Neil Abrams
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readthedetox.com
Neil Abrams
@readthedetox.com
Authoritarianism, corruption, rule of law, Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Russia. Words in WaPo, Slate, Foreign Policy. PhD, political science. He/him.

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Reposted by Neil Abrams
Thread. 😬

Some context: of the ten papers, the author of one yanked it on being contacted; the author of another said they couldn’t meet because of conflicting commitments; the author of a third just didn’t show up.

For academics, publications are REALLY important.
TMLR has faced a deluge of submissions, necessitating stricter desk rejection policies due to limited reviewer capacity

Co-EiC Nihar Shah reached out to authors of 10 papers slated for desk reject. Could they answer questions about their *own* submission?
medium.com/@TmlrOrg/ask...
Asking Authors About Their Own Papers
By Nihar B. Shah
medium.com
September 16, 2026 at 9:12 PM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
Again, just this week, the @nytimes.com & everyone else ran front page stories & headlines about how the AfD in 🇩🇪 was a far right party. Not only do they still not refer to the Republican Party this way, despite all of 👇 happening daily, but 👇 doesn't even make the news.

bsky.app/profile/mcop...
The hate and the fascism
September 10, 2026 at 7:53 PM
Taibbi laments how “boring” he finds Trump’s autocratic assault. This is a guy who spent the Biden years hyperventilating about phantom censorship by liberals. But actual, bona fide authoritarianism by the right? It’s just too dull to even think about. www.racket.news/p/on-escapin...
September 10, 2026 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
How many more months of war and how many more dead Ukrainian civilians will it take before Europeans find a conscience and transfer Russia’s frozen assets to Ukraine?

What more proof do you need that Moscow does not want to negotiate?

Let’s find a solution @de-nva.bsky.social
September 10, 2026 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
"I won't let men in girls locker rooms" motherfucker you're letting GIRLS go in the girls locker room, the GOP wants men checking your daughters genitalia! ATTACK, RELENTLESSLY, HOW WEIRD THEY ARE AND HOW THE EPSTEIN PARTY WANTS STRANGERS STARING AT UNDERAGE GIRLS!
September 9, 2026 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
I'm going to try and be as polite as possible about this: this isn't a purity test, this is a "will you defend a minority group when the government is working hard to murder them" question, and acting like it's a wedge issue rather than the entire game is a failure of empathy and historical vision.
Republicans milk this wedge issue in order to win. They keep winning bc they know their opposition has purity tests that align perfectly w a divide & conquer strategy.

Ken Paxton could be the Senate vote that ends US democracy, but we couldn’t back Talarico because he doesn’t check every box.
September 9, 2026 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
how the mainstream media covered the racist trump attack on the smithsonian vs how we covered it @dailykos.com

read more here www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...
March 28, 2025 at 4:09 PM
For decades, people have been writing books arguing that fiat money is a "sham" and predicting that a massive crisis is just around the corner. But no, I'm sure Hunter's onto something.
Don't get too excited about Hunter Biden's new social media persona. Looks like another nepo baby crypto grift is afoot...
September 7, 2026 at 4:37 PM
While Dems fall over themselves to disavow Hasan Piker, the Trump administration proudly brings white nationalists into its ranks, thus gifting Dems daily opportunities to go on the attack and change the conversation. But for some reason, Dems refrain. They're more comfortable attacking their own.
Darren Beattie was Stephen Miller’s right wing classmate from Duke University and the Trump speechwriter fired for attending a white nationalist conference in 2018. He was hired by Matt Gaetz after he was fired from the White House.
Semafor: Rubio will appoint Darren Beattie, a speechwriter in Trump’s first term, acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, two people briefed on the plans said…Beattie was fired from the WH in 2018 after attending a conference with white nationalists.

www.semafor.com/article/02/0...
September 6, 2026 at 11:38 PM
At one point, I started writing a book comparing apologists for genocide in Ukraine and Palestine. But then Trump was reelected, so instead I'm writing a book on how to overthrow him (nonviolently).
It's instructive to compare genocide denial in Israel's case with that in Russia's case. People like Walsh would never dream of disputing expert allegations of genocide against Russia. Yet, here they are issuing the same inane apologias on Israel's behalf that tankies do for Russia. 1/2
Hey my friend, don’t lie about me. I’m happy to continue our conversation any time. I haven’t refused anything. How about we continue the conversation next week? Israel has not committed genocide, the only obstacle to peace is the Palestinian people. How about a respectful conversation about that?
September 5, 2026 at 4:51 AM
It's instructive to compare genocide denial in Israel's case with that in Russia's case. People like Walsh would never dream of disputing expert allegations of genocide against Russia. Yet, here they are issuing the same inane apologias on Israel's behalf that tankies do for Russia. 1/2
Hey my friend, don’t lie about me. I’m happy to continue our conversation any time. I haven’t refused anything. How about we continue the conversation next week? Israel has not committed genocide, the only obstacle to peace is the Palestinian people. How about a respectful conversation about that?
One year ago I debated former Rep Joe Walsh on Palestine & Israel.

He committed to responding. One year later—he’s refused, because he knows Israel’s actions are indefensible & genocide

So, I’m declaring victory & sharing the receipts Walsh is unable to refute: www.qasimrashid.com/p/one-year-l...
September 5, 2026 at 4:29 AM
Guys, when legions of human rights experts and organizations - you know, people who've *made careers* out of studying genocide - call it a genocide, saying "no, it's not" doesn't qualify as a legitimate counterargument.
Hey my friend, don’t lie about me. I’m happy to continue our conversation any time. I haven’t refused anything. How about we continue the conversation next week? Israel has not committed genocide, the only obstacle to peace is the Palestinian people. How about a respectful conversation about that?
One year ago I debated former Rep Joe Walsh on Palestine & Israel.

He committed to responding. One year later—he’s refused, because he knows Israel’s actions are indefensible & genocide

So, I’m declaring victory & sharing the receipts Walsh is unable to refute: www.qasimrashid.com/p/one-year-l...
September 5, 2026 at 4:09 AM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
Trump thinks that if you pay somebody $10 for a burrito than you have lost the $10, like it has been stolen from you. He's not pretending; this is literally the basis of his trade policy
Trump says that one of the only things we import from Mexico are "hot tamales."

Not tamales -- but "hot tamales."

Because if you go to any crossing on our southern border, you will see 18-wheelers with huge ovens. Those ovens are set to 375 degrees, and they are filled with tamales.
“We could do tremendous good for ourselves by just not trading with countries” — Trump’s bonkers view of trade is that you become wealthy by not engaging in commerce
September 4, 2026 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
this is actually worth listening to. not because it's that more insane than most other stuff. but it's a window into how he understands trade. and he understands in the sense of having no idea how anything works.
Trump says the US would “save” $90 billion by cutting off trade with Canada 🥴
September 4, 2026 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
👇🎯 Happy week, everyone!
September 4, 2026 at 7:14 PM
One can just imagine the 9/11 victims looking down with loving appreciation as we enjoy our mini muffins in their honor.
Not exactly merch, but the 9/11 mini-muffins live forever in my heart.
September 3, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
Oh well, all those crazy left anti-Zionist anarchists, what else would you expect from them, they are practically Hamas
These Generals Fought for Israel. Now They See ‘Jewish Terrorism’ as the Threat.
A growing number of former Israeli generals, intelligence officials and prime ministers are accusing settlers in the West Bank of committing ethnic cleansing with government support. “Once a society b...
www.nytimes.com
August 31, 2026 at 3:23 PM
And the farmers? Bound to chairs at drag queen story hours with their eyelids clamped wide open. Every one of them.
Brooke Rollins: "I want to talk just for a second about what a President Kamala Harris would've looked like for farmers and ranchers. Ranchers would've been in prison."
September 3, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Listening to the Zionist voices Peter interviews stumble, stammer, deny, question, and deflect over basic shit—the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in ‘47-48, the deliberate assault on civilian life in Gaza, etc.—drives me crazy. Say what you will about Jabotinsky; at least he owned it.
Rabbi Yaacov Behrman and I Discuss Judaism, Zionism and Chabad
A conversation about American foreign policy, Palestinian freedom and the Jewish people.
peterbeinart.substack.com
September 2, 2026 at 9:35 PM
"Like, SURE, somebody's REALLY GOT an idea for Israel and Palestine that's better than my '23-state solution.'"
September 2, 2026 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
Incredible that Russia has now lost more soldiers in Ukraine than the US did during the entire Second World War(!)—and still holds less Ukrainian territory than it did in early 2022.

Failure upon failure upon failure.
September 2, 2026 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
LEFT: Noah Feldman in Bloomberg in 2020, promising that his old friend Amy Coney Barrett would "analyze and decide cases in good faith, applying the jurisprudential principles to which she is committed"

RIGHT: Noah Feldman in Bloomberg in 2026, "surprised" that Amy Coney Barrett did not do that
September 2, 2026 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by Neil Abrams
“Sedgwick, Kansas, Police Chief Lee Nygaard resigned after using Flock cameras to track his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend more than 200 times over several months.”
"Ashworth was tracked by the Lenexa Police Department’s ALPRs after he wrote a column critical of the city’s police... Lenexa police opened a criminal investigation into Ashworth in 2025, suggesting he was illegally posting memes near city hall."

www.kcur.org/news/2026-06...
Missouri and Kansas police use cameras to track license plates, but residents resist surveillance
With an estimated 94,000 automated license plate readers in America, police and federal agents can almost track your movements from coast to coast. The cameras have been controversial in cities like L...
www.kcur.org
June 29, 2026 at 1:12 PM
Unreal.
No fucking shit buddy. This is what we were trying to tell you.
September 2, 2026 at 12:15 AM
There's a lesson here: Unlike Dem leaders, Republicans don't follow public opinion; they shape it.
Republicans who see Canada as an enemy has leapt up this year, similar to how Republicans’ approval of Putin shot up in 2016.

Virtually no anti-Canada US constituency before this year, and virtually no pro-Putin constituency before 2016.

Out of nowhere. Now millions say that’s their position.
NEW Economist/YouGov Aug 28-31: Canada
38% of Republicans view Canada as unfriendly or an enemy of the U.S., by far the highest level in the past decade
yougov.com/en-us/articl...
September 2, 2026 at 12:09 AM