I got this useful bon mot from a middle school teacher recently. In response to, “I DONT UNDERSTAND,” he calmly said, “okay what steps have you taken to understand?” And that’s when I realized that a lot of folks have no steps.

because the government is not reopen yet. The Senate's vote on Sunday was "procedural" (a step towards passing said deal, not actually passing said deal).

Like clockwork, we are back to the Republican framing that government assistance is okay if its farmer bailouts and tax cuts for the wealthy & big corporations but hell no for people who need help with healthcare, food or housing.

NEW: ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the Trump administration’s cuts to an aid program.

Seven years ago, Congress’ Preventing Maternal Deaths Act was signed into law by President Donald Trump — but the funding it provides to states to address maternal health disparities is set to expire at the end of this month. via @virginiamercury.com

It is funny for sure. The reason for the difference is that the closer analogy here is between Columbia's board and ABC's executives, who responded similarly. Kimmel is more like Columbia faculty who have resisted their bosses' capitulation. The recurring pattern is: management cowers, labor fights.

We can, and should, deplore Charlie Kirk's murder, without whitewashing who he was. ttps://www.thenation.com/article/society/charlie-kirk-assassination-tragedy/

I went to Texas A&M. I took the sort of classes Dr. McCoul teaches. This is scary and sad and telling of the times we are living in.

When I see people online, even in jest, suggest that people living in Republican-controlled states should be abandoned because of their politicians, I feel a deep heartache. New York CREATED Donald Trump and none of y’all are ever talk about it the way you disparage Alabama or Mississippi.

BREAKING: Washington, D.C. sues the Trump administration over its deployment of the National Guard in the nation's capital.

REP. @brotherjones.bsky.social: “People want to give thoughts and prayers after a shooting, but it’s a form of theological malpractice when you pray for something you have the power to change.”

I was fcking around with ChatGPT to prove a point about Newsom’s trolling just now and LOOK AT THIS BULLSHIT.

It's just completely looney-tunes to me that a huge number of flight attendants aren't paid until the plane is in the air. Like when you hear the announcement "flight attendants, please prepare the cabin for departure," they're being instructed to do a work task that they literally won't be paid for

En route to this morning’s encampment eviction with tents, camping supplies, & moving/storage bags. Help us order more supplies as evictions ramp up: CA: $RemoraHouseDC GB: givebutter.com/remorahouse

The Trump admin is weakening federal agencies that support worker rights, and wants to make it easier for employers to get away with discriminatory practices. More on this in my @educationwork.newamerica.org blog with @morganpolk.bsky.social: www.newamerica.org/education-po...

Do THIS kind of reporting on everything:

🚨 Medicaid cuts will affect *millions* of students who receive services and support at school. 🚨 🔗 www.newamerica.org/education-po... #Disability #Disabilities #OBBB #OBBBA #SpecialEducation

The for-profit prison company GEO Group has surged in value under President Trump. But despite its soaring fortunes, the ICE contractor has continued to resist having to pay detainees more than $1 a day for cleaning facilities where the government has forced them to live. (Published March)

xAI’s Memphis campus is located in a predominantly Black community known as Boxtown which has been historically burdened with industrial projects that cause pollution. "This isn’t just an environmental issue — it’s a public health emergency,” wrote State Rep. Justin Pearson.

NEW: Kilmar Abrego Garcia offered his first account of the “severe beatings” and other abuses he says he suffered while jailed in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. He says in a court filing that he lost 31 lbs in two weeks. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

NEW: After Texas Banned Abortion, More Women Nearly Bled to Death During Miscarriage A @propublica.org analysis adds to the mounting evidence that abortion bans have made the common experience of first-trimester miscarriage far more dangerous.

The administration gave varying rationales. SAMHSA said it didn't want to "silo" services. HHS claimed spending on the LGBTQ option jeopardized the rest of the hotline. But this is part of a clearly stated Trump admin effort to eliminate services for, and recognition of, trans people writ large.

My heart breaks for trans kids, who do not deserve this obsessive animus that adults are directing at them.

Ask your doctor what treatment the supreme court decided is right for you.

Justice Sotomayor's dissent in Skrmetti (which she's now reading from the bench) is deeply pained, accusing her colleagues of abandoning "transgender children and their families to political whims" and badly damaging "bedrock" principles of equal protection. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

The administration wants to change how gun rights are restored but hasn't laid out what the process will be, raising concerns that domestic abuse offenders will get guns back — and women will die 19thnews.org/2025/06/trum...

So-called “less-lethal” weapons like those that have been used against demonstrators in Los Angeles can cause severe, lasting harm like nerve or brain damage or blindness. They can also kill. www.wired.com/story/what-t...

These women are re-imagining the Pap test & got the support and confidence they needed to put their plans into action thanks to NSF. But the Trump administration wants to cut the agency’s funding by 55%…

@brendanvduke.bsky.social: This isn't a debate about Medicaid reform or deficit reduction—it’s about financing tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy by stripping health coverage and food assistance from millions of Americans.

Don’t balance the budget on the backs of the poor

🆕For New America by @morganpolk.bsky.social: How NSF Funding Fuels Workforce Innovation at Community Colleges For more than 30 years, the NSF’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program has accelerated CC pathways to the future of work. Now it's at risk. www.newamerica.org/education-po...

The House Education and Workforce section of the reconciliation bill would eliminate the Education Department's authority to cancel student debt for borrowers whose schools defraud them. So if you're a victim of fraud by your college, you'd still have to pay that loan that was fraudulently derived.

Adds Beyoncé’s “Levii’s Jeans” to queue ☑️

Women living in states that banned abortion are 2x more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or soon after. Black women in banned states were 3.3x as likely to die as white mothers in those states. New report from Gender Equity Policy Institute:

There’s no reason why working people should be paying more in taxes than billionaires and their giant corporations. It’s time for them to pay their fair share. #TaxDay

House voted 216-215 to adopt this rule 👇

ChatGPT, et al may be free to use but they are not costless. Cc: @nancywithanl.bsky.social, who first brought the environmental impact of AI to my attention

Big props to Reps Fitzpatrick and Golden for doing the right thing for the workers who keep this country running (and who already have more limited labor rights than their private sector counterparts) @educationwork.newamerica.org

My latest for @newamerica.org on a bipartisan effort in the House to overturn a Trump EO that removed collective bargaining rights from the majority of federal employees, allegedly due to “national security” www.newamerica.org/education-po...

It's the biggest tax hike in decades and the most regressive in living memory.

Trump's federal funding cuts are shutting down a range of studies — all because they focus on gender. For @19thnews.org, @shefali.bsky.social and I looked at the implications for the decades-long effort to better study the health of women and queer people: 19thnews.org/2025/03/wome...

NEW: TCE, a chemical used in dry cleaning and manufacturing, can cause cancer, organ damage and a potentially fatal heart defect in babies. Republicans in Congress want to reverse a ban on it. By @fastlerner.bsky.social and @lisalsong.bsky.social

“What’s different this time around, unlike the first Trump administration and [any other] since [former President Lyndon B.] Johnson’s admin, they have sought to eliminate the underlying executive actions and infrastructure that is critical to doing robust enforcement.” 19thnews.org/2025/03/equa...

Chart: The states and school systems that rely the most on federal K-12 educational aid In Mississippi, South Dakota, Montana, Alaska, Arkansas and North Carolina, more than 20% of school funding comes from federal sources. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

What this admin is doing to federal workers — those fired and those going to work every day uncertain if it will be their last with a job — is wrong on so many levels.

Virginia education leaders are alarmed over how potential funding cuts and the federal department’s dismantling are tied to Project 2025, which would shift control of education funding and oversight to states. Many doubt local agencies can handle the workload.

This is my first BlueSky post and I’m so proud to share over a year’s worth of research that my co-authors— Jeremy (@jbeowulf.bsky.social), Olivia C., Rachel F.—and I have been working on: “Cut Short: The Broken Promises of Cosmetology Education” www.newamerica.org/education-po...

"House budget resolution’s average cut to Medicaid benefits for the bottom 40% of the income distribution, expressed as a [%] of average income... extending the TCJA’s expiring provisions would boost incomes for these groups, and the top 1%. The bottom 40% would be unequivocally worse off"