Bart Bonikowski

Lucan Way and I have been writing about competitive authoritarianism for more than 25 years. We never thought we'd write this piece. www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/com...

My new JOD piece arguing against the “cure polarization” approach to saving democracy.

AI is poised to reconfigure the economy and politics. In POQ, Borwein et al. find that while some are supportive of AI, a plurality perceive AI as a threat, and these perceptions are easily connected to reactionary policy preferences. Read now: doi.org/10.1093/poq/...

“.. What we are talking about is nothing short of the sitting president of the United States looting from the Treasury for his own gain,” she said. @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/5733...

Just imagine the level of criminality that compels a President who was already personally granted full immunity by Supreme Court for anything related to 'official acts' to think that's not enough, he must *also* have his DOJ release all civil claims against him, two of his kids, and his company.

The Roberts Court, the Trump White House, and the national GOP are acting like this is their one big shot. Either they secure the lasting end of US Constitutional democracy, or they’re in very serious trouble from the backlash. And they’ve already gone so far that there’s no other possibility.

Trump: "We have a man who is doing a great job. I knew it! Because he kept me out of jail for years. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. He kept me out of jail."

Looks like it's time for this piece again: paulwaldman.substack.com/p/democrats-...

What do conservatives always say when liberals criticize a Supreme Court decision? "Get Congress to pass a law," right? That is EXACTLY what happened here. In 1982, Congress explicitly overruled a Court case that narrowly interpreted the VRA. Today, Sam Alito said, nope, we were right all along.

Have now read this. Caveat is obvious (transparently declared) CoI as lead author is at prolific. Related issue is that some of their methods rely on prolific's proprietary AI detection tools working. But there are enough other indicators to convince me that _right now_ online panels are fine 1/3

Let me also note that the Germans had a generation traumatized by war and the Great Depression. The Americans had… a Black president and #metoo

For almost a century generations of scholars and thinkers have tried to understand why the Germans sleepwalked into disaster. Future generations will focus on a different case.

If you’ve never called your congressional reps before, do it right now.

happy 10-year anniversary to this razor-sharp political prognostication

Whatever happens, this is a deeply shameful episode in American history that will leave a permanent stain on the country. Repeatedly vowing to commit war crimes against millions of innocent civilians is beyond the pale.

Pro tip to Trump’s cabinet and enablers in Congress: “I was just following orders” is not a viable defense at a war crime proceeding.

At this moment, America has a clear choice about what sort of country it wants to be. There is no going back.

Doing a virtual @asn-org.bsky.social panel on "Populism and Nationalism" with @bartbonikowski.bsky.social & Maria Snegovaya, moderated by Zsuzsa Csergo, next week.

This is a brilliant thread that should be read (and shared) by anyone interested in Hungarian politics. Read it whole! And give Gabriela a follow!

Elizabeth Banks

Americans don’t want ICE in our airports or in our communities. We just want Republicans to agree to fund TSA so workers can be paid and these lines can go down. Trump is trying to intimidate us. It’s time Republicans agree to fund TSA instead of voting it down every time.

I'll give Schumer this one: this is a good and factually correct explainer of what the bill would actually do, why it's insane, and how Republicans are lying about it. The only thing I'd add that he doesn't mention is it's not even possible, logistically, to implement this year in time for November.

None of the horrors of the past two months would've occurred under a Harris Administration; that's just a fact. But there were so many people who needed to renew their "Fell For It Again" awards for believing in Donald The Dove/Dem Lady's the Real Warmonger.

Just a reminder that Trump didn't just bumble us into an unnecessary war -- he deliberately created the conditions that he's now screaming about

Excellent analysis of the current situation in Costa Rica. 🇨🇷 HT @franroblesr.bsky.social 🙏

The people who needed their own half time show are the same people who needed their own water fountains.

I get tired of saying it, but I’ll say it again: the nature of oppression in America is that they workshop it first on Black, Latino, Asian & Native people. But it is always, in the end, coming for everyone.

"I'm coming to Boston and I'm bringing hell with me." --Homan in February "Do I expect violence to escalate? Absolutely." -- Tom Homan in March "I actually thought about getting up and throwing that man a beating right there in the middle of the room" -- Homan in July, referring to a D congressman

My colleague Kevin Munger asked me and a bunch of editors to sit and think through AI and peer review. Our take: osf.io/9sxnc/files/... We envision an increased (!) involvement of humans in the evaluation of social science.

ICE never stopped LA operations and seems to have stepped up this month if anything

if bovino is out and conservatives are turning on noem then there is a real opportunity to demand that miller resign too.

The killing of Alex Pretti and the grotesque lying was an overreach by the administration. They've paid a price and had to pull back a bit. But it's when there's some disarray that the democratic opposition needs to intensify the offensive, and turn a marginal tactical success into a major victory.

In the early 1930s the SA was roughing people up, creating chaos in neighborhoods, seeking to terrorize with the occasional killing. By the late 1930s it had been supplanted by the SS, which was much better trained.

This essay by @aselrod.bsky.social is devastating but persuasive. A must-read. A one-off electoral victory (which itself is not a given) is unlikely to save the Republic. And the international order is irreversibly altered for the worse. www.liberalcurrents.com/after-trump-...

If every Democrat voted NO on funding ICE, it would not have passed the House. But, 7 House Democrats voted to fund Trump's lawless, masked goons, so it passed. Hakeem Jeffries refused to whip his members to vote against ICE funding. Genuinely unforgivable.

Even after Trump is gone, the world will remember that he threatened to forcibly seize the territory of a peaceful democratic ally, and our institutions failed to immediately remove him. That makes US dangerously unreliable, not just one senile gangster.

Paul Musgrave on the end of unipolarity: short, eloquent, and devastating. open.substack.com/pub/musgrave...

a heavily armed paramilitary force with legal immunity is occupying a city and going door to door kidnapping non-white adults and children in furtherance of an explicitly white nationalist political project

I know that many of us are hoping against hope that the current ethno-nationalist, authoritarian, and anti-democratic crisis will pass. Living our lives, resisting as we can, waiting for elections. This speech by Canadian PM Carney is a wake-up call for us as much as it is for our (former) allies.

Trump's many, many blatantly racist remarks about Somalis and other immigrants did not provoke a single direct question from the White House press corps. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-m...

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...