Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile
@exiledsocscientist.bsky.social
Exiled Political Economist, Silicon Valley's Public Finance Attorney, Lecturer in Political Economy, Comic Book Character, Corporate and Private Equity Lawyer, Startup Attorney, Advisor, Dad, Husband, Teacher, Former Europeanist.
Opponent of Fascism.
Opponent of Fascism.
NY Times: “Trump pardons a convicted fraudster for the second time.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/u...
Trump Sets Fraudster Free From Prison for a Second Time
www.nytimes.com
January 17, 2026 at 12:50 AM
Aesthetics of fascism watch!
Note (i) the deliberate use of unflattering photos for Walz and Frey and (ii) the lack of any indication in the headline or subhead that this is a transparently bad faith political move to delegitimize opposition to the ICE assault on MN
www.cbsnews.com/news/justice...
Note (i) the deliberate use of unflattering photos for Walz and Frey and (ii) the lack of any indication in the headline or subhead that this is a transparently bad faith political move to delegitimize opposition to the ICE assault on MN
www.cbsnews.com/news/justice...
DOJ investigating Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over alleged conspiracy to impede immigration agents
Federal prosecutors are investigating Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for allegedly impeding immigration agents, sources told CBS News, an extraordinary escalation in the Trum...
www.cbsnews.com
January 16, 2026 at 11:35 PM
Aesthetics of fascism watch!
Note (i) the deliberate use of unflattering photos for Walz and Frey and (ii) the lack of any indication in the headline or subhead that this is a transparently bad faith political move to delegitimize opposition to the ICE assault on MN
www.cbsnews.com/news/justice...
Note (i) the deliberate use of unflattering photos for Walz and Frey and (ii) the lack of any indication in the headline or subhead that this is a transparently bad faith political move to delegitimize opposition to the ICE assault on MN
www.cbsnews.com/news/justice...
Imagine being the kind of person who would say this sort of thing.
Worse, imagine being domeone who actually liked to hear this sort of thing.
bsky.app/profile/acyn...
Worse, imagine being domeone who actually liked to hear this sort of thing.
bsky.app/profile/acyn...
Rollins: I think of you as the peace president. I think about you as the prosperity president. I think about you as the affordability president…. You'll go down in history as the greatest president for the health of this country in history.
January 16, 2026 at 8:04 PM
Imagine being the kind of person who would say this sort of thing.
Worse, imagine being domeone who actually liked to hear this sort of thing.
bsky.app/profile/acyn...
Worse, imagine being domeone who actually liked to hear this sort of thing.
bsky.app/profile/acyn...
But Republicans have only been in office for . . . oh, sorry - you meant something else. Well, carry on, then.
bsky.app/profile/maks...
bsky.app/profile/maks...
🇮🇷 Reza Pahlavi: Global stability itself depends on the removal of this regime. Its 47 years of exported terror, nuclear threats, and regional chaos must end.
This does not require putting boots on the ground. The Iranian people’s boots are already on the ground.
This does not require putting boots on the ground. The Iranian people’s boots are already on the ground.
January 16, 2026 at 7:52 PM
But Republicans have only been in office for . . . oh, sorry - you meant something else. Well, carry on, then.
bsky.app/profile/maks...
bsky.app/profile/maks...
Both of my parents were Silent Generation - I basically rappelled down the umbilical cord with a knife between my teeth, cut myself free, asked the distracted woman smoking a cigatette for directions, and started foraging on my own for baby formula and diapers.
bsky.app/profile/jake...
bsky.app/profile/jake...
Older generations spent a lot less time parenting. Millennial dads spend nearly as much time parenting as Boomer moms did. Millennial and Gen X moms way more.
via The Economist
via The Economist
January 16, 2026 at 7:49 PM
Both of my parents were Silent Generation - I basically rappelled down the umbilical cord with a knife between my teeth, cut myself free, asked the distracted woman smoking a cigatette for directions, and started foraging on my own for baby formula and diapers.
bsky.app/profile/jake...
bsky.app/profile/jake...
Has there ever been a more simpleminded and absolute example of the phrase "when all you have is a hammer"?
bsky.app/profile/maks...
bsky.app/profile/maks...
🇺🇸🇬🇱 Trump: I may put a tariff on countries if they don't go along with Greenland because we need Greenland for national security.
January 16, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Has there ever been a more simpleminded and absolute example of the phrase "when all you have is a hammer"?
bsky.app/profile/maks...
bsky.app/profile/maks...
Cool. This is awesome!
Now I have an easy way to explain to my kids why some older businesses are named things like "AAA Plumbing" while also illustrating how social changes can be driven by to underlying developments in technology.
bsky.app/profile/stev...
Now I have an easy way to explain to my kids why some older businesses are named things like "AAA Plumbing" while also illustrating how social changes can be driven by to underlying developments in technology.
bsky.app/profile/stev...
January 16, 2026 at 6:10 PM
Cool. This is awesome!
Now I have an easy way to explain to my kids why some older businesses are named things like "AAA Plumbing" while also illustrating how social changes can be driven by to underlying developments in technology.
bsky.app/profile/stev...
Now I have an easy way to explain to my kids why some older businesses are named things like "AAA Plumbing" while also illustrating how social changes can be driven by to underlying developments in technology.
bsky.app/profile/stev...
"Weird chance?"
It's like Mr. Bacon has spent the last hour and a half watching Die Hard and suddenly bursts out "Surely this Hans Gruber guy realizes that there would be serious consequences if he actually shoots John McClane!"
bsky.app/profile/atru...
It's like Mr. Bacon has spent the last hour and a half watching Die Hard and suddenly bursts out "Surely this Hans Gruber guy realizes that there would be serious consequences if he actually shoots John McClane!"
bsky.app/profile/atru...
Rep. Bacon on Trump's aggression toward Greenland: "I feel like it's incumbent on folks like me to step up and say these threats and bullying of an ally are wrong. And on the weird chance he's serious about invading Greenland, I want to let him know it will probably be the end of his presidency."
January 16, 2026 at 5:57 PM
"Weird chance?"
It's like Mr. Bacon has spent the last hour and a half watching Die Hard and suddenly bursts out "Surely this Hans Gruber guy realizes that there would be serious consequences if he actually shoots John McClane!"
bsky.app/profile/atru...
It's like Mr. Bacon has spent the last hour and a half watching Die Hard and suddenly bursts out "Surely this Hans Gruber guy realizes that there would be serious consequences if he actually shoots John McClane!"
bsky.app/profile/atru...
It would be insulting to America's grade school teachers to say that the Trump administration has (or assumes that the public has) an 8 year old's understanding of the economy.
bsky.app/profile/atru...
bsky.app/profile/atru...
Kevin Hassett on Trump's 10% cap on credit card interest rates: "Our expectations is that it won't necessarily require legislation because there will be great new Trump Cards provided voluntarily by the banks."
January 16, 2026 at 4:38 PM
It would be insulting to America's grade school teachers to say that the Trump administration has (or assumes that the public has) an 8 year old's understanding of the economy.
bsky.app/profile/atru...
bsky.app/profile/atru...
Reposted by Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile
hey Mom can you come pick me up. yeah everyone on the niche microblogging website is arguing about who has the correct emotional posture to the unknowable future again
January 15, 2026 at 6:09 PM
hey Mom can you come pick me up. yeah everyone on the niche microblogging website is arguing about who has the correct emotional posture to the unknowable future again
"This happened just two blocks from where Renee Good was murdered, so I am very aware that this confrontation could have ended differently for me."
State terror is, unsurprisingly, terrifying.
abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/minneapolis-ice-shooting-live-updates/
State terror is, unsurprisingly, terrifying.
abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/minneapolis-ice-shooting-live-updates/
January 16, 2026 at 6:34 AM
"This happened just two blocks from where Renee Good was murdered, so I am very aware that this confrontation could have ended differently for me."
State terror is, unsurprisingly, terrifying.
abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/minneapolis-ice-shooting-live-updates/
State terror is, unsurprisingly, terrifying.
abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/minneapolis-ice-shooting-live-updates/
You know, if you wanted to produce an anti-Newsom poster for the 2028 primaries, this Joker-gassed dad look under a Brady Bunch font sign proclaiming that Gavin Newsom *is* the kind of guy who sits around and trades misogynistic jokes with Ben Shapiro would be pretty good.
bsky.app/profile/park...
bsky.app/profile/park...
January 16, 2026 at 1:28 AM
You know, if you wanted to produce an anti-Newsom poster for the 2028 primaries, this Joker-gassed dad look under a Brady Bunch font sign proclaiming that Gavin Newsom *is* the kind of guy who sits around and trades misogynistic jokes with Ben Shapiro would be pretty good.
bsky.app/profile/park...
bsky.app/profile/park...
Reposted by Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile
I freely admit that I did not have "ICE tries to speed run the Battle of Algiers against Minneapolis" on my 2026 bingo card.
Aside from trying to provoke violence that would provide an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act, I can't see the reasons for any of this.
bsky.app/profile/dbur...
Aside from trying to provoke violence that would provide an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act, I can't see the reasons for any of this.
bsky.app/profile/dbur...
Non-protesting dad just trying to hustle his kids, as young as 6mo, out of the neighborhood. ICE threw a flash-bang INTO HIS car, all 6 kids in the hospital now.
If anyone wondered how things turn against occupying armies there's a case study playing out in front of you.
If anyone wondered how things turn against occupying armies there's a case study playing out in front of you.
That is what was relayed
January 15, 2026 at 8:08 AM
I freely admit that I did not have "ICE tries to speed run the Battle of Algiers against Minneapolis" on my 2026 bingo card.
Aside from trying to provoke violence that would provide an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act, I can't see the reasons for any of this.
bsky.app/profile/dbur...
Aside from trying to provoke violence that would provide an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act, I can't see the reasons for any of this.
bsky.app/profile/dbur...
Reposted by Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile
Bad facts make bad law (and the current Supreme Court is not above lying about what the facts are in order to produce the bad law that they want), but hopefully the facts brought by the ACLU here will force limits on the allowable racial profiling of "Kavanaugh Stops."
bsky.app/profile/kyle...
bsky.app/profile/kyle...
JUST IN: New ACLU class action lawsuit in Minnesota seeks to bar ICE from stopping Latino and Somali residents without probable cause. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
January 15, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Bad facts make bad law (and the current Supreme Court is not above lying about what the facts are in order to produce the bad law that they want), but hopefully the facts brought by the ACLU here will force limits on the allowable racial profiling of "Kavanaugh Stops."
bsky.app/profile/kyle...
bsky.app/profile/kyle...
I would like to ask Bob Putnam about the social cohesion generated by standing guard with your neighbors over a primary school being threatened by armed thugs using chemical weapons.
I'm thinking it's probably greater than joining a bowling league.
bsky.app/profile/stev...
I'm thinking it's probably greater than joining a bowling league.
bsky.app/profile/stev...
Posts from Minneapolis residents read like they'll be read in voiceover in a Ken Burns-like doc one day
January 16, 2026 at 12:22 AM
I would like to ask Bob Putnam about the social cohesion generated by standing guard with your neighbors over a primary school being threatened by armed thugs using chemical weapons.
I'm thinking it's probably greater than joining a bowling league.
bsky.app/profile/stev...
I'm thinking it's probably greater than joining a bowling league.
bsky.app/profile/stev...
Reposted by Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile
Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
January 15, 2026 at 8:37 PM
You piss off Tocqueville's aristocracy at your peril.
And yes, open contempt for the law will piss them off.
bsky.app/profile/dani...
And yes, open contempt for the law will piss them off.
bsky.app/profile/dani...
At one point today, there were 283 Minnesota attorneys doing a training on how to file emergency habeas petitions to keep our neighbors from being shipped out of state and held indefinitely.
That would be the second largest law firm in the state. And that training was just put together this week.
That would be the second largest law firm in the state. And that training was just put together this week.
January 16, 2026 at 12:18 AM
You piss off Tocqueville's aristocracy at your peril.
And yes, open contempt for the law will piss them off.
bsky.app/profile/dani...
And yes, open contempt for the law will piss them off.
bsky.app/profile/dani...
It would be immensely cool if they did, though.
Like, imagine this one billionaire scientist at Yale who has outfitted his lab like some kind of Bond villain's lair while his graduate student minions spend their time cutting lines for strung out, oversexed Galliformes.
bsky.app/profile/carl...
Like, imagine this one billionaire scientist at Yale who has outfitted his lab like some kind of Bond villain's lair while his graduate student minions spend their time cutting lines for strung out, oversexed Galliformes.
bsky.app/profile/carl...
The total NSF budget was 9 billion. I doubt they spend 89% of it on quail.
January 16, 2026 at 12:12 AM
It would be immensely cool if they did, though.
Like, imagine this one billionaire scientist at Yale who has outfitted his lab like some kind of Bond villain's lair while his graduate student minions spend their time cutting lines for strung out, oversexed Galliformes.
bsky.app/profile/carl...
Like, imagine this one billionaire scientist at Yale who has outfitted his lab like some kind of Bond villain's lair while his graduate student minions spend their time cutting lines for strung out, oversexed Galliformes.
bsky.app/profile/carl...
I for one welcome our new Social Democratic Viking Overlords.
And if we have any serious problems with them threatening civilians or canceling elections, we can just get them drunk and everything will be fine.
bsky.app/profile/cstr...
And if we have any serious problems with them threatening civilians or canceling elections, we can just get them drunk and everything will be fine.
bsky.app/profile/cstr...
January 15, 2026 at 10:49 PM
I for one welcome our new Social Democratic Viking Overlords.
And if we have any serious problems with them threatening civilians or canceling elections, we can just get them drunk and everything will be fine.
bsky.app/profile/cstr...
And if we have any serious problems with them threatening civilians or canceling elections, we can just get them drunk and everything will be fine.
bsky.app/profile/cstr...
The World Health Organization's lower bound estimate is that over 150m children's lives have been saved by the global Expanded Programme on Immunization initiated in 1974.
That is the result of goodmothers and fathers trusting experts.
bsky.app/profile/fact...
That is the result of goodmothers and fathers trusting experts.
bsky.app/profile/fact...
HHS Secretary RFK Jr: "This idea that you should trust the experts, a good mother doesn't do that"
January 15, 2026 at 10:45 PM
The World Health Organization's lower bound estimate is that over 150m children's lives have been saved by the global Expanded Programme on Immunization initiated in 1974.
That is the result of goodmothers and fathers trusting experts.
bsky.app/profile/fact...
That is the result of goodmothers and fathers trusting experts.
bsky.app/profile/fact...
Anthropic: Best for coding applications
Gemini: Best for summarizing meetings and taking notes
Grok: Best for harassing women and sexualizing children
ChatGPT: Best for assisted suicide
Gemini: Best for summarizing meetings and taking notes
Grok: Best for harassing women and sexualizing children
ChatGPT: Best for assisted suicide
January 15, 2026 at 8:45 PM
Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
January 15, 2026 at 8:37 PM
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Trump threatens to use the Insurrection Act, allowing him to deploy troops, to 'put an end' to protests in Minneapolis.
@apnews.com
@apnews.com
January 15, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Okay, we may be entering the "Ausweis, bitte" phase of authoritarian consolidation.
(Or it may be cheap talk. You never know.)
Legal challenges on every possible basis and general, society-wide resistance to this, making it costly to implement, should be the next steps.
bsky.app/profile/rygr...
(Or it may be cheap talk. You never know.)
Legal challenges on every possible basis and general, society-wide resistance to this, making it costly to implement, should be the next steps.
bsky.app/profile/rygr...
January 15, 2026 at 7:29 PM
Okay, we may be entering the "Ausweis, bitte" phase of authoritarian consolidation.
(Or it may be cheap talk. You never know.)
Legal challenges on every possible basis and general, society-wide resistance to this, making it costly to implement, should be the next steps.
bsky.app/profile/rygr...
(Or it may be cheap talk. You never know.)
Legal challenges on every possible basis and general, society-wide resistance to this, making it costly to implement, should be the next steps.
bsky.app/profile/rygr...
Bad facts make bad law (and the current Supreme Court is not above lying about what the facts are in order to produce the bad law that they want), but hopefully the facts brought by the ACLU here will force limits on the allowable racial profiling of "Kavanaugh Stops."
bsky.app/profile/kyle...
bsky.app/profile/kyle...
JUST IN: New ACLU class action lawsuit in Minnesota seeks to bar ICE from stopping Latino and Somali residents without probable cause. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
January 15, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Bad facts make bad law (and the current Supreme Court is not above lying about what the facts are in order to produce the bad law that they want), but hopefully the facts brought by the ACLU here will force limits on the allowable racial profiling of "Kavanaugh Stops."
bsky.app/profile/kyle...
bsky.app/profile/kyle...