Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 24/09/2026At a time of unprecedented stress on the foundations of American democracy, including the health of communities that sustain it, these symposia will address head on how we must think about community health in relation to the rhythms of democratic life. 000
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 27/08/2026🗣️ For the past year, I have been telling everyone I meet that democracy and public health are intricately connected. This idea inspired my fellows application to @carnegie.org and pushes forward that research. 💬 @sustaindemocracy.bsky.social releases the first part of that research today. ⬇️ 043
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️The Center for Sustainable Democracy @sustaindemocracy.bsky.social · 27/08/2026❤️ 🗳️ Healthy communities are necessary for functional democratic processes. Today, the CSD releases the first part of our @carnegie.org funded research on Spanish-language public health messages around vaccination. usf.box.com/s/ulx419qnhb...usf.box.comUSF CSD White Paper Vaccination Message Environment 082726.pdf | Powered by Box 131
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 01/06/2026Researchers attending #ICA26 in Cape Town who are interested in learning more about PersonaLex, we are hosting a Sip N Chat during the conference. DM Adam or me for details. 000
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 28/05/2026Doing research on identity and thinking about how to assess messages at scale? @adamsaffer.bsky.social, Jianing Li, and I developed the PersonaLex computational classifier to assist research on social identity. Accessible. Transparent. Scalable. Grounded in research and theory. 🔗 bit.ly/PersonaLexbit.lyPersonaLex: Validated short-text classifier for identities, interests, and issues - Technology CommercializationPersonaLex is a validated computational classifier database containing a lexicon of terms for identifying and categorizing social identity markers, interests, and policy issues in short-text digital m... 132
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️András Tóth-Czifra @minczifra.bsky.social · 12/04/2026Perhaps Magyar's most important promise, and the one that certainly resonates with voters: "never again a country without consequences!" The crowd chants: "To prison! To prison!" [with the corrupt officials of the outgoing government] 7484561735
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 12/04/2026Viktor Orbán has been ousted—and efforts by Washington and Moscow to prop the autocratic leader up give his defeat implications that extend far beyond Hungary, @isaacstanleybecker.bsky.social reports from Budapest. Read more: theatln.tc/KdGVkPGT 1045582
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Sten Hansson @stenhansson.bsky.social · 02/02/2026Flooding the zone: Paths forward for information quality, misinformation, and disinformation work -- @joshscacco.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....tandfonline.comIntroduction to the forum: Flooding the zone: Paths forward for information quality, misinformation, and disinformation workPublished in Journal of Applied Communication Research (Vol. 54, No. 1, 2026) 011
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 03/11/2025Appreciate that Jill Lepore used "The Ubiquitous Presidency" to help make sense of why the president communicates the way he does for her @newyorker.com article. @kcoe.bsky.social and I wrote our book to help people make sense of contemporary political leadership and messaging. 053
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️AAUP @aaup.org · 04/10/2025UC’s Academic Council calls on the Office of the President & the UC Board of Regents to unequivocally reject governmental demands that compromise institutional autonomy and #academicfreedom. This is the way. #DefendHigherEd 219264
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Leticia Bode @leticiabode.bsky.social · 01/07/2025Special issue of Political Communication CFP on "the political communication dynamics at work in democratic decline—and in democratic resilience" - full manuscripts due December 15. think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...think.taylorandfrancis.comCommunicating Democratic Decline & Resilience 11910
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.com · 14/06/2025Strib coverage is in front of their paywall. Please follow their coverage and resist the urge to speculate about *anything* about the attack itself. www.startribune.com/brooklyn-par...startribune.comLive: Rep. Melissa Hortman killed, Sen. John Hoffman shot in ‘targeted shootings’Gov. Tim Walz said there were targeted shootings in both Brooklyn Park and Champlin on Saturday. 7454234
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 14/06/2025The news isn’t being clear about this but to people hearing about these Minnesota shootings: Melissa Hortman is the Dem leader in the Minnesota House and was Speaker of the House 2019-2025. She’s probably the most influential state-level Democrat barring the governor. 5342831381
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Jake Lahut @jakelahut.bsky.social · 12/06/2025A DHS official told me Noem & security had no idea who Senator Padilla was. Now, the FBI is running with the statement that the senator "did not identify himself and was not wearing his senate security pin" — but he very much did identify himself, loudly, on video... 2293532935
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️David Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 12/06/2025We drill into military officers that Members of Congress have Constitutional oversight rights, Members outrank four-stars in protocol, and even Congressional staffers are treated like generals/admirals. To see sworn federal officers manhandle and handcuff a U.S. Senator... I'm still shook up. 513463918
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 10/06/2025"If you saw all this in any other country — soldiers sent to crush dissent, union leaders arrested, opposition politicians threatened — it would be clear that autocracy had arrived." 252160530
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 10/06/2025This sounds unlawful as hell. apnews.com/article/mari... 1052168723
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Freedom of the Press Foundation @freedom.press · 09/06/2025The targeting of reporters in LA is inexcusable. The public interest in press coverage of protests couldn’t be more self-evident. We helped lead this letter to remind federal officers of journalists’ constitutional right to report on civil unrest. media.freedom.press/media/docume...media.freedom.press 316062
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 09/06/2025The deploying of American military into U.S. cities is an attempt to functionally curtail the right to peacefully assemble and protest for a redress of grievances. LA seems to be the prototype to attempt to tamp down the possibility of nationwide protests. 031
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Adam Rose @adamrose.bsky.social · 08/06/2025Law enforcement is violently targeting press at protests around Los Angeles, from easily recognizable "mainstream" outlets to freelancers and independents. ALL press have explicit legal protections in California. #JournalismIsNotACrime. This evidence thread may get graphic. 🧵👇 5422171157
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Joseph Fink, we're going to win @planetoffinks.bsky.social · 09/06/20251 in 12 Americans live in California. 1 in 35 Americans live in LA County. LA is America 110154113731
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Tim Dickinson @timdickinson.bsky.social · 09/06/2025What's happening in LA is a redux of the federal invasion of Portland. It took a 'Wall of Moms' using their privilege to protect more marginalized protesters to turn that around. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...rollingstone.comWho Won the Battle of Portland?How Portland, Oregon's uprising turned back President Trump’s authoritarian revival of ‘law and order’ politics. Reporting by Tim Dickinson. 9551153
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️John Morales @johnmoralestv.bsky.social · 03/06/2025Cuts have consequences, illustrated. As seen on TV 📺 829232899362
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 03/06/2025New: Trump is posting to Truth Social three times as often as he tweeted during his first presidency - 2,262 'truths' in 132 days. Outrageously false stuff, too, like that Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by a robot clone. 3 a.m. polemics at a pace surprising even his aides wapo.st/43HBtpbwapo.stTallying Trump’s online posting frenzy: 2,262 ‘truths’ in 132 daysIn his current term, the president has left his own record for social media missives in the dust. He posts day and night. 3334197
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 20/05/2025This is literally an authoritarian using the power of the state to jail an opponent, and attempt to intimidate all other opponents, in the United States of America. This doesn't happen if the US is still a democracy 17614241
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 20/05/2025Journalists: Report the pattern, not just the episode. DOJ charges a sitting Member of Legislative branch. Follows DOJ charges against a sitting member of Judicial Branch. The Executive is at war with the separation of powers in service of expanding its unilateral power. 030
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Adam Berinsky @adamberinsky.bsky.social · 14/05/2025Another update: I can't share the text of my appeal but MIT's OGC has said they are happy to connect with OGC at other institutions going through the appeal process. So if you are planning to appeal, DM me and I can make the connection. 081
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Adam Bonin @adambonin.bsky.social · 09/05/2025From Jeffrey Toobin's 2008 book THE NINE, this remains the greatest Justice Souter anecdote I can possibly share. RIP. 595518856
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Axios @axios.com · 02/05/2025Press freedom in the United States has hit a record low, according to the latest World Press Freedom Index published annually by Reporters Without Borders.axios.comU.S. press freedom falls to historical lowReporters Without Borders cites economic strains on the media as the biggest driver of press freedom declines globally. 29572233
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Judge Luttig @judgeluttig.bsky.social · 25/04/2025To read the Criminal Complaint and attached FBI Affidavit that gave rise to Wisconsin State Judge Hannah Dugan’s federal criminal arrest today for obstructing or impeding a proceeding before a department or agency of the United States and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest 11133821079
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 23/04/2025U.S. enters the political influencer era online. Discussed with @juanbennjr.bsky.social at @politico.com the implications for Democrats who lack a unifying national figure at this moment.politico.comInfluencers angle for a bigger seat at the political table 010
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 18/04/2025'“If we’re going for going to mobilize, it’s going to be the most prominent, the most well-endowed, the most privileged and protected of us in civil society who have to take the lead,” Levitsky said.'latimes.comThis professor studies dictatorships. He helped convince Harvard to stand up to TrumpHarvard professor Steve Levitsky has spent decades studying democracies and how they fail. He's now raising alarm bells over what he sees as a slide toward autocracy under President Trump. 4601207
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 16/04/2025Thirty-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards.washingtonpost.comWomen, minorities fired in purge of NIH science review boardsScientists, with expertise in fields that include mental health, cancer and infectious disease, typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal. 641101915224
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Eileen Guo (is on leave for rest of 2026) @eileenguo.bsky.social · 16/04/2025SCOOP: sources tell me that the State Dept plans to eliminate its only office to counter foreign disinformation, as soon as today, delivering a win to foreign governments like Russia, Iran, and China—and the office's mostly conservative critics. www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/16/1...technologyreview.comUS office that counters foreign disinformation is being eliminated, say officialsConservative critics have long accused the department of helping to censor the American right. 541200678
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Dominik Stecuła @stecula.bsky.social · 14/04/2025The call for papers for the APSA Political Communication Preconference in Vancouver is now open! Together with @ashleymuddiman.bsky.social and @patyrossini.bsky.social, we're thrilled to invite your submissions. 📅: May 25th, 2025, 11.59pm PDT (GMT-7) More information: u.osu.edu/apsa2025/u.osu.edu2025 Political Communication APSA Preconference 23928
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 10/04/2025May this be a lesson to every higher education institution about what compliance will entail. 040
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 09/04/2025New on @MSNBC: The White House will not release the list of 75 countries that have reached out on trade deals, despite requests from NBC News. 2443151813454
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 09/04/2025Before he headed back home from USF, we sat down with @esserfrank.bsky.social for "By Conduct and Example" to pick his brain about the 2024 U.S. election and next steps for the study and preservation of democracy and communication. 010
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 09/04/2025We hang together or we hang separately. Could not be clearer what is happening and how universities must respond. 421868512
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 01/04/2025In two years he will have to go up for post-tenure review under new provisions set by the legislature and governor for all public tenured faculty in Florida. Let’s see how that process shakes out. 000
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 31/03/2025“Public Service and a Cause Greater than Oneself” will explore Dr. Novello’s consequential moments leading and participating in significant public health campaigns on behalf of the United States. Dr. Novello also will sign copies of her book "Duty Calls." Looking forward to hosting Dr. Novello! 011
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️UC Berkeley Law @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social · 26/03/2025Dean Chemerinsky and other #lawschool deans "speak as legal educators, responsible for training the next generation of lawyers, in condemning any government efforts to punish lawyers or their firms based on the identity of their clients or for their zealous lawful and ethical advocacy." 1833521948
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 26/03/2025Administration: This Signal stuff was no big deal. Like the nothingest of nothing burgers. Atlantic: Hold my beer for the attack plans texted by the SecDef. 000
Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 26/03/2025Also coincidentally in the same period when Benjamin Harrison interrupted Grover Cleveland’s two terms in office 🤔 010
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Pennsylvania Maps @pennsylvaniamaps.bsky.social · 26/03/2025The last time Lancaster County elected a Democrat to the Pennsylvania Senate was in 1889, when John S. Hoover won a special election. 136 years later, James Malone joins the club. 211930312
Reposted by Josh Scacco 🗳️Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.uk · 21/03/2025Why are people complacent about democratic backsliding? Ralph Hertwig and I explain based on decision science research showing how and why people underweight rare events theconversation.com/the-paradox-... of interest @profsanderlinden.bsky.social @brendannyhan.bsky.social @adamberinsky.bsky.socialtheconversation.comThe paradox of democracy’s success: behavioural science helps explain why we miss autocratic red flagsWe tend to underestimate the threat of rare events but we can prime ourselves to be more alert to the signs. 68134