This is misleading in a number of respects:
*the CDC advisory panel vote "was close" not overwhelming
*The FDA, after input from its scientific committee, had greenlit the boosters for frontline workers. Thus the CDC Chief had to choose. fda.gov/news-events/pr…
More on the FDA decision, which underlines that there is not clear scientific consensus on boosters for frontline workers. Thats exactly the kind of case where political judgment is necessary.
Biden admin erred on side of making boosters more available. nytimes.com/2021/09/22/us/…
A different administration, one more skeptical of vaccines, might have argued for limiting access to boosters for frontline workers. That administration lost last November.
The single biggest health problem we face right now is that too many Americans are vaccine hesitant. Folks like Greenwald and Carlson are encouraging this by arguing govt public health policies are somehow corrupted. This is a random sample of Greenwald’s replies.
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This was literally the Trump administration policy. He wrote an executive order mandating work requirements for all social programs. It was a disaster and a backdoor attack on the social safety net. washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-c…
Trump was unable to fully implement his goal of adding work requirements to "everything" but here Manchin is ready to do the job for him.
I wrote about work requirements here. We know they do little to encourage labor force participation, but will mean that the poorest - in this case the poorest kids - will not get the benefits they need. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/save-the-chi…
A TN law says that teachers cannot make students feel bad about their race: parents are using this to remove discussion of Blacks experiencing racism.
Gives the game away about whose feeling are worth protecting and validating and whose can be ignored. reuters.com/world/us/criti…
1. This makes the job of teachers even harder - any kid with a blowhard parent can’t accuse them of violating the law. 2. Chilling effects reflect the existing power structure. Teachers are incentivized to tiptoe around white feelings at the expense of Black history.
One trend I wish we knew more about is the extent to which narrow culture-war groups are socializing and running candidates for positions that are traditionally low-visibility but have high importance
Save the Child Tax Credit from administrative burdens!
Joe Manchin is pushing to add work requirements to the CTC. Here is why that is a terrible idea.
In our piece in The Hill we provide a series of data points about the effectiveness of the CTC at reducing poverty.
It will, for example, halve child poverty in Manchin's West Virginia. But not if we condition it on work or educational requirements. thehill.com/blogs/congress…
Yes, you could berate APSA for giving the guy who designed Trump's blueprint to overturn the 2020 elections a stage, but honestly, how often do political scientists get to hear directly from the coup organizers?
APSA organizers hearing that Idi Amin might be available
I honestly would welcome a robust back and forth where Eastman is challenged about what he did. But it's more likely that a couple of grad students will shout him down, and that they guy who tried to end US democracy will go on Tucker to complain how he has been canceled.
Hi folks: I am starting a Substack
(waits for groans to subside)
It will be about the relationship between politics and governing, and ways to reduce administrative burdens. If you are interested in what I do on twitter, you might enjoy it.
Couple of reasons I am doing this. One is that I often write long threads here, which might be better structured as a blog. I write op-eds occasionally, but often want to respond more quickly and informally to policy discussions.
I have been doing an informal listserv on administrative burdens, and wanted to make it a bit more professional and extend it beyond other academics and policy wonks, so this is a way of doing so.
This is a thoughtful piece in many respects. I'd add to it: the singular focus on cancellation misrepresents how political power and ideology shape personal autonomy on campuses.
An example: I was back in Madison a couple of weeks back and spoke to a dozen faculty. Not one mentioned the topics of the two McWhorter essays in the NY Times in the last month. All were concerned they were being forced to work in unsafe conditions.
A couple of faculty I had talked to had been personally subject to a College Fix/YAF attack, part of a well-funded anti-speech ecosystem that has no equivalent on the left. In general FIRE does not count these in their databases even though they are a routine campus risk now.