Jack A. Goldstone

Clear why Trump & GOP are panicked about midterms. If Dems win, not only Trump, but also Bondi & Noem will be impeached for gross dereliction of duty. Possibly Hegseth for violation of laws of war and Lutnick for lying to Congress.

Naked lying, just because Trump loves oil and coal -- his ideal world is the world of the 1950s. "As a matter of fact, China has more wind and solar capacity than any other country in the world with twice as much capacity under construction than the rest of the world combined" (Forbes)

Trump admin now blames racist primate posting of Obamas on a staffer. Yet no one has been identified and disavowed or fired. So FBI & DoJ can't find the person who posted that meme on Trump's Truth Social website? Really? Means either Trump posted it or is OK with it and defending whoever did.

4/More concrete: non-college educated men had same life expectancy as college men in 1970. Now their life expectancy is 10 YEARS LESS. THAT is the loss in the last 50 years, despite small increases in purchasing power. Ignorance from elites like Wash Post ed. page is what brought us MAGA.

3/Extreme example: In 6 years 2019-2025, Jeff Bezos's wealth more than doubled, increasing $125 billion. But US workers are supposed to be content because their hourly wages can buy 13.8% more than in 2006. NO. And while TVs and cars may be cheaper, key things like health care and housing are not.

2/In this view US workers should be grateful for any crumbs of growth, while the rest of the economy and the top 10% (esp. top 1%/0.1%) grab the vast majority of growth and race past them. That's why US workers are NOT content, and are voting for change, whether for Trump in 2024 or now against him.

1/ WashPost editorial says "new data make clear that 21st century Americans can still be content about how far they’ve come." The data? A 13.8% increase in purchasing power per hour of work since 2006. That's a miserable 0.6%/yr, while US real GDP was growing 45% in those years, 3 times faster. ...

It's clear that illegal immigrants are to the Trump administration what Jews were to the Nazis: subhuman invaders who must be forced out of society by any means and who have no claim on empathy or any legal or human rights. Living in a society that treats human beings like this is disgraceful.

Why are ICE agents wearing camoflauge? Are they planning to hide in the woods to jump out and surprise immigrants? Do they expect jungle warfare in Minneapolis? NO: it has one purpose -- too look tough and intimidate. Horrific.

Is the Iranian Regime About to Collapse? Five conditions determine whether revolutions succeed. For the first time since 1979, Iran meets nearly all of them.

My latest on the protests in Iran, with Karim Sadjadpour:
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

"Strong laws ought to be developed against A.I." says the President who has blocked any state from passing strong laws against AI (!?).

America has a president who was best friends for decades with a sex trafficking pedophile and himself was convicted of felony business fraud. And yet he thinks America is now respected again. Sorry, the world laughs and pities us.

Among the newly-released Epstein files. This Justice Dept email from Jan 2020

'I wanted to let you know that the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein's private jet many more times than previously has been reported"

It's good to catch admin officials in lies. But these hearings are harsh. I miss the ol' Southern legislators who would say "I'm just a country lawyer, but I know when when a dog is right and when it's gone wrong, and when I hear what you're telling me I have to say that your dog just won't hunt."

Very bizarre to see SecHS Noem smiling through today's hearing as if her plumped up lips and wavy hair will shield her from harsh and clear statements of her lies and false ICE arrests of American citizens.

2/Buoyed by his Gaza delusion, Trump wants to impose "peace" on Ukraine. But his plan is a surrender, demanding Ukraine render itself defenseless in the future (reduce the military, no NATO membership, no NATO troops in Ukraine). Makes the USA Putin's partner in the defeat and surrender of Ukraine.

1/Trump thinks he "won" the Gaza Peace Plan because Qatar forced Hamas to "accept" the terms. But a key point was that Hamas disarm, and Gaza be managed by international forces. These are looking like pipe dreams. So the "cease fire" allows Hamas to regroup and retake control of much of Gaza.

Empathy, caring, supporting your neighbors. Listening patiently to those you disagree with.

This is rather worrisome: Trump just granted blanket, preemptive pardons to anyone who in any way helped him try to overturn the 2020 election, saying they were simply exercising their democratic right to challenge election results. Now anyone can help him overturn results in 2026/28 without fear.

A Two-Headed Coin That Always Comes Up ‘Trump’

Trump doesn't just want to be a dictator, he wants to be a Caesar, with a triumph arch in his capital and his image on coins. For the Founding Fathers, who admired the Roman Republic and feared tyrants above all, Trump would be a nightmare. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/u...

What if instead of making AI companions to REPLACE real interactions, making them as ingratiating and fawning as possible, AI was used to create relationship TRAINING, rewarding users for being unselfish, cooperative and empathetic? Goal should be to help people improve, not just capture attention.

Trump made his career & attracted new voters by being dfferent from other politicians--lying about opponents, saying the nation was in carnage, etc. Now he is sounding JUST LIKE other policitians, lying to people about prices not going up, the economy being great for them, etc. This may cripple him.

2/have to deal with populations that are more rural, have more evangeligicals, and more non-college educated voters. So it's crucial to build on these victories to expand the Democratic message and base, becoming as inclusive as possible. Make the GOP suffer for inflation, ICE excesses, corruption!

1/ Dems had a great victory last night. But it's important not to rest on these laurels. They should be an inducement to get working at the grass roots level to duplicate the youth turnout of Mamdani and the middle-of-the-road appeal to independents of Sherril and Spanberger. Elsewhere, Dems will

If you follow me and enjoy my posts, please consider signing up for my new substack, 10 Billion, for longer reads on global affairs.
substack.com/@jackagoldst...?

In 2024, there were an estimated 80,391 drug overdose deaths in the US, a significant decrease of nearly 27% from the previous year. This decline is the largest one-year drop ever recorded in U.S. history regarding drug overdoses. Trump doesn't even know the popuilation of his own country.

The President of Texas A&M should resign, not for the fault of allowing gender identity issues to be discussed in a literature class, but for failing to defend academic freedom and integrity in the face of unscientific views being forced on his university as strict boundaries.

if they found the lecture conflicted with their values. Firing university officials under the obviously false pretext of course description issues, because the Governor and MAGA state officials objected to ANY mention of gender identity issues in a UNIVERSITY (!) classroom is appalling.

to expect any course on literature, even children's literature, to pay attention to how that literature addresses issues of gender.
So this is totally normal. The student who filmed and reported the incident was not "kicked out" of the class, but told (properly) that they were free to leave ...

so that schools can have the same course taught by different faculty in different times. Every faculty member usually puts their own expertise forward in shaping the course they are assigned, as long as the general content conforms to the course description. In 2025, it is not unreasonable...