Shout it from the rooftops (or: Go tell it on the mountain) This story used to strike fear in the heart of empires. It can do so again.

But my favorite Christmas-adjacent piece of art is always this woodcutting by Ben Wildflower. It turns out that if you actually _read the Biblical text_ you will find some radical political messages!

I've always loved this illustration depicting Joseph and Mary looking for a room. I am finding it especially powerful this year

Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.

Over the weekend, a man died on Rikers Island after apparent allergic reaction. He was just 33. This year, 15 people have now died in NYC’s jails. That’s *triple* the number of NYC jail deaths for 2024. And since 2020, there have been 56 NYC jail deaths. gothamist.com/news/man-die...

As a practicing Christian, I simply cannot imagine spending the fourth Sunday of Advent speaking the way the Vice President did today. Had he attended Mass today, here's what he would have heard. Just gutter racists

Worth noting that Talmadge's dad was also a great fan of weaponizing election rules to disenfranchise Black voters

Merry San Diego Christmas

Last work day of the year so time for one last rant about the jurisprudential development of partisan gerrymandering under Alito When the Court says that partisan gain is a valid interest *of the state* or *of the legislature,* they are playing with fire

Latest book organization just dropped. 👇 I plan to send it for review next summer. 🤞 Advance contract is w/ UChicago Press.

Nice piece here from Nick Corasaniti and @christinezhang.bsky.social on the voting case SCOTUS agreed to hear that is getting less coverage than Callais — but is coming up quickly www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/u...

“The Supreme Court decided not to have a Christmas party for 12 straight years because the justices couldn’t agree on whether to invite the Court’s Black employees” is about as tidy an encapsulation of the Supreme Court’s whole deal as I can think of

It really is very good. There is a transcript if you prefer to read rather than listen. (It's a discussion between @volts.wtf and @samuel-bagg.bsky.social about how people adopt political views based on identity/group/social factors, not rational policy assessments.) www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/oy0u8...

"slavery was so long ago, I'm not responsible" vs. "we built this place it's ours"

I'm genuinely curious about y'all's citation practices given the Discourse this week. I rarely read a paper front-to-back; usually I'm more interested in the theory in one paper, the methods in another, a specific argument in a third. I can't imagine I'm alone, but the way some of you are talking...

"Yes, it is me, I am very right wing." *one second later* "I cannot stand to be in the same room as other Republicans"

Last work day of the year so time for one last rant about the jurisprudential development of partisan gerrymandering under Alito When the Court says that partisan gain is a valid interest *of the state* or *of the legislature,* they are playing with fire

The Latina self-described "very right wing" woman WALKED OUT OF THE ROOM when she heard what her copartisans actually think. What are we doing here.

You will not guess the answer to this question

What were your favorite scholarly articles that came out in 2025 (either as publications or pre-prints) that you can't stop thinking about or telling other people about?

It's almost as though election confidence on the right *isn't* actually related to the security of the electoral system! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Another great postdoc opportunity at Notre Dame! We’re seeking a scholar of American racial & ethnic politics to join our fantastic and growing postdoc cohort Major upside: the opportunity to interview with our poli sci dept for conversion to a tenure-track line apply.interfolio.com/179415

Folks... When I post something saying, "these are early results from a paper we're drafting for an academic conference, come to our talk at that conference to puzzle it out with us"... I am not sure it's fair to get mad at me that said results are largely academic at this point!

These figures for the House races are a little clearer

One thing that drives me crazy about the grievance-based job market discourse is that it obscures real questions about how to approach the market. In 2023, I applied for a few jobs and wondered whether being affiliated with BCJ hurt my prospects I ended up on PSR as an example of racism in hiring🫥

New piece from Josh Clinton showing consequences of 2024 election outcome on trust in elections across several different groups, and correlates of change. Mass partisans shift opposite election result for their party with biggest changes among Reps. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

These results from our SPSA project are super cool: using 40 million CVRs we show that (eg) Biden voters became *more* likely to cross-over and support a Republican House candidate as the D candidate became more extreme. They became *less* likely to do so as the R became more extreme

Sharing this great post @3streamsblog.bsky.social from @kevintmorris.bsky.social and Miller from their new @thejop.bsky.social article medium.com/3streams/how...

Thinking, again and always, about racial resentment as a driver of election denialism

Bizarrely close to being consistent with Matthew Chapter 2 / the Flight to Egypt... If DHS is casting itself as the bad guy who wants to kill every single baby?

This goes for just about all social scientists -- I don't get to interact much with students but totally love it

This morning at @thejop.bsky.social blog, Mike and I discuss our new paper on the effects of getting the Voting Rights Act on the turnout gap — and what it might mean for the case before the Court right now. A preview in some ways of our book, out next fall! ubwp.buffalo.edu/jopblog/2025...

Just read that dumb piece about white millennial men getting screwed. As a white millennial guy who is younger than the author and the people discussed and doing just fine, I have a question: Have you considered being better at your job?

I'm increasingly convinced that court reform is not enough to restore credibility to the institution (if that's even possible). It will require a Chief Justice opening investigations into the conduct of the institution for at least the past few years and exposing the unethical rot

Fascinating new research in AJPS (flagship poli sci journal) on Christian nationalism & SCOTUS "An ecclesiastical court: Christian nationalism and perceptions of the US Supreme Court" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... "We find that CN is related to Court attitudes in three ways:"

New research finds mass shootings may increase voter turnout and support for gun reform initiatives in the United States, but the effect is hyperlocalized near the incidents. Learn more in #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/4qYXFWP

In *The White Pedestal* I'm trying to fill in a part of this, how white nationalist intellectuals use the public's respect for GrecoRoman antiquity to make their ideas seem respectable, desirable, & inevitable. It's only one piece of their rhetorical toolbox but its representative of a major tactic

Can't recommend @lkatfield.bsky.social's book highly enough. One thing it has me thinking about a lot is how this has all been translated into mass political action Certainly this has something to do with podcasts, etc. But *so many* Americans, who are not reading scholarship, have bought in

"She likes being around junkyard dogs" is such a line

The rule book is very clear: whenever Into the Mystic is on the radio, it has to be shared youtu.be/syIUmrSJWAU?...

this is an important piece in the Atlantic: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1... but the claim that there is no partisan divide in rates of antisemitism is wrong. Look at the fourth chart of this post: yalepolling.substack.com/p/we-polled-...

A reasonable person could read this post as a raised middle finger to Christians celebrating the Christmas holiday and remembering the story of a small family fleeing from one country to another to escape a tyrant's wrath.

MAGA is a far greater threat to "social cohesion" and "social trust" than immigrants are, as I try to argue in this piece

Well, the pursuit of knowledge had a nice little run there

Wake up sweetie, new defense of creedal nationalism just dropped (seriously, what a fucking hero)

That's white supremacy in a nutshell. "We are God's strongest and greatest creation but uniquely vulnerable to the ravages of every other group on Earth."

In new work @urbaninstitute.bsky.social, we detail how states & provinces are developing mandates for localities to plan for—and allow the construction of—transit-oriented development (TOD). This comprehensive accounting of state/provincial laws shows how they can take preemptive action on TOD.