David A. Hughes, Ph.D.

Rejection! Only took 8 months, but we finally got the verdict: These results are too intuitive, lol. Alright, onward we go.

Trump Loyalist Admits Grand Jury Never Saw Final Comey Indictment

I've largely avoided posting about the day-to-day absurdities of this administration (mainly for my sanity), but this is truly something to behold. I thought the government's case was weak to begin with, but at this point, I'll be surprised if there aren't sanctions. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/u...

YouTube video by Eddie Izzard Eddie Izzard "Russians" Sketch From Dress to Kill

Apropos of nothing, I am this morning reminded of the Eddie Izzard bit about the wisdom of invading Russia. youtu.be/Pmf8byuHJWw?...

Supreme Court rejects call to overturn its decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide The Supreme Court has rejected a call to overturn its landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

This might be one area where the majority is strategically ducking. They know that, eventually, Dems will win the WH, House, and Senate, and judicial reform will be on the agenda. Unlike Roe, this hasn't become some half-century cause defining conservative jurisprudence. www.wsfa.com/2025/11/10/s...

Opinion | Mamdani Isn’t the Future of the Democrats. This Guy Is.

One hopes--or another centrist. I'm not sure if Buttigieg will ever be able to get the stink of the Biden admin off him to win the nod (though he had some strong headwinds against him that will perhaps always keep us from having nice things). www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/o...

This shutdown never made much sense to me in the first place. Democrats had incredibly poor leverage from the word, "go," and their ask was huge.

Yeah, I think this is where I am. Federal employees and SNAP beneficiaries badly need relief. As the holidays approach, it's time to let the hostages go. Congress can resume their fight in January when the CR expires yet again.

I'm hearing mostly teeth-gnashing amongst Dems about this, but there are some upsides. The RIFs reversals and backpay are something. The ACA vote will fail. Mostly, MCs don't want this to continue into the holidays, and the pain amongst constituents is real. This was always the most likely off-ramp.

A fellow hounder once invited me to his south Alabama camp to let the dogs night-hunt. He said, "You're going to want to get yourself a pair of special chaps first." Curious, of course, I asked why, and he said, "Oh, the camp is lousy with water moccasins," and I was like oh hell no, lol.

By the by, if you have a southern friend and have never spent much time in the region--and if you want to see the look of abject fear and loathing on their face, ask them how they feel about cottonmouths. I've never met a southerner who doesn't rank cottonmouths 2nd only to satan for pure evil.

Believe that's a timber rattler, though I'm awful at snake id's. I was simply glad to have been in my car when I came across it and not on the trail.

Mr. Wilson and I hit the Wild Azalea Trail today. Perfect weather. Still amazed I found a place in LA with hardwood forests (beech trees, hollies, oak and hickory). Felt like I was home. We also came across an unfortunate snake who appears to have met his end under a car tire.

I know virtually nothing about California politics, so I'm genuinely asking, why are Democrats only talking about flipping 5 Republican US House seats during redistricting--is it simply impossible to get more?

I'm a little conflicted about Jones. On the one hand, state democrats need him. He's one of the only serious, big name democrats in the state who can win vites. But I also felt like he was nowhere to be seen when Reed retook the party. He worked with the DNC, I know. But he wasn't at party meetings.

The last slate of Democrats the party ran in 2022 were an appalling lot of unserious nobodies. Current leadership has no interest in building the party because it threatens their grip on it. Jones is that threat, which is why they hate him so much.

Even cracking the 40% threshold would be a win of sorts. Could flip some legislative seats, especially around Huntsville. The party needs him, but they certainly don't deserve him. And he'll have to fight Reed and Kelley tooth and nail. Could also be important given redistricting is probably coming.

And we've got plenty of proof that Trump's brand of populist demagoguery is singular. How many Republican wannabes have tried it and failed? DeSantis, Rubio, Vivek, and boy the list just goes on and on.

If it did, you wouldn't have the leader of the GOP tariffing the world back into the Gilded Age, flirting with isolationism, making the feds a stakeholder in private firms, lighting the cornerstones of US military norms on fire, etc, etc., etc.

Once the populist demagogue is gone, it's rare for a successor candidate to capture that same lightning in the bottle. I suspect the GOP will be rudderless once Trump's gone, and turnout of the base? Good luck, I guess. But it doesn't have much of an ideology to run on anymore.

This is why southern politics tended to produce outrageous characters (it gets attention, and attention is coordination). It's also why you see dynasties like Talmadge, Long, etc.. (I suspect we're going to see people named Trump running for some time, probably successfully).

So here's the thing--I don't know how the GOP moves forward without Trump. This topic deserves a dissertation, but take it from somebody who's studied a lot of populist demagoguery in the South: Once the demagogue departs, voters struggle to coordinate on new candidates.

Then of course, there's the trouble down the road at the University of New Orleans (and lord knows where else). Rumors swirl about the process to reform that struggling school. Higher ed in Louisiana is in a very precarious situation right now, and one wonders how we will manage to right the ship.

There are still a lot of questions here at UL-Lafayette about how the university managed to get itself in such financial trouble, who was responsible for those missteps, who else knew about the trouble, when they became aware of it, and what they did with that information.

The Reveille looks forward to new LSU president, but questions the process - Reveille The Reveille Editorial Board weighs in on the leadership changes at LSU and questions the search process for its new president.

A very sober analysis by journalists @lsu.bsky.social about the selection process for the next leaders at the state's flagship. For context, UL-Lafayette is also searching for its next president as it attempts to dig itself out of the hole its previous leaders dug. lsureveille.com/268736/opini...

It's 82 degrees in Lafayette today--I'm currently running my AC. On Monday we're looking at a low of 32! I'm enjoying my yard-work this weekend while the pretty weather lasts.

Expected a thermostatic effect, but nothing this big. One of the more important facets of this election, imo.

As many times as I've mocked the Senate's "greatest deliberative body in the world" nonsense, at least they show up. This is ridiculous.

The Downballot's special elections Big Board for the 2025-26 cycle

According to the folks at The Downballot, the average margin swing between 2024 and 2025 for all the races held last week was a 12.8 percentage point swing toward Democrats. Pretty big! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Anybody hear anything about what's up with US Census Quick Facts (census.gov/quickfacts/)? I regularly point students to it to grab demographic data, but it's been down for weeks, and I don't see a public statement from the Census. This problem predates the shutdown.

How is it that multiple news networks have pollster/data guru cult followings? One built his celebrity on khakis--the other yells, apparently.