Jonathan Blanks
@blanksslate.bsky.social
D.C.-based criminal justice writer and socio-political critic who spends a lot of time at the library.
Hoosier by birth and college education.
Some would call me a libertarian. I would not.
https://theblanksslate.substack.com/
Signal: @jpblanks.36
Hoosier by birth and college education.
Some would call me a libertarian. I would not.
https://theblanksslate.substack.com/
Signal: @jpblanks.36
Pinned
Jonathan Blanks
@blanksslate.bsky.social
· Jan 27
Now comes the hard part
Making the country a better place starts with being a better American
theblanksslate.substack.com
Anyway, really think about how you are on here/online.
Try to focus your attention where it can do the most good, because being fucked up about everything all the time is not a healthy way to live. theblanksslate.substack.com/p/now-comes-...
Try to focus your attention where it can do the most good, because being fucked up about everything all the time is not a healthy way to live. theblanksslate.substack.com/p/now-comes-...
![Screen shot from the show Andor. Someone says to Mon Mothma “They [meaning the Empire] don’t even bother to lie badly anymore.” Mon replies “I suppose that’s the final humiliation.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ny5w2k6brb2kdubxnevke6li/bafkreibrxbmhwrnkwo2ztnczubpnzpup3uf6dpyhs7mk2uxpeoeynhjo2q@jpeg)
::stares at Cato FP team::
I’m thinking this morning about all the people I spoke to last year who were absolutely convinced, and tried to convince me, that Trump would be antiwar compared to Biden and Harris.
In the past week alone he has attacked Nigeria and then Venezuela and also threatened to attack Iran (again).
In the past week alone he has attacked Nigeria and then Venezuela and also threatened to attack Iran (again).
January 3, 2026 at 1:24 PM
::stares at Cato FP team::
Trump predictably rake stepping with horrific consequences
One of the most consistent failures in regime-change planning is the absence of honest red-teaming, i.e., calculations of the enemy’s options to respond. Regimes facing existential threats do not capitulate quietly.
What ‘Regime Change’ in Venezuela Would Really Mean
It’s not clear the administration has settled on a goal, much less considered the consequences.
lnk.thebulwark.com
January 3, 2026 at 1:20 PM
Trump predictably rake stepping with horrific consequences
Reposted by Jonathan Blanks
It's commonly used as a pejorative for any kind of right-wing war hawk, but these people are not neoconservatives either in personnel or ideological substance. Misguided as their military adventurism was, neocons did believe in spreading liberal democracy. Nobody in Trump's orbit cares about that.
“He’s siding with all this neocon stuff,” a senior Trump administration official says. “The president has not made a final decision yet on if he will strike inside Venezuela, but I’ve seen nothing to make me doubt that he wants to.”
“Trump has been ramping up his wars - both in his militarized crackdowns at home and his military adventures abroad.”
@swin24.bsky.social explains how Trump and his advisers are getting increasingly serious about bombing Venezuela to destabilize the Maduro regime.
Read: zeteo.com/p/team-trump...
@swin24.bsky.social explains how Trump and his advisers are getting increasingly serious about bombing Venezuela to destabilize the Maduro regime.
Read: zeteo.com/p/team-trump...
January 3, 2026 at 1:08 PM
It's commonly used as a pejorative for any kind of right-wing war hawk, but these people are not neoconservatives either in personnel or ideological substance. Misguided as their military adventurism was, neocons did believe in spreading liberal democracy. Nobody in Trump's orbit cares about that.
Reposted by Jonathan Blanks
I’ve long maintained that it was a mistake for Congress to have abolished itself.
January 3, 2026 at 10:57 AM
I’ve long maintained that it was a mistake for Congress to have abolished itself.
Reposted by Jonathan Blanks
Kidnapping the leader of a foreign state without any declaration of war and announcing it via social media is full-on rogue state stuff. From the world’s number one superpower.
January 3, 2026 at 9:56 AM
Kidnapping the leader of a foreign state without any declaration of war and announcing it via social media is full-on rogue state stuff. From the world’s number one superpower.
Owning at least five tweed jackets with elbow patches.
How else can professors prove "merit" besides SAT scores? Wrong answers only. I'll go first: ability to do sixth-grade geometry homework (two professors in my house fail)
January 2, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Owning at least five tweed jackets with elbow patches.
Our system cannot function when one party refuses to act in any way according to the oaths they swore as executive or legislative branch officials.
Many of his executive orders are patently illegal, Congress did nothing. He's clearly not making major decisions, and yet he hasn't been removed.
Many of his executive orders are patently illegal, Congress did nothing. He's clearly not making major decisions, and yet he hasn't been removed.
What does it mean when your doctors keep insisting you redo the cognitive exam
January 2, 2026 at 4:02 PM
Our system cannot function when one party refuses to act in any way according to the oaths they swore as executive or legislative branch officials.
Many of his executive orders are patently illegal, Congress did nothing. He's clearly not making major decisions, and yet he hasn't been removed.
Many of his executive orders are patently illegal, Congress did nothing. He's clearly not making major decisions, and yet he hasn't been removed.
Scream, hyperventilate, stare into void, repeat.
It was the second drive of the game when my husband started inventing new, scared-but-gritting-through-it variations on the surrender cobra.
If my neighbors had any question of where I went to college, that has changed.
January 1, 2026 at 9:43 PM
Scream, hyperventilate, stare into void, repeat.
If my neighbors had any question of where I went to college, that has changed.
In case anyone was wondering, we are more than an hour from kickoff and @blanksslate.bsky.social has officially crossed the threshold into Not Okay.
January 1, 2026 at 9:24 PM
If my neighbors had any question of where I went to college, that has changed.
Happy Boxing Day to all who celebrate
December 26, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Happy Boxing Day to all who celebrate
Reposted by Jonathan Blanks
This is John Roberts' America.
The blatant selling of pardons is perhaps the clearest instance of criminal conduct authorized by SCOTUS. Pardons are a quintessential "official act." So, even when Trump takes a bribe to issue one, he is presumably above the criminal law.
The president’s own chief of staff was reportedly stunned by his pardon of a former Honduran president.
December 25, 2025 at 5:29 PM
This is John Roberts' America.
Reposted by Jonathan Blanks
The “free speech” and “cancel culture” panics have led to overt state censorship because that was always their purpose. (Gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
December 23, 2025 at 4:54 PM
The “free speech” and “cancel culture” panics have led to overt state censorship because that was always their purpose. (Gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Jonathan Blanks
It is an anti-intellectual movement
It’s 'debatable' if conservatism is 'even an intellectual movement': Charlie Sykes
It’s 'debatable' if conservatism is 'even an intellectual movement': Charlie Sykes
The far-right think tank, the Heritage Foundation, is facing collapse, and conservative commentator Charlie Sykes sees it as part of something larger. Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday, Sykes called the Heritage Foundation’s decline “a long time coming.” During the 1980s, it served as the...
bit.ly
December 23, 2025 at 6:27 PM
It is an anti-intellectual movement
Reposted by Jonathan Blanks
Well done UC Berkeley.
Well done Human Rights Watch.
Well done CECOT survivors.
Well done 60 Minutes.
Well done Human Rights Watch.
Well done CECOT survivors.
Well done 60 Minutes.
December 23, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Well done UC Berkeley.
Well done Human Rights Watch.
Well done CECOT survivors.
Well done 60 Minutes.
Well done Human Rights Watch.
Well done CECOT survivors.
Well done 60 Minutes.
Reposted by Jonathan Blanks
First of all, you’re and idiot if you think they will follow through with this promise. This is entrapment.
Second of all, what an incredible “fuck you” to all of the Trump voters out there who aren’t getting money for Christmas!
Second of all, what an incredible “fuck you” to all of the Trump voters out there who aren’t getting money for Christmas!
Kristi Noem makes an announcement on Fox & Friends: "We are saying that if you voluntarily want to go home now to your country, if you're in the US illegally, we'll give you $3,000 through the holidays to send you home. We'll buy you a ticket, give you $3,000 to go home."
December 22, 2025 at 3:40 PM
First of all, you’re and idiot if you think they will follow through with this promise. This is entrapment.
Second of all, what an incredible “fuck you” to all of the Trump voters out there who aren’t getting money for Christmas!
Second of all, what an incredible “fuck you” to all of the Trump voters out there who aren’t getting money for Christmas!
Reposted by Jonathan Blanks
As ICE ramps up deportations, Texas prosecutors say they’re losing key witnesses in criminal cases www.texastribune.org/2025/12/22/t...
Texas prosecutors say deportations are harming criminal cases
District attorneys in Harris, El Paso and other counties say some cases, including murders, have been hobbled or lost because witnesses were detained, deported or too scared to come to court.
www.texastribune.org
December 22, 2025 at 3:26 PM
As ICE ramps up deportations, Texas prosecutors say they’re losing key witnesses in criminal cases www.texastribune.org/2025/12/22/t...
Por que no los dos?
The obedience is as much the story as the substance of what is being spiked.
The obedience is as much the story as the substance of what is being spiked.
Everyone's yelling about Bari Weiss but seems probabilistically much more related to the Paramount attempt to buy Warner Bros
An Editor’s Note from 60 Minutes
December 21, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Por que no los dos?
The obedience is as much the story as the substance of what is being spiked.
The obedience is as much the story as the substance of what is being spiked.
Reposted by Jonathan Blanks
…
December 21, 2025 at 9:57 PM
…
I appreciate anyone who reacts appropriately—screaming incredulously and Muppetly—when a billion dollar franchise pushes all-in on a QB from Duke.
TIL @blanksslate.bsky.social does a surprisingly creditable @minakimes.bsky.social impression
(He is live-impersonating her watching this Rams/Seahawks game)
(He is live-impersonating her watching this Rams/Seahawks game)
December 19, 2025 at 1:47 AM
I appreciate anyone who reacts appropriately—screaming incredulously and Muppetly—when a billion dollar franchise pushes all-in on a QB from Duke.