David Kaye
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davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye
@davidakaye.bsky.social
17K followers 980 following 940 posts

californian. human rights, free expression, tech, international law. uc irvine. fulbright. article 19. prior: UN special rapporteur, GNI chair.

edu coalition (dm for details)

go bears!

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David Kaye is an American politician who served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression between August 2014 and July 2020, succeeded by Irene Khan. .. more

Law 28%
Political science 21%
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davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · Sep 3
👀 Jim Jordan held a House Judiciary Committee hearing on . . . how Europe censors Americans. Nigel Farage came along! Let's just say I have a slightly different view than them. My written and oral testimony are here: ijclinic.law.uci.edu/2025/09/03/h...

Here are my concluding paras:
last paragraph of testimony: "I urge this Committee to consider the real threat to Americans’ freedom of expression, the one here at home. I have noted a handful of areas where this administration is putting freedom of expression under direct attack. Where is the opposition, let alone outrage, given the attack not only on speakers – journalists, public media, professors, students, whistleblowers, civil servants – but on every American’s right of access to information about the issues important to our democracy and to our public’s health? That, I would respectfully submit, is the real threat to American speech and innovation, and I look forward to helping this Committee, in any way you see fit, work to address it."

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 2h
i imagine some maga-embracing lawyers will come up with some nonsense and say this was all legal. don't buy it. and if you want a legitimate public debate, rather than one chasing b.s., i wouldn't platform it either.

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 2h
for sure accurate. i'm just trying to remember ever seeing "fuck" in a mainstream publication headline.

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 2h
i am really happy to see this statement from the ED of the most important professional organization of international lawyers/academics in the united states.

very proud to be associated with it and i hope it gets wide attention, b/c there is no question: the attack on venezuela violates int'l law.
asilorg.bsky.social American Society of International Law @asilorg.bsky.social · 2h
Regarding United States Action in Venezuela

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 2h
i'm no prude but this headline certainly struck me as clickbaity
The Fuck-Around-and-Find-Out Presidency
Truman, Reagan, and Monroe wouldn’t approve of the language, but a doctrine is a doctrine, even if it’s only five words long.
www.theatlantic.com

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 2h
this may be the first time i express agreement with john bolton, and i def agree with @kschake.bsky.social
As John Bolton, currently a Trump nemesis but once one of his first-term national security advisers, told us, “There is no Trump Doctrine: No matter what he does, there is no grand conceptual framework; it’s whatever suits him at the moment.” Kori Schake, the director of foreign- and defense-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, cautioned us that “we shouldn’t ennoble Trump policy by saying there’s a doctrine.”

Reposted by David H. Kaye, Ralf Michaels, Diane Marie Amann , and 1 more

asilorg.bsky.social
American Society of International Law @asilorg.bsky.social · 2h
Regarding United States Action in Venezuela

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 6h
is mette frederiksen our contemporary joseph welch? a european leader finally willing to say to trump, have you no sense of decency?

Reposted by David H. Kaye

cjsprigman.bsky.social
Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 6h
Yea, we are the baddies www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/w...
Denmark Tells Trump to ‘Stop the Threats’ About Greenland
www.nytimes.com

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 6h
the administration may not realize how it has put on trial not just maduro but the very notion of invading a country to capture and render a head of state. just as with the other cases, all its lies will fall apart.

Reposted by Fionnuala Ní Aoláin

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 18h
FT captures what is almost certainly the common global attitude (among our democratic allies at least) toward trump giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
This, arguably more than anything else so far in his tumultuous second presidency, epitomises the cavalier and self-interested nature of the US under Trump. Critics of the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq liked to argue, somewhat inaccurately, that it was “all about oil”. This intervention, though, really does seem to be a lot about oil; Venezuela has the largest reserves in the world. At the start of the second year of Trump’s second term, his message is clear: his US does not just feel unbound by the niceties of the post-1945 ideas of international rules and law, it will intervene all but at will in its own hemisphere — and possibly elsewhere too. The blatant violation of sovereignty of a major South American state sends a bleak signal to the rest of the world. It will reinforce the conviction around the world and increasingly among US allies that America is not just a hypocrite, but Trump is willing to lead by example in presiding over a world where might is right. There was no attempt to gain congressional approval for action nor even to go through the motions of seeking backing at the UN, however doomed such an attempt would have been.  Authoritarians will be heartened by Trump’s behaviour. It may be simplistic to argue, as have some critics of the US leader, that this will embolden China over Taiwan. But there is no question that it will, for example, make it even harder for the west to rally support in the global south against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As for Venezuela itself, few will mourn the end of Maduro’s rule, but sadly Trump seems to have little interest in what happens there next.

Reposted by David H. Kaye

prasad.bsky.social
Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 18h
What we know for sure: vaccines are safe, effective, and one of the best inventions to come from science and medicine

the collateral benefits are intriguing & potentially significant, but because of medical ethics, we can't be as sure about cause-and-effect: vaccines are too good as primary Rx
Nearly all studies of off-target benefits are observational, since scientists cannot ethically refuse a safe, effective vaccine to a control group who could then become infected with the disease. That means such studies are subject to “healthy volunteer bias,” because vaccinated patients may also practice other healthy habits, differentiating them from those not vaccinated. Although researchers try to control for a variety of potentially confounding differences, from age and sex to health and education, “we can only say there’s a strong association, not a cause and effect,” Dr. Maggi said.

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 18h
i've been trying to get some to focus on something like this
davidakaye.bsky.social David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 2d
democrats need to introduce a resolution disapproving trump's aggression and directing him to withdraw US forces.

here's a draft. it's not rocket science.
Draft text of a JOINT RESOLUTION Providing for congressional disapproval of the use of United States Armed Forces against Venezuela concluding: Be it therefore resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the use of force by the United States Armed Forces and any other Departments of the U.S. Government is hereby disapproved and, consistent with Section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution, directs the President immediately to remove U.S. forces from the territory of Venezuela.

Reposted by David H. Kaye

tessbridgeman.bsky.social
Tess Bridgeman @tessbridgeman.bsky.social · 18h
Our concluding thoughts:

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 19h
jad is one of the great american storytellers of the digital age.

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 19h
i may be late to the party, but i cannot recommend strongly enough jad abumrad's phenomenal podcast about fela kuti. rich & complex portrait, fabulous interviews, amazing music. best podcast i listened to in 2025 by far.

new yorker wrote it up here 👇
The World-Shifting Grooves of Fela Kuti
Jad Abumrad’s new podcast, “Fela Kuti: Fear No Man,” shows how one musician created both a genre and a way of challenging those in power.
www.newyorker.com

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 20h
it's a thing? i hereby withdraw the nomination.
a man in a tuxedo is sitting at a table and saying i did not know that .
ALT: a man in a tuxedo is sitting at a table and saying i did not know that .
media.tenor.com

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 20h
give him the Ignoble Prize. he deserves it 100%. let his staff explain the honor.

Reposted by David H. Kaye

financialtimes.com
Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 22h
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen made her most significant rebuff of the US following the American president’s comments about the vast Arctic island. ft.trib.al/GfKL9ch

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 1d
niche framing, i approve

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 1d
excellent. and…😢

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 1d
what a treat!

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 1d
the video's last image involves an astronaut disappearing into space
part of the last image of bowie's last video

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 1d
it just dawned on me that next saturday marks a decade since bowie left us. his last track on his last album, blackstar, always hits me, b/c it's true, & he knew he would be dead within days of its release. what he did give was a total gift.

Reposted by David H. Kaye, Michael A. Clemens

chadbourn.bsky.social
Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 1d
As discussed here previously, the US seems to be gearing up for a strike on Iran.

Reposted by Kori Schake, Martin McKee, Elizabeth Saunders , and 20 more

tbenner.bsky.social
Thorsten Benner @tbenner.bsky.social · 1d
It's wild that the PM of a NATO member feels compelled to put out a statement like this vis-à-vis the US government.

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 1d
each bowie video is a compact work of art, up until his very last ones

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 1d
this is what i was trying to link to
davidakaye.bsky.social David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 2d
democrats need to introduce a resolution disapproving trump's aggression and directing him to withdraw US forces.

here's a draft. it's not rocket science.
Draft text of a JOINT RESOLUTION Providing for congressional disapproval of the use of United States Armed Forces against Venezuela concluding: Be it therefore resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the use of force by the United States Armed Forces and any other Departments of the U.S. Government is hereby disapproved and, consistent with Section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution, directs the President immediately to remove U.S. forces from the territory of Venezuela.

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 1d
a handful of dems are saying and doing the right thing. clarity is everything.

they need a vehicle to capture the conversation imo. try this: bsky.app/profile/davi...
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d
Chris Murphy: "Clearly this is wildly illegal. This is a president who has been operating illegally since he was sworn in -- stealing from the American people, seizing spending power, now dragging America into a war overseas ... Donald Trump's entire foreign policy is corrupt."

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 1d
this isn't some polemic i'm trying to put out there. these three principals are saying really different things. *maybe* that's their plan - it makes it harder for journalists to pin down what's actually happening. but it seems shambolic.

Reposted by Sarah Roberts, Greg Linden, Colm O’Cinneíde , and 2 more

davidakaye.bsky.social
David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 1d
my sense is this: not only are trump and rubio and hegseth lying to the public about the purposes, impact, planning, etc of the attack on venezuela. they are lying to each other. they have no idea what they're doing or where this ends.