Juliet Johnson
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excubs.bsky.social
Juliet Johnson
@excubs.bsky.social

Professor of Political Science at McGill University. Money, trust, memory politics, central banks, and financial nationalism.

Political science 44%
Economics 39%
Pinned
Now out in open access: "Aspirational Iconography: The European Union Flag as an Extraterritorial Political Symbol”
doi.org/10.1080/2469.... Ben Forest and I explain why people fly “foreign” flags and why such displays can evoke powerful emotional reactions, both positive and negative.
Aspirational Iconography: The European Union Flag as an Extraterritorial Political Symbol
How and why did the European Union (EU) flag, once a banal marker of European integration and institutions in its member states, become such a politically charged symbol outside of the EU? We demon...
doi.org
I kind of like this whole “We won’t buy your liquor but we will air your state-suppressed news stories” niche that Canada’s apparently carved out.

“Investigations reporter Katherine Long tried to convince Claudius it was a Soviet vending machine from 1962, living in the basement of Moscow State University. After hours—and more than 140 back-and-forth messages—Long got Claudius to embrace its communist roots.”
Gift link, probably the funniest thing the Wall Street Journal has done this year.
We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars.
An AI agent ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI.
www.wsj.com

Reposted by Juliet Johnson

Because you asked for it (you ask for it every year). These are the most scathing book reviews of 2025.
The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2025
Pans, glorious pans. No end-of-year roundup would be complete without them. Among the books being driven into the woods by pitchfork-wielding villagers this year: Louis C.K.’s masturbatory debut no…
buff.ly
WATCH: Replica of the Statue of Liberty topples due to strong winds in Guaíba, Brazil
one thing that doesn’t get enough coverage or comment with regards to this administration is it how much it hates the actually existing united states
Trump Administration Scraps Plan to Mint Quarters Featuring Abolition, Suffrage
The move comes as a controversial $1 Trump coin for the nation’s 250th birthday is also being considered.
www.wsj.com

The only CB museums I’ve seen that extensively discuss blockchain and crypto are Hungary’s and Singapore’s. The Bundesbank also had an interesting special exhibit once; their take on crypto was exactly as you might imagine. Crypto is for criming and is definitely not real money.

It’s supposed to be fabulous, I’m hoping to make it this summer!
this is going to be a fucking shitshow, lmao
Costco sues the Trump administration, seeking a refund of tariffs
The wholesaler is the latest company to file a lawsuit against a federal agency over the president's signature economic policy.
www.nbcnews.com
One explanation for economic populism in the US is the recurring cycle of bubbles and bailouts that happens without any democratic input
People getting mad here about anyone saying it's good that MTG and Trump are fighting. I teach democratization every semester. The first slide says 'elite fracture.' That's always where it starts. It's good when people with bad politics are fighting one another.
I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win
BASH: We have seen these attacks from the president at other people. It's not new. And I haven't heard you speak out about it until it was directed at you.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: I think that's fair criticism. And I would like to say, humbly, I'm sorry for taking part in the toxic politics.

Reposted by Juliet Johnson

I've had an uptick in orders for this print recently, for reasons which are not particularly mysterious to me
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women

🧵

By flying the EU flag alongside their national ones, Georgians, Moldovans, and Ukrainians not only declared themselves to be fully European but also insisted that they would actively contest and construct European boundaries.

We use worldwide examples but focus especially on the EU flag in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Protestors and governments used the flag to define national identities, to assert European identities, as an anti-Russian geopolitical symbol, and as a tool in domestic political conflicts.
Check out my new piece -> A New Age of Crypto-Authoritarianism in Current History.

It is now open access!

online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...

Reposted by Juliet Johnson

“The President decides major foreign policy approaches based on his personal anger at tv commercials” is almost too stupid to imagine but it’s literally our reality
The president says he is boosting tariffs on Canadian imports by 10% because he doesn't like an ad they ran last night during the World Series, and which he falsely describes as inaccurate. Oh, and here's the Reagan address in question—judge for yourself!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t5Q...

Sort of ironic with the Canadian flag. We’re « No Tyrants » protesting up here.
My team at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@djpressman.bsky.social, Hammam, & Chris Shay) has a new piece, whose title speaks for itself. A 🧵 with some key descriptive takeaways:
The resistance reaches into Trump country
As organizers for No Kings 2 seek historic turnout on Oct. 18, the broader pro-democracy movement has already broken new ground.
wagingnonviolence.org
🍁🍁Hello! We hiring in the junior market! 🍁🍁

Apply to work with us at McGill's Econ department!

Full ad: econjobmarket.org/positions/11...
EJM - Econ Job Market
econjobmarket.org
And (separately) registration is still open for the alumni Homecoming week roundtable "Democracy under Pressure: What’s at Stake for Canada and the World"

www.eventbrite.ca/e/democracy-...
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
It's one thing to succumb to the stick, but Vanderbilt, Dartmouth, Penn, USC, MIT, UT, Arizona, Brown, and UVA absolutely must refuse to go chasing after promises of carrots.
Exclusive | White House Asks Colleges to Sign Sweeping Agreement to Get Funding Advantage
An initial round of nine schools is being asked to sign a wide-ranging accord.
www.wsj.com
www.eventbrite.ca/e/democracy-...

@mcgillarts.bsky.social @mcgillumedia.bsky.social Homecoming week roundtable in the Department of Political Science

Democracy under Pressure: What’s at Stake for Canada and the World

Oct 23, 5:45 pm

Moderator:
@excubs.bsky.social

1/2
Democracy under Pressure: What’s at Stake for Canada and the World
In this special Homecoming roundtable, experts from the McGill Department of Political Science discuss today's most pressing issues.
www.eventbrite.ca
Trump: I'm so disappointed with President Putin. I thought he would get this thing over with… He should have had this war done in a week. And I said to him: You don't look good. You've been four years fighting a war that should have taken a week. Are you a 'paper tiger'? And… it's a shame.

No
Trump to generals: "Canada called me a couple weeks ago. They want to be a part of it. To which I said, 'Well, why don't you just join our country. Become the 51st state. And you get it for free!' So I don't know if that made a big impact but it does make a lot of sense."
Trump to generals: "Canada called me a couple weeks ago. They want to be a part of it. To which I said, 'Well, why don't you just join our country. Become the 51st state. And you get it for free!' So I don't know if that made a big impact but it does make a lot of sense."
Trying hard to moderate my Maia Sandu fangirling right now, but I gotta stress she's accomplished something no EEuropean reformist ever has: brought a fugitive oligarch back to face justice AND fended off massive Ru interference to win a referendum and two re-elections (parliamentary+presidential)!