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Steven L. Taylor

@sltaylor.bsky.social

Professor Emeritus of PoliSci and former Dean of Arts & Sciences. My research is focused on comparative democratic institutions.🖖🤘 I write about politics at www.outsidethebeltway.com

756 Posts1067 Follower299 Folgt
Adam Isacson@adamisacson.com ¡ yesterday

* My only asterisk here is that even if they had crates of cocaine aboard the boat, they're *still* murder victims. You can't use deadly force against civilians without an imminent self-defense justification, without even a warning. To normalize that is to enable massacres.

Steven L. Taylor@sltaylor.bsky.social ¡ last wk.

Here's my McConnell hot take that no one asked for: he is a very old man who is having a hard time giving up on power, and his family is likewise in denial, thinking that he will get better enough to have a victory lap on his way out of the Senate.

Anu@nofirstorder.bsky.social ¡ last wk.

Promised $2 gas, delivered a Middle East war, drained the reserves to 1983 levels, and spiked prices past $4. Truly the Art of the Deal. Great work by @paulwaldman.bsky.social laying out the receipts. Make sure to support @atrupar.com and the team by subscribing at publicnotice.co!

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ¡ last wk.

New in PN: Why Trump deserves all the blame for high gas prices "No POTUS has ever deserved to be hoisted on the petard of gas prices more. That’s not only bc of how he weaponized the issue before, but bc unlike almost every other POTUS, he's actually responsible for where the price is right now."

Steven L. Taylor@sltaylor.bsky.social ¡ last wk.

The Quagmire Shuffle: create a bad, unwinnable situation and then squawk about "cutt[iing] and run[ning]" and "stay[ing] the course" because reasons. Sadly, our best option is very likely just quitting. Yes, that would leave us worse off than when we started (because this was a really dumb idea).

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ¡ last wk.

Kennedy: "I don't think we ought to just cut and run. If we can stand the pain of the rising cost of energy, we need to stay the course at least for a few more months."

Steven L. Taylor@sltaylor.bsky.social ¡ last wk.

Behold the power of thinking comparatively as opposed to talking about things as if they exist in a vacuum.

Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social ¡ last wk.

If the media were serious about covering higher education in 2026, the actual National Conversation™️ would be “How have universities managed to retain such a high level of trust, relative to almost all the other institutions in 🇺🇸, amidst decades of assault from the far right authoritarian party?” 🧐🤔

Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social ¡ last wk.

Public trust in every US institution has declined. Tech, media, and govt all lower than higher ed, but considered a crisis—supposedly a self-caused one—only for academia. Looks like a pattern: Not about public trust, but about which institutions have been taken over by or appeased fascists the most.

Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social ¡ last wk.

I look forward to all the reports & coverage about all of the internal problems & mistakes of all of these other institutions, in the same way that universities are constantly blamed (& blaming themselves) for “declining trust.” “Compared to what?” news.gallup.com/poll/712436/...

Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social ¡ 2w ago

Big news here. After Salgado Araujo was killed by an ICE agent, *someone* leaked that a search warrant for the van showed FBI thought they might have seen drug baggies in it. The family said it was drink powder. Apparently the substance was tested and the family was correct.

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outsidethebeltway.bsky.social@outsidethebeltway.bsky.social ¡ 2w ago

Troops as Props Note: This story has already been noted in today's Open Forum, but I think it warrants its own post.... https://outsidethebeltway.com/troops-as-props-2/

Troops as Props

Note: This story has already been noted in today's Open Forum, but I think it warrants its own post. The NYT report: Number of U.S. Troop Deaths Suddenly Appears Lower on Pentagon Website. On Wednesday, the Pentagon reported on its casualties website that a total of 18 American service members had been killed during the war in Iran. By Thursday, the Defense Department had lowered that number, reporting that 14 American troops had been killed in the war.

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