activity. As a result, even when outbreaks of protest are not simply dismissed as fleeting and unreliable, the response to them can be scrambled, pieced together in ad hoc fashion after the critical early period of emergence has already passed.]]></description>
<dc:subject>activism protest reference useful sociology society political politics</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.allrisenews.com/p/skadden-students-georgetown">
    <title>Law students organize to give Trump-caving firms a recruitment problem</title>
    <dc:date>2025-04-27T10:58:09+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.allrisenews.com/p/skadden-students-georgetown</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[The day after Donald Trump’s election last year, three Georgetown Law students started a political movement to brace for impact.

The students texted each other, started organizing, and eventually discovered the ability to perform a simple act to put the world’s wealthiest and most powerful law firms on the defensive.

They created a spreadsheet.]]></description>
<dc:subject>law legal usa political politics google inspiration inspiring hope future work policy activism</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:87ad4f49eaa7/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://newrepublic.com/article/193193/fighting-back-citizen-guide-resistance">
    <title>Fighting Back: A Citizen’s Guide to Resistance | The New Republic</title>
    <dc:date>2025-04-27T10:29:04+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://newrepublic.com/article/193193/fighting-back-citizen-guide-resistance</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[“People know deep inside them,” Ralph Nader told me recently, that “if they really blow their top, nothing can stop them.” Is Nader, who at 91 has logged six decades walking the citizen-action beat, feeling optimistic that President Donald Trump’s multifront assault on constitutional government can be stopped? “Not optimistic,” Nader replied. “Just realistic... As some people stand up to power, it becomes contagious.”]]></description>
<dc:subject>politics political reference activism hope future inspiration democracy usa inspiring</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:7f1f36ded6a6/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-logic-of-destruction">
    <title>The Logic of Destruction - by Timothy Snyder</title>
    <dc:date>2025-04-09T11:19:31+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-logic-of-destruction</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Make sure you are talking to people and doing something. The logic of “move fast and break things,” like the logic of all coups, is to gain quick dramatic successes that deter and demoralize and create the impression of inevitability. Nothing is inevitable. Do not be alone and do not be dismayed. Find someone who is doing something you admire and join them.]]></description>
<dc:subject>opinion fascism hope future usa america democracy government politics political advice inspiration inspiring</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:088a06facdab/</dc:identifier>
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</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://newrepublic.com/post/193614/donald-trump-tariffs-dumb-history-income-tax">
    <title>Donald Trump Really Is a Lot Dumber Than We Thought. Like, a Lot!</title>
    <dc:date>2025-04-09T10:44:05+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://newrepublic.com/post/193614/donald-trump-tariffs-dumb-history-income-tax</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Know what percentage of $4.7 trillion $80 billion is? About 1.7 percent. That’s how much of our current federal revenue comes from tariffs.

Going from 1.7 percent to 100 percent sounds, um, like something that will cause vast, unknowable dislocations; and more to the point, like the fantasy of a stupid man who’s never read a book and has no effing idea what he’s talking about.]]></description>
<dc:subject>tax taxes government usa world policy political politics money</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://theintercept.com/2025/03/02/trump-latin-america-new-right/">
    <title>Donald Trump and Latin America’s New Right Leaders</title>
    <dc:date>2025-04-04T18:36:15+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://theintercept.com/2025/03/02/trump-latin-america-new-right/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Trump’s fickleness prevents him from putting forth a coherent foreign policy and building a durable international coalition. Yet this disadvantage is offset by the fragility of the Latin American left.

For now, activists continue to mobilize a wide variety of social movements aimed at making a fairer world and progressives continue to win elections. A rough regional count has more than 470,000,000 people, out of a total population of about 620,000,000, living in countries governed by presidents who call themselves socialists or social democrats.

Yet left politicians tread treacherous ground, unable to command the kind of rhetorical hegemony their comrades did two decades ago. Where Chávez energized the hemisphere’s left, his hard-to-defend successor, Maduro, exhausts it, forcing Brazil, Colombia, and Chile to waste energy debating what to do about Venezuela.

The unity that existed when the region pushed back against Bush no longer exists. Each center-left country seems an island unto itself, their governments unable to pass their reform agenda and incapable of building stabilizing coalitions.]]></description>
<dc:subject>government world policy usa rightwing politics political election elections</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-at-the-history-of-public-media-in-the-u-s-as-republicans-target-federal-funding">
    <title>A look at the history of public media in the U.S. as Republicans target federal funding | PBS News</title>
    <dc:date>2025-04-03T00:31:05+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-at-the-history-of-public-media-in-the-u-s-as-republicans-target-federal-funding</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>media television pbs npr radio public broadcast broadcasting policy politics history usa government law legal</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.slowboring.com/p/trumps-war-on-science">
    <title>Trump's war on science - by Matthew Yglesias - Slow Boring</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-31T15:45:27+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.slowboring.com/p/trumps-war-on-science</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[A multi-directional assault on the foundations of American research]]></description>
<dc:subject>science political politics research government usa rightwing republican republicans gop</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:6f4e4b715ec9/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://theradicalfederalist.substack.com/p/radical-federalism-for-cities">
    <title>Radical Federalism for Cities - by Victor Hale</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-27T22:02:48+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://theradicalfederalist.substack.com/p/radical-federalism-for-cities</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Cities are the engines of human civilization—the centers of culture, economic power, and political energy. They generate the vast majority of a state’s wealth, innovation, and artistic expression. Yet, like rural communities, they are ruled, looted, and subordinated by the very systems they sustain.

For decades, state and federal elites have played urban and rural communities against each other, ensuring that neither controls its own destiny. The real struggle is not between city and country—it is between local self-governance and centralized control.

Radical Federalism for Cities is not just about resisting control, but restructuring cities to govern themselves, free from the grip of state legislatures, federal oversight, and local exploitation.]]></description>
<dc:subject>cities city political politics local</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://wolvesandsheep.substack.com/p/its-time-to-enjoy-surprising-new">
    <title>It's Time to Enjoy Surprising New Realities in the Democratic and Republican Coalitions</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-26T22:44:22+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://wolvesandsheep.substack.com/p/its-time-to-enjoy-surprising-new</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Democrats now dominate among the high-frequency voters who turn out in every election, including midterms, off year and special elections, while Republicans—especially Donald Trump himself—now dominate among low-frequency voters who only turn out to vote in presidential elections, and sometimes not even then. Therefore, Democrats are doing well in special elections because people who support Donald Trump and give him a positive approval rating tend to not bother voting in special elections.

Given that Republicans have long been viewed as the party of the—admittedly vaguely defined—”establishment,” Democrats dominating among high frequency voters is going to take some getting used to. However, given the shift in national favorable ratings since November, there is no explanation for 2025 special election results other than Democrats now dominating among high frequency voters. In fact, this change isn't even all that new, since Democrats have been dominating special elections going back all the way to 2017.]]></description>
<dc:subject>election elections democrats republican republicans gop political politics usa government</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:6a6926668ebd/</dc:identifier>
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<item rdf:about="https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-the-democrats-corporate?publication_id=11524&amp;post_id=159630897&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=102rj&amp;triedRedirect=true">
    <title>Monopoly Round-Up: The Democrats' Corporate Lawyers Get the Humiliation They Deserve</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-25T18:14:07+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-the-democrats-corporate?publication_id=11524&amp;post_id=159630897&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=102rj&amp;triedRedirect=true</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[ I am thankful to Paul Weiss and Brad Karp. In this dangerous moment, the Democratic corporate establishment, by capitulating so obviously to Trump in return for corporate money, has just ripped out the heart that ran the Clinton, Obama, and much of the toxic parts of the Biden administrations. And they did so at the only moment in the last two decades during which normal Democrats are looking for someone to blame for their own party’s fecklessness. And who better to blame than the would-be Kamala Harris staff, a pack of Google and private equity defense lawyers - and Chuck Schumer’s brother - who, when the chips were down, bent the knee to Trump?]]></description>
<dc:subject>corporate corporation corporations law legal democracy democrats monopoly political politics</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:702b00329a7a/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://wolvesandsheep.substack.com/p/eight-reasons-why-i-insist-on-keeping">
    <title>Eight Reasons Why I Insist on Keeping a Positive Attitude</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-24T20:42:28+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://wolvesandsheep.substack.com/p/eight-reasons-why-i-insist-on-keeping</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[I am a Democrat, a contrarian and an optimist. So, in a way, this is kind of the perfect moment for me to have an advice column for Democrats. While many of my fellow Democrats are in a deep, dark funk over the damage that Donald Trump is doing to our country, I can tell everyone both why they are wrong and why they should stay positive at the same time, lol.

In all seriousness, despite everything bad that is happening right now—and there are a whole lot bad and disturbing things happening—I refuse to give in to despair, depression, and a doomer outlook on the future. So, please take a few minutes of your day to give me a chance to convince you why you should remain optimistic as well. It is in that spirit that I offer my list of eight reasons why Democrats should maintain a positive attitude in this difficult moment:

]]></description>
<dc:subject>democrats democracy hope future inspiration inspiring political politics usa government</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:789a7391f12b/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/03/resistance-alive-well-us/">
    <title>Resistance is alive and well in the United States | Waging Nonviolence</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-23T15:06:14+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/03/resistance-alive-well-us/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[“Where is the resistance?” is a common refrain. Our research affirms that resistance is alive and well.

Many underestimate resistance to the current Republican administration because they view resistance through a narrow lens. The 2017 Women’s March in particular — immediate in its response, massive in its scope and size — may inform collective imaginations about what the beginning of a resistance movement should look like during Trump 2.0.

In fact, our research shows that street protests today are far more numerous and frequent than skeptics might suggest. Although it is true that the reconfigured Peoples’ March of 2025 — held on Jan. 18 — saw lower turnout than the 2017 Women’s March, that date also saw the most protests in a single day for over a year. And since Jan. 22, we’ve seen more than twice as many street protests than took place during the same period eight years ago.]]></description>
<dc:subject>democracy poland protest activism history economy economics politics political usa government</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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<item rdf:about="https://theprogressnetwork.org/poland-democracy-mixed-progress/">
    <title>What Could Go Right? - Ordinary People Rescue Democracy</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-21T11:44:28+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://theprogressnetwork.org/poland-democracy-mixed-progress/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[What does a country whose descent into illiberalism was brought to a standstill by ordinary people look like on the other side?

Over a year ago, Polish voters wrested control of their country away from the Law and Justice (PiS) party that had been elected in 2015. In the ensuing time, PiS illegally flooded the judicial system with judges loyal to the party, took over state media, and in a country with a near-total abortion ban, tried to tighten rules so fast that even miscarriages would be investigated.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, leader of a broad coalition that defeated PiS, was voted in on a massive upswell of support primarily among young people and women. He assumed office promising a bevy of changes, including liberalizing abortion policies, introducing same-sex civil partnerships, repairing Poland’s relationship with the European Union (EU), and undoing the damage to the judiciary.

His results so far have been mixed, to the disappointment of some. While Tusk has brought Poland back into the fold of the EU, he has not fulfilled his other pledges, for instance struggling to depoliticize the judiciary without running afoul of the law himself.]]></description>
<dc:subject>poland election elections inspiration hope future political politics</dc:subject>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://undark.org/2025/03/06/opinion-science-adapt/">
    <title>How Science Can Adapt to a New Normal</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-19T09:47:11+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://undark.org/2025/03/06/opinion-science-adapt/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Why has the public gutting of science not caused an immediate political backlash? The authors of the culling have correctly recognized that the public has no idea how science works and has no connection to scientists who aren’t on television. Note that the blame game is irrelevant here: I’m not saying that it’s scientists’ fault. We are doing the job we were trained to do, chasing the prizes that our mentors taught us to chase. In our new world, the expert who carefully engages science journalists and translates findings to our lesser-educated relatives will be just as valuable as the one who generates boatloads of data on the backs of a dozen overworked graduate students. This communicative aspect, now embodied in the science communication movement, must become a formal technical frontier of the scientific enterprise, and not patronizingly summarized as “outreach” or “activism.”

We aren’t lying if we complain that some of these activities aren’t what we were trained for. We spent our lives mastering the methods that allow us to uncover the mysteries of the natural world. My only retort is that such pearl-clutching may reveal that some of us weren’t cut out to be scientists in the first place. Because the truest test of scientific wits is agility; the ability to pivot on a dime. With impressive efficiency, we’ve built atomic bombs, cyclotrons, and mRNA vaccines. We’ve sequenced the genomes of thousands of species.

The good news is that what is required to reduce harm does not rely on developing the supply chain for a rare enzyme or securing taxpayer dollars for a new space station. The bad news is that it involves doing something that is just as ambitious: rethinking the very basics of what the job of a scientist is, why we do our jobs, and what it means to do them well.]]></description>
<dc:subject>science research political politics</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/woke-identitarianism-and-the-extreme-right/">
    <title>Woke, Identitarianism and the Extreme-Right - ZNetwork</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-16T13:33:10+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/woke-identitarianism-and-the-extreme-right/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>rightwing fascism progressive political politics history world</dc:subject>
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<item rdf:about="https://www.optimistdaily.com/2025/03/thousands-rally-across-the-us-to-defend-science-funding/">
    <title>Thousands rally across the US to defend science funding | The Optimist Daily</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-13T16:53:16+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.optimistdaily.com/2025/03/thousands-rally-across-the-us-to-defend-science-funding/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>science political politics activism inspiration inspiring government usa</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:656cf1ee72f5/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/03/07/attention-deficit-and-defiance-division-of-labor-theres-stuff-happening-where-youre-not-looking/">
    <title>Attention Deficit and Defiance Division of Labor: There's Stuff Happening Where You're Not Looking - emptywheel</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-12T19:11:53+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/03/07/attention-deficit-and-defiance-division-of-labor-theres-stuff-happening-where-youre-not-looking/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[A lot of people still don’t understand there’s a natural division of labor in who should fight fascists how, one which is similar to those five areas of sabotage. As a result, there’s a demand that the national Democratic Party (appear to) take the lead on everything, a demand that invites those complaining to outsource their own agency completely, as if they simply hire people to do their politics for them every two or four years.

The demand that Hakeem Jeffries take the lead on issues that really aren’t central to his job breeds passivity and frustration and distracts from stuff being done by others better positioned to do so.

The national Dems are not the best suited for some of this, partly because civil society has more freedom and standing to sue, partly because within the Democratic party, local parties (and future candidates) should take the lead, and partly because polarization is going to be a big barrier to effective mobilization elsewhere. If a Black or Jewish Democrat from New York pushes an issue, those we need to mobilize will be far less likely to respond because their very identities have become defined in opposition to urban America (and all the euphemisms that entails). Moreover, the Democratic Party’s job is to shepherd legislation and win elections, and the fight against fascism is both broader than and more urgent than elections 20 months away.

I want to use this post to lay out what I mean by that, and also as a way to catalog some of what has been done, but also some areas where more needs to be done by precisely the kind of people who spent a week screaming at Democrats.]]></description>
<dc:subject>reference political politics inspiration government usa</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:15e2c226a7c8/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://stringinamaze.net/p/the-tyranny-of-public-opinion?ref=organizingmythoughts.org">
    <title>The Tyranny of Public Opinion</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-11T21:18:59+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://stringinamaze.net/p/the-tyranny-of-public-opinion?ref=organizingmythoughts.org</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[The Republican Party and its vast media apparatus are engaged in a campaign to reframe the most fundamental debates about American society: the role of women and minorities in public life, the continued existence of the New Deal state, the contours of the right to vote. If all Democrats do is attempt to match public opinion, they’ll be forever operating within a Republican frame, stuck watching the polls while Republicans move them. What has happened with trans rights will happen over and over; an endless cycle of perpetual retreat.

I don’t mean to reduce the issue to a cold political calculus. The best justification for supporting trans rights is that trans people are real and deserve civil protections. If supporting them was deeply unpopular, it would still be the right thing to do. Politics isn’t a series of McKinsey presentations, it weighs on human life and dignity.

But even by their own terms, the party strategists have it wrong: you can’t win just by abiding the polls. Politics are forged, built on will and leadership. Democrats need to decide whether they want to fight for the things they believe in, or spend the rest of their days chasing polls but never catching them.]]></description>
<dc:subject>opinion public political politics activism protest inspiration inspiring psychology social</dc:subject>
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<item rdf:about="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/03/07/democrats-should-do-something-and-they-are/">
    <title>Democrats Should &quot;Do Something.&quot; And They Are. | Washington Monthly</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-11T20:23:51+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/03/07/democrats-should-do-something-and-they-are/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>democrats politics political usa government</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.headsupnews.org/p/where-is-the-resistance-headed-and">
    <title>Where is the resistance headed? And how does it get there?</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-10T22:12:00+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.headsupnews.org/p/where-is-the-resistance-headed-and</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>activism protest political politics government usa</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:2c91d3c75d14/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://ofboysandmen.substack.com/p/gov-gretchen-whitmer-joins-the-boys">
    <title>Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joins the boys and men party</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-10T21:07:01+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://ofboysandmen.substack.com/p/gov-gretchen-whitmer-joins-the-boys</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[I wrote last week about a big statement from Gov. Wes Moore about focusing on boys and men, and similar positive signs from other governors. I’m also hearing from a couple of state education commissioners about work to increase the share of male teachers and other initiatives to improve outcomes for boys. This is awesome!

Now Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has set out her stall. In her own State of the State address she tackled the issue head-on:]]></description>
<dc:subject>michigan political politics government state men education school schools highschool college university</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:813334b642e6/</dc:identifier>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:politics"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:university"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.tumblr.com/lonewolf23k/777572926854692864?source=share">
    <title>PSA. – @lonewolf23k on Tumblr</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-10T13:26:35+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.tumblr.com/lonewolf23k/777572926854692864?source=share</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[How to break the Musk cult like a pro.]]></description>
<dc:subject>funny useful reference political politics rightwing</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:5bf097a5e980/</dc:identifier>
<taxo:topics><rdf:Bag>	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:funny"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:reference"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:politics"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:rightwing"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/08/nos-victi-reipublicae/">
    <title>GOPus delendus est – Mother Jones</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-10T10:26:33+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/08/nos-victi-reipublicae/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[The Republican Party can’t win using ordinary methods. On the process side, they can win only by inflating the white vote via gerrymandering, cracked-and-packed districts, and ruthless black voter suppression. On the policy side, they can win only with heavy dollops of strident and outright bigotry against Mexicans, Muslims, blacks, Hispanics, Chinese, and anyone else who comes along. Even Canadians will do in a pinch.

Today, the Republican Party exists for one and only one purpose: to pass tax cuts for the rich and regulatory rollbacks for corporations. They accomplish this using one and only method: unapologetically racist and bigoted appeals to win the votes of the heartland riff-raff they otherwise treat as mere money machines for their endless mail-order cons.]]></description>
<dc:subject>gop rightwing analysis republican republicans corporate corporation government political politics usa corporations</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:b1a3c4d0bd5c/</dc:identifier>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:rightwing"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:analysis"/>
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</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/why-techdirt-is-now-a-democracy-blog-whether-we-like-it-or-not/">
    <title>Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not) | Techdirt</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-07T00:56:46+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/why-techdirt-is-now-a-democracy-blog-whether-we-like-it-or-not/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[We’ve spent decades documenting how technology and entrepreneurship can either strengthen or undermine democratic institutions. We understand the dangers of concentrated power in the digital age. And we’ve watched in real-time as tech leaders who once championed innovation and openness now actively work to consolidate control and dismantle the very systems that enabled their success.

I know that some folks in the comments will whine that this is “political” or that it’s an overreaction. And it is true that there have been times in the past when people have overreacted to things happening in DC.

This is not one of those times.

If you do not recognize that mass destruction of fundamental concepts of democracy and the US Constitution happening right now, you are either willfully ignorant or just plain stupid. I can’t put it any clearer than that.

This isn’t about politics — it’s about the systematic dismantling of the very infrastructure that made American innovation possible. For those in the tech industry who supported this administration thinking it would mean less regulation or more “business friendly” policies: you’ve catastrophically misread the situation (which many people tried to warn you about).  While overregulation (which, let’s face it, we didn’t really have) can be bad, it’s nothing compared to the destruction of the stable institutional framework that allowed American innovation to thrive in the first place.]]></description>
<dc:subject>democracy journalism tech politics political activism media fascism</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:88578c43734d/</dc:identifier>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:fascism"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://data4democracy.substack.com/p/whats-the-matter-with-billionaires">
    <title>What's the Matter with Billionaires? - by Adam Bonica</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-05T17:45:08+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://data4democracy.substack.com/p/whats-the-matter-with-billionaires</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[The most damning reality: billionaires who've reaped unprecedented wealth from our economic system are actively undermining it to avoid contributing their fair share. This isn't just about tax fairness—it's about the viability of democracy itself when wealth translates so directly into political power.

While markets demonstrate that Democratic policies yield better returns even for the wealthy, the ultra-rich have decided that protecting their tax privileges is more important than actual wealth creation. Their hysteria about Harris's proposal to tax unrealized gains on fortunes over $100M—which would have affected only a tiny sliver of households—revealed their true concern: maintaining a separate set of rules. Their fear of Democrats isn't about economic collapse; it's being forced to participate in the same social contract as ordinary citizens.


As tariffs take their toll, remember that this economic damage is self-inflicted—the price of allowing an emerging oligarchy to protect its interests at the expense of shared prosperity. The billionaire paradox has become America's tragedy: a small elite willing to sacrifice both democratic principles and economic growth on the altar of their tax privileges. Perhaps the ultimate irony is that in their desperate bid to avoid paying their fair share, billionaires are dismantling the very economic and democratic systems that enabled their success in the first place.]]></description>
<dc:subject>money politics economy economics capitalism usa election elections parecon government wealth poverty</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:baaa6dc0dd63/</dc:identifier>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:elections"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:poverty"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://choosedemocracy.us/resist-list/">
    <title>Choose Democracy – Resist List</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-04T00:48:17+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://choosedemocracy.us/resist-list/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[They want us to think we’re alone. We are not.

The Resistance is Everywhere.

Hopescroll through stories of people’s noncooperation against Trump’s coup.

Jump to databases of noncooperation or trackers of ligitation and impact.

Follow our social media accounts to stay updated.]]></description>
<dc:subject>data database databases activism protest inspiration reference useful political politics</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:3cbd29cc4276/</dc:identifier>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:databases"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:political"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:politics"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers">
    <title>I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers | Rebecca Shaw | The Guardian</title>
    <dc:date>2025-03-03T19:16:32+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[I’ve worked hard to keep these kinds of men out of my personal life, to keep them away from me, out of my goddamn sight. Now they are in my face daily, not only influencing the world for the worse but making me nauseous at how uncool and pathetic they are, on top of their other sins. It’s too much, I can’t take it, there needs to be a change.

It’s time for us to start getting revenge on the nerds.]]></description>
<dc:subject>fascism collapse rightwing facebook socialmedia capitalism business tech technology men politics political</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:technology"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:political"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://dansinker.com/posts/2025-02-23-dale/">
    <title>What Felt Impossible Became Possible | dansinker.com</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-25T15:21:53+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://dansinker.com/posts/2025-02-23-dale/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Things are really dark right now. We have a new crop of fascists pledging "America First" in the White House. A new series of attacks on immigrants and people of color. Even as someone who expected things to get bad fast, the level of cruelty and destruction being wrought by Donald Trump and the unelected Elon Musk is staggering.

And it feels unstoppable.

That's why I've spent so much time lately learning about those that lived under the thumb of the KKK in the '20s. The speed with which the group grew, the influence it held, the mainstream embrace it received, and the fear it spread—I think about how impossible it must have felt to imagine that their influence would ever ebb.

And I think about people like George Dale—there were many like him—who, despite it feeling impossible, and despite paying incredible personal cost, kept fighting anyway.

And they won.]]></description>
<dc:subject>history hope future inspiration inspiring race racism politics fascism political government usa</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:14928c464499/</dc:identifier>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:future"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:race"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:racism"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:politics"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:fascism"/>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:government"/>
	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:usa"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/23/2304244/-Republicans-have-shown-us-exactly-how-to-defeat-Trumpism?pm_campaign=front_page&amp;pm_source=trending&amp;pm_medium=web">
    <title>Republicans have shown us exactly how to defeat Trumpism.</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-24T16:49:59+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/23/2304244/-Republicans-have-shown-us-exactly-how-to-defeat-Trumpism?pm_campaign=front_page&amp;pm_source=trending&amp;pm_medium=web</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Get some message discipline. Don’t mince words.  “Trump is wrecking the economy, Trump is incompetent, Trump is losing his mental faculties”. Say it over, and over again.]]></description>
<dc:subject>rightwing political politics government usa media democrats democracy republican republicans gop</dc:subject>
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</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/the-power-of-the-powerless-vaclav-havel-2011-12-23">
    <title>&quot;The Power of the Powerless&quot; - Vaclav Havel</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-19T22:33:50+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/the-power-of-the-powerless-vaclav-havel-2011-12-23</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>essay reference history power culture politics political world</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:world"/>
</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/18/shoppers-political-boycotts-spending-patterns-poll">
    <title>A quarter of US shoppers have dumped favorite stores over political stances | US politics | The Guardian</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-19T14:59:13+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/18/shoppers-political-boycotts-spending-patterns-poll</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>business shopping political politics</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:6e6f0f05aff6/</dc:identifier>
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</rdf:Bag></taxo:topics>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/making-microbes-great-again">
    <title>Making Microbes Great Again - Paul Krugman</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-18T23:34:57+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/making-microbes-great-again</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[As an illuminating article in Lancet notes, anti-vaccine activism was originally a fringe movement with a “natural-living, left-leaning base.” Translation: it was more or less a hippie thing. In fact, you can still see some traces of those roots in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s incoherent views on health policy — views that unfortunately matter a lot now that he’s in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services.

But the anti-vax movement became powerful and deadly when it took over much of the political right.

The groundwork for that takeover was laid in the Reagan years. Reagan wasn’t specifically anti-vaccine. But he was anti-science — because, as I wrote recently, once you start rejecting scientific research that tells you things you don’t want to hear, you’re basically rejecting the whole scientific enterprise. And he also rejected the idea that the government can ever be a force for good.]]></description>
<dc:subject>disease policy government rightwing political politics virus viruses science usa gop republican republicans</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:ae155bd94a2b/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/path-american-authoritarianism-trump">
    <title>The Path to American Authoritarianism: What Comes After Democratic Breakdown</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-17T23:14:41+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/path-american-authoritarianism-trump</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Trump will be vulnerable. The administration’s limited public support and inevitable mistakes will create opportunities for democratic forces—in Congress, in courtrooms, and at the ballot box.

But the opposition can win only if it stays in the game. Opposition under competitive authoritarianism can be grueling. Worn down by harassment and threats, many of Trump’s critics will be tempted to retreat to the sidelines. Such a retreat would be perilous. When fear, exhaustion, or resignation crowds out citizens’ commitment to democracy, emergent authoritarianism begins to take root.]]></description>
<dc:subject>constitution fascism usa government democracy law history politics world reference longreads essay essays</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:dfa6c2f0476a/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/donald-trump-white-house-strategery">
    <title>Did Trump Administration Think Through Onslaught Of Illegal Actions?</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-17T15:34:54+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/donald-trump-white-house-strategery</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[The White House pushed out quickly and aggressively, but without sufficient thought as to what would happen next. Defenders, initially huddled against the onslaught, prepared counterattacks and launched them, predictably, in the form of dozens of lawsuits, sometimes referred to as “lawfare.” Despite having initiated this war, however, within days the White House appeared oddly unprepared to defend its legal positions.

But how could that be? Aren’t the folks at Project 2025 masterminding this? Isn’t Elon Musk an evil genius whose techno-coup will effectively end the Republic? And aren’t all the MAGA folks whooping and cheering as Trump “owns the libs” so hard?

Within those questions lies a key truth: This isn’t some grand strategy hatched in the mind of the “stable genius” in the White House. Rather, it’s a mad rush by three competing factions within the administration. These factions sometimes have overlapping goals, but often advance competing ones. Two of them—the MAGA right and the tech broligarchy—are already feuding as their interests diverge. Think cheap immigrant H-1B labor versus racist white nationalism.]]></description>
<dc:subject>politics political rightwing strategy usa government gop republican republicans</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:c89f2435bc08/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://theness.com/neurologicablog/who-believes-misinformation/">
    <title>Who Believes Misinformation - NeuroLogica Blog</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-15T18:54:42+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://theness.com/neurologicablog/who-believes-misinformation/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[First, I think we need to seriously consider how critical thinking is taught (or not taught) in schools. Real critical thinking skills need to be taught at every level and in almost every subject, but also as a separate dedicated course (perhaps combined with some basic scientific literacy and media savvy). Hey, one can dream.

The probability of doing something meaningful in terms of regulating media seems close to zero. That ship has sailed. The fairness doctrine is gone. We live in the proverbial wild west of misinformation, and this is not likely to change anytime soon. Therefore, individually, we can protect ourselves by being skeptical, working our analytical thinking skills, checking our own biases and motivated reasoning, and not relying on a few ideologically aligned sources of news. One good rule of thumb is to be especially skeptical of any news that reinforces your existing biases. But dealing with a societal problem on an individual level is always a tricky proposition.]]></description>
<dc:subject>media socialmedia rightwing political politics information data research science</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:f57d39543788/</dc:identifier>
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<item rdf:about="https://www.semafor.com/article/02/12/2025/actually-the-resistance-is-working">
    <title>Actually, the #Resistance is working | Semafor</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-14T22:10:25+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.semafor.com/article/02/12/2025/actually-the-resistance-is-working</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>hope activism legal law court political politics government usa</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/07/heres-how-democrats-should-fight-back-against-trump">
    <title>Here’s how Democrats should fight back against Trump | Margaret Sullivan | The Guardian</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-12T15:31:30+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/07/heres-how-democrats-should-fight-back-against-trump</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Take Jasmine Crockett, for example, a 43-year-old congresswoman from Texas, who is defiantly feisty. You’ll find her everywhere – on social media, on cable TV and leading citizen protests in front of government office buildings.

“We have a thug in charge of the White House,” she thundered in a TV appearance this week. And she didn’t spare her fellow citizens who elected Trump or who stayed home instead of voting in November. “Americans thought that it was OK to take a full-fledged criminal and make him the president of the United States, and then they want to act aghast when he does criminal things.”]]></description>
<dc:subject>democrats democracy hope future inspiration political politics usa government activism protest</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
<dc:identifier>https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/b:f54c95ef165e/</dc:identifier>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/the-nature-of-our-power-a-conversation-with-political-scientist-erica-chenoweth/">
    <title>The Nature of Our Power: A Conversation with Political Scientist Erica Chenoweth</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-12T15:26:14+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/the-nature-of-our-power-a-conversation-with-political-scientist-erica-chenoweth/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[The best study on the subject in my opinion suggests that in the long term, institutions really can’t save us; that civil society and mass mobilization are a more potent check on a backsliding democracy in the long term than relying on institutional checks and balances alone." That's what political scientist Erica Chenoweth told me when I asked them if we could have a conversation (by email, below in full) about the current constitutional crisis/coup attempt and what we can do about it. Chenoweth is a hugely influential scholar of nonviolent social change, best known for their empirical research that not only documents what makes civil resistance work but demonstrates that it works, often extremely effectively. They direct the  Nonviolent Action Lab, which studies how people have built movements and developed strategies to resist authoritarianism successfully and documents how nonviolence can be effective. There's no one I wanted to hear from more in this constitutional crisis, and I'm grateful I can share their insights with all of you.]]></description>
<dc:subject>future hope organizing activism protest political politics science research power inspiration inspiring history world society social</dc:subject>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.thenerdreich.com/">
    <title>The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley tech billionaire politics</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-12T00:37:20+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.thenerdreich.com/</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><dc:subject>tech technology political politics siliconvalley</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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	<rdf:li rdf:resource="https://pinboard.in/u:msszczep/t:siliconvalley"/>
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</item>
<item rdf:about="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-trump-column-read.html">
    <title>Opinion | Don’t Believe Him - The New York Times</title>
    <dc:date>2025-02-10T15:24:43+00:00</dc:date>
    <link>https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-trump-column-read.html</link>
    <dc:creator>msszczep</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[What Trump wants you to see in all this activity is command. What is really in all this activity is chaos. They do not have some secret reservoir of focus and attention the rest of us do not. They have convinced themselves that speed and force is a strategy unto itself — that it is, in a sense, a replacement for a real strategy. Don’t believe them.

...

Trump isn’t building support; he’s losing it. Trump isn’t fracturing his opposition; he’s uniting it.

This is the weakness of the strategy that Bannon proposed and Trump is following. It is a strategy that forces you into overreach. To keep the zone flooded, you have to keep acting, keep moving, keep creating new cycles of outrage or fear. You overwhelm yourself. And there’s only so much you can do through executive orders. Soon enough, you have to go beyond what you can actually do. And when you do that, you either trigger a constitutional crisis or you reveal your own weakness.]]></description>
<dc:subject>fascism political politics republican usa government hope future inspiration inspiring</dc:subject>
<dc:source>https://pinboard.in/</dc:source>
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