Daniel Becker
@dpbecker.bsky.social
Librarian. Historian. Participant Observer.
Turns out i may be at least half wrong in my historical analogy: based on today’s reports on the #Trump administration’s planned #retribution campaign against alleged “leftist” #domesticTerrorists, I can’t help but wonder… Is #TylerRobinson the #maga Marinus van der Lubbe?
Reading some of the commentary on the #CharlieKirk assassination, I can’t help but wonder… Is he becoming the Horst Wessel of #maga?
September 16, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Turns out i may be at least half wrong in my historical analogy: based on today’s reports on the #Trump administration’s planned #retribution campaign against alleged “leftist” #domesticTerrorists, I can’t help but wonder… Is #TylerRobinson the #maga Marinus van der Lubbe?
Reading some of the commentary on the #CharlieKirk assassination, I can’t help but wonder… Is he becoming the Horst Wessel of #maga?
September 12, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Reading some of the commentary on the #CharlieKirk assassination, I can’t help but wonder… Is he becoming the Horst Wessel of #maga?
There are some #events that turn out to be epochal turning points, and people who witness them realize right away that this is that kind of event. E.g., 11/9(89), 9/11(01). More often, though, the day’s significance doesn’t come into view until later. E.g., 1/30(33). Which moment are we living in?
August 10, 2025 at 1:54 AM
There are some #events that turn out to be epochal turning points, and people who witness them realize right away that this is that kind of event. E.g., 11/9(89), 9/11(01). More often, though, the day’s significance doesn’t come into view until later. E.g., 1/30(33). Which moment are we living in?
The thing that worries me most about this moment is the sheer number of people #fallingInLine. ( #CBS #ABC #Bezos #Zuckerberg #TimCook #AJBondi #ChiefJustice etc. et al.)
July 23, 2025 at 12:23 AM
The thing that worries me most about this moment is the sheer number of people #fallingInLine. ( #CBS #ABC #Bezos #Zuckerberg #TimCook #AJBondi #ChiefJustice etc. et al.)
We can’t really prevent the current administration from #whitewashing and/or #erasing US #history. But we CAN save it for the future. #saveoursigns
h/t: @datarescueproject.org
h/t: @datarescueproject.org
We love our National Parks. Help us #SaveOurSigns
We need your help to #SaveOurSigns
www.datarescueproject.org
July 3, 2025 at 5:01 PM
We can’t really prevent the current administration from #whitewashing and/or #erasing US #history. But we CAN save it for the future. #saveoursigns
h/t: @datarescueproject.org
h/t: @datarescueproject.org
Heartbreaking and terrifying.
Seven years ago, Pauline Shanks Kaurin left a good job as a tenured professor, uprooted her family, and moved to teach military ethics at the Naval War College. Now she's leaving in protest of policies she can't support and that make her job impossible.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
A Military Ethics Professor Resigns in Protest
Over the course of several months, Pauline Shanks Kaurin concluded she no longer had the academic freedom necessary for doing her job.
www.theatlantic.com
June 26, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Heartbreaking and terrifying.
If #Iran retaliates, do you think they’ll strike in the parts of the US that voted for #Trump or the parts that he’s targeting with his #illiberal, #theocratic #authortarianism that kinda mirrors their own?
June 22, 2025 at 3:43 AM
If #Iran retaliates, do you think they’ll strike in the parts of the US that voted for #Trump or the parts that he’s targeting with his #illiberal, #theocratic #authortarianism that kinda mirrors their own?
Welp, and less than an hour later, we seem to be actually at (not properly constitutionally declared) war.
This chilling piece from @theatlantic.com (by an avowed #neocon no less) should give us pause as we look at what’s happening in #Iran. It wouldn’t be the first time that an aspiring #authoritarian ( #Trump / #Vance ?) has used a foreign or terrorist incident (or mere threat) to undermine democracy.
Bombing Iran is a terrible idea. It’s unlikely to work—and nothing could be more perilous to American democracy than going to war under Donald Trump, Robert Kagan writes. https://theatln.tc/CH1ulpLM
June 22, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Welp, and less than an hour later, we seem to be actually at (not properly constitutionally declared) war.
Reposted by Daniel Becker
June 21, 2025 at 6:37 PM
And to think that #Nazi Germany’s #Hitler built his “foreign policy acumen” on bilateral #nonaggression pacts… 🤔 And then used what we would now call a #deepfake violation of one of those pacts to justify #WorldWar2. #Wartime situations call for desperate measures… Better prepare… it’s coming!
Amazing how the anti-war “America First” crowd vanishes when their guy starts dropping the bombs.
June 21, 2025 at 11:51 PM
And to think that #Nazi Germany’s #Hitler built his “foreign policy acumen” on bilateral #nonaggression pacts… 🤔 And then used what we would now call a #deepfake violation of one of those pacts to justify #WorldWar2. #Wartime situations call for desperate measures… Better prepare… it’s coming!
This chilling piece from @theatlantic.com (by an avowed #neocon no less) should give us pause as we look at what’s happening in #Iran. It wouldn’t be the first time that an aspiring #authoritarian ( #Trump / #Vance ?) has used a foreign or terrorist incident (or mere threat) to undermine democracy.
Bombing Iran is a terrible idea. It’s unlikely to work—and nothing could be more perilous to American democracy than going to war under Donald Trump, Robert Kagan writes. https://theatln.tc/CH1ulpLM
June 21, 2025 at 11:29 PM
This chilling piece from @theatlantic.com (by an avowed #neocon no less) should give us pause as we look at what’s happening in #Iran. It wouldn’t be the first time that an aspiring #authoritarian ( #Trump / #Vance ?) has used a foreign or terrorist incident (or mere threat) to undermine democracy.
This chilling piece from @theatlantic.com (by an avowed #neocon no less) should give us pause as we look at what’s happening in #Iran. It wouldn’t be the first time that an aspiring #authoritarian ( #Trump / #Vance ?) has used a foreign or terrorist incident (or mere threat) to undermine democracy.
American Democracy Might Not Survive a War With Iran
The United States is well down the road to dictatorship. Imagine what Trump would do with a state of war.
www.theatlantic.com
June 21, 2025 at 11:27 PM
This chilling piece from @theatlantic.com (by an avowed #neocon no less) should give us pause as we look at what’s happening in #Iran. It wouldn’t be the first time that an aspiring #authoritarian ( #Trump / #Vance ?) has used a foreign or terrorist incident (or mere threat) to undermine democracy.
Not sure how/if this is supposed to work (or is legal) but it goes to show that what matters to this administration isn’t “antisemitism,” or “civil rights,” or even “viewpoint diversity.” What they want is to stymie #Harvard (and other higher ed institutions), if only to prove a (nonsensical) point.
Breaking News: Seeking a way around the courts, President Trump issued an order that he said would stop Harvard’s international students from entering the U.S. https://trib.al/UJlY4WL
Trump Restricts Harvard’s International Students From Entering U.S.
The Trump administration has sought a workaround to the courts, which have largely blocked his efforts to restrict foreign students.
trib.al
June 5, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Not sure how/if this is supposed to work (or is legal) but it goes to show that what matters to this administration isn’t “antisemitism,” or “civil rights,” or even “viewpoint diversity.” What they want is to stymie #Harvard (and other higher ed institutions), if only to prove a (nonsensical) point.
Back in the days that this administration seems to want to return to, they called this “Sippenhaft.”
ICE Detains Family of Suspect in Colorado Attack
www.nytimes.com
June 3, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Back in the days that this administration seems to want to return to, they called this “Sippenhaft.”
Now I somehow have a mental image conflating Stephen Miller and Armie Hammer as the Winklevoss twins. #Sad people with so much #privilege. Yet here we are.
Whatever happened to these people in college must have been incredibly humiliating.
"We have to bring these universities to their knees." - DOJ official
www.cnn.com/2025/05/31/p...
www.cnn.com/2025/05/31/p...
June 1, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Now I somehow have a mental image conflating Stephen Miller and Armie Hammer as the Winklevoss twins. #Sad people with so much #privilege. Yet here we are.
I was today years old to fully understand how #FauxNews manipulates the narrative. But this was enlightening (in the most depressing way).
Harvard president takes shot at Trump in commencement speech
YouTube video by Fox News
youtube.com
June 1, 2025 at 12:48 AM
I was today years old to fully understand how #FauxNews manipulates the narrative. But this was enlightening (in the most depressing way).
Also, re. the German context, when you have a CDU chancellor criticized by his own coalition partner but encouraged on his #Ukraine stance by the (opposition) Greens(!), well… 🍿
It’s funny how history does seem to repeat itself as farce, not tragedy. Back in the day, we looked to Merkel to be the new leader of the free world, and that sorta-kinda worked. Now we have to look to Merz, Macron, and Starmer. Oh my.
Trump is hopeless when it comes to Putin - whom he both fears and admires as the Renfield to Putin's Dracula - but he has no effective national security or defense team around him to pick up the slack and actually run anything like an actual foreign policy.
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
May 28, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Also, re. the German context, when you have a CDU chancellor criticized by his own coalition partner but encouraged on his #Ukraine stance by the (opposition) Greens(!), well… 🍿
It’s funny how history does seem to repeat itself as farce, not tragedy. Back in the day, we looked to Merkel to be the new leader of the free world, and that sorta-kinda worked. Now we have to look to Merz, Macron, and Starmer. Oh my.
Trump is hopeless when it comes to Putin - whom he both fears and admires as the Renfield to Putin's Dracula - but he has no effective national security or defense team around him to pick up the slack and actually run anything like an actual foreign policy.
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Trump’s Tirades Aren’t Swaying Putin
The president stamping his feet on social media will do nothing to quell Russia's aims.
www.theatlantic.com
May 28, 2025 at 12:27 AM
It’s funny how history does seem to repeat itself as farce, not tragedy. Back in the day, we looked to Merkel to be the new leader of the free world, and that sorta-kinda worked. Now we have to look to Merz, Macron, and Starmer. Oh my.
Just finished #HarrietTubman Live in Concert, by #BobTheDragQueen and it was fun and timely and reminded me that self-acceptance and what the Germans call #Zivilcourage (civic courage) really go together. We (I) need more of it.
May 27, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Just finished #HarrietTubman Live in Concert, by #BobTheDragQueen and it was fun and timely and reminded me that self-acceptance and what the Germans call #Zivilcourage (civic courage) really go together. We (I) need more of it.
Clio won’t look kindly on this moment, that much I’m certain of. I wonder, though, if we will still be around to witness her chagrin, disdain, or horror.
May 21, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Clio won’t look kindly on this moment, that much I’m certain of. I wonder, though, if we will still be around to witness her chagrin, disdain, or horror.
“‘He knew exactly what that meant,’ Mr. #Trump said. ‘A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant #assassination.’”
Funny how it’s always only other people who “know exactly what that means.” Maybe #Comey is also “just asking questions”?
Funny how it’s always only other people who “know exactly what that means.” Maybe #Comey is also “just asking questions”?
Secret Service Questions Comey Over Social Media Post About Trump
www.nytimes.com
May 17, 2025 at 12:10 AM
“‘He knew exactly what that meant,’ Mr. #Trump said. ‘A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant #assassination.’”
Funny how it’s always only other people who “know exactly what that means.” Maybe #Comey is also “just asking questions”?
Funny how it’s always only other people who “know exactly what that means.” Maybe #Comey is also “just asking questions”?
What #Rubio, #Vance, #Musk are saying about #AfD and #democracy in #Germany is pure #gaslighting aimed at a gullible American audience that has an at best wobbly understanding of German politics or history.
May 3, 2025 at 9:40 PM
What #Rubio, #Vance, #Musk are saying about #AfD and #democracy in #Germany is pure #gaslighting aimed at a gullible American audience that has an at best wobbly understanding of German politics or history.