Valerie Bunce

@bunski.bsky.social

Political scientist, retired from Cornell, specialist
in transitions from democracy to dictatorship (and vice-versa) in Postcommunist Europe and Eurasia. Agonized observor of US transition.

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Valerie Jane Bunce is an American political scientist, currently the Aaron Binenkorb Professor of International Studies and a Professor of Government at Cornell University. She studies democratization, international democratic movements, ethnic politics, and governance in communist and post-communist states. .. more

Political science 72%

Sociology 19%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · 3d

I prefer 1941

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · 5d

Women go to grocery stores, not men in Trump’s world—but only middle class and lower women. I really doubt Trump ever bought his own groceries.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · 5d

Why do you think he ever shopped for himself?

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · 5d

Unlikely he ever shopped in a grocery store. I suspect he was watching a movie and saw someone in a grocery store writing a check. Also possible he has never used a credit card and thought (as again he was watching a movie) that was ID.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · 15d

We are always too ready to assume he will do the right thing. Stop hoping, start taking seriously all the data we already have on Trump and his enablers. Maya Angelou comes to mind: when someone tells you who they are (again and again), believe him.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · 17d

So right. And so many members of the caring professions, for example, are women.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · 22d

My reading of the Trump-Putin game is different. It reminds me of a common relationship dynamic in which the purpose of couples’ arguing is to experience the pleasures of reconciliation.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · 23d

Ithaca, NY

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · 23d

No Kings Ithaca!

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · 26d

He is so good at not being embarrassed. Or for that matter, truthful.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Oct 11

Yes—the constant is the flattery, the acceptance into the club of “tough guys.” Democratic leaders are wimps, but Putin—now there’s a trophy leader to go with Trump’s trophy wife.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Oct 4

I am wondering: what does she know that people outside the Trump
Circle don’t know. She could be looking ahead to Maga post-Trump and creating a lane for herself. Especially likely if other Rs will be brought down along w Trump.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Oct 2

If only Republicans in Congress would just ignore Trump’s dangerous, stupid, policies and carry out their constitutional duties.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 30

Yes! Just what we need.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 29

But any thoughts about why the authors put out this report?

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 29

Great comments! I know you know what you are talking about!

Reposted by Valerie Bunce

Kathleen Belew @kathleenbelew.bsky.social · Sep 29

The report completely neglects the way that much of the momentum in far right extremism has now become part of STATE VIOLENCE. It does not count ICE actions, militia actions, vigilantism clothed in state authority. THIS IS WHERE THAT VIOLENCE NOW RESIDES. (4)

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 26

Grievances have to be continuously invented, restocked and repeated, if they are the driving force behind politics and policy.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 26

So did embarrassment. The more grandiose, self-promoting and moralistic the claim, the more likely it is a lie. These people specialize in super-size whoppers.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 23

So the UN is only one more case of retribution for this guy, like, say, Letitia James or Columbia? One wonders—what did Tylenol do to him? Windmills? Shower heads?He is quite the grievance collector.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 21

Geopolitical genius striles again.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 10

But why just the northeast—Michigan and the other great state schools in the Midwest. But there is the small matter of weather…

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 10

Perfect. And the states are making no cuts. It’s a matter of sharing with localities. And the localities are making no cuts, it’s a matter of sharing with neighborhoods.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 9

Hard choices for blue states, because they care about the well-being of their populations. Red states have less of a problem, because they don’t care.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 3

Surreal, but not if you were in Moscow in the second half of the ‘90s.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 2

Yes.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Sep 2

Or at least secession. Blue states do not support regime change.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Aug 28

Mealy mouthed is the perfect description. People, including the mainstream media, don’t understand the gravity of what is happening. They assume (wrongly as we know from accounts of revolutions),that their lives would be in turmoil, if Trump were actually carrying out a fascist revolution.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Aug 24

You are right, Jamelle. Many never-Trumper Republicans have phrases, hardly the norm, that set them off. They are always on the lookout for ways to “balance” their criticisms of the GOP. Having turned on “their” party, they want to be sure that the Democrats deserve their support.

Valerie Bunce @bunski.bsky.social · Aug 22

Revolutions always re-make states through a combination of purges and new forms of state intervention. Sigh.

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