Dan Pemstein
@danpemstein.com
Political economist working mostly on democratic institutions, tech, political careers and party org, and measurement. http://www.danpemstein.com
https://digitalsocietyproject.org
https://digitalsocietyproject.org
Pinned
Dan Pemstein
@danpemstein.com
· Jun 2
Happy to share this paper with Jeevan Baniya, @smeserve.bsky.social, and Brigitte Seim. We used multiple survey experiments to see how Nepali voters think about the trade-off between vote-buying and candidate provision of local public goods (schools, plumbing) in office. doi.org/10.1111/ajps... 1/
So, I just have to note that there is a middle-aged woman at the Fargo Y pool, who, every workout, after clocking something like 2000 yards of smartly paced freestyle, spends about 40 minutes swimming fly, CONTINUOUSLY. Must cover at least 1500 yards, suspect she might do 2000.
February 10, 2026 at 12:31 AM
So, I just have to note that there is a middle-aged woman at the Fargo Y pool, who, every workout, after clocking something like 2000 yards of smartly paced freestyle, spends about 40 minutes swimming fly, CONTINUOUSLY. Must cover at least 1500 yards, suspect she might do 2000.
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
Did…Mike Tyson just call me fat because RFK Jr paid him to? WTF
February 9, 2026 at 1:36 AM
Did…Mike Tyson just call me fat because RFK Jr paid him to? WTF
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.
February 5, 2026 at 1:07 PM
Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
Normal people are out there doing extraordinary things. My mom's health aide emailed me: ICE took 2 of her neighbors; when she told them they weren't welcome, she was met w/a rifle. Now she's driving a neighbor to work hidden in the back of her car & escorting the neighbor's kids to the bus stop.
“If I am killed doing this, throw my body at the White House, martyr the shit out of me & raise hell. Do not be sad. Do not think I would do anything differently. I would do it over & over again — this is too important to sit down & shut up and not do anything.” www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
Pursued by federal agents, suburban ICE observers remain resolved
After a frightening pursuit by federal agents, suburban ICE observers say fear hasn’t stopped them from protecting their communities.
www.mprnews.org
February 4, 2026 at 7:43 PM
Normal people are out there doing extraordinary things. My mom's health aide emailed me: ICE took 2 of her neighbors; when she told them they weren't welcome, she was met w/a rifle. Now she's driving a neighbor to work hidden in the back of her car & escorting the neighbor's kids to the bus stop.
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
This is Jerry Lawson. He invented the video game cartridge for the Fairchild Channel F system. Because of his invention, many consoles had cartridges and CD formats and would become the norm.
The Atari 2600, NES, Genesis, and many consoles wouldn't exist without him.
Happy Black History Month.
The Atari 2600, NES, Genesis, and many consoles wouldn't exist without him.
Happy Black History Month.
February 1, 2025 at 11:04 PM
This is Jerry Lawson. He invented the video game cartridge for the Fairchild Channel F system. Because of his invention, many consoles had cartridges and CD formats and would become the norm.
The Atari 2600, NES, Genesis, and many consoles wouldn't exist without him.
Happy Black History Month.
The Atari 2600, NES, Genesis, and many consoles wouldn't exist without him.
Happy Black History Month.
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
I recorded this today, in Portland, Oregon, at a huge march to the ICE facility in SW. The crowd was full of cyclists who had ridden there in memory of Alex Pretti; members of several labor unions; and ordinary citizens of every age, including this little girl. So of course ICE deployed tear gas.
February 1, 2026 at 2:05 AM
I recorded this today, in Portland, Oregon, at a huge march to the ICE facility in SW. The crowd was full of cyclists who had ridden there in memory of Alex Pretti; members of several labor unions; and ordinary citizens of every age, including this little girl. So of course ICE deployed tear gas.
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test
Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)
Good tech.
Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)
Bad tech.
Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)
Good tech.
Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)
Bad tech.
January 31, 2026 at 6:57 AM
You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test
Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)
Good tech.
Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)
Bad tech.
Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)
Good tech.
Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)
Bad tech.
January 2026 wtf
January 30, 2026 at 6:47 PM
January 2026 wtf
Don't mess with the Sons of Norway
Chris Rufo is so upset about the Minneapolis protests that he is resorting to anti-Nordic racism christopherrufo.com/p/the-curse-...
January 30, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Don't mess with the Sons of Norway
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
Please read this extremely thoughtful & careful post on Tim Walz, Anne Frank, & the US Holocaust Memorial Museum from Martin Shuster, philosopher, Isaac Swift Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, former Holocaust Memorial Museum Fellow, & scholar of genocide, the Holocaust, & authoritarianism:
![Not unrelatedly, I am noticing that a lot of--oftentimes even well-intentioned--people are spending time trying to delineate exactly which historical referent best captures what's going on now, as if we have to pick only one. There is the now well-circulated meme that says: no, ICE isn't the Gestapo, it's actually American--it's slave catchers. But this is a kind of odd distinction: the Nazis were themselves influenced by the Americans (if you're curious read the excellent book by James Whitman, _Hitler's American Model_). Nazis came here and studied American legal systems and statutes ... and remarkably a group of "liberal" Nazis decided that they couldn't make German laws as *extreme* as American ones (and this "liberal" group in fact won the day; German laws weren't as extreme as many of ours). Equally, Nazi jurists and theorists like Carl Schmitt were deeply influenced by American notions of manifest destiny. So the Nazi and American contexts were already fused. The idea of foreign/domestic is already quite complex in this context. (And this is before we even speak of the many actual Nazis that existed here and the many people who materially supported Hitler and the regime).
We can complicate this picture more by noting that Nazism itself, even apart from these American influences, wasn't something that sprouted up out of thin air: it, too, had a(n experimental) history. Many of its barbaric practices and aims were developed and tested on colonial and imperial victims (as I have written elsewhere: there is a direct line from Shark Island concentration camp [called frequently simply "Death Island" where the Germans committed genocide against the Herero and Nama people] to the entire Nazi camp system). Thinkers like Hannah Arendt and Aimé Césaire drew our attention to this already in the middle of the last century.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ybkylffhwhn2an2ic2lxh76k/bafkreifucubotcz54scclzmnpxlnv6x5olf2zb6ow5xufzdyqbflhuzcn4@jpeg)
January 30, 2026 at 1:24 AM
Please read this extremely thoughtful & careful post on Tim Walz, Anne Frank, & the US Holocaust Memorial Museum from Martin Shuster, philosopher, Isaac Swift Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, former Holocaust Memorial Museum Fellow, & scholar of genocide, the Holocaust, & authoritarianism:
NDSU polisci grads do tend to be scrappy
REP. OMAR after being attacked with liquid: “We will continue! These fucking assholes are not gonna get away with this! Here is the reality people like this ugly man don’t understand — we are Minnesota Strong. We’ll stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us.”
January 28, 2026 at 2:31 AM
NDSU polisci grads do tend to be scrappy
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis
January 27, 2026 at 12:22 AM
brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
BILLY BRAGG - CITY OF HEROES
YouTube video by Billy Bragg
www.youtube.com
January 26, 2026 at 10:42 PM
A start, but no retirement. Fire him. Also Noem and Miller's heads too. Prosecutions for murderers. In short,
January 26, 2026 at 11:49 PM
A start, but no retirement. Fire him. Also Noem and Miller's heads too. Prosecutions for murderers. In short,
Taliban's got nothing on the PTA
MAGA military geniuses are talking about Minnesota protestors like they are the Iraqi insurgency, the Taliban, and the Viet Cong all rolled into one.
January 26, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Taliban's got nothing on the PTA
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
Wife and I in tears reading this…
January 26, 2026 at 4:30 AM
Wife and I in tears reading this…
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
A little thread of some courageous people bsky.app/profile/nkal...
Let us all have the courage displayed by the residents of Minneapolis.
January 25, 2026 at 8:16 PM
A little thread of some courageous people bsky.app/profile/nkal...
I do really love the way upper midwesterners pronounce the word boots. Also, weirdly, does not rhyme with the UM pronunciation of roots.
This looks like a dystopia from a John Carpenter movie, except it’s really happening.
Collective grief is a form of connective action. Keep meeting your neighbors and get to know them.
Watch out for imposters! Anonymize your signal acct & register a screen name now. Avoid giving out your phone#
Collective grief is a form of connective action. Keep meeting your neighbors and get to know them.
Watch out for imposters! Anonymize your signal acct & register a screen name now. Avoid giving out your phone#
Minnesota won’t forget. #Minneapolis #Minnesota #ICE
TikTok video by Johnny Palmadessa
www.tiktok.com
January 25, 2026 at 7:43 PM
I do really love the way upper midwesterners pronounce the word boots. Also, weirdly, does not rhyme with the UM pronunciation of roots.
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
I went down the football fan subreddits rabbit hole this morning, and I am utterly gobsmacked. 90+% of the content in the top threads are unabashed FUCK ICE posts, memes mocking the regime, and dudes saying how important it is to come together over something this significant.
January 25, 2026 at 3:39 PM
I went down the football fan subreddits rabbit hole this morning, and I am utterly gobsmacked. 90+% of the content in the top threads are unabashed FUCK ICE posts, memes mocking the regime, and dudes saying how important it is to come together over something this significant.
Fargo public schools still holding out...-42 wind chill at the bus stop tomorrow should be interesting.
January 23, 2026 at 5:35 AM
Fargo public schools still holding out...-42 wind chill at the bus stop tomorrow should be interesting.
Greenland is covered with ice and Iceland is very nice. youtu.be/ePA1e9dtKAU?...
a group of people are looking at a beach ball .
Alt: Iceland coach crushing beach ball in Mighty ducks 2.
media.tenor.com
January 21, 2026 at 3:05 PM
Greenland is covered with ice and Iceland is very nice. youtu.be/ePA1e9dtKAU?...
Reposted by Dan Pemstein
The US granted visas to Jews but only allowed 30,000 in from Germany a year. You had to wait for your number to come up.
Meet Robert Smallbones. An unassuming British diplomat who 'hacked' this system so effectively (saving 48 THOUSAND Jews) the UK government kept his scheme secret for decades /1 🧵
Meet Robert Smallbones. An unassuming British diplomat who 'hacked' this system so effectively (saving 48 THOUSAND Jews) the UK government kept his scheme secret for decades /1 🧵
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 PM
The US granted visas to Jews but only allowed 30,000 in from Germany a year. You had to wait for your number to come up.
Meet Robert Smallbones. An unassuming British diplomat who 'hacked' this system so effectively (saving 48 THOUSAND Jews) the UK government kept his scheme secret for decades /1 🧵
Meet Robert Smallbones. An unassuming British diplomat who 'hacked' this system so effectively (saving 48 THOUSAND Jews) the UK government kept his scheme secret for decades /1 🧵
Huh, pretty sure this policy is why I exist today. Or, at least, my grandfather and great-grandparents took a Vienna-Paris-London-DC route, with a pretty long stop in London.
Smallbones proposes that the Home Office allow Jews who have a valid US visa to "wait" in Britain until their turn in the US arrivals queue comes up. Essentially, a TEMPORARY visa for Britain, that expires when they get to America.
The Home Secretary, Viscount Hoare agrees in principle. /8
The Home Secretary, Viscount Hoare agrees in principle. /8
January 21, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Huh, pretty sure this policy is why I exist today. Or, at least, my grandfather and great-grandparents took a Vienna-Paris-London-DC route, with a pretty long stop in London.
Snow could be better but bluebird days at White Pass provide some great views of Ranier.
January 19, 2026 at 1:11 AM
Snow could be better but bluebird days at White Pass provide some great views of Ranier.