Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈

Every university in the country is holding its breath until September, when the final enrollment numbers will be clear.
Then the layoffs will begin.

To be fair, the article says hard-core MAGA folk are not going to change, and yard signs are not a great measure of more independent Trump voters.
Still, I keep hoping we get to a point where people are ashamed to have Trump signs on their houses. Guess I’m a dreamer!

Driving through New Hampshire today, the large number of Trump signs suggests there hasn’t been any movement away from Trump yet.

Leaving a cult is really hard.

“History will call them cowards and ask how ‘Never again’ became ‘Yes, Mr. Trump.’”
About sums it up.

Honestly, sometimes it all just makes me depressed.
Fighting hopelessness seems like resistance. If only it were enough.

Graff, quoting Louis Fischer: “He [Hitler] would destroy democracy. Yet democracy tolerated him and helped him take office in order to destroy democracy. This peaceful death of German democracy is one of the strangest chapters in history.”

It is frustrating how dumb the media collectively are, despite being composed of plenty of brilliant individuals.
Same phenomenon in plenty of other spaces

Trump removes official overseeing jobs data after dismal employment report - The Boston Globe President Trump charged that the data was "RIGGED," an accusation that threatens to undercut the political legitimacy of the government’s economic data.

Trump is truly brilliant at creating distraction. The headline in the Globe this morning was "Trump Blasts Jobs Report, Fires Official," rather than "Job Numbers Under Trump Much Worse Than Expected." His use of smoke and mirrors works every time.

How many heads on pikes will it take before they realize bending the knee just makes it easier for them to be beheaded

Trump fires labor statistics chief after large revision to jobs report Trump orders firing of Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after release of large revisions to employment data

Nothing builds confidence in statistics more than firing the people who provide results you don’t like!

It’s going to be a loooong time before anyone trusts anything the government says again. And the sad part is, the real damage has barely even started, and it’s already REALLY bad. 😣😖

Summer labor market is much weaker than previously reported While tariffs, high interest rates, stubborn inflation and federal government cuts have yet to sink the labor market into turmoil, signs of underlying weakness are growing.

Does the Department of Labor have an explanation for why their numbers for the last two months were so wildly off target ... to the tune of a quarter of a million jobs? Is it political influence or the firing of workers or the incompetence of current staff?

Barcelona-DR Congo: Spanish side agree four-year shirt sponsorship deal Despite criticism, the Congolese government says the deal with raise the profile of the country.

I'm going to be on the BBC in an hour, speaking about ... soccer. Anyone who knows me will laugh, because I am the least sports-oriented person you will ever meet and never watch sports.
But the interview was about Congo's sponsorship deal with Barcelona, so within my area of expertise anyway.

So precious!! Congratulations!!

Amazing how liberated these jackasses feel now to say what they really mean. Despicable.

the republican party is a criminal conspiracy against the american republic

Okay, now I see I’m not the first to think of this. Lol

It’s “Minority Report!” We know you haven’t committed a crime yet, but we predict you will, so we’ll arrest you.

Sadly, I think the Times remains influential in many circles and helps shape the discourse even on social media. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but I actually don’t think it can be ignored.

How is my paying a 15% tax on French wine and cheese a “win?” The media is completely incapable of dealing with Trump.

The cat is helping me read the paper.

This brings joy to my heart

The U.S. has led the world in science since the mid-20th century for two reasons: funding & welcoming students and researchers from around the world. The Trump administration is destroying both advantages (1/2)

What U.S. science stands to lose without international graduate students and postdoctoral researchers Neuroscience in other countries will strengthen—at the United States’ expense—as rising visa restrictions and rejections block many international students from enrolling at U.S.

Science is the most international endeavor in human history.
This flagrantly racist administration is destroying the U.S.'s lucrative and life-saving leadership. www.thetransmitter.org/policy/what-... on @thetransmitter.bsky.social

Outside courthouses across America, complicit judges are dropping years-long immigration cases to aid ICE abductions in their hallways.

There was a time, not long ago, when we asked immigrants to follow the laws of our land. In Trump's America, we're arresting the rule-followers.

Don't look away!

If you can read Chinese (which I sadly cannot), I have a new article out on the pitfalls in democratic transition from the experiences of Rwanda, Burundi, the DR Congo, and Uganda, with an eye to lessons for a potential Chinese democratic transition.

I don’t know a single person who thinks Matt Yglesias has anything interesting to say, but the world of media pundits consistently acts like he’s brilliant. Go figure.

Considering the amount of money that has poured into the US economy in recent decades because of the government-university-business partnership around scientific research, this is deeply, fundamentally stupid. It’s hard not to believe Vought is being willfully deceptive. (Shocking idea, I know!)

Blocked You Blocked GIF ALT: Blocked You Blocked GIF

I started to type a response to someone who replied that we have an immigration crisis and restricting immigration is perfectly normal (ignoring my point about ICE abuse), and then I remembered that not engaging folks w repugnant views makes Bluesky so much more tolerable.

'Hell on Earth': Venezuelans deported to El Salvador mega-prison tell of brutal abuse Deported under a little-known wartime law, more than 130 Venezuelans were sent from the U.S. to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Now released, several tell NPR they endured beatings, sexual a...

The people responsible for this deportation & detention without due process into conditions where prisoners faced torture and sexual abuse should themselves face imprisonment for violating a range of US and international laws. They’re a much bigger threat to American security than these immigrants.