Eamon Kircher-Allen

A rebooted global version of the neoconservative fervor of March 2003.

The U.S. and Israel – whose war of aggression you co-signed – are working to turn a vast swathe of the region into an ungoverned waste, from which millions of new refugees will flee to Europe

You absolute doofus

x.com/clashreport/...

The "forever war" paradigm doesn't really describe the Iran war, writes
@abujamajem.com.

This U.S.–Israeli attack is something more acute, and immediate—this is a war of aggression, chaotic and wild.

Hezbollah escalated a war with Israel that had never ended, despite a nominal ceasefire.

Renewed fighting will punish Lebanese civilians, but will probably also further weaken Hezbollah.

@abujamajem.com in new roundtable

tcf.org/content/comm...

Hegseth: "The dumb, politically correct wars of the past were the opposite of what we're doing here. They had vague objections with restrictive, minimalist rules of engagement. No more."

NO!

Wednesday or Thursday is too late. You do not need to be briefed before voting on this. Troops should stop all military action now.

They are trying to drag us into war now.

We needed a vote on @rokhanna.bsky.social’s War Powers Resolution last week. Instead the war hawk caucus of the Dem Party delayed it, and now it may be too late.

This allows the Trump administration to literally condition citizenship on what it defines as acceptable speech

Violent and non-violent death tolls for the Gaza conflict: new primary evidence from a population-representative field survey This first independent population survey of mortality in the Gaza Strip shows that violent deaths have substantially exceeded official figures whereas the demographic composition of casualties aligns ...

“This first independent population survey of mortality in the Gaza Strip shows that violent deaths have substantially exceeded official figures... women, children, and older people together comprised 56·2% of violent deaths” - Lancet

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Trump's Caribbean Surge Nears $3 Billion Price Tag So Far The operations around Venezuela that eventually led to the capture of its president pulled in nearly a fifth of the US Navy’s surface fleet at a cost of more than $20 million a day.

Bloomberg says we've spent $3B on Trump's invasion of Venezuela.

Which is 6X more than the cancer, Alzheimer, diabetes, and heart disease cures they've cut to pay for it.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Anyone currently involved in federal immigration enforcement, every officer, every bureaucrat, every lawyer, every judge, is a member of the most evil group of people this country has seen since Reconstruction. Darkness personified, every one. Doing this to children is beyond depraved.

Excerpt from a book describing the inconsistency of climate denial

I am so tired

You can't... repeal... a scientific finding. At that point it's just called lying about it.

Malinowski Concedes to Analilia Mejia in New Jersey House Primary Tom Malinowski, a former member of Congress, congratulated Analilia Mejia, a political organizer, on a “hard-won victory.”

Breaking News: Tom Malinowski conceded to Analilia Mejia, the top progressive in a New Jersey race to fill Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s House seat.

Sanctions Can’t Solve the Israeli Settlement Problem Burned houses and mosques, kidnappings, pogroms, masked thugs attacking unarmed olive harvesters: in the last few years such Israeli settler violence has

The settlement enterprise is not separate from the Israeli state—it is the Israeli state.

So argues @yaelmiz.bsky.social in a new commentary. (1/5)

century fund score of democracy, showing a drop from 79 to 57.

The erosion of democracy in the US is clear even if you don't use intl comparisons. From the Century Foundation:
"In the first year of Trump 2.0, the United States went from being a passing if imperfect democracy to behaving like an authoritarian state."
donmoynihan.substack.com/publish/post...

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Today, we are launching the U.S. Democracy Meter, a new tool that deploys a 100-point scale across twenty-three subquestions to evaluate the quality of American democracy: go.tcf.org/DemocracyMeter

Syria’s Reconstruction Risks Cutting Out the Syrian People The Century Foundation The Century Foundation The Century Foundation

Syria’s new president, former rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, is big on inclusive rhetoric. But when it comes to his reconstruction agenda, the reality is falling far short of the marketing—new commentary from @freddydeknatel.bsky.social tcf.org/content/comm... (1/3)

This rhetoric is depressingly familiar after focusing for many years on authoritarian contexts elsewhere.

The day after risks highlighted here are well worth revisiting.

New year’s gift:

Tonight at midnight, when your friends wander off to gape at the fireworks, you will finally have a quiet moment to check out the amazing best-of-2025 list in Century International’s year-end newsletter.

mailchi.mp/tcf/ip-econo...

@centuryintl.bsky.social @tcfdotorg.bsky.social

Unbelievable. This would be a terrible blow to American science, writ large. It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of weather, wildfire, and disaster research that has underpinned half a century of progress in prediction, early warning, and increased resilience.

Snapshot of US EPA's "causes of climate change" webpage as of 12/8/2025. Human causes are no longer mentioned anywhere on the page.

It appears that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has, within the past week, scrubbed a large amount of climate change content from its official website, as well as *removed human-caused warming* from the discussion on its "causes of climate change" page.

'A Slap in the Face': Federal Employees Feel Betrayed by Democrats' Shutdown Cave "I would rather be an actual pawn. At least pawn sacrifices are calculated and achieve something."

I heard from a bunch of federal employees last night and this morning. They aren't happy.

"I would rather be an actual pawn. At least pawn sacrifices are calculated and achieve something. All this for a fucking meaningless vote."

Apathy and Skepticism Cloud Iraq’s Upcoming Election The Century Foundation The Century Foundation The Century Foundation

American interest in Iraq’s November 11 parliamentary elections is mostly focused on whether Iraqis will choose pro-Iran representatives. That’s a mistake, @sajadjiyad.bsky.social argues in a new commentary. (1/3)

A Catch-22 of Suspicion Imperils Syria’s Transition to Democracy There was a brief moment after Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed last December when the impossible felt possible in Syria. As Ahmed al-Sharaa’s jihadists

Glad to see @centuryintl.bsky.social publish @anasjoudeh.bsky.social, on post-Assad Syria’s debilitating lack of trust – trust in authorities, and among Syrians themselves: tcf.org/content/comm...

The @nytimes.com completely embarrasses itself by not putting #NoKings on the banner. The Gray Lady's head hangs in shame.

#DoBetter #MediaFail