John Scudder
@johnscudder.bsky.social
This space intentionally left blank other than this statement.
“Instead, what appears to have happened is a lot of empty talk, no real significant change, and backlash that is causing real harm. This is the worst of all possible worlds.”
Incredible what you find when you start looking for data on the "white men can't get jobs anymore" phenomenon
www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/12/17/w...
www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/12/17/w...
What Does the Census Data Say About “The Lost Generation”
Savage appears wrong, but the reality is potentially bleaker.
www.peoplespolicyproject.org
December 26, 2025 at 12:31 AM
“Instead, what appears to have happened is a lot of empty talk, no real significant change, and backlash that is causing real harm. This is the worst of all possible worlds.”
Reposted by John Scudder
1) these are all answerable questions
2) we don’t get 50% cost savings out of the deal
3) we almost certainly do get significant cost savings out of some of the ways to move to universal coverage
2) we don’t get 50% cost savings out of the deal
3) we almost certainly do get significant cost savings out of some of the ways to move to universal coverage
How much are you going to pay doctors?
Which current hospitals get shut down ?
What happens if doctors opt out of the system ? Who is going to invest in new curative therapies. You ?
How much in taxes pr year do you think it's possible to collect if you took every penny from billionaires?
Which current hospitals get shut down ?
What happens if doctors opt out of the system ? Who is going to invest in new curative therapies. You ?
How much in taxes pr year do you think it's possible to collect if you took every penny from billionaires?
Half the amount that everyone currently pays could provide universal healthcare. Private health companies don’t need to exist. Eliminate them. And use your collective buying power and economies of scale to get it done. Every cent of their profit is healthcare denied.
December 25, 2025 at 9:16 PM
1) these are all answerable questions
2) we don’t get 50% cost savings out of the deal
3) we almost certainly do get significant cost savings out of some of the ways to move to universal coverage
2) we don’t get 50% cost savings out of the deal
3) we almost certainly do get significant cost savings out of some of the ways to move to universal coverage
Reposted by John Scudder
Oh dear, how awkward...the guy who coined the term "American Dream" gave the last word of his book to a young immigrant girl & said the main lesson of his day was that people who'd amassed great wealth were not "the wisest leader to follow nor the best fitted to propound a sane philosophy of life."
December 25, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Oh dear, how awkward...the guy who coined the term "American Dream" gave the last word of his book to a young immigrant girl & said the main lesson of his day was that people who'd amassed great wealth were not "the wisest leader to follow nor the best fitted to propound a sane philosophy of life."
Reposted by John Scudder
"If you don't fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition.”
-James Mattis as Secretary of Defense testifying before Congress in 2017.
Succeeding with soft power is greatly preferable—and a lot cheaper—than having to address something with hard power.
-James Mattis as Secretary of Defense testifying before Congress in 2017.
Succeeding with soft power is greatly preferable—and a lot cheaper—than having to address something with hard power.
Context for Trump withdrawing dozens of ambassadors
*China has invested heavily in expanding diplomacy
*The US has significantly degraded soft power
*The US already has scores of diplomatic vacancies
*China has invested heavily in expanding diplomacy
*The US has significantly degraded soft power
*The US already has scores of diplomatic vacancies
December 25, 2025 at 12:33 AM
"If you don't fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition.”
-James Mattis as Secretary of Defense testifying before Congress in 2017.
Succeeding with soft power is greatly preferable—and a lot cheaper—than having to address something with hard power.
-James Mattis as Secretary of Defense testifying before Congress in 2017.
Succeeding with soft power is greatly preferable—and a lot cheaper—than having to address something with hard power.
Reposted by John Scudder
Merry Christmas from ??? and Melania….
December 24, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Merry Christmas from ??? and Melania….
Reposted by John Scudder
Reposted by John Scudder
The government has broad authority to control admission but courts have held *repeatedly*, over more than half a century, that the First Amendment bars the government from denying visas to foreign citizens simply because it dislikes what they have to say. 1/
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/b...
They Seek to Curb Online Hate. The U.S. Accuses Them of Censorship.
www.nytimes.com
December 24, 2025 at 4:26 PM
The government has broad authority to control admission but courts have held *repeatedly*, over more than half a century, that the First Amendment bars the government from denying visas to foreign citizens simply because it dislikes what they have to say. 1/
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/b...
Reposted by John Scudder
Okay, so at the request of the lovely @trance.bsky.social , I'm going to tell a story about what happens when a shitty person is "just joking", and then discovers there are consequences.
AKA That Time Kat Started An Antifascist Hallway Riot In The Third Grade.
Grab your beverage of choice.
AKA That Time Kat Started An Antifascist Hallway Riot In The Third Grade.
Grab your beverage of choice.
February 16, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Okay, so at the request of the lovely @trance.bsky.social , I'm going to tell a story about what happens when a shitty person is "just joking", and then discovers there are consequences.
AKA That Time Kat Started An Antifascist Hallway Riot In The Third Grade.
Grab your beverage of choice.
AKA That Time Kat Started An Antifascist Hallway Riot In The Third Grade.
Grab your beverage of choice.
Reposted by John Scudder
I did not have “the Rhode Island Attorney General namesearches into my mentions” on my dance card but I do appreciate the poster’s spirit
I’ll clarify. Sometimes it takes time to find the lead that breaks a case open. But then resolution happens quickly. Does that help?
December 24, 2025 at 12:58 AM
I did not have “the Rhode Island Attorney General namesearches into my mentions” on my dance card but I do appreciate the poster’s spirit
Reposted by John Scudder
I'm not saying something that people don't already know. But it's worth making the issue explicit. We have an elaborate jurisprudence of probable cause, rooted in explicit strictures in the constitution that places big limits on what police can do to you. Those limits may be honored in the breach...
only a bit above the paywall but you get the horrible gist www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
Body cam footage shows feds threatening U.S. citizen detained in Key Largo
The woman, dressed in medical scrubs, was on her way to work when she was forcibly removed from her car and cuffed before being let go.
www.miamiherald.com
December 24, 2025 at 1:10 AM
I'm not saying something that people don't already know. But it's worth making the issue explicit. We have an elaborate jurisprudence of probable cause, rooted in explicit strictures in the constitution that places big limits on what police can do to you. Those limits may be honored in the breach...
Reposted by John Scudder
This is critically important. Democrats need to pass it if they retake Congress. Trump will veto it. So pass it again. Campaign on it. Given current polling, corruption of the FBI, and the brutality of ICE and BP, there’s no better time to say, “Federal police are not above the law.”
Restoring Bivens rights: one bill "would allow citizens to sue for damages resulting from constitutional violations committed by federal officers," while the other "would create a cause of action against federal law enforcement agencies and police depts for constitutional violations."
These congressmen want to give you the right to sue federal law enforcement for violating your rights
The proposed bills aim to codify a 1971 Supreme Court ruling that allowed individuals to sue the feds for Fourth Amendment violations.
reason.com
December 23, 2025 at 1:53 PM
This is critically important. Democrats need to pass it if they retake Congress. Trump will veto it. So pass it again. Campaign on it. Given current polling, corruption of the FBI, and the brutality of ICE and BP, there’s no better time to say, “Federal police are not above the law.”
Reposted by John Scudder
Has anyone even discussed this in the mainstream media? It just seems soooo damning and it's been pretty much ignored as far as I can tell. Did I miss it?
www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...
www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...
![Recently redacted Epstein testimony, along with its unreacted version. The unreacted version reads:
"[A]nother friend ... was one of the many girls that had sexual relations with Donald Trump ... She confided in me about her casual 'friendship' with Donald. Mr. Trump definitely seemed to have a thing for her and she told me how he kept going on about how he liked her 'pert nipples'. Donald Trump liked flicking and sucking her nipples until they were raw. One evening when we were showering together she showed me her nipples. They looked incredibly painful as they were red and swollen and I remember wincing when I looked at them. I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jeffery's NY mansion on regular occasions as I once met Jen for coffee, just before she was going to meet Trump and Epstein together at his mansion." Ex. 6
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December 22, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Has anyone even discussed this in the mainstream media? It just seems soooo damning and it's been pretty much ignored as far as I can tell. Did I miss it?
www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...
www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...
Reposted by John Scudder
Times have been tough in this Ohio town since they closed the old sex crimes redacting factory. So when Trump, Bondi, and Blanche redacted Trump’s name from hundreds of documents describing sex crimes, they finally had something to cheer about. But now the woke mob wants to take that all away.
December 21, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Times have been tough in this Ohio town since they closed the old sex crimes redacting factory. So when Trump, Bondi, and Blanche redacted Trump’s name from hundreds of documents describing sex crimes, they finally had something to cheer about. But now the woke mob wants to take that all away.
Today I learned Rahm Emanuel is teasing a presidential bid. At least an inadequate ego isn’t one of his many faults.
December 21, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Today I learned Rahm Emanuel is teasing a presidential bid. At least an inadequate ego isn’t one of his many faults.
Reposted by John Scudder
Matt Maddock, a Republican State Representative in Michigan thinks that opposing pedophilia is a "left-wing scare tactic."
His reply was in response to a question asking him to justify his vote against a bill banning child marriage.
His reply was in response to a question asking him to justify his vote against a bill banning child marriage.
December 21, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Matt Maddock, a Republican State Representative in Michigan thinks that opposing pedophilia is a "left-wing scare tactic."
His reply was in response to a question asking him to justify his vote against a bill banning child marriage.
His reply was in response to a question asking him to justify his vote against a bill banning child marriage.
Satire is dead.
December 21, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Satire is dead.
Reposted by John Scudder
This Yglesias piece in the NYT is horrifically bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...
Opinion | Obama Supported It. The Left in Canada and Norway Does. Why Don’t Democrats?
www.nytimes.com
December 20, 2025 at 2:57 PM
This Yglesias piece in the NYT is horrifically bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...
Reposted by John Scudder
Here's a quilt of Volume 4 of the Epstein document dump. Gives you a 10,000 foot view of the redactions. that's 2,704 docs.
December 19, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Here's a quilt of Volume 4 of the Epstein document dump. Gives you a 10,000 foot view of the redactions. that's 2,704 docs.
A good point. Malicious compliance? Or just incompetence?
… never bet against incompetence.
… never bet against incompetence.
lmao this is the worst possible way they could have done it, you gotta leave him in some non-terrible stuff so you can argue that's all there is
"he wasn't mentioned once" is not gonna fly
"he wasn't mentioned once" is not gonna fly
nothing to see here
December 19, 2025 at 10:22 PM
A good point. Malicious compliance? Or just incompetence?
… never bet against incompetence.
… never bet against incompetence.
Reposted by John Scudder
I mean this almost entirely without irony; post-Trump, the default rhetoric regarding Trump's second term should be that it was illegitimate according to the plain text of the 14th amendment, not to mention the subsequent Watergate-a-Day Calendar lawbreaking. (1/2)
embrace presidential sedevacantism
December 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I mean this almost entirely without irony; post-Trump, the default rhetoric regarding Trump's second term should be that it was illegitimate according to the plain text of the 14th amendment, not to mention the subsequent Watergate-a-Day Calendar lawbreaking. (1/2)
Reposted by John Scudder
MY 4-YEAR OLD: *calmly, while coloring a picture of the Grinch* If baby grinches die, we can eat them. If they’re clean. That’s ok
December 17, 2025 at 7:56 PM
MY 4-YEAR OLD: *calmly, while coloring a picture of the Grinch* If baby grinches die, we can eat them. If they’re clean. That’s ok
Reposted by John Scudder
December 18, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Reposted by John Scudder
Reposted by John Scudder
Workers at Chicago’s Mauser Packaging Solutions say they were harassed by Bovino and ICE on their strike picket line today. The workers have been fighting for immigration protections in their union contract
www.teamsterslocal705.net/mauser-teams...
www.teamsterslocal705.net/mauser-teams...
Mauser Teamsters Interrogated by Bovino and Border Patrol Agents While on Strike
Mauser Teamsters Interrogated by Bovino and Border Patrol Agents While on Strike
www.teamsterslocal705.net
December 16, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Workers at Chicago’s Mauser Packaging Solutions say they were harassed by Bovino and ICE on their strike picket line today. The workers have been fighting for immigration protections in their union contract
www.teamsterslocal705.net/mauser-teams...
www.teamsterslocal705.net/mauser-teams...