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ComDocH

@andrewfherrmann.bsky.social

Professor of Communication. Studies business and political economy. Writer of ethnography and autoethnography. Purposefully picks on people in power. #EnemyWithin

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Adam Bonica@adambonica.bsky.social · last yr.

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️

Scatterplot titled “Empirical Evidence of Ideological Targeting in Federal Layoffs: Agencies seen as liberal are significantly more likely to face DOGE layoffs.” • The x-axis represents Perceived Ideological Leaning of federal agencies, ranging from -2 (Most Liberal) to +2 (Most Conservative), based on survey responses from over 1,500 federal executives. • The y-axis shows Agency Size (Number of Staff) on a logarithmic scale from 1,000 to 1,000,000. Each point represents a federal agency: • Red dots indicate agencies that experienced DOGE layoffs. • Gray dots indicate agencies with no layoffs. Key Observations: • Liberal-leaning agencies (left side of the plot) are disproportionately represented among red dots, indicating higher layoff rates. • Notable targeted agencies include: • HHS (Health & Human Services) • EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) • NIH (National Institutes of Health) • CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) • Dept. of Education • USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) • The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE), despite its conservative leaning (+1 on the scale), is an exception among targeted agencies. • A notable outlier: the Department of Veterans Affairs (moderately conservative) also faced layoffs despite its size. Takeaway: The figure visually demonstrates that DOGE layoffs disproportionately targeted liberal-leaning agencies, supporting claims of ideological bias. The pattern reveals that layoffs were not driven by agency size or budget alone but were strongly associated with perceived ideology. Source: Richardson, Clinton, & Lewis (2018). Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill. The Journal of Politics, 80(1).
ComDocH@andrewfherrmann.bsky.social · last yr.

File Under: Last Night’s Criterion Collection #Welles is at his peak in this adaptation of The Trial by #Kafka. The police arrive to arrest Josef K (Anthony Perkins), but no one will tell him the charges. It’s claustrophobic, paranoid, unsettling, absurd. Perfect for our current times.

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ComDocH@andrewfherrmann.bsky.social · 2y ago

#Obama should have closed #GITMO like he promised he would. This stain on America keeps getting worse and worse and worse. Immigrants aren’t terrorists. Or are they? By using Guantanamo Bay, #Trump is inferring they may well be.

Trump’s Gitmo Detention Center Would Be Bigger Than History’s Worst Concentration Camps

Like the border wall, building a detention center for migrants in Guantanamo Bay is nothing new. The scale, though, is frighteningly new.

slate.com