Next month a new collection of Pat Parker’s crucial work—edited by yours truly—will be published. Essential Poems by Pat Parker features some of her most beloved writing. Available wherever you buy books. Still feeling so chuffed after receiving my copies!!!

New from me at @rooseveltforward.org Building economic security will require major upgrades to our forgotten and threadbare programs for people with disabilities. I describe the decade of neglect that have left millions on SSI languishing in poverty...1/3 www.firesidestacks.com/p/ssi-reform...

Today I was on the Berkeley campus for two and a half hours and in that time I saw not one, not two, but *three* boomer white men in glasses stumble and drop their bags so that books and papers flew everywhere.

If my writing about autism does anything, whether it be in my books, my columns or my reported stories, I hope it advances the idea that autistic people are whole human beings as they are with legitimate needs and inner lives that deserve to be told the same as other stories.

Whether they're blaming vaccines and Tylenol, or selling dubious "remedies," what they're really doing is promoting the perception that families (and especially mothers) can prevent and treat Autism. And thus also the perception that people with Autism and their families don't need social support.

[grabs popcorn]

It is by far the least important part of this article—which is refreshingly blunt about the “evidence” on which the tylenol-autism link is based—but I’m gonna need the menswear guy to address this suit jacket:

Steve Silberman is so pissed about this Tylenol bullshit that he's screaming from the afterlife he didn't even believe in. Increased rates of autism are due to testing, a broadened definition, and greater awareness. It's not vaccines. It's not Tylenol. It's like his work never happened.

IT IS TIME.

ACOG reaffirms that acetaminophen is safe for managing pain and fever during pregnancy. No reputable studies support suggestions like those in HHS’s recent announcement linking acetaminophen use in pregnancy to autism; in fact, high-quality studies show no such risk. https://bit.ly/47Wxc59

Every day is a bad day to study American politics in the current climate, but today feels like a particularly awful day for those of us who study disability. I used to be reticent to characterize contemporary policies as eugenic, but there's really no other way to describe what's happening.

Some people think ChatGPT has a place writing things like news briefs, stuff written to a specific style and tone and, y'know, kinda boring. So Science did a study. ChatGPT failed. Why? It got stuff wrong. "Also, extensive editing for hyperbole was needed." www.science.org/content/blog...

Karina Villa protecting her constituents by literally running ICE off the streets in West Chicago and yelling to residents to stay inside their homes.

Reporter: Do you think it would have been fitting to lower the flags for Melissa Hortman who was killed as well? Trump: Uh, I’m not familiar, who?

The question I try to keep in front of my students' minds is: how do you think the wealthy and powerful people who've developed these tools feel about students using them instead of thinking for themselves, and why?

Remember that you don’t have to post your first reaction and Bluesky is forever even if you delete

For @teenvogue.com, I wrote about America’s favorite bipartisan pastime: starving people at home and abroad. As officials confirm what we already know, that there is a famine in Gaza, I hope we can all remember that none of this is unavoidable. It is a choice.

@govpritzker.illinois.gov's take on Kirk is the correct one: "Political violence, unfortunately, has ramped up in this country ... I think there are people who are fomenting it in this country. I think the president's rhetoric often foments it." On point. So glad Democrats are saying this.

calls for civility on campus are really calls for docility.

"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?" A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons. Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.

Reporters from across newsrooms in Chicago are collaborating to collect visual evidence of federal agents detaining people & using force in Chicago. Send videos to tinyurl.com/chicagojourn..., or get in touch via email [email protected].

Chicago forever

Just got my booster this afternoon at the Jackson Ave. Walgreens in Ann Arbor as a walk-in (for anyone in the area with BCBS, it seems like it’s being covered by insurance).

the cackle i just cackled

The fact that the anti-university rhetoric we’ve been using for the last 15 years is now being used by Trump shows that we were right all along

I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.

disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2025/08/24/i... Check out my interview with Moaz Mansour of Gaza Online on the Disability Visibility Project blog! @sfdirewolf.bsky.social @thellpsx.bsky.social

My message to Donald Trump is very simple.

From the district court ruling against the administration on Harvard grants (left): “This [what the district court is doing] is not Calvinball.” Justice Jackson’s dissent in the NIH case (right): “This [what SCOTUS is doing] is Calvinball … with a twist.”

“ It may well be that these differences would not distinguish these claims in the eyes of the Supreme Court, although that remains unclear under existing case law. But this is not Calvinball and there are rules.” — Judge Burroughs (from page 30 of Harvard v. HHS)

New filing: "Harvard v. HHS (funding cuts)" Doc #238: Memorandum & ORDER Download PDF | View Full Case #CL69921962

National Guardsmen now stationed outside our DC building confirmed that the only thing they can do if they witness a crime is call 911. The have no more authority than my office mate to intervene. Despite the handcuffs, they can't make arrests. They are very expensive mall cops.

DC conducted a half-price & free transit fare experiment for low-income residents. Compared to those paying full fare: —Half-price recipients took 2x the transit trips —Free pass recipients took 4x the trips Subsidized participants reported higher well-being. thelabprojects.dc.gov/fare-subsidy...

We drink tear gas/Malört and shovel our driveways in shorts and flip flops. A land war in Chicago in winter? FAFO

I'm from SF and spent 9 years in Chicago. Both cities have experienced their share of wildly overblown (if not outright false) panics about open-air drug markets, doom loops, rampant crime, etc. But Trump *really* doesn't want to f*ck with Chicago. Below: the "killing fields" of SF and Chicago

Meanwhile, Michael Velchik:

Pritzker: "It breaks my heart to report that we have been told ICE will try to disrupt community picnics and peaceful parades. Let's be clear -- the terror and cruelty is the point, not the safety of anybody living here."

Hello everyone! I am working on a story for The Guardian about how Chicagoans are preparing for the possible arrival of federal troops, following President Trump's statements on the matter. Right now, I'm looking for residents, community organizers, business owners, and other folks to talk to!

@sbagen.bsky.social has a somber but timely warning about various 2029 rebuilding efforts. This to me is the key. If future leaders bake imagined political constraints into their planning, there just won’t be much “rebuilding” per se. www.offmessage.net/p/project-20...

I generally avoid speculating on the President's health, but this 45-minute delay isn't inspiring a ton of confidence...

I have to imagine that for Otis, finding a box that she fits into so precisely must feel the same way it feels for us to find the perfect pair of jeans.

trump can issue as many executive orders as he wants, perhaps coverage should reflect the fact that a lot of these have the legal force of a child's wishlist for santa

Wait till she hears where sourdough originated. Side note: my favorite Ann Arbor-area bakery (it’s actually in Ypsi), is Birddog Bread, started by a couple that met at Josie Baker Bread in SF. Their Ypsi Sourdough is divine.

Did you just read about how traditional Medicare is about to require prior approval - and they’re going to hire **AI companies** to dole out those approvals? Then you need to learn about Dr. Gary Bent.

RFK Jr. taps his top deputy, Jim O’Neill, to be the new CDC director. Both men appear to wear skinny ties from Otaa. Otaa's ties are made in China from microfiber, a kind of plastic that, under the right conditions, can migrate to your balls.

Full resignation letter from Demetre C. Daskalakis, a CDC leader, does not hold back. "The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud."

Making them wear high-visibility vests over camo is such a good joke you couldn’t write it

Nothing like email about civil behavior on campus—with a deeply misinterpreted quote from Robert Frost—to start the academic year off right

It’s up to the discretion of RFK Jr to define what ”medically frail” is when it comes to potential Medicaid work requirement exemptions—which may play a huge role in deciding which chronically ill and disabled people could qualify. My latest for @motherjones.com. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...