Donna Baron

We’ve stopped bills like this before — by turning public pressure into political power. We can do it again.

What I Think Will Happen if I Go to a Bar and Order a Whiskey Neat As each patron enters and notices the beverage I’m holding, they give me a reverent nod.

www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-...

Columbia staff receive texts asking if they're Jewish, as government hunts antisemitic harassment on campus Barnard employees received the text as Columbia University students plan a new tent encampment to protest the Israel-Hamas war.

I really wish reporters would stop saying that there is an effort by the Trump administration to combat antisemitism. It is quite the opposite. There is an effort to foment antisemitism.
forward.com/fast-forward...

AIxDemocracy: What are the politics of AI? - Ethan Zuckerman Ethan Zuckerman on the politics of the public sphere, and how embedding past behaviors in AI may give a conservative bias to an AI age

A recent talk from UMass's excellent AI x Democracy conference - my thoughts on how media has shaped the democratic public sphere and what the politics of a public sphere mediated by AI might be: ethanzuckerman.com/2025/04/24/a...

Support the Public Interest Technology Initiative at UMass on April 29 and 30 during UMass Gives.

Your support of the Public Interest Technology Initiative at UMass on April 29 & 30 enables our students to develop and realize socially responsible solutions to the challenges of our technology-driven world. We need a PIT savvy workforce now, more than ever! umass.scalefunder.com/gday/giving-...

Opinion | This Is How Universities Can Escape Trump’s Trap, If They Dare It’s been tried in other countries facing authoritarian crackdowns. It works.

Great piece by M Gessen calling on universities to “Act like universities, not like businesses. Spend your endowments. Accept more, not fewer students. Open up your campuses and expand your reach…by…bringing education to communities. Create a base. Become a movement.” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/o...

“The most interesting battle over AI may not be between the US and China, but between closed and closing societies, and nations that remain open to free speech and scholarship.”

Yesterday a federal court issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the provisions of President Trump’s harmful anti-DEI Executive Orders, in the lawsuit spearheaded by NADOHE.

www.nadohe.org/statements/s...

Friday night, acting asst sec for civil rights DOE sent out sweeping interpretation of SCOTUS ruling in SFFA v Harvard that struck down affirmative action in admissions, extending the decision to all activities and programming at educational institutions. Read the letter.

www.ed.gov/media/docume...

YouTube video by MSNBC 'Tech genius' image wears thin after series of errors calls DOGE competence into question

Rachel Maddow looks at a series of unforced errors by Elon Musk and the DOGE team that calls into question the accuracy of their "tech genius" image and whether they have the competence to tinker with the systems that run the federal government.

Watch: youtu.be/qtApqMR3o8k

@andreagibson.bsky.social

This hits the mark in these dark times….

‘There’s a majesty to grief’: TS Eliot poetry prize winner Peter Gizzi The American writer won the prestigious prize for Fierce Elegy, a collection informed by the deaths of his family members. He explains why poetry is like friendship – and why he loves small words

My latest for @theguardian.com; I interviewed the winner of this year's TS Eliot prize, Peter Gizzi: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Trump unleashed chaos by freezing and unfreezing $3tn in federal grants and loans. Why? | Robert Reich These new initiatives are not about shrinking the size of the federal government. They’re about centralizing control in Trump’s hands Chaos on a huge scale. On Wednesday, Trump rescinded an order he had made late on Monday night that froze up to $3tn in…

Trump unleashed chaos by freezing and unfreezing $3tn in federal grants and loans. Why? | Robert Reich

Zuckerberg, it’s time to face the facts Meta is changing its rules about what constitutes ‘hateful conduct’ and terminating support for global fact-checking organisations. This may not end w...

Meta is changing its rules about what constitutes ‘hateful conduct’ and terminating support for global fact-checking organisations. This may not end well, writes Ethan Zuckerman, writes @ethanz.bsky.social.
www.prospectmagazine...