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cylindrmag.bsky.social
cylindr magazine
@cylindrmag.bsky.social
The online magazine & meetinghouse for democracy, human rights, and rule of law (cylindrmag.substack.com)
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From child piano prodigy to Foreign Service Officer, Vietnam whistleblower, refugee repatriator, husband, father, gay lover, and AIDS activist, DBA traces the life arc of an extraordinary man through some of the most transformative times in modern American history.
open.substack.com/pub/cylindrm...
D.B.A.
The Evolution of David Brooks Arnold
open.substack.com
The seeds of hope that USAID left behind. Rule of Law Defenders podcast.
open.substack.com/pub/cylindrm...
What Might Have Been
Shibani Shah, lawyer and former senior rule of law development advocate, on what was lost when the US government decimated its foreign assistance programming, and seeds of hope it left for the future.
open.substack.com
January 28, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Rest in Peace Alex Jeffrey Pretti🙏🏾 The VA ICU Nurses send him off right 💔
January 26, 2026 at 1:49 PM
WSJ EDITORIAL BOARD: “.. This is backfiring against Republicans. .. Americans don’t want law enforcement shooting people in the street or arresting five-year-old boys.”

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/opinion/time...
January 26, 2026 at 1:46 PM
Trump seeks fraternity with autocrats simply because they have the power and wealth he wants. The fact that they have it means that it can be had, which is the only logic he recognizes. Swearing to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States” was merely a means to that end.
January 25, 2026 at 2:52 AM
January 24, 2026 at 7:57 PM
Let’s get back to the good ol’ days of lawyer jokes — because the current reality only gets darker for democracy and a just rule of law.

International Day of the Endangered Lawyer, January 24

www.nycbar.org/wp-content/u...
www.nycbar.org
January 24, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Truly a moral and legal outrage
Trumpists view moral causes solely as justifications for violence against those they see as their enemies, the underlying moral issue is irrelevant bsky.app/profile/reic...
Another day, another outrage; ICE under Trump is going to deport dozens of people to Iran, including two gay men previously arrested by the regime who face the death penalty for their orientation, and despite the ongoing crackdowns which have killed thousands.

An administration of total inhumanity.
January 23, 2026 at 4:29 PM
A factor not to be forgotten.
January 21, 2026 at 12:15 PM
Since the days of World War I, America was the country that resisted conquest, standing up to Hitler’s Germany, Tojo’s Japan and Stalin’s Soviet Union when they seized foreign terrain. Now Trump aspires to put America into the category of conquerors. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
With Threats to Greenland, Trump Sets America on the Road to Conquest
www.nytimes.com
January 20, 2026 at 2:09 PM
At Davos, Governor Gavin Newsom said European leaders were “complicit” and “pathetic” in how they handle President Trump, adding that he should have “brought a bunch of knee pads for them.”
January 20, 2026 at 2:02 PM
The True Meaning of Our Creed
This MLK Day begs the question anew.
open.substack.com
January 19, 2026 at 1:57 PM
January 14, 2026 at 11:25 AM
January 14, 2026 at 11:21 AM
"What about antisemitism’s political profile? For the overall sample, the survey found no consistent ideological or partisan split in agreement with antisemitic statements." In other words, on some level, this is everyone's problem.
Young Americans Are Turning Antisemitic
A recent survey shows a clear shift toward anti-Jewish sentiment—and it’s worst on the far right.
lnk.thebulwark.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:06 PM
At least four leaders of a Justice Department unit that investigates police killings have resigned in protest over the administration’s handling of the fatal shooting of a motorist in Minneapolis by an ICE officer, @carolleonnig.bsky.social and Ken Dilanian report. www.ms.now/news/doj-civ...
A new spate of Justice Department officials quit because their section didn't want to probe Renee Good's shooting
At least four leaders of the Civil Rights Division resigned because the section's head, Harmeet Dhillon, decided not to investigate shooting of Renee Good.
www.ms.now
January 13, 2026 at 5:05 PM
💯
This past weekend, Jerome Powell appeared at last to discover a core truth about this White House: The only thing that ever works is punching back. And how!

Today's Morning Shots, from @eggerdc.bsky.social and @cathyyoung63.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/49q0W9u
Send It In, Jerome!
The Fed chair finally learns that the only way to deal with Trump is to push back.
lnk.thebulwark.com
January 13, 2026 at 2:32 PM
“.. Ms. Weiss has achieved that goal — perhaps not in the way she hoped.”

@nytimes.com $PSKY
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/b...
January 13, 2026 at 2:17 PM
The #projection is strong with this one.
January 13, 2026 at 2:14 PM
"As of Sunday, the war in Ukraine has lasted as long as ... the Soviet involvement in World War II: 1,418 days," Amy Knight points out. "Stalin’s forces made it to Berlin" but last year Putin's troops "captured less than 1% of Ukrainian territory." www.wsj.com/opinion/the-...
Opinion | The U.S. Could Make 2026 Even Worse for Putin Than 2025
The war in Ukraine has lasted as long as Soviet involvement in World War II, with no victory in sight.
www.wsj.com
January 12, 2026 at 6:10 PM
#BrokenPost catalogs how Trump's attacks on voting rights but positions it as merely "trying to change how the midterm elections are conducted...beyond typical political persuasion...challenging long-established democratic norms."
It's fascism.
January 12, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Assuming the republic finally saves itself, watching craven AG Pam Bondi and her motley ilk of “lawyers” in Trump’s corrupt DOJ get #disbarred one day will be especially sweet. As in his first term, everyone around him ends up diminished. And they do it to themselves.
January 12, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Assuming the republic finally saves itself, watching craven Pam Bondi and her motley ilk of “lawyers” in Trump’s corrupt DOJ get disbarred one day will be especially sweet. As in his first term, everyone around him gets diminished. No exceptions. And they do it to themselves.
January 12, 2026 at 4:32 AM
Trump said he ordered Nicolás Maduro's capture to bring charges and seize Venezuela’s oil. Prominent far-right figures, however, suggest the operation was designed to prove a conspiracy theory that Venezuela helped rig the 2020 election.
Election deniers think Maduro’s capture will expose plot to steal 2020
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com
January 10, 2026 at 4:19 PM