Karen Benjamin Guzzo

Wall Street Journal screenshot: Within DHS, Noem and Lewandowski have cut employees or put them on administrative leave. The pair have fired or demoted roughly 80% of the career ICE field leadership that was in place when they started. In the blanket incident, Noem had to switch planes after a maintenance issue was discovered, but her blanket wasn’t moved to the second plane, according to the people familiar with the incident. The Coast Guard pilot was initially fired and told to take a commercial flight home when they reached their destination. They eventually reinstated the pilot because no one else was available to fly them home. The DHS spokeswoman didn’t address the episode but said the secretary has “made personnel decisions to deliver excellence.”

Kristi Noem tried to fire a Coast Guard pilot for forgetting her blankie but then needed that pilot to fly her home
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Oh, absolutely. They've cleverly identified something they can mobilize a large base behind to ultimately accomplish anti-feminist, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ policies they've long wanted to achieve. Low birth rates are just a pretense.

Even without an on-campus voting site, NCAT students still marched to the polls. 💙💛 Students at North Carolina A&T showed that barriers won’t stop their voices. When access isn’t easy, they organize. ... TikTok video by HBCU Student Action Alliance

North Carolina lawmakers have voted to remove all college campus voting sites. Specifically at the largest HBCU in the US NC A&T. They now have to walk 30 minutes to their nearest polling place. Students are protesting this - pls share and support.

www.tiktok.com/t/ZThx29BJ9/

What really scares me about this moment is that the right has been able to convince "regular" people that low birth rates are a problem that must be addressed. Once people accept that - and reasonable efforts like childcare or tax credits don't work - it opens the door to more draconian efforts.

I think about this book a lot - the concerns about who was, and was not, having children in the US have been around a long time.

I am hiring a postdoc @ Univ of Iowa. Potential project focuses include flood-risk infrastructure planning, disaster recovery processes and outcomes, insurance program externalities, or uncertainty in climate damage attribution. Please consider applying/sharing! jobs.uiowa.edu/postdoc/view...

Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped. Hundreds of judges around the country have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that President Donald Trump’s administration is detaining immigrants unlawfully, a Reuters review of court records ...

Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped. - www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Happy Valentine’s Day! #legokaren

On Becoming an Associate Professor (And Telling the Truth About How I Got Here) February 13, 2026By: Destenie NockWhen people found out I was promoted to Associate Professor, the response was generous and kind. A lot of people said some version of: “Of course. You publish so much...

I was recently promoted to Associate Professor. I’m so grateful and I also wanted to tell the truth behind what people call “effortless” success.
I wrote about infertility, fostering, work as coping, and choosing differently in this next chapter
Full story: destenienock5.wixsite.com/destenienock...

On Nov. 16, a mental health counselor recorded in Kamilla’s medical records that her mother reported the girl had lost her appetite after being “served food that contained worms.” A week later, the couple said, children were told to gather in the gym for what they believed would be a Thanksgiving celebration. Excitement spread as families saw tables set with turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, they said. The children waited expectantly. But when a parent asked when the celebration would begin, Oksana said, staff told them the holiday meal was for employees, not detainees. The children, she said, watched despondently as the feast was packed away.

On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast.

The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.

But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.

Handsome at Any Cost

Looksmaxxing is “a male space. My culture is not a costume.”

GTFOH

We’re doomed 😱

AOC and Warren join forces in high-profile child care push ahead of midterms As Republicans urge Americans to have more children but offer few supportive policies, Democrats believe reducing child care costs could be a winning message.

When only the wealthy can afford peace of mind for their children, we've turned childhood into a privilege, not a promise.

I am proud to lead the Child Care for Every Community Act with @warren.senate.gov to cap childcare costs and fight for universal childcare.

19thnews.org/2026/02/aoc-...

Exclusive: Key US infectious-diseases centre to drop pandemic preparation Staff members have been instructed to scrub this topic and ‘biodefense’ from the agency’s website.

Scoop: The NIH infectious-diseases institute (NIAID) will soon scrub “pandemic preparedness” and “biodefense” from its web pages, according to e-mails I obtained.

The directive is the start of a broader shake-up at NIAID, which has long been attacked by Republicans.

Aw, poor guy. But he sure is cute.

In “Limits of Predicting Individual-Level Longevity,” Badolato et al. assess a range of classic statistical & machine learning survival analysis models. @nickirons.bsky.social @monjalexander.bsky.social @ugobas.bsky.social @ezagheni.bsky.social @mpidr.bsky.social read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...

Just imagine being the kind of person who would build your personal security detail on the bones of dead women and children around the world.

Black Women Are Losing Jobs At Three Times The Rate Of Other Women | Essence New labor data shows Black women accounted for a disproportionate share of job losses across 2025, especially in federal, education, and care-sector roles.

Black Women Are Losing Jobs At Three Times The Rate Of Other Women www.essence.com/news/money-c...

Trying out the clt I took the CLT not only to add a stone to my infinity gauntlet but so you don’t have to. Read on to find out what I’ve learned.

I took that new right wing admissions test so you don't have to.

"It’s inconsistent, odd, and pseudo-scientific but it has just enough of a patina of science to let politicians who share their ideology justify its use."

akilbello.com/2026/02/11/t...

Population change is real - but it's also a slow moving train. We have time to design thoughtful policy responses to address population aging, future labor market needs, and economic growth. But if we focus on raising birth rates as the ONLY possible response, we'll squander that time. 6/6

Fertility in High-Income Countries: Trends, Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences by David Bloom, Michael Kuhn, and Klaus Prettner Abstract: High-income countries have generally experienced falling fertility in recent decades. In most of these countries, the total fertility rate is now below the level that implies a stable population in the long run. This has led to concerns among economists, policymakers, and the wider public about the economic consequences of low fertility and population decline. In this contribution, we aim to (a) describe the main determinants of low fertility in high-income countries, (b) assess its potential economic consequences, (c) discuss adjustment mechanisms for individuals and economies, (d) propose a simple economic framework to analyze the long-run economic impacts of low fertility, and (e) draw lessons for economic policymakers to react appropriately. While the economic challenges of low fertility are substantial, a thoughtful and consistent policy response can mitigate most of the adverse consequences.

The second question we should be asking is "how can we support the population we have now, and will likely have in the future?" This great review piece argues that good policy can actually help ameliorate many of the consequences of low fertility. 5/6 www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Things like childcare and paid leave would be great. And we should support them EVEN IF THEY DON'T RAISE BIRTH RATES because there is a robust body of evidence demonstrating they improve the health and well-being of children, parents, and families. (They're even good for employers!) 4/6

That's not to say that there are no economic or societal implications for low birth rates or that there's nothing we can or should do. But what we should be asking are two questions. First, we should ask "how can we make parenthood easier for parents and would-be parents?" 3/6

Family Policies in Low Fertility Countries: Evidence and Reflections ANNE H. GAUTHIER AND STUART GIETEL-BASTEN Family policies, defined as measures designed to support families with children, are part of modern welfare states. They range from punctual measures provided at the birth of a child to measures aimed at making it easier for parents to combine work and family responsibilities. The actual goal of these measures varies largely, being explicitly pronatalist in some cases while embracing a more equalitarian principle in others. Despite the variations in the nature of these policies and their stated goal, they are nonetheless all generally assumed to have a positive effect on fertility. The aim of this paper is threefold. First, the aim is to summarize the main findings from the literature on the impact of family policies on fertility. This is done by adopting ahistorical perspective, including the review of the early studies in this field of research and by distinguishing different methodologies. Second, the aim is to reflect on these findings, including the role of national context and the framing of policies. Third, the aim is also to reflect on the limited impact of policy interventions on fertility, stressing that their “success” should instead be measured in terms of their ability to support families holistically including their work-life balance.

There is no evidence that ANY policy, or set of policies, can substantially increase birth rates (and then sustain them) in a low fertility setting. That's the conclusion from an excellent and thorough meta-analyses. 2/6 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Headline from The Hill reading "How to raise birth rates is the wrong question: Here’s what we should be asking"

One of the most frustrating things about the current US discourse over low birth rates is its laser focus on "how can we raise birth rates?" In this op-ed for @thehill.com, I explain why that's the wrong question and what we should be asking instead. 1/6
thehill.com/opinion/heal...

“Our communities are being erased in real time — first from our streets through aggressive immigration enforcement, and now from the data that determine political power and public investment for the next decade. “Two years ago, the Census Bureau set forth plans for a 2026 census test that was intended to be a field test of Census 2030 operations. Last week, the Bureau abruptly released — without stakeholder engagement — a drastic proposal to change its testing plan. These changes include testing a citizenship question, dramatically reducing the number of testing sites from six to just two, testing in areas without a substantial Latino population, and other significant changes. If the Bureau proceeds with these plans, it will fail to obtain reliable information on how to reach hard-to-count communities, including Latinos — particularly very young Latino children who have experienced persistent and growing undercounts. “This is unacceptable and would set the Bureau up to fail in 2030 by sabotaging its ability to obtain a fair and accurate count of Latinos and the nation’s population as a whole. “An undercount of Latinos in 2030 would result in fewer resources for schools, health care, housing, and emergency services, and less representation in our democracy. The Constitution is clear: everyone who lives here must be counted. NALEO Educational Fund, alongside our NALEO members, will continue working with congressional leaders and community partners to demand robust testing, transparency, and a census that counts every person. Our communities deserve to be safe, seen, and counted — not erased.”

NEW: @naleoofficial.bsky.social says if the Census Bureau moves forward with its planned cutbacks to the 2026 Census Test, they will "set the Bureau up to fail in 2030 by sabotaging its ability to obtain a fair and accurate count of Latinos and the nation’s population as a whole"

From Pill Mills to Prop Bets: Prediction Markets and Mobile Sports Betting Apps Are Fueling America’s Next Addiction Crisis Against the gamblification of the world.

I see no reason not to look at the online gambling and prediction market craze as a new opioids crisis.

It will wreak havoc on lower-income Americans and leave a trail of destruction and despair in its wake.

The companies are just Purdue Pharma 2.0

www.liberalcurrents.com/from-pill-mi...

Alternatively: We are imposing new requirements to private businesses that will discourage them from serving people on SNAP.

Registration for @icpsrsummer.bsky.social's quantitative summer courses is now open! Great lineup of in-person and online courses, and scholarships are available. www.icpsr.umich.edu/sites/icpsr/...