Rev. Jen Butler @RevJenButler

Francis Fukuyama recently shared a compelling piece titled “The Myth of Authoritarian Efficiency” by political scientists Jørgen Møller and Svend-Erik Skaaning (Aarhus University / V-Dem project). The article dismantles the popular notion that authoritarian regimes—particularly China—are simply better at “getting things done.” Drawing on historical data and comparative evidence, the authors argue that democracies consistently outperform autocracies over the long term across critical domains: • Military effectiveness: Democracies have won more than 80% of wars since 1815. Greater legitimacy enables citizens to make greater sacrifices, and democratic alliances prove more durable. • Economic performance: While autocracies can drive catch-up growth to middle-income levels, they struggle to transition to innovation-driven, knowledge economies that require rule of law, intellectual property protection, and open debate. High-quality democracies show a modest but robust long-run growth advantage. • Avoiding catastrophe: Autocracies periodically produce large-scale man-made disasters (Mao’s Great Leap Forward, Soviet collectivization). Institutional checks and public scrutiny in democracies make comparable failures rare. • Crisis management & environment: Transparency, independent science, and accountability lead to better outcomes on pandemics, climate policy, and environmental indicators. China’s zero-COVID flip-flop and overstated economic statistics illustrate the risks of centralized, unaccountable decision-making. The authors acknowledge democracies can be slow and messy, but emphasize that self-correction mechanisms ultimately make them more resilient and effective than systems that concentrate power without feedback loops. Francis Fukuyama, author of the landmark book The End of History and the Last Man, continues to spark important conversations about the enduring strengths of liberal democracy in an era of renewed authoritarian confidence. Full article (highly recommended): persuasion.community/p/the-myth-of-… What’s your take—do you see evidence of this “myth” playing out in emerging markets or great-power competition today? #Democracy #Geopolitics #China #EmergingMarkets #InternationalRelations #PoliticalEconomy

Never forgave Zelensky for standing up to him in Kyiv and refusing to sign away Ukraine’s mineral rights. According to our correspondent who saw Bessent, immediately afterwards, he was trembling after meeting Zelensky

Shashank Joshi @shashj

5 days ago

‘Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, advised Donald Trump not to host Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, having called the Ukrainian president a “little fucker”, a “special-needs child” and “Mr Bean on crack”, according to a new book.’ theguardian.com/us-news/2026/j…

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👀 Necessary

NBC News @NBCNews

a week ago

Sen. Elissa Slotkin plans to introduce a bill that would ban the president from sending armed military or federal agents to polling sites during American elections. nbcnews.com/politics/trump…

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We don’t talk enough about how autocrats view taxpayer dollars—not as public resources to serve the people, but as a pot of gold to enrich themselves and their allies. Their focus isn’t public welfare; it’s personal profit and power.

I’d actually like to thank the SBC on behalf of all my future plaintiff survivors for demonstrating that the parent organization DOES in fact exercise control over the local churches &, therefore, should be sued for allowing instances of abuse in those churches. We’ll chat soon

.@JamesTalarico: There's been a lot of talk in this race about what it means to be a real man. Recently on the campaign trail I told the story of my adoptive dad, Mark Talarico. Every Saturday morning, he would mow our lawn, and then without anyone asking him to, he would go next door and mow our neighbor's lawn because she was a widow. My dad never talked about it — he just did it, because that's what a man does. A man takes responsibility, upholds his commitments to his family and his neighbors, and does what's right, even when no one is watching. Here's what real men don't do. They don't lie and cheat their way through life, sell their soul to the highest bidder, or steal from other people in order to enrich themselves. Real men serve others. Weak men serve themselves. I welcome this debate about what it means to be a man, and I don't think Ken Paxton or Ted Cruz are in a position to tell anybody what a real man is.

Honored to be included in this excellent @notusperspect piece on what Washington gets wrong about religion-- and in such great company. @JamesMartinSJ @drmoore @rachelklaser @simran @EbooPatel and many other. My quote: “The right weaponizes religion. The left ignores it.” That’s the challenge: faith is shaping public life, and democracy leaders can’t afford to ignore it. notus.org/perspectives/w…

What If Christian Nationalism Loses Its Monopoly on Faith? open.substack.com/pub/revjenbutl…

BREAKING: Ken Paxton’s own lawyer just endorsed James Talarico: “I defended Ken Paxton for years in the impeachment trial and in state criminal cases. But in my view, I think Ken has lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas.  And unlike Ken, I believe that you, James, believe in unity over division and that you know how to assemble not only Democrats but Independents and Republicans and we need that right now.  We need unity, we don't need any more division and that's why I'm supporting you.”

The details about the Tate brothers in this @NewYorker profile are as sick as anything you will ever read. They are rapists, pornographers, traffickers - and heroes to the "conservative" MAGA movement newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…

The only "rigged" elections are the ones Republicans lose

Sam Stein @samstein

2 weeks ago

More than a few people who were barking this morning that California Dems had rigged the election against Pratt are currently congratulating Steve Hilton on making the gubernatorial runoff without any recognition that these two things don't compute

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What a rotten, braindead party that requires all of its members to tell the same absurd, destructive lie to the American people.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar

2 weeks ago

RAJU: But what evidence is there to prove the California election is rigged? MIKE JOHNSON: Look, some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it's impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively that something is wrong here.

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Donald Trump proposes a 1.776 billion slush fund for terrorists. In my book "On Freedom" I proposed $1776 as guaranteed monthly fixed income for Americans. Each kind of future is possible. We choose.

@atrupar @CheriJacobus Every time he calls a journalist corrupt they should thank him for the opportunity to talk about how he and his family are profiting off taxpayers….you wanna talk corruption, great let’s do it

.@SarahAMatthews1 on the first US case of flesh-eating screwworm in 60 years after DOGE cuts to the program that monitored it: “Turns out that letting a bunch of 20-year-old incels with no subject matter expertise take a chainsaw to federal programs ended up having consequences.”

James Talarico on abortion bans: “It doesn’t seem like it’s about children. It doesn’t seem like it’s about mothers and women and girls. It does seem like it’s about control. That’s what we see across this Christian nationalist movement. This is religion at its worst. Trying to control people and what they do”

This is Ken Paxton's mugshot. He was indicted on 3 felony counts for investment fraud. He was reported to the FBI by his own staff for bribery. He was impeached by his own party for corruption. Now he’s the Republican nominee for US Senate in Texas. Together we will stop him.

Pope Leo XIV: "Among these ideologies, I consider particularly insidious the one that suggests that every person must earn or justify his or her own worth, to the point of attributing greater value to those who are more efficient or effective. From this perspective, persons end up being reduced to a means of achieving results, a resource to be used and exploited, and are no longer recognized as a proper end in themselves who should never be instrumentalized. The value of persons, however, does not depend on what they achieve or produce. There are rights that apply to everyone simply by virtue of being human, and no human power can legitimately deny or arbitrarily limit them." #MagnificaHumanitas

The Trump slush fund is a clear cut impeachable offense. latimes.com/opinion/story/…