Finally, correcting the narrative of fed worker as irrational economic actor, eg, "They'd earn more elsewhere." Nope. In many cases, fed occupations ONLY exist in gov & can't be copy/pasted to the priv sector. In others, they're among the most legitimate use of training.

apnews.com/article/doge...

Nearly half (1.7 million, or 47%) of the increase in cost-burdened homeowners between 2019-2023 were those 65 and over.

As a result, nearly 1 in 4 homeowners (27.6%) aged 65+ were cost burdened. @dmccue.bsky.social @airbrycki.bsky.social @pjwhit.bsky.social

www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/rising-...

I am not making this up: Republicans have introduced legislation… to increase your bank fees.

The administration plans to lay off at least 40% of workers at FHA, the agency that provides mortgage insurance on loans for people who otherwise wouldn’t qualify for one. HUD, the parent agency of FHA, will discharge 50% of its workforce as well.

news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-...

I work in Policy Development & Research at HUD, a division of just over 100.

We lost ~15% of our group last Friday to layoffs, and a similar proportion over the last two weeks to resignations. Those of us remaining are holding our breath.

www.housingfinance.com/news/fears-m...

If the best psychic in the world told me that in the near future I’d be huffing my Valentine’s chocolates because of the government and on the verge of tears over the Social Security Administration, I’d have demanded a refund.

Federal employee terminations will cause widespread economic damage even beyond the hardships for specific employees

How many federal workers live in your state or county or congressional district?

I made an little interactive site to tell you economic.github.io/federal_work...

Communities across the US will bear the cost of federal government employment cuts

How many federal government workers live near you?

economic.github.io/federal_work...

State AGs are looking for federal workers who have just been illegally fired to stand as litigants in a new lawsuit trying to freeze further action by DOGE.

DM me if that’s you and you’re interested and you’re live in one of the following states: NM, AZ, CA, CT, MD, MI, MN, NV, OR, WA, RI, or VT.

Federal employee here. The shock and awe continues, though so does clumsy implementation & a dim understanding of mostly everything. Chilling nevertheless that Miller has gotten this far.

www.opm.gov/fork

Hey y'all know Google? Ever use it? Just a reminder that the NSF funded the early development of Google. Just a little factoid for you if you find yourself pondering the purpose of federal grant money today

Do this.

When I said I was writing a history of the Civil Rights Division, I didn't mean that it only existed in the past tense.

let's remember that it was an NIH scientist who designed the core of the Moderna Covid vaccine *over a single weekend*

Musk comes from a family that moved to South Africa *for* the racism. He has repeatedly endorsed Great Replacement Theory in the US & Neo-Nazis of the AfD in Germany. He championed the rights of white nationalists and restored Nazi accounts to Twitter.

But I'm sure the Nazi salute was an accident.

"Businessmen became politicians and were acclaimed as statesmen, while statesmen were taken seriously only if they talked the language of successful businessmen."

— Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

From Tressie McMillan Cottom today: “Left unresolved, the inherent conflicts of democracy will produce its extremes.” (For some reason in a NYT subscriber-only newsletter, so I’m sharing excerpts.) (1/5)

Late arrival to the Bluesky party, but great to be here. Hi all! 🙂