Notices by Alexander Karn (xankarn@mastodon.online), page 2

Hearing Stephen Miller use the word “civilization” makes me nauseous.

Every college instructor knows this kid. Hyped up on a few pages of Nietzsche. Ayn Rand in his backpack.

Carrying a load of high school grievances. Intoxicated by thoughts of revenge, delusions of grandeur.

Unbearable to all but a few. Parents thrilled to have him out of the house.

If it weren't for bad faith, MAGA would no faith at all.

Birthright citizenship and 14A, Trump and Miller now tell us, only applied to children of formerly enslaved people in the nineteenth century.

But 2A is something eternal and applies to fully automatic assault weapons as well as the muzzle loaded muskets of yore.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/opinion/birthright-citizenship-supreme-court.html?searchResultPosition=3

The goddam lies. The goddam liars. #NoKings

“The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world…This prospect frightens me much more than bombs…Intellectual honesty is a crime in any totalitarian regime.”

—George Orwell, “Fascism and Democracy” (1941)

Let’s do this! #NoKings

“Protests can help to replenish and polish what the regime has drained or tarnished. Civil resistance opens a pathway to engaged citizenship. No Kings and similar protest movements are, therefore, a moral decontamination project. By responding en masse to unprincipled, immoral leaders and policies, these demonstrations keep alive the ideals of democratic citizenship, and they revitalize the rights and duties which democracy aims to instill.”

https://progressive.org/latest/what-the-no-kings-protests-accomplished-karn-20251021/

Here's something I wrote for WDA last fall, just before the last #NoKings rallies.

It's inspired by Arthur Koestler's novel, Darkness at Noon, and it's about the moral and ideological bankruptcy of an authoritarian state, which bears more than a passing resemblance to MAGA USA.

https://writersforda.substack.com/p/the-problem-of-tonnage

From the folks at Writers for Democratic Action, co-sponsor of the upcoming #NoKings rallies.

"We are joining with allies from across the US to mobilize against autocracy and for democracy. We encourage you to protest on March 28th, to use signage from WDA and to bring your family, friends, and neighbors."

https://us17.campaign-archive.com/?u=dfde70ed47a0c85d3204d797e&id=ef443601d9

Great for democracy when only Dear Leader is expected or permitted to do any evaluative or analytical thinking.

“Intelligence” reduced to mechanical information gathering.

“It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat,” Ms. Gabbard said, adding that such assessments were solely the discretion of the president.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/world/middleeast/tulsi-gabbard-senate-testimony-iran-war.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UFA.lCpZ.d5VkGDkCxsrE&smid=nytcore-ios-share

With MAGA, logic and facts have to take a back seat to know-nothing machismo.

Whether it’s renewable energy or dismantlement of the time-tested and proven childhood vaccine regimen or detonating nuclear weapons to stave off hurricanes.

It’s all apiece.

Trump’s stupidity and incompetence are, of course, made worse by disinvestment in renewables and alternatives to oil/gas.

Turns out “woke” makes the economy more flexible and therefore more resilient.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/business/china-oil-cars.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Attacking Iran with no plan for predictable oil shock is Hitler-esque military incompetence.

The 2026 equivalent of sending Panzer divisions into Russia at the beginning of mud season.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/business/energy-environment/iran-strait-hormuz-oil-middle-east.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Hi Professor Karn,

I just saw this quote from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter,” and it evoked similar thoughts and feelings out of me as reading the end of Civilization and Its Discontents, Lyotard, and just about every other text we discussed in class last semester…

Would likely have missed this garbage from Altman, if I hadn’t received a nice email from a former student.

I’m fortunate to work with young people who still wrestle with the world in this way…

👇

“We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.”

Hard pass, Sam.

I’ll be fighting for a different modus vivendi and a different concept of intelligence for however many days I’ve got.

https://x.com/TheChiefNerd/status/2032012809433723158?s=20

Trump lied about US responsibility for the missile strike on an Iranian elementary school. Of course.

But, to be clear, it was a double-lie: not only dishonesty about whose missile caused the carnage, but also the encompassing lie of “pinpoint strikes” and surgical warfare.

War is not what Hegseth and Trump want you to believe, and any time that becomes obvious they will pivot to other outrageous claims.

War on Iran is waged as part of an ongoing war on truth.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/us/politics/iran-school-missile-strike.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Sen Tillis (R-NC) going after DHS Sec. Kristi Noem, promising to block Trump nominees until/unless DHS begins to answer to charges of obstruction leveled by Inspector General.

Tillis set to retire, sees his opening?

Never too late to do the right thing.

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mg6dnx5auo25

Trump has called them “pinpoint” strikes.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l7rvqq51eo

“What happens if the cultivated language is made up of poisonous elements or has been made the bearer of poisons? Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic; they are swallowed unnoticed, appear to have no effect, and then after a little time, the toxic reaction sets in.”

—Victor Klemperer

Bronze statue of Caesar Rodney, removed from display in Delaware, will be re-installed in Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC.

Rodney cast the decisive vote in favor of the Declaration of Indpendence. Records show that he enslaved upwards of 200 people.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/climate/caesar-rodney-statue-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

DJT will have a LOT of things to say about 1776 this year. But don't think for a minute he appreciates or understands the history and meaning of the American Revolution.

What he loves about 1776 is the idea of affixing its stamp to the hierarchies of power and wealth and identity which have elevated and enriched him.

The actual principles of the revolution would baffle or terrify him, if he were ever to encounter them.

Trump wants only sanitized patriotic history. Questioning the morality of the United States, he says, is untruthful and insane. It's treason.

But..

"A state in which no one doubts the 'rightness of its cause' is a state in which politics has ceased to exist."

The end of politics is the beginning of dictatorship. We've been moving toward this for a quarter century.

https://thenib.com/the-good-war/