Happy 4th of July….

Extremely pleased the @nytimes.com saw fit to print my little essay contextualizing Musk's trillionaire status with the well-considered advice of Plato, capping wealth at four times that of the poorest citizen.

How it started / how it's going

Washington Reflecting Pool 'vandals' identified

"So ... so I said ... why not sign your treaty here, at Versailles?"

Breaking News: the algae has agreed to accept $300 billion to consider vacating the reflecting pool

Yes Sorsby bet on his own team in direct violation of NCAA and all other sports leagues' rules, but it's not like he did something like say that gender might not be a binary concept. From here it's possible.

My opponents are all communists. In unrelated news, my government will be taking ownership of the means of production.

Nothing says "intellectual freedom" like forcing students to take mandatory conservative indoctrination classes. Shout-out to all the embarrassing academics who believe any of this was in good faith.

Yesterday I watched video of a Texas Tech undergrad stand before the Board of Regents and Chancellor—many millionaires and billionaires there—and denounce the censorship they are imposing. One of the bravest things I’ve seen in a long time. They utterly ignored him, but many many others did not.

‘Guy,’ meaning “person,” comes from Guy Fawkes. Boom.

To 'Vance'; verb, to fuck up.

It's scary to think that if anything happens to Bibi Netanyahu, JD Vance would become president of the United States.

Big deliveries today @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org Elements by @ladyprofessor.bsky.social and @fthames.bsky.social; @yesolakweon.bsky.social & @jeonghyunkim.bsky.social; and @lizziebrannon.bsky.social & Jakana Thomas arrived in my mailbox!! 💌📥📚 @dzobrien.bsky.social & I love these deliveries 📬

Do the clothes make the candidate? In my paper with Steven Perry, we find candidates who dress more formally were perceived as more politically sophisticated, & indirectly had increased support. The text complexity of candidate messages had no effect. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

the corruption is staggering

“While I will soon appear once more upon the earthly realm, My sole focus during this Second Coming will be various woodworking projects and not the establishment of a messianic kingdom,” said Christ, the Light of the World

Hearty congratulations to my old friend, @unlawfulentries.bsky.social, whose important book has already sold out its paperback copies on the first day of release. She’s worked long and hard on this—and deserves this success!

Designed in a lab to convince you to subscribe.

Southwest Airlines Begins Assigning Chores

And @princetonupress.bsky.social is now shipping the paperback edition of the book at: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

“There has always been a degree of chaos around passengers having to choose right as they’re boarding how they’re going to help keep the plane tidy,” said Southwest representative Martin Nieman

Political Science's academic job market having its worst post-Covid year -- almost 20% fewer jobs than at the same point in the previous cycle (which itself was bad!) Data scraped from APSA ejobs pdfs.

Sooo.. Ppl who take on caregiving responsibilities for a parent feel closer to the parent, but their emotional well being, physical health, finances & social life all decrease, particularly for women (relationship with partner was sort of a wash). There has to be a better way. tinyurl.com/5x9ccvem

It there's one thing @charlotteclymer.bsky.social knows, it's Texas. Don't mess w/the quinceaneras, and especially don't mess with people who love Tejano music. Bobby Pulido is the Best Story in Politics Right Now open.substack.com/pub/charlott...

Are you a social scientist who has been hearing about Claude Code but hasn't checked it out yet? Or are you a social scientist who has been playing with Claude Code and has been wondering what it means for the future of social science research? www.brookings.edu/articles/the... 1/

If the USA Women’s Hockey team wants a real celebration and invite ,,, I’ll host them in Las Vegas. Do some nice dinners and shows and good times. I’m sure I can get a hotel and airline to help me out here and celebrate these women for real for real. 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

Rich Eisen just showed this photo of SportsCenter anchors, we believe from 1997 ish. Of the 14, how many of them can you name?

In this Element, @fthames.bsky.social + @ladyprofessor.bsky.social takes a large-N approach to exploring whether inequality variation in states at conflict leads to variation in women's health outcomes. Free to download now! 2/ www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Finally one of the Dem Senate candidates is coming to Lubbock! I hear Crockett might be making plans, too.

Philadelphia, you are the best

I show this in almost every single class I teach to demonstrate the simple values behind the dignity of all people and how at odds our culture's norms are to the idea. I have cried over how hard it is to believe myself when I repeat after Rev. Jackson, "even if I make a mistake, I am somebody." RIP.

Next up @fthames.bsky.social and @ladyprofessor.bsky.social new Element is officially on the website and free to download for the next two weeks! 👇📚 Get it here!! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

I’ve written a new piece for @liberalcurrents.com in response to an open letter from the economist Donald Boudreaux. I address ways in which criticisms of egalitarianism err. It’s not enough to accuse them of envy or economic illiteracy. There are serious moral, social, and political concerns.

This is a post about animal excrement and the English language. bull$#!% = nonsense/lies chicken$#!% = petty or cowardly horse$#!% = nonsense/lies dog$#!%= low quality ape$#!% = wild bat$#!%= crazy Ordered above from oldest to newest: bull$#!% (1914), bat$#!% (1971).

Look if Minnesota is the hub then it's a Purple Revolution.

Blueskis, studies have shown that when folks see or hear about a book more than five times, they are likely to check it out, and buy it. So in the spirit of creating buzz, here is the gorgeous cover of THE WESTERNERS, which will be published on March 31!

We now have a full-blown European-American crisis, and for no reason that the president is able to articulate

Today is National Thesaurus Day. Personally, we find these made-up holidays contemptible, abhorrent, nauseating, repugnant, and unpalatable.

DOJ investigating whether Denmark lied on its Greenland mortgage.

Nice thing about Minneapolis being kinda small is that it’s hard to convince us protesters are being paid because you’d go out and oh there’s that kid from my high school who played Sancho Panza in Man of La Mancha one year, and is that the pharmacist at my CVS over there, and there goes our realtor

1) I have a new piece in the @lseinequalities.bsky.social blog today. Here I'm responding to the many who have suggested that all objections to inequality come from envy of the rich and "successful."

Not a humble brag (ok, maybe a little), but if somebody wants the chapter I wrote from this very expensive Oxford Handbook, please send me an email. This is not the best figure, but I promise the others are worth it! Transitional Justice and Elite Polarization url: academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

There is little coherent thought animating the Trump administration, just a president motivated by his psychological urges (and greed) and a bunch of other key actors (Vance, Rubio, Miller, etc.) pursuing their own pet agendas. 2/2