Scott L Greer

EURO-DOGE by stealth? Concerning developments in the (de)funding of European health civil society At the time of writing in June 2025, the European Commission’s directorate general for health, DG SANTE, has yet to publish its work programme for the year

OutNow: @eleanorbrooks.bsky.social, @hjarman.bsky.social & @scottlgreer.bsky.social (2025). Euro- #DOGE by stealth? Concerning developments in the (de) #funding of European #health #civilsociety. European Journal of Public Health, 35(4), 591–592. doi.org/10.1093/eurp...

People with a sincere interest in health who find one MAHA issue they think they agree about (and if they looked closely they might be disabused) and trumpet that are taking an exam in coalitional politics and failing it.

Honored

I like to say I don’t need imagination, comparative politics does that for me.

Interesting pattern over the last several years that seems to be continued in this letter - it is the comparative politics scholars and those more directly engaged with public policy who are raising the alarms.

Political scientists specializing in American politics are relatively quiet.

That BLS culture of excellence and dedication is a form of state capacity that cannot be replaced.

I hope that we are lucky enough as a nation to have the chance to try to rebuild and improve it, even if it takes a generation.

Sad that "avoid a Dark Age" is my current aspiration.

If I didn’t have better things to do I’d think about people like Moyn whose anti-liberal passion means they refuse to distinguish imperfect social democrats from a right wing caudillo. A strategy that is historically disastrous for the left.

‘Protect the possibilities‘: Harvard profs urge university to ensure academic freedom As reports of “negotiations” between Harvard University and the federal government continue, nine prominent Harvard professors penned a letter to the school’s president urging the university to safeguard principles of academic freedom. Two of the nine co-signers joined Ali to discuss higher education in the Trump era. "Facts have a stubborn nature to them and they can inform people's values and choices if they are open to hearing them…and that's what college education is about,” says Theda Skocpol, professor of government and sociology. “Private universities are a bastion of competition and ideas,” contends economist Rebecca Henderson of the Harvard Business School.

Harvard professors are pressing leadership to hold the line on academic freedom. Students are more concerned about the job market than outside noise, says HBS’ Rebecca Henderson. Prof Theda Skocpol says "we present facts and let the facts fall where they may.” #VELSHI

Look at what happens to male teacher salaries (blue line) v.s. female teacher salaries (red line) after collective bargaining laws expire.

This article builds on several published papers & ongoing work from the past few years and integrates interdisciplinary research from the last few decades. We hope it proves a valuable resource for both clinicians and policymakers!

The Mothership Vortex: An Investigation Into the Firm at the Heart of the Democratic Spam Machine How a single consulting firm extracted $282 million from a network of spam PACs while delivering just $11 million to actual campaigns.

Why is my phone unusable?

“What emerged was not a diverse network of activists, but a concentrated ecosystem built to serve the firm at its center: Mothership Strategies.”

Smashing higher education is more important to them than a successful economic engine because they care more about controlling the country than about its success. This is not close to the first time the world has seen this form of conservatism, which is ofc a whole ideology supporting hierarchy.

White House has no plan to mandate IVF care, despite campaign pledge President Donald Trump has said he wants a “baby boom,” but critics say his administration has yet to make significant family policy changes — and that Medicaid cuts will hurt.

All those Trump surrogates who touted this, and news orgs that reported it credulously, owe Americans a big fat apology www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Why are child vaccination rates the lowest they have been in more than a decade? The World Health Organisation sets a 95% target for routine childhood vaccinations to ensure herd immunity and protect the vulnerable who cannot have immunisations themselves - but uptake in England h...

Weird how herd immunity is desirable if attained through massive sickness and death but not so desirable if achieved through safe and effective vaccines

‘Professor Griffin says that "reputable" figures, such as politicians and scientists who continue to endorse the view of Wakefield, and other false narratives around vaccine efficacy, have legitimised the anti-vax movement and "normalised" the decision not to immunise children.’

"Since the first messenger who told Tigranes that Lucullus was coming had his head cut off for his pains, no one else would tell him anything, and so he sat in ignorance while the fires of war were blazing around him, giving ear only to those who flattered him."

-- Plutarch, ≈ 100 A.D.

I am very keen to see Trump personally do the test. I’m sure it would be good for national fitness. If he’s busy, I’d be ok watching Vance do it.

Woof

And please note some of these drugs are getting a lot of attention from our new silicon valley overlords

I love the “seemingly.” On paper, it’s clear that they did, nothing seemingly about it. But in the Trump-run lol-nothing-matters Republican Party of today, who’s to say how legislative procedure or interbranch relations actually work?

and let me say that the quality and plausibility of those new doctrines beggars belief in how stupid they are. “buh buh the pre-clearance formula is unconstitutional because durr the constitution says you have to treat the states equally”

no, it doesn’t

Studies in policy processes show much more instability in policy outputs, which is related to the lack of reliable information, in autocratic systems than democratic ones. The phenomenon is called the authoritarian information disadvantage.

The initial estimate of job change for a month is based on the growth or loss of jobs at the businesses that have reported their data. Generally, BLS assumes that the employment situation at businesses that had reported is representative of the situation at those that had not yet reported. BLS continues to collect outstanding reports from the businesses in the sample as it prepares a second and then a third estimate for the month. With each subsequent estimate, more businesses have provided their information. In 2012, the average collection rate at the time of the third estimate for a month was 94.6 percent. (See chart 1.)

Why do the jobs numbers get revised?

our markets and policymakers want data NOW but employer data dribbles in over months

1st estimate is based on the 75% of employers who respond promptly

Updates occur as more data rolls in: 95% response rate by final revision 1/N

www.bls.gov/opub/btn/vol...

Today in “why I do not trust people who extoll local politics”

Russia’s War Against Ukraine Has Seen an Explosion in HIV Rates HIV is decreasing across the world—except in Russia. The reasons are purely political.

Kind of noticeable that causes of the Russian HIV wave include poorly trained armed men misbehaving, a ban on sexual education, homophobia, limited access to health care, and a ban on substitution therapy for opioid addicts. Glad that doesn’t resemble a political program being adopted by anyone else

A few scattered thoughts on BLS:

Trump would have done better to install a loyalist before the jobs numbers started looking like trouble. The post-revision tantrum and sacking will make it, if anything, harder rather than easier to cook the books without anyone taking notice (1/x)

The Big Ten Rises Up Against Trump The press acts as if “higher education” = Harvard. But a more interesting and gutsier stand is being taken in the heartland by schools that have a lot more going for them than football.

“The Mutual Academic Defense Compact was a wake-up call. Professors in the Big Ten have powerful networks, resources, protections, and colleagues. They are teaching all of us that, under the current siege, we must galvanize those networks.”

Description of an 1803 experiment includes this line: “One observer, a Mr. Pass, was so disturbed by what he saw that he promptly went home and died”

Problems in science communication

In health insurers’ race to offload unprofitable members, winners begin to emerge If you’ve followed health insurance earnings lately, you might be experiencing some whiplash. But some lessons about the industry have also emerged.

STAT+: In health insurers’ race to offload unprofitable members, winners begin to emerge www.statnews.com/2025/08/01/h...

Mellon Foundation The Mellon Foundation makes grants to actively unlock the power in the arts and humanities that helps connect us all.

“American Academy of Arts&Sciences reports 96.3% of humanities grads age 23-32 fully employed. Earnings in humanitiess comparable to social/life sciences, job satisfaction levels too. A serious mismatch bw actual employment for hum grads +general perception."
www.mellon.org/voices/human...

Little Blockades Everywhere Leviathan would like you to fill in this form

“I am constantly amazed that people view rulership—the management and disposition of sovereignty in political communities… as something trivially ignorable. When they encounter Leviathan, they pout and ask to see its manager.”