Chelsea Pennick, PhD

Just to reiterate: What this administration is doing right now is orders of magnitude more dangerous for academic freedom and free speech than anything the right has spent the last 30 years complaining about.

This Historian Has Seen the Future of Trans Health Care Jules Gill-Peterson doesn’t want to fight for trans joy. She wants to fight for what trans people really need: resources, hormones, and surgery. Her latest arena? The Supreme Court.

Jules Gill-Peterson doesn’t want to fight for trans joy. She wants to fight for what trans people really need: resources, hormones, and surgery. Her latest arena? The Supreme Court.

UPDATE AT 5:10 P.M.: Crapo joining Risch in opposition to sell-off of ... Proposal to sell federal land is provision in 'Big Beautiful Bill' that U.S. Senate is considering

Big Win! www.lmtribune.com/local-news/r...

Housing on public lands will be limited by wildfire risk and development challenges - Headwaters Economics Federal public lands may offer opportunities to improve housing affordability in a limited number of states, but will face significant barriers from wildfire risk, water availability, and conflicts wi...

The public lands sell-off language in the Senate's reconciliation bill has surprising resemblance to this report by Headwaters Economics, which doesn't bode well for anyone thinking that the idea was pulled out of thin air and can't be operationalized:

headwaterseconomics.org/public-lands...

Public lands, small businesses and housing If you read my last post, or are following the budget reconciliation process, you know that the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources committee released draft budget language last week that would dire...

An inquiry into the impact of a public lands sell-off for rural, public lands communities

My take on the Senate ENR draft reconciliation bill text What's big, what's not so big and what's going unnoticed

A new post on my substack, All Things Public open.substack.com/pub/drchelse... #publiclands #energy #timber

Homebuying options remain slim for middle-income earners • Idaho Capital Sun High interest rates and high prices in a still-competitive housing market continue to make it tough for first-time homebuyers in the U.S.

This says it all: the share of homes for sale that are affordable for moderate income buyers is 5.6% in Idaho and 11.1% in Montana. idahocapitalsun.com/2025/05/24/h...

I mean grant funding for behavioral science has increased over previous years..

Strangely, social and behavioral sciences are set to increase...

Shared Stewardship and The Hazards of Relying on Private Philanthropy to Fill Social Voids Third sector government and private philanthropy's impact on public goods

A recent post on my substack All Things Public about the impact of defederalization in the provision of public goods and services from public lands: drchelseapennick.substack.com/p/shared-ste...

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Oh good! SJ is great.

Thanks for asking the question! I think there is a real need to unpack these EOs and memo's in context and would be happy to help do so.

Oy vey

Yes, please do. There is nothing inherently wrong with active management, but that doesn't mean it can't be harmful.

Stages of autocratization: elimination of external checks on executive power; elimination of internal checks on executive power; deployment of the state against political opponents; diversion of state resources to political allies at the elite level; distribution of clientelistic benefits to supporters at the mass level.

The 2025 Stein Rokkan lecture by Petr Kopecký is not great news for the United States. Depending on how you read it we’re pretty close to an autocracy and that’s because Republicans got to work on unchecked executive power and politicized courts a long time ago.

Yes! I saw this in HCN and then found your other piece. It made me very happy :)

I found Bryce's courage to speak up so inspiring. It is not easy to be queer, in rural Idaho, in the Forest Service. I wonder whether they are still employed and if so, what it feels like to be expected to work in/support new mission areas like fire and timber (see Sec of Ag letter dated May 20).

Backcountry ranger Bryce Spare was one of dozens of probationary Forest Service employees laid off on the Payette NF, and 100s nationwide. While he's excited to have his job back, he remains worried about it and his forest. But workers, of course, are full people, and Bryce is a trans person...

It's about time!

Agree

Really? This is breaking news? We have an impending constitutional crisis looming and this is news? No wonder people aren't outraged like they should be.

or the media, I would add

"These clowns literally have no power besides what we give them" And we are giving them a lot. Like, when did we, aka the media, decide that DOGE was a real department? It is not. It is illigitimate, but the media immediately legitimized it by treating it as if it was real and created by Congress.

Word.

NEW: My office is hearing that DOGE is now at the IRS. That means Musk's henchmen are in a position to dig through a trove of data about every taxpayer in America. And if your refund is delayed, they could very well be the reason.

Yes. Exactly.

Sen. Ted Cruz's list of "woke" science includes self-driving cars, solar eclipses Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, says the National Science Foundation has given money to thousands of "Woke DEI" studies. Researchers say that's misrepresenting science and disparaging important research.

Sen. Ted Cruz’s list of “woke” science includes self-driving cars, solar eclipses
🧪

www.npr.org/2025/02/13/n...

Imagine if @aoc @sanders.senate.gov , every dem, SIMULTANEOUSLY held Town Halls where they allowed grant and contract recipients to explain to the country what it is they do and why it's important

Invite all media. Including RW podcasters. @spaces Flood the zone

Call it a Day Of Transparency

House Republicans just released their budget resolution - which keys up their reconciliation bills, which can avoid a filibuster and be passed with a simple majority. This is VERY real.

They are calling to cut Medicaid by AT LEAST $880 billion, and to cut SNAP by AT LEAST 20%.