David Brady
davebrady72.bsky.social
David Brady
@davebrady72.bsky.social

Public policy professor, Price School USC @priceschool.usc.edu, father, poverty/social policy/racial inequality/immigration/policymakers, posts do not speak for employer, https://bradydave.wordpress.com

Political science 63%
Sociology 13%
Pinned
More than 1 million refugees migrated to Germany in 2015-2016.

How did this affect Germans’ exclusionary beliefs & behaviors?

New at American Journal of Sociology w/Giesselmann & @tabeanaujoks.bsky.social

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
The Increase in Refugees to Germany and Exclusionary Beliefs and Behaviors1 | American Journal of Sociology: Vol 130, No 3
In 2015–16, Germany experienced a rapid and controversial increase in refugees that varied substantially across German districts. This increase provides unique leverage for analyzing how fractionaliza...
www.journals.uchicago.edu

Can’t help contrasting the decency of this guy being interviewed by Reggie at All Star game versus current occupant of White House.

Reposted by Paul Cairney

Here’s my new Substack post about the value of being curious about new fields and literatures.

open.substack.com/pub/davebrad...

In related news:
“The Trump administration is suing California over a law that creates a 3,200-foot buffer zone between new oil and gas wells and homes, schools, hospitals and parks.”

www.latimes.com/environment/...
Trump administration sues California over law keeping oil wells from homes, schools
Senate Bill 1137 establishes a 3,200-foot minimum distance between new oil wells and homes, schools, hospitals, parks and other places where people live, work and gather.
www.latimes.com

“In 2020, CalGEM ordered AllenCo to plug the wells after if determined the company had essentially deserted the site. . .AllenCo ignored the order. . .CalGEM officials in 2022 arrived on the site with a court order and used bolt cutters to enter the site”

“In 2013, U.S. EPA officials became sick while inspecting the site. The federal investigators encountered puddles of crude oil on the facility grounds, as well as caustic fumes emanating from the facility, resulting in violations for air quality and other environmental infractions.”

“Much of the community outcry over the site’s management occurred after AllenCo took over the site in 2009. The company drastically boosted oil production, but failed to properly maintain its equipment, resulting in oil spills and gas leaks. “

This oil well was abandoned by AllenCo, & the state used Biden funding to cap it. It sits near a school, many multi-family apartments and USC.

“For years, residents and students had repeatedly complained about acrid odors from the site, with many suffering chronic headaches and nosebleeds. “

“Tens of thousands of unproductive and unplugged oil wells have been abandoned across California — many of which continue to leak potentially explosive methane or toxic benzene.”

www.latimes.com/environment/...
Notoriously hazardous South L.A. oil wells finally plugged after decades of community pressure
A two-acre Los Angeles oil drill site near the St. Vincent Elementary School in University Park, had been releasing noxious fumes for years. Finally, the wells have been shut down.
www.latimes.com

“A Pilot Fired Over Kristi Noem’s Missing Blanket and the Constant Chaos Inside DHS”

This Noem & Lewandoski story in the *Wall Street Journal* is a wild ride.

“States now award most of the money to nonprofits, companies and their own state agencies. An average of about 849,000 families got direct cash aid each month in fiscal 2025, federal data shows, down from about 1.9 million in fiscal 2010.”
Good report here on how very little TANF funds actually go to supporting low income families. It has become a slush fund for states to spend on things that have little to do with program’s mission.

“How a $30 Billion Welfare Program Became a ‘Slush Fund’ for States”

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
How a $30 Billion Welfare Program Became a ‘Slush Fund’ for States
Republicans and Democrats alike decry the lack of oversight for America’s famous antipoverty experiment.
www.wsj.com

View from “The Study” at University of Chicago.

“He went further, dismissing the broader reckoning with sexual abuse: “That’s particularly true now with the hysteria that has developed about abuse of women, which has reached the point that even questioning a charge is a crime worse than murder.””

Noam Chomsky counseling Epstein in *2019*!

Chomsky counseled him to stay silent: “What the vultures dearly want is a public response, which then provides a public opening for an onslaught of venomous attacks, many from just publicity seekers or cranks of all sorts.”

www.wsj.com/us-news/igno...
‘Ignore It.’ How the Elite Consoled Jeffrey Epstein Over His Crimes.
Emails show how luminaries from politics, business and academia commiserated with the convicted sex offender about his legal troubles and bad press.
www.wsj.com
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

All of my titles are far too lame to warrant clever sign offs.

Maybe “More than nickels and dimes,”?

Funnily the “more than nickels and dimes” was the title a coauthor felt was most cringe of anything I’ve ever done.

Lol

I’m with Jen, if @weedenkim.bsky.social doesn’t sign things “Decomposition without Death!”, I’m calling her a poser.

And yes, the capitalization and exclamation point are mandatory.

This is partly why I feel the politics of immigration is maybe more important than immigration policy. And why the contributions of scholars like @egojunk.bsky.social & @akoustov.bsky.social are so critical.

Why Americans (all people?) are SO supportive of anti-immigrant politics is THE question.

Of course, I get that the electorate was probably clueless about what mass deportations would look like in reality. And many voters always have low information.

But I actually agree with Trump that he won because of immigration (not inflation).

That the public voted for this is most depressing.

Excellent piece by Alexander and Gonzalez Juenke.

I’m obviously glad public opinion is shifting against Trump’s immigration policies. But this piece documents how Trump very explicitly campaigned for mass deportations. The American people voted for this.

open.substack.com/pub/goodauth...
How Trump transformed immigration policy
The GOP Congress and the courts have helped, but the public is weary.
open.substack.com

I wrote a Substack post about the latest set of academics tied to Epstein:

open.substack.com/pub/davebrad...

This is the *2005* entry: “Police open a criminal investigation…after a 14-year-old girl's parents say he paid her for a massage. Police gather more allegations from underage girls. . .the abuse began as early as 2002.”

Reposted by Timothy D. McBride

I needed a refresher on the Epstein timeline. I don’t see any remotely plausible excuse for being engaged with this monster ~2013.

www.npr.org/2025/07/25/n...
Jeffrey Epstein files: Tracing the legal cases that led to sex-trafficking charges
Questions persist about how Jeffrey Epstein, who once moved among the world's elite, was able to avoid federal prosecution for so long. A timeline suggests some answers.
www.npr.org
This is just insane. It’s only a matter of time before DHS kills another innocent person here.

(clip via MPR and @davidjbier.bsky.social on X)

I remember Charles Manski calling Fowler on Colbert one of the all time low points in problematic causal claims.

I’m sure you all have made progress on the issue - there’s a lot of methodological firepower in the networks community. As a grump on the sideline, I’ll always be a bit skeptical we can overcome it. But I wouldn’t be shocked if you guys could prove me wrong :)

Here’s the abstract: