Paul Matzko
@paulmatzko.bsky.social
Historian, author of The Radio Right (Oxford 2020), day job: tech & abundance at the Institute for Humane Studies.
Reposted by Paul Matzko
a new genre of photo in the last year is federal agents working for ICE pointing guns directly at photographers
November 11, 2025 at 12:41 AM
a new genre of photo in the last year is federal agents working for ICE pointing guns directly at photographers
Reposted by Paul Matzko
I have been charged in a federal indictment sought by the Department of Justice.
This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win.
This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win.
October 29, 2025 at 4:55 PM
I have been charged in a federal indictment sought by the Department of Justice.
This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win.
This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win.
Reposted by Paul Matzko
I cannot tell you how many tech journalists at prominent media organizations do not understand this
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
October 27, 2025 at 3:32 PM
I cannot tell you how many tech journalists at prominent media organizations do not understand this
Every death from kidney disease is a policy failure.
If we allowed people to sell their spare kidneys, people like Nick Mangold wouldn't have to die while waiting for a donor replacement.
By treating kidneys like blood instead of like plasma, we cause thousands of unnecessary deaths per year.
If we allowed people to sell their spare kidneys, people like Nick Mangold wouldn't have to die while waiting for a donor replacement.
By treating kidneys like blood instead of like plasma, we cause thousands of unnecessary deaths per year.
October 26, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Every death from kidney disease is a policy failure.
If we allowed people to sell their spare kidneys, people like Nick Mangold wouldn't have to die while waiting for a donor replacement.
By treating kidneys like blood instead of like plasma, we cause thousands of unnecessary deaths per year.
If we allowed people to sell their spare kidneys, people like Nick Mangold wouldn't have to die while waiting for a donor replacement.
By treating kidneys like blood instead of like plasma, we cause thousands of unnecessary deaths per year.
Reposted by Paul Matzko
Gallego: "It's murder. It's very simple. If this president feels they are doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard. If this is an act of war, then you use our military and then you come and talk to us first. But this is murder ... it's disgusting."
October 26, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Gallego: "It's murder. It's very simple. If this president feels they are doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard. If this is an act of war, then you use our military and then you come and talk to us first. But this is murder ... it's disgusting."
As I wrote in 2020, "Having the equivalent of a dozen paramilitary divisions in the immediate vicinity of the US capital might be a bad idea for the future of our democracy." www.cato.org/blog/portlan...
ICE is stockpiling arms, including chemical weapons, guided missile warheads and explosive components. The spending dwarfs anything we've ever seen in the agency - a 700% increase.
The President is building an army to attack his own country.
The President is building an army to attack his own country.
October 21, 2025 at 11:08 PM
As I wrote in 2020, "Having the equivalent of a dozen paramilitary divisions in the immediate vicinity of the US capital might be a bad idea for the future of our democracy." www.cato.org/blog/portlan...
Reposted by Paul Matzko
“ICE uses bureaucracy and location transfers to isolate their detainees from both their families and their lawyers, limiting their ability to get out of their predicaments” and prove the government erred. [Emma Janssen, American Prospect]
How ICE Hides Detainees From Their Lawyers - The American Prospect
CHICAGO – On September 12, attorney Kevin Herrera walked up to Chicagoland’s main Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Broadview, Illinois, passed a crowd of protesters who ...
prospect.org
October 21, 2025 at 6:57 PM
“ICE uses bureaucracy and location transfers to isolate their detainees from both their families and their lawyers, limiting their ability to get out of their predicaments” and prove the government erred. [Emma Janssen, American Prospect]
What's truly unprecedented about the Trump administration's sweeping abuses of executive power is how out in the open it is. Other presidents have abused many of these powers, sometimes even as extensively, but never so baldly.
Keystone Kash Warns Trump Revenge Arrests Are Tip of the Iceberg
The FBI director’s warning came moments after Trump told him to investigate his enemies for “political crime.”
www.thedailybeast.com
October 16, 2025 at 4:50 PM
What's truly unprecedented about the Trump administration's sweeping abuses of executive power is how out in the open it is. Other presidents have abused many of these powers, sometimes even as extensively, but never so baldly.
In honor of Joel Mokyr, who just won the Nobel prize in Economics, I'm reminded of when I interviewed him for a podcast and was utterly charmed at the example he gave while marveling at the underappreciated marvels of innovation: "the Eufy!" (vacuum robot)
www.libertarianism.org
October 13, 2025 at 9:23 PM
In honor of Joel Mokyr, who just won the Nobel prize in Economics, I'm reminded of when I interviewed him for a podcast and was utterly charmed at the example he gave while marveling at the underappreciated marvels of innovation: "the Eufy!" (vacuum robot)
Mike Johnson leaning into his Paul von Hindenburg role.
Mike Johnson: "We're so angry about it. I mean, I'm a very patient guy, but I've had it with these people. The theory we have right now -- they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people ... "
October 10, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Mike Johnson leaning into his Paul von Hindenburg role.
Reposted by Paul Matzko
These people are evil. Never stop saying so. Don’t be intimidated into shutting up.
October 8, 2025 at 2:22 AM
These people are evil. Never stop saying so. Don’t be intimidated into shutting up.
Reposted by Paul Matzko
ICE says I cause assaults on ICE by reciting facts about ICE’s recent shooting but refuses to link to the thread. Only posting a picture. ICE lies and ICE hides. You can read the facts for yourselves
October 4, 2025 at 12:00 AM
ICE says I cause assaults on ICE by reciting facts about ICE’s recent shooting but refuses to link to the thread. Only posting a picture. ICE lies and ICE hides. You can read the facts for yourselves
Reposted by Paul Matzko
That's the definition of fascism from Robert Paxton, one of the preeminent historians of the subject, from his book ANATOMY OF FASCISM which came out more than two decades ago.
October 1, 2025 at 12:25 AM
That's the definition of fascism from Robert Paxton, one of the preeminent historians of the subject, from his book ANATOMY OF FASCISM which came out more than two decades ago.
Reposted by Paul Matzko
NEW: Rachel Maddow drops unseen bodycam footage of feds coordinating the arrest of Newark Mayor Baraka.
I REPEAT: the feds ordered his arrest even though he wasn’t breaking any laws.
Federal agent: “We are arresting the mayor right now per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”
I REPEAT: the feds ordered his arrest even though he wasn’t breaking any laws.
Federal agent: “We are arresting the mayor right now per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”
September 30, 2025 at 2:05 AM
NEW: Rachel Maddow drops unseen bodycam footage of feds coordinating the arrest of Newark Mayor Baraka.
I REPEAT: the feds ordered his arrest even though he wasn’t breaking any laws.
Federal agent: “We are arresting the mayor right now per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”
I REPEAT: the feds ordered his arrest even though he wasn’t breaking any laws.
Federal agent: “We are arresting the mayor right now per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”
My review of Molly Worthen's "Spellbound" is up on Christianity Today.
"She offers a compelling corrective to the blander species of religious history produced for a churchly audience, which has a habit of sanitizing the past...
"She offers a compelling corrective to the blander species of religious history produced for a churchly audience, which has a habit of sanitizing the past...
The Liturgy of American Charisma - Christianity Today
Historian Molly Worthen studies dynamic leaders, eager followers, and their shared efforts to “consecrate a new reality.”
www.christianitytoday.com
September 27, 2025 at 6:20 AM
My review of Molly Worthen's "Spellbound" is up on Christianity Today.
"She offers a compelling corrective to the blander species of religious history produced for a churchly audience, which has a habit of sanitizing the past...
"She offers a compelling corrective to the blander species of religious history produced for a churchly audience, which has a habit of sanitizing the past...
Reposted by Paul Matzko
I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)
September 25, 2025 at 6:03 PM
I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)
Reposted by Paul Matzko
If a government tells you that you can’t call it authoritarian, it’s authoritarian.
September 25, 2025 at 5:22 PM
If a government tells you that you can’t call it authoritarian, it’s authoritarian.
Brendan Carr is rooting around in the FCC's shed looking for old, progressive regulations that he can weaponize against Trump's critics. My latest:
thedispatch.com/article/fcc-...
thedispatch.com/article/fcc-...
This Isn’t the First Time the FCC Has Weaponized Its Regulatory Power
How progressives devised the public interest and news distortion standards to chill free speech.
thedispatch.com
September 25, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Brendan Carr is rooting around in the FCC's shed looking for old, progressive regulations that he can weaponize against Trump's critics. My latest:
thedispatch.com/article/fcc-...
thedispatch.com/article/fcc-...
Reposted by Paul Matzko
Again and again over decades, partisan federal office holders have used the FCC's public interest doctrine to push their critics' and opponents' speech off the airwaves. In this 2019 piece, @paulmatzko.bsky.social has the goods on the long and ugly history that led up to Carr's campaign.
The Fairness Doctrine Was Terrible for Broadcasting and It Would Be Terrible for the Internet
Government regulation of internet content providers will be ineffective, highly-intrusive, and will create significant unintended consequences.
www.cato.org
September 25, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Again and again over decades, partisan federal office holders have used the FCC's public interest doctrine to push their critics' and opponents' speech off the airwaves. In this 2019 piece, @paulmatzko.bsky.social has the goods on the long and ugly history that led up to Carr's campaign.
Reposted by Paul Matzko
so the president just tweeted out an offense worse than watergate, we all realize that right?
September 20, 2025 at 11:27 PM
so the president just tweeted out an offense worse than watergate, we all realize that right?
Reposted by Paul Matzko
Elected lawmakers aren't just there to carry out bureaucratic technocratic procedures. They are your agents, to stand between you and the force of the state, empowered with the people's "she speaks for us." This is what representative democracy is for, at its best in the face of its worst failures.
State Senator Graciela Guzman is out here in front of the facility demanding the release of two of her constituents (who are U.S. citizens), asking to speak with federal agents. No response from them so far. Shes putting on a respirator.
September 20, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Elected lawmakers aren't just there to carry out bureaucratic technocratic procedures. They are your agents, to stand between you and the force of the state, empowered with the people's "she speaks for us." This is what representative democracy is for, at its best in the face of its worst failures.
I told you this would happen. Brendan Carr told us this would happen. It wasn't a question of whether but when the Trump administration would abuse the FCC's various constitutionally-tenuous powers to advance its naked self-interest.
Act Now to Prevent Trump From Weaponizing the FCC Against Political Opponents
If reelected, Trump will be even more dangerous because previous presidents have left a bad precedent of regulatory abuses that he'll turbocharge
www.theunpopulist.net
September 19, 2025 at 1:01 AM
I told you this would happen. Brendan Carr told us this would happen. It wasn't a question of whether but when the Trump administration would abuse the FCC's various constitutionally-tenuous powers to advance its naked self-interest.
Reposted by Paul Matzko
They are literally canceling culture
September 18, 2025 at 12:26 AM
They are literally canceling culture
Reposted by Paul Matzko
Anyway, now we know what the FCC thinks is in the public interest:
Fox host advocating for executing homeless people? Yes
ABC comic suggesting Trumpers are using a death cynically? No
Fox host advocating for executing homeless people? Yes
ABC comic suggesting Trumpers are using a death cynically? No
September 17, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Anyway, now we know what the FCC thinks is in the public interest:
Fox host advocating for executing homeless people? Yes
ABC comic suggesting Trumpers are using a death cynically? No
Fox host advocating for executing homeless people? Yes
ABC comic suggesting Trumpers are using a death cynically? No