My 2 cents: this is random noise plus very cold weather plus long term trend of NYC becoming a playground for the rich and pricing out the poor.
04.03.2026 17:18
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My 2 cents: this is random noise plus very cold weather plus long term trend of NYC becoming a playground for the rich and pricing out the poor.
A short history of the end times/rapture in the American military.
Cold war: Forces were seen as the defense against godless communism, but also as a rich environment for missionary outreach.
1959 - National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) estimated 50% of those in service were not affiliated
The Trump administration has such an impoverished view of power. Power only for domination, never service. Power only to cause fear, never love or inspiration or admiration.
That type of power can be successful - for a time. It is the power of empire. But it is also self-defeating in the long-term
Even more important is that in mid-90s, the Republican Party believed in policy. There was real energy at work to craft policy the key actors believed would benefit Americans (whether one agrees with that belief is beside the point). That does not exist in the Trump GOP. Nihilism as platform.
I don't think this is accurate - there are many ways the party's agenda and goals have changed: trade and immigration (which you mention) at the forefront, but major differences in the salience and even direction of election policy, morality policy, civil rights and racial equality, ed policy...
An administration wielding lawless, performative violence—violence for the sake of spectacle—both at home and abroad.
This is so good
context: transgender Americans are moving to other states at at least triple the rate of all American adults.
The fact that there’s a secret network of doulas going around Minneapolis to help with home births for parents afraid of ICE should be front-page news.
These children, born in secrecy, are American citizens.
Interested in learning more advanced approaches to text analysis, machine learning or network analysis this summer? The University of Strathclyde @strathpolir.bsky.social is offering successive methods classes this June.
How do you nominate? Just send an email or DM with the paper attached and tell us that you're submitting. If you want, you can also say what you think is good/innovative/important/useful about the paper, but even that isn't necessary.
You of course could nominate other good papers you saw at conferences in 2025. Perhaps you know of a graduate student at your university who is doing great work on the U.S. states - please nominate them!
I'm on the committee ( with @meghanleonard.bsky.social and Justin Crofoot) to give both awards - you can email me or DM for info.
Deadline is this Monday, Feb 16th!
Did you present a paper at an academic conference during 2025 on state politics or policy? Consider nominating it for a best paper award! The State Politics and Policy Section of APSA has 2 separate awards; one for papers written by and/or with faculty and one just for graduate students.
Every time I use it, I'm impressed. Great pen.
The Zebra Sarasa has no business being as good as it is.
What an amazing thing to be said about you:
"He was many things, but the attribute that appears so often is: He was kind. In a world where you can choose to be so many things, he chose to be kind."
‘One officer told me that I "had no chance of returning to Minnesota" and that "the best thing for (me] is self-deportation." …
She offered me $2600 to self-deport.
I refused.
I wanted to talk to my attorney.
They didn't tell me the judge had already ordered my release and return to Minnesota.’
Have you wondered why exactly it is that single-family zoning leads to racial segregation? I wrote this little article to figure it out. I use an agent based model to show it is a combination of race-based wealth inequality, homophily, & clustering of housing types in zoning maps.
On the “talking filibuster.”
blog.mattglassman.net/the-talking-...
This didn't pass my gut check of something that is _actually_ happening _now_ and guess what:
>In its proposal for the grant, Alabama said it hoped to provide “telerobotic ultrasound systems” as part of its maternal and fetal health initiative.
www.al.com/news/2026/01...
It is a classic strategy used regularly to reject moral teachings they do not want to follow.
This reasoning is deeply embedded into conservative evangelicalism. Moral teachings of Jesus and the NT writers? Clearly those are written to individuals and churches, not governments, so not applicable. Prophetic writings from Hebrew Scriptures? Written uniquely to Israel, so not applicable to us.
Thrilled to share that my paper with @judgelord.bsky.social and Justin Grimmer:"How shifting priorities and capacity affect policy work and constituency service: Evidence from a census of legislator requests to U.S. federal agencies" is out at the AJPS!
People hate societal disruption and there is no way to deport a lot of people without ripping apart society at the seams. It is really that simple. Immigration is an abstract idea for most people until the reality is laid bare. Thermostatic public opinion is thermostatic for a reason.
A community organizer’s guide to Signal group chats www.theverge.com/tech/872493/...
1. Trump certainly wants to fully rig elections.
2. He has no actual plausible plan to do so.
3. We should absolutely take the threat very seriously and actively do what's possible to protect elections and democracy.
4. What's actually likely is success or failure at the margins; every bit counts.
We don't have to believe this will work in order to take it seriously. But "the states control elections & he doesn't have enough goons to make it happen & the Constitution says ______" isn't a plan. 1/6/21 & getting away with it to become POTUS again also were illegal.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Frederick Douglass quote from 1857: Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power conceded nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.
Anyway, good morning from this evergreen quote from a guy we teach the kids is a great American hero