Daniel Dickson

The Olympics bring amazing stories of perseverance, but I could really do without these narratives celebrating athletes for 'overcoming' impairment. For one, they encourage the type of dangerous hubris that convinces someone to ski on a blown ACL. Most importantly, ableism harms disabled people.

Palantir fasciitis

Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”

In the middle of a Depression he would be saying how great everything is and how much we should thank him.

Begin g today we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed. But never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try. To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers’ lives.

Reagan, 1981: “In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Clinton, 1996: “I say again, the era of big government is over. But we cannot go back to the era of fending for yourself.”
Mamdani, 2026:

“PhD-level intelligence” they said

This is the *federal* government paying for the *City* to take action on what is constitutionally Saskatchewan *provincial* govt responsibility - because the Saskatchewan govt will not act to provide adequate social housing.

It's officially out! City Politics in Canada, co-edited with @jacklucas.bsky.social and Martin Horak @westernupolisci.bsky.social is in print and available for course adoption. Thank you to all chapter authors for their contributions. bsky.app/profile/did:...

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future."

- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.

Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!

so, this right here? this is one of the absolutely most lawless, brazenly unconstitutional impeachable offenses ever committed by any president other than trump in the history of our country.

like, this is an open and shut case. and it's a case which targeted *republicans.*

I used to be a personal support worker, where a lot of my work was helping people overcome isolative barriers in an ableist society. PSWs are policy actors, but they are also social supports. Here is another great resource on MAID to complement the one you shared: cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cj...

However, I recognize that proponents of MAID see it as an end to suffering for people with no other possibility for relief. This is also often experientially-informed, and tied to trauma and loss. My whole point was re: social supports, which are tied to social policy for some

It's a very complex topic because I think how you view it depends on personal experience/ ability to compartmentalize information. For people who see these policy failures less as the context within which MAID operates and more as a cause of their personal suffering, MAID means something different

So... just because someone does not report isolation or loneliness as a reason for accessing MAID - which would be a difficult thing to say at the end, when receiving (informal) support from family and friends, even if you still feel it - does not mean they are receiving adequate social supports.

For example, provinces don't share waitlist data (even after FOIA requests), but in many provs less than 50% of eligible applicants receive disability housing supports. Spectacular policy failure. Likewise with income supports, which are poverty traps.

I get what your point is here, but I encourage you to use a bit more nuance with this topic. Lots of folks involved with disability advocacy now have cherished friends who have died through Track 2 MAiD, and we know why. Austerity is hollowing health and social services for people w disabilities.

The use of 'social supports' here is misleading. Track 2 MAID is used by Canadians w disabilities who don't receive supports necessary to live. MAID opponents point to the hypocrisy of governments' willingness to administer MAID relative to the woeful inadequacy of disability supports.

Doug Fords Conservatives used AI to create a report on intimate partner violence, one which used non-existent sources. This is after they refused to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic. The Ford Conservatives do not take women's safety seriously #onpoli #ontario #dougford #frankdomenic🍁

Universities need Indigenous co-governance Structured partnerships are a better way to manage membership verification and other processes that affect Indigenous communities.

Kurtis Boyer: Universities need Indigenous co-governance policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/12/reco...

Trump is the most ableist POTUS - this much is obvious. The harm his admin is inflicting on people w disabilities will take decades to undo. But, that he will incur no political damage for directing this extremely vulgar slur at an opponent exemplifies the depth of systemic ableism in the US.

It's non-binding legislation, and even if fully adopted by member states many youths would find workarounds. But, this is a good example of the symbolic function of public policy. Formal recognition of the dangers of social media use will inform and empower parents to protect their kids.

Alt: The image features a grayscale photograph of a long, empty hallway with a person walking away in the distance. The individual is highlighted in yellow, contrasting with the monochrome surroundings, emphasizing isolation. The hallway has brick walls with white railings on both sides. Above the photo, a black panel with torn edges. At the top of the image, text reads: "NEW REPORT: ONTARIO OMBUDSMAN REPORTS ON THE USE OF PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTIONALIZATION FOR PEOPLE LABELLED WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES. Below the image, text reads: This Report supports what disabled people and their families have said for decades: Disabled People are over-medicated, under-supported, and suffering behind the locked walls of psychiatric institutions for months and years at a time. Current efforts to expand adult institutionalization through large-scale group homes will not address these concerns and recent legislation, like Bill 17, will only intensify institutionalization and violence against us.

Mixed feelings about the recent Ombudsman Report "Lost in Transition" on the hospitalization of adults with developmental disabilities and the developmental services system in Ontario

Link to Media Release & Proposed Additional Solutions: tr.ee/Hgn22PfQBu or in bio.
1/5

The ACA and the Looming Healthcare Crisis (11/24/25) | The Death Panel Get more from The Death Panel on Patreon

In our latest, we discuss how healthcare costs are expected to dramatically spike next year and how the structure of the ACA itself ensures we’re going to relive moments like the shutdown fight until we can replace it with something fundamentally better

www.patreon.com/posts/144323...

TBH most autism research is done by non-Autistic researchers who intentionally exclude Autistic people and consider us demanding to be treated like people a barrier to their work and repeatedly ask the wrong questions.

The right questions would be about our internal lives, first and foremost.

Social Security scraps plan to limit disability benefits after uproar The policy would have fundamentally altered who qualifies for the two federal disability programs by eliminating or limiting a person’s age as a factor to consider.

The Trump administration planned to kick thousands of American seniors off of their disability benefits.

We pushed back — and now, they're backing off.

Public pressure works. Keep fighting back.

These Social Policy Trends posts from @ronkneebone.bsky.social are fantastic and provide great food for thought!

Today's got me thinking about how ineffective employment growth policies lean towards simply creating more jobs rather than also eliminating barriers to employment for ppl in poverty

Here is a picture from the 2023 provincial election campaign. See if you can spot the differences.

Q: Is it appropriate for your family to be doing business in Saudi Arabia while you're president. Is that a conflict of interest? And your royal highness, the US intel community concluded you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journali---

TRUMP: Who are you with?

Q: ABC News

TRUMP: Fake news

Let's be clear about what happened today.

Premier Smith introduced a bill to strip Albertans of Charter rights,

denied MLAs the opportunity to debate it and the courts the ability to scrutinize it,

and did all of this from her seat on a jet to Saudi Arabia.

If you have had any interaction with education at the state and local level, you will know there are strong incentives for school systems to shortchange students with disabilities by skirting the IDEA mandates. That is why the law exists. Without a federal cop on the beat, states will know that it will be safer for them to ignore it. People at state governments see it this way also. One state director of special education told NPR: I’m fearful. I think it’s good for states to know there’s federal oversight and that they’ll be held accountable. The concept of leaving special education up to states sounds great, but it’s scary. What happens if one state decides to interpret the law one way, but another state disagrees and interprets it differently?

Some RIFs will kill legislation, e.g the Ed office that oversees disability. IDEA was passed 50 yrs ago, when there was broad bipartisan agreement that a more inclusive educational system was a good thing.
It was repealed last Friday. No law was passed. Trump simply made IDEA a dead letter.