3. Typically, this means local Social Security offices & the national 800 number remain open. (Note: The details are at the Administration's discretion & we don't know them this year because the Trump Admin is withholding its contingency plans across the government.)

With a government shutdown looming, I'm getting lots of questions about what happens to Social Security. Key points: 1. By law, Social Security & SSI benefits will keep coming. 2. SSA workers needed to continue benefit payments will keep working (but won't get paid until the gov reopens).

How can you make a government funding deal when Trump is already illegally not following the current deal he signed into law and saying as loudly as possible he won't follow the next deal? Unless a deal prevents that, what funding have you actually secured in some deal?

In annual govt funding deals, we deliver housing assistance, food assistance for newborns, cancer research, k-12 funding for poor school districts and for kids with disabilities, etc. Without ensuring Trump *actually* follows the deal, any deal doesn't actually deliver this crucial assistance.

The Democratic ask includes a handful of incredibly reasonable ways of ensuring any deal that is agreed to is *actually* carried out. But the Trump administration says that's a bright red line they won't accept - that they want the ability to come to an agreement and immediately break it.

How can you make a deal if the Trump just plans to completely ignore it? Don’t take it from me, take it from,,,,, Steve Womack, a senior GOP appropriator.

Key part of funding negotiations that's underdiscussed: Ds want to add provisions to ensure any agreement they come to is *actually followed* (unlike what's happening now) But Trump says that's a red line he won't accept - that he wants the ability to come to an agreement & immediately break it

So many things to discover and rediscover at the fabulous NMAAHC. Today, am particularly moved by this homemade case to protect freedom papers—as immigrants today in DC and elsewhere have similar worries about carrying and protecting papers.

This is kind of amazing; a CATO institute article attacking Trump’s EO on antifa www.cato.org/blog/trumps-...

*The AI boom = one of the costliest building sprees in world history * Past 3 years' commitments are greater than the cost of building the U.S. interstate highway system * Consumers must spend $800 billion on AI within a few years, to justify investment from 2023-24 www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...

@adewalemaye.bsky.social @epi.org on state attacks on DEI in education. www.epi.org/blog/anti-eq...

This may be the most important paper ever published about NIH funded research. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Re-upping this for organizations concerned with immigration, privacy, and labor policy. 🚨Deadline is 3 pm today.🚨

ah yes, the paragon of wokeness

If a government tells you that you can’t call it authoritarian, it’s authoritarian.

A bit niche, but CFA Institute had a good 2024 run, judging from top 10 blog posts, incl critiques of private equity & hedge funds by L Phalippou, J Wong, & R Ennis; "Stocks for the long run?" by E McQuarrie, + other contrarian takes against conventional wisdom blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/202...

The richest man on earth owns X. The second richest man on earth is about to be a major owner of TikTok. The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post. See the problem here?

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

🧵 (1/8) My new working paper with Maurice Obstfeld, “Tariffs as Fiscal Policy”, was just posted today @piie.com. Within, we evaluate the new role that tariffs are playing in the US economy. www.piie.com/publications...

All right, let's do this. I have no inside info on @karenattiah.bsky.social's case. But I know Post employees are part of @postguild.bsky.social, and their contract allows the union to challenge "disciplinary action on the basis that is was taken without just cause." So what's just cause? 1/

Read the full article here: www.latimes.com/business/sto...

Trump had so many important points to get across he forgot to tell the UN that he brokered peace between Armenia and Cambodia! At least he remembered to warn about the “two-headed monster” of migration and renewable energy, and reminded us that Biden made Russia invade Ukraine.

Trump's new H-1B fee of $100K is a haphazard and not-well-targeted way to reform a visa program that is deeply flawed. To fix it, new rules are needed with labor enforcement to ensure fair conditions & pay for migrant & US workers. Here's @epi.org's Policy Watch explainer on the fee and its impact:

Trump prepared to bring personal grievances to world stage at the #UNGA today. #Leadership #Winning

It’s so wild that the people that pushed a horse dewormer and shooting up with bleach as a Covid cure are now setting vaccine policy in America. I mean I couldn’t on my best day write satire that good.

I wish the people who are ultra vigilant about the food and medicines they put into their bodies were ultra vigilant about the sources of information they put into their brains.

A good post from the other site

Natl Employment Law Project is seeking organizational signers to a letter asking DOL to withdraw a proposed rule that would give the agency the right to require states to provide sensitive unemployment insurance data (& potentially wage data) to create a database of worker info. DM me for the link.

This is it, essentially. The core of it. The goal of ICE detention in the mass deportation system is to make people give up their case without fighting; to have an officer say “if you want to see a judge and plead your case, you’re going to be jailed for months and months, so why not give up now?”

I will never be forgiven by my husband and teen daughter for dragging them to see this supposed dark “comedy.”

Watched LBJ biopic All the Way with husband and teen. You don’t have to be a Robert Caro obsessive like my husband to enjoy it (though I’m sure it helps). Bryan Cranston is very good, but Aisha Hinds playing Fannie Lou Hamer steals the show.

this charlie kirk deification is some of the weirdest shit i have ever seen

There is no world in which it is normal for the president to publicly call upon his attorney general to hurry up and prosecute his political foes. It’s like the Watergate tapes but posted on social media. Let’s get a grip on what’s happening here.

NPR last night covering possible shutdown as a partisan food fight, with Schumer’s only motivation being blowback he got from his base last time. This is on NPR, but also on Dems’ inability to say clearly that Congress shouldn’t fund govt without assurances that the money will be spent.

The White House convinced many its focus is “illegal” immigration. Then: —Today’s near-ban on LEGAL high-skill work visas —Ended LEGAL refugee visas —Slashing LEGAL student visas —Ban all/most LEGAL visas for 17 countries —Ending LEGAL parole & TPS for millions Not a “crackdown”. A lawless purge.

They're proud of deporting day laborers, deliveristas & grad students--but would rather you not think about farm workers, given concerns about food prices & ag exports. So they're scrapping USDA's Farm Worker Survey & DOL's Natl Agricultural Workers Survey, per my @epi.org colleague Daniel Costa.

This hilariously fed-up dismissal comes from a Florida judge appointed by George H. W. Bush. He’s hardly a liberal—previously known for blocking the dismissal of a Navy commander who refused to follow COVID guidelines. But he’s on fire here!

Excellent column from @bethanymclean.bsky.social on the latest Trump scam: getting you to invest your retirement savings in private equity and crypto. wapo.st/4ms11Op

What’s behind rising unemployment for Black women? EPI's Valerie Wilson says the likely culprits are job losses in the employment services, manufacturing, and federal government industries. Read her analysis: www.epi.org/blog/whats-b...

All year, the Trump Admin has delayed, withheld, canceled, or clawed back funding approved by Congress. Though they've tried to hide their illegal actions, my colleagues have the receipts. If Congress allows this to go unchecked, things could get much worse in 2026. www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

Ruffalo: I'm reaching out to all of my brothers and sisters in the entertainment industry, to join us...They're coming after celebrities because they know we are the last ones to actually be able to have our freedom to speak. So use your platform wisely, use it generously for this movement. #NoKings

Dog teaches the pig how to use the doggy door! 😊 #dog #dogday #bluesky #animals

OMG this was meant to be flattering🤯

Incredible new paper from @centeronbudget.bsky.social looking into some specific Trump impoundments - where he illegally refuses to carry out our spending laws.

Patel always acts like he's in a body-swap comedy and the brain of the real head of the FBI is in the body of a teenage pothead in Pasadena. He has the strongest "I shouldn't be here" energy in the history of US politics

As a break from our real-life nightmares, here’s the dream I had last night… 🧵 I dreamt I was staying at a hotel that had once been a Victorian orphanage.(I’ve actually stayed in one in NOLA, but this one looked different—larger.) The people I was with kept reporting seeing ghosts of children. 1/

Oh man, Kimmel.

Just so I'm clear: TV host says we should kill every homeless person? No big deal TV host says the right must "go to war" with the left? Pfft. TV host says the government is cracking down on critics? Well, the government cracks down on him for the criticism. Free speech, everyone.