John Jackson
LightNews LightNews
banner
jpj.bsky.social
John Jackson
@jpj.bsky.social
1.6K followers 800 following 1.2K posts
Historian of scientific racism. Here's how to find all my stuff: https://www.johnpjacksonjr.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
jpj.bsky.social
www.publicnotice.co/p/mike-johns...
Observing Johnson in recent months has been like watching an especially tedious and extended Road Runner cartoon, where the Coyote fashions intricate knots of congressional procedure in order to tie himself, over the course of weeks, to a giant stack of lit dynamite.
November 18, 2025 at 1:26 PM
jpj.bsky.social
www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-epst...
So now that base is confronting a new kind of cognitive dissonance. How can Trump be the great crusader against the perverted elite when he looks like he’s covering up the scandal of the worst pervert of them all? There’s no good answer for them, and none of Trump’s spin is persuasive. Trump may have convinced them not to care about his constant lying, his history of business scams, his shameless self-dealing, or his abuse of grown women. But this is something they can’t stomach, which is why this scandal is only getting worse.
November 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM
jpj.bsky.social
www.emptywheel.net/2025/11/15/p...
So to sum up so far: Jim Comey said, you violated my Attorney-Client privilege and my Fourth Amendment rights. And it’s likely that when Pam Bondi reviewed that transcript where unlawfully seized materials were presented, she did too. And then Pam Bondi — after her Counselor assured Judge Currie that Halligan is closely supervised — reviewed the grand jury transcripts again. The ones that likely rely on unlawfully seized materials.
November 16, 2025 at 1:57 PM
jpj.bsky.social
My letter to "Representative" Tom Barrett urging him to vote for releasing the Epstein files. I have no confidence in him doing the right thing, but I have faint hope he will surprise me.
democracyandme.bearblog.dev/to-tom-barre...
When you were criticized for reporting minor vandalism to your office as a crime you wrote to me that this was a "straightforward issue of right and wrong." The time is coming very soon for us to see if your commitment to such issues is pure or merely an issue of convenience. I refer to the upcoming House vote on forcing the release of the Epstein files.
November 14, 2025 at 1:35 PM
jpj.bsky.social
For decades, the journal INTELLIGENCE published articles on racial differences in intelligence. Our article marks the first time the shoddy science and dangerous politics behind these claims appeared in that journal. Please share widely. authors.elsevier.com/a/1m5PxaSXMA...
Abstract In two simultaneously published articles in Intelligence, Woodley et al. (2025a, b) claimed that the RHR literature is very small, lacks impact and influence, and poses no special risks. The articles critiqued Bird, et al. (2024) which presented evidence of ongoing “racial hereditarian research” (RHR) in Psychology, its use by racial extremists, and the assistance of RHR psychologists to racial extremist groups. Woodley et al. (2025 a, b) ignored the evidence in Bird et al. (2024) and the past and present harm caused by long-discredited claims that African genes are associated with lower intelligence and morality. We correct false statements in Woodley et al. (2025a,b) and refute their claims that the application of rigorous standards would “undermine science” and constitutes “censorship.”
November 12, 2025 at 2:36 PM
jpj.bsky.social
My "Representative" Tom Barrett wrote to me claiming he had to report the sidewalk chalkers because it is a "straightforward issue of right and wrong." I answered by questioning whether or not he knew the difference between right and wrong. democracyandme.bearblog.dev/to-tom-barre...
You support the following serious crimes: 1400 Jan. 6 rioters were convicted of crimes--silence from you. This week a federal judge ordered Trump to pay SNAP benefits, he is illegally denying that order in full--silence from you. Trump illegally bombs boats in the Caribbean--silence from you. You proudly support Trump, with his 34 felony convictions, his legal culpability for sexual assault, his continual unconstitutional use of his office for his personal enrichment.
November 7, 2025 at 4:02 PM
jpj.bsky.social
@scalzi.com on Melon Husk's Artificial "Intelligence" LLM. Beautifully done. whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/30/a...
Which is to say, if you have to choose a “pedia” to trust, you might choose the one assembled by a bunch of pedantic nerds saying “well, ACTUALLY” to each other until the heat death of the universe, over the one assembled by an LLM controlled by an insecure Nazi salute-throwing billionaire who sprints to reprogram that LLM every time it shares a fact that makes that billionaire angry or sad, or doesn’t fit into his Playskool Machiavellian ambitions and plans. In this particular case, a thousand pedantic nerds is much better than a single rich one.
October 31, 2025 at 12:22 PM
jpj.bsky.social
Happy Birthday, Universe! October 23, 4004 BCE. According to the good Bishop Usher, the world is created.
A wood etching of the creation of the world. A bearded and robed king upon a cloud is depicted waving his hands and birds and fish and mountains and plants are all coming into existence.
October 23, 2025 at 12:36 PM
jpj.bsky.social
Consistency is so important. We all should thank Pinker for remaining a pompous buffoon. archive.ph/Adl0n#select...
This is the kind of public intellectualism that makes the public hate intellectuals. Instead of showing what ideas have to teach us about life, Pinker holds a gun to life’s head and demands it conform to his thought experiments. And he does it with the patronizing tone of someone telling his readers what to think from on high. In one passage, prompting us to imagine increasingly higher-order levels of knowledge about knowledge, he virtually pats us on the head. “Now let’s try four layers,” he writes. After we’ve tackled four, he asks, encouragingly, “Think you can handle a fifth layer?”
October 6, 2025 at 12:03 PM
jpj.bsky.social
A sign for the Trump administration.
Black and white photograph of a sign in 1939 from a department store that reads, "Buy now, before the price rise."
October 4, 2025 at 10:13 PM
jpj.bsky.social
An interchange between A. Philip Randolph, one of the most important Black leaders for civil rights in the twentieth-century and Senator Allen Ellender, a racist Louisianian who happened to be a US Senator in 1947. Ellender's incredulity at being expected to use "Mr." with a Black man is stunning.
Mr. RANDOLPH. Then I want to say to Senator Ellender that I don't know you too well to have you calling me Randolph... Senator ELLENDER: You wouldn't expect me to call you "Mr.Randolph"? Mr. RANDOLPH i. Nothing but that.
September 29, 2025 at 6:44 PM
jpj.bsky.social
If anyone is wondering, yes, this is how our news accurately reports how Michiganders talk about our roads.
Whitmer: We have a deal Michigan has a budget deal, sparing the possibility of a government shutdown next week and setting aside more than $1.5 billion to help finally fix the damn roads, state officials announced Thursday night.
September 26, 2025 at 2:41 PM
jpj.bsky.social
One can only speculate as to the reason for that. But imagine that you just started a brand new job. Imagine you didn’t know what you’re doing, and your relevant experience was non-existent. Imagine that all of your employees have counseled against the course you are taking. But imagine as well that you have no choice because the only reason you have the job is that you agreed to pursue this indictment. Imagine that your predecessor lost the job you now have because he would not do this particular piece of dirty work. Imagine you have been warned that the evidence just isn’t there to proceed with the case.
September 26, 2025 at 1:38 PM
jpj.bsky.social
I'm sure this is all the fault of the liberals and leftists who forced them to do this stuff.
Paxton, Robert O. 2004. The Anatomy of Fascism. Knopf: p. 218. "Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimoiod and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."
September 24, 2025 at 4:23 PM
jpj.bsky.social
Sondheim's first draft, "The Demon Bowler of Fleet Street" was thought to be a "good first try, but keep working" by the producer.
A cartoon of a crazed man bowling. The onlookers look worried.
September 22, 2025 at 11:15 PM
jpj.bsky.social
Responsible gun ownership in 1901 is much like responsible gun ownership today.
A simple two-frame cartoon from 1901. In the first frame, children are looking at a rifle on a table, one child asks, "Is it loaded?" In the second frame is a happy gentleman speaking on the phone saying, "Hello! Yes, this is the coroner. All right, I'll be there pretty soon."
September 20, 2025 at 3:59 PM
jpj.bsky.social
What antifa looked like in 1943.
World War II poster picturing Nazis burning books. The poster reads, "Ten years ago, the Nazis burned these books, but free Americans can still read them."
September 19, 2025 at 6:53 PM
jpj.bsky.social
A 1940 post promoting swimming "in safe and pure pools" because one could contract polio in contaminated water. This is what RFK. Jr. means when he wants to "Make America Healthy Again."
A 1940 poster depicting stylized painting of a woman swimming. It reads, "Swim For Health in Safe and Pure Pools."
September 18, 2025 at 8:52 PM
jpj.bsky.social
This is why Switzerland is often called the Tasmania of the North.
Travel poster for Tasmania reading, "Tasmania the Switzerland of the South."
September 15, 2025 at 8:19 PM
jpj.bsky.social
1959 poster from the US Information Agency. "Academic and intellectual freedom are guaranteed by the American University." That kind of talk will get you fired these days.
A poster for the US Information Agency (1959). It reads: "Education for Freedom. A liberal education is our proud heritage in a democracy. Credo of the American education Man has the right to knowledge and, once acquired to use it for the benefit of the greatetst number. Academic and intellectual freedom are guaranteed by the American University."
September 14, 2025 at 10:34 PM
jpj.bsky.social
Can recycling also defeat Trump? Discuss.
World War II-era poster showing a giant hand stuffing Hitler into a garbage can. The legend reads, "Help up the lid on Hitler by saving your old metal and paper!"
September 9, 2025 at 9:00 PM
jpj.bsky.social
On the dangers of adjuctification.
A cartoon of a stuffy looking man saying, "Heavens! The Police! If I'm caught in a street fight I'll be discharged from the University! I'll have to run.
September 3, 2025 at 7:24 PM
jpj.bsky.social
See also, Pinochet. crookedtimber.org/2025/08/27/i...
One thing, at least, that Trump is proving is how ridiculous is the neoliberal claim, championed by the likes of Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, that somehow a set of laws that protect private property, especially if it is concentrated in a few hands, would be able to protect individual liberty against tyranny. In reality, the very wealthy are the first to cave when an aspiring autocrat comes knocking. They so deeply identify themselves with their wealth that very few will risk even a small portion of it to resist a wannabe dictator. And many even admire and support autocrats, foolishly imagining that their wealth protects them from autocratic meddling or worse. So it’s no surprise that the tech bros so quickly bent their knees to Trump in humiliating fashion. This is another reason to support fellow CT blogger Ingrid Robeyns’s limitarianism–a cap on wealth. Billionaires pose grave dangers to democracy, and not just through their excessive influence on the electoral system. Even more because many are attracted to autocracy, and because many more who aren’t will nevertheless flip at the slightest sign of a threat to their wealth and end up bolstering autocrats.
August 28, 2025 at 2:36 PM
jpj.bsky.social
It looks like our broken democracy is going to get brokener.
And this time, the Texas attempt could spark chaos and a race to the bottom, where every state picks up the challenge and tries to rewrite their electoral maps – not in the usual once-a-decade manner, but whenever they’re unsatisfied with the odds in the next election.
August 9, 2025 at 2:32 PM
jpj.bsky.social
Speaking of the abuse of history.... Never Trumpers are really Never Admitters, or Never Take Responsibiliters. Trumpism has always been the heart of the GOP. www.salon.com/2025/07/26/d...
Of course, maintaining one’s innocence requires rearranging history. It was mainstream conservatives, not some fringe, who perpetrated the Iran-Contra affair, invaded Iraq under false pretenses, enthusiastically tortured prisoners in the quixotic war on terrorism, and recklessly cut taxes and deregulated markets to pave the way for the biggest global financial crash since the Great Depression. It was mainstream conservatives who voted unanimously against Barack Obama’s rather tepid Affordable Care Act, itself a rehash of a Heritage Foundation proposal from the 1990s.
August 5, 2025 at 2:45 PM