New at Can We Still Govern? Trump is relocating more federal employees, this time for the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees SNAP. The rationale is to bring services closer to the public. But that is not what the data shows, says Jon Schwabish. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/why-is-tru...

This story by @spettypi.bsky.social is extremely important because she documents in Arizona - SNAP participants losing access to the program who should be exempt from changing eligibility criteria - The state admitting that they need to deny eligible participants access to reduce their error rate.

For their concept explanation assignment, a couple of my students recruited friends to create a poli sci video akin to Inside Out to depict the role of emotions in public opinion, and I’m once again reminded that I have the best job ever. These students are so thoughtful and creative!

As states scramble to respond to unprecedented federal cuts, we're seeing more stories of eligible low-income people losing the SNAP benefits they need. Here's a 69-year-old whose benefits were fully reinstated — after a reporter asked about his case: www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2...

When the Trump administration cut off food aid to one of the world’s largest refugee camps, it left hundreds of thousands of people to starve. This is the story of one mother’s daily battle to keep her three young sons alive. From our “The End of Aid” series, a 2026 Pulitzer finalist:

* U.S. AIRLINES SPENT $5 BILLION ON FUEL IN MARCH, UP 56% OVER PRIOR MONTH -- USDOT @reuters.com #$JETS

Bishop Menjivar-Ayala in West Virginia today: “Above all, I want to listen to the poor. Those in the margins of the church and society. To workers, to the immigrants, because as Matthew 25 says, the way we treat the least is the way we treat Jesus."

Apparently, journals, universities and publishers cannot do it but the Oscars can

ICYMI: The House Appropriations Committee voted 35-25 yesterday to advance a bill that would underfund WIC and cut fruit and vegetable benefits for almost 5.4 million toddlers, preschoolers, new moms & pregnant women in low-income families.

Amendments House Republicans allowed to be considered: adding or subtracting specific food items that people can buy with SNAP. Amendments they didn’t allow to be considered: addressing the fact that millions of low-income people are losing SNAP altogether thanks to H.R. 1.

Open-mindedness was the strongest predictor of *rejecting* conspiracy theories in a sample of 46,745 participants in 68 nations In particular, participants who were threatened by people who disagree with them were the most likely to believe conspiracy theories. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

In July, Trump enacted the largest cuts to food assistance in US history. Then he indefinitely cancelled the survey that measures hunger in America. Meanwhile, official data show the number of people who receive food assistance in America plummeting. Reminder: OBBBA took food from hungry children

Grading my students’ food log assignments for my food politics class and beaming with pride as they make connections between their food choices and relevant actors and policies involved in our food system. Food is political, and these students get it!

To combat bird flu spread, other countries have authorized poultry vaccines. The U.S. hasn’t, amid political and economic pushback. Without a vaccine, experts say the virus poses an escalating threat: “The minute it transmits to humans, it’s done.” (Published Nov. 2025)

In the first eleven months of 2025, 10,109 doctoral-trained scientists left the federal government. The losses were concentrated in agencies that fund medical research, regulate environmental standards and model climate. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/more-than-...?

It's not hyperbole in the least to say Musk purchased a six-month shadow presidency for $280 million and used the power of that shadow presidency to 1. Steal the government’s data, 2. Permanently damage the state’s ability to regulate his businesses, and 3, kill non-white people.

The next president's Attorney General needs to act with urgency to investigate and prosecute the crimes being committed to effectuate the mass deportation agenda.

New paper documenting a negative association between childhood exposure to local wealth inequality and inter-class social ties in adulthood. If children have fewer chances to meet peers from different class backgrounds, those divides may persist far beyond childhood.

Trump said Direct File was too expensive to operate. This feels like an indictment of our willingness to build things. Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, had *more lobbyists* than the Direct File team had employees. The cost of Direct File is a fraction of the tax breaks given to Intuit.

Lina Khan helped Joe Biden set this up, but he never pushed it hard to take credit for it. Now, with Khan working for Mamdani, he's doing it for NYC residents. And actually telling them he's doing it. Good policies aren't good politics unless you take credit constantly for them.

Hot off the press, my op-ed in MSNOW on Trump’s budget request. Proud of this one, but particularly happy they let me keep the final paragraph with only light editing. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...

More than 10,000 veterans lost their homes to foreclosure since May of last year, when the Trump admin shut down a key safety net in the VA home loan program, according to the latest industry data. That is the highest pace of foreclosures for VA loans in a decade.

Reminder that #rabies is 100% fatal unless you get immediate post-exposure #prophylaxis with #vaccines. And among the most miserable deaths I can think of

1/ My first story as a @propublica.org climate reporter: I discovered that the Trump appointee in charge of rewriting methane rules at the EPA was – just four years ago – an unnamed author of an oil industry response to those same rules. His name isn't in the document itself, but…

Food policing poor families isn't a win for nutrition--it's a loss for dignity and joy. As Brea Perry and I find in our research (see reply), low-income parents buy food treats for their kids because they want their kids to feel happy and normal--and they can't afford to do so in bigger ways.

Elizabeth Banks

Me, when students ask if they can use whatever citation style they were taught at school.

Today's New Yorker cartoon, by Ivan Ehlers

A 13-year-old girl tried to take her life by cutting her wrists with a plastic knife from the cafeteria after guards took away drawing materials, and was put into isolation without seeing a doctor. The teen was deported to Colombia after nearly two months in confinement

look at this baby beaver and feel better briefly (@ wildheartrescue on TT)

The Trump administration is gearing up to kick an estimated six million more people off of food assistance programs — including nearly two million children. The move would save just $1 billion a year, while Trump spends upwards of $1 billion per *day* on his new forever war. Priorities.

A scientist who worked in the ER during COVID, here since he was 8, no criminal record, on his way to his newborn in the NICU—grabbed by ICE and still being held

Happy St. Patrick's Day, New York.

The FDA has asked Raw Farm to recall the cheddar cheese linked to the outbreak and "it has declined." But E.coli 0157 H7 is a very pathogenic bacteria. So buyer be aware and beware here. 1/3

The way our nation turned its back on those who helped us at great risk to themselves and their families is an unforgivable national shame. We owed Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal. Instead, ICE arrested him in front of his children and he died in their custody. We failed him and his family.

One-third of Americans skip meals or other needs to afford health care www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/...

Undocumented immigrants pay nearly $580 billion a year in taxes and hold $1.6 trillion in annual spending power. Mass deportation removes that from the economy while adding enormous enforcement costs at least $88 billion per year just to deport one million people annually.

For scale, 800,000 people would be the population of Seattle. That’s how many people are displaced.

Again, leaders of other countries don’t talk this way. The glee with which our current leaders talk about killing people is not normal, and nor is their lack of concern for who exactly we’re killing. American bombs incinerated 100 kids in Minab. Were those the “right people”?

The majority of Americans can't afford an unexpected $1,000 emergency expense, and in a country with notably expensive health care, this is a recipe for disaster. And of course, this has ripple effects because the Trump Admin blocked a Biden Admin effort to keep medical debt off credit reports.

Research shows SNAP's harsh work requirement does not increase employment or earnings. It just cuts people off SNAP — including people like Mara, the mom of two profiled in this piece, who is now at risk of losing her food assistance while she's between jobs & desperately looking for work.

-53% oppose the attacks -74% oppose sending ground troops -55% do not think Iran posed an imminent military threat -62% think the Trump administration has not provided a clear explanation -71% thinks the conflict will last months or more

First the jokes about illegally killing people on boats allegedly carrying drugs, now a comedy routine about torpedoing an unarmed ship in an undeclared war

Dow is down, gas is way up (up 50 cents here from yesterday). Gulf allies are under attack. This was clearly foreseeable by any student in any Introduction to International Relations class but somehow a huge surprise to the people running this country.

The sky is not falling; high-quality platforms (Prolific, Verasight, CR Connect) have low rates of apparent bots. osf.io/preprints/ps... But also not zero; vigilance is very much needed!

Really important.

Trump Executive Order Protected Weedkiller Roundup and a Munition, White Phosphorus www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/c...

Multiple news outlets are reporting a US attack on an Iranian #desalination plant. If verified, this violates international law protecting #water systems during wars, and it sets a dangerous precedent, given intense dependence of Gulf countries on desalination. timesofoman.com/article/1691...