I'm reading The Sound and The Fury and just finished Jason's section. Truly a "nothing new under the sun" moment, if it weren't for the technology references you'd think this was from the perspective of a MAGA

This is not true. Republicans win in the South because a majority of voters choose them, not because of "voter suppression." They win ~90% of white voters in much of the South and there are more white voters than Black voters because there are more white people than Black people

Republicans are able to win because they make a pretty clear majority of voters. The racial polarization in the Deep South is insane. Gerrymandering and voter suppression are part of the equation but not all of it.

there’s some truth in this, but the gap between deep red and blue states isn’t explained by voter suppression alone. the white populations in deep red states vote republican at very high rates. both things are load-bearing.

Stop trying to make Blexas happen its not happening

Wilson is well-advised to commit only federal crimes (as many as he wants).

Need some Democrats to drop out of this because this is too close to two Republicans making the second round.

“there is a point on the graph where things get Worse, and there you will find Ronald Reagan” stays undefeated

This is so so disturbing. Trump is now pardoning January 6th rioters for unrelated crimes, just to reward them for their violence to keep him in power. The Republican Party is in the full time business of endorsing and incentivizing political violence. So scary.

This is an important point with a massively important consequence: Most of what you hear about Democrats saying or doing *comes from Republicans.* The idea that all Dems talk about is e.g. identity politics or trans bathrooms (a real thing I personally heard a powerful man say) is GOP propaganda

This is incredibly true. It's super clear from inside higher education that no one knows what higher education is supposed to do and indeed most people feel like it should do all 3 of these things simultaneously despite the contradictions

As always, nice reporting from the Crimson here While Summers has broken no laws, and he’s free to correspond with whom he chooses, there’s a lot here to support the idea that he should not be taken as an authoritative spokesman on so many important issues www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

You can't talk yourself out of being arrested, but you CAN talk yourself INTO more charges. It's better to be arrested and leave the next morning than face decades in a cage because you tried to talk yourself out of it. Please. Shut. Up.

"I INVOKE MY RIGHTS TO SILENCE AND COUNSEL AND WILL NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS WITHOUT MY ATTORNEY PRESENT." If you're in the United States, that is ALL you should EVER say to law enforcement besides asking if you're being detained, and identifying yourself in a stop and ID state.

There are 2 things happening with MTG: 1) She's an HR nightmare. Her schoolyard bullying antics mean no one, regardless of politics, wants her in their workplace. 2) She's a full believer in antisemitic conspiracy theories, and from that point of view Trump looks like part of the conspiracy.

It’s not hard to read this and see this as a blue print for what they want to do for all federal granting institutions, including the NIH

Lmao this rules so much. Whether it makes any material difference or not, at least it's hilarious

When I think about how exquisitely careful NEH staff were to be fair, impartial, and rigorous, and how much work people put into grants so small they’re pocket change…I just want to scream.

The motto of Woke 2 is hopefully: more Ruby Bridges and more Ruby Ridges

📢 Our Dept. of Systems Biology at Columbia University has an open tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the broad area of quantitative biology. Come join our awesome department in NYC! Please circulate. apply.interfolio.com/177622 Suggested deadline: 12/15/2025. @columbiasysbio.bsky.social

Devastating piece on the human toll of Kavanaugh Stops. Especially infuriating to know that rich white guys like Brett K can simply close their eyes to the human suffering their racist jurisprudence has unleashed.

We just need one White House journalist to completely snap and ask "President Trump, can you comment on the rumors that you sucked Clinton dick?" Just one.

On the subject of data, here is from an analysis that I did when I was at NIGMS. nigms.nih.gov/loop/2011/06... This showed that there were some quite productive grants with percentile scores at or worse than the 30th percentile. 5/13

he has a three-vote margin in the House and declared war on three House members

Like he does this to Boebert as well and the math literally gets impossible and we could end up with weird shit. President's don't do this when the math is this tight, it's literally mad king shit.

It’s gonna be so cool when people are like “look, Senator MTG stood up to her party on Epstein and opposes aid to Israel, I’m voting for her for President.”

The judge who oversaw the initial challenge to Trump’s attempt to use the Alien Enemies Act to quickly remove people from the country will soon have the authority to continue any contempt proceedings over whether the admin violated his first orders in the case on March 15. I explain:

Has there ever been a worse Governor for their state's universities than Trump MAGA Toadie, Gov. Youngkin? "..the Governor knew what was happening and suggested I needed to resign. What did the Governor know, when did he know it, and what...did he do" #AcademicSky www.chronicle.com/article/stun...

Another new policy from the geniuses in NIH leadership. Apparently, ~70% of grant applications for most mechanisms will not be "triaged", i.e. not discussed at study section. This is an increase from the ~50% level that has been in place for many years. I don't know the rationale for this 1/13

Fortunately for Trump, he has a large partisan majority in the House and close ties with many Democrats so driving away Republicans who crossed him is totally safe.

NIH grant applicants: October and November grant application submission *deadlines* will be rescheduled (🤯). Specific dates TBD. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

if we take it to be true that the tariffs are aimed at getting americans to buy US-made products, then what's the point of rolling them back when they become painful? the entire point is to cause financial pain to change consumer behavior. what's the strategy here?

This makes me homicidal

This puts to shame the inaction of UC's top administrators. Why are you leaving the faculty to fight your wars?

There seems to be mostly agreement about what happens next: (Boasberg is free to get the government's asses), but disagreement about, procedurally, how to handle review of an appeal that both shouldn't have happened and didn't actually do anything.

Huh I wonder who put those tariffs there.

I'm not sure there's much to say. It's the latest and most ghoulish in a series of celebrity genomes, none of which have been done with the goal or expectation of answering any scientific question.

Fed. judge holds that the Trump administration engaged in coercive and retaliatory conduct in violation of the First and Tenth Amendments in its pretextual attacks on the University of California system. PI granted. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

In normal times, it would be a major scandal for the President to direct his AG to criminally investigate his political opponents to deflect from his own involvement in a major scandal — and for the AG to immediately announce she is doing it. The Epstein scandal and cover up just got even bigger.

BREAKING: In AAUP et al v. Trump (wall-to-wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of TItle VI to reshape the University of California system), the faculty and staff of the UC system WON!!! We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org

WE WON. I am *begging* you to take note of who did this. *Not* UCLA admin—they’re still scuttling around behind closed doors, attempting to appease—but FACULTY AND STAFF, led by AAUP.

Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:

How many times did the NYT write about Claudine Gay? When it came time to attack a Black woman, they couldn’t stop themselves.

Wild graphic on front page of WSJ.

the idea of changing the law is so dead in america that the idea that something might be banned by statute rather than by arguing that it is already banned (in terms of water use, in terms of copyright) seems completely alien

*this is batshit insane*

I'm not gonna get hyped about Florida going blue again, but if you were trying to make it happen this might be a move you'd make

Discretion in immigration proceedings is fundamentally incompatible with due process. Meet every requirement Congress set, but get denied because of the arbitrary animus of the executive, making an inherently legislative determination on what requirements exist. p.s.: Asylum is also discretionary.

Deflation is almost always bad