The special issue of @cpsjournal.bsky.social “Back from the Brink: Countering Illiberalism in Liberal Democracies”, co-edited by myself and Isabela Mares, was just published. The issue includes 8 articles, many of which set new research agendas. A🧵w/overview 1/10
journals.sagepub.com/toc/CPS/curr...
It's a bad enough take that it might wind up on the final exam for my Comparative politics class in the fall.
It is hard to capture what a sweeping strategic defeat the war in Iran has been for the United States. I’m going to thread here some of the posts today that try to capture those effects. Here’s the first:
"AI companies envision a future in which humans don’t have jobs, so of course, the security guards they would hire to protect the data centers that act as the beating heart of AI tech would also be autonomous."
This should be read from beginning to end. I barely know what to say, other than that I'm glad @wired.com is doing this work.
Protest march getting underway
Well done Philadelphia marchers!
Nice to see you out there today, Philadelphia! #nokings
To be read.
There are worse places to involuntarily teleport to. I mean, "in a ditch outside of a Baptist church in a little tiny town" doesn't sound great, but a Waffle House? Not that bad.
Generous.
I just submitted the first draft a book manuscript. This was crawling across the finish line, not running or even walking across it.
I am beat.
Ok cool. That I can do.
Writing the final chapter of my book, explaining what the Philadelphia teachers did after they were fired for not naming names in 1954. One sold Encyclopedia Britannica. I can't assume people know what this is anymore, or what it meant to people in the '50s, can I....
So, if "Israel warns it will pursue Iran’s next supreme leader" and "Israeli military said it would also target every person who seeks to appoint a successor for killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei," where does that leave us? No diplomacy...ever again? Or what?
Hegseth: "the only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they’re gonna live."
The United States is a regime of mass murder.
For someone currently writing about McCarthyism in Philadelphia, seeing the revived 1953 Chevy jingle on the 76ers broadcast is nothing short of triggering.
A positive thing, and another exhibit of how important it is to fight back, even on the relatively small stuff.
It's been a long time since I've logged onto social media for the one and only goal of bragging about a word count, but today was a great writing day after a series of bad ones. Here's hoping I'm not jinxing anything, but I wrote 1,300 words today...and I think they're pretty damn good.
"Rufe, a George W. Bush appointee, compares the federal government’s argument that it can unilaterally control the exhibits in national parks to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984, a novel about a dystopian totalitarian regime."
Looks excellent and timely. Congratulations!
"What the Judge has done, in his zeal against communism, is to adopt the detestable method employed by communists themselves in arbitrary and unjudicial proceedings contrary to all our cherished traditions of law and legal procedure."
A couple of weeks later, the State Supreme Court threw out the contempt citations--there were two of them--because hey! you can't DO that!
Textbook 2nd Red Scare stuff follows: "We have formally adjudged you unfit to try a case in this Court as of today, morally unfit. You do not possess an allegiance to the United States...we declare you morally unfit to try a case in this court room."
The lawyer, Hyman Schlesinger, refused to answer, refused to try any case before Musmanno, and then insisted that the judge recuse himself. When the lawyer tried to leave the courtroom, "the Judge had the court officers restrain him until he, the Judge, had concluded his remarks."
Today I learned about PA judge Michael Musmanno's deranged 1951 courtroom performance. At the start of a routine civil case, "he directed that all parties and witnesses leave the court room, and then, in the presence of newspaper reporters and others" asked the plaintiff lawyer if he was a Communist
This is fucking disgusting. Hashtag Abolish smart glasses. Hashtag Abolish manfluencers.
"...in July 2006, just as Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal case became public, Trump called then-Palm Beach police chief Michael Reiter to tell him that Epstein’s activities with teenaged girls were well known in both New York and Palm Beach."
This technology already exists and is widely used. It doesn't involve 'government surveillance' and would not allow ICE or any other government agency to stop individual cars.
Just say you think thousands of kids dying every year is worth it so you can speed!
www.autoweek.com/news/a615322...
