Dear vendors, Unsubscribe and merry Christmas in that order.

It's lunacy that this Normalization of Authoritarianism continues full-tilt. Think forward three years. I very much hope we're saying, "In retrospect, maybe we overreacted," rather than "In retrospect, we should have seen that coming." www.nbcnews.com/video/shorts...

Instalment 3972 in the President Ruins the Presidency www.cbc.ca/news/world/w...

May your lights shine extra bright.

Dear Social Science, The only puzzle is why you repeat "puzzle" and "puzzling" over and over. Sincerely, Common Sense

So very well put.

Because if you cannot amuse yourself who can you amuse?

They don't need "better training." They need better judgment. www.cnn.com/2025/12/03/p...

Please apply! munkschool.utoronto.ca/petro-jacyk/...

We are delighted to welcome Ilya Yashin to the Munk School on 5 December. Please come if you're in town! munkschool.utoronto.ca/event/conver...

Trump is going to Central Asia. Weird times.

Happy Halloween, Jays fans!

Evidence based and data driven are like crypto. Everything depends on what it means, what the rules of engagement are, who is monitoring stuff, and what it’s being used for.

For the millionth time, averting a crisis of your own making is not really a “win.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/u...

So, to recap: First, we made cash king in politics (Citizens United 2010). Then we elected a mafia-adjacent scam-artist as president (2014). Then we gave him immunity for anything he does in office (Trump v. US 2024).

I see so now they're called "wins" when you avert crises that you created. www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...

American exceptionalism

Trump’s Medvedev www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/u...

I'm very happy to join @policymag.bsky.social as a columnist. The plan is to write a bi-monthly column on the Russo-Ukrainian war, Eastern European politics, and democracy and the rule of law. www.policymagazine.ca/author/maria...

Delighted to join the Rhyming Chaos podcast with @goldkorn.bsky.social and @mariarepnikova.bsky.social . Have a listen. www.rhymingchaos.com/p/when-will-...

The good thing about the emerging sports betting scandal is that it keeps our minds off wars and authoritarianism for a few days.

Holding Two Truths, Episode 1 True that Trump gets much credit for the ceasefire and also true that he cares more about credit than about lasting peace.

So glad the Nobel goes to someone fighting for democracy, not against it.

Thank God. For a second there I thought they were going after James Comey.

“One morning (and it will be soon), when everyone wakes up as a writer, the age of universal deafness and incomprehension will have arrived.” ― Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Teehee

Political ethnography alert! 🚨 Fabulous article by @professorbiko.bsky.social and Tali Mendelberg in @poppublicsphere.bsky.social showing that MAGA is as much about 'reclaiming lost status' as it is about culture wars or policy preferences.

The Times Claims It’s Not Amplifying Trump’s Nonsense www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...

In a brilliant essay, Steve Hansen argues that neopatrimonial rule is on the march, but its success is not foreordained . aseees.org/newsnet-arti...

On top of it all, he’s deeply weird.

BREAKING er “NEWS” from the NYT “In an Era of Deep Polarization, Unity Is Not Trump’s Mission” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/u...

@seva.bsky.social is on fire open.substack.com/pub/hegemon/...

Interesting piece, though huh? “When Moscow offered its 14 socialist republics independence in 1991…” edition.cnn.com/2025/07/31/t...

Democrats squabbling belongs on p. A24, not above the fold. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/u...

I admit that I have said negative things about Kash Patel.

The 'Trump has seen the light on Ukraine' folks are wise to remember that he has no convictions and can swing back wildly at any moment.

Not winning hearts and minds you are.

Oh so this is what happens when there’s no global police.

re-Stalinization meduza.io/en/news/2025...

This is insane.

Seems about right

Before Trump: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" (Hanlon's razor) Now: It's malice all the way down.

JD Vance’s statement: « Now, of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own» is in astonishing bad faith. He isn’t talking about Ru giving up ANY of its territory…

It's not a slippery slope, it's a vertigo-inducing free-fall that goes further, faster than any Orban or Erdogan could orchestrate. Even Putin in the early 2000's took *years* to dismantle Russia's weak democratic institutions. www.cnn.com/2025/04/11/p...

Is anyone else old enough to remember the WTO?

In a world of bad metahors about democratic backsliding, don't be a boiling frog.

Putin is not playing four-dimensional chess. He’s playing rope-a-dope. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/u...

I see we have entered the “I don’t care what the judges think" stage of autocratization. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03...

We are a constitutional republic of laws & constraints on a tyrant. The gig is not up, people. They are counting on us to treat this slide into authoritarianism as a done deal. It's not inevitable.