House Republican Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan is trying to secretly eliminate the antitrust case against UnitedHealth Group's Optum PBM unit by getting rid of a key antitrust law.
www.thebignewsletter.com/p/house-gop-...

Note, this only applies to institutions in AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MA, ME, MD, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OR, RI, VT, WA, and WI - because the injunction applies only "within Plaintiff States"

Institutions in states with red governors/AGs - Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, etc. - remain screwed

Courts *ordered* the Trump admin to stop its spending freeze

Yet ProPublica found place after place where $ is still frozen

-hot meals for elderly and disabled
-groceries for those in need
-maternal & child health services
-a clinic that serves the poor

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Their response to "he's violating the Constitution" is really "but bro is so sick at coding."

US rule of law in shambles. Tech ideology is really that kind of caricature of itself.

Thing you can do, action you can take:

Register for our Congressional Medicaid Advocacy Webinar on 2/10 @ 4PM ET

MAGA wants massive cuts to Medicaid, resulting in catastrophic coverage losses. Learn how to advocate for Medicaid with the legislative staff of a Congressperson or Senator. Reg link ⤵️

92% of Medicaid adult enrollees are working, or are not working due to caregiving, an illness or disability, or school attendance.

Work requirements are a solution in search of a problem.

www.kff.org/medicaid/iss...

This is a long shot (b/c I have like 12 followers), but does anyone here have access to the public use files for the Census' Household Pulse Survey or know someone who might have them downloaded?

The dataset includes items on sexual orientation & gender identity, so naturally it's been scrubbed.

“We must end gender ideology,” say the people who believe that heterosexuality should be enforced with state violence and that women should have the legal status of permanent children.

This is a big deal, y'all. Federal health websites are being stripped of content or removed in their entirety. Stick with this thread for a look at what's disappeared so far! 1/x

A colleague of mine works at one of the organizations involved in the case.

If you'd like to collaborate, are impacted, or if you're hearing stories of folks impacted, I can connect you with my colleague, to connect with reporters and Democracy Forward on the case.

Mark Ellis worked at Sempra for 15 years, was Chief of Corporate Strategy.

Now he's saying that:

- Wall Street-owned utilities wildly over-profit.
- It costs Americans $50bn/year.
- They use junk math to justify it.
- Regulators let them do it.

www.economicliberties.us/our-work/rat...

"We must grapple with the reality that the current models we have for philanthropy are not up to the task of incubating, developing and supporting strategy on the left."

on the list of serious election post-mortems, highly worth your time to read

www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The findings that I highlight here and in my underlying research important for us to understand in light of Trump/Oz/Project 2025 hopes for “Medicare Advantage for All.” Unlike traditional Medicare, MA has TONS of prior auths —> more denials, which induce inequitable admin burdens of appealing.

If you haven't seen, there is a new bill passed in the house called the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act.

This is a continuation of a long history in the US of white women weaponizing gender-based violence to help enact racist policies.

www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/o...

📣 New: AI depends on immense resources, mostly controlled by large companies. 



This means "open" AI… isn't very open.

📄 From me, @meredithmeredith.bsky.social and @smw.bsky.social in Nature:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I remember reading papers about monopsony and wages (looking at the impacts of Amazon and other large corps) back in 2019 but there weren't a ton - glad to see more research coming out confirming what people have observed for ages.

Shout out to the skeptics of “evidence based policy making.” Evidence matters, but it is always political—so how and whether it shapes policy making is a function of power.

1. When Walmart opens a store, it drives down local wages more than it reduces prices. Some warned of this 20 years ago (me!), but most cities and towns welcomed Walmart anyway. Now, a robust new study shows Walmart’s damage is even worse than feared.