banner
darinself.com
Darin Self
@darinself.com
21K followers 480 following 8.3K posts
Assistant Professor of Political Science -- Researching democratization, autocracies, the military, and political parties. Chair of Utah County Democratic Party -- working to make democracy work locally: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/utcountydems
secure.actblue.com
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 27d
This year I became the chair of the Democratic Party in Utah's second largest county.

I'm working to build a real party from the neighborhood up, but we don't get support from the national party.

If you want to help, you can donate here:

secure.actblue.com/donate/utcou...
Donate to Utah County Democratic Party (UT)
Show your support with a contribution.
secure.actblue.com
3 12 50
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 8h
When you're shooting clergy this should come immediately to mind:
8 47
Reposted by Darin Self
johnpfaff.bsky.social
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 13h
Um, ICE just coldly shot an unarmed PRIEST in the head w a pepper ball when he (and everyone around him) clearly posed no threat.

For the crime of … complaining about government policy.

Core 1A speech.

With cameras rolling, they’re sniping priests for sport.
flglchicago.bsky.social
Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 15h
Here’s video of the incident
850 8.9K 16K
Reposted by Darin Self
brendannyhan.bsky.social
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 12h
Monstrous.

"federal agents detained nearly every resident of the 130-unit building—including children and babies—placing them in zip ties and separating them by race into vans for more than two hours early Tuesday morning."
dlknowles.bsky.social
Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 15h
Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...
Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children
Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.
southsideweekly.com
32 620 1.3K
Reposted by Darin Self
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 19h
“No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”
peark.es
George Pearkes @peark.es · 20h
Well that's not how appropriations work at all

*WHITE HOUSE TO TRANSFER TARIFF REVENUE TO FUND WIC: LEAVITT
89 930 3.5K
Reposted by Darin Self
jamisonfoser.bsky.social
Jamison Foser @jamisonfoser.bsky.social · 19h
aside from the whole "that definitely isn't constitutional" part can anyone see any problems with Trump just transferring government revenue to whatever bank account he wants or nah?
peark.es
George Pearkes @peark.es · 20h
Well that's not how appropriations work at all

*WHITE HOUSE TO TRANSFER TARIFF REVENUE TO FUND WIC: LEAVITT
7 45 150
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 19h
Googles Charles I

oh

OHHHHHHH
jkuznicki.bsky.social
Jason Kuznicki @jkuznicki.bsky.social · 19h
This is personalism. It's the Charles I scenario -- the king rules without the a legislature and simply taxes and spends in whatever way he feels like.

Impeach, remove, disqualify.
peark.es
George Pearkes @peark.es · 20h
Well that's not how appropriations work at all

*WHITE HOUSE TO TRANSFER TARIFF REVENUE TO FUND WIC: LEAVITT
2 17
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 19h
I thought the tariffs are supposed to cover the farmers AND give us $2k rebate.

I'm going to put my money on Trump raising tariffs even more.

Its gonna be fuuuuuun
peark.es
George Pearkes @peark.es · 20h
Well that's not how appropriations work at all

*WHITE HOUSE TO TRANSFER TARIFF REVENUE TO FUND WIC: LEAVITT
2 1 14
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 1d
NPR has been cooked for a while but its pathetic to see a once prestigious news outlet desperately try to make an overtly autocratic abuse of power sound reasonable
npr.org
NPR @npr.org · 1d
President Trump is bucking tradition and legal precedent in pushing to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago due to what he says is rampant crime and to support his crackdown on illegal immigration.
Trump's power to deploy National Guard, explained
President Trump is bucking tradition and legal precedent in pushing to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago due to what he says is rampant crime and to support his crackdown on illegal immigration.
n.pr
2 9 33
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 1d
a man in a striped shirt is holding a cell phone in his hand .
ALT: a man in a striped shirt is holding a cell phone in his hand .
media.tenor.com
14
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 1d
A whole lot of statements from ICE about what happened but no evidence at all.

Why do reporters take them at face value?
anneapplebaum.bsky.social
Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · 2d
ICE agents shot a U.S. citizen Saturday on Chicago’s South Side
They are creating chaos
www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...
Federal agents shoot woman in Chicago neighborhood after allegedly being rammed, boxed in by cars, DHS says
The woman, as well as a man whom authorities say was involved in the chaos, were facing charges Sunday morning.
www.cbsnews.com
1 9 32
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 1d
Its a good thing transportation costs are irrelevant in the price of goods.
justinwolfers.bsky.social
Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 1d
It had been hours since the President had announced a tariff change, and all of this stability was killing the economy. He had to act to provide the American people with the uncertainty they deserve.
10 37
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 1d
The stock market is just a bunch of bettors running as fast as humanly possible because they know if any one of them slows it all crashes.
justinhendrix.bsky.social
Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 2d
"The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year... In a way, then, America has become one big bet on AI."
America is now one big bet on AI
It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy
www.ft.com
3 4 27
Reposted by Darin Self
crushbort.bsky.social
bort @crushbort.bsky.social · 2d
i think we are going to find out at some point these guys invented cocaine 2 and have been on it all along
Buried in Altman's post is the real story: "People are generating much more than we expected per user," using massive compute resources on content that's often being generated for very small audiences (it is, after all, a social media app). OpenAl will "have to somehow make money for video generation," Altman wrote. Translation: Sora is burning through compute costs with no offsetting revenue. Altman floated a potential solution: "We are going to try sharing some of this revenue with rightsholders who want their characters generated by users." The idea-perhaps similar to You Tube's ad-monetization program for videos that include copyrighted material -would give studios a financial incentive to opt in. "The exact model will take some trial and error to figure out," Altman acknowledged, "but we plan to start very soon."
21 210 1.3K
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 1d
I know we're all focused on the actions of a unbridled executive...but another major danger right now is that the Speaker of the House is refusing to sit a duly elected representative.
the-downballot.com
The Downballot @the-downballot.com · 1d
Updating this chart because the prior version is out of date. With Mike Johnson refusing to convene the House, the soonest Democrat Adelita Grijalva can get sworn in—and provide the 218th signature to force a vote on the Epstein files—is now three weeks after winning the #AZ07 special election.
3 74 200
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 2d
a man in a purple shirt and tie says " i said what i said " to another man
ALT: a man in a purple shirt and tie says " i said what i said " to another man
media.tenor.com
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 2d
Also, military commanders are subject to laws as well.

They are not kings over their units but when fascists like Miller invoke the president a C-in-C they do so trying to claim absolute authority.
billkristolbulwark.bsky.social
Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2d
Contrary to Stephen Miller, the president is not "commander-in-chief" of law enforcement within the United States. The invocation of the title "commander-in-chief" to justify anything Trump wants to do anywhere is a sign of how far down the road the administration is to Caesarism.
7 32
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 2d
comparison is how we *infer causality* a single case study really only tells us how that thing (democracy, autocracy, bureaucracy, military, etc) functions in that ... one country.
1 2
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 2d
While I think I was right about how bad it would be, I certainly missed on how weakly elite civil society would react.
2 6
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 2d
And props to my book reviewer who said it was refreshing because it "was actual comparative politics"
5
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 2d
Your single country case study doesn't actually tell us what *generalized actor/institution* does.
3 12
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 2d
I'm just a comparativist standing in front of other comparativists asking them to do comparative politics again.
2 1 19
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 2d
As we know, voters always give politicians A's for effort, especially when there isn't actually any effort.
12
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 2d
3 18
darinself.com
Darin Self @darinself.com · 2d
The principal-agent problem of state security forces and the government in an autocracy is a fun thing we all get to apply to the US too now
1 4
Reposted by Darin Self
joshuajfriedman.com
Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 2d
Judge: That's what I'll do. Prohibit federalization or deployment of any NG troops into Oregon. For all reasons in prior opinion. Deployment of federalized military is ultra vires and contrary to law, violating Title 10, section 12406. I also find it's likely that defendants violate 10th Amendment.
11 800 3.5K