Frank Bajak
Journalist with tech focus. Ex-Associated Press foreign correspondent. First AP tech editor, Andes chief. frankbajak.com fbajak(at)proton(dot)me - DM for Signal#
- i think people should consider the extent to which bannon, a known bullshit artist, knows that you will see this and panic. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
- He’s “flooding the zone with shit,” as he told us he would a decade ago. Ignore him. Nobody is going to let ICE interfere with voting.
- Steve Bannon says the federal government is planning to send ICE officers to patrol polling stations during the midterms. "We're going to have ICE surround the polls come November." "We're not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again." www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
- I’m not sure what WaPo is actually going to cover anymore — other than licking Trump’s $#%!. — I had held on to my subscription after the Kamala debacle to support reporters like Joe Menn who have consistently excelled in their respective beats. Canceling my subscription for good now.
- I’m guessing this kind of reporting will now disappear from WaPo. U.S. journalism’s forced fracturing is deadly poison for democracy. We need strong independent news orgs that stand up to corrupt arbitrary power, particularly the wealthy bullies who file lawsuits to intimidate truth-tellers.
- New territory. Must read story from a colleague. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
- “It’s just devastating news for anyone who cares about journalism in America and, in fact, the world,” apnews.com/article/wash...
- Q: What could be more crass about U.S. politics? A: The anti-democratic notion that money buys power. Trump’s PAC now has more than $300 million. And the crypto and AI bros have amassed a war chest to crush attempts to regulate them. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/u...
- “I am tired of the Republicans who are in the pockets of the rich and the corporations. I’m tired of the sellout Democrats too.” - Brian Poindexter, a northeastern Ohio working-class candidate for Congress to watch in the midterms,: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNeT...
- And precisely because he recognizes that large chunks of the working class are turning against him, Trump is now openly advocating a political takeover of voting by his party. Nobody does that so brazenly. Not even in the worst autocracies. bsky.app/profile/bren...
- The wanton deportation of people who contribute to and enliven U.S. society, in this case by caring for the infirm, has got to stop. This Haitian doctor working as a nurse in Springfield, Ohio, is just one of thousands we could lose. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/u...
- In Springfield, Ohio, people are preparing in advance of a “large deportation” promised by the president. To all appearances, the city is 2 or 3 days from a federal ethnic cleansing, grounded in a hate campaign organized by the vice-president and American Nazis. snyder.substack.com/p/ethnic-cle...
- This is how Israel observes the Gaza ceasefire. Children are among the dead. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/w...
- Lemon and Fort, the 2 (arrested) journalists, “largely surrounded” Easterwood (the pastor/ICE employee) and “peppered him with questions,” in an “attempt to oppress and intimidate him,” indictment says. Journalist as oppressor is reality’s mirror image. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...
- The Minnesota Star Tribune, @mprnews.org @minnesotareformer.com , @spokesmanrecorder.bsky.social, @sahanjournal.bsky.social, Center for Broadcast Journalism and Minnesota Newspaper Association today released the following statement:
- The wanton arrest of journalists doesn’t happen in functioning democracies. We are past that in the U.S. now. We’ve slid into “competitive authoritarianism," as defined by @stevelevitsky.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/oliv...
- Harvard professor Steven Levitsky, who studies democracy backsliding, on Don Lemon's arrest: “This is a new dimension. In democracies, journalists don't get arrested. In authoritarian regimes, journalists get arrested." More in @status.news: www.status.news/p/don-lemon-...
- This is what the autocrats do (I saw it firsthand in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela). They make their political targets expend resources — aka money — on lawyers and bureaucracy. Tie them up like pretzels. And that’s what Trump’s minions in the DOJ are doing to Don Lemon. bsky.app/profile/greg...
- This is about forcing Don Lemon to spend money and time defending himself. "“They probably don’t have any expectation that this prosecution will stick," legal expert tells me. "But they do know they will put Don Lemon through the grinder in the meantime." newrepublic.com/article/2059...
- The upcoming midterm elections are gonna be a wild ride. The DOJ and FBI … and apparently the U.S. intelligence community … are now apparently being tasked to obstruct voting.
- “The idea that federal officials would seize ballots in an attempt to prove fraud is especially dangerous in this context when we know … the Georgia 2020 election has been extensively counted, recounted and investigated,” one expert said. By @dougbockclark.bsky.social @jenafifield.bsky.social
