'Peut-être que, tout comme après la chute de Mussolini les Italiens ont exigé « basta con i balconi »..., symbole du leader fasciste s’adressant aux masses d’en haut –, les Américains pourraient bientôt décider que « c’en est fini des salles de bal » et s’écrier : « Basta con le sale da ballo. »'

'Peut-être que, tout comme après la chute de Mussolini les Italiens ont exigé « basta con i balconi »..., symbole du leader fasciste s’adressant aux masses d’en haut –, les Américains pourraient bientôt décider que « c’en est fini des salles de bal » et s’écrier : « Basta con le sale da ballo. »'

Darf man sagen die erste deutsche medienwissenschaft (benjamin) hat sich in Reaktion auf den faschismus entwickelt, die zweite dagegen aus der faszination für ihn?

Lacking strong constitutional protections and heavily dependent on politicians, as widely anticipated Czech public media has been an early target for Babiš´s illiberal second coalition government.

'Trump, worrying about his own envisaged arch, calls the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to ask him whether there is a viewing deck on the Arc de Triomphe and, if so, whether it is dangerous: “What do you think, Emmanuel, do people jump off it?”'

Many thanks to Jeffrey Church for hosting a discussion of Street, Palace, Square: The Architecture of Democratic Spaces.

Damnatio Memoriae. A model for today…?

On Trump's attempts to transform DC:

The primary purpose of a Mafia State is not to prosecute the innocent, but to protect the guilty.

Reflecting pools are supposed to reflect the people.

On Trump's attempts to transform DC:

Reflecting pools are supposed to reflect the people.

The primary purpose of a Mafia State is not to prosecute the innocent, but to protect the guilty.

Many thanks to Jeffrey Church for hosting a discussion of Street, Palace, Square: The Architecture of Democratic Spaces.

A new granite walkway. Refinishing the wall to glue those hideous gold accents. Trump claimed he was paying for all of it. He lied. They’ve been looting the National Parks.

"Aspiring autocrats and authoritarians often seek to marginalize not just the law but also courts." They also seek to use courts -- and courts' cherished imprimatur -- for their autocratic purposes. Autocratic legalism is preferable to evidently illegal autocracy...

In Bavaria, conservative government prohibits the prohibition of AI at universities. Academic freedom...?

History’s most effective assaults on democracy have worked *through* law rather than against it. New episode in @knightcolumbia.org's podcast on Lawyering Without Law features Madhav Khosla in conversation with David Dyzenhaus and @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social. open.spotify.com/episode/3hV2...

Today we launch the new version of The PopuList! The PopuList provides an overview of far-left, far-right and populist parties in 31 European countries from 1989 until 1 May 2026. Explore the new website here: popu-list.org

Warum die AfD laut dem Gutachten von @freiheitsrechte.org verfassungswidrig ist? Wir zeigen Dir die Hauptargumente exemplarisch mit Belegen aus unserer AfD-Datenbank. Denn wir haben 2.033 Social-Media-Belege für euch aufbereitet, viualisiert & durchsuchbar gemacht. fragdenstaat.de/artikel/exkl...

Once again, I invite you to consider the days-long National Conversation™️ about Tone & Civility & What Democrats Must Do to Reach Out and Show More Respect for Real Folkz if a single municipal level Democratic official said something like this. This. Not even news today?

The Reflecting Pool contracts are just one example of a massive increase in “urgency” exception spending this year exempted from normal review. In a normal year, this would be $3-6 billion. So far in 2026, it is $28 billion, mostly in homeland security. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/what-the-r...

"I have enough money to do research," says Shu, laughing. Meanwhile HHS shut off the NIH grant that funded related work on gene therapy for deafness at Harvard Medical School, because “woke” or something like that Shu trained in the very same lab that HHS defunded

What an amazing success. In just 5 years! Clearly, a policy to be followed by more cities.

In the first month of Trump’s second term, he gathered his top aides to discuss the war in Ukraine which included musing about the attractiveness of Ukrainian women, via the new book Regime Change

Am Sonntagabend in einer kühlen Kirche und bei Euch Zuhause: Unser Politisches Nachtgebet "Widerstand. Wie sich die Kirchen dem Autoritären entgegenstellen" mit dem beeindruckenden amerikanischen Bischof Barber. Kommt vorbei, schaltet Euch ein! Schon 1.000+ dabei: europe-calling.de/webinar/poli...

We've just published this great piece by data journalist @jacopoottaviani.bsky.social, who explains how he used AI to rebuild two data projects in a matter of days. I hope it'll be useful for our global community at @reutersinstitute.bsky.social reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/weeks-w...

In Bavaria, conservative government prohibits the prohibition of AI at universities. Academic freedom...?

At least 50 people have died in immigration detention since Trump returned to office, the deadliest period in ICE’s history. Yet Congress continues to give immigration enforcement agencies billions of dollars without requiring reform. bit.ly/4v1sMBH

What can lawyers do when authoritarianism works through the law? Episode 5 of “Lawyering Without Law” drops tomorrow. David Dyzenhaus and @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social join @katygb.bsky.social and Madhav Khosla to discuss lawyers, authoritarianism, and the fight to preserve the rule of law.

“Dear migrants, before I say any other word to you, I want to bow before your dignity. “You are not numbers or case files. “You are people — with a family and a home left behind, with dreams that no one has the right to scorn.” — Pope Leo XIV

New from me: Bari Weiss's Free Press has been amplifying the lie that "Biden's open borders policy" pushed thousands of kids into sex slavery -- and that Trump is now rushing to rescue them. What Trump is actually doing: separating kids from their families, jailing them, and deporting them.

Trump has decimated the government’s ability to detect and counter foreign influence actions aimed at the US from Russia and elsewhere. But he has provided around-the-clock security for the Reflecting Pool to protect it from nonexistent vandals. That’s a good summary of his presidency.

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Manche ostentativ »katholische« Medien wie #EWTN sehen Warnungen vor der #AfD skeptisch. @puettmann.bsky.social wendet sich dagegen, aus einer völkisch-nationalistischen, menschenfeindlichen Ideologie vermeintlich »christliche« Versatzstücke herauszupicken:

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French Resistance fighter and historian Marc Bloch, murdered by the Gestapo in 1944, is inducted into Panthéon in Paris.

It's not just Trump who has made a fortune off the Presidency. After Trump was reelected, Jared Kushner became a billionaire. His estimated net worth is up roughly 1,440% since 2009—compared with ~160% for the average U.S. household.

Here's an idea. Instead of giving MAGA your millions, fight back a litte. "The Disney-owned broadcast network launched an on-air campaign Monday urging viewers to weigh in against the Federal Communications Commission’s early review of its broadcast licenses." www.wsj.com/business/med... Gift link

DC in July:

Das Regime radikalisiert sich weiter, auch nach innen. Von wegen „help is on the way“. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/w...

the decades long evisceration of human rights remedies in american courts continues, reinforcing the right's long-term hostility to individual rights and the plain language of statutory law. horrible outcome even if unsurprising.

“Vandalism.“ Every accusation a confession.

America’s authoritarians operate with impunity. It’s time to take action | Jan-Werner Müller

Ein Feiertag für alle Historiker: Marc Bloch wird heute symbolisch ins Pantheon überführt. Marius Strubenhoff erläutert die politische Bedeutung der Ehrung und stellt die Biographie von Peter Schöttler vor. www.faz.net/aktuell/wiss...