Jurjen Smies
@clogsoveralabama.bsky.social
Originally from the Netherlands, now hip-deep in the Dirty South. History nerd, former UN staff member and Dutch army sergeant, socially liberal, dyed-in-the-wool skeptic and atheist, coffee enthusiast, decent cook. (He/him/his)
This story has weighed on my mind since the verdict came back: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/sand...
The reason for this is that, about four years ago, I was tried on a charge of 3rd degree assault under Alabama state law. The criteria for this offense are (law.justia.com/codes/alabam...) [...]
The reason for this is that, about four years ago, I was tried on a charge of 3rd degree assault under Alabama state law. The criteria for this offense are (law.justia.com/codes/alabam...) [...]
Sandwich Guy, Thrower of Hoagie–Or Hero?
The trial ended in an acquittal. But the proceedings felt like a strange sort of performance art—highly amusing and highly menacing at the same time.
www.lawfaremedia.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:29 AM
This story has weighed on my mind since the verdict came back: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/sand...
The reason for this is that, about four years ago, I was tried on a charge of 3rd degree assault under Alabama state law. The criteria for this offense are (law.justia.com/codes/alabam...) [...]
The reason for this is that, about four years ago, I was tried on a charge of 3rd degree assault under Alabama state law. The criteria for this offense are (law.justia.com/codes/alabam...) [...]
"If you cannot recognise the will of the Führer as a source of law, then you cannot remain a judge."
-- Third Reich justice minister Franz Gürtner to district judge Lothar Kreyssig, after the latter protested regarding illegality of Aktion T4
-- Third Reich justice minister Franz Gürtner to district judge Lothar Kreyssig, after the latter protested regarding illegality of Aktion T4
October 24, 2025 at 1:23 PM
"If you cannot recognise the will of the Führer as a source of law, then you cannot remain a judge."
-- Third Reich justice minister Franz Gürtner to district judge Lothar Kreyssig, after the latter protested regarding illegality of Aktion T4
-- Third Reich justice minister Franz Gürtner to district judge Lothar Kreyssig, after the latter protested regarding illegality of Aktion T4
Montgomery, AL
October 18, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Montgomery, AL
For some feline relief from the doomscrolling, the outdoor cats from the house next door discovered my car... (I moved in last week.)
October 17, 2025 at 3:25 AM
For some feline relief from the doomscrolling, the outdoor cats from the house next door discovered my car... (I moved in last week.)
In anticipation of today's ill-advised convocation of flag-rank officers, there were references online to the officers of the Reichswehr supposedly being gathered in 1935 and told that they should pledge allegiance to the Führer in person, or else.
So that sort of happened, but not quite.
So that sort of happened, but not quite.
October 1, 2025 at 1:51 AM
In anticipation of today's ill-advised convocation of flag-rank officers, there were references online to the officers of the Reichswehr supposedly being gathered in 1935 and told that they should pledge allegiance to the Führer in person, or else.
So that sort of happened, but not quite.
So that sort of happened, but not quite.
I'm a history major, trying to discern patterns in human behavior is part of what I do. It's hard to identify patterns in "mass shootings" because that term is so amorphous, but there's a category of killer that this addresses.
www.bellingcat.com/news/america...
1/?
www.bellingcat.com/news/america...
1/?
The El Paso Shooting and the Gamification of Terror - bellingcat
On August 3, 2019, at around 11am local time, initial police reports indicated that a gunman had walked into an El Paso Wal-Mart and opened fire. As of the publication of this article, at least eighte...
www.bellingcat.com
September 26, 2025 at 3:34 AM
I'm a history major, trying to discern patterns in human behavior is part of what I do. It's hard to identify patterns in "mass shootings" because that term is so amorphous, but there's a category of killer that this addresses.
www.bellingcat.com/news/america...
1/?
www.bellingcat.com/news/america...
1/?
Dear Microsoft, a propos of nothing in particular... remember how everyone hated Clippy? Remember how you got rid of Cortana because nobody wanted that either? And let's be honest: nobody wanted Bing--not even your employees--and nobody wants Edge. Why would you think anyone wants Copilot?
September 26, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Dear Microsoft, a propos of nothing in particular... remember how everyone hated Clippy? Remember how you got rid of Cortana because nobody wanted that either? And let's be honest: nobody wanted Bing--not even your employees--and nobody wants Edge. Why would you think anyone wants Copilot?
American right wing suddenly realizes that political violence is undesirable when it's pointed at them.
September 11, 2025 at 3:51 AM
American right wing suddenly realizes that political violence is undesirable when it's pointed at them.
I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the classes I registered for this Fall semester just got canceled because of Alabama SB129 (state law prohibiting "DEI" and certain "divisive concepts" in public education).
July 19, 2025 at 3:52 PM
I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the classes I registered for this Fall semester just got canceled because of Alabama SB129 (state law prohibiting "DEI" and certain "divisive concepts" in public education).
I can't help feeling the end of the Cold War enabled the idiot tendency in American politics. Before that, the idiots could be shuffled aside because "we have to beat the Soviets, and the adults are talking" on just about any subject.
We had competent government, but it came from smart people; that made the stupid people feel bad, so now we get Government by the World's Dumbest White People.
I’m really feeling like the Texas horror is shaping up as a test case to see how much the country has just let go of any hope that the MAGA government be competent at anything.
July 11, 2025 at 4:44 AM
I can't help feeling the end of the Cold War enabled the idiot tendency in American politics. Before that, the idiots could be shuffled aside because "we have to beat the Soviets, and the adults are talking" on just about any subject.
In late 2023, I wrote a paper about the "subsequent proceedings" at Nuremberg, the US-run trials that followed the IMT, and in researching it, I learned way more about the workings of the Third Reich than I perhaps wanted to know. This included the existence of the SS-WVHA, the "economic office." /1
"With the passage of Trump's death bill, we face the prospect of many great harms, including an archipelago of concentration camps across the United States."
snyder.substack.com/p/concentrat...
snyder.substack.com/p/concentrat...
Concentration Camp Labor
Cannot Become Normal
snyder.substack.com
July 4, 2025 at 4:23 PM
In late 2023, I wrote a paper about the "subsequent proceedings" at Nuremberg, the US-run trials that followed the IMT, and in researching it, I learned way more about the workings of the Third Reich than I perhaps wanted to know. This included the existence of the SS-WVHA, the "economic office." /1
"We've got skulls on our hats..."
July 3, 2025 at 2:55 AM
"We've got skulls on our hats..."
Not a great article, in that it doesn't clarify the existence of both criminal denaturalization (which has a 10-year limitation) and "civil" (which cannot result in incarceration, at worst in deportation). From what I understand, even in a civil proceeding [...]
www.npr.org/2025/06/30/n...
www.npr.org/2025/06/30/n...
DOJ announces plans to prioritize cases to revoke citizenship
Denaturalization is a tactic heavily used during the McCarthy era and one that was expanded during the Obama administration and grew further during President Trump's first term. It's a tool usually us...
www.npr.org
June 30, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Not a great article, in that it doesn't clarify the existence of both criminal denaturalization (which has a 10-year limitation) and "civil" (which cannot result in incarceration, at worst in deportation). From what I understand, even in a civil proceeding [...]
www.npr.org/2025/06/30/n...
www.npr.org/2025/06/30/n...
With a lot of people claiming that DHS is paying bounties for suspected undocumented immigrants, let's turn to Snopes: www.snopes.com/news/2025/06...
Spoiler: there's no solid evidence to support the idea, as worded. However... /1
Spoiler: there's no solid evidence to support the idea, as worded. However... /1
Investigating claims ICE is 'deputizing' bounty hunters to arrest undocumented immigrants
A man in Sunnyside, Washington, claimed ICE would pay up to $1,500 per person bounty hunters brought in.
www.snopes.com
June 24, 2025 at 5:32 PM
With a lot of people claiming that DHS is paying bounties for suspected undocumented immigrants, let's turn to Snopes: www.snopes.com/news/2025/06...
Spoiler: there's no solid evidence to support the idea, as worded. However... /1
Spoiler: there's no solid evidence to support the idea, as worded. However... /1
There are a lot of people drawing parallels with early 1930s Germany these days (with reason) and I'd like to hold forth for a bit about "anti-fascism." 🧵
June 13, 2025 at 3:19 AM
There are a lot of people drawing parallels with early 1930s Germany these days (with reason) and I'd like to hold forth for a bit about "anti-fascism." 🧵
Pete Hegseth once scared America’s allies. Now he reassures them
www.economist.com/united-state...
From The Economist
But then he said ISAF stood for "I Saw Americans Fighting," blithely ignoring the casualties. So much for allies being "force multipliers" and all that jazz.
www.economist.com/united-state...
From The Economist
But then he said ISAF stood for "I Saw Americans Fighting," blithely ignoring the casualties. So much for allies being "force multipliers" and all that jazz.
Pete Hegseth once scared America’s allies. Now he reassures them
The defence secretary is a MAGA radical at home but a globalist abroad
www.economist.com
June 11, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Pete Hegseth once scared America’s allies. Now he reassures them
www.economist.com/united-state...
From The Economist
But then he said ISAF stood for "I Saw Americans Fighting," blithely ignoring the casualties. So much for allies being "force multipliers" and all that jazz.
www.economist.com/united-state...
From The Economist
But then he said ISAF stood for "I Saw Americans Fighting," blithely ignoring the casualties. So much for allies being "force multipliers" and all that jazz.
"Trump won a narrow victory in a close election. He did so on a promise to lower prices and close the United States to foreign criminals."
This. Hence the protestations of people who voted for him that, "I didn't vote for" increased tariffs, prices not coming down, and troops on the street.
This. Hence the protestations of people who voted for him that, "I didn't vote for" increased tariffs, prices not coming down, and troops on the street.
wrote about what the protests say about the strength, or lack thereof, of the trump administration www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/o...
Opinion | Trump Wants to Be a Strongman, but He’s Actually a Weak Man (Gift Article)
He is still dangerous, though.
www.nytimes.com
June 11, 2025 at 3:41 PM
"Trump won a narrow victory in a close election. He did so on a promise to lower prices and close the United States to foreign criminals."
This. Hence the protestations of people who voted for him that, "I didn't vote for" increased tariffs, prices not coming down, and troops on the street.
This. Hence the protestations of people who voted for him that, "I didn't vote for" increased tariffs, prices not coming down, and troops on the street.
Money quote:
"Just as Trump and Miller needed to paint all migrants as criminals but now are reduced to scouring Home Depot parking lots, so too must they wildly inflate the violence in L.A. [...] to keep the MAGA Media Complex happy."
newrepublic.com/article/1966...
"Just as Trump and Miller needed to paint all migrants as criminals but now are reduced to scouring Home Depot parking lots, so too must they wildly inflate the violence in L.A. [...] to keep the MAGA Media Complex happy."
newrepublic.com/article/1966...
Trump’s Fury at Gavin Newsom Backfires—and Reveals His Own Weakness
The media has it wrong. Trump is not coming across as fearsome and strong. Instead, his watch-me-play-fascist-on-TV routine is self-evident overkill.
newrepublic.com
June 11, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Money quote:
"Just as Trump and Miller needed to paint all migrants as criminals but now are reduced to scouring Home Depot parking lots, so too must they wildly inflate the violence in L.A. [...] to keep the MAGA Media Complex happy."
newrepublic.com/article/1966...
"Just as Trump and Miller needed to paint all migrants as criminals but now are reduced to scouring Home Depot parking lots, so too must they wildly inflate the violence in L.A. [...] to keep the MAGA Media Complex happy."
newrepublic.com/article/1966...
Hat tip to @parkermolloy.com for this: a cartoon by Charles Brooks in the Birmingham News from the "long hot summer" of 1967.
Brooks was in a position to know better, because the Birmingham riot had taken place four years prior, at the trail end of Project C(onfrontation). [...]
Brooks was in a position to know better, because the Birmingham riot had taken place four years prior, at the trail end of Project C(onfrontation). [...]
June 10, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Hat tip to @parkermolloy.com for this: a cartoon by Charles Brooks in the Birmingham News from the "long hot summer" of 1967.
Brooks was in a position to know better, because the Birmingham riot had taken place four years prior, at the trail end of Project C(onfrontation). [...]
Brooks was in a position to know better, because the Birmingham riot had taken place four years prior, at the trail end of Project C(onfrontation). [...]
So I'm seeing reports of criminal non-state actors piggybacking on the behavior of state actors disregarding the rule of law to do Bad Things, like running phony immigration sites and robbing people while pretending to be ICE thugs. Part of me deplores this, another part says [...]
June 10, 2025 at 3:28 AM
So I'm seeing reports of criminal non-state actors piggybacking on the behavior of state actors disregarding the rule of law to do Bad Things, like running phony immigration sites and robbing people while pretending to be ICE thugs. Part of me deplores this, another part says [...]
IANAL, but I am a historian who happens to have spent 3+ years working in the back rooms of the prosecution of a UN ad hoc tribunal, and I wrote an award-winning paper on the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, so let's talk about what a tribunal is and why it can do what it does.
June 8, 2025 at 4:43 AM
IANAL, but I am a historian who happens to have spent 3+ years working in the back rooms of the prosecution of a UN ad hoc tribunal, and I wrote an award-winning paper on the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, so let's talk about what a tribunal is and why it can do what it does.
"Let's run government like a business! The kind of business that's operated by a monomaniacal CEO who thinks he shouldn't have to answer to anyone!"
June 5, 2025 at 9:03 PM
"Let's run government like a business! The kind of business that's operated by a monomaniacal CEO who thinks he shouldn't have to answer to anyone!"
I wonder how long it will take before the deputization of Musk's private security detail by the US Marshals Service is rescinded.
Assuming it hasn't already.
Assuming it hasn't already.
June 5, 2025 at 8:34 PM
I wonder how long it will take before the deputization of Musk's private security detail by the US Marshals Service is rescinded.
Assuming it hasn't already.
Assuming it hasn't already.
"That is, why not just use dollars instead of tokens that are supposedly backed by dollars?" is something I've been wondering as well. (NB: "supposedly backed")
paulkrugman.substack.com/p/digital-co...
paulkrugman.substack.com/p/digital-co...
Digital Corruption Takes Over DC
Time to call crypto what it is: A criminal enterprise
paulkrugman.substack.com
May 30, 2025 at 2:02 PM
"That is, why not just use dollars instead of tokens that are supposedly backed by dollars?" is something I've been wondering as well. (NB: "supposedly backed")
paulkrugman.substack.com/p/digital-co...
paulkrugman.substack.com/p/digital-co...
Reposted by Jurjen Smies
www.justsecurity.org/113882/civil... fantastic piece
Business Leaders Must Mount Resistance to Trump
Business leaders face a pivotal choice: will they mount a collective defense against threats to democracy, or will they remain passive?
www.justsecurity.org
May 30, 2025 at 12:54 PM
www.justsecurity.org/113882/civil... fantastic piece