scatter plot comparing average age of lawmakers vs. median age of population across a bunch of contemporary democracies, showing that the United States is a real outlier, with lawmakers averaging almost 60 years old vs. a median age of the population of just 38. South Korea and Japan come closest with average lawmaker ages around 55, but their populations are older, and most countries on the chart cluster in the 40s.
Lots packed into @adambonica.bsky.social's new On Data and Democracy post, but I haven't seen this chart getting the attention I think it deserves. US lawmakers are remarkably old, and the gap here between population age and lawmaker age is exceptional.
data4democracy.substack.com/p/on-data-an...
20.07.2025 17:14 — 👍 664 🔁 289 💬 22 📌 40
How to Fight GOP Corruption: The Empirical Case for Rejecting Mega-Donor Money
How Democrats can align their funding model with their message to win hearts, minds, and elections
As FEC deadlines approach, expect Dems to celebrate breaking fundraising records, driven by small donors. Chasing mega-donors is a trap that undermines their strongest weapon against GOP corruption. My research shows why Dems should reject big money and how they are, in fact, better off without it:
22.06.2025 23:43 — 👍 123 🔁 26 💬 3 📌 1
A horizontal bar chart titled “Pro-Cuomo super pacs have flooded the mayoral fundraising race” showing fundraising by New York City mayoral campaigns and allied super pacs. The chart displays total fundraising amounts for seven candidates, with bars segmented into three categories: Campaign (dark blue), Matching public funds (dark red/maroon), and Allied super pacs (light green). Andrew Cuomo leads significantly with $35.6 million total, with the majority from allied super pacs. Other candidates shown are Zohran Mamdani ($9.1mn), Brad Lander ($7.5mn), Scott Stringer ($5.1mn), Eric Adams ($4.8mn), Zellnor Myrie ($4.2mn), and Adrienne Adams ($2.8mn). The chart demonstrates how pro-Cuomo super PAC funding dwarfs other candidates’ total fundraising efforts.
My theory that big money flows towards the absolute worst candidates remains undefeated.
22.06.2025 20:29 — 👍 106 🔁 19 💬 3 📌 4
U.S. to begin revoking visas for Chinese students
The move marks a major escalation in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
The U.S. will begin revoking visas for Chinese students, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced today.
28.05.2025 23:44 — 👍 59 🔁 28 💬 21 📌 10
Live updates: Trade court blocks Trump’s tariffs, saying they are illegal
Get the latest news on President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the Republican-led Congress.
Breaking news: The Court of International Trade ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority in imposing tariffs on all imported goods. The president invoked a 1977 law that granted him emergency powers over the economy.
28.05.2025 23:47 — 👍 394 🔁 112 💬 46 📌 14
Skilled immigration on the chopping block? Effects of eliminating "Optional Practical Training" in the US
The White House has taken numerous steps to sharply reduce the number of immigrant workers, with or without legal status, in the US economy. These policies, so far, typically target immigrants with le...
They're terminating OPT.
Today the nominee to head USCIS stated directly: he will end Optional Practical Training, the single largest channel for high-skill immigrants to work in the US.
6 weeks ago I warned about this & summarized the research on impacts of this drastic action—> @piie.com
21.05.2025 21:04 — 👍 649 🔁 372 💬 2 📌 127
This is gonna end with Trump ordering the federal government to buy all of the inventory up isn't it.
08.05.2025 21:57 — 👍 174 🔁 27 💬 17 📌 3
Congratulations @juliangerez.com PhD!
07.05.2025 18:29 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Thank you Greyhound!
29.04.2025 21:27 — 👍 52842 🔁 12058 💬 746 📌 806
"What government officials may not do is what they have attempted to do here: namely, attempt to create “a scheme of state censorship effectuated by extralegal sanctions,” premised on an asserted goal of enforcing Title VI." The full brief is a must read.
29.04.2025 16:02 — 👍 122 🔁 45 💬 0 📌 0
Today’s Chartbook features 10 Americas: How Geography, Race, and Income Shape U.S. Life Expectancy. The differences in U.S. life expectancy are so large it's as if the population lives in separate Americas instead of one.
25.04.2025 17:52 — 👍 62 🔁 28 💬 2 📌 3
Like others I’ve struggled to process the attacks on civil society. I appreciated the chance to talk w @mariaressa.bsky.social, @vickymurillo.bsky.social, & @timfrye.bsky.social about concrete lessons for how civil society can defend itself against these attacks. 1/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVE5...
22.04.2025 14:05 — 👍 10 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
YouTube video by Columbia SIPA
IGP Rapid Response: Governmental Attacks on Civil Society—Lessons for the US from Around the Globe
There are many other great points they raised and I hope you learn from the discussion too! Thank you @columbiaigp.bsky.social for hosting! www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVE5...
22.04.2025 14:14 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Safe to say we don’t have theories of advising that explain this. Except for in personalist regimes.
19.04.2025 10:49 — 👍 38 🔁 8 💬 1 📌 0
The Mystery of ICE’s Unidentifiable Arrests
In early March, the agency announced that it had arrested forty-eight people in New Mexico—a month later, their identities and whereabouts remain unknown.
ICE officers are now reportedly required to meet arrest quotas each day, from a few hundred to between 1,200 and 1,500 nationwide. Jonathan Blitzer reports on the mystery of the agency’s unidentifiable arrests.
19.04.2025 21:59 — 👍 13438 🔁 6511 💬 971 📌 638
My working assumption is that the Administration sent Harvard a letter the school *had* to refuse precisely so that it could then publicly parade these additional consequences (more $$, IRS weaponization, foreign student decertification) as leverage over other schools and targets of its extortion.
17.04.2025 12:04 — 👍 193 🔁 60 💬 19 📌 5
A message from President Jonathan Levin and Provost Jenny Martinez
Stanford speaks out in support of Harvard:
"America’s universities are a source of great national strength, creating knowledge and driving innovation and economic growth. This strength has been built on government investment but not government control."
news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...
15.04.2025 18:28 — 👍 198 🔁 39 💬 2 📌 1
On Monday April 21st, LASA and ILAS will present a discussion on the effect of the second Trump administration's policies on Latin American countries, featuring speakers
Juan Cruz, @shannonkoneil.bsky.social, Brian Winter, and @vickymurillo.bsky.social.
RSVP via👇🏼
ilas.columbia.edu/events/trump...
14.04.2025 20:13 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
80+% of both Democrats and Republicans believe America would be better off if more Americans worked in manufacturing, but < 30% say that about themselves.
The bipartisan belief that America would be a better place if *other people* worked in a factory.
www.ft.com/content/8459...
13.04.2025 17:44 — 👍 9317 🔁 2886 💬 243 📌 506
10.04.2025 13:27 — 👍 100 🔁 42 💬 5 📌 4
This observation from Adam Carlson is one of the most clarifying I've seen about the standing of the White House. The President's approval is down significantly across a variety of metrics but that decline is being significantly muted by relatively strong approval on border/immigration.
01.04.2025 13:10 — 👍 1386 🔁 266 💬 148 📌 138
👇🎯💯
03.04.2025 01:37 — 👍 47 🔁 13 💬 0 📌 0
Check out the interview with ILAS Director @vickymurillo.bsky.social on @cnn.com Radio Argentina's show by Mariana Arias and Pepe Gil Vidal.
Recording link below -
#Argentina
we.tl/t-xzFaC5qIlO
01.04.2025 22:39 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Director, Global Risk at Federation of American Scientists, former Sr. Dir NSC, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (doomsday clock setter). Pope of Chili Town. No #manels, Yankees/Gunners.
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