Jen Woolard

Elections in democracies determine who administers the government; they do not alter whom the government is for. Under any administration, Republican or Democratic, the United States government exists to serve the people of the United States, regardless of their partisan affiliation. Besides, Americans are not as easily divided as Trump might think. Millions of Republican voters live in New York, just as millions of Democrats live in Texas. He cannot tell whom he is punishing by glancing at an electoral map. But even if he could, Trump’s acts of extortion have no place in a democracy. They belong in a protection racket: If you support Trump, you are protected; if you do not, you are vulnerable. If you donate enough cash to Trump, you may receive favorable treatment, including immunity from the law. If you oppose Trump, you may be prosecuted.

This is not how a representative government works. It is how the Mafia works.

Went back to the history of the Sicilian Mafia to illustrate something obvious but worth stating explicitly: The Trump administration behaves like an organized crime syndicate running a protection racket, not a representative government www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

José Andrés really is one of the absolute best Americans.

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

Some notes on probability judgement – Notes from a data witch For the love of fuck, literally nobody thinks that 20% of the population is transgender. Please stop sharing that ridiculous YouGov statistic

A great post from @djnavarro.net, providing an accessible explanation of why statistics that can appear to reveal our ignorance may actually do the opposite. Makes excellent use of #datavis to provide visual support for the argument.

blog.djnavarro.net/posts/2025-0...

I think one of the biggest mistakes we’ve made in academia over the last few years was treating tenure and academic freedom as a guaranteed right and not a labor relation. Had more understood it as the latter perhaps we would have been better prepared to protect it

This was very clever:

After collecting fines from speed cameras, Stockholm ran a lottery where non-speeding drivers could win the money.

www.wired.com/2010/12/swed...

fortify inside why spiritual practice matters during the rising authoritarian tide

And we each must have something that keeps us fueled through this— something that nourishes the deep parts of us.

Could be meditation or prayer. Could be making art or cooking, long walks in trees— hell, parenting will do it if you show up with the right lens.

Concrete ideas & suggestions here:

Love moments like this. Public Enemy meets Mavis Staples ❤️

It doesn't matter if they are ever coming for you.

It was always ever already too much that they were coming for anyone.

This is such a beautiful thread and was so exactly what I meant, and I'm so over the moon that it was helpful in any way--

and here are some other ideas if you want some:

Shiftless (Day off that begins with James Tate & ends with Charles Wright) The wind makes a salad Of the countryside & we still refuse To learn each other's last names. You get What you pay-what-you-can-for, is all. Love Is not the thief love is still choosing to sleep In the house the night after the thief Has robbed it. Money burning A hole in my tip jar. My kiltered love Like a window AC leaking off A second-floor sill. Almost everything I can touch is an artifact I will have wanted To've preserved as proof it all happened Just this way. Sweet family meal—wave Me down, however many seconds It takes, the quiet *Mississippi* between Them. Definition of prayer: let the perfect be The memory of the good. If all you Have is scissors, everything looks like It's hanging by a thread. Our days, these Peonies are so brief & bound as fists. When everyone shuts it down is when We clock in. *All explorers must die of heartbreak.*

Brunch Shift We burn in daylight but we love the dogs until they Become stardust again. Like all dogs do, they love us Better. Small trash in our front yards as we leave, soft pack Wrapper, drugstore receipt. Like stardust our life is penciled In, imagines itself forward only as a name a day On a schedule. Noon is the loneliest number sing The sparrow & I've got my bloodshot eye on him. Jolt On the timecard like setting a fractured bone. Sweetheart, Praise the checkered kitchen floor, still sticking To its late-night story. Marry the ketchups & loosen The tin caps on all the salts. How many hungry girls Until the mourning dove tries to make the last train Home. The math of what to leave us: move the decimal To the left & then double it. Then swallow it. Then cough It up until it's not the cup that's bottomless. The filter Is what keeps my mouth & two fingers from turning To ash right along w/the cig when I inhale. Too many Of us will measure out our hours here In smoke. I swear it'll be funnier when it happens If you think I've been joking. I was above all Waiting for your fondness, the softest punch Of light like pushing a pill through its foil packet.

I've got two new poems in an absolute banger of a double issue of July/August POETRY, along w/luminaries like Kevin Young, Danez Smith, Carey Salerno, Joanna Klink, & a folio from Wang Ping of Chinese poets following the Yellow & Yangtze Rivers from their headwaters. Full issue here:

The United States Is About to Embark on a Terrifying Experiment in Mass Statelessness This scenario, until recently, might have read like a dystopian projection. But after the court’s decision on Friday, it is no longer hypothetical.

"For the child born this summer in Texas, whose parents receive no documents, whose name never appears in any system, and who grows up asking why she can’t go on field trips, apply for scholarships, or open a bank account, the consequences are not legal theory. They are her life."

Showing a gun to intimidate a six-year-old? Beyond monstrous.

RFK Jr. says US won’t donate to global vaccine effort Kennedy ripped into Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a video address at its pledging summit.

This is a travesty & a nightmare. The US was a founder of @gavi.org. It lowers global vaccine costs, has vaccinated 1B children, & averted 19M deaths. This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year - and RFK Jr will be personally responsible.
www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

In Defense of ‘Silly’ Science Basic research and the value of curiosity.

www.chronicle.com/article/in-d...

Sunday thoughts. ☕️

What U.S. v. Skrmetti Did, What It Didn’t Do, and What It Can Never Do There is going to be a lot of catastrophizing today. We lost U.S. v. Skrmetti, one of the biggest transgender civil rights cases of our…

"If we only fight because we think we’ll win, we aren’t going to last as long as we’re needed."

I appreciated so much a work colleague sharing this today.

What Are My Rights During an ICE Raid? Immigration law can be tricky, but here's what you should know.

Dealing with law enforcement can be stressful, so it’s important to know your rights before you’re face-to-face with ICE agents.

While there’s never any guarantee that law enforcement officers will follow the law, here’s what they can and can’t legally do to you and what you can legally demand. ⤵️

Florida child welfare agency calls ICE on teen migrant in foster care, sparking criticism ‘If this is a policy decision, it is a huge deal.’

Floridas’s child-welfare agency — in a reversal of a 30-year policy — is now willing to turn minors over to ICE.

This 17-year-old was taken from his foster home in handcuffs and shackles.

www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...

leftists: that thing you teach us in school to be terrified of is happening

historians: that thing is definitely happening

star wars: here is a beat-for-beat breakdown of how the thing happens, but with pew pew lasers. we know you watched it

news outlets: these protesters are out of control

Scientists saved lives. The village was evacuated a week ago.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Opinion | Beware: We Are Entering a New Phase of the Trump Era

This piece by @mashagessen.bsky.social will go down in history. It is the cry of a nation going down in flames. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/o...

Do judges view psychiatrists and psychologists differently when they offer testimony on an individual’s competency to stand trial?

Check out NEW RESEARCH here for the answer: psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...

@apajournals.bsky.social @pppl-journal.bsky.social

Cristina Salazar Law CONFIRMED: ICE agents in Dallas Immigration Court are detaining people as soon as they exit the courtroom. WHO: If your case is dismissed by the government attorney or judge AND you have been here less than 2 years. WHY: If you have been here less than two years, ICE can then use the "Expedited Removal" process to detain and remove you from the U.S. WHAT CAN YOU DO: Depending on your case, do not agree to get your case dismissed if you have been here less than two years, request a date for an individual hearing on your claim (most are requesting asylum).* Go to your hearing with an attorney or a trusted family member. WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR: ICE agents are arriving undercover, masked, in jeans, and hang out in groups of 2-3. They will be hanging out in the hallways. I personally observed three arrests today, with no warrant and no identification by the ICE agents. *Please speak to an attorney or BIA accredited representative before making your decision on whether you should decline or agree to a dismissal.

Posted this afternoon. Masked ICE agents arresting immigrants at their court hearings in Dallas.

Unconscionable

Trump's DOJ stripped lifeline legal services from the most vulnerable detained immigrants "Without a lawyer, people don't have a prayer. They don't have a chance in hell."

"No trial can be fair that leaves a person with mental illness alone before a court."

A counsel-appointed program for detained immigrants with mental health needs and cognitive disabilities has been gutted. Providers say people will languish in detention and be deported without a fighting chance.

I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but the orcas now have two F/A-18 Hornets

Research at risk: Life-saving heart pumps for babies | Cornell Chronicle After receiving a stop-work order from the federal government, the future of a device to help children with heart defects is uncertain.

One of grants frozen at Cornell: $6.7M (4 yrs) to develop heart pumps for babies born w/ heart defects.

It took decades of work to get to point of prepping device for in-human clinical trials. No private company could do this.

The cruelty of the Trump administration is heartbreaking. So to speak.

Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

The Spencer Foundation is offering rapid response bridge funding for those who lost NSF research grants.

www.spencer.org/grant_types/...

this is so bleak

treatments of cystic fibrosis are a perfect example of basic research (by Francis Collins as an assistant professor) that moved forward to save so many lives