Grigore Pop-Eleches

The Most Efficient Traveler Isn’t a Bird or a Fish—It’s You on a Bike A famous graphic, now updated, compares locomotion in the animal kingdom

It's nice when science reaffirms our natural inclinations.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-hu...

Hard to believe that even Putin's endorsement wasn't enough for Trump to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
www.reuters.com/world/europe...

Check out my new piece on Moldovan 🇲🇩 elections with @grigopop.bsky.social

But DA's success arguably came at the expense of the other pro-Russian parties, especially Dodon's "Blocul Patriotic" and Ceban's "Alternativa".

One unexpected bright spot for Russian manipulation tactics was the ability of "Democrația Acasă" to get into parliament with 5.6%. DA was endorsed by Romanian ultranationalist leader, George Simion, and its leader, Vasile Costiuc, ran on the AUR list in last year's Romanian parliamentary elections.

Moldovan voters have given the pro-EU PAS (of President Maia Sandu) a narrow but clear parliamentary majority, despite Russia hybrid warfare tactics. Let's hope that the planned opposition protests are not a foil for even more aggressive Russian tactics.

Trump floats pulling licenses if networks are 'against' him after Jimmy Kimmel suspended President Donald Trump has applauded the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show over comments he made about the man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk.

We don't need to worry about stealth authoritarianism anymore. It's pretty clearly out in the open.
www.cnbc.com/2025/09/18/t...

‘Censoring you in real time’: suspension of Jimmy Kimmel show sparks shock and fears for free speech ABC decision over Kimmel comments about Charlie Kirk killing comes hours after Trump-appointed chair of US media regulator threatened broadcaster’s license

The authoritarian playbook in action...
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

‘I told my family, I’ll probably die’: US immigration sends Russian asylum seekers back to Moscow Russian national who applied for asylum on political grounds describes inhumane treatment while in US custody

Yet another instance of the staggering human costs of US deportation practices.

‘I told my family, I’ll probably die’: US immigration sends Russian asylum seekers back to Moscow www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

In case you were curious about what Ukrainians think about Putin-style "peace" negotiations...

The insistence of Texas Republicans to have Dem reps sign agreements to be shadowed by police reminds me of a line from a novel by Marin Preda: "[the communists] aren't content to take your cow from the barn, they also make you sign that you gave it willingly".
thehill.com/homenews/sta...

French President Emmanuel Macron says he doesn't believe Putin is 'very willing to get peace' in Ukraine After a meeting at the White House on Monday, the French president said that if there is no progress in talks, Russia should be hit with more sanctions.

And the prize for understatement of the day goes to ...
search.app/qHk7P

This is so depressing- and makes me so grateful for growing up biking everywhere, and for my kids having the same experience 30 years later.

JD Vance went kayaking for his birthday. Secret Service had the river level raised Vice President JD Vance’s security detail had an Ohio river’s water level raised last weekend to accommodate a kayaking trip he and his family took for his 41st birthday.

Glad to see that tax payers' money is being put to good use.
apnews.com/article/vp-v...

My 2 cents on the recent Romanian elections in ‪@goodauth.bsky.social. Romanian democracy dodged a bullet (barely) but this is no time to be complacent...

Musk and Sacks question Romanian election, at odds with U.S. diplomat Elon Musk and David Sacks, both White House advisers, weighed in separately on the election in Eastern Europe.

And, then, of course, this genius feels the need to add his brilliant political analysis.
www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...

BREAKING George Simion anunță că va cere CCR anularea alegerilor / Liderul AUR acuză guvernele R.Moldova și Franței de implicare în alegerile din România și cere audierea fondatorului Telegram / Pavel... Candidatul extremist George Simion a anunțat, marți, într-un mesaj video transmis pe Facebook, că va cere Curții Constituționale anularea alegerilor

Just when we thought the circus was finally over, Simion decided to challenge the results of the elections (after he had conceded earlier). Not surprisingly, his argument echoes the rhetoric of his Russian handlers. This could get ugly. www.g4media.ro/breaking-geo...

Also, while this is from an online pre-electoral survey (of 1500 respondents), it seems to have captured the vote intentions quite well: below are my survey estimates (using demographic weights) vs. the official results in Romania (without the diaspora)

What is interesting is that SOS and POT voters supported Simion in lower proportions than AUR voters – so the “sovereignist” (nationalist) bloc is not very homogeneous.

Here's a graph (based on my own online survey from May9-17) showing where support in yesterday's Romanian presidential vote came from vv. the parliamentary vote from 2024. As expected, Dan dominated overwhelmingly among USR and UDMR voters, and quite clearly among PSD and PNL voters.

Forming a functional government won't be easy, and tackling the urgent reforms ahead will be even harder. But, unless they step up, today's election may have just postponed the reckoning.

the fact that a candidate as extreme and as flawed as Simion got over 46% of the vote is alarming. Let's hope Romania's political class heeds this wake-up call.

Nicușor Dan won after an incredible campaign that culminated in an unexpectedly clear reversal of the first round vote. He also won because of the remarkable mobilization of many Romanian citizens, who drove the record turnout.
But let us not get dizzy with success:

At this point Dan leads by over 800K votes, a difference that is virtually impossible to overcome with the roughly one million diaspora votes left to count. The question is whether Simion will accept defeat or whether he (and his handlers/followers) will resort to Jan 6 tactics.

And then there is the question of the diaspora, where turnout has also increased significantly.

Exit polls and turnout figures look very promising for Nicușor Dan (and prediction markets seem to agree). But lots of uncertainty remains given the gap between exit polls and results in the first wave. Meanwhile, Simion claimed victory, setting the stage for fraud claims (and possibly violence.)

Voted in R2 of the Romanian presidential elections this morning (in an Orthodox church in Philadelphia). For those who can, please make the effort to go vote - it will be really tight, and the stakes couldn't be higher! Hai la vot!

Data is from an online survey of 1250 respondents (May 9-13) Estimates are predicted value for lowest vs. highest EU/NATO support (on a 5-point Likert scale) based on regressions controlling for age, sex, education and locality size, and using raking weights for same set of demographics.

Simion has flip-flopped repeatedly about his position on EU & NATO. But the preferences of his supporters tell a pretty clear story: his support is heavily concentrated from those opposed to the EU and NATO (though it is of course not limited to them.)

Trzaskowski vs. Nawrocki: Poland’s democratic future in the balance Poland’s next presidential election could determine whether the restoration of democracy continues – or stalls.

Wherein I opine that the upcoming presidential elections in Poland will either enable or stymie democratic reform after the PiS years. For a largely ceremonial office, this one matters.

goodauthority.org/news/trzasko...