Dr. Melanie Wilcox

Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges The Trump administration is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion threatening federal funding to the nation’s schools and colle...

Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges. This leaves in place a federal judge's ruling that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules. (Via AP) apnews.com/article/dei-... #ncpol #nced

it's absolutely critical to understand in this moment that people aren't largely reacting to who Charlie Kirk was as a person, but who they knew him as because of what tiny pieces of him got clipped out and stuck in their newsfeeds.

Charlie Kirk was a horrible bigot who spewed dangerous conspiracy theories and misled many young people. He marched for Trump’s authoritarian agenda. None of this justifies violence or murder. Political violence only escalates and makes us less safe.

Sadly, we dont have a leader but an arsonist.

Oh, I am so very sorry. It has been a joy to watch her journey with you for so long; thank you for sharing her with us. My heart is with y'all. We just lost our 15-year-old perfect pup in July; even with 15 years, it is breathtakingly crushing. 💔 I hope you are taking extra good care.

Chattel slavery was so bad that when we tell you how bad it in fact was most of y'all shut down and tell us we're making it up and pass laws against us ever telling you how bad it was again because your brains literally cannot handle how bad it in fact was.

A bar chart showing a comparison of mortality rates in ages 15-49 between the US and the average across 11 comparable high-income countries, by cause of death. The US has similar mortality rates from cancer and slightly higher rates of death by suicide, but for other causes the US is a huge outlier - more than double the rate of death from cardiovascular and chronic liver disease. Much higher rates of death from transport accidents and at least 5 times the death rate for both drug use and COVID-19 (based on 2021 data).

Great story here in @nature.com from @helenpearson.bsky.social on the state of health in the US and what happens when RFK's Make America Healthy Again rhetoric meets the evidence on what actually needs to change.

Ft. this shocking graph on US health exceptionalism:

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I’ve found it’s more visually appealing to just paste in his head at the inflection points

This really is a wonderfully fantastic read even for those of us who may think such documents could be mind numbing. This is nothing of the sort. Enjoy.

Just so I am keeping everything straight…the government can’t tell you to wear a mask because FREEDOM!!!!, but it can decide you are a “terrorist” and send you to a foreign gulag without due process and throw away the key.

That right?

Musk and Trump fan the flames of the conspiracy theory that Fort Knox's gold was stolen The baseless conspiracy theory that the Fort Knox gold might be gone, spread by Musk and Trump, was also popular in the 1970s.

Makes sense given that every single thing they ever say is projection. Every single time.

I reported on economics full-time in 2020. It taught me there are no incentives to have a baby in the US. Women in the US have to pay for pre-natal, medical and child care, earn less, do most of the parenting and chores, get promoted less, and are now at 27% higher risk of maternal mortality.

I’d rather have a robust social safety state that allows people to have families if they want— and letting people be if they don’t. The pronatalism trend has been often not about individual autonomy and collective support, but nativism and a slippery slope toward regulating motherhood and sexuality.

Good morning.

Today is the 80th day that the U.S. President is running a backdoor bribery scheme in which any CEO or foreign oligarch can send him money secretly through his crypto coin scam in exchange for favors.

It's the biggest scandal in the history of the Presidency.

I wrote about this a bit in my last book but it really shakes me that a defining feature of this catastrophic era is that we just keep going to work. We work through pandemics, we work through natural disasters, we work through economic calamity, we work through coups, we work, we work, we work.

IMHO, this is not new but traces back to the 1987 repeal of the 1949 Fairness Doctrine under Reagan, which forced some level of balance in media reporting. Congress tried to reinstate it shortly after its repeal; Reagan vetoed it. This opened the door for Limbaugh, Fox, et al.

Congrats, everyone! We've outdone both the 08 crisis and the COVID crisis!

This makes perfect sense when you remember that he has spent his entire "career" obtaining the stuff (contractor labor; furnishings and materials) and then also keeping his money by refusing to pay for the stuff.

Tweet from @dril with an edit. Original says: “Food $200 Data $150 Rent $800 Candles $3,600 Utility $150 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying” The edit is that the candles line is crossed out and replaced with “Tariffs: $6 trillion”

Everyone wants there to be a grand scheme behind all of this but the terrible truth is that extremely stupid people are in charge and they have a fanatical devotion to wrong, childlike concepts of society and economics cooked up by right wing radio hosts in order to sell tainted dietary supplements

People don't miss manufacturing jobs. They miss the effects of having 30+ percent union density. And we can build worker power again, with good policies, for the jobs most working class people actually have today rather than hoping mumbo jumbo will make it 1955 again.

"Would you have been silent while the MAGAs engaged in mass kidnapping and violence? While they destroyed American democracy?"

If the answer to either part of this question for you, present-day, is yes, then you are who the history books will warn children about for generations to come.

So now we all get to answer in real time. Future generations-abroad, hopefully here-will answer the question *about you.* "What would you have done if you were alive during the 2nd Trump Admin?...

I came across this statement re: fascism: "Once it's obvious, it's too late." People of conscience have been warning since Tea Party that it was a fascist movement. Pre-Trump. Certainly since the rise of Trump. We've always known. And it has been obvious for some time.

We have long been called to consider that the Nazis were in power because everyday Germans allowed them to be, even wanted them to be; because everyday Germans either cheered them on or did nothing.

Never forget that Hitler took strong inspiration from America.

Opinion | Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. America’s Police State Has Arrived. (Gift Article) Those of us who’ve seen secret police in action can’t shake a feeling of dreadful familiarity.

The Trump admin is, and was always going to be, a full-on Nazi regime.

Growing up, I often heard: "What would you have done if you were alive during WWII? Would you have been silent?" The implicit assumption: Doing nothing while the Nazis engaged in mass kidnapping and violence is *wrong*.

Just like Hillary Clinton before her.

Those trying to understand the tariffs as economic policy are dangerously naive.

No, the tariffs are a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief.

1/ A 🧵 to explain his plan and how we fight back.

1/2 In our new Lancet Psychiatry paper on the brain disease model for addiction, we discuss
-its weak empirical support
-its downplaying of psychosocial causes & maintenance factors
-issues with the definition of 'brain disease'
-numerous ways forward

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This is going to be remembered for all time as Columbia’s response to having a student protestor kidnapped and held prisoner by a budding authoritarian regime. It is unspeakable cowardice.