Dan Nexon
@dhnexon.bsky.social
Professor in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Power Politics | Empires | International Order
dhnexon.net | https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com | duckofminerva.com
Power Politics | Empires | International Order
dhnexon.net | https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com | duckofminerva.com
Pinned
Dan Nexon
@dhnexon.bsky.social
· Oct 4
It has been suggested that i pin this piece, but I never actually posted it myself. So 👇
Reposted by Dan Nexon
Donald Trump Is Threating to Test Nuclear Weapons And No One Knows Why - nationalsecurityjournal.org/donald-trump...
Donald Trump Is Threating to Test Nuclear Weapons And No One Knows Why
Trump is "strongly considering" resuming nuclear tests (paused since 1992), a "provocative" move to counter Russia, despite a 30-year moratorium.
nationalsecurityjournal.org
November 10, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Donald Trump Is Threating to Test Nuclear Weapons And No One Knows Why - nationalsecurityjournal.org/donald-trump...
Reposted by Dan Nexon
I think a lot about the anonymous note that Judge Young included at the beginning of his AAUP v. Rubio opinion: “Trump has pardons and tanks … what do you have?” The pardons may be more dangerous than the tanks.
"If you’re a Republican official convicted of corruption, your odds of receiving clemency from Trump are roughly 100%...
"The latest move seems intended to deliver a political message: Those who assist Trump with his schemes need not worry about legal consequences..."
www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
"The latest move seems intended to deliver a political message: Those who assist Trump with his schemes need not worry about legal consequences..."
www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
November 10, 2025 at 7:58 PM
I think a lot about the anonymous note that Judge Young included at the beginning of his AAUP v. Rubio opinion: “Trump has pardons and tanks … what do you have?” The pardons may be more dangerous than the tanks.
Reposted by Dan Nexon
We can must shall and will drain the Greatest Lake and plunder her icewater palaces
today, like every day, is a good day to remember everything Lake Superior has taken from us. the only language the Great Lakes understand is force.
RIP to the Eddie Fitz
RIP to the Eddie Fitz
November 10, 2025 at 7:56 PM
We can must shall and will drain the Greatest Lake and plunder her icewater palaces
Reposted by Dan Nexon
After Trump halted the US Refugee Admissions Program, Jewish Family Services in Columbus Ohio lost more than $2 million. Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services has had to tell families they could no longer help find housing, enroll kids in school or find jobs. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/11/10/r...
America’s suspended refugee program leaves families separated, resettlement agencies unfunded • Ohio Capital Journal
After Trump halted the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program by executive order, Jewish Family Services in Columbus, Ohio lost more than $2 million. Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services has had to tell…
ohiocapitaljournal.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:30 PM
After Trump halted the US Refugee Admissions Program, Jewish Family Services in Columbus Ohio lost more than $2 million. Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services has had to tell families they could no longer help find housing, enroll kids in school or find jobs. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/11/10/r...
Reposted by Dan Nexon
I have thoughts, and they aren’t going to fit neatly into Bluesky posts. Briefly:
1. The deal sucks.
2. Probably not as much as you think it does.
3. It’s good to be mad.
4. FFS, be madder at the GOP.
5. Strategy is hard.
5b. Timing matters.
6. The fight isn’t over.
7. Go pet a cat. (Or a dog.)
1. The deal sucks.
2. Probably not as much as you think it does.
3. It’s good to be mad.
4. FFS, be madder at the GOP.
5. Strategy is hard.
5b. Timing matters.
6. The fight isn’t over.
7. Go pet a cat. (Or a dog.)
November 10, 2025 at 12:55 PM
I have thoughts, and they aren’t going to fit neatly into Bluesky posts. Briefly:
1. The deal sucks.
2. Probably not as much as you think it does.
3. It’s good to be mad.
4. FFS, be madder at the GOP.
5. Strategy is hard.
5b. Timing matters.
6. The fight isn’t over.
7. Go pet a cat. (Or a dog.)
1. The deal sucks.
2. Probably not as much as you think it does.
3. It’s good to be mad.
4. FFS, be madder at the GOP.
5. Strategy is hard.
5b. Timing matters.
6. The fight isn’t over.
7. Go pet a cat. (Or a dog.)
Reposted by Dan Nexon
With SNAP benefits going out late, nonprofits are begging for pet food donations to prevent desperate owners from surrendering their dogs and cats to animal shelters.
Families on SNAP worry about not just feeding themselves but also their pets
With SNAP benefits going out late, nonprofits are begging for pet food donations to prevent desperate owners from surrendering their dogs and cats to animal shelters.
bit.ly
November 8, 2025 at 4:00 PM
With SNAP benefits going out late, nonprofits are begging for pet food donations to prevent desperate owners from surrendering their dogs and cats to animal shelters.
Reposted by Dan Nexon
"I have been on two humanitarian-esque missions with the guard, which were awesome, doing the things you see on the commercial, helping these communities," says J. "And then you want me to go pick up trash and dissuade homeless people in D.C. at gunpoint. Like, no dude.“
In an encrypted group chat, National Guard members question Trump deployments
As President Trump's call for National Guard deployments rings out across the U.S., a small contingent of Ohio guard members is quietly expressing concern in an encrypted group chat.
www.npr.org
November 10, 2025 at 5:25 PM
"I have been on two humanitarian-esque missions with the guard, which were awesome, doing the things you see on the commercial, helping these communities," says J. "And then you want me to go pick up trash and dissuade homeless people in D.C. at gunpoint. Like, no dude.“
Reposted by Dan Nexon
Many people recently deported on flights told Capital & Main that the U.S. government had taken their phones, and they struggled with the little money that they had to find their way out of being stranded in a city they did not know.
Read more here: www.laprogressive.com/immigration-...
Read more here: www.laprogressive.com/immigration-...
www.laprogressive.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Many people recently deported on flights told Capital & Main that the U.S. government had taken their phones, and they struggled with the little money that they had to find their way out of being stranded in a city they did not know.
Read more here: www.laprogressive.com/immigration-...
Read more here: www.laprogressive.com/immigration-...
Reposted by Dan Nexon
* In case you're wondering, many South Africans follow US politics with intense morbid curiosity, has do hundreds of millions of people all over the world. They have to. We're a powerful empire in decline and all the more dangerous for that very reason.
November 10, 2025 at 5:25 PM
* In case you're wondering, many South Africans follow US politics with intense morbid curiosity, has do hundreds of millions of people all over the world. They have to. We're a powerful empire in decline and all the more dangerous for that very reason.
Reposted by Dan Nexon
The U.S. Air Force Academy's academic accreditation is under review following a formal complaint that the institution no longer has sufficient Ph.D.-level faculty as the federal government reduces its civilian workforce // Story by @thenoellephillips.bsky.social
Air Force Academy’s accreditation under review after cuts to civilian faculty
Concerned alumni and former faculty told The Denver Post they believe the academy is losing too many civilian Ph.D.-level instructors without the ability to replace them with qualified military mem…
www.denverpost.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:56 PM
The U.S. Air Force Academy's academic accreditation is under review following a formal complaint that the institution no longer has sufficient Ph.D.-level faculty as the federal government reduces its civilian workforce // Story by @thenoellephillips.bsky.social
Reposted by Dan Nexon
This is insane. This is *literally* doing the same mechanics of the housing crisis and 2008 recession but to create debt to finance construction of AI data centers
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/b...
November 10, 2025 at 4:19 PM
This is insane. This is *literally* doing the same mechanics of the housing crisis and 2008 recession but to create debt to finance construction of AI data centers
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/b...
Reposted by Dan Nexon
More grist for my mill; another example of domestic battles over bias ultimately threatening a valuable geopolitical asset (the World Service)
Mail Online reports Nigel Farage says that the BBC may have no future.
He imagines bringing to an end century of public service broadcasting in the UK - because the populist politician and his US political ally Donald Trump do not want the BBC to survive
No thanks, Nigel.
No thanks, Donald
He imagines bringing to an end century of public service broadcasting in the UK - because the populist politician and his US political ally Donald Trump do not want the BBC to survive
No thanks, Nigel.
No thanks, Donald
November 10, 2025 at 2:36 PM
More grist for my mill; another example of domestic battles over bias ultimately threatening a valuable geopolitical asset (the World Service)
Reposted by Dan Nexon
If we ever get back to proper rule of law constitutionalism, the presidential pardon power needs to be curbed if not abrogated. Require senate supermajority approval, at minimum.
Trump just celebrated Schumer's cave by pardoning 75+ co-conspirators including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and Sidney Powell, for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
November 10, 2025 at 7:09 AM
If we ever get back to proper rule of law constitutionalism, the presidential pardon power needs to be curbed if not abrogated. Require senate supermajority approval, at minimum.
Reposted by Dan Nexon
First kids at a Halloween parade getting tear gassed and now this. Abhorrent and unacceptable.
Girl Scouts in a Chicago Suburb hosted a food drive. But the girls encountered masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with weapons.
"ICE turned it into a scary and what felt like an unsafe environment for us to be out with these kids"
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
"ICE turned it into a scary and what felt like an unsafe environment for us to be out with these kids"
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Masked ICE agents put damper on Oak Park Girl Scout food drive: ‘It’s heartbreaking as a mom’
Federal immigration agents were confronted in Oak Park on Saturday morning by residents blowing whistles as local Girl Scouts collect food for local pantries, rattling some girls and their parents.
chicago.suntimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
First kids at a Halloween parade getting tear gassed and now this. Abhorrent and unacceptable.
Reposted by Dan Nexon
Here’s video of federal agents doing a drive by pepper spraying that hit a father and his one-year old on Saturday when the Feds were hitting Little Village and Cicero
November 9, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Here’s video of federal agents doing a drive by pepper spraying that hit a father and his one-year old on Saturday when the Feds were hitting Little Village and Cicero
Reposted by Dan Nexon
Can't prove this but my strong sense is that the factional grifters have outsized sway with certain NYT reporters
This NYT framing is ludicrously overstated. Sure, there are primaries. But if anything, the results showed a lot of Dems that there's a way to unify the factions around anti-Trump and affordability politics (as I try to argue in the piece/thread below).
November 9, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Can't prove this but my strong sense is that the factional grifters have outsized sway with certain NYT reporters
Reposted by Dan Nexon
every sunday, from pulpits in megachurches across america, white evangelicals cry out about some imaginary persecution of christianity. but i can’t stop thinking about the pile of rosaries collected by a janitor at a border crossing or the priest turned away at the gates of the detention camp.
“Federal authorities told demonstrators Friday that there would be ‘no more prayer’ in front of or inside the Broadview ICE facility, in a move that mystified local leaders and raised legal questions.” blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/07/f...
Feds Tell Faith Leaders 'No More Prayer' Outside Broadview Facility
In a possible violation of the First Amendment, federal officials instructed demonstrators to stop holding religious gatherings outside the immigration processing facility in suburban Broadview after ...
blockclubchicago.org
November 8, 2025 at 6:39 PM
every sunday, from pulpits in megachurches across america, white evangelicals cry out about some imaginary persecution of christianity. but i can’t stop thinking about the pile of rosaries collected by a janitor at a border crossing or the priest turned away at the gates of the detention camp.
Reposted by Dan Nexon
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
November 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
Reposted by Dan Nexon
40 men Trump sent to CECOT tell the NYT they were beaten, tortured, and sexually assaulted. The details are worse than you can imagine.
We can’t let them get away with this. Miller and the other architects of this sadism need to go to prison.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...
We can’t let them get away with this. Miller and the other architects of this sadism need to go to prison.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...
‘You Are All Terrorists’: Four Months in a Salvadoran Prison
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:20 AM
40 men Trump sent to CECOT tell the NYT they were beaten, tortured, and sexually assaulted. The details are worse than you can imagine.
We can’t let them get away with this. Miller and the other architects of this sadism need to go to prison.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...
We can’t let them get away with this. Miller and the other architects of this sadism need to go to prison.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...
Reposted by Dan Nexon
probably pointless, but I think this really is a disgusting failure of journalistic standards. I emailed them; if you wanted to do the same it's news@axios.com
James Talarico, a Texas Democrat running for U.S. Senate who has put his faith at the forefront of his campaign, follows several adult film performers, escorts and OnlyFans models on Instagram, according to an Axios review.
Faith-forward Texas Senate candidate follows porn actors, escorts online
James Talarico has become a sensation in Texas politics by talking about how his Christianity is the basis for his progressive politics.
www.axios.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:54 AM
probably pointless, but I think this really is a disgusting failure of journalistic standards. I emailed them; if you wanted to do the same it's news@axios.com
The fillybuster disincentives cross-partisan coalitions. Full stop.
November 9, 2025 at 1:54 AM
The fillybuster disincentives cross-partisan coalitions. Full stop.
🧵When I was in my 20s I lived in NYC. We walked into a mugging in our apartment elevator. My wife witnessed a murder. Drug deals were a routine fixture in our neighborhood.
People wildly overestimate the economic security experienced by past generations. There's no period in American history where significant numbers of young people were just handed high paying jobs. Nostalgia for a time that never existed is a huge problem.
Why Nikki Haley’s son went radical: His generation inherited insecurity.
I profile Nalin Haley, a fascinating young man, who I believe will likely play an important role in conservative politics in years to come.
unherd.com/2025/11/why-...
I profile Nalin Haley, a fascinating young man, who I believe will likely play an important role in conservative politics in years to come.
unherd.com/2025/11/why-...
November 9, 2025 at 1:47 AM
🧵When I was in my 20s I lived in NYC. We walked into a mugging in our apartment elevator. My wife witnessed a murder. Drug deals were a routine fixture in our neighborhood.
It’s not just that they fear what Ds might do in the future. The filibuster allows them to support insane policies that they don’t actually want to pass, but don’t want to take the hit for voting against.
Feels like this is the ballgame here. If Senate Rs don't tank the filibuster, he's gonna look weak. And I guess at that point he won't just look weak, it'll mean he is weak.
you know he's mad when he's posting about the fillibuster for like the 5th time today
November 8, 2025 at 8:57 PM
It’s not just that they fear what Ds might do in the future. The filibuster allows them to support insane policies that they don’t actually want to pass, but don’t want to take the hit for voting against.
I think we have Exhibit A for "What is sanewashing?"
"President Donald Trump proposed a compromise on health insurance payments, calling on Republicans to send federal payments that would go to insurers under the Affordable Care Act directly to Americans to bring an end to the government shutdown."
"President Donald Trump proposed a compromise on health insurance payments, calling on Republicans to send federal payments that would go to insurers under the Affordable Care Act directly to Americans to bring an end to the government shutdown."
Trump tells Senate Republicans to send federal health insurance money 'directly to the people'
President Trump proposed a new potential compromise on health insurance payments.
www.cnbc.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:00 PM
I think we have Exhibit A for "What is sanewashing?"
"President Donald Trump proposed a compromise on health insurance payments, calling on Republicans to send federal payments that would go to insurers under the Affordable Care Act directly to Americans to bring an end to the government shutdown."
"President Donald Trump proposed a compromise on health insurance payments, calling on Republicans to send federal payments that would go to insurers under the Affordable Care Act directly to Americans to bring an end to the government shutdown."