Jim Ludes
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jimludes.bsky.social
Jim Ludes
@jimludes.bsky.social
VP at Salve Regina University; Exec. Dir. at Pell Center, Host and Executive Producer: “Story in the Public Square" on public television and SiriusXM POTUS. Host and Producer: Active Measures Newsletter & Podcast. Pro-Democracy. He/Him. Opinions my own.
Reposted by Jim Ludes
BREAKING: Judge dismisses cases against James Comey and Letitia James after finding that prosecutor was illegally appointed.
Judge dismisses Comey, James indictments after finding that prosecutor was illegally appointed
A federal judge has dismissed the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, concluding that the prosecutor who brought the charges at President Donald Trump’s urging was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.
bit.ly
November 24, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Jim Ludes
This is a new and dire development in the ongoing American constitutional crisis. The voters, Congress, and, yes, the U.S. military must all now be more vigilant than at any time in our modern history.

www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
The President Is Losing Control of Himself
Donald Trump’s outbursts on social media this week were different than usual.
www.theatlantic.com
November 22, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Reposted by Jim Ludes
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
Happy Cold War Victory Day!
November 9, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Well this got my blood boiling this morning…..
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
November 9, 2025 at 1:55 PM
$1 trillion is how much Germany had to pay in reparations after WWI. $1 trillion means you could spend $5 million every day since Columbus discovered the New World and still have more than $27 billion in the bank!
November 8, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Essential reading from @colinwoodard.bsky.social on the stories that shape our identity as a nation:

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/o...
Opinion | Opponents of JD Vance’s Story of America Need to Speak Up
www.nytimes.com
November 3, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Jim Ludes
Obama: "The weird videos of a US president with a crown on his head flying a fighter jet & dumping poop on American citizens - that's not even worth booing about. Because all of that is a distraction from the fact that your situation, your life has not gotten better. They do it so you won't notice"
November 1, 2025 at 11:33 PM
1. DOD doesn't plan for missions it doesn't anticipate.
2. DOD has long focused on fighting "over there"--meaning on distant shores--not "over here."
3. The apolitical U.S. military wants no piece of an expanded, domestic mission of dubious Constitutionality.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Pentagon readying thousands of Guard ‘reaction forces’ as U.S. mission widens
The Defense Department’s newly established “quick reaction force” within the National Guard is being readied for civil unrest missions in U.S. cities.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:35 PM
No, sir. Our military serves the people, it does not work for a private donor.

This is the road to evil.

If there is not bipartisan outrage in Congress over this, then we are lost.

www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/p...
Pentagon to use $130 million donation from anonymous Trump ‘friend’ to pay military members | CNN Politics
The Trump administration plans to funnel a $130 million donation from an anonymous ally of President Donald Trump toward paying military service members during the government shutdown, the Defense Dep...
www.cnn.com
October 24, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Jim Ludes
This week’s guest on the Active Measures Newsletter podcast is Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social We will discuss the latest dynamics in the social media ecosystem.
omny.fm/shows/active.... A link to the newsletter is in the first reply !
"@Grok Is This True?" with Renée DiResta - The Active Measures Newsletter Podcast
This week on the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson speak with Georgetown University's Renée DiResta about trends in technology, social media, and disinformation.  T...
omny.fm
October 23, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I think there's a name for what this is. . . .

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/u...
Trump Said to Demand Justice Dept. Pay Him $230 Million for Past Cases
www.nytimes.com
October 21, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Reposted by Jim Ludes
I feel like a broken record, but I have to keep saying it over and over again: a farmer bailout won’t do much of anything because the market is gone. There will be no incentive to plant next year.

The bailout will help payoff farmer debt to the banks. That’s all.
October 9, 2025 at 6:21 PM
I don’t think we can overstate magnitude of the issues we are neglecting as a nation because of the daily focus on these side-shows—historians will write about this to explain our fall.
October 9, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Reposted by Jim Ludes
Paranoia, the destroyer! On this week's AM podcast: the appeal of conspiracy theories w/ @changeresearch.com @sjclermont.bsky.social, we'll also tackle elections in #Moldova, Putin's pitch to MAGA, & more dismantling of US soft-power capabilities. w/ @jimludes.bsky.social

omny.fm/shows/active...
"Paranoid Thinking" with Stephen Clermont - The Active Measures Newsletter Podcast
This week, Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson welcome Stephen Clermont, Head of Polling at Change Research, for a discussion of the sustained appeal of conspiracy theories in the United States, today--all st...
omny.fm
October 4, 2025 at 12:53 PM
I’m not sure if “unity is our strength“ sounds better in German, Italian or, now, American English.
September 30, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Hegseth’s ideal soldier:
September 30, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Trump at the UN: no one takes him seriously; he’s just a fool to be placated, flattered, and manipulated.
September 24, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Are we really going to take medical advice from the people who brought us hydroxychloroquine as the answer to COVID?
September 22, 2025 at 11:01 PM
First amendment trashed on Constitution Day—has anyone noted that detail?
September 18, 2025 at 5:46 PM
We? No, sir, YOU lost India. This is a grand strategic failure and there’s no one to blame but you.
President Trump:

Looks like we've lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together! President Donald J. Trump
September 5, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Remember: the National Guard Troops you see on the streets of Washington, DC, are, generally speaking, all removed from their civilian jobs, their homes, their families, and their lives--"patrolling" an American city with their service weapons.
August 28, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Jim Ludes
The constitutional crisis is behind us. We are now in free fall.
August 26, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Reposted by Jim Ludes
One of those things I will always share again when it comes up in my memories.

Comics hold valuable lessons and always have. Now, more than ever.
February 23, 2025 at 1:50 PM