Monique Morrissey

Almost every day from my window, I see a family of crows harass a small (Cooper’s?) hawk. This afternoon the hawk ended by circling upward lazily on a thermal of rising air, as if to tell the crows “you’re not getting under my feathers.” I’m not taking sides, but it’s beautiful to watch.

Opinion | We Have a Way to Pay for Free Buses. It Means Free Street Parking Is Over.

Many people are saying www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...

Raccoon gets drunk at Ashland ABC store and passes out in bathroom Talk about a trashed panda.

Raccoon gets drunk at a Virginia liquor store and passes out in bathroom

America is Flying Blind on Immigration Nobody Knows How Many Immigrant Workers Have Left the US Amidst Trump's Mass Deportations. That's Incredibly Bad.

Excellent piece from the always-excellent @josephpolitano.bsky.social on why no one should be citing Current Population Data on immigration levels, and why it's a problem that we don't have better data on this crucial question. #EconSky
www.apricitas.io/p/america-is...

This letter to @thetimes.com mourning Tom Stoppard's passing is a stunner.

What the sciences owe to the humanities cannot be quantified, predicted, or planned.

www.thetimes.com/comment/lett... HT @paulnightingale.bsky.social @harrywallop.co.uk

I was semi kidding (“EPI” in this context had caught my paranoid eye), but delighted to get a response from someone whose work we admire!

Insectopolis: A Natural History Buy Insectopolis: A Natural History on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders

Got this book for my niece's birthday & it's a hit w/ the whole family. Drawings are gorgeous & while an interest in natural history helps, you don't have to be a fan of bugs to appreciate. Like last year's "Our Moon: A Human History," it focuses on how they affect us.
www.amazon.com/Insectopolis...

Actually, not sure this is a cormorant. I think Edward Gorey just invented this bird.

The new oven in our rental apartment died but my hero husband roasted the turkey and vegan turk’y and potatoes in the courtyard grill dressed for the chill like the former upstate NY football bro he was before finding the union religion. Here’s lookin’ at you, Mike, and this equally chill cormorant.

Trump’s new H-2A wage rule will radically cut the wages of all farmworkers: New estimates show farmworkers stand to lose $4.4 to $5.4 billion annually under DOL’s updated Adverse Effect Wage Rate The Trump administration will cut the pay of all farmworkers by reducing the minimum wages paid to workers filling seasonal agricultural jobs in the H-2A visa program. By lowering wage rates implement...

Trump’s new H-2A wage rule will radically cut the wages of all farmworkers - and that appears to be the administration's explicit intention: New estimates from @benzipperer.org & me at @epi.org show farmworkers stand to lose $4.4 to $5.4 billion annually under DOL’s updated Adverse Effect Wage Rate

For the record, I don't think this has anything to do with @epi.org!

Reassignment Won’t Fix the Largest-Ever Social Security Staffing Cut The Social Security Administration will have fewer and less experienced staff on the front lines serving the public with significantly less support, leading to worse outcomes for people who rely on So...

Social Security has announced yet another reorganization. The devil will be in the details.

But the fact remains: Even after the reshuffling is complete, SSA will have thousands fewer and less experienced staff because of the deep cuts the Trump Admin made this year.

www.cbpp.org/research/soc...

The Productivity–Pay Gap The huge gap between rising incomes at the top and stagnating pay for the rest of us shows that workers are no longer benefiting from their rising productivity. Before 1979, worker pay and productivit...

A rising tide should lift all boats (not just the yachts).

→ When the economy expands, everybody should reap the rewards.

Since the late 70s, policy choices have led to the bigger boats getting lifted while the rest of us feel like we're sinking.

🛟 read more below:

www.epi.org/productivity...

It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.

Screenshot of the WSJ's Politics & Policy newsletter. Text says: What We’re Watching Trump Administration: Trump is to preside at noon Eastern time over the traditional turkey-pardoning, and at 6 p.m. to depart for Palm Beach, Fla.

My money's on the turkey that runs a crypto exchange.

Mark Kelly’s official NASA portrait showing him posing in his flight suit in front of a flag

Mark Kelly on the international space station wearing a full on gorilla suit that he smuggled into space to freak out his fellow astronauts. Spoiler: he did. You should watch the video if you have not.

Of all the people to attack, a sitting US Senator, husband of a congresswoman who survived being shot in the head, a former Naval aviator who flew 39 combat missions and a freaking actual honest to god astronaut who’s been to space four times!
These are not bright guys.

WaPo headline: “Pentagon says it will investigate Sen. Mark Kelly after controversial video”

So it’s now “controversial” to tell people to disobey illegal orders?

Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died. She was 111 years old.

Breaking: Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, has died. She was 111 years old

Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Political Prosecutions of former FBI Chief Comey, NY AG James Read more here.

🚨BREAKING: A federal judge Monday dismissed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) cases against FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, finding that the prosecutor President Donald Trump handpicked to bring charges against them had been unlawfully serving since September.

Hegseth is now threatening to recall Sen. Mark Kelly to active duty in order to court martial him.

JD Vance tweets: "If the president hasn't issued illegal orders, them members of Congress telling the military to defy the president is by definition illegal."

Yale Law galaxy brain

two men in a car with the words 10 years written on the bottom ALT: two men in a car with the words 10 years written on the bottom

Or an even greater reunion movie,

The Economy After the September Jobs Report The September jobs report shows weak job growth, higher unemployment, and a cooling labor market driven mostly by healthcare gains.

In Trumpland the September jobs report was great, in the real world it was pretty bad. No sector other than healthcare is creating job cepr.net/publications...

Buy union-made this Thanksgiving

As you're making the BIG grocery list this weekend, consider buying union-made. When you buy union, you're supporting:

✨ Good jobs in U.S. communities
💵 Living wages
🩺 Good benefits
🦺 Safe working conditions
🫶 Dignity and respect for workers

These quality products are produced by union members 🧵

Trump admin backs off idea to force SNAP users to reapply Officials will rely on state standards that are already in place to ensure eligibility, despite USDA chief Brooke Rollins’ comments last week.

maybe they can be shamed sometimes? www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

How Banning State Regulation of AI Harms Workers — We Build Progress

🚨 Big tech billionaire attempts to ban state regulation of AI are unpopular, dangerous, and not in the public interest.

These bans will make it easier for employers to discriminate, lower worker pay, steal creative work, spy on workers, retaliate and union bust. It doesn’t have to be this way →

I'm on the #EconJobMarket! I study how policies and childhood environments shape outcomes of low-income & vulnerable kids.

In my JMP, I study the effects of allowing youth who would have aged out of foster care at 18 to stay until 21—offering support their peers not in foster care get from parents.

It’s a fantastic book btw. My SIL gave it to me and I was initially skeptical but

Students in Charlotte, NC, are protesting ICE’s presence in their city — 30,000 students skipped school on Monday, and hundreds of high schoolers walked out on Tuesday. TikTok video by NowThis Impact

30,000 students in Charlotte walk out to protect ICE.

This is the way. www.tiktok.com/t/ZTre9dDdD/

Big Tech tried to slip language into the Big, Ugly Bill earlier this year to ban states from regulating AI. Once people realized it was there, it failed 99-1.

Now they're trying again in the must-pass defense bill (NDAA).

We've gotta kill it again.