Jack A. Goldstone
@jgoldstone.bsky.social
Hazel Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. Writes on revolutions, social protest, global population change.
1/Trump thinks he "won" the Gaza Peace Plan because Qatar forced Hamas to "accept" the terms. But a key point was that Hamas disarm, and Gaza be managed by international forces. These are looking like pipe dreams. So the "cease fire" allows Hamas to regroup and retake control of much of Gaza.
November 21, 2025 at 7:19 PM
1/Trump thinks he "won" the Gaza Peace Plan because Qatar forced Hamas to "accept" the terms. But a key point was that Hamas disarm, and Gaza be managed by international forces. These are looking like pipe dreams. So the "cease fire" allows Hamas to regroup and retake control of much of Gaza.
This is rather worrisome: Trump just granted blanket, preemptive pardons to anyone who in any way helped him try to overturn the 2020 election, saying they were simply exercising their democratic right to challenge election results. Now anyone can help him overturn results in 2026/28 without fear.
November 10, 2025 at 3:22 PM
This is rather worrisome: Trump just granted blanket, preemptive pardons to anyone who in any way helped him try to overturn the 2020 election, saying they were simply exercising their democratic right to challenge election results. Now anyone can help him overturn results in 2026/28 without fear.
Trump doesn't just want to be a dictator, he wants to be a Caesar, with a triumph arch in his capital and his image on coins. For the Founding Fathers, who admired the Roman Republic and feared tyrants above all, Trump would be a nightmare. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/u...
A Two-Headed Coin That Always Comes Up ‘Trump’
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Trump doesn't just want to be a dictator, he wants to be a Caesar, with a triumph arch in his capital and his image on coins. For the Founding Fathers, who admired the Roman Republic and feared tyrants above all, Trump would be a nightmare. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/u...
What if instead of making AI companions to REPLACE real interactions, making them as ingratiating and fawning as possible, AI was used to create relationship TRAINING, rewarding users for being unselfish, cooperative and empathetic? Goal should be to help people improve, not just capture attention.
November 9, 2025 at 2:56 PM
What if instead of making AI companions to REPLACE real interactions, making them as ingratiating and fawning as possible, AI was used to create relationship TRAINING, rewarding users for being unselfish, cooperative and empathetic? Goal should be to help people improve, not just capture attention.
Trump made his career & attracted new voters by being dfferent from other politicians--lying about opponents, saying the nation was in carnage, etc. Now he is sounding JUST LIKE other policitians, lying to people about prices not going up, the economy being great for them, etc. This may cripple him.
November 9, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Trump made his career & attracted new voters by being dfferent from other politicians--lying about opponents, saying the nation was in carnage, etc. Now he is sounding JUST LIKE other policitians, lying to people about prices not going up, the economy being great for them, etc. This may cripple him.
1/ Dems had a great victory last night. But it's important not to rest on these laurels. They should be an inducement to get working at the grass roots level to duplicate the youth turnout of Mamdani and the middle-of-the-road appeal to independents of Sherril and Spanberger. Elsewhere, Dems will
November 5, 2025 at 5:19 PM
1/ Dems had a great victory last night. But it's important not to rest on these laurels. They should be an inducement to get working at the grass roots level to duplicate the youth turnout of Mamdani and the middle-of-the-road appeal to independents of Sherril and Spanberger. Elsewhere, Dems will
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November 5, 2025 at 5:12 PM
If you follow me and enjoy my posts, please consider signing up for my new substack, 10 Billion, for longer reads on global affairs.
substack.com/@jackagoldst...?
substack.com/@jackagoldst...?
Pure political pressure to cancel speech about LGBTQ existence. While Texas banned teaching gender ideology in K-12 schools, there is no law against it in universities. Yet multiple firings after instructor said gender identity is not the same as biological sex. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/u...
Texas Professor Fired After Accusations of Teaching ‘Gender Ideology’
www.nytimes.com
September 10, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Pure political pressure to cancel speech about LGBTQ existence. While Texas banned teaching gender ideology in K-12 schools, there is no law against it in universities. Yet multiple firings after instructor said gender identity is not the same as biological sex. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/u...
The lower courts are continuing to try to set limits to what POTUS can do: Troops in LA and arbitrary changes to Congressional appropriations have been deemed unlawful. Now we have to wait and see whether SCOTUS agrees or overturns on the basis that the President can do whatever he wants to do.
September 2, 2025 at 4:59 PM
The lower courts are continuing to try to set limits to what POTUS can do: Troops in LA and arbitrary changes to Congressional appropriations have been deemed unlawful. Now we have to wait and see whether SCOTUS agrees or overturns on the basis that the President can do whatever he wants to do.
Have you seen the 100x larger than life banners of Trump on DoL and Ag buildings? Reminds me of nothing so much as Mao's portrait in Tiananmen Sq. Also today: "I have the right to do anything I want to do--I am the President of the United States." Murderers in DC will be executed. Good night USA.
August 26, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Have you seen the 100x larger than life banners of Trump on DoL and Ag buildings? Reminds me of nothing so much as Mao's portrait in Tiananmen Sq. Also today: "I have the right to do anything I want to do--I am the President of the United States." Murderers in DC will be executed. Good night USA.
Putin lies to Trump: "You won big in 2020." "If you were President in 2022 there wouldn't have been a war in Ukraine."
And Trump laps it up. Well, maybe the last is true. Putin would still have invaded but made sure Trump wouldn't arm Ukraine, so it all would have been over quickly.
And Trump laps it up. Well, maybe the last is true. Putin would still have invaded but made sure Trump wouldn't arm Ukraine, so it all would have been over quickly.
August 16, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Putin lies to Trump: "You won big in 2020." "If you were President in 2022 there wouldn't have been a war in Ukraine."
And Trump laps it up. Well, maybe the last is true. Putin would still have invaded but made sure Trump wouldn't arm Ukraine, so it all would have been over quickly.
And Trump laps it up. Well, maybe the last is true. Putin would still have invaded but made sure Trump wouldn't arm Ukraine, so it all would have been over quickly.
Alaska=Helsinki 2.0. Trump LOVES humilating people, and HATES being humiliated, but with Putin he's ok with it. It's so bizarre that the President of the US has a mancrush on Putin.
August 16, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Alaska=Helsinki 2.0. Trump LOVES humilating people, and HATES being humiliated, but with Putin he's ok with it. It's so bizarre that the President of the US has a mancrush on Putin.
Contrary to what Putin told Trump to flatter his vanity, MANY countries have mail-in voting, including such model democracies as Canada, Germany and South Korea. It's a common way to vote where there are many people who are in school or temporarily working outside of their state of residence.
August 16, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Contrary to what Putin told Trump to flatter his vanity, MANY countries have mail-in voting, including such model democracies as Canada, Germany and South Korea. It's a common way to vote where there are many people who are in school or temporarily working outside of their state of residence.
1/ Nothing new has emerged from the AK summit. No cease-fire, plan or agreement to end the war. This looks like a wretched failure: after touting a meeting for peace, or at least a cease-fire, and rolling out the red carpet for Putin in the United States, Trump comes away empty-handed.
August 16, 2025 at 4:21 PM
1/ Nothing new has emerged from the AK summit. No cease-fire, plan or agreement to end the war. This looks like a wretched failure: after touting a meeting for peace, or at least a cease-fire, and rolling out the red carpet for Putin in the United States, Trump comes away empty-handed.
I really don't understand why more people don't see how meeting Putin in Alaska plays into his hands: he can say "Alaska used to part of Russia; now parts of Ukraine will be part of Russia; it's the natural order of things for land to change hands."
August 15, 2025 at 3:05 AM
I really don't understand why more people don't see how meeting Putin in Alaska plays into his hands: he can say "Alaska used to part of Russia; now parts of Ukraine will be part of Russia; it's the natural order of things for land to change hands."
PBS and NPR defunded; VoA shrunk and run by MAGA; Trump take-over of Kennedy Center; now Colbert cancelled. (Trump gloated: "Kimmel is next.") We are rapidly moving toward a media environment that is simply MAGA, like communist China and Putin's Russia's one-dimensional media space: pro-goverment.
July 18, 2025 at 7:19 PM
PBS and NPR defunded; VoA shrunk and run by MAGA; Trump take-over of Kennedy Center; now Colbert cancelled. (Trump gloated: "Kimmel is next.") We are rapidly moving toward a media environment that is simply MAGA, like communist China and Putin's Russia's one-dimensional media space: pro-goverment.
SCOTUS first said that POTUS is personally immune from prosecution for violating the law. Now it ruled that the rest of us cannot obtain injunction relief if we are impacted by an illegal, unconstitutional action by POTUS. The rule of law is dissolving before our eyes; US is becoming an autocracy.
June 27, 2025 at 5:48 PM
SCOTUS first said that POTUS is personally immune from prosecution for violating the law. Now it ruled that the rest of us cannot obtain injunction relief if we are impacted by an illegal, unconstitutional action by POTUS. The rule of law is dissolving before our eyes; US is becoming an autocracy.
1/Trump's ridiculous lies on immigration need to be called out. At the G7 he said Biden allowed "21 million" immigrants into the US and most of them are "criminals" because other countries "emptied their jails." About 4 million immigrants entered during Biden's term, and that is high--about ...
June 16, 2025 at 7:09 PM
1/Trump's ridiculous lies on immigration need to be called out. At the G7 he said Biden allowed "21 million" immigrants into the US and most of them are "criminals" because other countries "emptied their jails." About 4 million immigrants entered during Biden's term, and that is high--about ...
1/ Trump wants to offer $1,000 and a plane ticket to undocumented immigrants to self-deport. I understand why you'd want to deport people picked up crossing the border without authorization; or illegal aliens convicted of crimes. But why the rush to deport undocumented folks who have been ...
May 5, 2025 at 7:41 PM
1/ Trump wants to offer $1,000 and a plane ticket to undocumented immigrants to self-deport. I understand why you'd want to deport people picked up crossing the border without authorization; or illegal aliens convicted of crimes. But why the rush to deport undocumented folks who have been ...
1/ One out of 30 U.S. residents is an undocumented immigrant. 99.9% of them have never committed a crime and pose no threat. Removing tens of thousands of them will turn America into a police state. It is already happening. People are being disappeared into detention or foreign countries or jails.
April 28, 2025 at 4:52 PM
1/ One out of 30 U.S. residents is an undocumented immigrant. 99.9% of them have never committed a crime and pose no threat. Removing tens of thousands of them will turn America into a police state. It is already happening. People are being disappeared into detention or foreign countries or jails.
If having tatoos meant you are a gang member and need to be deported, we'd have to stop the NBA playoffs and ship all the players to El Salvador. Our government is sometimes just ridiculous.
April 19, 2025 at 6:12 PM
If having tatoos meant you are a gang member and need to be deported, we'd have to stop the NBA playoffs and ship all the players to El Salvador. Our government is sometimes just ridiculous.
After years of living online more than in the real world, we now are living in a country being governed by fantasies. We have a health dept that believes vaccines cause more harm than good; an education department defunding libraries and school testing; an economics team seeking to end world trade.
April 6, 2025 at 1:28 PM
After years of living online more than in the real world, we now are living in a country being governed by fantasies. We have a health dept that believes vaccines cause more harm than good; an education department defunding libraries and school testing; an economics team seeking to end world trade.
If this had been an immigrant, it would have been 24 hour front page news and trumpeted by GOP nationwide. Maybe name a law after the victim. But since this person- who assaulted a 3 yr old girl after prior arrests - was released by Trump, it's fine, right?
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/n...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/n...
Felon Freed by Trump Is Sent Back to Prison After Child Assault Charge
Jonathan Braun, a drug smuggler, on Friday made an obscene gesture toward people in the courtroom and complained about his legal representation.
www.nytimes.com
April 4, 2025 at 10:20 PM
If this had been an immigrant, it would have been 24 hour front page news and trumpeted by GOP nationwide. Maybe name a law after the victim. But since this person- who assaulted a 3 yr old girl after prior arrests - was released by Trump, it's fine, right?
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/n...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/n...
1/ The real risk is that the stupidity of the tariff policies, with calculations based on transparent falsehoods, undermines international trust in US economic policy-making. Combined with the crazy Senate rule to treat new tax cuts as cost free, driving up the deficit by trillions of dollars ...
April 3, 2025 at 2:16 PM
1/ The real risk is that the stupidity of the tariff policies, with calculations based on transparent falsehoods, undermines international trust in US economic policy-making. Combined with the crazy Senate rule to treat new tax cuts as cost free, driving up the deficit by trillions of dollars ...
We will find out on April 2 what tarrifs Trump will impose. He seems to believe that the US economy is so strong and independent that any interruptions or costs to trade will hurt other countries a lot, and the US very little. I hope he is right, but this seems like a FAFO moment.
March 30, 2025 at 9:30 PM
We will find out on April 2 what tarrifs Trump will impose. He seems to believe that the US economy is so strong and independent that any interruptions or costs to trade will hurt other countries a lot, and the US very little. I hope he is right, but this seems like a FAFO moment.