Mike Salamone

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

Would this be an interstate compact requiring congressional approval?

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

Title: Both Liberal and Conservative Judges Rule Against Trump Description: A scatter plot showing the rulings of judges against or in favor of Trump, categorized by ideology using the DIME score. The x-axis represents Judge Ideology (DIME Score), ranging from liberal (-1) to conservative (1), and the y-axis represents the case outcome (against or for Trump). • Blue dots represent liberal judges, purple dots represent moderate judges, and red dots represent conservative judges. • Some judges are labeled, including Rudolph Contreras, Lauren King, John Coughenour, and James Emanuel Boasberg on the liberal to moderate side, and Carl Nichols, Richard J. Leon, and Joseph N. Laplante on the conservative side. • A note mentions that Boasberg, though slightly right-leaning, was initially appointed by George W. Bush. • The visualization suggests that judges from both ideological backgrounds ruled against Trump.

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.

Lawrence is tough competition.

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.

Screenshot of a Trump EO, white text on a dark blue background, which reads “PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS: COMMENCING THE REDUCTION OF THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY ECEXUTIVE [sic] ORDER February 19, 2025

I see they started with the copyeditors.

Scatterplot titled “Empirical Evidence of Ideological Targeting in Federal Layoffs: Agencies seen as liberal are significantly more likely to face DOGE layoffs.” • The x-axis represents Perceived Ideological Leaning of federal agencies, ranging from -2 (Most Liberal) to +2 (Most Conservative), based on survey responses from over 1,500 federal executives. • The y-axis shows Agency Size (Number of Staff) on a logarithmic scale from 1,000 to 1,000,000. Each point represents a federal agency: • Red dots indicate agencies that experienced DOGE layoffs. • Gray dots indicate agencies with no layoffs. Key Observations: • Liberal-leaning agencies (left side of the plot) are disproportionately represented among red dots, indicating higher layoff rates. • Notable targeted agencies include: • HHS (Health & Human Services) • EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) • NIH (National Institutes of Health) • CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) • Dept. of Education • USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) • The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE), despite its conservative leaning (+1 on the scale), is an exception among targeted agencies. • A notable outlier: the Department of Veterans Affairs (moderately conservative) also faced layoffs despite its size. Takeaway: The figure visually demonstrates that DOGE layoffs disproportionately targeted liberal-leaning agencies, supporting claims of ideological bias. The pattern reveals that layoffs were not driven by agency size or budget alone but were strongly associated with perceived ideology. Source: Richardson, Clinton, & Lewis (2018). Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill. The Journal of Politics, 80(1).

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. 🧵⬇️

Elon Musk & @elonmusk Follow The REAL reason so many Democrats are upset about entitlements (social security, medical, etc) fraud investigations is that they are using your taxpayer money as handouts to attract and retain ILLEGAL immigrants. Their future voters. That's what it's all about. Truth. 10:48 AM • 2/17/25 • 7.7M Views

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