The Two Escobars - Official Trailer (Pablo Escobar Vs Andres Escobar) YouTube video by DocumentaryTrailers

In the last class, we watch the EPSN documentary "The Two Escobars" together. One of my favorite soccer and politics documentaries.

💯

As a Timbers fan, I wouldn't go that far 😉, but a club with a real history and a great team.

Narcoball: When The Drug Cartels Owned Football YouTube video by Tifo Football by The Athletic

The last week in "Soccer and Politics" will be devoted to Colombia, a fascinating country (I hope to visit soon) with a complex and ongoing relationship between organized crime, politics, and soccer.

This is a great primer on the narco-soccer that dominated the country in the late-20th century.

Such a sad story...

What Happened to the SPLC—and Me Union breaking, Gaza, and fear of MAGA turned the SPLC into an organization that abandoned its own civil rights principles.

On the sad self-cancellation of SPLC, see this insider account of @michaelehayden.bsky.social

More evidence that passive submission doesn't protect you. SPLC has largely disappeared from the the public debate and has done almost no anti-extremism work under Trump 2.0, yet is still targeted.

Europe Under Trump: Challenges and Opportunities

On May 26, I'll give one of my few public talks this year. It is wonderful to return to @weareceu.bsky.social in beautiful Vienna 🇦🇹 and be part of the prestigious Presidential Lecture Series organized by Interim President@cqschneider.bsky.social

Hungarian electoral politics in a nutshell:

"Live by your electoral system, die by your electoral system"

"Autocratization" is a new research journal with particular, but not exclusive, focus on Latin America. A nice feature is interviews with scholars.

This inaugural issue has interviews with @noamlupu.bsky.social & @lisazanottiphd.bsky.social & @tomginsburg.bsky.social & Juan Antonio Blanco

Many of the political “shifts” proclaimed in the media are mainly media adjustments to political reality — and usually only a short phase in the movement to another simplified generalization.

Previously, Sweden also had a big difference between priorities of men and women.

Go to see a soccer game? See the Ceaucescu palace?

United Surveillance States of ICE

Texas is already well beyond what George Orwell could envision. 🤦‍♂️

Many of the political “shifts” proclaimed in the media are mainly media adjustments to political reality — and usually only a short phase in the movement to another simplified generalization.

This is absolutely gross. I would hope that open propagation of rape is politically unacceptable in Austria.

Seems to me that the European Commission should suspend the fine only if and when Hungary changes its asylum policy. Given Magyar's right-wing position on immigration, this is far from certain to happen.

Hopefully in 2027!

Nope... 🤷‍♂️

Actually, Paris is quite a rarity in my schedule. Probably only once every 5-7 years.

On May 20, I will start my 7-week European Summer. I will visit

Prague 🇨🇿
Vienna 🇦🇹
Berlin 🇩🇪
Brussels 🇧🇪
The Hague 🇳🇱
Dublin 🇮🇪
Catania 🇮🇹
Bologna 🇮🇹
El Escorial 🇪🇸

I will do only few public talks, but I will announce them in this thread 🧵 when info becomes available.

The Voters Progressive Parties Are Ignoring | Cas Mudde at GLOBSEC Forum 2025 YouTube video by GLOBSEC

Any Social Democratic party worth its name should stop chasing the far-right old white male voter and listen to the young female voter…

This was a very depressing read!

Opinion | Why the Stock Market Makes No Sense Right Now

We are so royally fucked!

Terrifying read about the economy- and earth-destroying bubble that is the current stock market.

New university free speech complaints system to come into force this year Universities could face fines of £500,000 or 2% of their income if they are found to have failed to protect free speech.

Unfortunately, the Labour government does not only empower authoritarian and populist narratives in the area of immigration. With a new system to guarantee "free speech" at universities, they legitimize a favorite talking point and gateway drug of the far right.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What perfect timing… as another term in Georgia is also coming to an end soon and someone needs a new job…

Coachella is trying to wipe all of the footage of The Strokes protest set so I’m gonna post it here. The last images on the screen made me cry.

Almost 40% for a pro-Russian left-nationalist party led by an ex-President with a long history of accusations and frictions... what could go wrong?

Is there also a documentary that shows how reactionary centrists paved the way for the Nazi takeover by creating a moral panic about non-issues (like the 1920s equivalent of "wokeness")?

Every year Bulgarians vote in a new anti-corruption party and every year they vote out a new corrupt government. 🤷‍♂️