Just Shut It Down
If you're a member of the United States Senate in 2025, you don't keep writing checks to the guy who's in the process of actively destroying a 250-year-old experiment in representative government.
Latest
Trump Trashes Rosie: Distraction or Opportunity?
The question right now is whether O'Donnell, who has engaged in high-profile legal battles in the past, wants to go after Trump for defamation in American courts, assuming the Supreme Court does not foreclose such an option.
On the Faithful and the Feckless
The American Republic cannot defend itself. This is especially true when members of one major political party decide to either pledge their loyalty to a would-be dictator masquerading as president or to slink away when that same tyrant-in-the-making says nasty things about them on social media. Both are forms of
It's Different This Time
The tactics used by civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protesters during the 1960s and early 1970s had a political effect because JFK and LBJ were at least somewhat responsive to the political pressures the groups generated. Trump is overtly contemptuous of his political opposition, using lawfare against a Democratic mayor,
The Monster Screaming the Loudest
In the weeks and months ahead, it may be necessary for each of us to make a life-altering decision: whether to confront the regime ourselves, in concert with like-minded people loyal to the constitutional Republic.
Targeted Escalation
Federal senators, along with state and local officials across the country, should be prepared to utilize all available tools to the maximum extent possible to thwart regime actions that are unconstitutional, illegal, or otherwise endanger public safety.
Musk Is A Symptom. Trumpism Is The Disease
If you live in a state with one or more Democratic Senators, tell them to refuse unanimous consent on any Trump-desired legislation or Trump nominees until he obeys federal court decisions barring his unconstitutional acts.
The Triumph of Fear: Past As Prologue
If all of this sounds eerily familiar and frightening, it's because Trump is clearly--and enthusiastically--blazing his own infamous trail of authoritarianism that already matches, and in some cases is poised to surpass, the outrageous conduct of those who came before him.
Political Repression, American Style
The story it tells is not, unfortunately, an April Fools joke.
Trump: Roman Strongmen Trifecta Personified
The Roman example serves as a cautionary tale: their republic didn't collapse in a single moment but through a gradual erosion of institutional constraints and normative boundaries over decades.
An Accelerating Tyranny
Every week since Trump's return to power, he and his key cabinet-level officials have simultaneously escalated their political retaliatory measures against disfavored individuals, groups, and organizations--in virtually every instance in defiance of the law, the Constitution, and now federal courts.
Civil War 2.0: An AI's Assessment
If an AI can understand how a Republic can be destroyed, why the hell can't everyone else in America recognize the same warning signs as Claude?
Donald Trump
The Department of Extortion and Dishonor
What also seems certain is an even more aggressive push by Trump to undo Executive branch internal oversight and accountability mechanisms through further "lawfare."
Donald Trump
A Republic Under Siege
We are now witnessing, in real time, the price for not taking far more aggressive governmental reform and reorganization measures in the wake of successive presidents’ radical abuses of law enforcement and presidential powers.
Donald Trump
The Winter of our Political Discontent: 2025 Edition
Starting today we're going to face a different series of threats, and these won't be courtesy of a foreign bad actor but from an American government under Donald Trump's control.
Donald Trump
The Triumph of the Criminal Class...For Now
The explosion of online right-wing, conspiracy theory-centric networks, podcasts, and similar digital sewers has created a permission structure for many Americans to embrace their worst selves and the worst political actors.
2025
A Holiday Break and a 2025 Preview
Exposing and opposing would-be American authoritarians, regardless of where they fall along the political spectrum, will continue to be at the heart of the Sentinel's mission in 2025 and beyond.
2020 election
The J6 "False Flag" Conspiracy Garbage Debunked
That so many former senior FBI officials refused to cooperate with the IG's investigation is both telling and outrageous. Every single one of them was in a critical management position between November 4, 2020, and the day of the attack.
Donald Trump
Trump's Very Own "Führerprinzip"
The demand for absolute obeisance to Trump is well understood by the already GOP controlled House of Representatives.
Federalism and Mass Deportations: How Will Democratic Governors Respond?
Late last month, Denver's mayor, Mike Johnston, received lots of attention for claiming he's willing to go to jail to oppose any Trump-ordered mass deportations in his area. The reality is that only Democratic governors have real power at their disposal to oppose Trump's
2024 election
The Worst Case Scenario: Another Look
Earlier this year, I posted four pieces about the potential for another Trump term and what I've called Civil War 2.0. I thought the worst-case scenario I wrote on February 5 was dire enough. It wasn't.
2024 election
How Far Will They Go?
This is the relative calm before the storm.
D Minus 1
Millions of Americans are about to vote in the most important election since 1860. A currently unknown number of others are preparing to engage in political and possibly actual guerilla warfare if Donald Trump is defeated by VP Kamala Harris. If you've not yet voted, please do so
2024 election
Ignoring The Long-Term Threat: POLITICO's Unserious Take On "Never Trumpers" And A Post-Trump Era
If our Republic manages to escape a second Trump presidency (a big "if" at this point), the lessons of the last fifty years should not be squandered by a return to the kind of "politics as usual" bullshit being offered in the latest edition of POLITICO Playbook.