Buddy Scarborough
wjscarborough.bsky.social
Buddy Scarborough
@wjscarborough.bsky.social
Sociologist, University of North Texas; opinions are my own.
Reposted by Buddy Scarborough
I have no idea why the high inflation of grocery prices stopped being news. Groceries prices are rising higher than total inflation and have been for some time. Biggest just in 3 years last month! Everyone has to eat, so everyone feels this in their budgets.

apple.news/AXttO9mKeSy-...
Grocery prices have jumped up, and there's no relief in sight — NPR
Groceries saw their biggest jump in nearly three years last month, a worrisome sign for inflation-weary shoppers. Tariffs are contributing to higher prices for imported staples like bananas and coffee...
apple.news
September 20, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Reposted by Buddy Scarborough
“If you are not careful, and if you are not tapped into your own humanity and that of others, it can be tempting to mistake people for symbols.”

www.newyorker.com/news/essay/z...
Zohran Mamdani and Mahmoud Khalil Are In on the Joke
What it feels like to laugh when the world expects you to disappear.
www.newyorker.com
July 13, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Buddy Scarborough
This should not be a controversial opinion. Massive unaccountable conglomerations of wealth are bad, and saying so should be celebrated.
He’s speaking my love language

thehill.com/business/537...
June 29, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Buddy Scarborough
The Women's Bureau of the DOL plays a vital role in promoting gender equity in the workforce. We can't let this essential agency be slashed when working women need it most. #SaveWB www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Trump wants to eliminate a 105-year-old office that supports women
Staffers see the proposal as part of an effort to fundamentally reshape America's workforce.
www.motherjones.com
June 5, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Yet more bad news. Scarier is what will fill the void left in the absence of good data.
May 22, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Buddy Scarborough
Amidst all the posts about how NSF funds the basic science that (eventually) leads to marketable products, its role in funding data infrastructure is getting lost.

The GSS (1972), ANES (late 1960s), and PSID (1968) are rounding error in the discretionary budget but vital national resources.

1/6
May 14, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Buddy Scarborough
One thing Wisconsin, etc, shows is that the elite Dem conventional wisdom that a precondition to recovery is conciliating Silicon Valley is false.
April 2, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Buddy Scarborough
AOC: What they like to call as radical, I believe is common sense.

I believe that when a person gets sick, they shouldn’t go bankrupt in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. Common sense

I believe that a minimum wage should cover the minimum cost to live. Common sense...
March 20, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Buddy Scarborough
1/🧵 Judges across ideological lines are ruling against Trump at strikingly similar rates (84% liberal, 86% centrist, 82% conservative). This isn't partisan opposition to Trump—it's the judiciary functioning as intended by cutting across partisan lines to uphold the Constitution.
March 18, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by Buddy Scarborough
a thread re DOGE cuts
When I was doing dissertation fieldwork I was struck by how often well-off white people talked about trash in Benton Harbor. A newly-formed "parks conservancy" had been granted control over park maintenance as one of the last acts of the departing emergency manager,
March 17, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Buddy Scarborough
Trump & Musk are teeing up their biggest target yet: Social Security. They're using "fraud" as a political tool to justify the attack. Social Security has long been the rock of the welfare state. It comprises 40% of income for older adults. It's so popular, the GOP loves it just as much as Dems 1/
February 22, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Buddy Scarborough
The Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, a great org, asks individuals & orgs to sign their letter requesting Congress act to restore data that has been removed & ensure a similar purge does not reoccur.
#EconSky #PolicySky #sociology #PoliSky
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
February 4, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Left twitter a long time ago, but back here to learn from others doing good, impactful, work under these new and challenging conditions.
February 3, 2025 at 8:35 PM