Lee Morgenbesser
@lmorgenbesser.bsky.social
Political Scientist, Griffith University | Fellow, Australian Research Council | Authoritarian politics, democratization, dictators, election observation, Southeast Asian politics.
Corrupt man scraps corrupt plans so that he can devise another way to be corrupt. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...
Breaking: FIFA scraps World Cup sell-off plans
FIFA has scrapped plans to sell a stake in the World Cup after the move caused a major backlash.
abc.net.au
I never understood why this guy had such a following. His understanding of authoritarian politics was almost always wrong. He was part of a cottage industry of scholars who made up concepts to advance their public profile, but those concepts had no grounding in academic scholarship.
Last year when I wrote about the passivity of the resistance movement to Trump's authoritarianism, I listed political consumerism as one of seven missing tactics. @juddlegum.bsky.social is correct. Hit their corporate earnings and political dominos will fall. theconversation.com/has-the-trum...
Judd Legum@juddlegum.bsky.social · 2w agoI took a hard look at the financial donors to ICE’s biggest supporters in Congress. These are people who want to significantly expand ICE’s power and have sponsored or co-sponsored legislation to do so. Here are the top 25 consumer brands bankrolling the biggest ICE supporters in Congress:
Only a handful of dictatorships don't hold national elections, and that is because they are monarchies, never institutionalised them, or are in a state of prolonged conflict. Disbanding elections outright means you are betting against the notion that international democratic norms will be enforced.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2w agoNicaragua’s president says country will not hold any more elections
Is this normal for Bluesky? Perhaps I haven’t been paying attention…
Do you think there is a ”chance” card in here where the American president corruptly interferes on your behalf? But then that interference inadvertently backfires and you lose the game? It would be quite the flex from the developers!
Americans shrugged their shoulders about Trump so far looting two billion dollars in office, so they certainly won’t care about corruption of this kind. They really need to get passed the belief that written criticism is a sufficient response to democratic backsliding.
Ben Jacobs@jacobsben.bsky.social · last mo.🚨 Exclusive: The White House made a direct call to FIFA to ask Gianni Infantino to review Folarin Balogun’s red card. FIFA approached for comment and referred to the findings of its independent committee.
PUBLISHED! My latest piece addresses the inactivity and passivity of the anti-Trump resistance. From my vantage point, it is not doing enough 🫣 I highlight seven lessons from those who have resisted authoritarian rule around the world. theconversation.com/has-the-trum...
Has the Trump resistance been too passive? Here are 7 ways to effectively protest authoritarian rule
The ‘No Kings’ protests have been important, but smaller, more sustained acts of resistance have proven successful in other countries around the world.
theconversation.com
How many Iranians support the Islamic Republic? In a new working paper, we answer this using a nationally representative survey of 2,000 adults in Iran—and the list experiment, a method for measuring sensitive attitudes.
Why do Americans gather in front of the Kennedy Center to watch the letters be pulled off the building, but not in front of Congress, Supreme Court, or Department of Justice when they destroy democracy a little bit more? www.youtube.com/live/aAhm880...
LIVE: See Donald Trump's name come off the Kennedy Center as it happens
YouTube video by MS NOW
youtube.com
Just an amazing piece of investigative journalism by @heidiblake.bsky.social. I lost count of how many people need to rot in jail for the rest of their lives. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Andrew Tate’s Empire of Abuse
How the defining figure of the manosphere built a fortune—and became a political force—by systematically exploiting women.
newyorker.com
Like I’ve said a dozen times now, America’s mainstream media was never ready for democratic backsliding. It has proven to be woefully inept for this moment. Led by the NYT, it has failed to act as a watchdog, educator, and scrutineer for Trump’s racism, corruption, and authoritarianism.
Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · 2mo agoummmm...what?
Watching the Australian media gobble Trump’s social media propaganda up without any sense of hesitation or learning from past mistakes is fucking infuriating. If they simply reported nothing, they would be better off. So would we.
Andrew Lawrence@ndrew.bsky.social · 2mo agoi dont understand why everyone is treating this “deal is close in iran” talk exactly as seriously as the last dozen “deal is close in iran” talk
Equally insane is the complete lack of both condemnation from political elites and spontaneous mass protests from citizens. Indeed, grand corruption is already a fully normalised feature of authoritarian rule in the United States.
Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · 3mo agoThis is insanity: Trump's DOJ is about to "settle" his lawsuit against the IRS by creating a $1.7 billion slush fund to pay off victims of Biden "weaponization." I talked to Jamie Raskin about this. It's even more corrupt than it first appears. 1/ (new piece) newrepublic.com/article/2105...
Waiting to access Canvas to start marking assessment. Waiting to hear from the university's Cyber Security Officer. Waiting to see how my personal data will be sold again. Waiting to be freed from our corporate tech overlords. Waiting to hear how I have to bear the consequences. Waiting 😢
Waiting
ALT: Waiting
static.klipy.com
Do anthropologists have a formal set of criteria for a functioning society? Asking as a political scientist, with America in mind of course.
America’s mainstream media was never ready for democratic backsliding. It has proven itself to be woefully inept at this moment. Historians and political scientists will write - with ease - about the failure of the fourth estate to act as a watchdog, educator, and scrutineer for what has occurred.
Judd Legum@juddlegum.bsky.social · 4mo agoArticles about Jared Kushner's diplomatic role with Iran that mention Kushner has received billions from the Saudi government (2/28-4/19): NYT: 5 of 58 WashPost: 1 of 43 WSJ: 0 of 40 AP: 0 of 26 CNN Wire: 0 of 18 NY Post: 0 of 17 Chicago Tribune: 0 of 4 LA Times: 0 of 4 Boston Globe: 0 of 2
I don’t get why people simply accept his professed Catholicism? Surely we can be more cynical in the age of Trump? Maybe, just maybe, his varying faith - look it up! - is a means to a political end… www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
Vance warns the pope should 'be careful' when talking about theology
Vance, who is Catholic, said the pope was wrong in saying Jesus wasn’t on the side of those who wield the sword, pointing to the U.S.’ helping defeat the Nazis during World War II.
nbcnews.com
Reposting my own thread in the hope it makes a difference to all those in Hungary who believe in democratic ideas, values, norms, and institutions. Best wishes to them.
Lee Morgenbesser@lmorgenbesser.bsky.social · 4mo agoWith Hungary’s crucial election a few days away, its National Election Office has published a list of accredited international observers (n. 859). Having spent nearly a decade researching the behavior of international observers, I decided to take a closer look 😊 www.valasztas.hu/en/internati...
With Hungary’s crucial election a few days away, its National Election Office has published a list of accredited international observers (n. 859). Having spent nearly a decade researching the behavior of international observers, I decided to take a closer look 😊 www.valasztas.hu/en/internati...
International observers registered for the parliamentary elections to be held in 2026
valasztas.hu
With Hungary’s crucial election a few days away, its National Election Office has published a list of accredited international observers (n. 859). Having spent nearly a decade researching the behavior of international observers, I decided to take a closer look 😊 www.valasztas.hu/en/internati...
International observers registered for the parliamentary elections to be held in 2026
valasztas.hu
Every time I go to type something snarky about the dumb shit Trump just said, he says something even dumber. So I delete the post and start again. It is a vicious cycle.
donald trump is wearing a suit and tie and making a funny face while speaking into a microphone .
ALT: donald trump is wearing a suit and tie and making a funny face while speaking into a microphone .
media.tenor.com
I asked Copilot to give me a list of closed autocracies and electoral autocracies from V-Dem's latest report. It promptly listed 92 countries, but I noticed a few glaring omissions 😶
My book - “Purges” - has a release date (August 15) and a front cover. I started work on this as my PhD dissertation at the end of 2017 - excited for it to finally be coming out! www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
The Trump-Orban comparison has always suffered from a bunch of different cognitive biases. Trump is both a “playbook autocrat” (like Orban) and a “mad king” (not like Orban) I wrote this duality here. In my view, the mad king persona will always prevail. www.thebulwark.com/p/crazy-or-c...
Crazy or Cunning: The Trump Contradiction
Critics’ two big theories explaining Trump are associated with different kinds of autocrats.
thebulwark.com
Eliot Higgins@eliothiggins.bsky.social · 5mo agoDonald Trump letting you know how the authoritarian capture of the media is going, in case you missed it. Unlike other authoritarians in places like Hungary and Poland he has no worries about advertising his authoritarian take over of the media.
And so it begins! Watch now as Western media proclaim Khamenei's son to be more moderate/progressive/Western-influenced etc etc than his father. They said the same about Kim Jong Un, Baby Doc Duvalier, Ilham Aliyev, Bashar al-Assad, Hun Manet, and just about every other next dictator ffs.
Thor Benson@thorbenson.bsky.social · 5mo agoIt appears we may have replaced Ayatollah Khamenei with Ayatollah Khamenei
Has it occurred to anyone that competitive authoritarianism has achieved ascendancy as the operative term for the United States, even though a national election has not occurred? Given there are 100s of diminished subtypes capturing authoritarianism outside of elections, should we excercise caution?
Anat Shenker-Osorio@anatosaurus.bsky.social · 5mo agoIn competitive authoritarianism (US right now) there's often a "loyal opposition" that's essential to the regime. They are so wedded to "decorum," they go along with rites & rituals that help regime prop up veneer of normalcy, undermining clear view of regimes actions & aims.
Russia, Venezuela, Iran, China, the Sahel region, the United States ... Want to know why state agents carry out brutal repression — or participate in illegal coups? Our new book "Making a Career in Dictatorship" provides answers — it just got published by @academic.oup.com: tinyurl.com/ystwm3tf
If the Trump administration is brazen enough to close a major airport without notification and without reason, just imagine all the horrible things they are not being transparent about. It will take a generation to uncover all their dirty secrets.
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 6mo agoBreaking News: The FAA halted all flights to and from the El Paso airport in Texas for 10 days, citing unspecified security reasons.
