SNAP Tracker: People Are Losing Food Assistance as the Republican Megabill Is Implemented SNAP participation nationwide fell by 2.5 million people (6 percent) between the law’s July 2025 enactment and December of that year, the latest month of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

After Republicans passed the biggest food stamps cut in history, enrollment has declined by 2.5 million people www.cbpp.org/research/foo...

You may have noticed: American politicians are really old. You, and everyone else who follows American politics.

But you may not know that American politicians are exceptionally old compared to other democracies.

leedrutman.substack.com/p/why-americ...

Such a great album. And can’t beat Billy Bragg!

Ed Cray, prolific author and L.A. journalist, dies at 86 He explored famous Americans as far-flung as Woody Guthrie and Chief Justice Earl Warren

One of my oldest friend’s dad wrote an excellent Guthrie biography, and she has an amazing collection of his research material she can’t find an archive or library for. Sigh. But this project looks amazing!

www.latimes.com/obituaries/s...

I've studied so many concentration camps through history that held vulnerable people in just this kind of crowded squalor. You demonize people, you demand more arrests, this is what you get. It already has its own budget and its own momentum, and is on track to go much further, unless we stop it.

Roberts, like many conservatives of his generation, believes enforceable standards to prevent discrimination against Black people in employment, schooling, housing, or the electoral process are an affront to liberty, while the actual discrimination is, if it even exists, the natural order of things

What The Pitt Gets Right about Health Policy Foreshadowing the deadly consequences of Trump's Medicaid policies

New with @pamherd.bsky.social: While never mentioning Trump or political parties, the show’s second season offers an almost-real time commentary on how policy changes are affecting health.
Lets take one particular example of Medicaid coverage loss. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/what-the-p...

The Republican megabill’s deep cuts to SNAP are already costing ppl food assistance -- 2.5M fewer ppl received SNAP between the law’s enactment in Jul 2025 & Dec 2025. New @centeronbudget.bsky.social interactive tracks the decline in SNAP participation in every state: www.cbpp.org/research/foo...

What's going on with Elizabeth Warren? On the perils of economic populism

This is a post about why Elizabeth Warren seems so strangely ill-equipped for this moment in American politics, but it's really about the limitations of left-populism as an answer to right-populism. publiccomment.blog/p/what-s-goi...

www.hungarianpastryshop.com?fbclid=IwZXh...

Working and Homeless: The Invisible Population Growing Every Year | Amanpour and Company YouTube video by Amanpour and Company

I joined Amanpour & Company to talk about why "working homeless"—a term that should be a scandal—has become an ordinary fact of American life.

40% of officially-counted homeless people have jobs. And that's before we get to the millions who are rendered invisible, who are never counted at all.

Means-testing also makes programs cost more than they would under a universal model, because so much money gets wasted on verification, surveillance, and compliance.

Opinion | The Birthright Con

“Their vision of citizenship. . . would bring Dred Scott back from the dead. And it would do this in support of a political agenda that seeks nothing less than the reconstruction of race hierarchy and the rank domination of despised minorities.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/o...

This @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social conversation with David Ost helped me to more systemically think about the Trump regime and fascism/populism/fascism categories. Listen and/or check out the book newbooksnetwork.com/red-pill-pol...

Social movement scholar here again. So, why protest?

Nihilists were out yesterday arguing that "protests don't do anything."

A short 🧵:

The Realities of Rural Childhood Poverty The Realities of Rural Childhood Poverty — And What You Can Do about It: This 90-minute workshop begins with an overview of poverty in the U.S., with particular attention to what we know abou…

Looking forward to speaking with @teachforamerica.bsky.social about the the causes and consequences of rural childhood poverty this evening -- there are still virtual spots open if you want to join us alumni.teachforamerica.org/events/2026/...

I think the most important question in political science right now is how should liberal democracies treat illiberal movements and to what degree is tolerance for illiberalism suicidal for such societies.

Immigration detention on track for deadliest fiscal year since 2004 Twenty-three people have died since October in ICE custody, as advocates warn about overcrowding and health care access.

Average immigration detention deaths per month from FY 2010 to FY 2024:

0.69

Average immigration detention deaths per month in FY 2025:

1.75

Average immigration detention deaths per month so far in FY 2026:

4.6

www.npr.org/2026/03/10/g...

charts showing NYC vs National poverty rates

chart showing NYC vs national child poverty rates

people kept out of poverty by various programs

"More New Yorkers were in poverty in 2024 than at any other point since the Poverty Tracker began collecting data more than 10 years ago." robinhood.org/reports/pove...

Social Work Under Rising Authoritarianism - The inSocialWork Podcast “We cannot close our eyes to the fact that we inhabit this incredibly precarious moment… there is urgent work to do.”

"every act of supposed neutrality typically means that you are aligning with power" www.insocialwork.org/social-work-...

John Roberts to once again rewrite election laws by fiat - Lawyers, Guns & Money Another act of lawless judicial imperialism is almost certainly forthcoming: The Supreme Court seems inclined to block states from counting mailed ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arriv...

“This is an imperialist institution far transcending its constitutional limits, and this problem is going to keep getting worse.” www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/03/john...

"Which of you shall we say doth love us most,
That we our largest bounty may extend
Where nature doth with merit challenge."

--King Lear, Act I, Scene 1

www.folger.edu/explore/shak...

From Safety Net to Power Base: Reimagining, Not Restoring, the US Antipoverty System A new report from Jamie Keene revisits the New Deal’s approach to social programs, market regulation, and public options, and why reimagining them matters for working families today.

The promise of the New Deal wasn’t just security.

It was economic freedom: the ability for ordinary people to direct their own lives and influence the markets they depend on.

That promise needs updating for today.

Read the full report:

Millionaires Are Overrepresented in the U.S. Senate — By a Lot It raises questions around how a group of mostly multimillionaires makes policy that affects millions — and how expensive it is to run for Senate in the first place.

“The median net worth for members of the Senate Democratic Caucus is more than $2.9 million, while for Senate Republicans, it’s nearly $5.7 million.” www.notus.org/capitol-gain...

We are seeking submissions for a special issue of the Forum, "Political Science and/or Fiction" (yes, the "and/or" is a pun). See attached for details. Submissions due 6/30/26.

If this is what they are doing, then @governor.ny.gov should just say “my side wins, your side loses” is not a constitutionally valid way to interpret the Constitution—bc it damn well isn’t—and then say “so the new maps stay.”

You aren’t obligated to follow an illegal court. They just WANT you to.

This is amazing!

Ron Hayduk, "Untangling the Political Roots of Immigration and Inequality in the United States" (Routledge, 2026)

On @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social, @stephenpimpare.bsky.social interviewing Ron Hayduk about his book 'Untangling the Political Roots of Immigration and Inequality in the United States'.