Radley Balko
@radleybalko
Journalist. Quattrone Center journalism fellow. Author: Rise of the Warrior Cop. Co-author: The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist. New podcast: Collateral Damage Substack: radleybalko.substack.com Signal: radleybalko.52
Claremont has direct proximity to and influence over the government right now. The guy who led the mass deportation campaign for all of 2025 believes this shit. So yeah, this is fringe, racist, batshit nuttery. It's also a serious threat. www.thebulwark.com/p/whos-to-bl...
I don’t 100 percent agree. But goddamn he’s good at this. And remarkably grounded for the life he’s had.
This is bananas. Also, Buc-ee’s kinda’ creeps me out. apple.news/AxPFaxTKgQT-...
Nashville’s Plaza Mariachi is everything great about this country. If Stephen Miller ever got within a mile of it, he’d melt like Arnold Toht.
Mailer sent out by a member of a Young Republicans group in Tennessee Story: www.newschannel5.com/news/newscha...
Jesus, Ezra. That isn't what happened at all. Rufo did not "try to figure out if" it's true." He gleefully amplified the lie, then offered a bounty to anyone who could retroactively "prove" it. It spurred death threats. Thousands will soon be deported because of it. Many of them will die.
The best answer for why formerly progressive tech bros pivoted to Trump is the simplest and most predictable: Time turned them into resentful, middle aged white guys who obsess about the culture war.
Kagan makes sure that Trump’s gutter racism — and the majority hand-waiving it away — gets into the record.
What The Free Press claimed: Under Biden, an NGO called Southwest Key made billions while turning a blind eye to abuse of migrant kids in its facilities. What really happened: Biden's DOJ sued Southwest Key. Trump *dropped* the lawsuit -- because it might have interfered with his mass deportations.
What The Free Press claimed: Under Biden, the number of "certified" trafficking victims soared, proving that Biden's policies caused a surge in trafficking What really happened: Trump gutted the office that certifies victims because he doesn't want them to get special trafficking visas.
Ladies and gentlemen: our Titans of Industry www.wired.com/story/trump-...
He’s definitely generating some sort of wind energy, but I don’t know that I’d call it “clean.”
Barbaric. This state is run by monsters. www.wkrn.com/news/tenness...
In 2012, 30 states allowed no-excuse mail-in voting. In 2016, 8 states saw more than a fourth of voters send in their ballots. Taibbi has either gotten a lot dumber, or he just doesn't give a shit anymore.
Coffee mug solidarity. When we visited about a decade ago, Tirana was a welcoming, pro-U.S., majority Muslim European capital that was really excited about an upcoming visit from the Pope. A fascinating, friendly, delightfully quirky city. Also, pretty badass flag.