New article and special issue! Just out in Comparative Political Studies: “Countering Illiberalism in Liberal Democracies: Information, Legacies, Temporalities", the intro to a special issue on countering illiberalism in liberal democracies. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Thread 🧵1/7

I'd add to @benansell.bsky.social's political analysis here the simple point that a reset here would be *good* for growth and save money. The settlement proposals are not just morally repulsive and politically self-defeating, but also an act of economic self-harm.

There's no reason to accept this as normal, though. Much of Starmer and Labour's unpopularity is not misfortune but his own doing. Mandelson was a choice. Consistently pursuing policy positions designed to appeal to people who will not vote for you - and alienating core supporters - is a choice.

bad bad bad www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

A way to support those affected by today's cuts [email protected]. The Washington Post Guild is overseeing a GoFundMe account www.gofundme.com/f/standing-t...

Again, it’s worth pointing out that the Post costs literally 5% of what Bezos is sinking into Blue Origin. The savings here are a rounding error to him. This isn’t about the money.

Solidarity with all of the talented journalists and media workers losing their jobs at the @washingtonpost.com today. As someone who leads a MENA policy organization, I cannot do my work without the nuanced and in-depth coverage of the region that foreign correspondents deliver.

You could make the same argument for Labour in the UK. Too much electoral strategy, not enough political vision and leadership.

1. Trump certainly wants to fully rig elections. 2. He has no actual plausible plan to do so. 3. We should absolutely take the threat very seriously and actively do what's possible to protect elections and democracy. 4. What's actually likely is success or failure at the margins; every bit counts.

I think this is also true - and not just process but quality of deliberation and reasoning Many a social scientist have turned to me after listening to an exchange at oral argument and been like “these are the ‘philosophers in robes’?”

To quote my colleague @gelliottmorris.com, "There is very likely going to be a blue wave in November 2026. Trump will do what he can to disturb the election and stop Rs from losing the House. It probably won't work, but the probability of a tail outcome is worrisome, and the attempt is the story"

Steve Levitsky, the co-author of How Democracies Die, on the dangerous place we have reached as Trump escalates: “Orbán doesn’t arrest journalists,” he said. “And in Hungary if you walk the streets of Budapest or other Hungarian cities, you will not find heavily armed masked men abducting people."

Trump is quickly passing Mobutu Sese Seko in corruption, although it took Mobutu more than two decades to reach $4 billion.

The President of the United States is essentially saying state agents were justified performing an extrajudicial execution because he kicked a government vehicle.

I know a lot has been going on in just over 3 weeks--Venezuela, Greenland, Minneapolis. But it's stunning that Trump is poised to launch a major military attack on Iran with open-ended goals (likely regime change but unclear) and there is no significant domestic debate about it.

New at Can We Still Govern: NIH scientist @markhisted.org reviews the damage done to American biomedical science in the last year and looks ahead: "Scientists should not be political partisans, but they should be partisans for liberal democratic principles."🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/american-b...

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told his officers that they have a duty to intervene if they see ICE committing crimes and will be fired if they don't. We need a lot more of this.

Reminder that, as of the latest reports, Liam Ramos is still in prison in Texas - now for 5 days. His parents are legal asylum seekers with no criminal record.

But I do have one question. When you get to your little place in El Centro, I imagine you are going to take off that handsome-looking Border Patrol uniform of yours. A reminder that the awful & illegal things keep happening & have since 1865, because there are never any actual legal consequences.

Two weeks ago this guy announced he was providing legal help to the agent who shot Renee Good. That's how quickly the winds are shifting.

I think about this from Aristotle a lot. Democracy requires equality, but some people cannot stand to be equal with others and seek to overthrow democracy. "Inferiors become revolutionaries in order to be equals and equals become revolutionaries in order to be superiors." Aristotle, Politics

That being said, we do need to be thinking more along the lines of how competitive authoritarian regimes target the "fair" rather than "free" part of elections. The big one — which is happening — is media consolation in the hands of regime-supporting oligarchs.

most of these things can be true at the same time and some are manifestations of the same thing, but I am afraid that this is - like Brexit - a number 4: a huge level of volatility and uncertainty that nullifies long-term norms and stable moral signals that economic stakeholders usually follow

I'd add universities, too

Egypt before, during, and after Jan 25. www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/t...

Ten years ago, Giulio Regeni, an Italian PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge, was brutally murdered in Egypt while conducting fieldwork. Italian prosecutors have charged four security officials, but Egypt has refused to cooperate: no one has been held accountable for this crime.

“.. He cared about people deeply ..,” said Michael Pretti, Alex’s father. “He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong ..” @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/national/202...

If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.

This is who ICE murdered. A VA nurse who dedicated his life to helping critically ill veterans.

From this moment forward (and before, but clearly now): -If you work for ICE. -If you vote for money for ICE. You are complicit. This is the gestapo. You're on the wrong side. You can't pretend not to know.

In October, ICE grabbed Maher Tarabishi. He was a 24/7 caregiver for his disabled son Wael. At the time of Maher’s detention, disability advocates warned that taking away Wael’s caregiver put his life at risk. Wael died on Friday at age 30. ICE caused his death. They didn’t get to say goodbye.

New: an FBI agent who took the routine step of investigating the ICE officer who shot Renee Good has resigned after FBI leadership discouraged the investigation www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/u...

So great to see @mariajstephan.bsky.social on @colbertlateshow.bsky.social. First half below, second half here. www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Wv...

As a democracy movement scholar, the Minneapolis ICE resistance is one of the most inspiring things I've witnessed in US politics. These people are the very best of us, and the vision of American community that they embody is far more powerful and enduring than anything the nativists could offer.

Awful.

This graph from @anthlittle.bsky.social shows that incumbents across the world got destroyed in elections from 22-25. The Dems were part of that, and now people are starting to see the costs of the bargain they made by placing the post-Covid angst on the Dems and going to the GOP.

Jack Smith: "My fear is that we have seen the rule of law function in our country for so long that many of us have come to take it for granted. The rule of law is not self-executing. It depends on our collective commitment to apply it."

Is this the most dangerous, and unhinged, international speech by a US president ever? Demands Greenland (and Iceland). Threatens Canada. Trashes NATO. Makes fun of leaders. Disparages Europe's environmental goals. Carney was right to call our current moment a "rupture"

Fascinating how tone deaf US political elites have been towards European anger. From Newsom among Dems who failed to beat Trump berating Euro diplomacy, Schumer rattling out domestic guff to Graham and Bessent telling Euros to stop being hysterical. Just speeds up European rejection of America

In any other context, requiring a high-productivity sector to offshore the production of its highest value-added exports would be seen as the economic illiteracy it so obviously is... www.ft.com/content/a23c...

This is deranged. Trump is threatening to deploy our military, blow up the NATO alliance, & spend billions all because he didn't win a prize. This man has control of our nuclear arsenal. At what point will Republicans join us to stop him from putting our nation in harm's way?

It is, again, and I will keep saying this again and again and again, absolutely insane that federal law enforcement, and fed law enforcement alone, is generally exempt from being sued for these sorts of flagrant constitutional violations.

OPINION | Even by Trump’s standards, his latest letter is so dangerous and so delusional that there is no longer any question that the president is mentally “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” as laid out in the 25th Amendment.

Invoke the 25th Amendment.

"As a longtime foreign correspondent, I have covered civil wars in countries across the globe. Not so long ago, I would have rolled my eyes at the notion that one could erupt anywhere in America, much less in my once placid home state of Minnesota. And yet here I was"

Vanity hit, yes. A WC boycott would also have economic effects in planned host states, incl. red Texas (x2) & Florida + purple Georgia & Pennsylvania, in a midterm election year. It would severely damage ties w/ corporate sponsors & media giants that have poured 10s/100s of millions into the Cup.

Those of us saying 'Trump is crazy' for years (based on incontrovertible evidence all in the public domain) have been dismissed as over-reacting. Sorry, but a lot of 'very serious people' have egg on their faces and we are all now about to pay the cost...

I think the chances of Trump being removed from office before the end of his term, one way or another, are underestimated. There’s only so much mad stuff you can do before something breaks

The U.S. isn’t Russia or other autocratic regimes, but “now is the time to focus on the similarities and try to learn from the ways other countries have cracked down on protest, eviscerated their electoral systems, limited their media freedom and built concentration camps.” @mashagessen.bsky.social