This is a form of retaliation against someone for speaking out. He knew he would be punished, buy that punishment does not include unnecessarily strict confinement (which is barred by military law). www.military.com/air-force-ma...

Air Force Maj. Jason Watson is in Solitary 24 Hours Daily After Publicly Calling For Trump’s Impeachment

Maj. Jason Watson has been jailed since August after publicly opining on the president and his administration, drawing a big legal battle.

military.com

There will be a lot of equivocating about all the times search warrants have been executed on members of Congress for corruption investigations and the like, and it can't be stressed enough in how many ways HSI raiding Ilhan Omar is extremely not like that.

Death by a thousand cuts as universities revoke international offers "en masse" of prospective students from Bangladesh, Nigeria and Pakistan to avoid losing ability to recruit international students. More job losses and course closures predicted in consequence. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

UK universities withdraw offers from international students to avoid blanket ban

Pullback comes in response to doubling in number of study visas being refused by the Home Office in the first six months of 2026

giftarticle.ft.com

New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854

🚨🚨 New working paper! What happens to citizens’ democratic priorities when power changes hands? We (w/ Natasha Wunsch) explore this by drawing on a three-wave panel survey and a repeated conjoint experiment fielded around Hungary’s April 2026 elections (1/4, link at the end)...

It's pretty funny to say this right now, when the world's dictators and aspiring dictators are demonstrating their extreme non-benevolence and commensurate inefficiency. Was invading Ukraine efficient? Were the gulf princelings cheerleading the disastrous Iran war efficient?

Gil Durán@gilduran.com · 2w ago

“Democracy has been hailed as, like, the holy grail for the last couple hundred years, but democracies are inefficient,” said the crypto billionaire. “If you get a benevolent dictator, it’s actually extremely efficient." Hmm, where have I heard this before? www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/b...

Yeah, this is a big time impeachment abuse of power.

Michael Froomkin@mfroomkin.bsky.social · 2w ago

Relative got a $500 check from US Treasury and a shocking letter full of lies signed by Trump and ending with "May God bless you". Basically a pre-electoral bribe. News reports say they're sending almost a million of these. Full text in alt below. (I told him to cash it quick before it bounces.)

And of the grants that were made in SBE, the VAST majority went to cognitive & behavioral science. Very, very few went to to social and economic sciences. #polisky

Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴@wamsleylab.bsky.social · 2w ago

The fiscal year is over. The dying Social, Behavioral, and Economic division of NSF ended up awarding 90 total grants this year, as opposed to ~700-800 in recent past years. Source: grantwitness.org/nsf/analyses...

Four-byline alert: “.. Meta claimed that $4.1 billion of stock options exercised by Mr. Zuckerberg counted as a research expense ..” @nytimes.com $META www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/t...

The call for papers for our Spring 2027 workshop season is now open! We welcome applications by early-career scholars who study authoritarian political regimes regardless of their methodological approaches. For more information and to apply visit: apsg.work/cfp/

Call for Papers Spring 2027

The Authoritarian Political Systems Group is pleased to announce a Call for Papers. We are accepting submissions for our new season of online workshops taking place from 26 January 2027 to 4 May 20…

apsg.work

Yes. I think the consensus among US elite pundits and senior politicians that the way to protect liberal democracy is *not* to punish elite figures who violate its rules is wrong. A norm starting at least with the Watergate pardon. The opposite is true. You need to enforce the law and Constitution.

Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Once again, one of the primary reasons we have arrived at this point (completely out-of-control & unconstitutional abuse of executive power to conduct wildly illegal foreign policy) is that no one, including the most senior people involved, went to jail for the rest of their lives for Iran-Contra.

Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵

There's really no good argument against it, especially if Dems take the Senate. A distraction? Futile? As opposed to what, passing bills that you can't get past a veto anyway? Oversight? You get more attention and stronger legal tools with impeachment. Just do the right thing, it's good politics!

emptywheel@emptywheel.bsky.social · 4w ago

I agree with @jvl.bsky.social. Dems would do well to conduct serial impeachments. First Heggy (if he is not convicted in Dec, after he IS impeached in House), then RFK. Then prioritize based on what will either gain support among Senate GOPers OR embarrass them. www.thebulwark.com/p/impeach-th...

this

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · last mo.

US policymakers must avoid the temptation to rebuild US science by mimicking China and going all in on STEM. That would be a mistake. We also need social science and humanities that makes sense of great technological change like AI. Thats part of US scientific tradition worth keeping.

www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/o...

Come and work with us at @giga-hamburg.de in Hamburg! We are looking for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow focusing on the Middle East and North Africa. It is a 3+3 year position, offering up to six years to develop an independent research profile at GIGA. www.giga-hamburg.de/en/career/po...

All the polling from multiple pollsters, including GOP ones, points to a massive Democratic wave in the Midterms. If it doesn’t happen there will have been shenanigans that should get people out on the streets. Don’t be diverted by people who try to dismiss it as a conspiracy theory.

For less than $100, you can move the entire odds of most midterm election markets on Kalshi or Polymarket by $0.05 (or 5%). So if a candidate is at 40%, your small bet by itself could move them to 45% Any bettor can artificially help a campaign look more popular than it actually is

Its been 10 years of this and its upsetting. Journalists will claim they're being unbiased by just reporting a statement but that requires you to stop yourself from even the most minimal critical thinking. Trump's party controls all of government now * he lies constantly. Come. On.

G Elliott Morris@gelliottmorris.com · last mo.

Apparently every newspaper in the world has decided to just run the president’s campaign for him

What Sam said. Meanwhile, in Denmark, migrants' kids lag 20/30/40 points behind on average -and there are still people here who think *we* should copy *them* on immigration/integration.

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · last mo.

One reason England does so well is our second generation immigrants outperform their peers which is not true in most OECD countries. We are also very good at integration. And it's v sad that this is never acknowledge in debates on immigration.

in john roberts’ constitution, congress does not exist and the power of the purse belongs to the president, who is an elected dictator embodying the authentic Will of the People

David Kurtz@davidkurtz.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The gig is up in the very first sentence of the Supreme Court's per curiam opinion on the Trump ballroom (emphasis added): "In October 2025, the *federal government* started a project to replace the East Wing of the White House." They've collapsed the legislative branch into the unitary executive.

The White House belongs to us. All of us. It may not the biggest issue, but it represents the anti-constitutional behavior of these so-called conservatives that control all of the federal government.

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 2mo ago

Breaking news: The Supreme Court said construction can continue on the White House ballroom. The justices found that the historic preservationists who challenged the project had not suffered the direct personal harm required to bring a lawsuit.

NYT on the ultra rich dumping cash into the political process: “The leaderboard of the top 20 donors is dominated by the tech industry and ultrawealthy Republicans.”

Meet the Megadonors Who Have Poured $1.2 Billion Into the Midterms

The leaderboard of the top 20 donors is dominated by the tech industry and ultrawealthy Republicans.

nytimes.com

The Democratic Party has let a consulting industry exploit elderly donors in its name, wreck its reputation and finances in the process, and walk away rich whether the party wins or loses. When a mirror is held up, the instinct is to break the glass rather than look. On why the press looks away:

The Bulwark Killed an Investigation into Political Fundraising Spam After Its Publisher Took the Consultants’ Side

This is a story about the Democratic Party captured by its consultants, and about what happens when the pro-democracy press is asked to say so.

data4democracy.substack.com

This is worrisome because “hardball” includes a bunch of the measures necessary to sustain democracy, eg Supreme Court reform and PR/DC statehood. (I dislike the word hardball and the definition, eg what norm exactly does PR statehood violate?)

Brendan Nyhan@brendannyhan.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Support for constitutional hardball — seeking advantage via actions that are allowed under formal rules but break with established norms — has declined sharply among both parties since 2019, especially for previously popular tactics among Democrats

Two married professors and their son are being held in ICE detention, despite being legal permanent residents and having no criminal records. All, apparently, because their mom/MIL was a translator for the Iranian hostage takers in 1979, before they were even born. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

One Woman’s Message From the Hell of ICE Detention

My husband, son, and I have been locked up for months—despite being permanent residents with no criminal record. It is an unendurable, unending nightmare.

thenation.com

Historically, Trump's numbers are closer to those of presidents who aren't invited to the next nominating convention than to presidents who get to hand pick the next nominee. Act accordingly.

Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Trump absolutely cratering by many metrics in new CNN poll: 66% say he puts himself over country 61% disapprove of ballroom, arch, etc 57% say lacks sharpness to serve (!) 73% say he's out of touch w/regular people (!!) His personalist project is over. New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2137...

The Supreme Court invited exactly this when it held that the president's attempt to conduct "sham" "investigations" was a core executive power immune from all regulation, including criminal prosecution, in Trump v. United States.

Deborah Pearlstein@debpearlstein.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"Secret Service agents who questioned the former FBI director James B. Comey were told to send details of the interview to Air Force One so President Trump could review them....One government document said that 'POTUS was requesting a copy of the interview notes to use in his 6pm press conference.'"