Okay, y’all. I know the NNR has been paused for some time, and for good reason, but if there were ever a time to kick off the rust and run a lightning roundup, it would be now. We are careening towards a full authoritarian state, and have seen a lot of movement especially over the past couple of weeks. I think it’s important that people know that, and know how and why that is the case, because we can’t hope to respond otherwise.
But first, let’s take a moment and acknowledge the elephant in the room. Doing the NNR has become extremely difficult, in part because many major news outlets have become very compromised in the last season or so. I no longer consider it journalistic due diligence to simply multi-source stories with my previously-trusted outlets. Journalism has become the work of the individual pretty much soup-to-nuts–an effort which I cannot do full time for about a million reasons, and I have been a bit paralyzed for the last few months as a result. I don’t know if the NNR is back-back, or if this is a one-off. Long-term, I would like to find a format that works for all of us, including me, because I really believe in the importance of this work.
But what I do know, especially in this moment, is that I would never forgive myself if I didn’t put something out right now while we all stare at the oncoming train. So here I am, and hopefully, here you are. And we’ll see where that takes us, at least for now.
Spills in Aisle 47:
As this is a lightning roundup, we are going to focus exclusively on Authoritarian Actions. Here are the main lowlights from the last few weeks to know:
- Indictment Rag. Perhaps the most glaring banana in this republic at the moment is the indictment of James Comey, which on paper was for lying and obstruction. It’s kind of hard to buy that this was the real reason, however, when Trump straight-up said the quiet part out loud and publicly pushed Bondi to prosecute a whole host of people, telling the press that “there’ll be others.” And he clearly wasn’t lying about that last part, because Trump fired a U.S. prosecutor for refusing to bring this case and refusing to similarly charge Letiticia James; he placed an obvious target on Christopher Wray this weekend as well. All told, it’s obvious that Comey is the start of a much larger hit list. But as much as I hate to say it, I don’t think the story here is that Trump abused his power to go after people he feels wronged him, which is as predictable as the sun rising. In my opinion, the story is that an indictment was actually handed down–that means that he got prosecutors to put together a grand jury, and a grand jury approved two of the three charges, despite several credible prosecutors refusing to touch the case with a ten-foot pole. A sizable chunk of the country has been primed to want this kind of kangaroo court, which is as relevant as it is terrifying–but more about that below.
- General Concerns. Against that backdrop, Pete Hegseth calling in all starred generals so that they can attend the world’s weirdest pep rally tomorrow is a less obvious big deal, but it is a big deal nonetheless. First of all, we don’t usually put 800 generals in one room, because it’s a massive security risk–and the idea that this might be a feature to our current Secretary of Defense has kept me up at night. Second, Trump made it clear today that he plans to attend, which ironically would not be weird if he were a normal President because the President is the Commander-in-Chief, but given that ole’ Bone Spurs has open contempt for our military, it’s kind of strange. Add in the many times this year that this administration has already dunked military morale in the toilet, and the whole thing becomes even stranger. We’ll hopefully know more after the meeting happens tomorrow, but I think we can expect that something is going on here.
- Terrifying Terrorism Designations. I’m sure everyone reading this is aware of the death of Charlie Kirk, and much of the resulting First Amendment horrorshow—Jimmy Kimmel‘s suspension saga and subsequent return to most stations was particularly well-covered. What might be less obvious, however, is how much of a turning point the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s death turned out to be for how the administration engages with political enemies. Almost immediately, we started to see the administration issue statements implicating trans people and ‘trans ideology,’ without specifying what that even meant. That eventually broadened to speaking about ‘leftist ideology‘ when it became apparent that the shooting had no direct ties to transgender anything beyond the alleged shooter having a transgender roommate. These messages continued to iterate and deepen, as did anti-trans rhetoric, until reports began emerging that the FBI plans to designate trans people as ‘violent extremists’. In apparent response to the FBI’s plan, the Oversight Project at the Heritage Foundation (you know, the people responsible for making Project 2025 become real policy) issued a frightening directive pushing for a new form of domestic terrorism designation called ‘Trans Ideology-Inspired Violent Extremism,’ which they proposed include things like speech in defense of trans people. Almost immediately, we saw the administration take this ball and start to run with it, first by issuing an executive order that designated Antifa as a domestic terrorism organization. A few days after that, the administration released a memo which stated they would “disband and uproot” nonprofits and institutions that “engage in activities that support domestic terrorism,” including “conspiracies against rights” in that definition. The same day, the administration announced a criminal investigation of George Soros’s human rights foundation Open Society. Dovetail this with Bondi’s recent statements, also in the wake of Kirk’s death, that the DOJ will “go after you. . . if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, anything,” and you start to see a pretty scary picture.
- Shutting Down Ahead of Shutdown. In other extremely normal administration news, Trump canceled his own meeting with Democrats about the looming threat of shutdown last Thursday, saying that there was “no meeting” with them “could possibly be productive.” (He did meet with them today, but that meeting ended in Vance announcing that “I think we’re heading into a shutdown.”) As Minority Leader Jeffries has noted, since the GOP controls all three branches of government at the moment, a shutdown would imply that the GOP either is not capable of reaching an accord with itself, or wants a shutdown to happen. I personally think it’s the latter, because the administration also directed agencies to start firing people if the shutdown happens, rather than furloughing them. That said, this might be an intimidation tactic rather than a plan, because this administration was going to RIF people already.
So that’s what I have for you after a few months’ sabbatical, and I’m sorry, there are still no news refunds. I am, however, giving you optional homework–in these uncertain times, I urge you to start thinking about your role in the social change ecosystem, because we desperately need solidarity if we’re going to get through this. (No pressure, but I think it is helpful to know how you’re most suited and positioned to help.) And either way, for making it through, you deserve a glass bowl hat and a less corrupt government. I’m still figuring out the most sustainable way to keep doing this, but I’ll be back in some capacity sometime soon, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me your opinions about social change ecosystems!
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