Kevin Bankston
@bankston.bsky.social
Idea mechanic and writer. Senior Advisor on AI Governance @cdt.org. Teaching AI law @georgetownlaw.bsky.social. Imagining futures @imaginationasu.bsky.social. My opinions, not theirs.
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
One reason you hold a meeting to pressure/cajole/threaten Boebert in the Situation Room is so she can't record it.
November 12, 2025 at 9:50 PM
One reason you hold a meeting to pressure/cajole/threaten Boebert in the Situation Room is so she can't record it.
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
“Most of the days the federal government has ever been shut down, Donald Trump was the president.”— @howtoreadthisch.art
www.howtoreadthisch.art/red-versus-b...
www.howtoreadthisch.art/red-versus-b...
November 8, 2025 at 11:54 PM
“Most of the days the federal government has ever been shut down, Donald Trump was the president.”— @howtoreadthisch.art
www.howtoreadthisch.art/red-versus-b...
www.howtoreadthisch.art/red-versus-b...
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
The Supreme Court just heard oral arguments in the challenge to Trump’s worldwide tariffs. No matter how the Court rules (and I’ll do just a tiny bit of tea leaf-reading here), its decision will have enormous implications for the scope of presidential power. 1/25
November 5, 2025 at 9:04 PM
The Supreme Court just heard oral arguments in the challenge to Trump’s worldwide tariffs. No matter how the Court rules (and I’ll do just a tiny bit of tea leaf-reading here), its decision will have enormous implications for the scope of presidential power. 1/25
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
I don’t know how many times I’ve watched this video.
I don’t know how we’ve gotten to the point where men in full balaclavas can abduct daycare teachers while they’re watching children.
But I do know that this isn’t sustainable. Abolish ICE. There is no way to reform this.
I don’t know how we’ve gotten to the point where men in full balaclavas can abduct daycare teachers while they’re watching children.
But I do know that this isn’t sustainable. Abolish ICE. There is no way to reform this.
Federal agents pulling a woman out of Rayito Del Sol, a daycare by Lane Tech high school
November 5, 2025 at 9:42 PM
I don’t know how many times I’ve watched this video.
I don’t know how we’ve gotten to the point where men in full balaclavas can abduct daycare teachers while they’re watching children.
But I do know that this isn’t sustainable. Abolish ICE. There is no way to reform this.
I don’t know how we’ve gotten to the point where men in full balaclavas can abduct daycare teachers while they’re watching children.
But I do know that this isn’t sustainable. Abolish ICE. There is no way to reform this.
Yet still the damned question mark in the headline. Let me fix that for you, NYT editorial board: "WE ARE LOSING OUR DEMOCRACY", period.
"To measure what is happening in the United States, the Times editorial board has compiled a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion, with help from scholars who have studied this phenomenon. The sobering reality is that the United States has regressed, to different degrees, on all 12."
Opinion | In Trump’s America, Are We Losing Our Democracy?
Donald Trump has wielded power as no previous president has.
www.nytimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Yet still the damned question mark in the headline. Let me fix that for you, NYT editorial board: "WE ARE LOSING OUR DEMOCRACY", period.
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
C’mon, it’s plainly unfair to label Bovino a Nazi just because his barber and tailor are Nazis.
October 28, 2025 at 11:00 PM
C’mon, it’s plainly unfair to label Bovino a Nazi just because his barber and tailor are Nazis.
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
If you come to my house on Halloween, kids will get candy and adults will get a candy with a free zine illustrated by @meganpiont.bsky.social
October 28, 2025 at 10:54 PM
If you come to my house on Halloween, kids will get candy and adults will get a candy with a free zine illustrated by @meganpiont.bsky.social
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
The networks took the much smaller Tea Party movement so seriously they broadcast a Tea Party rebuttal to Obama’s 2011 SOTU on top of the normal GOP one.
Reminder: We spent YEARS reading thousands and thousands of articles on the Tea Party and how it was a true expression of the American people's will, and it never mounted anything nearly as big as Saturday's No Kings rallies. [1/3]
October 20, 2025 at 1:37 AM
The networks took the much smaller Tea Party movement so seriously they broadcast a Tea Party rebuttal to Obama’s 2011 SOTU on top of the normal GOP one.
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
There's an AWS outage this morning impacting lots of services; it started around 07.30 UK time. People who use services like Alexa as their alarm clocks have just had a helpful reminder that using a device reliant on connectivity to carry out a task that doesn't need connectivity is not a good idea.
October 20, 2025 at 8:15 AM
There's an AWS outage this morning impacting lots of services; it started around 07.30 UK time. People who use services like Alexa as their alarm clocks have just had a helpful reminder that using a device reliant on connectivity to carry out a task that doesn't need connectivity is not a good idea.
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
October 19, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
This administration has been, by far, the most censorial administration in my lifetime. They're punishing people for speech about Palestine, about Charlie Kirk, about ICE, about the President. It's been nonstop attacks on speech.
Mike Johnson: "The last time I checked, Americans have more freedom right now to express themselves and speak their minds after Republicans took over ... it is the Republicans who restored your right to share and speak your mind."
October 17, 2025 at 2:43 PM
This administration has been, by far, the most censorial administration in my lifetime. They're punishing people for speech about Palestine, about Charlie Kirk, about ICE, about the President. It's been nonstop attacks on speech.
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
Remember April 2009 when about 250,000 people took to America’s streets in Tea Party rallies and the media was like “oh man, the Dems are in trouble?” Approximately 28X as many people took to the streets to protest Trump yesterday. Didn’t even make the NYT front page.
In April of 2009 I observed the Tea Party rally in Salem. As this front page story says, there were a couple hundred people there. This past weekend in Salem there were roughly 2-3000 people at the Hands Off rally. Yet the Tea Party coverage seemed to take that event far more seriously.
October 19, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Remember April 2009 when about 250,000 people took to America’s streets in Tea Party rallies and the media was like “oh man, the Dems are in trouble?” Approximately 28X as many people took to the streets to protest Trump yesterday. Didn’t even make the NYT front page.
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
“We found over 35 cases in which the judges have specifically said what the government is providing…false information. It might be intentionally false information, including false sworn declarations time and again," says Ryan Goodman, law professor at New York University.
October 19, 2025 at 11:43 PM
“We found over 35 cases in which the judges have specifically said what the government is providing…false information. It might be intentionally false information, including false sworn declarations time and again," says Ryan Goodman, law professor at New York University.
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
Keep persevering on your goals & dreams.
You may be inspiring & motivating others as an example, just by your continuing efforts. Especially in adversity.
It's not just the end result, but your dedication & perseverance in the process that can be a light & catalyst to others.
You may be inspiring & motivating others as an example, just by your continuing efforts. Especially in adversity.
It's not just the end result, but your dedication & perseverance in the process that can be a light & catalyst to others.
October 19, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Keep persevering on your goals & dreams.
You may be inspiring & motivating others as an example, just by your continuing efforts. Especially in adversity.
It's not just the end result, but your dedication & perseverance in the process that can be a light & catalyst to others.
You may be inspiring & motivating others as an example, just by your continuing efforts. Especially in adversity.
It's not just the end result, but your dedication & perseverance in the process that can be a light & catalyst to others.
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
The media’s overriding concern is not being accused of bias by the right, which means all coverage is framed around granting the right the maximum benefit of the doubt, however implausible. Such that sewage becomes “a brown liquid” until other possibilities are ruled out. Maybe it’s cake batter!
I get that there are times when disputes over news coverage are a matter of emphasis or perspective on big, sprawling events, but it feels bad for public trust in a publication when it fails to accurately describe a video that’s 20 seconds long, and that everyone can see.
October 19, 2025 at 10:16 PM
The media’s overriding concern is not being accused of bias by the right, which means all coverage is framed around granting the right the maximum benefit of the doubt, however implausible. Such that sewage becomes “a brown liquid” until other possibilities are ruled out. Maybe it’s cake batter!
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
The premise here appears to be “He can’t be a king as long as I can think of additional abuses of power he hasn’t yet committed,” which is not how this works.
Mike Johnson: "We congratulate them on an apparently violent-free speech exercise ... but if President Trump was a king, the government would be open right now ... by the way, the Mall was open because President Trump hasn't closed it."
October 19, 2025 at 9:12 PM
The premise here appears to be “He can’t be a king as long as I can think of additional abuses of power he hasn’t yet committed,” which is not how this works.
wonderful thread of pics
October 18, 2025 at 11:32 PM
wonderful thread of pics
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
I just keep thinking about the first guy to put on the frog costume reading the news today and seeing frogs literally all over the world
what a fucking thing, man
that 25 year old did more for the country in a week than most of the NYT op-ed section in a lifetime
what a fucking thing, man
that 25 year old did more for the country in a week than most of the NYT op-ed section in a lifetime
October 18, 2025 at 10:10 PM
I just keep thinking about the first guy to put on the frog costume reading the news today and seeing frogs literally all over the world
what a fucking thing, man
that 25 year old did more for the country in a week than most of the NYT op-ed section in a lifetime
what a fucking thing, man
that 25 year old did more for the country in a week than most of the NYT op-ed section in a lifetime
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
An astonishingly large crowd!
Chicago
Chicago
October 18, 2025 at 9:18 PM
An astonishingly large crowd!
Chicago
Chicago
Love to see It
Purdue to the rescue of IU student newspaper, whose institution was attempting censorship. Details in alt!
October 18, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Love to see It
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
Cops led us into the street as the new “protest zone” and then beat us repeatedly.
Got hit in the face with a baton. Leaving to pick up my friends who were arrested.
Stay safe out there.
Got hit in the face with a baton. Leaving to pick up my friends who were arrested.
Stay safe out there.
October 17, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Cops led us into the street as the new “protest zone” and then beat us repeatedly.
Got hit in the face with a baton. Leaving to pick up my friends who were arrested.
Stay safe out there.
Got hit in the face with a baton. Leaving to pick up my friends who were arrested.
Stay safe out there.
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
I never again want to hear House Republicans disparage people they claim are too lazy to work
It's official: Speaker Johnson just cancelled all votes in the House next week.
The next scheduled voting day is 10/27; the last time the House was in session was 9/19.
The next scheduled voting day is 10/27; the last time the House was in session was 9/19.
October 17, 2025 at 6:09 PM
I never again want to hear House Republicans disparage people they claim are too lazy to work
Reposted by Kevin Bankston
i’m so sick of this cowardly use of language.
October 17, 2025 at 6:15 PM
i’m so sick of this cowardly use of language.