#Virtual Equity

[smartbulls]

Never Trust a Chart you Did Not Draw Yourself..!

[quarterblindsocialworker]

THIS. FUCKING THIS. I was told to report to a meeting at 8am at my workplace, I have a restricted license which only allows me to drive during daylight hours. I informed the people attending that I needed to move the meeting to later and was informed in the BITCHIEST of tones that "We have other things to do than wait on you". I HAD TO DISCLOSE MY DISABILITY AND BEG FOR A VIRTUAL MEETING. THAT'S BULLSHIT. And I DIDN'T GET AN APOLOGY for the unkind way in which a respectful accommodation request was DENIED.

The thing that pisses me off the most is that even if covid WAS over, disabled people still fucking exist and deserve to participate in things. The brief period of time in which everyone was doing virtual and hybrid events, people could work from home, social events were actually accessible...all it did was show that we could be doing these things, and just don't fucking care.

Hybrid events should be the STANDARD. Including people who can't leave their houses should be the STANDARD. Some basic fucking consideration for the disabled should be the STANDARD.

And it's just. Not.

[innonurse]

Legrand to acquire Dutch health-tech firm Enovation for more than €500 million

- By InnoNurse Staff -

French electrical equipment manufacturer Legrand has agreed to purchase Dutch health software company Enovation from private equity firm Main Capital Partners.

The sale of Enovation, which creates digital platforms for the healthcare sector, marks the largest exit for Main Capital Partners.

Read more at Bloomberg/BNN Bloomberg

///

Other recent news and insights

Innovative microscopy sheds light on Alzheimer’s metabolism (UC San Diego)

Researchers in mechanical engineering at HKU develop miniaturized electric generators using hydrogels for biomedical devices (The University of Hong Kong)

An advanced brain science tool that requires no coding skills (Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres/Medical Xpress)

[fiercemillennial]

Telemedicine Reshapes Abortion Access: What You Need to Know

Breaking news: 16% of abortions in the US now happen via telemedicine. What does this mean for women's healthcare? #abortionaccess #reproductivehealth #womensrights #fiercelife #fiercemillennial

A new report highlights the rise of virtual abortion care, prompting important discussions for women’s health. The landscape of abortion access is shifting. A new report reveals that 16% of all abortions in the United States are now conducted via telemedicine. This marks a significant rise in virtual abortion services, raising important questions about women’s reproductive rights, healthcare…

[akwyz]

How can we create a more inclusive metaverse?

Dive into the world of the #InclusiveMetaverse! Discover how we can create virtual spaces that are equitable, diverse, and truly representative of our global community. 🌍 Let's build a #Metaverse where everyone belongs! 🤝 #DigitalInclusion #axschat

Interview with Paul McDonagh-Smith, Senior Lecturer MIT Sloan School of Management Interview with Paul McDonagh-Smith at Hannover Messe. Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management & Digital Capability Leader at MIT Sloan Office of Executive Education. Advisor to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Paul invented and innovated with XR & metaverse across multiple industries and is Faculty…

[greenthestral]

COVID-19 Pandemic: Unraveling the Global Learning Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has left an indelible mark on the world, disrupting economies, healthcare systems, and everyday life. One of the most significant areas affected by this unprecedented global crisis is education. With schools closing their doors to prevent the spread of the virus, the world has witnessed the deepening of a global learning crisis. The pandemic's impact on education has been profound, exacerbating existing inequalities and creating new challenges for learners, educators, and policymakers worldwide. In this article, we will delve into the ways the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the global learning crisis and explore potential strategies to address these pressing issues.

The Disruption of Education During the Pandemic

When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in early 2020, governments worldwide swiftly implemented strict measures to curb the virus's spread. One of the most crucial measures was the closure of educational institutions. Overnight, classrooms turned into virtual learning environments, and educators had to adapt rapidly to online teaching methods.

While some countries were better equipped to transition to online education, others faced significant challenges due to a lack of infrastructure and access to technology. The digital divide became more pronounced as students from low-income families or remote regions struggled to keep up with their studies. As a result, millions of children and young adults were left without access to education, further exacerbating the global learning crisis.

Widening Educational Inequalities

The pandemic has widened existing educational inequalities worldwide. Students from privileged backgrounds with access to reliable internet connections, laptops, and private tutors were better equipped to continue their education remotely. On the other hand, students from marginalized communities often lacked the necessary resources to participate in online learning effectively.

Furthermore, learners with disabilities faced additional barriers, as many online platforms were not designed to accommodate their specific needs. This disparity in access to quality education has the potential to have far-reaching consequences, as it perpetuates social and economic inequalities for generations to come.

Learning Loss and the Educational Gap

Extended school closures and disrupted learning routines have resulted in significant learning loss for many students. Studies have shown that prolonged absences from the traditional classroom setting can lead to a decline in academic performance and cognitive development.

Moreover, the pandemic has created an educational gap between different age groups. Early childhood education, a critical developmental phase, has been severely impacted, potentially affecting children's long-term cognitive and social-emotional development. Similarly, older students faced the stress of delayed examinations, college admissions, and uncertainty about their future prospects.

Mental Health Impact on Students and Educators

The pandemic's toll on mental health has been considerable, impacting both students and educators. The abrupt shift to remote learning and the uncertainties surrounding the pandemic have caused stress, anxiety, and feelings of isolation among students. Many have struggled to cope with the challenges of online learning and the absence of social interactions with peers.

Educators, too, have faced unprecedented pressures, adapting to new teaching methods, dealing with technological challenges, and juggling personal responsibilities amidst the pandemic. The resulting burnout and fatigue among teachers have affected the overall quality of education and student support.

Solutions to Mitigate the Global Learning Crisis

While the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly exacerbated the global learning crisis, there are several strategies that policymakers, educators, and communities can adopt to address these challenges and build a more resilient education system:

1. Bridging the Digital Divide

Governments and educational institutions must prioritize bridging the digital divide to ensure all students have equal access to quality education. This can be achieved through initiatives that provide laptops, tablets, or internet connectivity to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Additionally, investing in the development of educational content optimized for low-tech devices can increase accessibility for students with limited resources.

2. Blended Learning Approaches

Blended learning, a combination of online and in-person instruction, can offer a flexible and inclusive approach to education. This approach allows for personalized learning experiences while maintaining the benefits of face-to-face interactions with teachers and peers. By incorporating digital tools and resources into the curriculum, educators can cater to diverse learning styles and individual needs.

3. Teacher Training and Professional Development

Empowering teachers with the necessary skills and tools to adapt to changing circumstances is crucial. Comprehensive training in online teaching methodologies and the use of technology in education can enhance the quality of remote learning. Moreover, providing ongoing professional development opportunities can help teachers stay motivated and engaged, ultimately benefiting their students' learning outcomes.

4. Prioritizing Early Childhood Education

Recognizing the significance of early childhood education, governments should prioritize resources for early learning programs. Investing in early childhood education can have a profound impact on children's cognitive and social development, setting them on a path to success in later years.

5. Strengthening Support Systems

To address the mental health challenges faced by students and educators, it is essential to establish robust support systems within educational institutions. Counseling services, peer support groups, and mental health awareness programs can create a nurturing and empathetic learning environment.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed deepened a global learning crisis, affecting millions of learners around the world. The disruption of education, widening educational inequalities, learning loss, and the mental health impact on students and educators have posed significant challenges to the education sector.

However, by implementing innovative strategies such as bridging the digital divide, adopting blended learning approaches, prioritizing teacher training, investing in early childhood education, and strengthening support systems, we can begin to mitigate the adverse effects of the pandemic on education.

As we navigate the path to recovery, it is vital for governments, educators, parents, and communities to come together and work collaboratively towards building a more resilient and inclusive education system that can withstand future challenges. Only through collective efforts can we ensure that every child has access to a quality education, regardless of the circumstances they may face. Let us seize this opportunity to reshape education for a brighter and more equitable future.

What's In It For Me? (WIIFM)

In this blog article on the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on education, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of how the global learning crisis has deepened in the wake of this unprecedented health crisis. Discover the challenges faced by students, educators, and policymakers, and explore effective strategies to address these issues. Learn about the widening educational inequalities, learning loss, and the mental health impact on learners and teachers. Moreover, find practical solutions and actionable steps to contribute to building a more resilient and inclusive education system for a brighter future.

Call to Action (CTA)

Join us in addressing the global learning crisis deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Share this article with your friends, family, and colleagues to spread awareness about the challenges faced by learners and educators worldwide. Engage in discussions about the importance of equitable access to quality education and the need for innovative solutions. Support initiatives that bridge the digital divide, prioritize early childhood education, and promote teacher training and professional development. Together, let's work towards building a stronger and more sustainable education system that can withstand future challenges.

Blog Excerpt

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on education globally, deepening a pre-existing learning crisis. With schools closing their doors to curb the virus's spread, millions of students were left without access to education, exacerbating existing educational inequalities. This blog article delves into the far-reaching consequences of the pandemic on learners, educators, and communities. Discover how the sudden shift to remote learning widened the educational gap and led to learning loss among students. Uncover the mental health challenges faced by learners and teachers during these uncertain times. But, more importantly, explore actionable solutions to mitigate the global learning crisis and build a more resilient and inclusive education system.

Meta Description (320 characters)

Discover how the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the global learning crisis. Explore its impact on education, widening inequalities, learning loss, and mental health challenges. Learn actionable strategies to address these issues and build a more resilient education system. Join us in shaping a brighter future.

[vague-humanoid]

Errol Musk, the father of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, believes that his son can't be racist due to his past relationships with "Black servants" who worked for the family in apartheid South Africa.

In an email sent to the Washington Post regarding inquiries about his son's animosity toward diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, Errol Musk said that his two sons were never interested in political matters while growing up.

"They were not into political nonsense, and we lived in a very well-run, law-abiding country with virtually no crime at all," he said. "Actually no crime. We had several black servants who were their friends."

[saywhat-politics]

President Donald Trump suffered a series of legal setbacks on Wednesday in the form of four separate court rulings.

Why It Matters

Trump came into office on the pledge that he would carry out mass deportations on "day one," impose sweeping tariffs on countries he claims have taken advantage of the U.S, implement hiring freezes and mass layoffs to downsize the government in the name of efficiency, eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and more.

But the administration has run up against judicial pushback on virtually every major agenda item that Trump championed on the campaign trail and since he took office. In May, according to one analysis, the Trump administration suffered more than two dozen defeats at the district court level from judges appointed by Democrats and Republicans, including Trump.

What To Know

The four legal setbacks on Wednesday were announced within hours of each other.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Dinkscrump Linkdump

I'm about to leave for a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me on Feb 14 in BOSTON for FREE at BOSKONE , and on Feb 15 for a virtual event with YANIS VAROUFAKIS. More tour dates here.

Well, Saturday's come around and I have a gigantic list of links that didn't fit into this week's newsletter, so it's time for another linkdump, 26th in the series:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

My posting is about to get a lot more erratic, as I'm days away from leaving on a 20+ city book-tour, which starts in Boston on Feb 14, with a sold-out event at the Brookline Booksmith:

https://brooklinebooksmith.com/event/2025-02-14/sold-out-cory-doctorow-ken-liu-picks-and-shovels

But Bostonians get another bite at the apple: I'm appearing at Boskone, the city's venerable sf convention, a few hours before my Brookline gig, and admission is free:

https://schedule.boskone.org/62/

The rest of the tour (including a virtual event with Yanis Varoufakis on the 15th) is here, and more dates (New Zealand, possibly Pittsburgh and Atlanta) are being added all the time:

https://craphound.com/novels/redteamblues/2025/02/06/announcing-the-picks-and-shovels-book-tour/

Of course, even as I scramble to get ready to hit the road for months, I'm regrettably forced to give some rent-free space in my head to Elon Fucking Musk. This week, I wrote about DOGE as a government-scale private-equity style plundering of the nation:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/07/broccoli-hair-brownshirts/#shameless

But that was before I read Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman's Lawfare article about how Musk's seizure of payment chokepoints will allow him (and Trump) to surveil the entire economy and wield unilateral, unaccountable power:

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/elon-musk-weaponizes-the-government

In 2023, Farrell and Newman published an important book called Underground Empire, explaining how, during the War on Terror, GWB (and then Obama) weaponized global payment processing systems (most notably SWIFT) and other boring, technical systems, and then used them to wield enormous power around the world:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/10/weaponized-interdependence/#the-other-swifties

Farrell and Newman's point isn't merely that this power was used unwisely or cruelly, but also that the co-opted systems had an actual, useful, important job to do – a job that was only possible if these systems were widely viewed as credibly neutral and apolitical. The book ends with a sobering message about the chaos on the horizon if (when) other countries walk away from these system, leaving infrastructure vacuums in their wake. In their new Lawfare piece, Farrell and Newman imply not just that Musk and Trump are fashioning a powerful weapon out of the nation's digital infrastructure, but also that this could permanently undermine the vital national systems they're seizing control over, with no obvious candidates to replace them.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are still trying to find their asses with both hands, even as voters across the nation bombard them with demands to actually do something. I'm gonna call my senators and rep right after I finish this and remind them that when South Korea's autocratic president attempted a coup, lawmakers stormed the capital, leaping the fences while livestreaming to voters:

https://www.axios.com/2025/02/06/democrats-congress-trump-musk-doge-calls

But not everyone is taking Musk's bullshit lying down. The AFL-CIO has led a coalition of unions in suing DOGE:

https://gizmodo.com/americas-unions-sue-doge-launch-the-department-of-people-who-work-for-a-living-2000559998

And they've launched a counterinitiative with the delightful name of "The Department of People Who Work for a Living":

https://deptofpeoplewhowork.org/

It's nice to see some inside/outside strategy underway. After all, Musk is cruel and disgusting, but he – and the lawyers and creeps who back him – are also very, very stupid, and they're fucking up all over the place.

Take shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency charged with defending America from financial predators (e.g. would-be usurers hoping to turn their social media sites into payment processing platforms). Under Biden's CFPB chief Rohit Chopra, the Bureau was an absolute powerhouse, adopting rules, investigating scammers, and punishing wrongdoers, all in service to the American people:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/26/taanstafl/#stay-hungry

So naturally Musk and Trump have shut down the Bureau. But, as Adam Levitin writes for Credit Slips, this was a profoundly stupid move. You see, under Dodd-Frank – the post-2008 financial crisis law that created the CFPB – state attorneys general are empowered to enforce its rules. Those rules can't be amended or rescinded for so long as the CFPB is in a coma. What's more, any "violation of an enumerated consumer law is a violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act," which can be gone after by state AGs. Another thing: the Truth in Lending Act has a threshold for small loans, below which the Act doesn't apply. The CFPB is supposed to adjust that threshold for inflation, but without a CFPB, that threshold will be frozen in amber like the federal minimum wage, bringing every-larger constellations of financial activity within scope for AG enforcement in any or every state in the Union. Also: none of this can be changed without a 60-vote Senate majority. Nice one, Elon:

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2025/02/shutting-down-cfpb-is-not-like-shutting-down-usaid.html

That isn't the only way that Trump shot himself in the dick last week. As Luke Savage writes, threatening to put tariffs on Canadian goods (and to annex Canada and make it the 51st state) had a profound effect on Canadian politics:

https://www.lukewsavage.com/p/all-bets-are-off

Before last week, Justin Trudeau's political legacy seemed assured. His many leadership failures, along with a billionaire-funded dark-money hate-machine that targeted him with culture-war nonsense and climate denial all added up to record low approval ratings. It was so bad that Trudeau actually sent Parliament home (recklessly leaving Canada without a legislature on the eve of Trump's presidency) and resigned as Liberal Party leader.

A week ago, pretty much everyone in Canada figured that the Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre was about to romp to victory with a Ba'ath-style Parliamentary majority. Poilievre was and is an extraordinarily weak candidate, a guy who has literally never had a job except for "politician," who nevertheless ran as a political outsider, leading a coalition of racists, climate exterminationists, xenophobes, forced-birth militants, and other cryptofascists and low-tax brain-worm victims. The threat of a Poilievre government with a commanding majority was frankly terrifying. Think of him as someone with Trump's agenda and Mitch McConnell's ruthless administrative competence. Trump is bad enough – but smart Trump? Nightmare.

Then came the Trump tariffs and the annexation threats, and overnight, the Tories' 20-point lead narrowed to a two-point lead, which continues to shrink. Poilievre's brand boils down to "Make Canada America Again" – dismantle medicare, smash unions, punish immigrants, ban abortion. With Canadians booing the American anthem at NFL and NBA games and Quebecois demonstrators waving maple-leaf flags, this is not a good time to be running as the America guy.

Don't get me wrong. Trudeau is terrible. Bill Clinton terrible, say. But Poilievre? A fucking monster. Canada's political future may just have been rescued by Trump's big, stupid mouth. Thanks, eh?

Meanwhile, south of the border, our American cousins keep getting fed into the corporate woodchipper. It's been just over a year since Mainers went to the polls and voted in a Right to Repair law with an 83% majority. But a year later, the law is foundering, amid a corporate legal blitz led by the automakers, who have also put Massachusetts' massive popular 2020 Right to Repair law on ice with endless lawfare. :

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/07/automakers-sue-to-kill-maines-hugely-popular-right-to-repair-law/

This is the status quo in America. As a highly influential, widely cited 2014 peer-reviewed study found:

economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B

In other words, the only time the American people get what they demand is when giant corporations and oligarchs want it too. But when the plutes want something that the people despise, they almost always get their way.

Speaking of which, how's things going with Uber?

This week, Hubert Horan, the aviation industry analyst whose writings on Uber are the most important analysis of the company's business, investor scams, wage theft, and lobbying, published his long-awaited 34th research note on the company:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/02/hubert-horan-can-uber-ever-deliver-part-thirty-four-tony-wests-calamitous-legacy-at-uber-and-with-the-kamala-harris-campaign.html

This edition is devoted to Tony West, Uber's Chief Legal Officer, and also brother-in-law to Kamala Harris, as well as manager of her disastrous failure of a 2024 election campaign. West may have run a Democratic presidential campaign, but he epitomizes the corporate corruption that gave rise to Trump. As Horan writes, West's first major accomplishment at Uber was to get the company exonerated for intimidating customers who were raped by Uber drivers. But his obituary will lead with the fact that he got Prop 22 passed in Calfornia, legalizing Uber's worker misclassification gambit, which allows the company to pay well below minimum wage and evade all workplace protection laws.

It was West who tapped Silicon Valley's tech oligarchs for large-dollar donations to the Harris campaign, which presumably played a substantial role in Harri's unwillingness to take a tough line on Big Tech while on the trail, creating the (correct) impression among voters that Harris would stand up for big business over their own interests.

It's an important read, and it's a reminder that the Democrats lost the last election every bit as much as Trump won it, and that their paralysis in the face of a national crisis is absolutely in character for the Democratic Party.

But on the other hand, the antitrust surge in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and China (!) over the past five years are all the more remarkable and heartening in light of the dismal and corrupt state of world governments. After all, there is no billionaire-backed dark money lobby whipping up support for smashing corporate power. The antitrust victories of the 2020s marked a turning point – the first time in my memory when extremely popular policies that the wealthy hated triumphed.

Decapitating the agencies that made those policies won't change the enormous political rage that led to the antitrust surge. If anything, it will only feed it. Enforcers like Rohit Chopra, Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter did brilliant, important work – but they were only able to do it because of us. They're out of office, but we're still here. Don't ever forget that.

I certainly won't. This week, I turned in the edited manuscript for my next book, a nonfiction title called Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It, which Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish next October:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

The day I turned it in Ars Technica ran a huge package called "As Internet enshittification marches on, here are some of the worst offenders," reeling off the most disgusting high-tech ripoffs trying to worm their way into your home and wallet:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/as-internet-enshittification-marches-on-here-are-some-of-the-worst-offenders/

This sparked an epic Reddit thread on r/NoStupidQuestions:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/1ij42yh/what_are_some_other_examples_of_enshittification/

I love to see how giving a name and a description to this phenomenon has captured and directed some of that rage. And for the record, it doesn't bother me at all that some of these people are using "enshittification" to mean "corporations fucking shit up" without regard to my formal definition of the process. As I wrote last October:

Many people apply the term "enshittification" very loosely indeed, to mean "something that is bad," without bothering to learn – or apply – the theoretical framework. This is good. This is what it means for a term to enter the lexicon: it takes on a life of its own. If 10,000,000 people use "enshittification" loosely and inspire 10% of their number to look up the longer, more theoretical work I've done on it, that is one million normies who have been sucked into a discourse that used to live exclusively in the world of the most wonkish and obscure practitioners. The only way to maintain a precise, theoretically grounded use of a term is to confine its usage to a small group of largely irrelevant insiders. Policing the use of "enshittification" is worse than a self-limiting move – it would be a self-inflicted wound.

And also: there's a lot of stuff that's just shitty right now, which is one of the reasons my word's putting up such great numbers. People are getting fed up with it, in ways large…and small. Take the post-pandemic trend of using your phone in speaker-mode in public places. I'm a prison abolitionist, but I'll make an exception for people who do this. Display 'em in stocks. Chain 'em up by their wrists. Or, you know, do what they do in France: fine them €150 for using a speakerphone on the train:

https://www.thelocal.fr/20250206/french-train-passenger-fined-e150-for-using-phone-on-speaker

Speaking of gruesome tortures, the essential Long Forgotten blog has posted its extensive, thoughtful review of the changes to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. Very few people can write about built environment entertainment like Long Forgotten (the only other person who comes to mind is the excellent Foxx Nolte). Long Forgotten's verdict is "mostly good, but man, that new gift shop *suuuuucks:

https://longforgottenhauntedmansion.blogspot.com/2025/02/beyond-bride-other-changes-in-2025.html

OK, it's time for me to go and make my packing list for the tour. I'm going to leave you with a song. Last night, my pal Cynthia Hathaway turned me on to the Shotgun Jazz band, led by trumpeter/frontwoman Maria Dixon. If you like Louis Prima-style shout-singing, you'll love 'em – I bought everything they had on Bandcamp this morning:

https://www.shotgunjazzband.com/

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/08/commixture/#petardhoists

Image: i ♥ happy!! (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Messy_storage_room_with_boxes.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jennifer Scholtes at Politico:

One week in, the Trump administration is broadening its assault on the functions of government and shifting control of the federal purse strings further away from members of Congress. President Donald Trump’s budget office on Monday ordered a total freeze on “all federal financial assistance” that could be targeted under his previous executive orders that pausing funding for a wide range of priorities – from domestic infrastructure and energy projects to diversity-related programs and foreign aid. In a two-page memo obtained by POLITICO, the Office of Management and Budget announced all federal agencies would be forced to temporarily suspend payments, while making clear that Social Security and Medicare would not be affected. “The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” according to the memo, which three people authenticated.

The new order could affect billions of dollars in grants to state and local governments, while also creating disruptions to programs that benefit U.S. households. But in the immediate aftermath there was also widespread confusion over how the memo would be implemented and whether it may face legal challenges. While the memo says the funding pause does not include assistance “provided directly to individuals,” for instance, it does not clarify whether that includes money sent first to states or organizations and then provided to households. The brief memo also does not detail all payments that will be halted. However, it broadly orders federal agencies to “temporarily” stop sending all federal financial assistance that could be affected by Trump’s executive actions.

That includes the president’s orders to freeze all funding from Democrats’ signature climate and spending law called the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure package enacted in 2021, along with a 90-day freeze of all foreign aid. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a statement decried the announcement as an example of “more lawlessness and chaos in America as Donald Trump’s Administration blatantly disobeys the law by holding up virtually all vital funds that support programs in every community across the country.”

The OMB under Tyrant 47’s misadministration puts out a “temporary” freeze to most federal aid and grants, including food assistance, Medicaid, farm aid, Head Start, and rent assistance. Social Security and Medicare are exempted.

This is dangerous and dictatorial, and must be resisted.

See Also:

HuffPost: Donald Trump Orders Freeze On All Federal Grants And Loans In Huge Power Grab

The Hill: Trump administration directs widespread pause of federal loans and grants

Reuters: White House pauses federal grant, loan, and other assistance programs

NOTUS: Trump Administration Orders Sudden Freeze on Federal Aid

[mariacallous]

One of the leading U.S. experts on fascism is so unsettled by the political climate under President Donald Trump that he’s packing up and leaving the country. Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor at Yale University and the author of books including How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, has accepted a position at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy that will begin in the fall.

Stanley is not the only prominent Yale professor leaving the Ivy League university amid Trump 2.0. He’ll be joined at Munk by two colleagues, historians Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore, in one of many signs that the United States is in the midst of a Trump-induced brain drain as the new administration threatens university funding, among many other unfriendly steps toward the world of academia.

In a wide-ranging interview with Foreign Policy, Stanley, who has raised alarm bells about Trump’s authoritarian tendencies for years and unequivocally calls the president a fascist, discussed his reasons for leaving the United States and Trump’s controversial Monday meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele—who styles himself the “world’s coolest dictator”—among other topics.

During the Bukele meeting, which Stanley described as a “horrifying moment,” Trump again floated sending U.S. citizens to be imprisoned in the Central American country—which legal experts warn would likely be unconstitutional. This came as the Trump administration continues to defy a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of a Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

Though Stanley has faced some criticism over his impending exodus from the United States, he’s making no apologies as he continues to warn people against assuming they’re not at risk of being targeted in Trump’s America.

“We need to call out the naivete of people who think that this will stop at noncitizens,” Stanley said.

“I am unwillingly going because I don’t want to leave the United States. It’s my home and always will be my home,” Stanley said.

Stanley said the well-being of his children is the primary reason for his decision. “I have two Black sons,” Stanley said. “I’m scared for the safety of my sons. And the explicit anti-Blackness of the moment is more frightening to me than it would be for someone without two Black sons.”

Trump has a long history of espousing white nationalist viewpoints and conspiracy theories, and his administration’s recent aggressive effort to eradicate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from virtually every aspect of American life has been widely decried as racist.

Stanley, who is Jewish and the son of Holocaust survivors, said his family history also contributed to his choice to leave the United States. There are “obvious parallels” between the climate in 1930s Nazi Germany and what we’re seeing in the United States today, Stanley said.

“Plenty of intellectuals left Germany in ’32 to ’34, when it was unclear what was going to happen,” he said, adding, “The United States might be fine. But in the case where it’s not fine, you want to leave early for better positions.”

But the Trump administration’s assault on academia also played a big role in this. Stanley said he “impulsively” accepted the job at the University of Toronto after Columbia University caved to demands from the Trump administration in order to receive $400 million in federal funding. The university agreed to major changes, including overhauling its rules for protests and new supervision over the Middle Eastern studies department.

After Columbia capitulated, Stanley said he knew that the Trump administration’s demands for academic institutions would “get excessively more crazy” and that “it would have been foolish to decline the opportunity.” Stanley pointed to Trump’s recent demands of Harvard University, which include scrapping DEI programs and establishing “viewpoint diversity” in admissions and hiring. Harvard has rejected Trump’s demands, and the administration froze roughly $2.3 billion in federal funding in response.

“Imagine if newspapers were told: ‘We’re going to monitor your journalism to make sure that you hire Trump-friendly journalists and opinion writers.’ You would know you’re not living in a democracy anymore,” Stanley said. “It’s no different with universities.”

Stanley underscored that the Trump administration’s war on universities is straight out of an authoritarian playbook. Throughout history, the rise of authoritarian regimes has coincided with attacks on intellectuals—and efforts to discredit the institutions they’re associated with—in concert with the scapegoating of marginalized groups.

Authoritarians view universities—vital centers of critical thought and free expression—as an innate threat to their desire for complete subservience, Stanley explained. In 1931, for example, Italy’s Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, forced university professors to take loyalty oaths. In a more recent example, Central European University in 2018 was forced out of Budapest by the increasingly authoritarian government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, ultimately relocating to Vienna.

“Looking worldwide, authoritarians attacked the universities first,” said Stanley, who discusses this trend at length in his book Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. Authoritarians look to erase “critical history” and “replace it with patriotic education,” Stanley said.

Stanley said authoritarian regimes often malign and deliberately misrepresent student protest movements while moving to delegitimize universities—and major media outlets have a habit of aiding in the process.

“India is a central case. In 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Act passed, which made Muslims into second-class citizens. And there were protests at elite universities in India,” Stanley said. “The media misrepresented these protests as violent anti-national protests on behalf of Muslims. And they were crushed violently.”

Stanley said the U.S. media’s coverage of protests over the war in Gaza on college campuses last year followed a similar trajectory. “The media misrepresented the anti-war protests. It took the media months to acknowledge that there was substantial Jewish participation,” Stanley said.

“The media still doesn’t understand. They’re like: ‘Why is the Trump administration so focused on universities?’” Stanley said. “The universities, not because of ideological indoctrination but because they contain a lot of young smart people called students, have always been the source of resistance against authoritarianism and unjust war.”

Stanley also criticized Trump for invoking antisemitism amid his crackdown on academic institutions and effort to deport foreign-born students in relation to pro-Palestinian protests on campuses. He warned that by framing this around the issue of antisemitism, Trump is perpetuating a dangerous stereotype that Jews control powerful institutions.

The Trump administration has repeatedly portrayed campus protests over the war in Gaza as pro-Hamas and antisemitic and has moved to revoke student visas across the country while strong-arming universities into enacting reforms in exchange for continued funding. Stanley is concerned that by claiming to take these actions on behalf of the Jewish community, Trump will actually worsen antisemitism by fueling toxic tropes.

Referring to the Trump administration as “Christian nationalists,” Stanley said Jews and antisemitism are being exploited by the White House for the sake of controlling universities. He’s worried that Jews, in turn, will ultimately be blamed for Trump’s fascism.

Stanley added that any discussion on this “must start and end with the fact that it’s masking the suffering of Palestinians facing a genocide.”

“The true victims in all of this are the people of Gaza, whose extraordinary plight is being covered up by this fake pretense of protecting American Jews. And Jewish people stand against tyranny, that’s our historical role. We stand for liberalism. And they’re entirely trying to change what we stand for,” Stanley said.

[smartbulls]

What is Open Interest in Stock Market?

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Davies

* * * *

Disrupting "business as usual"

April 1, 2025

Robert B. Hubbell

We have many positive developments to discuss, but I want to start with a weekly reminder:

Virtually all of the cuts and layoffs imposed through Doge violate the Constitution and federal law. We must not normalize them by simply saying, “Doge ordered 10,000 cuts in XYZ Agency.” Rather, we must say, “In violation of the Constitution, the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and congressional appropriations, Doge and Trump illegally terminated / cut etc.” Or some shorter variation of that statement.

If Congress were a functioning constitutional entity, Trump would have been impeached, convicted, and removed from office by today, April 1, 2025. The only reason that Trump is able to continue his unlawful rampage is because congressional Republicans are cowards and collaborators who refuse to hold him to account for his violation of the Constitution.

This is not normal, legal, or constitutional. Don’t allow the extraordinary assault on the Constitution to become “business as usual.” It is not.

As I write on Monday evening, Senator Cory Booker is conducting a one-person filibuster, holding the Senate floor as long as he is able. The point of Senator Booker’s disruption is to remind us that we cannot act as if a rolling coup is “business as usual.”

In our own way, each of must disrupt “business as usual” in order to save the rule of law.

So much losing for Trump—and, sadly, for the American people.

In a moment, I will review Trump's legal losses, which continue to mount by the hour. But it is important to recognize that Trump's legal losses are occurring in a domestic dumpster fire of self-inflicted pain and misery because of Trump's obsession with tariffs. Sadly, every American will share in the pain inflicted by Trump's lunatic economic policies.

The stock markets have had their worst quarter in three years. The last time this happened was when the combined effects of post-pandemic inflation and oil disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine battered the markets. See WSJ, U.S. Stocks Post Worst Quarter Since 2022 on Threat of Trade War.

Indeed, Trump's erratic tariff proclamations are making the European stock markets look like a safer alternative to the US stock market. Per the WSJ article,

“For the first time in a while, you can have a conversation about: Might European equities be the best place to be for the next two or three years?” said John Porter, chief investment officer at Newton Investment Management, which has been buying European stocks in many of its strategies in recent months. “You can have that conversation for reasons other than they’re cheap.”

In a truly breathtaking development, two US allies and major trading partners—Japan and South Korea—are coordinating with China on an economic response to Trump's Tariffs. See Business Times, China, Japan, South Korea Agree on Joint Response to U.S. Tariffs, Eye New Regional Trade Pact.

Trump is literally driving our allies into the welcoming embrace of our enemies!

And lest you accuse me of focusing on issues that most Americans do not care about, they are paying attention to the economy. Consumer confidence in the economy hit a twelve-year low—as in a “twelve year low”—in March. See CNBC, (3/25/2025) Consumer confidence in where the economy is headed hits 12-year low.

Per CNBC,

[T]he measure for future expectations told an even darker story, with the index tumbling 9.6 points to 65.2, the lowest reading in 12 years and well below the 80 level that is considered a signal for a recession ahead. The index measures respondents’ outlook for income, business and job prospects.

There is no joy or satisfaction in reporting on Trump's damage to the economy. But we should take confidence from the fact that political gravity still exists and that Trump will pay a heavy price for his unlawful rampage. The anger and anxiety you feel burning in your chest is shared by tens of millions of Americans—or more. Trump is sowing the seeds of his own political demise and the destruction of the GOP as a political party.

Legal landscape

The legal community continues to push back against the Vichy-style surrender by Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps. (Say their names to shame them until they realize that the cost of complicity is greater than the price of courage.).

A group of Georgetown Law students withdrew from a Skadden Arps-sponsored event hosted in its DC office to recruit students interested in energy law. See Above the Law, Georgetown Law Student Group Calls Skadden Cowards, Opts Out Of Recruitment Event.

Ouch! It has to hurt when a group of students looking for jobs at firms like Skadden can demonstrate more courage and dedication to the rule of law than one of the most powerful law firms in the US.

Charlie Sykes has penned an essay on his Substack blog that lets us know how he really feels about Skadden Arps and Paul Weiss. Sykes writes like Molly Ivins and swears like Lyndon Johnson, so don’t read his essay on your computer screen while at work. See Charlie Sykes, To the Contrary, The Quislings and Cowards of Big Law. (Note: Charlie uses strong language that might offend some readers.)

If you can’t quite find the words to capture your contempt for Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps, let Charlie Sykes do it for you. He writes of Skadden,

Actually, no “strong-arming,” was required at all, was it? You folded like a limp dish rag. You didn’t wait for an executive order. You didn’t join with your fellow lawyers at Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie, or WilmerHale in fighting back. You didn’t stand on any principle. You embraced your ignominy with enthusiasm. You pathetic Vichy flunkies. You tell your clients that you provide fearless advocacy, but in the pinch, you scattered like bloated, terrified rats, too afraid to litigate or fight, even when it was obvious you would win.

I digress, but I confess to vicarious pleasure in allowing Charlie Sykes to say things that I would not include in my PG-13 newsletter.

Trump administration continues to suffer setbacks in court.

US District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco blocked Trump's plan to end temporary protected status for 350,000 Venezuelans in the US. See AP News, Judge pauses Trump administration plans to end temporary legal protections for Venezuelans. (“Temporary Protected Status was set to expire April 7 after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reversed protections granted by the Biden administration.”)

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal refused to stay an order by US District Judge Settle that blocks implementation of the ban on transgender people in the military. That was a confusing sentence. The effect of the Ninth Circuit ruling is that transgender people can remain in the military—for now. See Reuters, Appeals court won't delay block on US military's transgender ban.

In a state law action, a federal judge blocked the implementation of an Alabama law that seeks to prosecute people who help Alabama residents obtain abortions outside of the state. See Chris Geidner in Law Dork (Substack), Breaking: Fed court rules Alabama AG's threatened abortion-fund prosecutions unconstitutional

New lawsuits challenging Trump executive order on elections

A broad coalition of Democrats has sued the Trump administration to block his executive order that purports to regulate how states run federal elections. See NYTimes, Democrats Sue to Block Elections Order They Call Unconstitutional. (Accessible to all.)

Per the NYTimes (whose headline deserves an award in the category of “Most Gutless Reporting in the Both-Sider Category of Cowardice):

The 70-page lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., accuses the president of vastly ovCdenialism, nowhere does it (nor could it) identify any legal authority he possesses to impose such sweeping changes upon how Americans vote,” the lawsuit says. “The reason why is clear: The president possesses no such authority.”

The lawsuit was filed by the Elias Law Group on behalf of the DNC, DSCC, DCCC, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries (among others). See Democracy Docket, Democrats Sue to Block Trump Bid to Control Elections.

A second lawsuit was filed by League Of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and others that raises many of the same issues. The complaint was filed by Norm Eisen of the State Democracy Defenders Fund.

The LULAC Complaint is here: LULAC v. Office of the President. I recommend reading the first few paragraphs to get a flavor of the constitutional issues being challenged in the lawsuit.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[tieflingkisser]

I’m a dentist from India. The fluoride debate in the U.S. horrifies me

from the article:

Florida has just banned fluoride in public water, becoming the second state to do so. It’s part of decadeslong battle that has heated up in recent years. Local governments debate whether it belongs in the water supply. Parents question safety. Pseudoscience clouds public perception. Often, the conversation is framed as a domestic ideological battle between personal liberty and public health mandates.

As a dentist trained in India and a global health researcher based in the United States, I have observed the fluoride debate from a broader, global lens. In many parts of the world, fluoride is not controversial — it is simply unavailable. Millions suffer from preventable tooth decay because they lack access to fluoride, and therefore the protection it provides against oral disease.

In India, I treated patients who represented both extremes of the fluoride spectrum. Some rural communities were exposed to naturally high fluoride levels, leading to debilitating skeletal fluorosis. But in many urban and peri-urban settings, especially among low-income populations, fluoride exposure was virtually nonexistent. The consequences were visible: advanced cavities in children as young as 6, chronic gum infections in adults, and widespread tooth loss among the elderly.

In these settings, fluoridated toothpaste was not always affordable or available. Water systems were rarely fluoridated. The absence of fluoride was not a health preference — it was a systemic failure. My patients were not debating the merits of fluoridation. They were living with the consequences of its absence.

This duality shaped my understanding of fluoride not as a universal good or evil, but as a tool — one that must be managed carefully and distributed equitably.

Today, working as a public health researcher in the United States, I continue to examine the health implications of oral care disparities. In many ways, fluoride remains the only preventive dental measure that reaches vulnerable populations who lack regular access to clinical care.

Yet opposition to fluoride in the U.S. is often strongest in well-resourced communities — where alternative dental services are abundant, fluoride toothpaste is affordable, and public skepticism, political mistrust, or misinformation can take hold. For many of these people, unfluoridated water may not pose an immediate risk — they have the means to compensate through private care. But the bans they advocate for extend far beyond their communities, stripping others of a preventive tool they cannot easily replace. Low-income and marginalized populations, particularly Black and Latino communities, experience disproportionately high rates of dental disease and already lack sufficient access to both fluoridated water and affordable care.

In these communities, fluoride is not an ideological question. It is a practical intervention that can reduce the burden of oral disease, which in turn is linked to systemic conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and pregnancy complications.

[...]

The World Health Organization and numerous peer-reviewed studies continue to support fluoride as a safe and effective public health measure, particularly where preventive care access is limited. From Canada to the United Kingdom to India, governments continue to struggle with balancing public concern against health equity.

[kaiserin-erzsebet]

the modern world restricts ease of movement through tracking and monitoring, yes; but there is something to be said for how travel has only become a mass opportunity - available to virtually all members of the middle and upper classes - within the last ~100 years. not only technology, but caste/estate/class & religion/gender/profession (any living off the land type deal) etc. posed massive obstacles to free travel in the past. for some people in our modern world those material realities still do. it's good to be aware that it's a rather privileged position to hold when the main thing stopping you from going wherever you want is something administrative

Alright, after some thought, I'm going to try to respond to this with some grace, since I think you're trying to make a point about equity which I'm sympathetic to.

And I will first make clear that I am neither in favor of romanticizing the past nor of talking about history as the relentless march of progress.

However, I think you may have mistaken my point about immigration/emigration for a point about leisure travel. I'm traveling for my work, not for tourism. Leisure travel has indeed become more financially viable for a number of people in the last century.

Immigration has not. I assure you that my Polish great great grandfather who (according to my grandfather) was a stowaway on a steamer leaving Russia and showed up in the US with only skills as a shopkeeper was not traveling with great financial privilege. Nor were my Czech ancestors who arrived a generation earlier as farmers. Even outside of my own family experience, I don't find it particularly fair to say that, for example, Irish farmers using their last penny to travel on the lowest deck to take a gamble escaping the famine were traveling with great financial means.

Even going further back, The Return of Martin Guerre (the book I mentioned) is about a peasant who walked from Spain to France to start a new life with an assumed identity.

And this was all fine because immigration was allowed for those of limited means.

I suspect that you think "something administrative" means paperwork. But, even putting aside the cost of that (getting copies of official documents, authentication, background checks, fees etc.), it also includes means testing. Each time I've applied for residence in an EU country, I've had to provide bank statements and proof of income to even be considered for approval. And here I'll give you an acknowledgement of my privilege: I have a strong passport. For those from the global South, proof of means is expected even for tourism purposes. The administrative barriers include built-in measures to prevent poor people entering countries. No pre-existing job and financial assets? No residency permit/visa/green card.

There is no simply walking over a border or spending your last money on a boat ticket and hoping you can make it with just skills. So no, immigration has not become more available to those with limited means. I find that people with strong passports tend to underestimate this because they can enter countries for leisure relatively unimpeded.

And yes, I have the privilege of being from the global North, having a strong passport, and being paid to do intellectual work (which includes grants and fellowships that allow me to pass the means testing). And I'm an unmarried woman who has my own means, which would have not been true half a century ago. That doesn't bar me from commenting on how these barriers impede movement. If anything, someone in my position being put through so much scrutiny to get residence for even a year should show how incredibly difficult it can be for people who have substantially less than me.

[zylentrix]

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