@toddeberly.bsky.social
Poli sci prof at St. Mary's College. Author. Independent. Co-author of 3 books on the Trump Presidency, 1 on polarization, and another popular discontent & its impact on politics. Search Amazon! If you find me offensive, may I suggest you stop finding me.
ABC News has now fully taken down the old 538 website, including all interactive projects since 2014. Aside from erasing history this prevents access to publicly released data, including raw polls, averages, model estimates & story dta. Totally unacceptable for a company (allegedly) doing journalism
They did this because they knew that Congress isn’t always in session & a president surrounded by sycophants would be a danger to the Republic. GOP Senators rolling over & confirming unqualified & dangerous nominees like Kennedy, Gabbard, & Hegseth are betraying their Constitutional obligations. /2
There’s no historical or Constitutional basis for a President being entitled to the Cabinet of their choice. More than anything the Framers feared a powerful executive surrounded by sycophants & “yes men.” So they made presidential appointments subject to the advice AND consent of the Senate. /1
At this point, I’m convinced that Trump has signed an Executive Order instructing the librarian of the National Archives to record that his hands are bigger than those of every other President.
The Washington Post editorial this morning essentially equating Biden's questionable pardons with Trump's outrageous Jan. 6 pardons was unconscionable. The newspaper I've been part of for 48 years has utterly lost its soul.
Folks: please be diligent about not disseminating Ann Telnaes' cartoon in a way that she's not getting the clicks on it (until she says differently). Her IP matters now more than ever.
Make it go viral but make sure she benefits.
anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-qui...
And it is now ridiculously easy to order whatever you want and have it delivered to your door. DoorDash/Grub Hub During Covid a restaurant’s survival meant delivery & customers came to love the convenience. It’s why we order out at least once a week. It’s the night no one complains about dinner.
In my early 20s a typical meal for me was a box of generic rice-a-roni served over a bed of crumbled generic crackers. It was $0.75 per meal. That’s roughly a $1.75 today. There was a variety flavors & boy was it filling.
We have a family of four. Ordering dinner out, which we do at least once a week, costs as much as a week’s worth of groceries. Unless all you do is order bad pizza, it ain’t cheaper to order out.
Think about how long that lap portion of the belt would be if not stretched around the lap. You can buckle it and just let the buckle flop down on the side of the seat. No need to sit on it.
At least for the moment national publications are radically understating the contents of Matthew Livelsberger's political minifestos which call for a violent, militia-backed "culling" of Dems from and national rebirth of masculinity under the rule of Trump ... talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/why-a...
I think those things go hand in hand. In the 1960s over 40% of Americans smoked. It’s now less than 12%. Smoking bans & public information campaigns absolutely played a major role in that decline over time because they resulted in people having a better understanding of the danger.
By 1997, seatbelt use was at 72% and kept rising to 90% by 2017. There's really no question but that the laws and the aggressive ad campaigns were the reasons that people began to wear seat belt. Disabling the beep was a simple matter of buckling the seat belt, but not wearing it. /2
The warning bells appeared in 1972. By 1984 only 14% of folks used their seatbelt. That year, New York became the first state mandate that occupants wear belts. In 1985, use grew to 21%. By 1992, 62% wore belts. In 1993, the NHTSA launched Click-It or Ticket & in 1995 all states mandated it. /1
I got a blueberry muffin from Panera. It was yummy… except for the small pieces of wood that were in it.
Were they trying to add fiber?
Maryland hasn't had a budget problem this bad since the O'Malley Administration. marylandmatters.org/2024/11/12/f...
Republicans raised holly hell over the breach of regular order and the refusal to close the vote. Everyone supports a "return to regular order" until regular order undermines their plans and path to victory. /2
In my book, American Government and Popular Discontent, I recount a 2007 vote on an appropriations bill where Republicans appeared to defeat the bill. But majority Democrats held the vote open well after the time allotted had expired & convinced 3 Dems to switch their votes - securing victory. /1
Second Skin
What did Johnson have to do to get Self and Norman to change their votes?
3 Republican voted against Johnson & 6 withheld their vote... initially.
Why does that matter?
Under House rules, it takes 9 members to make a motion to vacate the Speaker. This was a shot across the bow to let Johnson know that if he becomes Speaker, the votes are there to oust him.
They cannot resist the need to lean into racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. It's just who they are.
Things that I don’t understand. I have a close family member who is diabetic & was paying $400 a month on insulin. There were months they could barely afford it. Under Biden, the cost dropped to $35 a month. They voted for Trump because Biden “ignored people like them.” I don’t get it.
Essentially, publishers no longer want to be responsible for promoting the the stuff they publish. As self-publishing becomes easier & easier, folks w/ a following will just bypass the publishing houses. So these folks are making themselves obsolete.
The US tested a basic income program under Nixon in 7 US cities & found that although it made people better off w/o “making them lazy”, it appeared to result in higher divorce rates in 2 of the test cities. That killed Nixon’s support. Spoiler: Subsequent analysis found no effect on divorce.
“Democrats should take some time to ponder the implications of this loss, but they should spend far more time preparing for their likely comeback in 2026.”
www.baltimoresun.com/2024/12/21/d...
It’s amazing how less agitated or angry I feel now that I’ve dropped Twitter from my life. The number of my angry political posts on Facebook has dropped as well. It’s as if the Twitter algorithm was designed to keep me angry and agitated. I’d then vent on Facebook.
Give that man a second term!!!
Gov. Moore supports beer and wine sales in Maryland grocery stores.
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...
My wife is a citizen because of birthright citizenship. And yet my family members can’t grasp why it should matter to me that they voted for Trump. www.bbc.com/news/article...
I’m closing in on 1,000 followers. Please recommend me to folks who you think might be interested in the random, ramblings of a professor of American (and Maryland) politics and policy!