Matthew Borus
@matthewborus
Sociologist, social work faculty Posting topics include community, disability, social welfare, Chicago, social movements, organizing, policy, the state, labor, coffee, and various nerdy side trips. Personal account
Considering a Louvre heist so that I can wear this hat. (It’s an Etruscan helmet of the pilos type, from around 300 BCE, though the gold band was added in the 19th century.)
So how on EARTH is an agency supposed to regulate when a new President can fire its leadership on a whim? Can a more functional future Congress (should one come to exist) rewrite statutes to restore the autonomy of these agencies?
A President who wanted to salvage a ceasefire—and move on from the pointless war he started—might send more serious negotiators than his son-in-law and a random real estate guy. But these are not serious people.
New Yorkers: Defend state food assistance! Gov Hochul’s budget underfunds the Nourish New York program by 30%. Tell her office to fully fund Nourish NY and the HPNAP food aid program. Call: 518-474-8390 Message: www.governor.ny.gov/content/gove...
While it’s technically called a tam, I want to propose that we call this a research hat. You do enough research, you get a cool hat. And while today was graduation for my students, I feel that we should wear research hats more often. They’re fun.
The NY Times has a whole article attempting to explain what Trump means in his references to “nuclear dust,” discussing the process of uranium enrichment. But his actual words quoted in the article make clear that he’s rambling incoherently. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/23/u...
This man is bullshitting. If a student out this in a paper, we’d say it was bullshit. If a teen offered a similar jumble of phrases to a parent, we’d tell them to cut the bullshit. So why do we pretend that there’s a diplomatic strategy or political plan in here? www.bbc.com/news/live/cx...
Seems like a pretty clear tell that the US was not serious in these negotiations. Sending people with no diplomatic expertise like Vance and POTUS’s son-in-law, putting on a show for one night, and then not leaving any actual diplomats to continue talks? That’s not diplomacy, it’s media content.
With several hundred friends at the @jfrejnyc.bsky.social Seder in the Streets as the sixth night of Pesach begins.
Seems worth mentioning that Trump’s signature bill last summer already contained some of the deepest cuts in decades to domestic programs addressing health care, food, and education. And those came after years of erosion. You & I know this. But the “waste” myth is so ingrained, it’s worth saying.
Oh yeah? Really seems more like The NY Times headline writers are redefining “redefines” to describe whatever contradictory gobbledygook comes out of that addled man’s mouth.
It’s 30 degrees in Binghamton, with flurries. Easily 2500-3000 people here (maybe more—I’m bad at crowd counts and tend to underestimate). #NoKings
Non-tenure-track contract faculty at NYU went on strike this morning after over a year of bargaining (capped by a 24-hour+ marathon session). Big crowd of @uaw.org members and supporters, incl lots of students. They’re picketing over pay, workload, AI, a voice in faculty governance, & more.
About 200 people protesting ICE outside the Broome County jail in upstate NY. The Sheriff here has a 287g agreement with ICE, holding immigration detainees in a jail where two people died under his watch last year.
I never asked for this, and the email doesn’t say how to turn it off. WTF?
At the same time, respondents reported Social Security actions that seemed arbitrary--like staff were "making up rules." A public program like SSI or SSDI is based on knowable rules. That's a basis for trust and accountability. As one respondent said, this isn't someone's private business. 15/x
Get outta here, push notification. I’m working on an ASA abstract, but honestly, I’d rather watch sitcom reruns than this guy.