see you soon @sigcisconf.bsky.social ! i'll be sharing some material from my book on a panel I organized, "Nightmare Textures: The Ambiguity of Administrative Listening and Classificatory Torque," alongside @maidino.bsky.social, Kelsey Ichikawa, @lukestark.bsky.social, and discussant Jason Ludwig

There is something so satisfying about scholarship that teaches really well. As the summer begins, I'm feeling grateful for a few essays that did so much good pedagogical work for me this past year: @kmtani.bsky.social, @epopppp.bsky.social, and @ksabeelrahman.bsky.social on Cost-Benefit Analysis

It's publication day for The Broken Machine (@mitpress.bsky.social)! The book explores the intertwined histories of breaking machines, social order, and the self in the modern Atlantic, revealing how failing technologies have also shaped our world. mitpress.mit.edu/978026255334... #sts #histtech

More & more eligible low-income people are losing SNAP because of H.R. 1’s bureaucratic hurdles, including this mom who has tried for months to get her family’s benefits back while working & caring for 2 young kids. Keep in mind: SNAP benefits average about $6 per person per day.

The Vatican's polling numbers in the key demographic of "people who fundamentally reject their ecclesiastical authority" are absolutely tanking right now. Because of woke.

Some of my students in a class on digital democracy have 3D printed me a dumpster fire. They have correctly assessed the state of it all.

Please join us on 6 April 2026 at the Harvard Center for the next Tea Talk! @maidino.bsky.social (Harvard / History of Science) will be discussing "Welfare as Debt: On the Computerization of the US Welfare State." 4pm, Room CGIS K262. Light refreshments will be provided.

Allison Williams tells Las Culturistas she tries to be polite but mysterious when talking to AI in case the machines ever turn on her: “I’m always going to be cordial with you, say thank you, please - I don’t think it’s figured out what I do for a living. I try to keep a distance.”

46 MILLION Americans will lose their health care—either outright or thru red tape 40 MILLION Americans will face drastic cuts to their food aid So that the top 1% can get $107 BILLION in net tax cuts next year alone—more than goes to the entire bottom 60% Reading the bill is the bare minimum

Literally begging you to tell your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, your family. People have vaguely heard of “the one big beautiful bill,” but very few people know Rs are WEEKS away from uninsuring millions - and will do it unless we can get a groundswell of opposition to stop them.

Cost estimate of the House-passed "Big Beautiful Bill" is out It'd be the largest cut to Medicaid+CHIP and SNAP in history while still increasing deficits by $2.4 trillion due to $3.8 trillion in tax cuts This'd be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in history

"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging." Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council. I wrote about my decision in TIME. time.com/7285045/resi...

Nation Can’t Believe It On Harvard’s Side

An outstanding public servant! When Dr. Blair says it's time for a new generation of leadership believe him.

Happy tax day! Hard to celebrate much these days, but let’s hear it for the income tax, which replaced tariff revenue, simultaneously reducing inequality and boosting growth. One of the greatest policy changes in US history, may we see another such change in the near future.

"What our government is doing now is wrong in itself, but beyond that, it poses a bigger threat to Jewish people’s safety than all the campus protests ever could." Exactly. And also, it was exceedingly obvious what this was from jump.

Hearing from all corners of HHS this morning about a total bloodletting — firings of scientists, analysts and many more as delayed RIFs take effect. Many folks didn’t see early AM email and showed up, only to be turned away when badges didn’t work. Was sent this photo of long lines at one HHS site.

"The mythology of founders and Silicon Valley too often obscures the indispensable role of American taxpayers in the innovation economy"—my recent remarks to @bloomberg.com about the critical importance of federally funded research. www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Really interesting point from @yappelbaum.bsky.social about how mobility, not staying in one place, is what produces strong communities in the US: www.vox.com/housing/3996...

Destroying public goods is much easier to think about in terms of concrete examples than abstracted process questions. The example of hollowing out of public education in @rachelmcohen.bsky.social's piece is exactly how to make sense of DOGE www.vox.com/donald-trump...

Government’s wins are often invisible: Systems that avoid plane crashes; alliances that avert war; surveillance that prevent pandemics. Government wins are often *the avoidance of loss.* So how do we tell the story of the destruction of government? The story of future losses *not* averted?

Andrew Donnelly's insights for this @myhnn.bsky.social's piece (a great preview of this forthcoming book *Confederate Sympathies*) adds so much depth to our understanding of Lincoln, Buchanan, and the post-Civil War reconciliationist culture: www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/linc...

Allegory alert!

Liberals have tried desperately to change the politics of welfare. The amazing editors of _Mastery and Drift_ helped me lay out how computerization offered libs a new politics of professionalized welfare administration w/o explicit reference to race or rights. www.degruyter.com/document/doi...

They have access to *everyone's* bank account...I just don't know how much clearer to be about how frightening this is

Today is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Read our feature from this week on Lincoln, memory, and the politics of fraternal affection. www.hnn.us/article/linc...

Did Lincoln have special friends?? Some damn fine writing on the politics of memory and sexuality for your president's day: www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/linc...

@lilygeismer.bsky.social and I are thrilled that our new project, Mastery and Drift: Professional Class Liberals since the 1960s, is published today. When we began this work a few years ago, we had no idea how sadly relevant exploring the evolution . . . (1/10) press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Another assault on US competitiveness at a time when biomedicine is roaring with innovation, an own-goal in a high-stakes international tournament. Of course the real losers are American people needing medicines and cures. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Thinking through the Republican shock therapy for the state and the only explanation is marxist - they've swallowed the AI more productive than workers/scientists/bureaucrats pill

It feels ridiculous to have to say but America has the greatest biomedical system in the world. Maybe we shouldn’t just kill it?? There are many many problems with healthcare delivery but I’m pretty proud of our track record developing life-saving meds and therapies.

Research universities are often the largest employers in their region. They are often the primary health care providers to communities. This funding shift will not only reduce US research leadership, it will put working people out of work and reduce healthcare access.

"If the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services...delayed in submitting its list of approved reimbursements by just 48 hours, it could shave several % from the US GDP for that year as hospitals failed to make payroll and doctors’ offices closed" - @lizthegrey.com, site reliability engineer

All hands on deck red alert, please share broadly: Senate GOP budget resolution calls to cut Ag & Finance. This means they’re coming after SNAP & Medicaid. They are trying to take away nutrition & health care. The reconciliation bill is filibuster proof & so can be passed w/ their slim majority.

New: We spoke to government IT employees/contractors about DOGE. Their warnings were dire. The people who maintain the systems that keep the country working are terrified. "This is the largest data breach and the largest IT security breach in our country’s history—at least that’s publicly known."

2/ AI tools can help long-understaffed and underfunded agencies quickly process lots of data and respond with greater speed to the needs of constituents. BUT careless & punitive design and implementation of these tools have often prevented benefits from reaching the people they’re intended to help.

POTUS: "I have Article II Authority to do impoundment via EO" Everyone: "That's wild" Elon Musk (no elected authority, zooted on ketamine): "I have authority to do impoundment because I successfully broke open the Treasury Dept IT closet with a fire axe"

Wrote about why Big Tech moved right, and the debate over whether Democrats should care. On the first point: the Biden administration didn't just threaten tech moguls' profits, but also their egos - by refusing to celebrate them/give them access www.vox.com/politics/397...

Fed source to me re: this news: “ten alarm fire”

What is the impact of PEPFAR funding being stopped? @buceid.bsky.social faculty Brooke Nichols & colleagues built a live tracker on the estimated real time & long-term impact on premature deaths associated with this funding gap. Each number is a human being. pepfarimpact.vercel.app

gotta go with "trump illegally stops funding for housing and home heating assistance during the middle of winter"

This *is* impoundment.

We have built a state that relies on nonprofits and industry to do its basic tasks. Pausing funding breaks in this framework breaks the current us social safety net. Though the legality of this directive is quite suspect, it goes WAY beyond research.

It’s the first day of tax filing season and Direct File is live. 💥 Remember, Direct File is fully secure, accessible, and available across all devices. You can file your taxes you live in anyone of the 25 states below 🚀