Jonathan Darman
@jonathandarman.bsky.social
Journalist and historian. Author of BECOMING FDR and LANDSLIDE.
This fascinating article doubles as a pocket-guide to the Trumpist regime's Establishment collaborators:
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/b...
April 22, 2025 at 5:56 PM
This fascinating article doubles as a pocket-guide to the Trumpist regime's Establishment collaborators:
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/b...
"The multitude of the wise is the welfare of the world," reads the inscription on the Anderson Memorial Bridge, a point of entry to Harvard Square. Harvard doesn't always perfectly lived up to this ideal. But today it is doing its part.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
April 14, 2025 at 10:03 PM
"The multitude of the wise is the welfare of the world," reads the inscription on the Anderson Memorial Bridge, a point of entry to Harvard Square. Harvard doesn't always perfectly lived up to this ideal. But today it is doing its part.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
It’s like they took the three worst days of the first Trump presidency — Charlottesville, Helsinki and Jan 6th — and used them as the model for every day of the second.
February 19, 2025 at 12:04 PM
It’s like they took the three worst days of the first Trump presidency — Charlottesville, Helsinki and Jan 6th — and used them as the model for every day of the second.
My God.
bsky.app/profile/kept...
bsky.app/profile/kept...
a good example of how the world is getting dumber. the new politico playbook writer didn't know who FDR was until a reader told him about that whole "new deal" thing. this newsletter is read by every important person in DC.
February 18, 2025 at 3:56 PM
My God.
bsky.app/profile/kept...
bsky.app/profile/kept...
After Chamberlain sold him out at Munich, Czech president Edvard Beneš resigned his office. I'm thinking today of his understated, prescient farewell:
"Do not expect from me a single word of recrimination against anyone whomsoever. One day history will judge and pronounce sentence in all equity."
"Do not expect from me a single word of recrimination against anyone whomsoever. One day history will judge and pronounce sentence in all equity."
February 18, 2025 at 3:52 PM
After Chamberlain sold him out at Munich, Czech president Edvard Beneš resigned his office. I'm thinking today of his understated, prescient farewell:
"Do not expect from me a single word of recrimination against anyone whomsoever. One day history will judge and pronounce sentence in all equity."
"Do not expect from me a single word of recrimination against anyone whomsoever. One day history will judge and pronounce sentence in all equity."
“It was telling that, in Munich, Vance found time to meet Alice Weidel, the AfD’s co-leader, but not with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.”
www.ft.com/content/11f1...
www.ft.com/content/11f1...
Vance’s real warning to Europe
Europeans need to reduce their dangerous dependence on an adversarial America
www.ft.com
February 17, 2025 at 11:30 PM
“It was telling that, in Munich, Vance found time to meet Alice Weidel, the AfD’s co-leader, but not with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.”
www.ft.com/content/11f1...
www.ft.com/content/11f1...
Go back to 1995 and explain that the Nazis return to power in Germany will be encouraged and aided by an authoritarian America First president allied with apartheid-era white South Africans.
February 16, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Go back to 1995 and explain that the Nazis return to power in Germany will be encouraged and aided by an authoritarian America First president allied with apartheid-era white South Africans.
Reposted by Jonathan Darman
For @vanityfair.com , I looked back at Mitch McConnell's decision not to push for Trump's conviction in the Senate after January 6th -- a failure that looks worse and worse as the constitutional order slips away
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/h...
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/h...
How Mitch McConnell Blew America’s Best Chance to Stop Trump
After January 6, the Kentucky senator passed on the opportunity to potentially bar the impeached ex-president from returning to office. Now we’re all paying the price.
www.vanityfair.com
February 13, 2025 at 2:35 AM
For @vanityfair.com , I looked back at Mitch McConnell's decision not to push for Trump's conviction in the Senate after January 6th -- a failure that looks worse and worse as the constitutional order slips away
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/h...
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/h...
For @vanityfair.com , I looked back at Mitch McConnell's decision not to push for Trump's conviction in the Senate after January 6th -- a failure that looks worse and worse as the constitutional order slips away
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/h...
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/h...
How Mitch McConnell Blew America’s Best Chance to Stop Trump
After January 6, the Kentucky senator passed on the opportunity to potentially bar the impeached ex-president from returning to office. Now we’re all paying the price.
www.vanityfair.com
February 13, 2025 at 2:35 AM
For @vanityfair.com , I looked back at Mitch McConnell's decision not to push for Trump's conviction in the Senate after January 6th -- a failure that looks worse and worse as the constitutional order slips away
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/h...
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/h...
Reposted by Jonathan Darman
it is beyond even comically brazen at this point
February 13, 2025 at 1:52 AM
it is beyond even comically brazen at this point
It's a remarkable state of affairs when a member of Congress needs anonymity to say that the Treasury Secretary is in charge of the Treasury Department.
www.politico.com/news/2025/02...
www.politico.com/news/2025/02...
February 4, 2025 at 3:45 PM
It's a remarkable state of affairs when a member of Congress needs anonymity to say that the Treasury Secretary is in charge of the Treasury Department.
www.politico.com/news/2025/02...
www.politico.com/news/2025/02...
Reposted by Jonathan Darman
Double dictators
Trump ran for his second term saying he would be a dictator "for Day One," and his staff made sure to tell the press he was joking. The joke was the part about only doing it for one day.
www.indignity.net/double-dicta...
Trump ran for his second term saying he would be a dictator "for Day One," and his staff made sure to tell the press he was joking. The joke was the part about only doing it for one day.
www.indignity.net/double-dicta...
Double dictators
Indignity Vol. 5, No. 20
www.indignity.net
February 4, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Double dictators
Trump ran for his second term saying he would be a dictator "for Day One," and his staff made sure to tell the press he was joking. The joke was the part about only doing it for one day.
www.indignity.net/double-dicta...
Trump ran for his second term saying he would be a dictator "for Day One," and his staff made sure to tell the press he was joking. The joke was the part about only doing it for one day.
www.indignity.net/double-dicta...
I started reading this bone-chilling article wondering if we still have three functioning branches of government. I ended it wondering if we even still have one.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/u...
Inside Musk’s Aggressive Incursion Into the Federal Government
The billionaire is creating major upheaval as his team sweeps through agencies, in what has been an extraordinary flexing of power by a private individual.
www.nytimes.com
February 4, 2025 at 1:43 AM
I started reading this bone-chilling article wondering if we still have three functioning branches of government. I ended it wondering if we even still have one.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/u...
America's friends and allies should treat us the way they would a friend experiencing a profound psychosis: Don't try to reason with us, de-escalate when possible, hope that we get the help we so desperately need.
bsky.app/profile/trum...
bsky.app/profile/trum...
February 2, 2025 at 8:57 PM
America's friends and allies should treat us the way they would a friend experiencing a profound psychosis: Don't try to reason with us, de-escalate when possible, hope that we get the help we so desperately need.
bsky.app/profile/trum...
bsky.app/profile/trum...
Reposted by Jonathan Darman
If you wanted to convey an inability to confront an authoritarian constitutional crisis you could consider sending a message like this.
You’re worried about tomato prices.
Wait till Trump’s Mexico tariffs raise your tomato prices.
Wait till Trump’s Mexico tariffs raise your tomato prices.
February 1, 2025 at 11:36 PM
If you wanted to convey an inability to confront an authoritarian constitutional crisis you could consider sending a message like this.
While we Americans cower in our numbness, apathy, and fear, Germans keep taking to the streets to protest the ascent of the far right:
www.zeit.de/gesellschaft...
www.zeit.de/gesellschaft...
Demonstrationen: Zehntausende Menschen demonstrieren erneut gegen Rechtsruck
Bundesweit wird auch an diesem Wochenende gegen die AfD und das Manöver von Friedrich Merz protestiert. Allein in Hamburg beteiligten sich 65.000 Menschen an einer Demo.
www.zeit.de
February 1, 2025 at 9:42 PM
While we Americans cower in our numbness, apathy, and fear, Germans keep taking to the streets to protest the ascent of the far right:
www.zeit.de/gesellschaft...
www.zeit.de/gesellschaft...
FDR in 1940: "A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough. The vigorous expression of our American community spirit is truly important. The ancient injunction to love thy neighbor as thyself is still the force that animates our faith."
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/h...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/h...
Health Programs Shutter Around the World After Trump Pauses Foreign Aid
Lifesaving treatment and prevention programs for tuberculosis, malaria, H.I.V. and other diseases cannot access funds to continue work.
www.nytimes.com
February 1, 2025 at 9:26 PM
FDR in 1940: "A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough. The vigorous expression of our American community spirit is truly important. The ancient injunction to love thy neighbor as thyself is still the force that animates our faith."
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/h...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/h...
Ah yes, just another fight over visions, like Reagan and Tip.
January 28, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Ah yes, just another fight over visions, like Reagan and Tip.
Reposted by Jonathan Darman
A spending law, passed by Congress and signed by the President, sets the policy per Article I of the Constitution. A new President can't unilaterally override that policy, even temporarily. And that's the point of this provision of the ICA -- to enforce Congress's power of the purse.
January 28, 2025 at 12:48 PM
A spending law, passed by Congress and signed by the President, sets the policy per Article I of the Constitution. A new President can't unilaterally override that policy, even temporarily. And that's the point of this provision of the ICA -- to enforce Congress's power of the purse.
"It's good to be proud of German values, German culture, and not to lose that in some multiculturalism that dilutes everything."
Shiver.
bsky.app/profile/jwmu...
Shiver.
bsky.app/profile/jwmu...
Musk joins German far right's opening rally remotely, instructs Germans to stop feeling guilty and reminds them how impressed Caesar had been with German tribes' ability to fight.
Could not make this up.
Could not make this up.
Elon Musk bei AfD-Wahlkampfauftakt in Halle (Saale) zugeschaltet
»Seid stolz, Deutsche zu sein«: Von einer Videoleinwand sprach der Techmilliardär Elon Musk zu AfD-Anhängern. Der Trump-Berater verbreitete seine Erkenntnisse über die »deutsche Kultur«, in der Messeh...
www.spiegel.de
January 25, 2025 at 9:18 PM
"It's good to be proud of German values, German culture, and not to lose that in some multiculturalism that dilutes everything."
Shiver.
bsky.app/profile/jwmu...
Shiver.
bsky.app/profile/jwmu...
Reposted by Jonathan Darman
Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.
And all the devils are here.
January 20, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.
And all the devils are here.
Reposted by Jonathan Darman
1/6: For U.S. Presidential Inauguration Day, a short thread of constitutional law and history:
The 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect on October 15, 1933. It decrees that every President's term ends on January 20.
The 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect on October 15, 1933. It decrees that every President's term ends on January 20.
January 20, 2025 at 3:33 PM
1/6: For U.S. Presidential Inauguration Day, a short thread of constitutional law and history:
The 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect on October 15, 1933. It decrees that every President's term ends on January 20.
The 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect on October 15, 1933. It decrees that every President's term ends on January 20.
It's Martin Luther King Day, even if it doesn't feel like it. Watching Trump assume the awesome powers of the presidency, I am trying to remember King's words:
"Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that."
"Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that."
January 20, 2025 at 3:22 PM
It's Martin Luther King Day, even if it doesn't feel like it. Watching Trump assume the awesome powers of the presidency, I am trying to remember King's words:
"Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that."
"Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that."
Reposted by Jonathan Darman
A poem for reflection, 01/20/24: "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes. poets.org/poem/let-ame...
January 20, 2025 at 12:27 PM
A poem for reflection, 01/20/24: "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes. poets.org/poem/let-ame...
FDR rode to his inauguration beside a stewing, silent Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt, desperate to break the tension, spotted the brand new Commerce Department building Hoover had constructed on Constitution Avenue. "Lovely steel!" he chirped enthusiastically. Hoover said nothing in reply.
January 20, 2025 at 2:40 PM
FDR rode to his inauguration beside a stewing, silent Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt, desperate to break the tension, spotted the brand new Commerce Department building Hoover had constructed on Constitution Avenue. "Lovely steel!" he chirped enthusiastically. Hoover said nothing in reply.