Jan-Werner Mueller

Reminder that journalists CAN follow up on non-answers.

Looking forward to this online event next week, which is open to all!

I will once again share a (virtual) stage with the wonderful @veghzsuzsanna.bsky.social 👩‍🎓

PUNCHBOWL: “.. GOP members messaged us over the weekend saying that they, too, are considering retiring in the middle of the term. Here’s one particularly exercised senior House Republican:

@punchbowlnews.bsky.social

Germany’s family business lobby opens door to AfD, sparking backlash Germany’s family-owned companies’ lobby has confirmed it is “saying goodbye to firewalls” against the far-right AfD as the party surges in national polling.

Big, but, alas, not surprising. And "family businesses" is about as much of a smokescreen as talk of "small businesses" is in the US.

(S+) Meinung: Mittelstand auf Abwegen: Der fatale Flirt der Familienunternehmer mit der AfD Christine Ostermann, Präsidentin des Verbands »Die Familienunternehmer«, hält nichts mehr von der Brandmauer gegen die AfD. Glaubt die Lobbyisten ernsthaft, die Rechtsextremen bekehren zu können?

"Es stimmt, dass viele Wirtschaftsvertreter dabei sind, die Nerven zu verlieren und mit dem Gedanken liebäugeln, eine Unions-Minderheitsregierung könne sich von der AfD tolerieren lassen und Deutschland auf Vordermann bringen. Sie alle denken die Sache nicht zu Ende."

AfD hetzt gegen Hochschulen: Angriff auf die Freiheit der Wissenschaft Die AfD Sachsen-Anhalt fragt gezielt nach Listen postkolonialer Seminare und Lehrstühle. Wie die Universitäten beginnen, sich gegen die Angriffe zu wappnen.

"In Sachsen-Anhalt arbeitet die Landtagsfraktion der AfD offensichtlich bereits an Listen von Studiengängen und Lehrstühlen, welche der Partei ein Dorn im Auge sind. Sie zielt dabei vor allem auf Gender Studies und postkoloniale Studien."

Von Trump und Orban lernen heisst siegen lernen...

👇

On the other hand, it is a win for white nationalists when @nytimes.com cravenly launders white nationalist tropes and injects them into the broader discourse in easily digestible form

Polaroid photo of Udo Kier, his hands held on each side of his face

Andy Warhol, Udo Kier, 1973 #RIP😢 whitney.org/collection/w...

An icon, obviously - the role I will always remember him for is when he played his own cursed baby in Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom (what a picture)

Opinion | How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein Emails

'That people move from representing the presidency to representing banks is so normal that we forget the costs: the private job done with the savvy to outfox one’s former public-sector colleagues, the public job done gently to keep open doors.'

Recommended analysis:

Meta halted internal research suggesting social media harm, court filing alleges Meta is alleged to have halted internal research suggesting social media harm, according to court documents.

Meta halted internal research that purportedly showed (young) people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to an unredacted legal filing released on Friday. www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/m...

🧪 More than 74,000 people were affected by the cancellation of 383 clinical trials funded by the #NIH.

Many of these grants funded #cancer research.

When science is silenced, patients suffer.

Via @scientificamerican.bsky.social on IG

The night America’s doomed ruling class gorged on lamb, blood, and oil For America’s deeply corrupt billionaires, time heals all wounds — even from a murderous Saudi prince’s bone saw.

A depraved and decadent Trump WH dinner for MBS was a stunning low for an American ruling class that's stopped pretending to carry a moral compass

It was really a celebration of death - of democracy, of an overheating planet, and ultimately themselves. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/ceos...

Whenever you think this can’t get any lower, Orbán proves otherwise.

Orbán is posting right-wing extremist tourism ads, and Austria’s most prominent right-wing extremist, Martin S., responds to this post with "Right decision." Well then.

Boualem Sansal s’exprime pour la première fois depuis sa libération : « Je contrôle chacun de mes mots » L’écrivain franco-algérien, de retour en France depuis mardi, était l’invité de France 2 dimanche soir. Il avait été condamné à cinq ans de prison en Algérie pour « atteinte à l’unité nationale ». Il a finalement été gracié le 12 novembre.

Boualem Sansal s’exprime pour la première fois depuis sa libération : « Je contrôle chacun de mes mots »

Trump’s special envoy Witkoff put his hand over his heart when Putin walked in the room. Like he’s reunited with a loved one. That really tells you all you need to know.

The exit economy is here. Black Women are paying the highest price | Fortune This isn’t a blip. It’s a structural crisis. And it's not a recovery, it's a redistribution of opportunity.

Since February, according to my latest analysis, almost 600,000 Black women have been economically sidelined. The November 20, 2025, Jobs Report makes clear this isn’t a blip. It’s a structural crisis. That is not a recovery. It is a redistribution of opportunity.

Artículo de un “think tanker” conservador estadounidense defendiendo a Franco, en el Wall Street Journal.
El problema no son los jóvenes españoles.
@marujatorres.bsky.social
@mariaramirez.bsky.social
@robiols.bsky.social

Does MAGA Have Ideas? A new book traces the intellectual origins of Trumpism—straight into the void.

'But is a “state of exception” a real thing? Even if it is—are we in one? Do voters believe in this stuff—or even know about it?'

Complaining about "abstractions" (versus "real-world truths") and going all anti-intellectual might not be the best response to the so-called New Right...

Headline: "White House Renews Claims That Settlement With Harvard Is Close."

News story: McMahon’s remarks Thursday aren’t the first time the Trump administration has said it is close to a settlement with Harvard. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the White House was on the verge of finalizing a deal with Harvard. When he first announced in June that talks had resumed, he predicted that an agreement would be reached “in the next week or so.” More than four months later, no deal has been announced. Trump previously told reporters in the Oval Office on Sept. 30 that the White House had “reached a deal” for a settlement with Harvard before clarifying that the agreement had not yet been finalized. “All you have to do is paper it, right?” Trump said to McMahon. “It’ll be great.” Trump said in September that reaching a deal would mean that Harvard’s “sins are forgiven.” A settlement would likely resolve multiple federal investigations into the University, which have targeted everything from its ties to the Chinese government to its financial aid formulas. It might also halt attempts to force Harvard to stop enrolling international students and protect the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding that Harvard researchers receive each year. But the pressure on Harvard to accede to a deal lightened somewhat after a series of favorable decisions from federal judges. A judge agreed this summer to Harvard’s requests to temporarily block revocation of its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification and a Trump order that would prevent many of Harvard’s international students from entering the U.S. In response to a separate lawsuit by Harvard, a judge agreed to restore billions of dollars in multiyear federal funding that the Trump administration attempted to freeze this spring.

Student Journalists (Again) Showing Us How dept:

—@theharvardcrimson.bsky.social plays latest 'Harvard about to cave' story the way it should. Ie, as another MAGA claim. (Left image)

—Gives "well, actually...." context missing from most MSM reports. (Right)

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Trump’s Peace Plan for Ukraine, Annotated Here’s a breakdown of some of the key points in the plan and how Ukraine and its European allies might respond.

This excellent WSJ annotation of the Molotov/Ribbentrop … sorry, Witkoff/Dmitriev … “peace deal” for Ukraine shows how ridiculously vague and utterly unworkable this thing is

Free link

www.wsj.com/world/europe...

New conceptual weapon of mass false equivalence for reactionary centrists: "post-liberal."

This is all John Roberts’ fault Trump owes his corrupt and abusive reign to one man.

Well worth a read for its ironclad reasoning, no matter how much its conclusions will depress you.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The Trump administration has pardoned several criminals, many of whom who have broken the law again.
This woman stole money from an employer as a college student. That was 24 years ago. Since then she started a business and a family. Now she is hauled back to country she left as a child in shackles.

👇🎯

Could not find all the well-known Communists at Princeton?