Last word cocktail: www.liquor.com/recipes/the-...

Farm workers are silently in the background of all of our lives working tirelessly to deliver the food we eat. Celebrate farm workers this holiday season by making a donation to help fund change all year long. act.seiu.org/a/holidays20... or paypal.com/paypalme/ufwdonate #WeFeedYou

Meeting someone at a conference for the first time, “Oh! I love your cooking…..Er, I mean your scholarship too.”

This is a business and it has to be shut down. You aren’t going to end this through prosecutions.

Some of us still remember that time Theda Skocpol saved a local mail carrier from an attack by wild turkeys

I can’t bake these mince pies fast enough, they vanish the moment they cool. Just managed to get this batch onto a plate, with Christmas in full swing in the background. ‧₊˚🎄✩ ₊˚🦌⊹🧸

Due process and the other constitutionally afforded legal niceties be damned. Speed and efficiency over rule of law.

I don't write like a historian or law professor either. I write like me. Why do I have to be one or other discipline? Let me fall through the cracks of three cognate disciplines.

“You don’t write like a political scientist.” I asked for clarification. The person said I was not writing with jargon.

YOU CANNOT GRIND THE BONES OF YOUR ENEMIES INTO DUST TOMORROW IF YOU DO NOT DO YOUR STRETCHES.

If you’re wondering why your friends in academia are a little on edge right now, it’s because an eighteen-year-old who hasn’t done the reading, doesn’t look at the assignment, and has does no critical thinking skills more complex than “because I think it’s in the Bible” can literally end your career

Have guests in your house for the holidays and need fast snacks/appetizers? Got rolls of Pillsbury crescent rolls? Then you can do this. I promise you it's fast and easy. Brush the dough with egg wash for color before baking.

Did mostly nothing today except read and skeet. Staycation.

ICE will have access to one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking tools after a decision by the Trump admin. to move ahead with a contract with Paragon Solutions, a company founded in Israel which makes spyware that can be used to hack into any mobile phone – including encrypted applications.

Must read

Or you might call them "camps" where people are to be "concentrated" until they are deported. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

I just said this on a group chat, and I want to say it here to every one of you who writes book: Don't neg your book.

There's so many experienced professionals out there suddenly being told how to do their jobs by god tier clowns.

Meeting someone at a conference for the first time, “Oh! I love your cooking…..Er, I mean your scholarship too.”

So the pull the bandaid off slowly approach?

“You don’t write like a political scientist.” I asked for clarification. The person said I was not writing with jargon.

This is the 15th year of #DuvetKnowItsChristmas, which is preposterous. Rules: if you find yourself dealing with unusual / claustrophobic / gaudy sleeping arrangements this Christmas Eve, share a picture with the world. Use the hashtag (with capitalisation) and cc me if you can be bothered.

This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.

Paper linked below. The grading criteria, given to students in advance, was based on whether the student demonstrated they read the article and if they provided a reaction to some aspect of it. The student made no effort to do either; they blathered about the Bible. drive.google.com/file/d/1qxnV...

To be clear, the student by her own admission forgot an assignment to react to a specific reading til the last second, didn't want to delay going out, dashed something off in 20 min without reading the piece to comment on(!), no citations and not answering the assigned question. Teacher fired

I have been unable to get all four dogs in a photo, but will update accordingly when I do

Really enjoyed this interview with Theda Skocpol, one of the founders of the American Political Development research I do. Here she talks about being interdisciplinary and the challenges of keeping the big picture in view while also drilling down on nuance and details. Whole thing was a great read.

Yeah, no thanks. Stop guilting people about being estranged from family members. It someone is they likely have personal reasons for being so.

“The administration’s goal, he said, was to deport immigrants as efficiently as Amazon moves packages: ‘Like Prime, but with human beings.’” www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

One particularly pernicious element of the "traditional way" narrative is it has nothing to do w/ the Supreme Court as it was composed, functioned, & altered for at least half of U.S. history. There isn't anything traditional about the "traditional way" they're referring to. It's a modern creation.

Two tubes of Pillsbury crescent rolls wrapped around a wheel of Brie slathered with pesto or sundried tomatoes, a little egg wash, then baked for 25 minutes at 375 degrees, cool for about 10 minutes, drizzle on some honey and serve for the Holidays!

If you have brown skin even a birth certificate is not enough to avoid deportation. This is what the 14th amendment was intended to stop.

This is incredibly comprehensive. Really connects the dots between the horrors of the last few months. Radley also does a good job aiming for neutrality without ceding ground to fascism.

I remember students complaining about hand cramps when I was proctoring finals as a TA thirty years ago. And uh, you’re not supposed to “like” the final exam.

Kids: Study economics

The idea that you have to win a major book prize before your colleagues will stop treating you like crap.... is why a lot of people, many of them POC and women, leave the profession. You shouldn't have to be Theda Skocpal level of scholar to be treated like a human.

Me in the coming year

Edward Hopper, Christmas card, 1928 whitney.org/collection/w...

The small trash liners we buy to dispose of the daily cat litter now only comes in scented varieties. There is no need for lavender-scented shit.

Laura Palmer's Theme

So I have the cover story in next month's TNR. I interviewed the heads of police groups; immigration defense attorneys, ex-judges and ex-prosecutors; former DOJ and DHS officials, and the former head of Border Patrol. They're all horrified at what we've seen, and they all fear what's coming.

Here's a particularly juicy nugget I found in my reporting . . .

We don’t spend enough time discussing how the entire MAGA movement is kept afloat by the constant threats of stochastic terrorism orchestrated by the president of the United States. Congress, the courts, much of the media … all kept in line by the mob boss and his army of anonymous goons.

The statistic was quietly posted online in a department report in recent days.

Here we go!

Whatever you do, don't bring up the marinara's divorce.

One hundred and forty laws that almost were. Here are some highlights among the scores of bills Hochul vetoed in 2025. nysfocus.com/2025/12/23/h...

Cannot believe I got my cat a cat bed and he actually uses it.