Nicole M. Baran, Ph.D.

My hometown absolutely floored me this past week. FLOORED.

For safety reasons, I haven’t said much about it. But I’m so damn proud of my family and friends. So proud.

Tonight, as the sun set in Durham, while hundreds more joined patrols in Charlotte, courageous local officials, people of faith, and community leaders gathered to say: Enough is enough.

there may well be more citizens showing up here in Charlotte to learn how to peacefully resist Trump’s indiscriminate mass deportation effort than federal agents on the ground here, as we saw firsthand last night.

“We owe it to our young people not to lie to them anymore. A democracy whose citizens operate with fundamentally different understandings of the past and its implications cannot sustain itself.”

i think the synthesis so far of the LA/DC/Chicago experiences is:

1) vulnerable people should hide and wait it out to whatever extent they can
2) other people should help them do that, financially and otherwise
3) other people should also get loud
4) not violent though

LAW dork = I am certain that someone thought this was particularly witty when they came up with the name, but it's honestly one of the more offensive possibilities these hateful authoritarians could have used. Even on its face, using the name of a beloved children's book as the name of your anti-immigrant, mass-arrest operation is appalling. But, to use a book authored by E.B. White as your name is an offense to history. White was a leading voice for American democracy and freedom and against fascism and tyranny. Abusing his life's work like this cannot stand without a response.

When DHS dared to call its anti-immigrant racial profiling weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” I knew I was going to have to write about it.

Tonight, at Law Dork, here it is: www.lawdork.com/p/gregory-bo...

Today marked Day One of Customs and Border Patrol’s Charlotte Operation. And as we’ve come to expect from these operations, federal agents targeted workers throughout Charlotte and the surrounding areas.

I'm seeing people wonder why ICE is going after Charlotte.

ICE has been at war with Charlotte's sheriff ever since he won in 2018.

We'd covered this at Bolts back in the day; this quote is from that sheriff:

Sharon Camp, Mother of the ‘Plan B’ Contraceptive Pill, Dies at 81

Anyone who’s ever used emergency contraception or gains peace of mind by even having it on hand owes Dr Camp a debt of gratitude. What a force.

(Also, I just learned one reason the FDA rejected it at first was that they said the name Plan B was too glib!)

Great obit—no paywall.

OJO Obrero (ojonc.org) is now available. This website features information about confirmed ICE operations in our state to help parents and workers get to school and work safely. OJO Obrero only features sightings that we can confirm involve federal agents, rather than crowdsourced reports

Trump's next immigration crackdown will target Charlotte, North Carolina, local sheriff says The next city bracing for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is Charlotte, North Carolina, which could see an influx of federal agents as early as this weekend, a county sheriff said Thu...

The next city bracing for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is Charlotte, North Carolina, which could see an influx of federal agents as early as this weekend, a county sheriff said Thursday. https://to.pbs.org/4nZ6DAK

NSF is open again!

A few comments:

*Please be patient.
During a shutdown NSF employees cannot open computers or respond to emails.

*Merit review will continue. However panels won’t resume until after Dec 8th.

*POs remain excited and committed to advancing science and the scientific workforce.

Today is a good day to remember, and to say, that the #MeToo movement was right, and was righteous, and has been vindicated over and over again. There was no overreach. There was no excess. There was no they-went-too-far.

So much work remains to be done.

Yeah this is it. Today in “neither our media nor our political system is designed to deal with a far right authoritarian party.”

I just want everyone to have the experience of living in dignity with access to sufficient food, safe housing, needed medical care, high quality education, and time to engage with what sparks their curiosity and spirit

this should not be controversial 🫠

Sounds like the squishes in the senate caucus are ready to pull the plug with no ACA changes. This is real. If you want to register your opinion you shld call yr senator in the next hour. They not only want to reopen w/nothing. They want cover from their colleagues who still want to hold out.

Any “deal” that ends with Dems just getting a pinky promise in return is a mistake.

The American people are suffering because Republicans refuse to stop healthcare costs from skyrocketing. An agreement that doesn’t fix that reality falls massively short.

As Ta-Nehisi Coates said last month:

“.. it’s either one of two things: either you’re cowards or you’re with him. And if you’re with him, you never believed in the things you were talking about to begin with.”

What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.

On the event of James Watson's death, I highly recommend this 2023 commentary from @matthewcobb.bsky.social and Nathaniel Comfort with crucial new insights into the discovery of the double helix. (And also check out Cobb's brand new biography of Francis Crick) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

DNA scientist James Watson has a remarkably long history of sexist, racist public comments “People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty,” he said in 2003. “I think it would be great.”

Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...

Statement on Cornell’s agreement with federal government The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. We ar…

The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. At best, we can say that this deal could have been worse.

Read our full statement here:

Opinion | Democrats’ election wins showed they don't need to hide their support for trans rights Republicans repeated Trump's anti-trans strategy from 2024 and lost big. This should be instructive for Democrats.

For @msnbc.com I wrote about how Tuesday's election gives Democrats the blueprint for overcoming Republican anti-trans attacks and how thus should settle all the talk about throwing trans people under the bus.

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

For years, but especially for the past year, Democrats have been in thrall to the idea that they need to chase an imagined median voter, and adopt that voter’s positions. Mamdani’s victory shows another way: hold principles, and persuade people to share them.

a kermit the frog is holding a sign that says vote . Alt: a kermit the frog is holding a sign that says vote .

VOTE!
VOTE!
VOTE!
VOTE!
VOTE!

It doesn’t matter what I think. Also, none of this would ever happen. But if I had a zillion dollars:

1. Run a “we do hard things” campaign across southern and rust belt states. Invest heavily in local, state and regional social infrastructure. Sponser later hours at a library, build a skate park…

That's like when I met Henry Winkler waiting at baggage claim at Newark Airport back in high school. My friends were like, 'That's the coach from Waterboy!' (We were on an orchestra trip and he started chatting with me because we were all getting our instruments!)

Been reading "What is Innateness?" by Paul Griffiths (2002) philpapers.org/rec/EGRWII in which he offers this very sound advice:

Another 🧪 we are losing to the hubris and hatred of American xenophobia

“Biblical Justice, Equal Justice, for All”: How North Carolina’s Chief Justice Transformed His State and America Paul Newby, a born-again Christian, has turned his perch atop North Carolina’s Supreme Court into an instrument of political power. Over two decades, he’s driven changes that have reverberated well be...

NEW: Paul Newby, a born-again Christian, has turned his perch atop North Carolina’s Supreme Court into an instrument of political power.

Over two decades, he’s driven changes that have reverberated well beyond the borders of his state.

By @dougbockclark.bsky.social

A screenshot of a block of text with a black background and white serif font. The text reads: “I don’t particularly care about the symbols people use to signal their membership in a group. Maybe you do need a terrifying tattoo to be a real Marine. And maybe sometimes that terrifying tattoo might resemble Nazi iconography. If you are willing to accept that from a distance, as many Democrats say they are, a person may not be able to tell the real symbol of hate from its doppelgänger, that is for you to live with. But, I do care about the political trade-offs we will ask people to make in the name of pragmatism. If the Democratic future requires us to exchange our discomfort with casual Nazism to advance a political agenda, I am not interested. Maybe other voters are — some polling suggests that young voters still support Platner. And maybe Platner will find a way to redeem himself. No one owes him that chance, but there is still a way forward. It’s called doing the work. But don’t tell me that excusing that tattoo is good politics. It is the exact same politics that the right is selling, in a different outfit.”

A Nazi Tattoo Exposes Democrats’ Greatest Weakness www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...

@tressiemcphd.bsky.social is unmatched. Read her latest piece—and everything else she writes.