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markabraham.bsky.social
Mark Abraham
@markabraham.bsky.social
2.1K followers 2.4K following 660 posts
Collecting and sharing data on community-level health and well-being. Personal account: Posts here do not represent the views of my employer. #NHV resident.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Mark Abraham
urbandispatch.bsky.social
Remarkable data insights from @datahaven.bsky.social and @markabraham.bsky.social

Putting picture to our housing crisis. It is a supply and inventory problem and current solutions aren't cutting it

ctdatahaven.org/report/new-c...
Graph showing total housing added over six years with the top ten municipalities in CT adding 39% of the total housing added in the state Graph showing the drop over time of total listings in CT per 10k household from above national average to less than half of national average
February 11, 2026 at 2:40 AM
markabraham.bsky.social
Could higher taxes on alcohol and cannabis help deter excessive use? “In 1995, marijuana seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration was around 4% THC, the primary psychoactive compound in pot. Today, you can buy marijuana products with THC levels of 90% or more”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/o...
Opinion | It’s Time for America to Admit That It Has a Marijuana Problem
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
propublica.org
5/ “I have already spent more than 60 days waking up eating the same repetitive meals…going to the doctor and that the only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here…”

From 12-year-old Ender, detained 60+ days
Page 1 of a child’s handwritten letter, written in Spanish in a cursive script. Translation: “Hello I am Ender and I am 12 years old, I have been at this center  for 2 months. I arrived here for an immigration appointment and I don’t think they should grab immigrants who are innocent, like instead of grabbing criminals because I mean they prefer to lock up children than look for people who really shouldn’t be in the U.S. They told me I could only be here 21 days but I have already spent more than 60 days waking up eating the same repetitive meals, going outside and that the majority of guards never pay attention to people, eating dinner  always the same as the day before, seeing people cry every day for the same reasons, trying to sleep in that horrible uncomfortable bed, going to the doctor and that the only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here…” Page 2 of a child’s handwritten letter, written in Spanish in a cursive script. Translation: “…going to wait for the bad answers from the judges, hearing the bad news from people who no longer have hope, having to share a room with minimum 3 families, and all that so they send us back to our countries.” Below the text is a drawing in pen of three women, titled “My family” and labeled with “Mama,” “Sister,” and “me” in Spanish.
February 9, 2026 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
aaronsojourner.org
"The Trump tariffs amount to an average tax increase per US household of $1,000 in 2025 and $1,300 in 2026....

"The Trump tariffs are the largest US tax increase as a percent of GDP (0.54 percent for 2026) since 1993."
@taxfoundation.bsky.social
taxfoundation.org/research/all...
February 9, 2026 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
datahaven.bsky.social
New on the DataHaven website: Our report about a brand-new U.S. Census Bureau dataset that allows us to map where 40,000 homes have been added within the state of #Connecticut since 2020 -- at both the town and neighborhood level. ctdatahaven.org/report/new-c... #nnip
Report cover
February 9, 2026 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
datahaven.bsky.social
New report on the DataHaven website #Connecticut #nutmegsky #mentalhealth
February 6, 2026 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
alexhanna.bsky.social
A tremendous loss for the Post. Bezos, Lewis, and WaPo leadership is trying to gut any accountability work from the paper performed by journalists like Nitasha.
nitasha.bsky.social nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 7d
My story on Elon Musk cutting safeguards at xAI is on the front page of today's @washingtonpost.com. I’m also among 100’s of reporters laid off. I absolutely loved my job my brilliant coworkers & the thrill of reporting @ the center of forces upending the world: AI & Silicon Valley’s political power
cover of The Washington Post on Wednesday Feb 4, 2026. Headline on bottom, right: Musk wanted to hook users; his chatbot got more sexual
February 4, 2026 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
remalone.bsky.social
Ah, starting up the narrative again. They know they’re gonna lose if the elections are fair
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d
Mike Johnson on Trump calling for Rs to "nationalize" elections: "We had 3 Republicans who were ahead on election day in last cycle & every time a new tranche of ballots came in they just magically whittled away until their leads were lost. It looks on its face to be fraudulent. Can I prove it? No"
February 4, 2026 at 3:12 PM
markabraham.bsky.social
“Promised boom from tariffs hasn’t occurred”

Translation: U.S. families are paying $2,000 to $8,000 more per year for a policy that failed, while the wealthy got trillions in tax cuts.

And: tariffs as extortion; 3X funding boost for an enforcement force operating far beyond constitutional norms.
February 4, 2026 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
ebishirl.bsky.social
Excellent piece describing this administration's hunger for a one-stop shop with all of our personal data. DOGE, guided by Elon Musk, supercharged this effort by eliminating the traditional boundaries between data held and managed by separate government agencies.
Emily Tucker, the director of Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology, suggested the agency could be constructing a surveillance system that, in my estimation, would make “Minority Report” look like child’s play. Homeland Security, she said, “is increasingly emphasizing ‘interoperability’ in its contracting.” That is a strong sign that the agency wants to connect a range of databases, which could include those with your biometric data, employment data, driving records, credit reports, tax data, social media data, cellphone location data and automated license plate reader data. “They are seeking data about every aspect of the lives of everyone,” she said.
February 3, 2026 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Horrifying and unnerving. DHS sent an administrative subpoena to Google for this retiree's records and even sent armed agents out to his house for the "offense" of writing the following completely anodyne email to a federal prosecutor using an email address he found via Google.
He had decided that the America he believed in would not make it if people like him didn’t speak up, so on a cool, rainy morning in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Jon, 67 and recently retired, marched up to his study and began to type. He had just read about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s case against an Afghan it was trying to deport. The immigrant, identified in The Washington Post’s Oct. 30 investigation as H, had begged federal officials to reconsider, telling them the Taliban would kill him if he was returned to Afghanistan. “Unconscionable,” Jon thought as he found an email address online for the lead prosecutor, Joseph Dernbach, who was named in the story. Peering through metal-rimmed glasses, Jon opened Gmail on his computer monitor. “Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” he wrote. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.” That was it. In five minutes, Jon said, he finished the note, signed his first and last name, pressed send and hoped his plea would make a difference.
February 3, 2026 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
lebassett.bsky.social
Not good
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9d
Trump: "These people were brought to our country to vote, & they vote illegally. The Republicans should say, we should take over the voting in at least 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that I won that show I didn't win. You're gonna see something in Georgia"
February 2, 2026 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
vanhollen.senate.gov
Foreign countries are bribing our president to sell out the American people.
 
Trump family businesses made $187 MILLION from this deal, and just months later he gave the UAE some of our most top-secret AI tech.
 
They are selling our national security to the highest bidder.
February 1, 2026 at 6:04 PM
markabraham.bsky.social
Raj Chetty came out with a new data-driven ranking of the world’s best universities, with Oxford and Yale at the top time.com/7358185/top-... #econsky
Graphic
January 31, 2026 at 3:43 AM
markabraham.bsky.social
Neighborhood revitalization and child outcomes
opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/u...
Screenshot from report
January 30, 2026 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
sonjadrimmer.bsky.social
In 2021 I was telling people in my field of art history to stop legitimizing the use of image recognition, to stop applying for grants to use AI in identifying the subjects of portraiture bc this was what such work was being used to further. All this was obvious. theconversation.com/how-ai-is-hi...
When AI gets attention for recovering lost works of art, it makes the technology sound a lot less scary than when it garners headlines for creating deep fakes that falsify politicians’ speech or for using facial recognition for authoritarian surveillance.
January 30, 2026 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
justinhendrix.bsky.social
"Domestic abusers are increasingly using AI, smartwatches and other technology to attack and control their victims, a domestic abuse charity says." Record numbers of women who were abused and controlled through technology were referred to Refuge’s specialist services.
Abusers using AI and digital tech to attack and control women, charity warns
Exclusive: Smartwatches, Oura rings, smart home devices and Fitbits being weaponised, says Refuge
www.theguardian.com
January 30, 2026 at 12:16 PM
markabraham.bsky.social
From @themarshallproject.org
January 29, 2026 at 10:04 PM
markabraham.bsky.social
“The US could reduce annual spending on outpatient prescription drugs by $184B (51% decrease) if domestic prices were aligned with those in other high-income nations. More than 70% of widely used medications are priced >4X higher in the US than in comparable countries” ysph.yale.edu/news-article...
Yale study: U.S. could save $184 billion by aligning drug prices with peer nations
Researchers at the Yale School of Public Health estimate that the United States could reduce its annual spending on outpatient prescription drugs by $184
ysph.yale.edu
January 29, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
markhamillofficial.bsky.social
"I was only following orders" wasn't an acceptable excuse at the Nuremberg trials & won't work now.

#AccountabilityIsComing
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15d
Kristi Noem: "Everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen"
January 28, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
debpearlstein.bsky.social
I don't even know where to start with the illegal...The Executive does not have the constitutional power to raise revenue. The Executive does not have the constitutional power to make decisions about expenditures. The Executive does not have the power to privatize the functions of the US Treasury...
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14d
Marco Rubio: "The oil proceeds are being deposited into an account that ultimately will become a US Treasury blocked account here in the US. We will say 'this is what this money can be spent on.' They will submit to us a budget request -- 'we want to use the money on these things.'"
January 28, 2026 at 6:57 PM
markabraham.bsky.social
New study published today: “Almost half of the monthly-updated CDC databases had unexplained pauses in 2025, mostly affecting vaccination data... Despite remaining publicly accessible, 38 CDC databases updated at least monthly were no longer current without notice” #publichealth
Cover of news article
January 28, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
brucespringsteen.net
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
pbump.com
Trump’s fundraisers are now using the threat of dispatching ICE against citizens as an email engagement tactic.
January 28, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Mark Abraham
stateofthecity.bsky.social
Kyiv metro area. Just in case you've forgotten what's still happening, every day.
antongerashchenko.bsky.social Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · 15d
"She was crying and screaming, 'Mom!'"

Radio Liberty war correspondent Marian Kushnir rescued a 4-yr-old girl from a burning residential building hit by a Russian drone in Bilohorodka, Kyiv region

The girl’s mom was killed.
January 28, 2026 at 1:16 PM