They were trying and failing to get people to subscribe at $20/mo and each 60 second video was costing the company $15-18 in costs to make. That’s it, everybody, right there. That’s the Economics of AI. Visionary stuff.

Anne Applebaum explains Trump

Basically Dante's fourth circle of hell

#DR26 The U.S. democracy is currently in a much faster deterioration process than any other democracy in modern times. Within only one year, the USA’s score on the V-Dem Liberal Democracy index (LDI) has declined by 24 %, from 0.75 in 2024 to 0.57 in 2025. 🧵1(4) #Polisky #PoliSciSky #PolDataSky

friend, this is Marcus Junius Brutus CAESAR has declared himself DICTATOR FOR LIFE and MUST BE STOPPED can you rush a donation of ten denarii today to show that you STAND WITH THE REPUBLIC?

Jürgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96.

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

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.

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.

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...

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...

Anyway, good morning from this evergreen quote from a guy we teach the kids is a great American hero

BREAKING: Dismissal of indictment against George E. Norcross III has been upheld by the appelate division. whyy.org/articles/geo... @whyynews.bsky.social #NewJersey

"WATCH: jesus christ FIGHTS with money-changers during TEMPLE SERVICE"

This... is not the role of ODNI. This is so fucked up in all sorts of ways that will have lasting implications. I recognize it's not going to happen, but this is something that Congress should freak the fuck out about.

What's morale like at CBP & ICE right now? New survey data are damning. *21% of CBP respondents (9% of ICE respondents) believe their agencies' political leaders maintain high standards of integrity. *Only 23% at CBP (18% at ICE) feel confident they could report illegal acts without retribution

Anyone have insight on non-response trends vis-a-vis trends in Trump approval, recent immigration opinions shifts, etc?

MAGA has been trying to meme its way to consolidated authoritarianism, relying on images, bluster, and voluntary compliance to make up for the Trump regime’s insufficient capacity. They’re not done, things will probably get worse, but one of MAGA’s main tools just faltered. Yeah, that matters.

NEW: I was one of 3 reporters granted access to the convening of 600+ clergy in Minneapolis this week. It was a striking show of solidarity with MN clergy resisting ICE, but heralded something else: the emergence of a vast, faith-based network trained to resist ICE. religionnews.com/2026/01/23/i...

National media should really be covering the fact thay every major school, museum, and arts institution in the Twin Cities, and hundreds of local businesses are closed tomorrow to protest federal occupation. Nothing like this at this scale has happened anywhere in America anytime in living memory.

Today I am publishing what I believe to be the most detailed available map of Trump's job approval rating. Powered by over 12,000 interviews for our Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll. I hope this generates many stories, and hours wasted exploring data! www.gelliottmorris.com/p/a-very-det...

One year in, it's Hobbes all the way down. Me & @dandrezner.bsky.social in @foreignaffairs.com. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

If there is no appetite for the Twenty-Fifth Amendment and the House/Senate cannot impeach and remove, an alternative would be to try to return us to something more like Trump 1.0 by impeaching and removing the individuals who are driving and influencing the worst things that are happening and/or

This is not a small thing. It's <the> thing. The entire ballgame. For all of 🇺🇸's many faults, we have done this better than ~anyone else for ~forever now, & we're going to do it again, & the people who don't like this are eventually going to lose again.

A must-read on the AI bubble by Cory Doctorow: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

"America" didn't. Republicans in Congress, whose votes were/are needed to perform the requisite enforcement of the clause through impeachment and removal, did.

Plus he should have called it an "EGGregious waste".

MPR reports on how ICE agents are accessing private data to track immigration rights activists who are monitoring the agency’s surge in Minneapolis.

US higher education was a crown jewel, generating knowledge, wealth, prestige, and power unrivaled by anyone. And the US is throwing it away, because Americans elected a govt ideologically opposed to truth, science, merit, and racial/gender equality, preferring to weaken the country to reduce that.

If you want to submit nominations for the career achievement award or emerging scholar award for APSA’s state politics and policy section get them to me, Caroline Tolbert and Justin Phillips. 2/16 deadline.

NEW: It's a BFD reform in New Jersey. The state has some of the entire nation's harshest rules when it comes to excluding people from jury service. It has resulted in very distorted jury pools, to the detriment of Black defendants. Murphy just opened jury service to over *300,000* people.