Folks look at you like you’re crazy when you say we’re in the midst of the worst, most unprecedented Article I constitutional crisis in American history, & then it’s another Monday:

(This also reminds us of the need to introduce some more consistent version-numbering rules, which we'll do in the not-too-distant future.)

We've introduced a minor update to COW's State System Membership Data, updating the coverage through 2024 and making available "blank" dyad-year and directed dyad-year data sets, in addition to the traditional state-year data. correlatesofwar.org/data-sets/st...

#nowplaying music.apple.com/us/album/tee...

The news media needs to start using experts on authoritarianism and pre-WWII history as pundits on stories about the current administration. This is not a joke - just a boring good idea. The rapid shift to fascism needs to be put in context by people who know, not podcasters and politicians.

It's becoming difficult to hide that a major purpose of the Trump administration is siphoning tax revenues from Blue states and redirecting them into subsidies for Red states. At what point does this become intolerable?

ER doc here! This is a lie. Wait times are up because the American healthcare system is an unsustainable business model and a for-profit national healthcare system just doesn’t work. These problems will continue to get worse until we change that system. It literally has nothing to do with immigrants

Announcing the barest of web redesigns at correlatesofwar.org. Look on our new logo, ye mighty, and despair.

music.apple.com/us/album/pea... #nowplaying

Pritzker: "People of Illinois, we need your help. Get our your cell phones, record and narrate what you see. Put it on social media. Peacefully ask for badge numbers and identification. Speak up for your neighbors. We need to let the world know that this is happening and that we won't stand for it."

This is something I observed in China: the political mediocrities were the most defensive, status-conscious and egotistical. The guys with actual talent didn’t demand respect - and also had other options.

I get why people respond to the “legal arguments” for the unitary executive. But since the real theory is obviously “a president I agree with should be above the law, a president I disagree with is even more restricted than the law says,” the “legal” discussion takes place inside a surreal fiction.

"Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." Looking forward to seeing Jimmy back on the air.

And, given claims about the upcoming Rapture, how can I resist plugging this?⬇️⬇️⬇️

Certiorari "before judgment" is how #SCOTUS takes up a full appeal *before* the intermediate federal courts have heard it. It used to be exceedingly rare. For instance, there wasn't a *single* grant of such expedited review b/w August 2004 & February 2019. This is the *23rd* such grant since then.

Disney reverses course on Kimmel. Lessons: -Trump's anti-Constitutional stances, anti-1A in this case, are unpopular -Popular resistance via expression and spending choices can have an impact -Many corporate leaders are weak, amoral people who'll bow to threats unless they face countervailing ones

This is a terrific piece by @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social. He explains extremely well, at least IMHO, the logic of competitive authoritarianism, where and how its happening here, and that we still have time to stop it.

oh looks like jill lepore wrote the book i thought i might write www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/b...

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say. This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand. All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

good fucking night and good fucking luck

I feel that Hanania is probably one of the few far right types who actually understands where his fellow travelers are taking us and thinks, nope, civilization is better moderately woke than violently broke.

a nearly perfect record music.apple.com/us/album/vit...

Vance is accidentally telling the truth here — when they say “crime” they mean “possibility you might see a homeless person”

Couldn't stay away from the law and order angle of this week's news bombardment open.substack.com/pub/goodpoli...

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one of the smart things that Newsom is doing here is implicitly calling out the insanity of how much Trump has been normalized by media by forcing them to think about what it looks like when somebody else does it

the thing everyone is going to have to accept is that the post-trump period, whenever it comes, will not and cannot be a project of national unity, it must be a project of partisan project of renewal, in the same way that reconstruction and the new deal were partisan projects of renewal.

They keep choosing and showing us who we knew they were all along: bsky.app/profile/mcop...

Important details from this story: 1) Yet another news-break by student journalists (this time @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social) www.thecrimson.com/article/2025... 2) Harvard saying "see you in court," not "let's make a deal." 3) Per Garber, WH/MAGA leaked news of a "deal." NYT then ran with it.

<all together now>

My latest: Polar scientists warn that the White House and NSF are planning to terminate the Nathaniel Palmer, the only US research icebreaker capable of handling Antarctic extremes, this October. So far the plan has seen minimal pushback from Congress.

this really is what twitter is now. its just elon’s phpBB

Can't believe it's necessary to say that gutting NASA is a bad idea.

It is an extraordinary loss of intellectual expertise that the American people invested millions in developing Every scientist who earns a graduate degree in the US is the product of an investment by the public This is like setting money on fire

Oh, Learn Bar. How I’ve missed you.

10000% This is the equivalent of his “I can’t release my tax returns because I’m under an audit” excuse.

Both parties used to believe this. Of course, both parties used to believe in democracy & the rule of law, too.

This might be the most important story for the U.S. since WW2. We are obliterating our research enterprise. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/s...

Generational wealth is a curse.