Scott L Greer
@scottlgreer.bsky.social
Political scientist in a public health school. Health policy and politics, especially in Europe. Recent books on EU health policy, federalism and social policy, co-benefits. Ann Arbor, Michigan. Opinions personal. 🚲. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5288-0471
One of the constant authoritarian tells of these guys is their desperate dislike of public spaces where they might encounter normal American citizens. Big closed compounds like the Kremlin or Zhongnanhai are what you build when you despise and fear your people.
Brandon Friedman@brandonfriedman.bsky.social · yesterdayLafayette Square isn't "a historic protest site." It's a fucking park. And it's packed on nice days. Calling it a protest site is White House framing. They're closing a popular public park to create a presidential palace Saddam Hussein would love.
"the whole community talks a lot with the language of science without the practice of science, by which I mean frameworks of proof, falsifiability and specifics." he's talking about AI doomers but that equally applies to wellness grifters, climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers...
Who Is Behind the AI/Existential Risk Scare?
For years, and especially in the last month or so, we’ve been...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Piece calls Winston “magnetic, effusively charismatic in a way that spins even his missteps into successes.” Reminded of Jim Scott’s thesis that charisma is reading out the unspoken transcript of a society. In which case….
Arif Hasan, but NFL🔨⚒️🛠️@arif.bsky.social · last wk.Wrote a piece for the Guardian Jameis Winston is now the New York Giants’ starter. He’s far from a goofball hero www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/s...
vibes. 1 full hour of live-cam footage of our churning sludge-cake bin set to lo-fi beats www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4RO...
1 HOUR of sewer sludge cake bin live cam with lo-fi beats
YouTube video by Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
youtube.com
*so important*: if you’re voting by mail, assume the USPS will delay because it’s its policy. You can: —put it in drop box —go to counter to watch them postmark in front of you —if you’re dropping it in a mailbox, do it VERY EARLY.
Bolts@boltsmag.org · 24h agoMany states require that mail ballots be postmarked by a specific day. But due to a USPS rule announced late last year, voters may need to put their ballot in a mailbox days in advance.
Surveillance! 🎉 we should all do lots of it! 🥼🧫🔬 But what does it mean?… new (free to read) article in Lancet Planetary Health on that!
Scott L Greer@scottlgreer.bsky.social · 4d agoInternational organisations agree on the importance of surveillance, but not on its definition
What does it say that my immediate response to news about an American university is to ignore coverage from the likes of the NYT (patently untrustworthy) and go to the student newspaper instead?
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 19h agoCornell University named Sally Yates, the former acting U.S. attorney general, to lead an independent internal review of a former student’s rape claim amid growing outrage about how it was first handled.
This is basically how clientelistic systems work: make broad policies that favor elites and then hand out favors to particular gentry and a few free lunches to the poor
jamelle@jamellebouie.net · 21h agowho knows if jackson can win this thing but i am glad that he is making clear that susan collins's whole scam is to do everything she can to make life worse for mainers and then take credit for mitigating it in the slightest way possible
interesting that conservatives were militantly “we must reward hustle” when the target was affirmative action at elite universities and now, when faced with the success of south asians and other groups, it is “i think we are too meritocratic”
Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly@rtodkelly.bsky.social · yesterdayIt's absolutely bonkers to me that this image led directly to this tweet.
If you’re fundamentally not very good at life, showy loyalty to the Leader, and being compromised in some way, is a good route to over-promotion
Greg Lipper@theglipper.bsky.social · 24h ago“In one, Mr. Vandenberg berated a co-worker during a dispute over a photocopier. … He is currently facing charges of animal neglect, according to El Paso municipal court records, charges often filed when dogs are found unattended for an extended period in a parked vehicle.”
I’d add that people might not be especially attracted to a DC covered with really tawdry Trump stuff, dotted with clumps of aimless soldiers, and made difficult to navigate by the black-fenced expanding Kremlin/Green Zone/Zhongnanhai in the middle.
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · yesterdayTour guides across D.C. say their business has cratered this year. Adding to the downturn, guides say, is that many tourists are angered by President Trump’s attacks on allies, the imposition of tariffs, and his visa and immigration policies.
Chilling ICE Challenge Coin Features a Slogan About ‘Hunting’ Humans talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things...
Chilling ICE Challenge Coin Features a Slogan About ‘Hunting’ Humans
Editor’s note: Nicole is taking some much-deserved time off around her birthday...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Dan has been *the* reporter for all things NSF, and especially for SBE. We are losing a generation of scholars and scholarship.
Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social · yesterdayNEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:
A breath of fresh air: @saskiapopescu.bsky.social writes about the specific threats of bioweapons AND POLICIES TO REDUCE RISK. A very real threat is distraction. Best thing I've read on this topic. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
AI biohazard hype must not divert attention from the real risks we face now
Twenty-five years after the US anthrax attacks, fears around AI are distracting people from seeing what’s needed to stay safe: a strong, regulated life-sciences sector.
nature.com
One thing I find endlessly funny about the rise of AI is that it has revealed that there is a large number of people who believe that the reason they wrote essays at school or university is their teachers were desperately waiting for them to provide a definite answer to “Lear: what’s up with him?”
Dr Dean Burnett@drdeanburnett.bsky.social · 2d ago"By using AI, tasks like essays that used to take hours can be completed in minutes!" Sure, like how if I arrive at the gym and immediately go for a shower, my workout is done in record time. And if I throw my sandwiches straight in the bin, I can finish my lunch in under 10 seconds.
In response to our questions, an NSF spokesperson said that SBE has not been shut down. But with zero SBE-specific funding opportunities, no review panels, and dwindling numbers of staff, it's hard to see the directorate continuing for much longer.
NEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:
‘Complete devastation’: How NSF gutted its social sciences research
Agency body that funds sociology, linguistics, and archaeology studies in U.S. gave 90% fewer new grants this year
science.org
NEW: Ken Paxton's office is investigating pediatricians for vaccinating children. He alleged a sprawling profit-driven conspiracy. Pediatricians say the accusations are an attempt at intimidation. 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/h...
Texas Pediatricians Face Paxton Investigations for Vaccinating Children (Gift Article)
Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general and Republican Senate candidate, has alleged a sprawling profit-driven conspiracy. Pediatricians say the accusations are an attempt at intimidation.
nytimes.com
LIVE: Health officials HHS Secretary RFK Jr and CDC Director Erica Schwartz are “just standing by” while measles sickens and kills people. Although the official measles case count in PA is 1,004, undercounting of cases could mean there are really 5,000 cases. www.cidrap.umn.edu/measles/penn...
Hey hey -- it's publication day! Couldn't be more excited for this to be out in the world. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
In WHY LABOR UNIONS MATTER, Nelson Lichtenstein shows how such trade unions can raise income, reduce racial and gender inequalities, and mobilize workers to become more socially and politically active.
CDC offices "in Angola and South Sudan closed Thursday, with the office in Zimbabwe set to shut its doors at the end of the year. Current and former CDC officials told POLITICO they expect more than a dozen other foreign offices will follow in the next few years."
Trump is conditioning foreign aid on deals
The State Department’s new approach to foreign aid is changing the way the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention works abroad.
politico.com
ICE has detained more than 500 U.S. citizens.
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...
projects.propublica.org
The IceCube neutrino detector has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics. The Trump administration has proposed slashing its budget in half in 2027.
Earth-kun, the Tokyo Sewerage Bureau mascot, is a globe with a manhole cover hat.
I think it’s a given that nobody’s going to remember Johnson or Thune but the interesting question is if Trump ends up being as completely removed from Republican consciousness as his two predecessors.
I Scare You Like Sound Dog@chadstanton.blacksky.app · 2d agoThis guy just kind of being erased from popular US political history is still wild to me.