Ann Larson

Surfing in the desert. Sounds about right for the times we are living in.

The teacher pay penalty reached a record high in 2024: Three decades of leaving public school teachers behind Over the past three decades, stagnant weekly wages of public school teachers have fallen further and further behind those of college graduates who chose other careers, resulting in an ever increasing ...

In the past 10 yrs, teachers' wages DECREASED by $46/week after adjusting for inflation. Wages increased by $220 for other college grads

Why are we penalizing teachers for working one of the hardest & most important jobs in our communities?

We need to pay teachers more! www.epi.org/publication/...

Hakeem Jeffries says of Cuomo's attacks on Mamdani for living in a rent controlled apartment: "It's a legitimate issue that has been raised, and the [Mamdani] campaign is going to have to address it."

"The worth of an ideology can only be judged by its delivery."

This is a good answer in a great interview that @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social gave the Nation. www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Open bribery of political officials, open flouting of statutory and constitutional law to set up personalist control over a vast administrative apparatus, establishment of concentration camps, sending weapons to genocidaires, arresting dissenters

When Federal Funding Doesn’t Show Up The Trump administration has denied legally obligated funds to thousands of organizations dependent on federal grants, causing layoffs, service cuts, and mass anxiety.

There have now been five separate formal determinations that the Trump administration has illegally impounded funds appropriated by Congress. @brycecovert.bsky.social looks at the real-world impact of these delays on the thousands of organizations who rely on that money.
prospect.org/health/2025-...

The Coup at the Antitrust Division Podcast Episode · Organized Money · 08/05/2025 · 46m

We had a relatively unnoticed coup at the Justice Department last week. An antitrust division that was following the law has now been reduced to a puppet in a pay-to-play scheme involving MAGA influencers and corporate treasuries. On Organized Money we talk to the writer who broke open this story.

The University of Utah is slashing these 81 academic programs under state-mandated budget cut The University of Utah will discontinue 81 academic programs in response to the Legislature’s mandated budget cuts for higher education.

The University of Utah will discontinue 81 academic programs in response to the Legislature’s mandated budget cuts for higher education.

Trump’s Tariffs Are Kleptocracy in Action Very little of what you’ve heard about presidential ‘deals’ is true. It’s really a shakedown on behalf of Trump’s desires and corporate whims.

I wrote back in April that the best way to think about Trump's tariffs were as sanctions to shake down other countries. The final result reinforces this: Trump is using trade as a bargaining chip to win other policies, or even just the illusion of wins.
Here's my post-Liberation Day update:

Canvas just became one of the most powerful surveillance, IP theft, & data monetization tools in the world.

OpenAI bought a user-base locked in to long-term contracts.

But they can’t make us use their trashware.

Boycott. Luddify. Open source.

Don’t let them have your work or your students.

Hypergraphia: On Prolific Writers and the Persistent Need to Produce ≠≠Up every morning promptly at 7, briefly enjoying breakfast around 8, consistently at his desk no later than 9, and then doggedly writing for five hours until no less than two-thousand words were …

From Dickens to Dean Koontz, Ed Simon explores prolific authors, their habits, and the persistent need to produce.

White Supremacy Is Apocalyptic for Everyone Across the world, the right wing is blowing up everything and incinerating the planet.

"It’s morning again in America. Federal agents snatch students off the streets. The White House boasts of banishing hundreds of people to a Salvadoran prison, ignoring the judges who demand due process." hammerandhope.org/article/trum...

At the DeSantis Everglades detention camp, people with green cards are being held in terrible conditions, with maggots in the food, the lights kept on 24 hours a day, and delayed access to medicine.

One guy had his Bible taken and was told "here there is no right to religion."

Steering the country toward another potential financial crisis, the Trump administration has moved to completely gut the federal regulatory agency tasked with reining in financial institutions: jacobin.com/2025/04/trum...

The only meaningful institutions in the civic life of the United States that working class people control are labor unions.

The only meaningful path to any democratic transformation requires the leadership of institutions that working class people control.

Protest over housing conditions at NCCU leads to five arrests NCCU students protest poor housing conditions, leading to five arrests due to unauthorized campus use.

"Students told WNCN, Raleigh CBS affiliate, that they’ve been dealing with a lot — from mold in the dorms and broken air conditioners to brown tap water and mice. They say they’re simply asking for better, safer living conditions."

context: this is a public HBCU

www.wfmynews2.com/article/news...

Reminder that millionaires and billionaires evade an estimated $150 billion in taxes every year, according to the IRS.

Happy Tax Day.

Are you a history professor who has been pressured to alter your curriculum — particularly regarding the history of Black & African American people in the United States?

We would love to talk to you. Send us a DM!

En route vers Washington, Netanyahou aurait survolé l'espace aérien français.

Sous le coup d'un mandat d'arrêt de la Cour pénale internationale pour crime contre l'Humanité, il aurait dû être intercepté et arrêté.

How Much Discomfort Is the Whole World Worth? - Boston Review Movement building requires a culture of listening—not mastery of the right language.

Organizing on the scale that our struggles demand means finding common ground with a broad spectrum of people, many of whom we would never otherwise interact with, & building a shared practice of politics in the pursuit of more just outcomes.

@prisonculture.bsky.social & @mskellymhayes.bsky.social:

Trump's Hammer, Our Hope Naomi Klein, Chenjerai Kumanyika, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Astra Taylor An Emergency Town Hall Tuesday, April 8, 5:00 pm ET

Trump's Hammer, Our Hope 🌱

Join @naomiaklein.bsky.social, @chenjerai.bsky.social, @keeanga.bsky.social, & @astra.bsky.social for an emergency town hall on the cascading crisis and how we can fight back.

Tuesday, April 8 at 5:00 pm ET

RSVP to attend: www.tickettailor.com/events/hayma...

“Abundance” Is How Dems Lose To Trump Ezra Klein’s new book is supercharging elites’ campaign to deter Democrats from challenging billionaires and corporate power.

Abundance™ aims to kill the antitrust movement & deter Dems from challenging oligarchy.

It wrongly pretends corporate power isnt the creator of scarcity.

Its political theory was tried in 2024 & was defeated by Trump.

Co-published with Rolling Stone 👇 www.levernews.com/abundance-is...

more bad news

Attorney General Pam Bondi directs prosecutors to seek death penalty for Luigi Mangione

same

A picture of a protest with people holding signs reading "Free LELO NOW, LET LELO GO! ICE LET ALFREDO GO!!" Above is text on Blue Bars reading "DEFEN DETAINED IMMIGRANT WORKERS! THURSDAY, MARCH 27 AT 5:30PM NW DETENTION CENTER 1623 E J ST, TACOMA WAS 98421

At 5:30 pm today, March 27, our union will join labor and community organizations in a demonstration at the NW Detention Center to protest the detention of longtime labor leader Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez and SEIU 925 UW lab tech Lewelyn Dixon.

Bubble Trouble An AI bubble threatens Silicon Valley, and all of us.

Some astonishing numbers in here:
-OpenAI loses $2 for every $1 it makes
-OpenAI projects annual losses of $14 billion by 2026
-To break even OpenAI needs to increase revenue 25x in just 5 years
-33% of VC portfolios are committed to AI
-5 AI-heavy stocks account for 29% of the S&P 500's value

Freddie Mac CEO Reid and others fired in latest shake-up at the mortgage leader - Scotsman Guide Freddie Mac CEO Diana Reid and top officials fired amid Bill Pulte's FHFA shakeup, as privatization plans for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loom

Now the CEO of Freddie Mac has been fired. Keep an eye on this: it's only $7.7 trillion in finance toward the largest market on earth, the residential housing market.
www.scotsmanguide.com/news/freddie...

Trump's Domestic War on Terrorism From Tesla vandals to college protesters, Americans are the new target

New war on terror just dropped www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-dom...

I want to reiterate something you said, because it's deadly serious: No matter what you think of what Khalil said and did, he was charged with no crime. He was given no notice. He was simply taken from his home and disappeared. And we have to be really, really afraid when there isn't even an attempt on the part of government lawyers to say there was a crime-when, instead, they simply hang everything on a dusty old statute and a dubious claim that we think he's dangerous to the United States. Because if they're coming for that, they're coming for all of us.

With @dahlialithwick.bsky.social on the many implications—all horrifying—of the Trump administration reviving seemingly unconstitutional Red Scare–era laws to abduct and disappear Mahmoud Khalil, without due process, in retaliation against his protected speech. slate.com/news-and-pol...