Prof. Carl LeVan
Professor at American University. Defender of democracy. Lover of decency. Seeker of truth. Author/co-editor of books on Nigeria, constitution-making, and the American national security state. Editorial boards: Governance, Journal of Modern African Studies
- Next, I would encourage them to elaborate on the insanity of the DOJ's request -- and do it on the House/Senate floor, where their speech is constitutionaly protected, adding a separation of powers protection. (See the case of Rep. Henry Gonzalez in the early 90s) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/u...
- Nat Sec strategy says Trump "single-handedly reversed more than three decades of mistaken American assumptions about China: namely, that by opening our markets" China would enter "the so-called rules based international order”. Did anyone notice he was essentially taking Nancy Pelosi's position?
- Reposted by Prof. Carl LeVanWhat impact are the US boat strikes having, besides killing >124 people? - October-December 2024: 7,764 pounds of cocaine seized at the US-Mexico border. - October-December 2025: 10,593 pounds of cocaine seized. Cocaine is up 34% year-over-year *despite* the boat strikes. Data: bit.ly/4bJOeFs
- Reposted by Prof. Carl LeVan[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Prof. Carl LeVanNEW: Abigail Spanberger this afternoon ordered that all state agencies leave ICE's 287(g) program. This means that the state police (and some other agencies) will no longer be empowered to detain and arrest people for ICE. Big, big move by the governor within weeks of coming into office.
- Went to a meeting downtown today, and I was the only dude not wearing a tie. So many cultural changes in DC with the GOP back in power.
- DEMOCRACY DIES IN DARKNESS
- Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people on Earth, just eliminated hundreds of union jobs at the Washington Post. Solidarity with @postguild.bsky.social. Join them tomorrow, February 5 at 12:00 p.m. for a rally to #SaveThePost.
- Reposted by Prof. Carl LeVanNEW: At least 23 reported contributors to the White House ballroom should have disclosed those donations as part of their lobbying disclosure filings, according to CREW analysis. Only one did.
- Reposted by Prof. Carl LeVanThe new DHS funding deadline is next week. That means Democrats have real leverage to stop the regime’s lawlessness. Demand that Dems hold the line and refuse to fund DHS without ironclad limits on ICE and CBP, actual accountability for abuses, and clear guardrails to stop raids and intimidation.
- Street signs are a little different here in DC
- I have been following this index for 25 years. By focusing on perceptions, I hope this one will not under report our grim neopatrimonial reality here in the US: a president selling political access via crypto currency, accepting a $400m gift from a foreign govt, firing inspectors general, etc.
- 🔵 COMING SOON: The Corruption Perceptions Index 2025 will be published on 10 February. How will your country measure up? #CPI2025
- Interested in protecting universities, students, faculty, staff and basic principles of democracy on American college campuses? Apply for this @aaup.org fellowship at the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom www.aaup.org/about/progra...
- A real indictment of economists. Right? (I'm imagining results among anthropologists or clinical psychologists)
- Reposted by Prof. Carl LeVan[Not loaded yet]
- Now that the chair of the relevant committee of jurisdiction has recognized the gross misconduct of Secretary Noem, who endorsed the violence rather than characterizing it as an accident or worthy of urgent investigation, he has an obligation to take the next step and hold her accountable
- Reposted by Prof. Carl LeVanGOOD NEWS: California and Oregon federal district courts dismissed the DOJ’s lawsuit against those states for their refusal to turn over state voter data—calling the Trump administration’s efforts “unprecedented and illegal.” 🧵
- This is amazing reporting by the @washingtonpost.com - Kenyans and other Africans deceived by Russia to fight in Ukraine wapo.st/4qnDnoA
- Right. Barely six years after a $250 remodeling, and after everyone from Philip Glass and Rene Felmming to the National Symphony Orchestra has fled.
- Donald Trump said Sunday he will move to close Washington’s Kennedy Center performing arts venue for two years starting in July after a wave of cancellations followed Trump’s ouster of the previous leadership when Trump added his name to the building. apnews.com/article/trum...
- Even the temperature around here in DC suggests a strong sense of solidarity with Minneapolis.
- Man....if Batman thinks your tactics are heavy handed then you are REALLY out of line, ICE
- Let me just say that I read the book after I discovered Kate Bush, but many years before Stranger Things ever appeared. I found it a little challenging but haunting....in a good way
- There is little evidence so far of external pressure to democratize. American made plain the attack on #Venezuela was not motivated by democracy or #humanrights. Survival will be relatively easy with Rodriguez willing to play along. But she struck a dangerous bargain by depending on a foreign patron
- Reposted by Prof. Carl LeVanThe arrests of Lemon and Fort are intended to deter journalists from doing work we need them to do, and that the First Amendment was meant to protect. DOJ should drop these prosecutions or the courts should throw them out. knightcolumbia.org/content/knig...
- When I lecture on state building, I always joke you are not a country unless you have 3 things: a flag, a currency, and a soccer team. This could further delegitimize the Trump admin: "Clamor is growing in Europe to boycott Trump’s World Cup" www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
- @sciam.bsky.social just gave us a very helpful illustrated reminder www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...
- #Mistrust in politicians can be good for democracy by stimulating accountability and competitive elections. Mistrust in science, and fealty to #post-truth ideologies, disconnects evidence from policy, and the people from the common good. Come to DC on March 7 to @standupforscience.bsky.social
- #Mistrust in politicians can be good for democracy by stimulating accountability and competitive elections. Mistrust in science, and fealty to #post-truth ideologies, disconnects evidence from policy, and the people from the common good. Come to DC on March 7 to @standupforscience.bsky.social
- So these are treacherous waters. But Minnesotans should use this opportunity to generate momentum for an investigation that follows the facts and ends with accountability under the law. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...
- Been reading Varshney's essay comparing populism and nationalism. I expected unsustainability of populism, ie once the movement of anti-elites became the incumbents in power. But the essay is a good reminder how populism can mutate into elite-led nationalism...which is clearly on display in the US.
- Time for strange political bedfellows: recalling inflammatory 2nd amendment rhetoric from NRA about citizens protecting themselves from the state, should demand Bondi+Noem be fired. "Federal agent secured gun from Minn. man before fatal shooting, videos show" www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
- So far, in 2026, the leading driver of homicide in Minneapolis appears to be the Dept of Homeland Security. "Man fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis believed to be U.S. citizen" www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/...
- Trump is so focused on finding anti-Semitism on college campuses (as long as it's not folks from Turning Point USA spreading "great replacement" conspiracies) that he overlooked his dinner buddy, Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, praising Hitler in his own backyard, Florida youtu.be/dDFhGOVIfbQ?...
- "White House shares doctored image portraying arrested church protester in tears" www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
- Al-Qaeda groups in Mali. ISIS affiliates in Syria and Nigeria. Insurgencies in Pakistan. Have foreign aid cuts, the emphasis on domestic immigration, and other policy shifts neglected critical global security threats? Join us Friday, Jan. 30 at American Univ in DC www.eventbrite.com/e/ignored-in...
- Background on @standupforscience.bsky.social. The rubber ducks remind me of when Global Citizen distributed pillows to every House member asking them to "sleep on it" re: GATT. In the age of Trump, are U.S. scientists ‘bringing white papers to a gunfight’? in Science www.science.org/content/arti...
- I think we are spending too much time fact checking and not enough time grammar checking #Davos “The United States was paying for virtually 100 percent of NATO. And I got that stopped. I said, ‘That’s not fair.’ But then, more importantly, I got NATO to pay 5 percent, and now they were paying.”
- And he's not even talking about the midterms
- Reposted by Prof. Carl LeVan[Not loaded yet]
- "New" focus on Latin America? Guatemala 1954, Chile 1973, Nicaragua 1980s, etc. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
- With 44 government accessible cameras per person, this report claims DC residents face more surveillance than than other city in the world (but where is London?) neomam.com/most-surveil...
- "Citizenship and liberty should not depend on a person’s ability to gather paperwork from behind detention walls or retain legal counsel under duress. If normalized, this approach puts countless citizens at risk of detention first and verification later.” www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...
- a Reagan appointed judge calls the administration's effort to deport five students who had been in the United States an “unconstitutional conspiracy” to “twist the laws” and “pick off” a few prominent activists in an aim to intimidate noncitizens across academia www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/u...
- Groups in #Nigeria funding dueling lobby teams in DC, with Republican connected Madison & Washington "trying to use the Trump administration’s claims of genocide against Nigerian Christians to promote Biafra’s independence" (and Sen. Cruz falling for it). www.thisdaylive.com/2026/01/14/a...
- From Kennedy at Harvard Law: "defensive, ridiculously formulaic cancellations by students is one thing. Encroachments by departments of the executive branch of the federal government are another thing, a worse thing, altogether." www.chronicle.com/article/rand...
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- #ForesightAfrica @brookings.edu when president of Exxon-Mobil explained to Trump last week that Venezuela is "uninvestible" he highlighted need for development #democracy good governance. Power imbalance globally is real so a question for #Africa countires is how to position themselves for partners
- A good case for AfCTA at @brookings.edu 25% of #trade across #Africa is not primary resources, while over 51% of exports abroad are natural resources, oil, ie with less value added
- @brookings.edu young people in #Africa more likely to be unemployed, and more engaged online. Analysis of protests complements finding that efforts to counter #misinformation increasingly important to the relation between governance and developing
- On average, countries received 106% of their annual health budgets in aid. @brookings.edu
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- "rescuing" Venezuelans abroad, and shooting them at home. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/u...
- FBI executes search warrant at Washington Post reporter’s home www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
- I really hope Trump carries through on his threat to withhold $1 billion for Smithsonian. It will backfire on him spectacularly when 1.5 million Americans of all political stripes arrive here in April to visit 21 free, world famous museums but they are shut down because he wants to rewrite history
- Lawmaker questions about immigrant arrests go unanswered by D.C. police. "...it is against department policy to enforce civil immigration laws without a criminal warrant or an order from a judge" says the police chief. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...
- Washington National Opera is moving out of the Kennedy Center www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...
- If you're looking for a gig that'll make you feel big/ come with me and put some folks in detention/ if you are lacking control and authority/ come with me and hunt down minorities/ Join ICE youtu.be/61I4hlig78w?...
- One of the few foreign policy accomplishments of Trump admin #1 was the Abraham accords. Ghebrezghiabher argues here that #Sudan 's withdrawal from the accords, and the ongoing civil war, risks return to Islamic #authoritarianism, and undermining #Mideast peace www.jns.org/how-sudans-c...
