@pbfritz.bsky.social
Political scientist studying & teaching mostly international relations. Likes democracy.
The past week has shown us something scary — the concrete and specific outlines of a durable authoritarian state in America.
Here's what this state would look like, and the precise policy levers Trump is pulling to get there from here.
www.vox.com/politics/462...
This emergency food aid, enough to feed about 1.5 million children for a week, will be incinerated tomorrow rather than distributed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Another in a long list of Trump's crimes against humanity.
Still my biggest question aside from Iranian retaliation. What is the diplomatic plan?
22.06.2025 13:31 — 👍 119 🔁 36 💬 7 📌 0Trump is once against arsonist and fireman. If he hadn't pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal (which our own State Dept. certified Iran was in compliance with), we wouldn't be here.
22.06.2025 01:28 — 👍 598 🔁 178 💬 16 📌 10🧵 To make this more concrete: don't assume Trump himself knows what he is going to do next in in the Israel-Iran conflict. He definitely doesn't want to get the US involved in a major war in the Middle East (that much he's been clear on). But he loves to bomb and look tough. 1/
17.06.2025 00:50 — 👍 497 🔁 117 💬 14 📌 10"The American regime today arrested a member of the legislative opposition, after declaring it would 'liberate' that senator's province from opposition control using the armed forces"
12.06.2025 18:46 — 👍 302 🔁 134 💬 7 📌 4Literally describing themselves as occupying a blue state like hostile territory with the military and federal forces.
12.06.2025 18:34 — 👍 3165 🔁 888 💬 300 📌 70
“The actions have obliterated decades of experience in national security and criminal matters at the F.B.I. and raised questions about whether the agents taking over such critical posts have the institutional knowledge to pursue cornerstones of its work.
Image”
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/u...
*one
31.05.2025 15:24 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
This may end up being onw of the biggest self-owns ever www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/w...
31.05.2025 15:24 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Secretary of Transportation says you should be scared of public transportation. Four million people will ignore him, justifiably, and ride the NY subway tomorrow. 🤡
28.05.2025 23:51 — 👍 2580 🔁 406 💬 201 📌 29Is clownsmanship a word? If not, can we make it one?
08.05.2025 15:42 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
This is blatantly authoritarian. No specific and credible allegations are laid against Krebs, beyond the fact he undermined the President's false claims about a stolen election. Nevertheless, Trump will direct the federal government to make his life hell.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/u...
Rock band REM releasing a remix of its first single, “Radio Free Europe,” to raise money for RFE/RL after the Trump administration froze its funding. www.instagram.com/reel/DJJluTO...
02.05.2025 14:05 — 👍 274 🔁 109 💬 3 📌 5We should thank [our] lucky stars that Trump chose to do this in the most stupid way possible,” says Lucan Way, a political scientist at the University of Toronto who studies democratic backsliding.
30.04.2025 13:15 — 👍 324 🔁 75 💬 6 📌 7Literally straight out of the authoritarian playbook. And no one should be calling it a "news distortion review" uncritically in a headline - that is Orwellian doublespeak
28.04.2025 17:39 — 👍 243 🔁 77 💬 4 📌 2It’s only getting much play in the trade/transport niche press. But pretty real product shortages beginning in mid-May or so are already locked in. They’re maybe a thousand miles out in the Pacific Ocean. Modern trade takes place in gargantuan container ships. There are very detailed records …
27.04.2025 14:19 — 👍 5955 🔁 1894 💬 182 📌 390
Basis in Reality (descending order):
1. Horoscopes
2. Army Detachment Steiner
3. Easter Bunny 🐰
4. This
Trump's executive order directing DOJ to investigate ActBlue makes clear we no longer a fully democratic country - my comments to the Associated Press
apnews.com/article/wisc...
This is the kind of leader-worship bs I associate with the USSR in the 80s. Absolutely unbelievable that’s where the US is now.
26.04.2025 22:23 — 👍 45 🔁 19 💬 1 📌 1
A Russian asset would be much more subtle than eveything @peterbakernyt.bsky.social accurately describes here www.nytimes.com/2025/04/26/u...
26.04.2025 13:48 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Trump is flagrantly defying the Supreme Court
25.04.2025 22:44 — 👍 2444 🔁 665 💬 240 📌 78Titling the playing field.
24.04.2025 20:26 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0The real arsenal of democracy: civics education!
24.04.2025 13:21 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I have studied a lot of peace processes and I’ve never seen a self-styled mediator attempt this particular method of ending a war
24.04.2025 13:07 — 👍 26 🔁 2 💬 4 📌 0
1/Just back from 2 weeks in Asia. US engaged in the most far reaching attempt to restructure the global economy in a century and we have hit the omnishambles portion of the program: undermining US economic security and weaken US credibility in the world.
fortune.com/article/trum...
🧵 THREAD: Can a short online intervention help defend democracy against partisan polarization?
In our new study - just published in the @bjpols.bsky.social - my colleagues and I tested this question across 33 countries 🌍 with over 41,000 participants 🧑🤝🧑.
Here’s what we found 👇
