Dr. Melody E Valdini
@mevaldini.bsky.social
Professor of Political Science at Portland State University and Co-Editor of the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy.
Nerd, morbid optimist, rabid bike enthusiast, and great lover of sandwiches.
Nerd, morbid optimist, rabid bike enthusiast, and great lover of sandwiches.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
Three of my neighbors in district 1 were killed in three separate car collisions last night. We need action now to reduce pedestrian and cyclist deaths.
YOU need to do more to improve your own driving. Do better. Keep your neighbors alive.
YOU need to do more to improve your own driving. Do better. Keep your neighbors alive.
October 30, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Three of my neighbors in district 1 were killed in three separate car collisions last night. We need action now to reduce pedestrian and cyclist deaths.
YOU need to do more to improve your own driving. Do better. Keep your neighbors alive.
YOU need to do more to improve your own driving. Do better. Keep your neighbors alive.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
October 30, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
On Threads, the usual suspects are telling ppl about to lose SNAP benefits to just start a garden. As a gardener, I had to laugh. You need at LEAST an acre of land to feed a family of 4. Start-up costs are enormous. But yes, subsistence farming on the balcony of your rental apartment is the answer
October 23, 2025 at 5:01 PM
On Threads, the usual suspects are telling ppl about to lose SNAP benefits to just start a garden. As a gardener, I had to laugh. You need at LEAST an acre of land to feed a family of 4. Start-up costs are enormous. But yes, subsistence farming on the balcony of your rental apartment is the answer
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
We have a new paper out with @gricoc.bsky.social in @jwpp.bsky.social (this time I swear I am going to post the right link): www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Sexism and the Gender Gap in Support for the Radical Right
Using survey data from Spain we show that the gender gap in the probability of voting for the radical-right party Vox is mainly due to men having higher levels of modern sexism than women. We find ...
www.tandfonline.com
September 24, 2025 at 5:14 PM
We have a new paper out with @gricoc.bsky.social in @jwpp.bsky.social (this time I swear I am going to post the right link): www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
Delighted to say I'm chairing a section at ECPG 2026 with @jess-smith.bsky.social @rosieshorrocks.bsky.social @gefjonoff.bsky.social and @liranharsgor.bsky.social on Elections, Parties, and Voters! Please send your abstracts in - full info here: ecpr.eu/Events/Event... @ecprgender.bsky.social
September 10, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Delighted to say I'm chairing a section at ECPG 2026 with @jess-smith.bsky.social @rosieshorrocks.bsky.social @gefjonoff.bsky.social and @liranharsgor.bsky.social on Elections, Parties, and Voters! Please send your abstracts in - full info here: ecpr.eu/Events/Event... @ecprgender.bsky.social
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
I feel seen
This is how insane people sound when you tell them why A.I. is bad
July 16, 2025 at 8:17 PM
I feel seen
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
The white students who are struggling to make ends meet are not struggling because Black and immigrant students got into our university. They are struggling because of a shitty social safety net & high tuition because people like Andreesen don't pay sufficient taxes/the state doesn't pay its share.
July 12, 2025 at 12:14 PM
The white students who are struggling to make ends meet are not struggling because Black and immigrant students got into our university. They are struggling because of a shitty social safety net & high tuition because people like Andreesen don't pay sufficient taxes/the state doesn't pay its share.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
If there is one lesson to draw from the history of fascism in the interwar period in Europe, it is this:
Democracy falls if and when mainstream conservatives and centrist/center-right elites decide to make common cause with extremists because they consider the “radical Left” the more acute threat.
Democracy falls if and when mainstream conservatives and centrist/center-right elites decide to make common cause with extremists because they consider the “radical Left” the more acute threat.
“The New York Times collaborated with a white nationalist eugenicist hacker and agreed to keep his identity a secret to publish a Zohran Mamdani hit piece” is a way bigger story than “18 year old Zohran Mamdani ticked ‘African American’ on his Columbia application because he was a citizen of Uganda”
July 4, 2025 at 2:13 PM
If there is one lesson to draw from the history of fascism in the interwar period in Europe, it is this:
Democracy falls if and when mainstream conservatives and centrist/center-right elites decide to make common cause with extremists because they consider the “radical Left” the more acute threat.
Democracy falls if and when mainstream conservatives and centrist/center-right elites decide to make common cause with extremists because they consider the “radical Left” the more acute threat.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
Ukraine warns that yesterday’s US military aid halt — the second since Trump took office in January — is positive news for Russia as troops rapidly advance.
Trump administration military aid halt will only encourage Russia, Ukraine warns
Ukraine warns that slowing weapons deliveries “would only encourage the aggressor to continue war and terror.”
ow.ly
July 2, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Ukraine warns that yesterday’s US military aid halt — the second since Trump took office in January — is positive news for Russia as troops rapidly advance.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
I know the media is going to unthinkingly start using “Alligator Alcatraz,” but it’s disgusting and sadistic and I intend to call it what it is, a fucking concentration camp, and fuck those people who are doing this and giving it a cutesy name.
July 1, 2025 at 10:35 PM
I know the media is going to unthinkingly start using “Alligator Alcatraz,” but it’s disgusting and sadistic and I intend to call it what it is, a fucking concentration camp, and fuck those people who are doing this and giving it a cutesy name.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
KBJ, in dissent, calls today's ruling "profoundly dangerous" and an "existential threat to the rule of law." She expresses her "deep disillusionment" with the court and suggests that the conservative supermajority continues to crown Trump a king above law. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
June 27, 2025 at 2:09 PM
KBJ, in dissent, calls today's ruling "profoundly dangerous" and an "existential threat to the rule of law." She expresses her "deep disillusionment" with the court and suggests that the conservative supermajority continues to crown Trump a king above law. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
The world is drowning in plastic. Experts say we need to stop making so much.
But the plastics industry is peddling a "solution" that works like magic.
Don't be fooled.
(Published June 2024)
But the plastics industry is peddling a "solution" that works like magic.
Don't be fooled.
(Published June 2024)
The Delusion of “Advanced” Plastic Recycling
The plastics industry has heralded a type of chemical recycling it claims could replace new shopping bags and candy wrappers with old ones — but not much is being recycled at all, and this method…
www.propublica.org
June 26, 2025 at 3:00 AM
The world is drowning in plastic. Experts say we need to stop making so much.
But the plastics industry is peddling a "solution" that works like magic.
Don't be fooled.
(Published June 2024)
But the plastics industry is peddling a "solution" that works like magic.
Don't be fooled.
(Published June 2024)
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
i am simply asking the press to cover the government sending masked thugs to rip people from their crying children and shipping them to a foreign concentration camp with the same ferocity they cover a trans kid playing jv tennis in sheboygan
June 24, 2025 at 4:13 PM
i am simply asking the press to cover the government sending masked thugs to rip people from their crying children and shipping them to a foreign concentration camp with the same ferocity they cover a trans kid playing jv tennis in sheboygan
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
Clear justification for e-bike crackdowns in NY.
June 16, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Clear justification for e-bike crackdowns in NY.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
Please read and share this statement from Sophie and Colin Hortman, children of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark.
(via WCCO reporter Caroline Cummings on X)
(via WCCO reporter Caroline Cummings on X)
June 17, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Please read and share this statement from Sophie and Colin Hortman, children of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark.
(via WCCO reporter Caroline Cummings on X)
(via WCCO reporter Caroline Cummings on X)
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
Two things are true at the same time: The regime is encountering a lot more resistance than they know how to handle, they are vulnerable. Yet they are also dangerous, controlling the coercive powers of the state, fueled by a paranoid, conspiratorial siege mentality that pushes them to escalate.
June 15, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Two things are true at the same time: The regime is encountering a lot more resistance than they know how to handle, they are vulnerable. Yet they are also dangerous, controlling the coercive powers of the state, fueled by a paranoid, conspiratorial siege mentality that pushes them to escalate.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
It’s not just that they normalize political violence. They also accuse the left of engaging in mostly imaginary violence, which gives unhinged right-wingers justification to “retaliate.”
June 14, 2025 at 3:36 PM
It’s not just that they normalize political violence. They also accuse the left of engaging in mostly imaginary violence, which gives unhinged right-wingers justification to “retaliate.”
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
This woman will be denied promotion.
This is everywhere.
Every academic institution I know is held together by some exhausted woman in her early 40's who waits until the old white male professors have finished their vague rants and says, "alright, so concretely can I propose the following next steps..."
She makes half their salary.
Every academic institution I know is held together by some exhausted woman in her early 40's who waits until the old white male professors have finished their vague rants and says, "alright, so concretely can I propose the following next steps..."
She makes half their salary.
A friend is getting involved in politics for the 1st time. Went to local mtg where guys in charge said: we want to have a concert in 6wks. She asked ?s They had no venue, no bands, etc. She made a PowerPoint on tasks needed & a realistic timeline. Them: You're too corporate, not progressive enough.
June 14, 2025 at 12:59 PM
This woman will be denied promotion.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
You and your children will breathe more air pollution because of this action. People will have more asthma attacks. People will have more heart attacks. All while climate impacts accelerate.
The Trump administration plans to get rid of all limits on climate-warming pollution from the nation's fossil fuel power plants. Fossil fuel interests hailed the proposal, which likely faces legal challenges from environmental groups.
Trump's EPA plans to repeal climate pollution limits on fossil fuel power plants
The Trump administration plans to get rid of all limits on climate-warming pollution from the nation's fossil fuel power plants. Fossil fuel interests hailed the proposal, which likely faces legal challenges from environmental groups.
n.pr
June 12, 2025 at 1:36 AM
You and your children will breathe more air pollution because of this action. People will have more asthma attacks. People will have more heart attacks. All while climate impacts accelerate.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
dude this party is such an echo chamber. it's just friends hanging out and chilling and having a good time. you need to invite some people over who want to kill you with hammers
June 11, 2025 at 12:53 PM
dude this party is such an echo chamber. it's just friends hanging out and chilling and having a good time. you need to invite some people over who want to kill you with hammers
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
Weird they're showing Swan Lake on Fox right now
June 5, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Weird they're showing Swan Lake on Fox right now
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
Have we considered that this is actually the desired outcome for some legislators?
May 23, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Have we considered that this is actually the desired outcome for some legislators?
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
Yes, you read that right. A legislature with a Democrat super-majority is crafting a transportation bill that could include a major new source of revenue that expands driving capacity.
Advocates in shock as Dems float 'cap and pave' plan while funding bill remains secret
"It’s like Christmas in May for polluters."
bikeportland.org
May 23, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Yes, you read that right. A legislature with a Democrat super-majority is crafting a transportation bill that could include a major new source of revenue that expands driving capacity.
Reposted by Dr. Melody E Valdini
Because they want to kill us, Congress voted to overturn a Clean Air Act regulation limiting toxic emissions from industrial facilities like refineries, chemical plants, and steel mills. This marks the first Congressional rollback of the landmark environmental law's protections since its creation.
Congress moves to loosen toxic air pollution rules
The House and Senate both voted to loosen regulations on air pollutants like dioxin and mercury, which are associated with higher cancer risk.
www.npr.org
May 23, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Because they want to kill us, Congress voted to overturn a Clean Air Act regulation limiting toxic emissions from industrial facilities like refineries, chemical plants, and steel mills. This marks the first Congressional rollback of the landmark environmental law's protections since its creation.