Salomé Viljoen

Excellent distillation of a crucial distinction

A guy whose fraudulent university was shut down is telling the Ivy League what to do.

A guy whose businesses went bankrupt multiple times is telling the Fed what to do.

A guy whose best friend was a child sex trafficker is telling the DOJ what to do.

That it’s all the same guy is pretty wild.

Yes! The long term hobbling of public expertise is damaging and dangerous

Paul Ingrassia—a 30-year-old former right-wing blogger and newly minted lawyer who was admitted to the bar in 2024—is Trump’s pick to lead the Office of Special Counsel.

Ingrassia has called Jack Smith a “disgusting man,” accused him of “election interference,” and said he should be jailed.

More on Trump’s nominee to lead the office investigating Jack Smith:

➡️ He said that the descendants of slaves should pay reparations to the descendants of slave owners

➡️ He urged Congress to make J6 a national holiday

➡️ He called for Trump’s birthday to be made a national holiday (“MAGA Day”)

August 1, 2025 AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION Committee on Economic Statistics and Committee on Government Relations Statement from the American Economic Association on the Dismissal of the BLS Commissioner Leaders of the American Economic Association express their grave concern over the dismissal of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) earlier today. The independence of the federal statistical agencies is essential to the proper functioning of a modern economy. Accurate, timely, and impartial statistics are the foundation upon which households, businesses, and policymakers make critical decisions. Undermining the independence or credibility of these agencies threatens the integrity of the information that markets, institutions, and the public rely on every day. Measuring the vast and dynamic U.S. economy in real time is inherently challenging. It is standard practice for statistical estimates to be revised as more complete and higher-quality data become available. These revisions reflect the commitment of statistical agencies to accuracy, transparency, and methodological rigor-not failure or bias. The BLS has long had a well-deserved reputation for professional excellence and nonpartisan integrity. Safeguarding this tradition is vital for the continued health of the U.S. economy and public trust in our institutions. We call upon elected officials to respect and preserve the independence of the nation's statistical infrastructure. Lawrence Katz President, American Economic Association Katharine Abraham President-Elect, American Economic Association Karen Dynan Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Economic Statistics Kenneth Troske Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Government Relations

Statement from the largest economics association about the BLS firing

As context: AEA approximately never makes such public statements

This is a big deal

Um was it shoot the messenger week??

IEA: Renewables will be world’s top power source ‘by 2026’ - Carbon Brief Renewable energy will overtake coal to become the world’s top source of electricity “by 2026 at the latest”, according to new IEA forecasts.

"Renewable energy will overtake coal to become the world’s top source of electricity 'by 2026 at the latest', according to new forecasts from the International Energy Agency (IEA)."

CORDER LIST: 606 U.S.) FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2025 24-109 24-110 ORDER IN PENDING CASES LOUISIANA V. CALLAIS, PHILLIP, ET AL. ROBINSON, PRESS, ET AL. V. CALLAIS, PHILLIP, ET AL. The parties are directed to file supplemental briefs addressing the following question raised on pages 36-38 of the Brief for Appellees: Whether the State's intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution. Supplemental briefs for appellants are due on or before Wednesday, August 27, 2025. Supplemental brief for appellees is due on or before Wednesday, September 17, 2025. Reply briefs are due on or before 2 p.m., Friday, October 3, 2025. The time to file amicus curiae briefs is as provided for by this Court's Rule 37.3. Word limits and cover colors for the briefs should correspond to the provisions of this Court's Rule 33.1(g) pertaining to briefs on the merits rather than to the provision pertaining to supplemental

😬The Supreme Court will consider whether the intentional creation of a majority-minority congressional district violates the 14th or 15th Amendments.

If the answer is yes, SCOTUS will effectively declare that what remains of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. This is very, very ominous.

For the math folks on here: NSF has suspended Terry Tao's grant. www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...

Even a vast force of wealth and dynamism will begin to falter if you keep stabbing it in the face

A New Paper Just Found Something Horrifying About Kids Who Get Phones Early in Life Children who got smartphones before the age of 13 are, per a new study, far more likely to suffer mental health problems down the line.

This is quite alarming.

Some Asian people posted a photo of themselves having dinner. It reads: "Went to a fancy dinner in SF and everybody went to Harvard (or Stanford)" The next day, the followed up with a tweet that reads: "Almost all of us are Americans. FWIW, More of us are Americans than Asian."

Two quote tweets. The first has a racist drawing of Asian people and it says "I rent to fancy dinnah and everybody rent 2 Havah (or Stanfah)." The other shows Yale's Skulls and Bones society in the 1940s, where a bunch of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant men in suits are composed for a group photo. An Italian man writes: "This is what Ivy Leaguers are supposed to look like."

Two quote tweets. The first reads: "Foreigners post stuff like this and then act surprised that GenZ males are so far right they'd make Rush Limbaugh blush. I hope they realize Trump is their last chance for a moderate solution." The other reads: "I’m so glad that 17 Americans didn’t get to go to Harvard or Standford because these peoples parents spent $10,000 on SAT prep"

Two quote tweets. The first reads: "Living exclusively around these people for over 15 years is what turned me into a nazi. They're like this all the time." The other reads: "Not going to lie, very depressing to see our hallowed western university system turn into a network of Striver Universities for intellectually incurious exam maxxing Kumon monsters"

Interesting how much resentment this photo created from white conservatives who assumed that the dismantling of DEI meant elite schools would return to the 1940s.

What my best friends say about me and my work

Firing google scholar due to low citation count

Obv bad, but also really pathetic. Firing the bad numbers Guy because you’re mad at the bad numbers is authoritarian cope

i do wonder if any of the somewhat more reality oriented people in the administration will be able to persuade the president that just because you change the numbers doesn’t mean you’ve changed the underlying reality

if i were a pro-trump financial type i might view the destruction of reliable government data with the kind of anger and apprehension that might lead me to reevaluate my politics, but then if i’m a financial guy throwing my weight behind strongman rule, i’m already too stupid to breathe

Motherfucking wind farms…

another instance of "being mean to me is domestic terrorism"

Columbia and Brown, by settling, have encouraged this tactic. Authoritarians are emboldened by capitulation, and they won't stop until the cost outweighs the benefits.

Wow. A group of top scholars at Harvard just sent a letter to its president, Alan Garber, warning against surrendering to Trump.

Signatories include Steven Levitsky, Dani Rodrik, Ryan Enos, Theda Skocpol, and Steven Walt.

Someone forwarded it to me. Read it here:

"Trump’s interference in the sciences is something new. It shares features with the science-damaging policies of Stalin and Hitler, says David Wootton, a historian of science. But in the English-speaking world, it has no precedent, he told me: “This is an unparalleled destruction from within.”

Start your morning with two minutes of the testimony of Samuel Garcia, an average American who drove 3 hours to speak truth to power to the Texas legislature. Let’s decide that we are all Samuel Garcia. Get in their faces and make them listen. Mr. Garcia is a great American.

In Game-Changing Climate Rollback, E.P.A. Aims to Kill a Bedrock Scientific Finding

"It marks a notable shift in the administration’s position from one that had downplayed the threat of global warming to one that essentially flatly denies the overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change."

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/c...

For every new Sydney Sweeney ad we will release one (1) new gay M&M

There’s lots one can say here—you can dispute that it’s even a thing, point to the information ecosystem that elevates fringe voices as Official Dem™️ etc…but I just want to ask: does the right have goldfish brains? Remember them having a FULL meltdown because Bud Light and lesbians? The Green M&M??

LIBERALS LOSE THEIR MINDS when they tell you to see the great clown Pagliacci and it will cheer them right up and you say but I am Pagliacci. It’s why more and more people are turning to the Republican Party

The “deal” that Brown made with the Trump admin is much more extreme than is being reported. It includes government oversight of course evaluations and no barrier to government interference in faculty hiring.

Read it for yourself here:

www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...