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 · 7d 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 · last wk.

"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.'"

Important corollary: people are LESS likely to support authoritarian leaders if people around them don't. This is where "social proof" comes in. Be vocal and visible to social circles and neighbors about your resistance against authoritarians AND your support of pro-democracy candidates and causes

emptywheel@emptywheel.bsky.social · 2w ago

People are more likely to support authoritarian leaders if people around them do. www.psypost.org/anti-democra...

There is simply no ambiguity in what Elon Musk is arguing and endorsing here.

This is the latest one that I can't believe doesn't have legs. They listed all the grants by whether the states they were in went for Harris or Trump and whether they had at least one republican Senator. All grants in Harris states w/o a republican Senator were canceled.

Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him (Gift Article)

Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.

nytimes.com

👀 see you in October: The Rise and Fall of Tunisian Democracy, Cambridge University Press Grateful for the endorsements from Professors Melani Cammett and Milan Svolik and Prime Minister Youssef Chahed. Coming soon to a library near you! www.cambridge.org/core/books/r...

DPIR is proud to launch the MSc in Politics of Global Challenges, a new one-year interdisciplinary master’s course. “A new generation of students who want to think critically, build real skills, and make a difference.” — David Rueda, Interim Head of Department https://f.mtr.cool/vuwxohznor

Universities can actually do what the tech-venture capitalists can only promise to do

Dr. Damien P. Williams has to go the way his blood beats@wolven.blacksky.app · 2w ago

Holy shit, we're actually getting there. "UCLA researchers develop low-cost blood test to detect multiple cancers and other diseases from a single sample [—] In tests, MethylScan detected about 63% of cancers across all stages and roughly 55% of early-stage cancers." (from April) #ShareGoodNewsToo

Trump already tried to do a coup. We should prepare for the worst. I've heard that Democratic officials are already gaming this out, but if they aren't, they should be getting regular presentations from veterans of Color Revolutions and other mass pro-democracy protests.

Elizabeth N. Saunders@profsaunders.bsky.social · 3w ago

I’m not a doomer, but we have seen Trump inflict suffering on millions in Iran and consolidate its hardline regime because he was hyped up after the “easy” Venezuela operation. He’s suggested regime change in Cuba. Who knows what he might try in our elections with all the power at his disposal?

I have a piece in the NYT today arguing that the law should permit victims of ICE abuse to sue not just individual officers, but supervisors and policymakers like Stephen Miller and Gregory Bovino. A Democratic president and Congress could do this in 2029. And they could make it retroactive.

Opinion | ICE Is Out of Control. Here’s What to Do About It.

Congress must push back against our inhumane immigration tactics.

nytimes.com

I found this story genuinely shocking to report. The legislation has expanded so much that now the grounds on which citizenship can be stripped are incredibly vague and there is hardly any recourse. Anyone who the government believes MIGHT have a claim on another nationality can be denationalised.

NEW: Months after FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty cast a decisive vote approving Paramount’s historic $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, she and a guest accepted Kennedy Center gala tickets from the company worth more than $12,000.

FCC Officials Took Pricey Gifts From Paramount as the Company Needed Approval for Billion-Dollar Deals

Accepting tickets to the Kennedy Center honors gala compromised the commissioners’ impartiality, ethics experts told ProPublica. FCC Chair Brendan Carr has been gifted at least $63,000 worth of ticket...

propublica.org

I think it’s time for political scientists, strategists, and junkies of all stripes on this site to start really having a conversation — a grounded, realistic conversation — about what we think Trump will try this fall If you know the likeliest scenarios you can better prepare for them

Shoe@shoe.bsky.social · 3w ago

It's all fun and games until we gather at the Capitol

hard but important to watch

Ed Markey@edmarkey.bsky.social · 3w ago

This is footage of ICE handcuffing a 26 year old father after murdering him in broad daylight. We cannot look away. Abolish ICE. Abolish qualified immunity. Hold these murderous thugs accountable.

“Culture of impunity” is right. The demand is to never hold public figures accountable for wrongdoing, not even verbally when they’re already beyond the reach of human accountability and won’t hear the criticisms and jokes. The legacy must be sanitized, or current elites might feel less impunity.

Better Things Are Possible@internethippo.bsky.social · 4w ago

Mainstream Respectable opinion is that people joking about a bad person's death represents a culture of cruelty, but really it represents a culture of impunity. It's a coping mechanism for watching someone do evil their whole life and never seeing consequences

The Aug. issue of @cpsjournal.bsky.social is out and our article on support coalitions and regime survival is in it: Larger & more diverse coalitions correspond to longer-lived regimes @sirianned.bsky.social @magnusrasmussen.bsky.social @torewig.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Who Rules? Support Coalitions and Regime Survival, 1789–2020 - Carl Henrik Knutsen, Sirianne Dahlum, Magnus Bergli Rasmussen, Tore Wig, 2026

All political regimes rely on coalitions of supporters to govern and remain in power. We discuss, specify, and test arguments pertaining to how the numerical si...

journals.sagepub.com

Yale should reject the deal, write Penn Profs Serena Mayeri & Amanda Shanor: "The administration’s tactics place univ. leaders under unenviable stress, but the existential nature of the threat is the reason not to consent ...." www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...

Trump, Yale deal would be authoritarianism by agreement | Opinion

Trump's government hopes a deal with Yale will push other universities to fold. The university should stand for the Constitution and the law instead.

usatoday.com

AAUP@aaup.org · 4w ago

“Should the university choose to compromise its commitment to academic freedom by seeking to settle w/ the DOJ on the basis of these spurious claims, the Yale AAUP will not hesitate to pursue its rights.” — Attorneys for Yale AAUP in a letter sent this week to Yale president Maurie McInnis

NEWS --> Three men who were in the van with the victim of the ICE shooting in Texas are potential witnesses, but they're now under pressure to self-deport, a rep for the families tells me. They remain in detention even as ICE's story falters. Details in this piece: newrepublic.com/article/2129...

Texas ICE Killing Darkens: Rep Says Witnesses Pressured to Self-Deport

There were three others in the van with the man shot by ICE in Houston this week. A represenative for the families tells TNR that the government is pressuring these potential witnesses to self-deport.

newrepublic.com

The dean of Yale Law School and some members of its faculty are trying to stop a settlement between the university and the Trump admin — warning that an agreement could jeopardize Yale's independence, according to two people familiar with the deliberations.

Yale Law School Fights to Stop Trump Deal

nytimes.com

“In light of ongoing reports of continued severe torture and the latest reports suggesting that his injuries could lead to imminent death, Israel must ensure that Dr. Abu Safiya has access to immediate and adequate medical care.” www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

Israel must immediately release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya: UN experts

GENEVA – UN experts* today urged Israel to immediately release Palestinian Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all the health and care workers arbitrarily detained.

ohchr.org

Don't want to speak ill of the dead, so getting this Mitch McConnell take out now. He saw Trump with complete clarity, as a danger to America, but protected him anyway. Perhaps more than anyone, he had the power to end Trumpism, but chose party over country. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/jan-6-and-...

The fact that we were this close to a Supreme Court ruling that would have allowed the President to amend the constitution by executive order, violating the separation of powers, is a harrowing reminder of the fragility of democracy just days before our 250th birthday.

really cannot be emphasized enough that the drafters of the birthright clause very much considered cases analogous to undocumented immigrants and *included them too*

Adam Serwer@adamserwer.bsky.social · last mo.

That's right.

When this regime falls — at the ballot box or in a failed effort to steal an election — the fact that Trump will have appointed 4 out of 9 justices should settle the question of unpacking the Court. There is no virtue in "respecting norms" when it comes to the legacy of an autocratic fascist.

5-4 on the plain text of the constitution and the political rights of millions. Shameful.

Mark Joseph Stern@mjsdc.bsky.social · last mo.

The Supreme Court strikes down Trump's attack on birthright citizenship. By a 5–4 vote, it holds that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to children born of unauthorized and temporary immigrants. Roberts and Barrett join the three liberals. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

To be quite blunt, the Court is undermining the legitimacy of the Constitution itself

Adam Serwer@adamserwer.bsky.social · last mo.

As with some other things, i suspect if we have another dem president we will discover that the court did not so much transfer power to the executive as to themselves, ie they will find novel bullshit reasons to block a dem president the same way the find novel bullshit reasons to enable trump

‼️The CEU is set to become a two-campus university again, HUN media reports. While Vienna will remain its main campus, degree-granting programs are expected to return to Budapest once the necessary approvals are completed. A step toward restoring the university's academic presence in Hungary! 2/1

Are preferences for authoritarian rule individual predispositions—or can they spread socially? Using field + survey experiments in the Norwegian Armed Forces, we show that openness to strongman rule can spread socially. American Journal of Political Science: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

American Journal of Political Science | MPSA Journal | Wiley Online Library

The increasing popularity of strongman rule in democratic societies underscores the need to explore how authoritarian regime preferences might spread socially. We assess the role of social influence ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

air conditioning is good and right and a just climate future has zero emissions and also air conditioning and we should build a better world where people don’t die in heat waves

Costa Samaras@costasamaras.com · last yr.

Our research confirms this. Climate change increases the need for air conditioning for people to not die in heat waves. We need clean energy. We need efficient buildings. We need green infrastructure. We need more of this that most folks can imagine. We should start building it all right now.