John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 23hToo young to legally consent to sign a contract. But old enough to consent away where they want to live to be shipped someplace random by a government that hates them. In a just world, Hollad would need to annex half of Belgium to find room for the expanded Hague prison thus all calls for. 111446
Reposted by John PfaffKevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026When they get back in power, Democrats need to go all-in on higher education. We need a campaign of reinvestment in public universities across the country that makes the Morrill Land-Grant Act look like nothing by comparison *and* a GI Bill of Rights-style program of tuition grants. 20752311418
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 29/09/2026“Manipulated dog.” So these aren’t even pretextual stops. These are just “No Constitutional Whatsoever” stops. If we can’t stop you, we’ll make up a reason to. If we can’t berate you into a search, we will nakedly fabricate one. Every drug conviction in Bexar should be challenged. Like in MA: 28015
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 29/09/2026So what you’re saying is that Trump thinks he needs to rally the base to hold off the Dems in a state he won by 7 points? 2293
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Between 2009 and 2019, % of prisoners who were non-Hispanic white fell from 39% to 32%, while the percent who were Hispanic rose from 16% to 22% (and the % who were non-Hispanic Black fell from 42% to 33%). Is there any data out there on whether rising %H = real rise, or change in reporting? 140
Reposted by John PfaffKylie Eleison @gonebabygone.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Your mom trying to remember the name of that podcast 01825216
Reposted by John PfaffJohn Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Even more striking: In 2008, 95,000 people were admitted to CA prisons due to parole violations. In 2011, it was 60,000. In 2012, one year later, it was 8,000. In 2019, before Covid, it was 4,500. That's a NINETY-FIVE PERCENT DECLINE in parole-violation admissions. Just ... eliminated them. 1172
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026In 2008, California admitted 140,000 people to prison. In 2011, it admitted 97,000. In 2019, before Covid, it admitted 34,000. That's a SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT reduction in admissions. Yet we almost never talk about California's remarkable Realignment reforms. 14319
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026If long sentences were key to driving US prison populations, then sudden declines in admissions--like what we see in 2020--should not be accompanied by near-instant, almost-identical declines in releases (esp since we didn't do any sort of mass releases due to Covid). And yet .... 190
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Calling it now: Centrist pundits: Trump wins in 2024 by one point: “all of American culture has changed tonight!” Trump is so hated that Wyoming elects a Black lesbian Democrat as governor in 2026: “now, let’s not be hasty abt seeing anything national in these strange local stories.” 28017
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Total private construction is about $1.6 TRILLION per year. Total data center construction is about $50 BILLION. So data centers are ~3% of all construction. There's no real crowding out here. Comparing total spending change from such RADICALLY different baserates tells us almost nothing. 25010
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 26/09/2026It'd be really ironic if Trump ends up winning a Nobel Prize only for doing the one thing he hates the most. Peak, gold-plated Failson. 2351
Reposted by John PfaffJohn Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Here's an interesting graph: percent of state admits, either violent or drug. Even if we want to talk about what drives ADMISSIONS, in many states since 1991, and in even more states today, violent crimes are generally as if not more significant than drug crimes. 234
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Here's an interesting graph: percent of state admits, either violent or drug. Even if we want to talk about what drives ADMISSIONS, in many states since 1991, and in even more states today, violent crimes are generally as if not more significant than drug crimes. 234
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 25/09/2026SCOTUS delenda est. It is democracy, or SCOTUS. They have made it very clear that there is no other choice. Expand it, reverse its worst opinions, and then ruthlessly strip it of jurisdiction. Don't trust an expanded SCOTUS in the long run. 05418
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Thanks, prominent data repository, for using * instead of something like NA for blanks. So when I quickly do a find-all-and-replace in Excel (yes, I know, just being lazy, this is def my fault for that), and tell it to replace all * with NA, I get a sheet of ... sigh. 491
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Writers getting lazy with the names here, honestly. 3445
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Remember after the NYC mayoral Dem primary, when everyone on here was begging for The Discourse to stop talking about Mamdani non-stop (which, even as a NYCer myself? def so-signed). Now he's the subject of UNGA speeches. He's NEVER going away. Ever. From ANY discourse.reuters.comNetanyahu expected to berate New York's Mamdani in 'campaign speech' at UNThe feud highlights the Israeli leader's growing isolation ahead of elections at home. 574
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Well, I'm definitely requesting a new office now (since my current one is about three door's down from Olivier's). 071
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 23/09/2026The Kavanaugh Stops were a particularly egregious example of SCOTUS members just making up facts to fit their desired policy outcomes, that they then get to enshrine in law. But they've been doing it FOREVER. And the legal community hasn't just shrugged it off. It FINDS IT FUNNY. 15917
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Oh, I’ll legitimately fight for the fourth one. I’m a birthright citizenship absolutist, and think we should generally err on the side of more voting, not less. I think cryptids born on US soil count as citizens. I’m sure @anthonymkreis.bsky.social can 13th century British support. 2252
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Clearly no one in this administration doesn't understand anything involving a cross. Their view of Christianity is abhorrent. And now they show they don't comprehend cross-subsidization either. 4476
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 22/09/2026"Our insurance system isn't in the quintessential self-selection death spiral? Let me get a shotgun." 33912
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 22/09/2026I've been a huge fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky's City of Last Chances series. The first book in particular, but also the third, meet my fav category for a book: a story where the city itself is as much a core character as the people who live in it. 1153
Reposted by John Pfaffjamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22/09/2026whenever i hear some variation on "but what if trump does X or Y or Z" i think of this ulysses s. grant remark to a subordinate during the wilderness campaign. 884018698
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 22/09/2026The Prison Planet Gerrymander: How High Republic Prison Siting Dilutes Twi’lekian and Other Smaller-Species Representation in the Galactic Senate. 1120
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Y’all. The US debt is $40 trillion-with-a-t. I do not think we can raise that selling hammer swings. This is not a serious policy proposal, and should not be treated as such. Saying we need to tear down the ballroom and arch and strip off the WH gold is. This is just a sarcastic venting. 0270
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 21/09/2026If a Dem POTUS wants to wipe out the ballooning debt Trump has “endowed” us with, all they’ll need to do is auction off opportunities to burn or tear down the MAGA monuments to itself. How much could they charge per sledge hammer blow to the ballroom? Or to burn this ugly-on-its-own-terms thing? 4264
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Oh, man. The K-Mart or something similar by my house when I was a kid had a demo Apple IIe that had this game on it, and I used to play it all the time when we went there. And yes, I know that sentence gets more and more archaic with each word. 4400
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Just reiterating a point I’ve made before: Future Congressional spending bills should mandate that executive branch agencies cannot post any images or memes from any govt computer or any govt account. And only informational posts, period. The sole exception is the Consumer Product Safety Comm’n. 010722
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 18/09/2026So, apparently Converse decided to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its Chuck Taylor’s w an ad that … is clearly, inarguably a reference to lynching. By a man in what must be Klan robes. The ad is in the link (not posting a screenshot, bc … obv). There‘s no “plausible deniability“ here.washingtonpost.comA Converse sneaker ad provokes horror and backlashA photo promoting the Chuck 70 X sneaker seemed to depict a lynching. 83921
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 18/09/2026A lot. I mean, have you read our criminal codes (I have)? You know how much behavior we excessively criminalize? Also, like, the costs of getting any measure of crime to zero are appalling. Wannabe "tough guys" implausibly cosplaying as John Wayne. And yes, yes, I get it's not hypocrisy: 2175
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Two things I think always worth noting abt the Horton ad, one pessimistic and the other less so. 1. Pessimistically, here's the infamous Horton ad. It was considered deeply racist at the time. But by today's standards? Doubt it would crack the top 20 most racist ads. That's real backsliding.youtube.comWillie Horton 1988 Attack AdYouTube video by llehman84 315039
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Jesus. Back in 2015, the Bureau of Justice Statistics--whose ppl do amazing work--had a budget of $41 million, which was lower than previous years. Its current NOMINAL budget is $33 million. In 2015 terms, that's $24 million. We've basically cut its budget in half, between real cuts and inflation.static.klipy.comOstrich Head in Sand (Blind Man)Alt: Ostrich Head in Sand (Blind Man) 34817
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 17/09/2026The only rational explanation for the FBI's Crime Data Explorer is that I've died and ended up in the Bad Place.static.klipy.comKristen Bell in The Good Place: This Is The Bad PlaceAlt: Kristen Bell in The Good Place: This Is The Bad Place 0222
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 17/09/2026And those of us who sometimes laugh when we are stressed or feel like the situation is awkward make things even worse (even with people who know our laughing habits). 3221
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Random q for people w college-bound aged kids (or who have otherwise had to deal with the application process): Is there any info out there on the format a transcript needs in order for STARS to auto-upload? Manual entry seems SO tedious, but it keeps refusing to read my kid's version. 141
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Fascinating that a Harris +8 county voted in a far-right sheriff in the same election. Also interesting: he barely won, by ~2 points, or under 8,000 votes... ... but there were 50,000 people who voted in the presidential but not the sheriff race: so INSIDE-THE-POLLING-BOOTH nonvoters. 24212
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I already admitted to liking Yanni and his PBS concert a few days back, so I have no rep for musical taste to protect: “And I don’t know what to do with my hands (it’s awkward!)” is one of my fav lyrics of all time. It’s that “it’s awkward” that kills me. So absolutely true (for me). 0181
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 16/09/2026The US has ~220 cops per 100,000 people. Trinidad, TX, has a pop of 860 and ~7 full-time equivalent cops. That's a rate of over 800 cops per 100,000! And they were spending ~35% of the local budget on them. For policing so bad the mayor is quoted saying he wasn't surprised by the closure! Why?! 24014
Reposted by John PfaffAndy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 16/09/2026One side of this war has an elected legislature but it doesn't really have any power compared to the supreme leader and the council of guardian jurists, and the other is Iran. 7519130
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Any threat to voting is bad. It all really is. But perspective matters too. The most vulnerable GOPer is prob Mike Lawler in NY-17. NY-17 has well over one hundred Election Day polling places (I stopped counting at 100, and there were a lot of dots left). That's one vulnerable seat.data.gis.ny.govNYS Elections Districts and Polling LocationsPolling Sites and Election Districts for all of New York state. 1299
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 16/09/2026I always get sucked into Yudkowsky Discourse bc I desperately believe I'll come across the post or article that admits its all an Andy Kaufman caliber bit of performance art but also know that it's all actually real and that's a real solid blow to my belief that the world is at least vague rational.static.klipy.comPtosha Storey in The Oval: I Can't Believe This Is RealAlt: Ptosha Storey in The Oval: I Can't Believe This Is Real 0153
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 15/09/2026These are paragraphs from the same article. The first lays out the basic story: guy is repeatedly hired and fired before ICE hires him. The second is an ICE officer saying "firing basically ends your career" without any rebuttal ... despite it being demonstrably false, in the same article. 4223
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Really annoying to see, again--bc this has been consistent for a while now--that we really should replace "Ok Boomer" with "Ok Xer." Cause ... 45-64 is basically all Xers. The only age cohort still leaning Trump. Alex P. Keaton was supposed to be a send-up, not a role model. 156011
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 15/09/2026That's like saying a pickpocket got into a "property dispute" with the person whose wallet he stole. The Kennedy Center's name is established by STATUTE. A judge MANDATED that his name, put up illegally and--again, in violation OF THE LAW--be taken down. Come ON, @apnews.com. This is NUTS. 47421
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 15/09/2026This is not necessarily high up on the lists of reforms we need to impose on SCOTUS, but I think Congress should amend SCOTUS's budget so that it only funds clerk salaries for clerks with 10+ years of real-world experience (academics, lawyers, even non-law ppl like scientists or finance types). 43910