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Jack A. Goldstone

@jgoldstone.bsky.social
273 followers 15 following 166 posts

Hazel Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. Writes on revolutions, social protest, global population change.

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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Dems who are upset about DSA/Progressive gains need to wise up. Same thing that brought Trump to power. For 20 yrs-Housing Crisis, Broken Borders, COVID, Inflation surge-the system has been great for the rich and terrible for everyone else. So people want someone who will break the system. Period.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
1/ I find it hard to understand why mainstream politicians can distinguish between radical Islam (dangerous and bad) and moderate, mainstream Muslims (generally good, productive citizens) but find it impossible to distinguish between radical Zionism (dangerous and bad) and moderate, mainstream Jews.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
For most of the last six decades, while local and state law enforcement too often killed innocent civilians, the Federal govt. and its agencies tried to uphold a higher standard, with Fed courts and agencies seeking to restrain local excess. Now Feds are killing us.
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David J. Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I suspect that this killing was the same as Renée Good. If I had to bet, I'd bet that Lorenzo was shot as he was turning around. As he pulls away (after seemingly being rammed in the side by an ICE vehicle), you can see ICE agents to the side of his vehicle (not in front) on the passenger side...
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Fox is worried that more people going to libraries means more readers, and a better informed public, which is dangerous to their preferred candidates and issues.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
As we move toward the 250th anniversary of the USA, Washington DC is starting to look more like "Trumpington"--giant posters of Trump on multiple bldgs., his name on the Kennedy Ctr and US Institute of Peace, his troops on the streets. His remade White House, Reflecting Pool, and planned Arch.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Seems clear that the Trump administration plans to mark the 250th anniversary of the US by wholly abandoning the separation of Church and State. www.yahoo.com/news/article...
yahoo.com
White House mass prayer event seeks to reclaim US Christian roots
Thousands of people gathered Sunday in downtown Washington for a mass prayer festival featuring speeches by top Trump administration officials -- an event critics see as an overt display of Christian ...
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Today's SCOTUS decision bodes ill for the upcoming birthright citizenship case. This court seems to pay no attention to precedent and the meaning--original or otherwise--of law and the Constitution. Their project is restoring White Christian dominance of America. So they may limit citizenship.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
SCOTUS has decided that since Obama was elected POTUS there is no longer any racial discrimination in America, that all legacies of slavery have been eliminated, and no protection is any longer necessary or reasonable for African American voters. Instead, unlimited partisan gerrymandering is OK.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
How Iran is surviving (and winning) the war: nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
Iran’s Rope-a-Dope Strategy Has Given It the Upper Hand
Tehran’s strategy in its war against the U.S. and Israel has taken a page from Muhammad Ali. So far, it’s paying off.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
It says a LOT about the quality of life in America and the US's standing in the world that NOT ONE of the top 20 airports in the world is in the US. Tokyo, Seoul, Vancouver, Munich, Paris, London, Vancouver but none here. www.afar.com/magazine/bes...
afar.com
The World's Best Airport Has a Semi-Olympic Pool, Giant Trampoline, and More Than 60 Places to Eat
Hubs in Asia dominated the Skytrax 2026 World's Best Airport list, with a strong showing from Europe as well, and one North American airport making the top 10.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
1/ America began a war with Iran - but did Trump or Congress have any idea of the country the US was attacking? In 2000, before the US invasion, Iraq had a GDP of $312 B (PPP in constant 2021 Int. $). Population was 24.4 million. In 2024, Iran's GDP was $1.6 TRILLION (by the same metric)...
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
People are numb to these numbers. But the $200 Billion being asked "to kill bad guys" is $600 for every single man, woman and child in America. $2,400 TAKEN from every family of four. Trump promised to give money to Americans; now he is taking it away.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Israel clearly wants a forever war. Ali Larijani is one of the few Iranian leaders with sufficient credibilty with the military and the pragmatic streak to be able to negotiate a peace agreement with the US. Killing him makes it certain the military will double down and fight to the bitter end.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
A few thoughts on the Iran war: 1/seems as if the entire Israeli/US strategy was based on belief that a "shock and awe" bombing campaign would quickly lead the regime to collapse. That was stupid: all experts (including me) said that while the regime was weakened, foreign attacks might revive it. ..
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
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.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
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.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
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. ...
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
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.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
My latest on the protests in Iran, with Karim Sadjadpour: www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
theatlantic.com
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.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
"Strong laws ought to be developed against A.I." says the President who has blocked any state from passing strong laws against AI (!?).
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
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.
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Scott MacFarlane @macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
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"
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
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."
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
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.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
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.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
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.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
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...
nytimes.com
A Two-Headed Coin That Always Comes Up ‘Trump’
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
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.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
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.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
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
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
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...?
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Pure political pressure to cancel speech about LGBTQ existence. While Texas banned teaching gender ideology in K-12 schools, there is no law against it in universities. Yet multiple firings after instructor said gender identity is not the same as biological sex. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/u...
nytimes.com
Texas Professor Fired After Accusations of Teaching ‘Gender Ideology’
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
The lower courts are continuing to try to set limits to what POTUS can do: Troops in LA and arbitrary changes to Congressional appropriations have been deemed unlawful. Now we have to wait and see whether SCOTUS agrees or overturns on the basis that the President can do whatever he wants to do.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Have you seen the 100x larger than life banners of Trump on DoL and Ag buildings? Reminds me of nothing so much as Mao's portrait in Tiananmen Sq. Also today: "I have the right to do anything I want to do--I am the President of the United States." Murderers in DC will be executed. Good night USA.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Putin lies to Trump: "You won big in 2020." "If you were President in 2022 there wouldn't have been a war in Ukraine." And Trump laps it up. Well, maybe the last is true. Putin would still have invaded but made sure Trump wouldn't arm Ukraine, so it all would have been over quickly.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Alaska=Helsinki 2.0. Trump LOVES humilating people, and HATES being humiliated, but with Putin he's ok with it. It's so bizarre that the President of the US has a mancrush on Putin.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Contrary to what Putin told Trump to flatter his vanity, MANY countries have mail-in voting, including such model democracies as Canada, Germany and South Korea. It's a common way to vote where there are many people who are in school or temporarily working outside of their state of residence.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
1/ Nothing new has emerged from the AK summit. No cease-fire, plan or agreement to end the war. This looks like a wretched failure: after touting a meeting for peace, or at least a cease-fire, and rolling out the red carpet for Putin in the United States, Trump comes away empty-handed.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
I really don't understand why more people don't see how meeting Putin in Alaska plays into his hands: he can say "Alaska used to part of Russia; now parts of Ukraine will be part of Russia; it's the natural order of things for land to change hands."
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
PBS and NPR defunded; VoA shrunk and run by MAGA; Trump take-over of Kennedy Center; now Colbert cancelled. (Trump gloated: "Kimmel is next.") We are rapidly moving toward a media environment that is simply MAGA, like communist China and Putin's Russia's one-dimensional media space: pro-goverment.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
SCOTUS first said that POTUS is personally immune from prosecution for violating the law. Now it ruled that the rest of us cannot obtain injunction relief if we are impacted by an illegal, unconstitutional action by POTUS. The rule of law is dissolving before our eyes; US is becoming an autocracy.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
1/Trump's ridiculous lies on immigration need to be called out. At the G7 he said Biden allowed "21 million" immigrants into the US and most of them are "criminals" because other countries "emptied their jails." About 4 million immigrants entered during Biden's term, and that is high--about ...
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
1/ Trump wants to offer $1,000 and a plane ticket to undocumented immigrants to self-deport. I understand why you'd want to deport people picked up crossing the border without authorization; or illegal aliens convicted of crimes. But why the rush to deport undocumented folks who have been ...
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
1/ One out of 30 U.S. residents is an undocumented immigrant. 99.9% of them have never committed a crime and pose no threat. Removing tens of thousands of them will turn America into a police state. It is already happening. People are being disappeared into detention or foreign countries or jails.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
If having tatoos meant you are a gang member and need to be deported, we'd have to stop the NBA playoffs and ship all the players to El Salvador. Our government is sometimes just ridiculous.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
After years of living online more than in the real world, we now are living in a country being governed by fantasies. We have a health dept that believes vaccines cause more harm than good; an education department defunding libraries and school testing; an economics team seeking to end world trade.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
If this had been an immigrant, it would have been 24 hour front page news and trumpeted by GOP nationwide. Maybe name a law after the victim. But since this person- who assaulted a 3 yr old girl after prior arrests - was released by Trump, it's fine, right? www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/n...
nytimes.com
Felon Freed by Trump Is Sent Back to Prison After Child Assault Charge
Jonathan Braun, a drug smuggler, on Friday made an obscene gesture toward people in the courtroom and complained about his legal representation.
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
1/ The real risk is that the stupidity of the tariff policies, with calculations based on transparent falsehoods, undermines international trust in US economic policy-making. Combined with the crazy Senate rule to treat new tax cuts as cost free, driving up the deficit by trillions of dollars ...
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Jack A. Goldstone @jgoldstone.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
We will find out on April 2 what tarrifs Trump will impose. He seems to believe that the US economy is so strong and independent that any interruptions or costs to trade will hurt other countries a lot, and the US very little. I hope he is right, but this seems like a FAFO moment.
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