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James Briggs

@jamesebriggs.bsky.social
7.9K followers 535 following 159 posts

Making opinion great again for The Indianapolis Star. Also on Substack: www.betweenthemotion.com Forward down the field.

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Reposted by James Briggs
SnydeReport @snydereport.com · 07/03/2026
NEW #SnydeReport: @jamesebriggs.bsky.social with Braun’s Trump Echo Chamber; Diego banned from Election Offices; Indiana MAGA Webpage Wars; and TRUMP LOSES 92,000 JOBS IN FEB... stats.sender.net/browser_prev...
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
We have some decisions to make as a society about whether we want to grant masked agents full discretion to render the death penalty whenever it suits them.
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Dara Lind @daralind.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
ICE is attempting to co-opt my personal favorite thing about America. So I’m in the Indianapolis Star explaining to Indycar fans why what ICE is doing is so harmful, and to everyone else about why Indycar, in particular, represents a better America than that. www.indystar.com/story/opinio...
indystar.com
ICE's 'Speedway Slammer' propaganda gets IndyCar — and America — wrong | Opinion
The people being scared out of public life by ICE are some of the most visible fans at every IndyCar race.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
RFK Jr. is gutting mRNA research while giving a full-throated endorsement to pumping fast-food fries and soda into Americans’ diets. MAHA! Column:
indystar.com
Steak 'n Shake's MAGA makeover is a desperate bid to save a dying business | Opinion
Steak 'n Shake's beef tallow and cane sugar won't make you healthy, but the chain will gladly take your cash if you believe in MAHA.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Since visiting Graceland last month, I’ve been obsessed with Elvis. I wrote a piece attempting to grapple with why I found Elvis’ mansion tour so moving.
open.substack.com
Elvis' Graceland moved me in unexpected ways
Graceland is supposed to be fun. I left in a melancholy daze.
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Reposted by James Briggs
Gregg Doyel @greggdoyelstar.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Mike Braun grandstands on Indianapolis crime while murders drop 24% … from metro columnist @jamesebriggs.bsky.social www.indystar.com/story/opinio...
indystar.com
Mike Braun grandstands on Indianapolis crime while murders drop 24% | Opinion
The do-something carnival barkers want you scared about Indianapolis crime. Here's why they don't deserve a voice.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
In which @profhicks.bsky.social predicts eight rural hospitals will close in Indiana.
indystar.com
Trump's tax bill will crush the rural voters who chose him | Opinion
Medicaid cuts and hospital closures will hit hardest in the very communities that supported the president's budget plans.
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Reposted by James Briggs
Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
There’s your empty shelf. US goods imports drop 19.8% in April — largest on record
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
I wrote about AI for my newsletter. There’s no more time to waste debating its virtues. It doesn’t care about our feelings. It’s here and it’s changing everything for white collar career paths. Adapt or die.
betweenthemotion.com
Now, the robots want white collar jobs
AI will do to office work what automation did to factories.
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Reposted by James Briggs
Gregg Doyel @greggdoyelstar.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Jim Irsay talked with me about death quite a bit. Others’ deaths, yes, but mainly his – the one he’d avoided, the one he knew was coming eventually. Wednesday was the day death came for the Colts owner, for this complicated, imperfect, beautiful soul. www.indystar.com/story/sports...
indystar.com
Doyel: Jim Irsay died and we're less for it; Indianapolis, the Colts, all of us
Jim Irsay talked with me about death. Mainly his death, the one he’d avoided, the one he knew was coming. Wednesday death came for his beautiful soul.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Indiana is really enthusiastic about killing bad guys until the hour arrives and everything is done in total secret. Firing squads, as savage as they are, would be an improvement. www.indystar.com/story/opinio...
indystar.com
Indiana hides executions. Firing squads would be more honest. | Opinion
Our politicians want tough-guy credit for killing killers, while detaching themselves from the reality of their decisions.
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Reposted by James Briggs
Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
just over the last 5 weeks, Trump has helped swing elections (against him) in Wisconsin, Canada, Australia, and the Vatican.
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Daryl Fairweather ⛅ @fairweatherphd.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Will home prices fall this year? Two data points make me think yes! 1) The median list price of homes for sale is nearly $40k more than the median price of homes sold. 2) 44% of sellers are giving buyers extra money after accepting an offer to make sure the deal closes.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Think of Trump's tariffs as a COVID lockdown, but for goods rather than people.
indystar.com
Trump's tariffs are the new COVID shutdown | Opinion
Our standard of living will fall unless Republicans stop President Trump's tariff madness.
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Erik the Rural Juror @edoggthered.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Great column today from @jamesebriggs.bsky.social with a sobering assessment of where we are and where we are headed. www.indystar.com/story/opinio...
indystar.com
Trump's tariffs are the new COVID shutdown | Opinion
Our standard of living will fall unless Republicans stop President Trump's tariff madness.
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Huss/ein Banai @hbanai.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Very lucky to have such a fine columnist in our local paper who writes on local and national topics with verve and intelligence @jamesebriggs.bsky.social
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
I'm confident that if Trump's goon squad were to send me (or you) to a foreign death camp, Sen. Jim Banks' response would be, "🤣 🤣 🤣."
indystar.com
Jim Banks would let Trump commit any crime you can imagine | Opinion
Jim Banks has one standard: subservience to Trump's whims. Even when Trump defies a law Banks created, Banks will not oppose him.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
I've been thinking about how far Trump's lawlessness can go and I came up with a framework: the Jim Banks test. Apply it to specific scenarios. Can Trump send US citizens to foreign torture prisons w/o due process? Would Banks defend/enable it? Then yes.
indystar.com
Jim Banks would let Trump commit any crime you can imagine | Opinion
Jim Banks has one standard: subservience to Trump's whims. Even when Trump defies a law Banks created, Banks will not oppose him.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Few people so bad at politics have made it so far as Indiana Gov. Mike Braun.
indystar.com
Mike Braun got suckered into a tax-cut promise he couldn't keep | Opinion
Mike Braun in three months as Indiana governor has shown he's as lost and rudderless as he ever was in the U.S. Senate.
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Reposted by James Briggs
Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
NEW: The Supreme Court directs the Trump administration to "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from a prison in El Salvador, where he was sent due to an "administrative error." It also somewhat narrows the district court's order. No noted dissents. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...
The rest of the District Court's order remains in effect but requires clarification on remand. The order properly requires the Government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador. The intended scope of the term “effectuate” in the District Court's order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court's authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs. For its part, the Government should be prepared to share what it can con- cerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.
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Gregg Doyel @greggdoyelstar.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Combat Banks, Beckwith, Rokita stunts with earnestness. Opinion from metro columnist @jamesebriggs.bsky.social www.indystar.com/story/opinio...
indystar.com
Combat Banks, Beckwith, Rokita stunts with earnestness | Opinion
These Republican leaders drowned their humanity inside made-for-MAGA personas engineered to generate likes and shares.
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Joe Weisenthal @weisenthal.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
At 12:01 Trump's tariffs officially took effect. Tariffs are now at their highest level in 100 years. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
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Jesse Eisinger @jeisinger.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Ok what’s going on here? Yields are going up which means bond prices are going down. Fewer buyers of the world’s safest asset. Normally when the economy slows, there’s a flight to safety, not away from it. Means the world may be abandoning America. We are flirting with a true crisis.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
The Trump admin people who used AI to create the tariff formula should consider asking it some more questions.
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Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
I don’t understand how we so quickly forgot the supply shock lessons of Covid. Do people not remember what it was like to just not be able to get ahold of stuff required for daily existence? I am telling you, manufacturers that can’t absorb these tariffs are going to simply stop assembly lines.
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Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
The discourse around tariffs has been “things will get more expensive” but I am here to tell you that I am knee deep in reporting on this subject and I strongly suspect that if super high tariffs endure, it will shift to *certain items cease to be available at any price*
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
I normally bring an NPR vibe to these things, but I get a bit animated (for me) here.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
This is a big deal. Spread the word. But it’s tiny compared to the totality of what’s happening at NIH. Cure Research for all cancers, Alzheimer’s, everything is being gutted. Intentionally. It’s all getting burned to the ground but the news isn’t getting out. The new cures won’t be there for you.
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Reposted by James Briggs
James Poniewozik @poniewozik.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
The White Lotus season 4 should be set among the crisis PR staff at White Lotus headquarters, just dealing with everyone constantly dying at all their properties
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Personally, I don’t think Donald Trump is a prophet. I wrote about our impending recession, which was very much not inevitable.
open.substack.com
Recession, he wrote
Either Trump is a prophet, or misery is coming.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Friday opinion dump: Indiana's secretary of state should be impeached.
indystar.com
Diego Morales is rubbing our faces in his corruption. Impeach him now. | Opinion
Diego Morales has free rein to treat taxpayers and donors as his personal entitlements. Impeachment is the only check on his abuse.
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Kealeen The Griff @kealeen.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
“It would be kind of funny if the DOGE bros weren't demanding everyone else do more with less.” Once again, Briggs nails it.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
The small men governing Indiana need big, expensive, taxpayer-funded cars — and they'll cut programs you depend on to afford them.
indystar.com
Micah Beckwith and his Indiana DOGE bros are livin' large | Opinion
The small men governing Indiana need big cars — and they'll cut programs you depend on to afford them.
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Reposted by James Briggs
Joe Weisenthal @weisenthal.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
One of the most memorable news events, where a policy announcement made the stock market tank in such a direct way. I've seen other press conferences/speeches where the market tanked, but it was always in the context of an ongoing crisis where the response looked insufficient.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Indiana's lieutenant governor needs an $88,000 SUV because the previous person in his role was a woman and he's a man who needs room in the car for other men. That's not even a joke, that's the actual explanation. www.indystar.com/story/news/p...
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Joshua Benton @joshuabenton.com · 02/04/2025
Maybe!
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Conservatives are hunting for clandestine libs hiding out on sanctuary school boards across Indiana. Their solution: partisan school board elections. New column this morning:
indystar.com
Indiana is turning school boards into a farm system for wannabe politicians | Opinion
Expect more Micah Beckwith-types to jump at the chance to run for school boards in Indiana.
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Dara Lind @daralind.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Note the government is doing 2 separate things here: 1) Acknowledging it made a mistake (violated US law by deporting someone who was legally protected from deportation). 2) Refusing to fix the mistake by claiming it has no authority to do so.
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Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Yes - DOJ and FBI have been all over Fox promising to punish anti-Tesla actions as "terrorism," even though the FBI says the attacks are not coordinated and they don't fit a definition of terrorism. www.semafor.com/article/03/2...
semafor.com
The plot against Jasmine Crockett
One colleague says the Texan “speaks for a lot of people who are upset and angry.” Republicans are still casting her as a one-woman gaffe machine.
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Carley Lanich @carleylanich.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
A standout figure in IPS’ latest budget: $124 million — roughly a quarter of total operating expenses — are flagged for innovation schools, most of which are charter schools. This comes as charter leaders lobby state lawmakers to direct some property tax money away from IPS into their schools.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Much has been made of this, but it really is funny to see the extent to which Bluesky is a garden for the most 10% left-leaning disaffected Twitter users, who will respond with lethal force to anyone peddling apples in their Eden.
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Indiana needs a normie revolution.
indystar.com
Indiana needs normal people to get political | Opinion
Change is a tedious, laborious project, but you can start today.
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Nick Kristof @nickkristof.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Meet Evan Anzoo, a five-year-old boy in South Sudan who died when Elon Musk shut down USAID and the boy lost access to his HIV meds. Musk says no one has died because of the aid shutdown, but that's because he didn't look. RIP, Evan, you deserved better. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
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James Briggs @jamesebriggs.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
The really remarkable thing about this Trump admin is how many people's lives the president is disrupting in such a short period of time. It goes way beyond Biden-era "prices are high" touchpoints to things like "we're taking away your legitimate income."
seattletimes.com
I found a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle
“Dead” Ned Johnson turns out to be very much alive. It took him weeks to convince the system he was breathing and to start clawing his benefits back.
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Binyamin Appelbaum @bcappelbaum.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
This is crazy. I know there are many crazy things happening right now, but this is a very high density of crazy:
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11/03/2025
Trump announces more tariffs on Canada and says, "The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State."
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Joe Weisenthal @weisenthal.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
*TRUMP SAYS HE'S INCREASING CANADA STEEL, ALUMINUM TARIFF TO 50% *TRUMP THREATENS TO `PERMANENTLY SHUT DOWN' CANADA CAR INDUSTRY *TRUMP: CANADA TARIFF DUE TO ELECTRICITY TARIFF
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