There’s a Silicon Valley billionaire freak out happening about a potential wealth tax ballot initiative in California. I hope everybody understands—the only way to make billionaires pay a similar *income* tax rate as their secretaries is via taxing unrealized cap gains or wealth

A legend indeed

moving past this moment in US politics is going to require credible promises to prosecute the authors of all this human disaster. peoples interested in countering US authoritarianism can draw on international tools in this process, including joining the ICC internationalpolicy.org/publications...

I don't care what Bari Weiss was thinking. But as someone who moved from Russia to America for freedom, I didn't have "passing around a pulled 60 Minutes segment like Soviet-era samizdat" in 2025 on my bingo card. Anyway: watch what our government is doing, and share it widely.

On DOGE’s watch, federal spending did not go down at all. It went up. But is still led to cuts that closed offices, canceled programs and deprived people of food, medicine and other aid. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...

Bad things happen when you hire opinion hacks to run media outlets Bad things happen when you hire non-academics to run universities Bad things happen when you hire businessmen to run the government Etc. Etc. Experience & expertise matter. And actual relevant expertise.

suspect a big reason why many academics and others who work in areas where getting facts RIGHT is key are disinterested in using LLMs for research: they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.

Not that it will but the willingness of Americans to obey is a very funny contrast with our self-image and should probably prompt some reflection bsky.app/profile/jonf...

No one who has ever witnessed a single faculty meeting could ever again claim that college professors are part of some sort of coordinated conspiracy to accomplish anything, let alone turn the entire US into a Marxist utopia/dystopia with an assist from their great pals in corporate boardrooms.

"Efficiencies are easy to promise, but difficult to realize in the stubbornly human-centered endeavor of education. And that is because education is, by necessity, inefficient." Preach! www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...

Another way to restart the world’s idea machine is to restore funding and grants to universities, researchers, and artists.

Yup.

I am indebted to colleagues & friends, esp @stephrschwartz.bsky.social, @alichtenheld.bsky.social & the staff @aissr.bsky.social @uva-fmg.bsky.social

This fetid landmark, this historical stain on humanity is primarily due to the stunningly reckless obliteration of America's foreign assistance agency earlier this year. Led by the richest man on earth. In secret, on a weekend. With zero analysis or discussion of its catastrophic impacts.

This is always the plan with authoritarians wielding militaristic power. They create their own enemies to justify their power grabs. Netanyahu loved October 7th for this exact reason. His failures led to it, and instead of being held accountable, he got more power than ever.

"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...

the research is clear: get yourself exposed to female peers nber semigated version: www.nber.org/papers/w34269

It was an honor to discuss my book at the @thecrs.bsky.social's annual conference, and I am grateful for "Guilt by Location" receiving this year's CRS book award. If you missed the keynote, don't worry, you can still order the book today! cup.org/4gOE8Cy www.amzn.com/1009523473

I would especially recommend the political science article referenced in the piece. Accommodation by mainstream parties of far right immigration policies does not win votes by taking the issue off the table, it loses votes for the mainstream parties www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The proofs are in. It has a website. It has blurbs from amazing scholars. So I guess my book is real, and @cornellupress.bsky.social must agree! Civilizing Contention: International Aid in Syria's War is coming out later this year 🤓 www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

one of the stranger phenomena in American life is that hate is supposed to flow in one direction (rural people get to hate urban people, Republicans get to hate Democrats) and if the hate goes the other way people pretend as if this is very upsetting.

The White House has ordered the US Dept. of Justice to prioritize denaturalization: voiding the citizenship of US citizens. Who will it denaturalize? "Any" case that it "determines to be sufficiently important". Point 10 leaves the criteria opaque and arbitrary. substack.com/redirect/169...

I feel like I'm losing my mind. Here is the transcript of what Zohran Mamdani actually said about the phrase "globalize the intifada." This is his "refusal to disavow it." This is what has people terrified. Just fucking read it. Source: podscripts.co/podcasts/the...

What remains of USAID? Practically nothing ("a shell") and millions will die because of Trump and Musk

Great job everyone

Job Garcia’s kidnapping by the Trump administration is the top story on the LA Times website right now. www.latimes.com/california/s...

Every time that Elon Musk makes a claim about a near future technological capability, remember he promised people would be on Mars by now but instead his rockets keep exploding

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

My book, "Guilt by Location," has been selected as the 2025 Book of the Year by the Conflict Research Society. I struggle to muster much delight, given how we're turning our backs on the millions of people affected by displacement. But I am grateful to CRS & everyone who made the project possible.

What do citizens think about refugee integration? In a new op-ed w/ Mae MacDonald & Tolossa Asrat for @newhumanitarian.bsky.social, we share findings from a nationally representative survey of 3,300 Kenyans on attitudes toward the country's new refugee policy (refugee.go.ke/kenya-shirik...)

Come work with us!

Brain drain

I'm thrilled that my book is a finalist for the #CRSBookPrize2025. Some uplifting news during a dark time. If you haven't gotten your copy yet, order today! 📚📚 cup.org/4gOE8Cy www.amzn.com/1009523473

Anyone who thinks any university faculty anywhere in the US is full of Maoists, or has more than one or two Maoist cranks, should try organizing a faculty union—or chairing a faculty senate, or a department, or even just a single faculty committee

I get it, but he got 49% of the vote, & the only way to defeat this is for all of these people - the longtime GOP hawks, the university presidents, the CEOs, the societal organization leaders, the religious leaders, etc. - to collectively stand up & speak out. The head-down quiet stuff always fails.

The Trump Administration Said These Aid Programs Saved Lives. It Canceled Them Anyway. "The move consigns untold numbers of the world’s poorest children, refugees and other vulnerable people to death... Local authorities have already begun estimating a death toll in the hundreds of thousands."

Excited to announce my book is out with @cambridgeuppolisci.bsky.social! It provides a primer on wartime displacement (an issue that is, sadly, urgent and timely) and examines how, when, and why armed groups strategically displace civilians, drawing on fieldwork in Uganda, Syria, and elsewhere. 1/

'Guilt by Location' by @alichtenheld.bsky.social. Examines how, when, and why armed groups use population displacement as a weapon of civil war. 📚 cup.org/4gOE8Cy 📚 'Lichtenheld's findings have important implications for the study of forced migration and policy responses to it.'

Academics from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to - not publish - have outstanding publication records - introduce more novel scientific concepts - less likely to receive recognition, as measured by citations, Nobel Prize nominations, and awards. www.nber.org/papers/w33289