solonsimmons.bsky.social
@solonsimmons.bsky.social
I'm also worried about what these cuts will mean for our George Mason University graduates. One of our big selling points is how high the salaries are for our grads.
Virginia's ranking as “America's Top State for Business" just slipped from #1 to #4 — in part due to Donald Trump's attacks on Virginia jobs and the Youngkin-Sears Administration's refusal to stand up to him.
July 10, 2025 at 1:55 PM
The birth or breakfast line is a good one.
40% of New Yorkers are immigrants.
50% live in mixed status households.
1M of them are children.

Whether you've been here since birth or since breakfast, as Mayor, I will stand up for our immigrant neighbors and the rule of law.
June 21, 2025 at 7:54 PM
“First we must study how colonization works to decivilize the colonizer, to brutalize him in the true sense of the word, to degrade him, to awaken him to buried instincts, to covetousness, violence, race hatred, and moral relativism"

Thinking of Aimé Césaire
www.goodreads.com/book/show/86...
Discourse on Colonialism
This classic work, first published in France in 1955, p…
www.goodreads.com
June 13, 2025 at 12:00 AM
I think it's fair to say that people are pissed off.
Unprecedented, wildly illegal, clearly unconstitutional, national security-endangering, deeply destructive things that needlessly killed people, done by a fake government employee without security clearances who should now be arrested & thrown in jail for all the laws he broke & crimes he committed.
well i for one am shocked that illegally stopping life-saving aid, illegally defunding cancer research, illegally hampering social security delivery, and illegally defunding head start didn’t go over well
May 29, 2025 at 3:04 AM
At least we can with a straight face that from now on that there is a pro-science party and an anti-science party. Sad.
npr.org NPR @npr.org · May 2
The National Science Foundation, a major government funder of basic science research, is being shaken up with over 1,000 grants already terminated and the White House looking to halve its budget.
Scientists reel as turmoil roils National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation, a major government funder of basic science research, is being shaken up with over 1,000 grants already terminated and the White House looking to halve its budget
www.npr.org
May 2, 2025 at 7:02 PM
I guess Bezos has not found much favor in the new regime.
REPORTER: Amazon will soon display a number next to the price of each product that shows how much the Trump tariffs are adding. Isn't that a perfect demonstration that it's the American consumer who is paying for these policies?

LEAVITT: This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.
April 29, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted
Steve Kerr wore a Harvard basketball shirt after the Warriors’ win tonight: “Yes, this is me supporting Harvard. Way to go. Way to stand up to the bully.”
April 16, 2025 at 7:09 AM
I found this article to be really comforting in an odd way.

"Although much of what happened during and after World War I is now long forgotten, Americans in those years saw the federal government act in ways that — so far — Trump can only dream of."

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | America was at its Trumpiest 100 years ago. Here’s how to prevent the worst.
During WWI, America lurched toward autocracy. Resistance was minimal.
www.washingtonpost.com
April 4, 2025 at 8:35 PM
I hate to admit, I never really listened to these folks.
wbur.org WBUR @wbur.org · Mar 21
"The way I was taught is, if your family were immigrants to this country and came for a better life, the price you pay for that is you can never say that 'no one else is welcome.' That is what America was built on," said the Dropkick Murphys frontman Ken Casey.
'This is a class war': The Dropkick Murphys' Ken Casey on Trump, immigration and Boston
"The way I was taught is, if your family were immigrants to this country and came for a better life, the price you pay for that is you can never say that 'no one else is welcome.' That is what America...
www.wbur.org
March 22, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Something about this made me think of Bataille's General Economy: first time in a long time. And after a few minutes with my favorite LLM, it paid off.
Tonight an unbelievable **34,000 people** gathered for our Denver rally to take on billionaires and win our country back.

This was the largest political gathering in Denver since Obama in 2008.

Also bigger than the 2024 DNC.

And the largest ever rally in Bernie’s career (and obviously, mine too).
March 22, 2025 at 3:45 PM
The old quotes strategy is a great way to foreground ideological change over time.
Socialism is what they called public power. 

Socialism is what they called social security. 
 
Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.
 
Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.

—Harry Truman, 1952
March 6, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Reposted
Here's the link to the AP story, quoting the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which produces the GDP figures, is a supposedly independent agency within the Commerce Department.

apnews.com/article/trum...
The Trump administration may exclude government spending from GDP, obscuring the impact of DOGE cuts
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says he could take government spending out of his agency's reports on gross domestic product.
apnews.com
March 2, 2025 at 11:55 PM
There's something happening here...
After the AfD's surge on Sunday, far right parties are the most voted-for of any grouping in Europe, for the first time in history: www.economist.com/graphic-deta...
March 1, 2025 at 9:13 PM
This is exactly what I thought. This is just how corporate takeovers happen in the US. The cruelty is only shocking because we all have to watch.
Elon’s mass harassment email to all federal employees underscores the importance of having unions to represent workers against abusive management.
February 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM
You have to say that this is an unorthodox approach to solidarity.
What a shame. Teamsters deserve better than this.
Teamsters President Sean O'Brien downplays Trump's reckless firings of federal workers: "We don't want to see anybody losing their jobs, but he thinks he's within his right."
February 20, 2025 at 1:15 PM
And this implies that people who support these cuts see Congressional (democratic) action as inherently corrupt. This is how these developments are inherently authoritarian (or as I like to say "securitarian"). Legal process takes second priority.
We need Pete Buttigieg as a clear messenger, more than ever.
February 17, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted
Portuguese editorial cartoonist Zez Vaz reaches back to Tiananmen Square to call on American defiance.
February 15, 2025 at 1:43 PM
As an indicator of how much has changed in ideological orientation over the past few decades, this list of banned words does not include the word "exploitation." We really are in a world of post-class politics. popular.info/p/the-nsas-b...
The NSA's "Big Delete"
Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) is planning a "Big Delete" of websites and internal network content that contain any of 27 banned words, including "privilege," "bias," and "inclusion." The "...
popular.info
February 10, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted
Hungarian Judges Take to the Streets ⚖️

Judges are not typically the ones to take to the streets. But for the first time in recent Hungarian memory, judges and judicial employees are organising a protest to defend their independence. On 22 February 2025, they will march in downtown Budapest. 1/6
February 7, 2025 at 1:33 PM
So much winning.
February 6, 2025 at 1:40 PM
A true sign of the times.
Pennsylvania State Police were hunting for thieves who stole about 100,000 organic eggs from a wholesaler's warehouse over the weekend, a haul worth more than $40,000 retail amid a national shortage that has caused prices to surge reut.rs/4aPt9a1
Pennsylvania thieves haul away precious loot: 100,000 eggs
Pennsylvania State Police were hunting on Wednesday for thieves who stole about 100,000 organic eggs from a wholesaler's warehouse over the weekend, a haul worth more than $40,000 retail amid a national shortage that has caused prices to surge.
reut.rs
February 5, 2025 at 7:21 PM
The conversation always seems to ignore the basic macro data.
January 13, 2025 at 10:44 PM