On Iran, see the larger context. Five of the seven countries that the Trump admin has militarily attacked since Jan. 2025 are significant oil producers, even though petrostates are rare. It's not a coincidence. I explain why @goodauth.bsky.social goodauthority.org/news/is-oil-...

Rubio: “Let me tell you, Iran is run by lunatics, religious fanatic lunatics.”

Civil society fights back Nine Law Firms Surrendered. Four Law Firms Won. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/o...

I talked with @victorerikray.bsky.social about the repression we’re facing at public universities here in Florida, where the state is attempting to impose a textbook on our intro classes, insisting that no published textbook complies with state law. Here’s Part 1. Part 2 drops next week.

Here, I write about the public health threat posed by ICE. Renee Good, Alex Pretti, & the dozens of others killed by ICE in recent months make this clear. But ICE also kills more slowly & covertly, by inducing chronic stress, fear, & threat. Abolish ICE. www.providencejournal.com/story/opinio...

Republican states are colonizing civil society: “Mr Creighton, the lawmaker-turned-chancellor … reckons that in Texas public universities … should be understood as “an extension of state government”. economist.com/united-state...

The issue examines when and how protest translates into durable policy change, with articles by Anindita Adhikari and @pheller.bsky.social (India); Giorleny Altamirano Rayo, @emosinger.bsky.social, and @kaimthaler.bsky.social (Central America) [2/3]

Candelaria Garay (@candelariagaray.bsky.social), Jessica Rich (@jessicaajrich.bsky.social), and I co-edited a special issue of World Development on the policy consequences of social movements in the Global South. [1/3]

Petro-imperialism.

This Theory Explains Trump’s Baffling Foreign Policy www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/o...

This Theory Explains Trump’s Baffling Foreign Policy www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/o...

Fuck off, Bessent. 🇨🇦

Building on Robert Paxton’s classic study of fascism Michelle Goldberg gets it just right. Resistance Libs Were Right www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/o...

Amazing to me that Donald Trump has not been asked once to comment on this insanely Neo-Nazi post from his Homeland Security department, nor asked who are the 50 to 60 *million* US citizens that his DHS say they want to ‘deport.’

American Reich x.com/dhsgov/statu...

Can a Corporation Be Complicit in War Crimes? Sweden Is Trying to Find Out. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/o...

“Everything is gender” theory finds more confirmation manhattan.institute/article/the-...

The bulldozed demolition of MGNREGA - www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead... For the best experience read this on The Hindu App. bit.ly/THNewsApp

The repeal of India's "Right to Work" program (the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) which was the world's largest ever anti-poverty program, is just the most recent example of what I called "retrenchment populism" in my 2020 article "The Age of Reaction."

The Indian government wants to repeal its most effective poverty reducing program ever. Government tables Bill to replace MGNREGA amid protests - www.thehindu.com/news/nationa... For the best experience read this on The Hindu App. bit.ly/THNewsApp

A lot of the “eurosclerosis” discourse is based on comparing GDP in nominal US$ in Europe vs US Yesterday, the US ambassador to the EU compared Europe’s GDP per capita to that of Mississippi This makes little sense, because it ignores the higher cost of living in the US

Passing out while your underlings are sucking up to you is a neat illustration of what unitary executive theory gets us.

A party with an actual theory of contemporary capitalism and what to do: see interview with Fernando Haddad, Brazil's Finance Minister www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/b...

💡 @timmonsroberts.bsky.social makes 3 points at the @caadcoalition.bsky.social & @ucs.org presser #COP30: 1 Disinformation is everywhere 2 Those w/ structural power deploy disinformation to maintain status quo. 3 Solutions exist & they're urgent. More info @cssn.org & cssn.org/news-researc...

Mamdani’s rallying cry for civil society: “To get to any of us, you have to go through all of us”

The sweep in election outcomes from public utilities in Georgia to the ref in California, governors, and Mamdani points to 2 clear conclusions: republicans don’t turn out when trump’s not on the card and dems are super angry and mobilized. New wave in the making.

How a Fringe Movement of Gun Nuts, Backwoodsmen and Free Marketers Paved the Way for Autocracy www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/o...

Trump’s patronage machine laid bare and why the taxpayer pays the price. They’re Small, Yellow and Round — and Show How Trump’s Tariffs Don’t Work www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/o...

Lula: Brazilian Democracy and Sovereignty Are Non-Negotiable www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/o...

The rule of law www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

My conversation with Pranab Bardhan in his great substack on the state of democracy in Brazil, India and South Africa

How social media influencers are pushing disinformation on climate change www.theguardian.com/environment/...

My lab's been attacked by an anti-wind group and their lawyers. They threatened the science funding of my whole university, to shut me and my undergraduate research assistants up. NYT just covered it. 1/n www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...

Juan Crow Is Back With a Vengeance www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/o...

Brilliant summary of the democratic crisis in US When It Comes to Undermining America, We Have a Winner www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...

Bartov has long warned this was heading towards genocide. I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...

Five reasons why Trump's attack on Brazil is just so mindlessly stupid: 1) Nationalism: it backfired and Lula is now the defender of Brazilian sovereignty2) Treason: exposes Bolsonaro and his gang as agents of a foreign government

The latest rationale for Trump tariffs: propping up would be dictators who organize failed coups. www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

Saying it out loud. Larry Summers on US universities: “98 percent of students are curious and open minded. The problem is much more with faculty in humanities and the less quantitative social sciences and with the noncommercial professions like public health, divinity and education”

Mamdani won by organizing the working class and winning back low income voters that centrist dems have lost to Trump www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Best assessment of US bombing of Iran www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.

Coincidence? Just as the Brazilian supreme prepares to put Bolsonaro on trial for an attempted coup, Rubio announces the White House is looking into sanctions against the judge who has led the investigation. www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2025/0...