Amy Schiff

Indivisible Calls on Schumer to Step Aside

NEWS: After an emergency meeting of Indivisible groups across the country, Indivisible is officially calling on Senate Minority Leader Schumer to step down from his leadership position. indivisible.org/statements/i...

Kudos to Bernie Sanders for his Fight Oligarchy Tour. Democrats, where is our bench of Bernies? #FightOligarchyTour

We need to get out into the streets!

I’m so thankful for being in community at this time with @markers4democracy.bsky.social

Scatterplot titled “Empirical Evidence of Ideological Targeting in Federal Layoffs: Agencies seen as liberal are significantly more likely to face DOGE layoffs.” • The x-axis represents Perceived Ideological Leaning of federal agencies, ranging from -2 (Most Liberal) to +2 (Most Conservative), based on survey responses from over 1,500 federal executives. • The y-axis shows Agency Size (Number of Staff) on a logarithmic scale from 1,000 to 1,000,000. Each point represents a federal agency: • Red dots indicate agencies that experienced DOGE layoffs. • Gray dots indicate agencies with no layoffs. Key Observations: • Liberal-leaning agencies (left side of the plot) are disproportionately represented among red dots, indicating higher layoff rates. • Notable targeted agencies include: • HHS (Health & Human Services) • EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) • NIH (National Institutes of Health) • CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) • Dept. of Education • USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) • The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE), despite its conservative leaning (+1 on the scale), is an exception among targeted agencies. • A notable outlier: the Department of Veterans Affairs (moderately conservative) also faced layoffs despite its size. Takeaway: The figure visually demonstrates that DOGE layoffs disproportionately targeted liberal-leaning agencies, supporting claims of ideological bias. The pattern reveals that layoffs were not driven by agency size or budget alone but were strongly associated with perceived ideology. Source: Richardson, Clinton, & Lewis (2018). Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill. The Journal of Politics, 80(1).

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️

As federal jobs are slashed, Grassley says 'Congress can't do anything except complain' - Radio Iowa A social media post from a park ranger who was fired from his dream job at Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeast Iowa has gone viral, as many federal workers in Iowa fear for their jobs. Firing...

Seriously! I think many of us could come up with a few things you could do in addition to complaining (which you aren’t even doing).You could start by withholding your vote on cabinet nominees.
www.radioiowa.com/2025/02/18/a...

Without going all Martin Niemöller here, I do think that it's bad not to speak up for immigrants, transgender Americans, civil servants, women, Ukraine, and everyone else the MAGA bullies are going after. We're beyond picking and choosing whom to defend. It's time to stand up and speak out.

I did not have on my bingo card that bringing back cursive writing would be needed in 2025. Can AI read cursive when scanning grant applications for flagged key words?

Feels like “we the people” need to hit the streets. The elected D’s seem frozen, our courts move too slow and history shows Hitler dismantled the German economy in 2 months-time isn’t on our side. With so much happening fast what/ where should we protest? Experts please offer actionable suggestions.

Opening the DNC's Black Box Making public the names of the 448 voting members of the Democratic National Committee, as the party prepares to pick a new chair.

Must read "Opening the DNC's Black Box" by @msifry.bsky.social and make sure to read to the end because he has some recommendations for weekend reading and listening. open.substack.com/pub/theconne...