The great sociologist Kai Erikson has died at 94. Kai is known for his pioneering research on the impact of disasters on communities. His book, *Everything in its Path,* remains a landmark contribution to social science and a model to all of us who work to understand the human costs of crises. RIP

The surrender caucus secured yes votes from Democrats who aren't facing re-election this cycle, but four of them have Democratic governors who can pick their replacement. If you live in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maine or Virginia this is an easy and effective way to make your anger clear.

To repeat: I have studied a lot of cases of autocratization over the past 15 years. Wrote about them, taught about them, consulting about them. I do not recall an opposition so apathetic, ignorant, and inept as the @democrats.org. They cling to their power, rather than fight for democracy. Shame.

Want a party that actually fights back? Run for office. We’ll help you. runforwhat.net

Schumer can be removed from his Dem leadership role this week - 23 Dems (and/or independents) just have to vote to depose him And they should, given this is his fault.

Democrats have to stop bailing out Republicans from facing the consequences of their own policies. And yeah, that means they have to stop sparing voters from experiencing what GOP government truly means. Every time Dems step in, it only emboldens the GOP & they make it even worse the next time.

i think this is key. taking the deal would amount to taking the blame. it would turn a clear political victory into an unambiguous defeat.

If the Dems blink after all of this, for a deal that all but ensures no ACA subsidies in 2026 anyway, then what was the purpose of letting the shutdown go for 40 days in the first place?

agreeing to make a terrible deal while your main opponent is quite literally being boo'd on live tv by an entire stadium of people is the kind of political instinct you'd normally only find in a 3 week old dead goldfish

if they were going to cave anyway they should’ve done it a week ago to spare SNAP recipients the agony.

Altman has been quite clear about his strategy. From the 2008 crash he learned that if you bind enough of the economy to your business you can do whatever you like; government will decide the rules no longer apply. What he's selling is unaccountabilty.

I havent read such a banger of an essay in a very long time. This is so well-written!

A great piece by @kattenbarge.bsky.social, with a powerful note from @mariahlwellman.bsky.social that the radicalisation of women and girls has flown under the radar because girly content online = make-up = ✨trivial✨, and yet it so clearly, clearly isn’t. www.teenvogue.com/story/womano...

ICYMI: The nonprofit @ejusa.bsky.social helped end the death penalty in 11 states & support community violence intervention nationwide. It couldn't survive after Trump's DOJ cancelled its federal funding. I found 11 other similar orgs also struggling. A weekend #longread for @motherjones.com:

New — While some states have received SNAP benefits for November and USDA is supposedly pushing through all federal payments soon, that doesn’t erase the psychological terror of the last few weeks. I spoke with 20+ SNAP recipients in 16 states about preparing for a possible future with no food:

Call me controversial, but technology that leads vulnerable people into crisis and even holds their hand as they die by suicide should not be endorsed by schools and universities, we should not be giving discounted subscriptions to this monstrous tech to young people AT ALL

100% @bhaggart.bsky.social & I have been arguing this point for years too (see our open-access book The New Knowledge with Bloomsbury)! Regulating platforms without addressing their business models is doomed to fail. Maybe now we can finally talk about how to restructure their business models?

I feel like academics and activists have been shouting about the need to address the platforms' business model for years. But this recent article about Meta making a fortune from fraudulent ads makes it crystal clear. But more than that it -> www.reuters.com/investigatio...

If you haven't seen this incredible historical data project yet, make it a priority! Mapping Deportations: Unmasking the History of Racism in U.S. Immigration Enforcement. mappingdeportations.com

someone got indicted on the basis of “transporting antifa materials” for allegedly transporting a box of ZINES THEY’RE PROSECUTING PEOPLE FOR DOMESTIC TERRORISM OVER ZINES

This week on the pod, we're diving straight into Meta Ray-Bans. We'll get into: - How some people are abusing the glasses to film massage workers - A $60 mod that disables the privacy-protecting recording light in the smart glasses - The difference between a phone and a pair of smart glasses 🎧:

Republicans thought they had a permanent hold over young men. They didn't. Spanberger wins men 18-29 by 14%, Sherrill by 10%, and Mamdani by a stunning 40%.

BREAKING: Colorado voters approved a ballot measure that would raise state income taxes on higher-earning households to fund free meals for all public school students. Follow AP for live updates.

Looking forward to learning all about how the right should move left to win elections tomorrow. They should maybe dye their hair pink, learn to love pronouns.

Young people in NYC absolutely showed out and there should be 1000 articles and profiles about this. Because we have had to put up with 1000 MAGA diner stories for years now.

Zohran was polling at six percent in January. Nothing is impossible

People who are leaving NYC, please post pix of your U-Hauls!

BREAKING: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York City mayoral race, NBC News projects. nbcnews.to/4nIzNUC

I don't know what will happen in NYC tonight, but I do know that regardless of outcome, any number of public figures, celebrities, politicians and institutions that oppose Mamdani have done so with a level of rhetorical ugliness, racism, and dishonesty that should neither be forgotten nor forgiven.

no self-respecting NYer is moving to fucking texas. the tech brunchlords regularly throw tantrums and screech about leaving SF when things don’t go their way. they’re (unfortunately) still here.

Vogue's absorption of and closure of Teen Vogue feels like -- is -- a direct attack on a new generation of queer journalists who were committed to excellence and the power of journalism to illuminate the stories of people at the margins. And it impacts all of us, no matter our age.

An absolutely devastating and massive blow to political coverage nationwide. @leximcmenamin.com has been doing work nobody else has, just truly leading on so many stories. Beyond mind boggling decision tbh.

Teen Vogue took young people seriously. It's impossible to overstate how important, how rare, and how profoundly needed that is.

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

What if, and stay with me, the barbaric and imperious way the United States responded to 9/11 is an enormous part of how we got here

Let’s be clear, most EBT users are white. The reason he’s specifically lying about “weaves” and we’ve seen so many AI fakes of Black women ranting about food stamps is they need to make BW the face EBT because they know many Americans don’t care if Black people suffer, and some actually wish for it.

Such a perfect example of what we all give up when we refuse to address basic inequalities. I don't want to live in a country where all the public space is militarized to keep hungry people from stealing food, just give them money to buy food!

I find it v difficult to put into words how honored and lucky i feel to have edited this issue on feminist historical methods, to have had so many important pieces of writing and thinking entrusted to me over these last few years. 1/ online.ucpress.edu/fmh/issue/11/4

I think what pieces like this show is that, foundationally most of these guys don't even have a *positive* vision of conservative masculinity for themselves, and the version they're adopting clearly isn't fulfulling them either. It's just grievance and resentment all the way down

This is a good piece but god almighty is it sad, sad, sad

A nine year old brown boy living in NYC on 9/11 who grew up to love the city knows more about New York culture and New York values than this bitter, bilious husk of man riding his father’s coattails into his seventh decade could ever know

This brain-dead discourse is *everywhere* and it drives me insane.

Overall social media use is declining. Between 2020 and 2024, more Americans — especially the youngest (18–24) and oldest (65+) — report using no social media at all. A small group of heavy users remains, but the middle is thinning out.

New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

This is an especially worrying statement when facial recognition can be inaccurate, biased, and generally make mistakes. Basing whether someone should be in the US or not, and ignoring physical media like a birth certificate, is ripe for disaster bsky.app/profile/jose...

welcome to America, where the idea that kids should have food gets you labeled some kind of communist

"Truth Social users will be able to trade prediction contracts related to major events and milestones, such as political elections, interest and inflation rate changes, commodity prices on gold and crude oil, events across all major sports leagues" What the bloody hell? crypto.com/us/company-n...