Please share: 2 weeks remain to submit a proposal for $3k for writing a paper using recent Pew-Templeton global datasets. We will support 19 projects. Submit by Monday, March 2. https://www.pewresearch.org/2026/01/16/seeking-research-using-recent-pew-templeton-global-religious-futures-datasets/

The State Department is making plans to fund right-wing think tanks and political groups in Europe under the rubric of promoting “free speech.” This, of course, comes after the Trump Justice Department tried to indict six members of Congress for exercising their free speech rights. wapo.st/4aEwTvC

To establish one defendant's connection to an alleged conspiracy, prosecutors accused her of having been part of a group that distributed what they memorably described as “insurrectionary materials called ‘zines.’”

Another reason to oppose Trump’s attempt to take over elections through the SAVE Act.

My 2 cents about The Atlantic’s Mellon Foundation polemic and humanities funding: Beyond its specious content, the article illustrates something truly dangerous: the normalization of conspiratorial tropes about externally funded research in universities originally seen in extremist propaganda. 1/5

cool, cool. so we are sort of like citizens, but not really?

Regulations are what keeps ordinary Americans healthy and, often, alive. It took spoiled meat and rodent droppings out of our food. It took harmful lead out of our gasoline and paint. It took poison out of our water. Deregulation only achieves one goal: making rich corporations richer.

The rot comes from the very top and attracts the very worst.

UNC Administrators Can Now Secretly Record Faculty The new policy prohibits students from recording class without permission but explicitly allows administrators to surveil professors for any “lawful purpose.” https://bit.ly/3MyingR #EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd

We’re looking forward to hosting a webinar with Anna Strhan on her new co-authored book "Growing Up Godless: Non-Religious Childhoods in Contemporary England," 2:30pm-3:30pm EST on March 4th. To attend the free virtual event, please register here: uwaterloo.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

NY Times reports that staffer who created White nationalist social media posts at Department of Labor will now help with social media at Homeland Security: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/u... NYT doesn't note this, but the DoL posts also mixed in religion: publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/the-church...

Every year the BLS does a benchmark revision which incorporates new and more detailed information. This year's revision suggests that 2025 was a far worse year than earlier estimates suggested, and total job growth was less than half that suggested by the initial estimates.

Masha Gessen writes about how the field of sociology was systematically dismantled in the Soviet Union because of it's focus on reality.

THAT'S MY FIELD!!!! HELL YEAH!

Yes, it should.

This is an authoritarian power grab, full stop. Nationalizing elections would put the executive branch in control of who votes and how. That’s how dictators rig outcomes, crush opposition, and assault democratic self-government. This should alarm everyone: www.ms.now/news/trump-s...

Sociologist C. Wright Mills saw this coming—and tried to warn us—60+ years ago. jacobin.com/2026/02/wrig...

Tens of thousands of comments were filed to try to block this rule, but this administration has no respect for democratic input and is determined to destroy all expertise in government.

The Trump admin has shut down the CIA’s World Factbook, a country reference that for six decades has provided data on birth and death rates, major exports, and more. Long used by government officials and by researchers, educators, and journalists, the database was taken offline today.

4 federal agents pull over an elderly US citizen for the suspected crime of being brown, break her car window, throw her to the ground, then drive off after they find her US Passport in her purse. The Salem Police, when called, say there’s nothing they can do. www.salemreporter.com/2026/01/31/u...

BREAKING: CBP agents who murdered Alex Pretti have been IDENTIFIED: Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Raymundo Gutierrez, 35. www.propublica.org/article/alex...

"She sustained a torn rotator cuff, concussion and bruised ribs during the incident and received medical treatment at a hospital..." www.salemreporter.com/2026/01/31/u...

"Among the hires at CBS News announced by Weiss is a doctor who claims he reduced his biological age by 20 years with cold plunges; that cod liver oil treats autism; and that Alzheimer’s and dementia can be reversed with supplements he sells on his online store." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

A national emergency. Cuba. FFS.

Donald Trump says he would charge a 50% tariff on aircraft from Canada and decertify all planes made there until Ottawa agreed to approve jets made by US firm Gulfstream

When reading the physician's sworn statement under penalty of perjury on shocking denial of medical care to Alex Pretti ⬇️ Remember Kristi Noem's statement earlier today: "Medics were on the scene immediately and attempted to deliver medical aid to the subject."

Bookmark that Vice President and future presidential candidate JD Vance retweeted a post that said Alex Pretti was “an assassin who tried to murder federal agents.”

That is fascism. It is tyranny. It is governmental criminality. And the ultimate legal check the Framers of our Constitution provided to stop this kind of tyranny and criminality in the executive branch is impeachment and removal of the executive.

Where all my "states rights" conservatives at? Anybody? Anybody? Didn't think so.

Literally all of this is a lie. We are about to find out who is state media, because they will be the ones to parrot a justification for state-sanctioned murder.

!!! “CBP’s arrest and misconduct rate is FIVE TIMES higher than other federal law enforcement agencies … over the last decade, the arrest rate of CBP officers and Border Patrol agents (.5%) has been HIGHER than the arrest rate of undocumented immigrants in the United States (.4%)”

i think this attitude — that all opposition is illegitimate and nothing we do can be questioned— is probably pervasive in the white house and helps explain why they keep making terrible political choices

Remember the Bundy insanity during the Obama years? Armed guys occupied a federal office and one of their buddies took position with a sniper rifle aimed at federal agents? Exactly how many of those guys were shot and killed?

A completely insane take. Also, guess what gun ICE issues to it's officers? That's right, the same Sig P320 Pretti was carrying.

It has been more than 30 days since the Department of Justice was required by federal law to make all of the Epstein Files public. According to the DOJ’s own estimates, it has released less than 1% so far. The last time the Department of Justice released any documents was Dec. 23, 2025.

I spent the most formative years of my political life reading headlines like this seemingly every week.

Kudos to the NYT editor who took “Appears to” out of the lead headline (finally)

DHS has shot 12 people during immigration enforcement operations since September:

The fact that every right winger with influence screams "who is paying for all of this" tells you exactly how awash in cash they all are, and how much they rely on that to keep their movement afloat.

This is all I want to see Democrats doing from now on.

So... - ICE was staying in a hotel - The hotel management worried they might go after an employee - They informed ICE of the legal status, which permitted the employee to live and work in the US - ICE promises they'll leave him alone - Then they arrest the guy anyway

Protests happen, but most of what is happening in Minneapolis isn’t protesting. More accurate terms: - observers - witnesses - volunteers - neighbors - residents - people

Minneapolis protester as he's being brutalized by feds: "You're gonna have to kill me! You're gonna have to kill me! I've done nothing wrong! My name is Matthew James! I'm a US citizen! You're gonna kill me! Is that what you want?" (You can hear his wife screaming)

As the president headed to the World Economic Forum, MAGA congressional Republicans were taking a bite out of a Greenland-shaped, American-flag-covered cake. Also in attendance was George Simion, who has been accused of acting as a Russian agent. trib.al/86dT5yd

Hey NRA, are you good with this? THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.

Protesters in Los Angeles projected an anti-ICE video onto the Twin Towers, an ICE-linked detention facility where the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department actively collaborates with ICE for deportation screenings.

Video Saturday showed federal agents wrestling a man to the ground outside a donut shop before shots rang out.