This podcast is sooo good. One thing we learn is that Reagan's 1976 primary campaign comeback was masterminded by a far right eugenicist named Tom Ellis in NC & by appealing to George Wallace voters in Texas...an idea hatched by Arthur Finkelstein. Recognize that name? www.npr.org/2024/03/06/1...

Among the many awful aspects of Orban’s government and the many good things about its defeat: Its targeting of universities to push right-wing politics and policy was the Heritage Foundation’s explicit model here. And for JD Vance when he said “the professors are the enemy.”

Sound familiar?!

In competitive authoritarianism, leaders abuse state power to tilt the electoral playing field in their favor, manipulate the media environment and minimize opposition voices, maybe even steal close elections by lying about fraud. But they usually can't overcome a large majority voting against them.

Here it is, my 271st #ScholarSunday thread of public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share as widely as you can, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Read the whole thread; the current US administration has used Orban's regime as a template

April 12, 2026

Knowing the context helps us make meaning of the victory. Autocracy happens in stages, with many opportunities to take an off-ramp. The people of Hungary knew that these parliamentary elections – still free, if not exactly fair – could be the last real off-ramp from dictatorship, and they took it.

Imagine an electoral campaign like this in Russia today. You can’t. Too many have died under mysterious circumstances or rotted in prison. No one is left to push back against Putin without extraordinary risk. Hungary is a reminder it's critical to contest power forcefully while you still can.

The Hungarian election is about Russian oligarchy and its support of the international far right. That’s why Vance is there. He is a node in that network.

One hopes images like this, when paired with the knowledge that everything we burn ends up in that tiny slice of gasses, would help contextualize why we need to move away from energy sources we set on fire. One hopes. Climate communicators should make some hay of this.

The White House Correspondents Association is planning to "honor" Trump at its dinner three weeks from now. No way. It was egregious before. Now it's obscene.

One House Republican pushes back on Trump's Iran threat today — Rep. Rep. Nathaniel Moran of Texas: "I do not support the destruction of a 'whole civilization.' That is not who we are, and it is not consistent with the principles that have long guided America."

All House Dems (and Senators) should sign on to this. The world's economic and strategic fate is at the whim of a madman.

“All real democracy is an attempt (like that of a jolly hostess) to bring the shy people out.” GK Chesterton: 🎁link: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/o...

People need to understand that the party in the minority has very few options to stop or control what happens in Congress. If you don’t understand that, then you’re likely to fall for all the people blaming Democrats.

Samuel L. Jackson said it plain: show up and vote. This runoff is happening because too many voices stayed home last time. Let’s fix that. Election Day is Tuesday. Get to the polls. #GA14

“It’s difficult to cover him in a way that conveys how unhinged he is. Journalists are trained to be like, ‘OK, what did he say that was newsworthy?’ So you convey that to your audience. But in reality, when you actually watch, you see he's full of hatred, lying constantly, and very incoherent.”

An added wrinkle to this pattern of mass disassociation is that the President is permanently disassociated...he can say "Mamdani is a terrorist who must deported" one day and then the next day have a chummy photo op with him in the White House. His words & his actions are totally unlinked.

🎯🎯

The biggest story in the world right now is that the president of the United States is a demented old man who takes pleasure in torturing and killing people and is committing crimes with impunity. And yet most legacy media outlets are too cowardly to tell it like it is.

#VisibilityBrigade #newjersey #democracy #epsteinfiles #PeacefulProtest @maddow.bsky.social #saveact #rights @visibilitybrigade.bsky.social @rosaliewong.bsky.social @jesscraven101.bsky.social @emmatk.bsky.social @hcrichardson.bsky.social #women #epstein #ice #nj #war #iran #gas #prices

#CommunityPower #WETHEPEOPLE #Tennessee Clinton Tennessee Library Board Watch: Show Up for Anderson County Libraries Thursday, April 9 5:30 – 7pm EDT Anderson County Courthouse 100 N Main St Clinton, TN 37716 www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve...

#CommunityPower #WETHEPEOPLE #Georgia Decatur Georgia Dekalb County: Join us for the Board of Registrations and Elections Meeting Thursdays Apr 9, May 14, Jun 11 4:30 – 7:30pm EDT Voter Registration and Elections office 4380 Memorial Drive Suite 300 Decatur, GA 30032 www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve...

Let's focus on something we ALL agree on: #ReleaseTheEPSTEIN_Files

Wishing you all a (relatively) "Happy" Easter. 🐰 🥚 🧺 😩

Opened my old dictionary for an afternoon perusal and found my "pressing" little warning!

You can’t vote out Trump in the midterms, but you can vote out the people who enable him.

Republicans don’t want children learning about empathy, other cultures or to understand accurate history. It’s why they targeted PBS. They want the upcoming generations of voters to be indoctrinated into their culture of hate, fear and of valuing violence as the only means of conflict resolution.

Not sure what this normies stuff is about but if you haven't noticed nice ladies do a lot of the activist work in this country and have since the abolitionist movement, you maybe should.

I took a blank sign and asked everyone what did they want to work TOWARD?

Shout out to Birmingham, Alabama and Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska! 🎉

4pm Gov't Plaza in Tuscaloosa (2 pm appetizers in the Paul R. Jones Museum for a talk by civil rights lawyer Jack Drake! Walking distance!)

come on out Alabama! #nokings

Currently at Arlington National Cemetery #nokings

Today's the day. America has no king. Come out and stand together in solidarity for freedom. #NoKings Find your event: www.nokings.org

#NoKings3 Peak Attendance: 200-250 3/28/2026 9-10am West Bloomfield, MI #NoKings #PowerToThePeople #MoreOfUs #RiseUp @dananessel.bsky.social

We would much rather be at brunch right now. 🥲 #NoKings

Cringey earnestness as far as the eye can see. It’s great. #NoKings

Coordinated to coincide with No Kings Day, London is holding its largest-ever protest against the far-right. #NoKings

TOMORROW: Be a part of history! Show the world that the majority of Americans oppose the most corrupt, inept, criminal, orange "president" in U.S. History. NO KINGS. Also: NO SERIAL LIARS/CONVICTED FELONS/ADJUDICATED RAPISTS & NO ILLEGAL WAR IN IRAN Be there. Make your voices heard! 🇺🇸 ✊ #NO_KINGS

An excellent conversation on culture, politics, how we aren't as divided as the politicians and corporations want us to think -- and also BLACK COMEDY 😍 joycevance.substack.com/p/live-with-...

Thank you Wikipedia!

Honestly, Donald Trump is probably more racist than George Wallace ever was. Wallace was an opportunist who embraced racist politics because it played well with his electorate. Trump is a true believer in racism who keeps saying racist things despite the political blowback.

Washington state just passed a law banning law enforcement (including federal ICE agents) from wearing masks or face coverings while on duty. Gov. Bob Ferguson signed it Thursday and it took effect immediately.

"I made a deliberate decision that covering the civil rights movement was more important than becoming a historian, and so I...dropped out of graduate school..." --Billy Winn, retired editor of the Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer, died March 17. A 2015 interview: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnx4...

Since the orange felon wants attention today: NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES. NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES. NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES. NO MATTER WHAT.

An amazing turnout and a glorious sunny morning for the rally and march to Holyrood organised by Stand Up To Racism - Edinburgh. It was great to have the opportunity to address the rally as a Labour councillor - we must unite against those who spread hatred.