Milwaukee, 2025

Per an email I recieved from a source at Angelo State University, faculty have been told they will no longer be required to refer to students by their name at birth. Pride Flags are allowed in "personal offices." LGB topics are allowed, but textbooks must "omit any chapters on transgenderism"

All right everybody, time to read (or reread) The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon. Ground rules: we are not reading for the history of 1848-1852 France, but we're also not looking for direct parallels to the contemporary US. We are looking for broad lessons on politics and just generally good lines.

Great new study of barriers to financial aid take-up examining Michigan’s Tuition Incentive Program (TIP) that identifies ‘administrative burdens, & constraints faced by front-line administrators in alleviating these burdens when administrative responsibility is fractured & ill-defined.’

‼️ Read an adapted excerpt from EXTRACTION: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism in @nybooks.com ‼️ Extraction is officially published TOMORROW (9/23) 👀 www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

New article with @kelleyfong.bsky.social in @socprobsjournal.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/socp...

well meaning people love to be like ‘aren’t you scared of being left behind if you don’t start using AI in your work’ and from the bottom of my heart: no, im not scared of that. i would rather go back to restaurants for the rest of my life than publish AI ‘books’

think of the cathartic joy we could experience if we could look each other in the eyes and know that we were all doing what we could to stop genocide and oppression from continuing, in our own individual, little - and collective, massive - ways.

"The Spanish government approves a “total” arms embargo on Israel, part of a package of measures aimed at halting what Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called “the genocide in Gaza.”" www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

"Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he will join Italy in sending a military warship to protect an international flotilla seeking to deliver aid to Gaza after it was attacked by drones off Greece." www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Most generously considered, what is happening with your Ezra Kleins and even your David Frenches of the world is to attempt to broker a compromise between racists and anti-racists, bigots and anti-bigots that might leave things stable for those who prioritize stability over racism or anti-racism.

Depolarization is not "a scalable solution for reducing societal-level conflict.... achieving lasting depolarization will likely require....moving beyond individual-level treatments to address the elite behaviors and structural incentives that fuel partisan conflict" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Wrote for @thenation.com about the complicity of some liberal politicians and pundits in the conservative campaign to exterminate trans people www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Seems bad for our society when you can’t make racist terrorists the villains

great liberal vs left artifacts in the comments

Every accusation is a confession. This is political indoctrination—the exact kind they accuse the left of.

The thing that is making me hopeful in this past week is summed up nicely in this concluding para by @gregsargent.bsky.social in the linked piece. Core ideals, such as free speech, still hold great power in our culture. We're floundering, but not completely lost. newrepublic.com/article/2008...

Among the many interesting things I learned in this article: among the various seriously lefty mentors the future Dr MLK Jr had in college was a sociologist, with whom he took TEN classes (!), who also led a red union

If I’m Chotiner I’d probably be a bit miffed people think he’s a diabolical gotcha master when he’s really just speaking in a tone which keeps people calm, doing some research, and really listening to the answers he’s getting for his follow up.

It’s too much and too fast for socials but Trump as perpetual slumlord often helps me clarify his inconsistencies. For example, taking money from HSIs & giving to HBCUs makes the most sense as a scab tactic a slumlord would use with racialized skilled labor in a city with strong inter-ethnic strife

been staring at this paragraph in @umich.edu ‘s AI guidance on and off. you have an ethical obligation to feed Sam Altman.

"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply." me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

i remembered some Discourse about this back in the day and was surprised to see the Vote Blue folks celebrating biden's name being left off the checks because "we're not a monarchy" uhh ok.

Still think he should have made a point of sending out more checks than Trump did, with his name on them, in higher dollar amounts.

Today is publication day! EXTRACTION: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism is officially out with @wwnorton.com - find it at a bookstore near you or order online💚📚 wwnorton.com/books/978132...

As the esteemed progressive Harry Jaffa famously wrote, extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

It was a pleasure speaking with senior policy correspondent @rachelbooth.bsky.social from @vox.com about my new book—and what my research means for debates about family structure & racial inequality. Read about our wide-ranging discussion below: t.co/blPn9HmhTU

“The microschool will also serve as a beachhead for artificial intelligence-based instruction, says Parker, the superintendent, noting that with two instructors for 26 students they will need to rely on Khanmigo’s AI tutor for tailored instruction.”

Fascism only works if it has a social base. I wrote a book about efforts across the country to organize predominantly white communities away from this base. How? By showing them their shared stake in fighting for racial and economic justice. The book is out Jan 2026. @surj.org

The Educational Policy Studies Department at UW-Madison is hiring an Assistant or Associate Professor with a focus on climate, sustainability, and education. Please share with folks you think would be interested! #climatepolicy #edpolicy #EduSky jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

New from me: There's a lot of misinformation around the reasons I was fired from WaPo. Here's the official termination letter I got sent by Washington Post. Read and judge for yourself. open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

The idea of running anti-abortion Democrats is sickening to me. That means killing women! That is what that means!

I think the whole abundance-Klein project makes more sense if you think of the problem they’re trying to solve as: How do we, as political professionals with a center-left brand, find something we can still sell to the billionaires now that the offer from the other side has gotten so much sweeter?

you need cold, salt and a meal at the same time

An incredible development. Since the 1970s, South Korea has been the target of dozens of US human rights investigations carried out by administrations of both parties. I covered many of them. Now the tables are turned. www.koreatimes.co.kr/foreignaffai...

who cares about material needs or solidarity when you can just fight the culture war forever

Only seven Senate Democrats are signed onto a resolution put forward by Jeff Merkley for the United States recognize the State of Palestine. They are: Sen. Jeff Merkley Chris Van Hollen Tim Kaine Bernie Sanders Peter Welch Tina Smith Tammy Baldwin Mazie Huron

Pretty clear illustration of "you may as well stand up for what you believe in, they're coming for you anyway."

NEW: I tracked three dozen teachers, professors and other school staff who've been forced from their job or stepped away due to their comments on Charlie Kirk and his killing Republican lawmakers are increasingly getting involved, pushing for firings www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Austerity measures all over the place but the university has $50 million for… whatever this is

The thing is they could've just celebrated him among themselves, and we probably would've groused and criticized but it wouldn't have been a thing. But trying to turn him into a national hero, by force, requires us not just to respond but to affirm that he's actually a national disgrace.

"I’ve talked to some parents of trans kids.. they’re withdrawing from the social and athletic parts of school. I think that is one of the biggest tragedies of bills like this.. it causes kids to shrink themselves.. School is supposed to develop the whole child.. we’re seeing kids drawing away.”

Damn I thought girls loved living under constant threat of the most alcoholic parent in the district demanding they prove they have a vagina

I am a new Expert Voices columnist @science.org and my first article just came out! In it, I argue that scaling technology has a dark side, particularly when it comes to alleviating inequality and injustice. And I suggest what scientists, engineers, and policymakers can do about it.

There's a huge charter school rally downtown, because charter leaders worry that they need "a show of force" before the upcoming election. It's always the right time to talk about NYC school policy, but now is REALLY the time. Join us tonight!

Awful and dangerous to hear the Mayor echo the transphobic bigotry coming from the Trump administration. It's completely at odds with the values of our city and another reason why his single, disgraced term in office cannot end soon enough.

post Luigi politics

“Debate Me” culture is not organic, endemic, or apolitical. This mode of high jacking discourse is and has been central to a 30-year conservative training program that has produced untold numbers of people to do this for every reason but “civil discourse”

We're reading C. Vann Woodward in class this week and I keep thinking back to when he declined to participate in a book celebrating the U.S. bicentennial: "I am, in fact, beginning to wonder what there is to celebrate."