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jlazarus.bsky.social
Political scientist at Georgia State University. Congress & elections. My feed is mostly politics but you’ll get some sports takes and terrible dad jokes along the way.
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Posts 28 Comments 22

This is key: If we want to beat Trump, we must talk about impeachment until it gathers public support and becomes a Big Thing. Failing to talk about it, as Dems think is smart, means it will never become a Big Thing.

submitted 3 hours ago • 7 comments

Just look at these paragraphs from the AP story. Hegseth called Brown unqualified solely because he's Black. Then they fired him... and replaced him with a white guy so indisputably unqualified that he requires a Presidential waiver. This is what "merit" means to them. apnews.com/article/trum...

submitted 16 hours ago • 418 comments

I fear that this is just a prelude to further purges, the installation of yes men (pun intended), and the introduction of loyalty oaths. These are the steps that destroy professionalism and make the use of violence to restore "domestic order" thinkable --- and more likely.

submitted 13 hours ago • 18 comments

I think the most wrong I have ever been as a political scientist was when I said in a public forum in 2020 that there would not be political violence in the US (Jan 6 was 2 mos later). Tonight’s purges are a clear precursor to more future such violence. This is textbook authoritarian abuse stuff.

submitted 11 hours ago • 41 comments

In every single interview I’ve done with international media since Trump took power I’ve been asked: Why are there no mass protests? There are many reasons, of course, but the utter refusal of the self-proclaimed “fourth estate” to communicate clearly what is happening has to be high on the list.

submitted 4 hours ago • 159 comments

Regardless of how much coverage it gets, Trump aiming to install a military command that places loyalty to him above loyalty to the constitution needs to be a much bigger story.

submitted 15 hours ago • 67 comments

Of the Chiefs of Staff, vice chiefs of staff, and judge advocates general of the three branches, Trump fired all the women and Black people.

submitted 14 hours ago • 193 comments

So they removed the black chairman of the Joint Chiefs in the middle of his 4-year tour, without cause, and they're seeking to replace him with a white **retired** Air Force three-star general who lacks the requisite experience as a service chief or combatant commander? Huh, how about that

submitted 16 hours ago • 1811 comments

This is going to go on at many universities - the uncertainty will lead to fewer graduate programs. It will hobble scientific research which appears to be the goal.

submitted 18 hours ago • 10 comments

I’m still seeing a few people interpret this literally, so I’ll repeat for the record: I am engaging in pure, rank speculation. I do not have any specific knowledge of this happening. Based on what I know of the parties involved I think it might happen. That’s it.

submitted 19 hours ago • 1 comment

They are telling us, out loud, exactly how the 2026/28 elections will not be free & fair. They will go after vote by mail (bsky.app/profile/mira...). They will go after computer voting. They will then say we can't count all the paper ballots because it's taking too long & there must be fraud. Etc.

submitted 20 hours ago • 73 comments

Incredible Dear Leader shit

submitted 20 hours ago • 1 comment

How it started. How it’s going

submitted 22 hours ago • 260 comments

There’s not a word in this story about the corrupt nature of this dismissal. Not a concern voiced, not a question raised, not even an acknowledgment that he’s the president’s biggest donor and he’s acting as an unelected, unconfirmed tyro wielding unchecked power over spending and the civil service.

submitted 1 day ago • 115 comments

Oh fuck, what a grift. J6 terrorists sue a DOJ controlled by Trump; Trump orders DOJ lawyers to settle for an undisclosed amount, both sides agree to an NDA. This can happen dozens, hundreds of times. Just an ingenious way to funnel tax dollars to far-right terrorist groups.

submitted 22 hours ago • 72 comments

Been saying for close to 10 years that Trump's governing style is Tony Soprano.

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

It’s journalistic malpractice — to the extent that’s a thing any more — to talk about this Ed Martin letter without clarifying that every expert, other than administration hacks, thinks that Garcia’s statement was not remotely plausibly a true threat. It’s simply ludicrous.

submitted 1 day ago • 57 comments

Translation: Cody Bellinger can’t lay off the weed long enough to get a haircut.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Once upon a time, these were actions by a private company. Now they are actions being undertaken by a high-ranking government official, in connection with his public activities. This raises 1A issues that didn’t exist before.

submitted 1 day ago • 56 comments

The next time you think public pressure can't work, remember when MLB was forced to buy out Angel Hernandez' contract because the entire sport's fan base relentlessly made fun of him online. Keep relentlessly making fun of people who deserve it.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

I’ll keep pushing this line of analysis because I’m increasingly convinced the clearest path out of this mess is for Dems to adopt a relentless anti-corruption, anti-inequality, anti-oligarchy, pro-democracy platform. The Dem leadership hasn’t realized it yet, but they’re now a reform party.

submitted 1 day ago • 77 comments

I am very sad to say that I would have said this is a straight line from exactly what the signals were online, and nobody was listening to the whole cohort of folks shouting about this for about 10 years straight while having their lives ruined for mentioning it

submitted 1 day ago • 70 comments

Took me until 2025 to get my first online "relax it's just a joke." Ah, the privilege of being a white dude.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

The temptation is strong to dunk on GOP officeholders finally repudiating Trump at this late stage. But this is what we need if we're going to salvage American democracy. And lots of it.

submitted 1 day ago • 12 comments

Russian oligarch-ass administration.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Again I am begging people in the media to note the legality of these actions in their headlines or blurbs. A post office is literally written into the constitution.

submitted 1 day ago • 61 comments

I just watched that clip of Elon talking to the Newsmax host while high & I have nothing funny to say. Just... it's starkly terrifying that a drug-addicted Nazi billionaire has taken control of the US government, & that that is not in the least a hyperbolic or subjective summary of what is going on.

submitted 1 day ago • 11 comments

Coordination problems rule everything around me and are, at base, the reason why we are in this moment. Since 2016, everyone who was pivotal in solving a coordination problem to sideline Donald Trump and eliminate the threat he poses to democracy failed to do so.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments