I survived another @apsa.bsky.social conference.

I know these “interviews” with Justice Barrett are carefully scripted. But if she’s going to keeping urging Americans to “read the opinions,” and not just commentary, it sure would be nice if someone would ask her what we should do when—as is so often the case these days—there’s no opinion to read…

1. We do not know the motive of the shooter. The man who shot at Trump was after attention. 2. The man who murdered MN legislators WAS motivated by politics, and I didn’t hear any Dems calling for reprisals against all Repubs. 3. It’s easy to start a cycle of violence. Not easy to end one.

APSA-bound #polisky: register for the Pol. Psych Pre-Conf by Friday (8/15)! Featuring @lilymasonphd.bsky.social, @valentimvicente.bsky.social , @mjcohen.bsky.social, @agtheodoridis.bsky.social, S. Feldman, M. Pickup, L. Stephenson, T. Ollerenshaw, & O. Christley! www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-polit...

Padilla received more six times as many votes in the last general election than Noem has in every general election she’s run in combined.

More Americans voted for Senator Alex Padilla than for 48 of the 53 red state GOP U.S. Senators combined.

The Democratic Party is actually pretty effective under strict institutional norms and rules. They whip votes and submit to leaders despite a big tent and diverse base When the norms and rules don’t apply (like now), the Democratic Party is a deer in the headlights

David Brooks, who holds no advance degrees but has nevertheless served as a visiting professor at both Duke and Yale -- solely on the basis of his conservative ideas -- thinks that universities are deeply unfair to conservative thinkers.

We are speedrunning the Declaration of Independence, folks.

We simply had to intentionally destroy the world’s strongest economy while dismantling our scientific and educational infrastructure to ensure that a team with a trans girl would never finish second place in the Mountain West volleyball standings again

It's 1828. The United States has adopted the highest tariff rate of the century for insane and idiotic reasons. It's 1929. The United States has adopted the highest tariff rate of the century for insane and idiotic reasons. It's 2025. The United States has adopted the highest tariff rate of the ce

1/🧵 Judges across ideological lines are ruling against Trump at strikingly similar rates (84% liberal, 86% centrist, 82% conservative). This isn't partisan opposition to Trump—it's the judiciary functioning as intended by cutting across partisan lines to uphold the Constitution.

Morally, Roberts deserves every ounce of dunking he gets several hundred times over. But practically, if democracy is going to be saved it's going to require many people like Roberts saying many things like this.

Imagine going back in time like 10 years and trying to explain to people that Ted Cruz said the coolest thing he’s ever seen is an electric car and then having to explain that this actually indicative of how very bad things are.

STUDENT: This is my last semester, and I have to say, you are the best dressed professor I’ve had here. ME: Have you had @profjslewis.bsky.social? STUDENT: Yes.

"Have you said thank you even once?"

HEY EVERYONE REMEMBER WHEN TRUMP WAS IMPEACHED FOR DENYING AID TO UKRAINE BECAUSE HE WANTED ZELENSKY TO LIE AND SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT BIDEN AND ZELENKSY WOULDN’T DO IT? Maybe literally one fucking American newspapers could mention this in their, “think pieces,” about what happened yesterday.

Seriously thinking of making my judicial process students respond this on the final exam.

He really struggles with the concept of a constitutional republic with judicial review.

I see they started with the copyeditors.

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️

Now that musk is saying he’s doing the DOGE stuff “because the globalists have plotted a Great Replacement in which they use government handouts to buy votes from illegal immigrants and urban blacks” maybe we don’t have to act like this is about deficits or cost cutting anymore

the single most un-american and anti-constitutional statement ever uttered by an american president

Hey Intro Government students, can you grade the below student's government exam? In response to a question about whether courts have authority, she says, "District court judges...are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump's basic executive authority." Is she right?

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

If you've ever used the Polity data, read this from Monty Marshall. tl;dr Polity is coding recent US events as an executive self-coup and an adverse regime change.

Here's the acting head of FEMA just unliterally deciding that Article I is fake earlier today. The Constitution is not in effect.

The American right has turned to Hungary to learn how authoritarians consolidate power. The American left should look to Poland to see how a big-tent coalition can defeat authoritarianism. It involves multiple parties appealing to different voters.

Why is this so hard, @nytimes.com?

Just spitballing, but things that could happen today: *Court injunction protecting USAID *Dems demand hearings on Musk's role *Someone introduce articles of impeachment *Dem officeholders go to USAID offices with USAID workers *Refuse to conduct any more Senate confirmations until this is resolved

they are stealing data from the american people and depriving us of the transparency that we are entitled to by law. none of this is legal and not a single federal employee has any reason to comply.

Look all I'm going to say is that if you are so incompetent that you can't avoid *accidentally* pausing Medicaid funding, maybe it doesn't matter if what you intended to do wasn't as bad. amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/01/...

is it really so hard to say something like, "trump is ripping up your constitution, arresting your neighbors, helping cancer win its war on people and oh, also, eggs are fucking expensive"

Weird that we have to say this, but the government doesn’t get to decide what gender a person is.

This is Freedom Fries on steroids.

There is no mandate for this shitstorm of authoritarian action. Let me explain. 🧵 1/7

The President, who took office in violation of section 3 of the 14th Amendment, issued an executive order to violate section 1 of the 14th Amendment.

This is not the end. But it is *an* end. Things will get worse. (Much worse.) We will endure. (Not all of us. The losses will be profound.) And we will, one day, build something better. (I hope.)

The fact that this was so easy to piece together says a lot about how the next four years are going to go.

well I sure hope so, or I made this for nothing

For the first time in over 30 years of public opinion polling, Americans’ views of the U.S. Supreme Court were more negative than positive, a July 2023 survey found. A narrow majority (54%) had an unfavorable view of the high court, while fewer than half (44%) expressed a favorable one.

Me: [reading news on my phone] My 13-year-old: [looking over my shoulder] Who is that guy? Me: Elon Musk. 13yo: Oh. He does not look good.

If you see this, post a vampire.

“We’re gonna invade Mexico.” Ghost of James K Polk: yay! “And we’re gonna raise tariffs. Ghost of James K Polk: Boo! “And we’re gonna end the Fed!” Ghosts of James K Polk: WHAT THE FUCK?!!