Fun fact from our textbook (to illustrate how crime is socially constructed) to bug the Christian nationalists with: it was a crime to celebrate Christmas from 1659 to 1681 in Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The best part of Texas for the holidays is the tamales on Christmas Eve. I will put up with turning on my AC today for this.

“I’m 84 years old. Threats against my life expectancy are kind of hollow. I don’t have much time anyway. I’m more concerned that our democracy is at risk because of the trends against the rule of law.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

Looking for a postdoc in American politics? Come work with us in Ann Arbor! No obligations other than research. Preference for institutions-focused work, but we’re open to a wide range of substantive interests (including local politics!). Happy to answer any questions: apply.interfolio.com/178829

When people make such a big deal calling out the dehumanizing language that is used towards immigrants, this is why: that language lets people do terrible things to other humans. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

I asked my daughter to come from zoo camp with a new fact about animals, and I really should have specified a fun fact. Did you know that opossums only live on average 1.5 years in wild and only 3 in captivity? 😕

Contempt charges and coal in these ICE officers’ stockings.

A disturbing update to this story: Despite the fact that he was about to be released from a US prison after completing a sentence here, when Kelvin Membreño was deported to El Salvador he was sent to CECOT prison and remains there. The family has not heard from him since.

One of the more important stock-taking moments to watch a bootlegged news program censored in your country.

It would be newsworthy if the administration regretted its actions but that’s not the job of anyone analyzing the record to prompt that reflection.

OU is destroying that graduate student's career.

If you want to follow CECOT news beyond the CBS story, it is still playing out in the courts.

Not only are they bad, they are bad at their jobs.

Back when I was a PhD student at FSU, TurningPointUSA came to campus. A few of their claims: conservatives have a harder time than liberals establishing new student groups and inviting guest speakers to campus. I found no evidence for these claims in two experiments published in Political Behavior.

Inspired by @tressiemcphd.bsky.social, I did this for a Christmas gift for my husband - Bitter Southerner, Smithsonian, Texas Monthly, WIRED, and The Atlantic (his request for that one).

CBS didn't run the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT, but over here at @propublica.org we've been working on the story since March, including finding out who each and every man sent to that maximum security prison was. You can see our reporting here: www.propublica.org/series/depor...

Pew’s summer internships are fantastic and reserved for undergrads! They’re also paid. I think applications for 2026 should be opening up pretty soon but I’m not sure of the exact dates.

Wash U has a WUSteps program for undergrads: wustl.app.box.com/s/hz59c3f3ld...

I've got a great undergrad (like really great, coauthor on this year's SPSA paper that she worked on when she had just finished 2nd year) who is interested in American politics and is looking for a summer research opportunity for those considering political science PhD programs. Any suggestions?

Let’s take my great great great great great great great great great great grandmother Elizabeth Stoughton who came to Massachusetts in 1639. Her second husband died so she went to follow her brother. She’d be on a F4 visa nowadays and she’d have to wait ~17 years to be processed. She passed in 1647.

The audacity to use the language of North Star.

At 97, Ms. Betty Reid Soskin was named Glamour Magazine Woman of the Year. By the time she was 104, she had lived many, many lives and bravely reinvented herself over and over again. May she rest well. 👑🙏🏾💐 #BlackSky 🌱 www.glamour.com/story/women-...

GIFT LINK: What the Deported Venezuelans Went Through in El Salvador www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

When “free speech” is really just “me speech” of what I agree with.

Let’s take my great great great great great great great great great great grandmother Elizabeth Stoughton who came to Massachusetts in 1639. Her second husband died so she went to follow her brother. She’d be on a F4 visa nowadays and she’d have to wait ~17 years to be processed. She passed in 1647.

He’s like the current version of Mr. Rogers, reminding us of the beauty of neighborhoods and neighbors.

Somebody buy this and rent it out for ICPSR.

It has taken only five years for universities to do the work of handing over their professors themselves.

This is the institutionalization of Turning Point's professor watchlist. It invites mass harassment and declares war on independent ideas. If unlearned sociopaths can influence your teaching through threats, academic freedom is essentially dead.

On Google scholar you can see who cites your work, and (I am vain so) I look sometimes and in my most cited work, which is a descriptive piece on the US media’s coverage of immigration from 2000-2010, it is not uncommon for people to cite that piece to make causal or much broader claims.

Shame on so many people.

Ashley felt the need to hand it to Hitler.

Fort Worth has a store devoted to pickles, and we do a pickle themed gift each year in stockings, so it is convenient to have. This year’s weirdest pickle thing at the store: pickle nail press ons.

This is also a graph of the media's coverage of homicide trends.

I jokingly (stress, JOKINGLY) say I only hire based on whether somebody whistles or not. But yeah, we have a rubric and often times at that level once it comes to a final decision, it is so much behind the scenes about particular department needs or ideas of what people vision for department.

Course evals were released this morning and while I always say I won’t read them anymore (we don’t use them in any significant way in merit/promotion), I did and they were weirdly really good, even though this was one of the worst semesters I felt?

Waiting to hear more about all this before having any thoughts. Suspect supposedly a 48 year old student (former?) from Portugal. When I lived in Providence, I lived in an old Portuguese neighborhood for most of graduate school. All of this is so bizarre/sad.

Raelynn has been renamed Maxie, and will hangout with us for a bit as a foster until heading out of Texas with her golden ticket to be adopted. Maxie is a curious girl.

Brown has over 1,200 cameras and it wasn’t enough because cameras are a security blanket we’ve all been sold. They don’t prevent crimes and they barely solve crimes but in the meantime surveillance companies got rich and no one had to address the societal root causes of crime and violence.

Somebody said 2016 was ten years ago, and excuse me, it has only been 9 years and 50 weeks!

This is great and all, but I JUST finished the draft of the state and local politics textbook chapter on federalism that opens with talking about the federal government's classification of marijuana as a drug and states' efforts to expand access. No other field has a textbook go out of date so fast.

The person looks like they lost a lot of Lincoln-Douglas debates in high school.

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...

They really did zero homework in researching that photographer, wow.

Melissa Hortman Died in a Shocking Act of Political Violence. This Is the Story of Her Life The Minnesota Speaker’s closest friends and family open up for the first time. Read @stephenrodrick.bsky.social's exclusive: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

I'm old enough to remember a nation scandalized by reports that outgoing Clinton White House staffers had pried the W key off some computer keyboards on their way out the door in 2001.

I am so proud of (almost) everything being wrapped this far before Christmas.

Now my toaster died, and I'm deciding if I want the upgrade toaster oven/air fryer combo to replace it. It is almost like the universe doesn't want me to write this paper.

I’m hiring a predoctoral fellow for the 2026-2027 AY with possibility of a second year. This is a great position for someone interested in pursuing a Ph.D. or who wants more hands-on experience doing research. Please apply/share! Happy to answer questions! tobin.yale.edu/opportunitie...