What’s not a feature of democracy is pitting citizens against experts. It is, however, a classic feature of fascism.
Urban planner + journalist writing about the intersection between planning, bureaucracy, and democracy. I’m also working on the green transition in Rhode Island. www.allisonlirishdean.com
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What’s not a feature of democracy is pitting citizens against experts. It is, however, a classic feature of fascism.
Going backwards in every way possible.
This is the make or break moment for Powell's @federalreserve.gov. If they do not defend Lisa Cook and treat her as still on the Board, the fight over the Fed as an independent agency will officially be over. see my Friday piece. www.crisesnotes.com/trump-vs-pow...
We need a politics that “reasserts the public sphere as a brandable, defensible alternative” to privatization and corruption. My latest, on why we need a robust federal workforce: @currentaffairs.bsky.social @fedworkersunited.bsky.social www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
I get it but I feel like if new people with different views don’t join and argue their views the organization won’t grow. The eternal conundrum.
This isn’t education, it’s indoctrination. The Trump administration gutted PBS and NPR not to save money, but to control the narrative. In their place, PragerU is moving into more classrooms. Already in Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Idaho schools.
The rise of fascism in the U.S. has been fueled by a deeply broken citizen-expert relationship. I wrote for @currentaffairs.bsky.social about the roots of this crisis, and what we can do about it: www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
I wrote a bit in this new piece for @currentaffairs.bsky.social about how 1970s-era @pbs.org , which was really special, was my first experience of a tangible public good—and about a manual laborer I recently met with a PBS tattoo on his arm who felt the same. www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
All this does is allow this regime to further pull us into stupid meme wars - a distraction from the grueling work of rebuilding democracy. It’s discouraging to see people falling, again, for this nonsense, which will have the same transformative effect as “brat summer” and coconut memes.
Harvard is the Harvard of the American right. Hillsdale is the Harvard of the American evangelical far far right.
In the past, the administrative state was a powerful force for good in Americans’ lives. To defeat Trumpism, it needs to become one again. www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
MBGA—which stands for “Make Bureaucracy Great Again”—doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue the way MAGA or MAHA do. But embracing the idea, if not the acronym, is necessary to fighting Trumpism effectively. www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
The word “bureaucracy” often has strong negative connotations. But a bureaucracy is simply a system of experts who make important decisions. Throughout our history, bureaucracy has been key to making this country great for most Americans. www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
While many Americans now appear to disapprove of DOGE itself, many nevertheless continue to believe that “government is inefficient” and that “DOGE is a good idea.” This raises the question: What has gone wrong in American society that has given us DOGE? www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
DOGE is the product of a crisis in the relationship between American citizens and government experts. The federal government is failing to communicate effectively with the public about the things that it is doing to improve their lives. www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
We need knowledgeable, public-spirited bureaucrats who, like their New Deal predecessors, are empowered to deliver things people need, and who are committed to democratically building public support for the administrative state. www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
By dismissing “populism” as universally “bad,” today’s liberal anti-populist crusaders obfuscate the reality that it was populist demands and mass movements that prompted the development of the regulatory state that Trumpists seek to dismantle. www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
DOGE did not have “the right idea,” and any serious opposition would reject its entire premise. We need federal workers empowered to manage much greater levels of public investment than we’ve recently had, and we should say so. For @currentaffairs.bsky.social www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks to author @ear2thepavement.bsky.social for her latest @currentaffairs.bsky.social piece, which spotlights FUN and co-executive director Chris Dols. #MakeBureaucracyGreatAgain #supportfederalworkers #savefederaljobs Read more: www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
This piece by @ear2thepavement.bsky.social is so, so good. It lays out exactly what we need- use the federal government to make people's lives better directly- not through a private entity. Love this quote from @aldasky.bsky.social ‘We’re from the government and we’re here to help—and it’s great!’
Excellent piece by @ear2thepavement.bsky.social on relations between government, citizens and expertise in the US. Brings to mind Theodore Porter's book, 'Trust in Numbers: the Pursuit of Objectivity in Science & Public Life'. Porter makes a case that... 1/2
Everybody needs to read this new piece by @ear2thepavement.bsky.social about how government can actually make our lives better! DOGE is a scam; we need bureaucrats! www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
To hold off fascism, we need to do more than resist. We need to learn from history, and build a *charismatic* state, with civil servants working hand-in-hand with working class communities to make lives better. @ear2thepavement.bsky.social nails it! www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
In my latest for @currentaffairs.bsky.social I argue that DOGE is the product of a crisis in the citizen-expert relationship—what I call the “citizen-expert divide.” Healing this divide is crucial for fixing democracy: www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
@fedworkersunited.bsky.social
@aldasky.bsky.social @lizafeatherstone.bsky.social @doughenwood.bsky.social @openmarkets.bsky.social @americanprogress.bsky.social @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
To defeat Trumpism, the administrative state must once again become a powerful force for good in ordinary Americans’ lives. My latest for @currentaffairs.bsky.social www.currentaffairs.org/news/make-bu...
What are cloudbursts? The climate-fuelled deluges causing chaos in India and Pakistan www.euronews.com/green/2025/0...
BREAKING: Eric Adams Advisor Winnie Greco Handed a CITY Reporter Cash Stuffed in a Bag of Potato Chips www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/20/w...
I am currently on Long Island, and I can repot that #Erin, although currently about 900 miles away, has already wiped out the beaches on the east end. 1/n
Good
Last week, Boston received a letter from AG Bondi threatening to prosecute officials and withhold funds unless we cooperate with carrying out mass deportations. The US Attorney General asked for a response by today, so here it is: stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures.
Many have us have been saying and warning about this for not only months but years
This is a powerful piece of journalism. “… each of the men were not only losing time, they were losing loved ones. They were missing major life moments that can never be recovered. Not only did the men say they were tortured during these four months; their families said they were too.”
At (another) Hampton’s fundraiser with Republican donors on Saturday, Andrew Cuomo said it plainly: he’s expecting Trump’s help to defeat us in November. “I feel good about that,” Cuomo said. New Yorkers won’t.
Google’s president, Ruth Porat, has repeatedly expressed enthusiasm for the Trump administration’s pro–fossil fuel energy policies. Her comments suggest Big Tech is now prioritizing energy for data centers over its climate commitments.
So much of this economic system now resembles Feudalism.
In just two days, the New Orleans city council is scheduled for a major vote. It may make NoLa the first city to legalize *real-time* broad use of facial recognition tech by police. @psfrench.bsky.social breaks it down: boltsmag.org/new-orleans-...
I looked at the (red) state-by-state fight to get rid of property taxes. Voters have been skeptical so far, but it's a new frontier in the effort to starve the beast. www.semafor.com/article/08/1...
Please stop the endless spam. It doesn’t help you and as far as I can tell you and the democrats need all the help you can get.
Stop the endless spam please. It really doesn’t help you, and as far as I can tell, you and the rest of the Democrats need all the help you can get.
This is useless.
This is utterly meaningless, ineffective nonsense and anybody who is impressed is deeply naive. This is not a real communication strategy. And meidas touch will turn your brain to mush.
Stop text spamming me please.
Thinning out now. DC police the only ones left, and they're packing up too. Locals mobilized quickly out here, with handwritten signs warning drivers to avoid this block, lined up ready to protest what's happening. People shouting down from apartments too. "You should be fucking ashamed!"
I will never lose my sense of awe for the miracles that public health and medicine bestow.
ICE is gone but DC cops are still out at V and 14th, getting heckled by an angry crowd after one person was supposedly arrested by feds in a roadblock aimed at immigrants
This is not a good communication strategy. What are they even talking about?
I’m sorry. Horrifying.
Okay but we shouldn’t fall into the trap of contrasting elite private universities with regional schools, and suggesting it’s somehow worse for the former to gut the humanities. Students at regional schools deserve access to the humanities, too.
But you’ll personally go out in public to conspicuously destroy everything a homeless person has to their name in your own state. I hope more people see through your hollow politics.
Last night, I got home a few mins before 9pm. By the time I was outside to walk the dog at 9:05, there were a dozen federal agents and local cops on the stairs and lawn of the house directly across the street from me. This is what the federal enforcement looks like in DC right now:
They really are trying to take everything good from us.
I think there’s a ton of things we can do but what is insane is that we are seemingly left to our own devices by the national opposition party. That is precisely why I am incandescent with rage!
One disabled Marine veteran has not had a primary care doctor assigned to him since his previous doctor left in the winter, his wife said. The VA “was never like this before. There’s a lack of staff, empty rooms, locked doors.”
This is so dumb
I talked to two different people who just moved from Arizona to Portland. #ClimateRefugees #StopDriving 🚗💨🌎🔥
Yep.
Wow, I bet Trump is *really* mad.
Situation on 14th St and W St. NW, with federal agents -- no specific agency identified -- pulling cars over for checks. They arrested a Black woman in this car. BIG crowd of people shouting at police. "Fuck you!" "What is wrong with you!" "You don't need to terrorize people like this!"
People loudly jeering these unidentified federal agents. "You're not helping anyone!" "How much overtime are you getting paid to do nothing!" "Boooo!"
WTF - why does he try to sound idiotic like Trump? Not a good look.
Canada and the US are both car-centric, spacious countries. But an American is 2.5x more likely to die in a crash than a Canadian – and the gap is widening. My latest, in Bloomberg. 🧵
A bit of news: @wesmars.bsky.social & I are launching Look Both Ways, a new podcast where we’ll debate everything transportation – from street design to robotaxis to fare-free transit. First episode will be recorded live on Thurs, July 17th at 6p ET. Join us then (and subscribe) ⤵️ 🧵
The surprising difference between Canada and the US on traffic fatalities seems to be getting bigger: “Pedestrian and cyclist deaths have surged in the US, reaching their highest levels in decades, but they have fallen in Canada.” From @davidzipper.bsky.social
BIG: A new investigation by @propublica and @TexasTribune found more than 60 instances of nepotism, self-dealing and conflicts of interest among 27 private schools that likely would have violated Texas laws had the schools been public.
From the OBBBA’s clean energy rollback to the House’s proposed deep cuts for FY2026, the pattern is clear: polluters win, Americans lose. @americanprogress.bsky.social @jamiefriedman.bsky.social explains how it hits your wallet here: www.americanprogress.org/article/hous...
I hate that they get called “populists” though. Authoritarian nationalists is more like it.
Driving can really mess up a person's mind.
We need a law that says if you're only driving your car for fun, you must do it on a race track. And if you are driving a car for transportation, it must have a speed regulator, and your phone will be disabled as soon as you enter the vehicle.
"Look, you do not have to explain to me things like 'America was always corrupt!' or 'People have always just been trying to get rich!’ Yeah. This is not the same though. This is worse."
Ride a bike
Someone needs to tell @mattyglesias.bsky.social that “culture” is downstream from policy: hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/its-time-f...
Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social is a great American institution--Ira Flatow has carried on a smart colloquy about science and engineering for decades now, and I've always enjoyed the times when I've been able to be a part of it, never more than last Friday! www.sciencefriday.com/segments/sol...
NEW – Fossil-fuelled heat has caused tropical birds to decline by ‘up to 38%’ since 1950s | @daisydunne.carbonbrief.org w/ comment from @alexpigot.bsky.social Read here ⬇️
Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) are federally designated to manage & coordinate transport investment. In new research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social, we investigate how fairly MPO boards represent constituents. It's grim: MPO voting structures rarely represent population proportionately.
the post-covid anti-expertise disinfo movement is now firmly entrenched as part of official political discourse. a mundane fire ban caused by drought is now grounds for conspiracy theorizing by members of canadian parliament. all couched in the language of constituent and "rural folks" interests.
Inslee: If you need more energy, the dumbest thing you can do is disallow access to wind, solar, and advanced batteries—three of the most productive ways of producing new energy. And yet, that’s exactly what he’s done.
I missed the part where blowing hundreds of millions in taxpayer money on gaudy, unnecessary White House upgrades counts as “cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.” Or did we just drop that whole narrative?
Restless Billionaire Regrets Having Infusion Of Child’s Blood After 4 P.M. theonion.com/restles...
Suburban man retreats to safe space.
What if there were already some sort of contest where people were able to choose between them, I wonder how that would go
Trump’s EPA has: -Killed $15 million in research into forever chemicals in farmlands -Attempted to roll back forever chemical limits in drinking water -Delayed rules requiring corporations to report their forever chemical usage How does this “make America healthy again”?
A lot of my family are NJ Jews, and I can say that the way to show solidarity with them is to show up in their communities, where they live, not to go to a country where they don't live.
When I first took this photo I was planning to criticize how little queuing space there is. And while that is an issue, I reflected that if you showed this to someone 15 years ago they would be amazed: protected bike lanes, electric biking dad, electric rental scooter, and bus rapid transit!
Gangsters Trump Wants U.C.L.A. to Pay $1 Billion to Restore Its Research Funding www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/u...
Embarassing and terrible that public transportation is in this state in Toronto. It just provides encouragement for people to stay in their cars which is the opposite of what we need www.cbc.ca/radio/asitha...
Premium Newsletter: The enshittification of AI has begun. With GPT-5, OpenAI has cut access to all other models, reducing the value of even their $200-a-month subscriptions. They join Anthropic in screwing their customers over by making their products worse. www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshitti...
Yes, depending on the where and when of the fires relative to the seasonality lower than usual wind speeds, that's another possible outcome.
zohran and brad lander did a walk-vs-bus race the other day to highlight the need for a busway on 34th st
Earlier this week, Matthew Yglesias penned a defense of Uber, taking aim at progressives who've pointed out the company's history of lawbreaking, and the precedent it set. Here's what Yglesias got wrong:
"The latest outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Central Harlem has killed three people so far and sickened at least 73 others, as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to the New York City Health Department." -- gothamist.com/news/legionn...
'Worst fears': Trump compared to Stalin for sabotaging decades of research [yeah, that was me] | Matthew Chapman for @rawstory.com: www.rawstory.com/trump-climate/
Illinois has banned AI therapy, making it the first state to regulate the use of AI in mental health services. www.engadget.com/ai/illinois-...