Christian A. Meissner
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cameissner.bsky.social
Christian A. Meissner
@cameissner.bsky.social
Scientist, Father, Political Junkie.
Pinned
Interested in the science of interviewing? Check out my discussion with Dr. Hayley Cleary and host Dave Thompson.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
America needs more patriots like Senator Mark Kelly and fewer miserable cowards like Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth.
Sen. Mark Kelly facing military investigation after clashing with Trump
A statement from the Pentagon said all service members have a "legal obligation" to "obey lawful orders and that orders are presumed to be lawful."
www.axios.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
I used to handle interlibrary loans for a public library. ILL is a magnificent expression of the idea that readers deserve books, and books deserve readers. It’s libraries everywhere pooling their resources for the benefit of everyone.

Killing IMLS could have killed ILL.

This is great news. 📚
November 22, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
Calling all student 2025 Annual Meeting attendees! Don’t miss your chance to network and connect at tonight’s student social beginning at 9:00 PM MST. #psynom25
buff.ly/54rGdBh
November 22, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
The SPARK Society is sponsoring a lunchtime workshop at Psychonomics (noon today, Governor's Square 12) on Science Outreach and Advocacy, featuring @ozgegurcanli.bsky.social @paulacroxson.bsky.social and @jzacks.bsky.social, moderated by me. Free lunch for the first 50 attendees - join us! #psynom25
November 21, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
Important read from my @pogo.org colleague Virginia Burger on her oaths of office during her service in the U.S. military and obligation to disobey unlawful orders: www.pogo.org/analysis/mil...
Military Oaths and Unlawful Orders
A few important questions and answers from our senior defense policy analyst
www.pogo.org
November 21, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
President Trump is building a “shadow budget” outside of Congressional control. @scott-levy.bsky.social explains why it is unlawful and how Congress should respond:

www.justsecurity.org/125302/shado...
How to End Shadow Budget, Protect Congress’s Power of Purse
Unless Congress reasserts control over federal spending, the balance the framers designed could collapse into a self-financing presidency.
www.justsecurity.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
We've updated our Study.

New stats (jaw-dropping imho):

1. DOJ noncompliance with court orders:

26 cases

2. Courts’ distrust of government information and representations:

Over 60 cases

3. Court findings of arbitrary and capricious government conduct:

68 cases
The “Presumption of Regularity” in Trump Administration Litigation
Comprehensive study of court cases involving Trump administration and the basis for courts no longer giving a "presumption of regularity."
www.justsecurity.org
November 20, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.

Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
This story is nuts.

"ICE agents then surrounded the judge’s car and demanded everyone to exit the vehicle, threatening to smash in the windows if they did not comply."
November 21, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
🧵
THREAD: Judge Ellis is the first federal judge to review extensive body cam video of DHS's actions in Chicago. She finds that DHS *repeatedly* misled the public and made claims that were disproven by agents' own videos.

I'll go through some of the most egregious ones here.
November 20, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
Exclusive: The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika, nooses and the Confederate flag as hate symbols.

The military service drafted a new policy that classifies them as “potentially divisive.”
U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”
www.washingtonpost.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Learning with AI falls short compared to old-fashioned web search
Doing the mental work of connecting the dots across multiple web queries appears to help people understand the material better compared to an AI summary.
buff.ly
November 20, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
John Oliver and Co did a great explanation of what public media does, and who exactly the funding recission actually hurts (Hint: it's not liberal elites.) Also very proud to see my old friend and former WBEZ reporter Lauren Chooljian featured for her amazing work.

youtu.be/yknMJOgy2pA?...
Public Media: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
YouTube video by LastWeekTonight
youtu.be
November 19, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
The BBC picked up on an old Newsweek story of mine and gave it great new color and context.
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....
A Chinese firm bought an insurer for CIA agents - part of Beijing's trillion dollar spending spree - BBC News
When an insurer for FBI and CIA agents was sold to a Chinese entity, it led the US to tighten investment laws.
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org
November 19, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered.

He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
Opinion | Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression
The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
We could spend years demanding a list be released, or we could just believe women…
November 17, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
Those seeking pardons through official channels have watched while Trump grants pardons to people who never entered the system at all.

“If you’re just an average citizen, you can’t even get in the line,” one lawyer said. “I told my guy he’d probably be better off if he broke into the Capitol.”
How Trump Has Exploited Pardons and Clemency to Reward Allies and Supporters
The president’s second term has brought a flood of clemency for allies and donors — as well as felons, like him, who were convicted of financial wrongdoing.
www.propublica.org
November 16, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
The Founders were so concerned about bribery that the Constitution forbids it three separate times. Two emoluments clauses ban officials—unambiguously including the president—from accepting things of value, plus bribery is the only named impeachable offense besides treason.

Unprecedentedly corrupt.
To negotiate a trade deal with the President of the United States, the Swiss government arrived with a "special Rolex desktop clock" and "a 1-kilogram personalized gold bar"

www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...
How to lobby Trump with Swiss precision: gifts, gold and gab
How the Swiss broke a diplomatic logjam on tariffs by arriving with tributes fit for a king.
www.axios.com
November 16, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
'Worst of the Worst'? DOJ Figures Show 97.4% of 614 Detained Immigrants in Chicago Had No Criminal Record www.commondreams.org/news/worst-o...
'Worst of the Worst'? DOJ Figures Show 97.4% of 614 Detained Immigrants in Chicago Had No Criminal Record | Common Dreams
Of 614 people on list who may have been unlawfully arrested and detained by federal officials, only 16 had a criminal record of any kind.
www.commondreams.org
November 15, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
I know this is old man yells at cloud but there is something in the constitution about this
November 15, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
For two months, the U.S. government has been racial profiling as masked federal agents hunted for immigrants throughout Chicago. They’ve repeatedly snatched up U.S. citizens while traumatizing communities. “I felt like a piece of trash.” Here is our story www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/15/l...
Latino US citizens racially profiled by federal immigration agents in Chicago: ‘I felt like a piece of trash’
The Tribune spoke to U.S. citizens and green card holders who have either been questioned or detained during Trump’s Operation Midway Blitz.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
Zeteo has made a searchable database of all new 26,000 files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

Despite Trump saying this is a scam with "all arrows pointing to the Democrats," these have a whole lot of Trump in there. In fact, he's mentioned in these more than anyone else.

Take a look for yourself:
Zeteo Scoured 26,000 Epstein Docs. Here’s What We Found
You can search and review the emails here. Read what Epstein said about Trump, and his emails with Peter Thiel, Steve Bannon, Ehud Barak, and Larry Summers.
zeteo.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ.

It's a surreal--and troubling--read.

drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
November 14, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M adopts policy requiring professors to get OK from school president to discuss certain race and gender issues.
November 13, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Reposted by Christian A. Meissner
We're excited to announce a newly published joint statement on the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in evidence synthesis along with Cochrane, @jbiebhc.bsky.social, and the @envevidence.bsky.social.

Read the joint position statement here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
OSF
doi.org
November 11, 2025 at 3:14 PM