The students in “Empire: Fact and (Science) Fiction” course (aka: watch Andor while we learn about empires, fascism, and authoritarianism) read The Concept of the Political only last week…

Okay. Who the f— added me to the Epoch Times mailing list?

I agree with this and also do not believe that it has sunk in just how bad the US budget situation may be by the time we regain power. The Trump admin exploded the deficit and crippled state capacity, the dual effect of that is that we’re not going to get treats during the next Dem admin.

For the cost of one Harvard Professor of the Constitution Only Applies to White People, you could endow 10 professorships of any less commonly taught language at any university in the USA

It occurs to me how weird the metaphor is in the first place. Relevant policies don’t raise the tide, they raise the biggest boats.

Update: @nytimes.com Story is out but the pun didn’t make it. Sad! www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/u...

Far Right populists are a big risk in European politics, but in most states they get stuck around a 30% threshold. Their success is then dependent on specific state constitutional and legal structures as well as responses from other parties.

... which means that the recent U.S. government decision to block satellite companies from publicly sharing images was meant to censor journalists — and likely hide its losses.

At the first available opportunity, we should basically abolish the presidency recently in @liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...

This is correct but obviously going to happen anytime soon. But we can start by rewriting every one of the “national emergency” clauses in all the laws that allow the president to wave a magic wand, invoke “national security,” & act like a king.

Today, these Dems likely to hand Trump-Kash Patel FISA Section 702 power to access Americans' emails, texts, calls without a warrant @meeks.house.gov @jahimes.bsky.social @adamsmith.house.gov "undecided" While Trump admin appears poised to abuse such powers against bogus "antifa" affiliates.

IIUC, more than you might think, but most of them are “influence operations” by our domestic, right-wing elites. Those same elites engage in overseas influence operations. Mercer dark money has been linked to European far-right groups; Koch money has funded far-right networks in Latin America.

What makes it really annoying is that Orbán — the leader of a small, relatively poor state in the EU — did face *some* external constraints on his ability to make an opposition victory next to impossible. He was trying to *reduce* those constraints via his shift toward Russia, but it wasn’t enough.

Quite a flex to turn up at the presidential palace, get him to confirm you as prime minister, call him unfit to serve with no moral authority, tell him to resign, and then pose for a picture

Magyar is a centre-right figure strait out of Christian Democratic central casting, but he understands the need that while punching to the left and centre might sometimes be necessary, what unites his voter coalition is punching against the populist Far Right with performative enthusiasm

Warning: #IRtheory musings 👇 1. More seriously, I was writing a workshop memo about kleptocracy, neo-patrimonialism, and the conflation of “liberal international order” with “rational-legal” order… and I had one of those “duh!” moment.

You know, I'm deeply skeptical of Judith Butler's take on gender, and yet at a societal level? We are absolutely living in a Butlerian age, and the deeply fascinating part is that the most "Butlerian" mofos out there are people who try so hard to perform masculinity.

Me: Soft power is just charismatic authority. Also me: Soft power is more like the cultivation of charisma via “Cult of Personality” practices, but at the interstate level.

Nope. Nope. Nope. This post is just two false statements.

Devastating: Hampshire College is permanently closing following the Fall 2026 Semester. A beautiful institution & community that has done so much for so many. My child is a current Hampshire senior. Hampshire's approach to education is so unique, humane, & exciting—I've seen it first hand. Tragic

The Iraq War structured American politics for a generation, and its legacy continues to echo in our politics today. It was also a catastrophic error that killed hundreds of thousands of people and badly undermined US credibility.

My brother's book comes out tomorrow. Here's an excerpt. Wild stuff.

C'mon you gotta say "Bishop of Rome," calling him "Pope" just gives the game away...

It's the 7th month of the US bombing random ships in Latin American waters they claim are drug smugglers (reminder that two survivors who were rescued were repatriated, not charged), and the death toll is 150+, and it barely gets discussed.

Thus, today's election is not really the end of an authoritarian regime. Rather, it is the first step in a much longer unwinding process. It is massive and absolutely necessary first step — one that anyone who believes in democracy should celebrate. But it's more a beginning than an end.

A lot of Orbán's American fans are saying that this election proved he was never an authoritarian in the first place. This is completely wrong — and, in fact, betrays a complete misunderstanding of both Hungarian politics and modern authoritarianism. Here's why.

It is genuinely surreal to watch both the U.S. and Britain decide to destroy their own world-renowned and extremely profitable university systems at the same time.

Orban may be the last of the 2022-23 inflation victims, but it certainly is part of the reason he lost!

Combine the anger of people power with the ruthless professionalism of a political operation that has enough former regime insiders to anticipate the autocrat's every move

Now Tisza projected at 138 seats against 54 of Orban’s Fidesz. If these numbers are confirmed, this is a larger victory than Orbàn’s 2010 landslide, which allowed him to change the 🇭🇺Constitution and start backsliding towards an illiberal democracy. A historic day.

I retract my previous post.

One wonders what documents in Budapest might be being rapidly shredded.

Hungarians deserve every congratulations for giving Peter Magyar a bigger margin than Orban has ever gotten in all of his rigged elections - and this within the system that Orban rigged. Magyar now has a constitutional majority to undo Orban's constitutional prison and govern as a democratic leader.

Ongoing denial about the implications of the Iran war—Trump got the US into a bad strategic position and there’s no good way out—is because a lot of politicians, media, business, and public still tell themselves that empowering corrupt, incompetent, immoral, lawbreaking fascists wasn’t that bad.

I wish there were "big lessons" re: Hungary for pro-democracy Americans, but I don't think there are. If forced: I'd say a) opposition united behind one candidate — regardless of how they felt about his ideology & b) Magyar successfully linked Hungary's material problems to Orbán's mismanagement.

Orban figured out you could buy political influence by paying right wing intellectuals. Not just in the US, he also cultivated the UK. From @petergeoghegan.bsky.social democracyforsale.substack.com/p/orbans-brits

This is also a moment to remember: Orbán may have become the darling of the world's far-right and a diligent servant of Moscow, but he would never have achieved that without the EPP backing him for many years. Especially CDU-CSU, who carried Orbán & Fidesz beyond all reasonable limits.

biggest winners: hungarian people second biggest winners: anyone who wants the EU to actually work and become a balance/bulwark against the authoritarian international

Something I wrote in 2022. Sharing it now. Why? No reason, really.

One of the ways news media often fail us is by giving us the microscopic rather than the telescopic view. Everything I mention in this essay is well-documented, but the dots are mostly not connected to make visible this death by a thousand cuts our country is undergoing.

Watching the Hungarian election returns. Right now Guardian is forecasting 135 seats for the opposition, clearing the 2/3rds bar needed to implement any reforms. The question is will Fidesz cheat enough to prevent the 2/3rds, while conceding a standard majority?

wait how were these 'marathon peace talks?' it's been a day!

The fact that every Trump economic proposal was inflationary – and yet this was not a 24/7 discussion in either legacy or social media — kind of broke me.

Must buy from my friend @kevintmorris.bsky.social and his rockstar co-author Michael Miller. I was privileged to get a preview of this work a few summers ago. Can't wait to get my copy.

The White House is now Temu Versailles.

So anyway… bsky.app/profile/dhne...

Iran sent a team of 30 including university professors, scientists, diplomats, PhDs. The American delegation includes no diplomats, but lots of relatives of Trump and real estate developers. Who's going to get fleeced? www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

I want those jobs back, I want that intellectual capital back to work for the United States, I want to restore employment for the people who were racially targeted to lose their jobs.

The administration claims that the only reason the Iranians aren't obeying Trump's order to fully open the straits is that they've lost track of some of their mines. As a friend noted, one can be forgiven for some skepticism here.