Sumita Pahwa
@sumitapahwa.bsky.social
Social scientist, Bombayite, Californian, ex-Cairene. Mango maven. Cat lady. Teaches at Scripps College. Book: https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/5829/politics-as-worship/
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
“The number of billionaires grew, of course, roughly doubling between 2010 and 2024. But their political spending grew by more than 150 times.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o...
Opinion | Affordability and the ‘Epstein Class’ Will Define American Politics
www.nytimes.com
February 12, 2026 at 2:52 AM
“The number of billionaires grew, of course, roughly doubling between 2010 and 2024. But their political spending grew by more than 150 times.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o...
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
“When Citizens United was decided in 2010, billionaires had spent $18 million on the 2000 election, $13M 2004 and $16M in 2008. Then came the deluge. In 2012 it was $231M, and nearly doubled again in next three election cycles —to $682M in 2016, $1.2 billion in 2020 and $2.6 billion in 2024.” Gift:
Opinion | Affordability and the ‘Epstein Class’ Will Define American Politics
www.nytimes.com
February 12, 2026 at 1:57 AM
“When Citizens United was decided in 2010, billionaires had spent $18 million on the 2000 election, $13M 2004 and $16M in 2008. Then came the deluge. In 2012 it was $231M, and nearly doubled again in next three election cycles —to $682M in 2016, $1.2 billion in 2020 and $2.6 billion in 2024.” Gift:
Congrats!! I look forward to reading, citing, and learning!
February 11, 2026 at 10:29 PM
Congrats!! I look forward to reading, citing, and learning!
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
Very excited about this new @knightcolumbia.org project, both because it gives us the chance to look beyond the current democratic crisis and because so many super people have already agreed to participate. knightcolumbia.org/content/new-...
New Knight Institute Initiative to Focus on “Reconstructing Free Expression” After Trump
knightcolumbia.org
February 11, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Very excited about this new @knightcolumbia.org project, both because it gives us the chance to look beyond the current democratic crisis and because so many super people have already agreed to participate. knightcolumbia.org/content/new-...
Now I'm craving sticky toffee pudding.
February 11, 2026 at 9:12 PM
Now I'm craving sticky toffee pudding.
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
“I’ve reviewed over 50 sticky toffee puddings” is an incredibly powerful way to begin a video
February 11, 2026 at 5:15 PM
“I’ve reviewed over 50 sticky toffee puddings” is an incredibly powerful way to begin a video
Custard, all the way! come on. Also, sticky toffee pudding is best done in a very classic, unadorned way.
February 11, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Custard, all the way! come on. Also, sticky toffee pudding is best done in a very classic, unadorned way.
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground
February 11, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
"I beg of you, please commemorate my birthday with mattress sales. Downy, tufted, even memory foam: none shall be exempt from the wholesale slashing of prices."
I’m Abraham Lincoln and I Beg of You, Please Commemorate My Birthday with Mattress Sales
Dear citizens, I know that I am not well. Amid this evening at Ford’s Theatre, my body has borne within it an abominable manifestation of political...
buff.ly
February 11, 2026 at 2:00 AM
"I beg of you, please commemorate my birthday with mattress sales. Downy, tufted, even memory foam: none shall be exempt from the wholesale slashing of prices."
Thanks for these links - totally outside my media and social sphere and I would not have known at all.
February 11, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Thanks for these links - totally outside my media and social sphere and I would not have known at all.
This guy rose to fame by being a 'just asking questions' Covid skeptic on twitter. Many people I know nodded along to his arguments, and those of Monica Gandhi. He was always disingenuous and posturing.
Scoop: Top FDA official Vinay Prasad overruled the agency’s reviewers when he refused to accept Moderna’s application for a new influenza vaccine, STAT has learned.
www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m...
www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m...
Prasad overruled FDA staff to reject Moderna's flu vaccine application
The rejection is the latest instance of Vinay Prasad overruling career FDA scientists to place vaccines under harsher scrutiny.
www.statnews.com
February 11, 2026 at 3:43 PM
This guy rose to fame by being a 'just asking questions' Covid skeptic on twitter. Many people I know nodded along to his arguments, and those of Monica Gandhi. He was always disingenuous and posturing.
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
ICYMI: Officials at the U.S. Forest Service knew gear worn by wildland firefighters contained potentially dangerous “forever chemicals” years before the agency publicly acknowledged the issue, according to internal correspondence obtained by @propublica. @abestreep.bsky.social
Firefighters Wore Gear Containing “Forever Chemicals.” The Forest Service Knew and Stayed Silent for Years.
As early as 2021, government officials were alerted to the presence of potentially dangerous chemicals known as PFAS in pants used by wildland firefighters, according to emails obtained by ProPublica.
www.propublica.org
February 11, 2026 at 3:07 PM
ICYMI: Officials at the U.S. Forest Service knew gear worn by wildland firefighters contained potentially dangerous “forever chemicals” years before the agency publicly acknowledged the issue, according to internal correspondence obtained by @propublica. @abestreep.bsky.social
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
I find this question about whether chatbots are “alive” to be truly, truly boring. You can torture a definition of “life” so that it includes chatbots or you can listen to actual, unequivocal flesh-and-blood people talking about harm it does them *right now*.
Experiments conducted with the A.I. system Claude are producing fascinating results—and raising questions about the nature of selfhood. Gideon Lewis-Kraus reports from inside the company that designed it, Anthropic. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/rOfXjg
February 11, 2026 at 3:13 PM
I find this question about whether chatbots are “alive” to be truly, truly boring. You can torture a definition of “life” so that it includes chatbots or you can listen to actual, unequivocal flesh-and-blood people talking about harm it does them *right now*.
Reminds me of my former colleague Wendy Cheng's book on the SGV, "The Changs Next Door to the Diazes."
February 11, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Reminds me of my former colleague Wendy Cheng's book on the SGV, "The Changs Next Door to the Diazes."
California property taxes are fixed low, and passed on to inheritors. It's one of the reasons schools are underfunded and people never want to sell.
February 11, 2026 at 3:02 PM
California property taxes are fixed low, and passed on to inheritors. It's one of the reasons schools are underfunded and people never want to sell.
Will you bring it to APSA? Or the Western? please?
February 11, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Will you bring it to APSA? Or the Western? please?
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
Every year the BLS does a benchmark revision which incorporates new and more detailed information. This year's revision suggests that 2025 was a far worse year than earlier estimates suggested, and total job growth was less than half that suggested by the initial estimates.
February 11, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Every year the BLS does a benchmark revision which incorporates new and more detailed information. This year's revision suggests that 2025 was a far worse year than earlier estimates suggested, and total job growth was less than half that suggested by the initial estimates.
the 'lower than most' one could grab right before interest rates shot up a few years ago still has one spending 60% of one's take-home income on mortgage costs here in SoCal. Sigh.
February 11, 2026 at 2:32 PM
the 'lower than most' one could grab right before interest rates shot up a few years ago still has one spending 60% of one's take-home income on mortgage costs here in SoCal. Sigh.
People also blow their retirement savings on down payments sometimes. But yes, inheritance is the big unspoken. It's class all the way down.
February 11, 2026 at 2:31 PM
People also blow their retirement savings on down payments sometimes. But yes, inheritance is the big unspoken. It's class all the way down.
...especially given how tightly hemmed in the FJP govt was by the military & how many powers were removed from the president's office by the courts after Morsi won.
Many Bros I talked to in 2013 listed all the quality of life stuff the govt had done but that had been 'ignored' by the public.
Many Bros I talked to in 2013 listed all the quality of life stuff the govt had done but that had been 'ignored' by the public.
February 11, 2026 at 2:18 PM
...especially given how tightly hemmed in the FJP govt was by the military & how many powers were removed from the president's office by the courts after Morsi won.
Many Bros I talked to in 2013 listed all the quality of life stuff the govt had done but that had been 'ignored' by the public.
Many Bros I talked to in 2013 listed all the quality of life stuff the govt had done but that had been 'ignored' by the public.
They were definitely different personalities, and Shater's business connections would have mattered. Having said that, the FJP did also mobilize ppl to do things like trash pickup, guarding bread distribution, etc & I'm not sure Shater would have been able to do much more re immediate improvements..
February 11, 2026 at 2:16 PM
They were definitely different personalities, and Shater's business connections would have mattered. Having said that, the FJP did also mobilize ppl to do things like trash pickup, guarding bread distribution, etc & I'm not sure Shater would have been able to do much more re immediate improvements..
Shater would have definitely been savvier about keeping the Saudis/Emiratis happy, but he was still very much a tanzim guy, and I can't imagine that Morsi's policy decisions were that different from what Shater had in mind (per his speech on the nahda project in early 2012).
February 11, 2026 at 4:38 AM
Shater would have definitely been savvier about keeping the Saudis/Emiratis happy, but he was still very much a tanzim guy, and I can't imagine that Morsi's policy decisions were that different from what Shater had in mind (per his speech on the nahda project in early 2012).
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
The home healthcare workforce is disproportionately comprised of immigrants, and it's certainly not because they take jobs US-born folks want. As a result, "a 25% increase in the steady state flow of immigrants to the US would result in 5,000 fewer deaths nationwide."
Is Immigration Good for Health? The Effect of Immigration on Older Adult Mortality in the United States
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
February 11, 2026 at 2:13 AM
The home healthcare workforce is disproportionately comprised of immigrants, and it's certainly not because they take jobs US-born folks want. As a result, "a 25% increase in the steady state flow of immigrants to the US would result in 5,000 fewer deaths nationwide."
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
This is the second time an ICE employee has been arrested in in a Bloomington, MN underage sex trafficking sting www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/ne...
Police in Bloomington, MN just announced that one of the guys they arrested in an underage sex trafficking sting was a **background checker for ICE agents.**
He had a high security clearance in the Trump administration... and he was caught trying to abuse children. Sickening.
He had a high security clearance in the Trump administration... and he was caught trying to abuse children. Sickening.
February 10, 2026 at 9:26 PM
This is the second time an ICE employee has been arrested in in a Bloomington, MN underage sex trafficking sting www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/ne...
Reposted by Sumita Pahwa
One of every thousand American residents has been taken into custody by ICE in the last year.
A stunning detail the ICE chief shared in this hearing that was supposed to be a brag, except it isn't: ICE has arrested 379,000 people between Jan. 2025-Jan. 2026 -- but only 8,700 were suspected gang members or known suspected terrorists.
That's 2%! www.huffpost.com/entry/latest...
That's 2%! www.huffpost.com/entry/latest...
Congresswoman Uses Simple Math To Show How Broken ICE Is
www.huffpost.com
February 10, 2026 at 9:11 PM
One of every thousand American residents has been taken into custody by ICE in the last year.