Omar Wasow

I realize broad science-literacy problems cannot generally be solved just by shoving more facts at people but I really wish more people understood that the entire purpose and mechanism of a vaccine is to educate your OWN immune system, making it about the most "natural" medical intervention possible

America is having a housing crisis because it chooses to have a housing crisis. Americans are being displaced because we want them to be displaced. Our cities are world capitals of homelessness because we invest resources in making them so.

Is blood thicker than party? bsky.app/profile/trou...

Only black House Republican now sixth GOP retirement in little over a week Texas Rep. Will Hurd is the sixth Republican member of the House in less than two weeks to announce they would not be running for re-election.

Yes, lots of bias to go around but that doesn’t explain many actions like Cassidy folding on RFK Jr: www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

Or Will Hurd in 2017: www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

Lots of other examples of folding on nominees or policy that isn’t obviously about bigotry.

this is a major factor inhibiting GOP resistance to Trump, and in many ways the severity of the problem is downstream of the long-term project of setting up and retreating into a parallel society of explicitly right-wing social networks and institutions

Yes, also risk of what sociologist Orlando Patterson called “social death”: bsky.app/profile/jeff...

Why have so many moderate Republicans retired rather than stood up to Trump? In part, they are “submerged in social relationships.” Crossing Trump means losing cushy board seats and getting side-eye at church. Avoiding country club cancel culture won’t win a profile in courage but that’s today’s GOP

Now in an issue @psrm.bsky.social: I show that the 🇩🇰 Social Democrats could have won policy support for a pro-immigrant platform if their messaging were framed in moral terms. Findings provide a central corrective to the popular notion that the Social Democrats were destined to go anti-immigrant 👇🏻

Pre-nope

Despite widespread sexism in all four countries studied, there is no evidence that voter sexism reduces support for women candidates. Partisan preferences matter more than sexist attitudes when it comes to vote choice www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

More politics than pop but some that I teach that touch culture:
— How to Survive a Plague
— Crip Camp
— LA 92
— Haven’t taught but recommend Deaf President Now! Just out on AppleTV

Flowchart titled “What Part of Legal Immigration Don’t You Understand?” by Mike Flynn and Shikha Dalmia, illustrated by Terry Colon, showing the complexity and long wait times of U.S. legal immigration. It starts with the question, “Do you have family in the USA?” If no and you are unskilled, the chart says there is virtually no way to immigrate legally unless you are a star athlete or invest $1 million. If yes, the path splits into two tracks: having a U.S. citizen relative or a lawful permanent resident relative. For U.S. citizens sponsoring immediate relatives (spouse, parent, minor child), there is no annual cap, and total time to citizenship can be 6–7 years. Adult children and siblings face long waits: single adult children 6–14 years, married adult children 8–19 years, siblings 11–22 years, resulting in 12–28 years to citizenship. For lawful permanent residents, spouses and minor children wait 5–7 years, single adult children 8–14 years, leading to 10–20 years to citizenship. Employment-based routes require skills and job offers. With a specialty degree and employer sponsorship, applicants face a lottery for temporary H-1B visas and 6–10 years for a green card, totaling 11–16 years to citizenship. Unskilled workers without family ties are effectively excluded. The chart emphasizes how difficult “getting in line” is, with most paths taking a decade or longer.

Classic Reason Magazine cartoon from 2008: “What Part of Legal Immigration Don’t You Understand?” by Mike Flynn and Shikha Dalmia, illustrated by Terry Colon, showing the complexity and long wait times of U.S. legal immigration.

Reminds me of UK Suffragists gaining right vote after women contributed heavily to WWI.

Also see bsky.app/profile/sumi...

“Many poor and oppressed people wish to leave their countries of origin in the third world to come to affluent Western societies. This essay argues that there is little justification for keeping them out.” bsky.app/profile/sumi...

See bsky.app/profile/matt...

“Actually, there is a mechanism for those who’ve been physically present in the US since a certain date and haven’t been rendered inadmissible by something like a criminal record to simply send in an application for permanent residency…” but the date is *Jan 1, 1972*. bsky.app/profile/matt...

And some critiques of specific earned citizenship proposals, especially those that “express a particular moral basis for legalization”: bsky.app/profile/same...

Whoa, I didn’t realize “earned citizenship” was a standard term. Look forward to reading.

Thank you

“Earned Residency” would be a good compromise.

I’m not a lawyer so would defer to others but presumably one could use things like bills, children’s birth certificates, applications for asylum and so on.

A modest proposal: “Earned Citizenship,” like birthright citizenship but automatic for immigrants who live in the US for a certain number of years and have no serious legal issues.

bsky.app/profile/owas...

More broadly it is the open production and dissemination of information plus free elections that most clearly distinguishes autocratic from democratic regimes.

bsky.app/profile/owas...

Tragedy of the text commons

bsky.app/profile/owas...

bsky.app/profile/owas...

Finally, Sen’s theory may apply more to acute political famines than chronic hunger. While post-1961 China hasn’t had mass famines, there have been issues of food insecurity, rural malnutrition, and local corruption that are harder to track precisely because of press restrictions.