Karen Benjamin Guzzo
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karenguzzo.bsky.social
Karen Benjamin Guzzo
@karenguzzo.bsky.social

Demographer and Sociologist. Director of the Carolina Population Center. LEGO Karen

Sociology 28%
Political science 28%

Wonderful news!
Perhaps this helps explain why, when my son’s den was writing letters to thank soldiers for their service (as they do every year), it was recommended that the messages begin “Dear Warrior.” www.npr.org/2025/11/25/n...
U.S. ready to cut support to Scouts, accusing them of attacking 'boy-friendly spaces'
Documents show the U.S. military is planning to sever all ties with the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts.
www.npr.org

We’re *less* safe under the “law & order” party.
* Narcotics arrests fell by roughly 11%.
*Agents opened 15% fewer new investigations into narcotics crimes.
*The number of weapons seized fell by 73%.
*Investigations into major crimes, including child exploitation & terrorism financing, have fallen.
Drug Arrests and Gun Seizures Fell as Homeland Security Pursued Immigration
www.nytimes.com

Very cool!
"She said that lenacapavir has become a kind of diplomatic carrot — and stick.

Friendly, compliant governments, like Eswatini, have received early shipments, whereas South Africa or Nigeria — countries that have fallen out of favor with Trump — seem to have received the short end of the stick."
The US is fast-tracking this important HIV drug — for everyone except South Africa
Why the Trump administration is cutting out a country that needs it most.
www.vox.com
Upcoming deadlines to apply to Syracuse U's great Qualitative and Multi-Method Research 2-week summer program! Fellowships available to cover the costs! Pls circulate widely!

www.maxwell.syr.edu/research/cen...
NPR @npr.org · 13h
Immigrants make up a significant proportion of all the country's doctors. New policies are making it harder and less appealing for foreign-born physicians to come to the U.S.
'Nobody wants to come': What if the U.S. can no longer attract immigrant physicians?
Immigrants make up a significant proportion of all the country's doctors. New policies are making it harder and less appealing for foreign-born physicians to come to the U.S.
n.pr
About 90,000 people living near larger chemical plants face an unacceptable risk of developing cancer, the EPA says.

New rules adopted last year could’ve cut that number to 3,000 residents — a drop of 97%.

But Trump has halted those efforts.
Air Pollution From Industrial Facilities Is Far Worse Than Estimated
The Trump administration has put a stop to EPA rules that would have required more than 130 industrial facilities to install air monitors to measure pollution. Millions of people living near these pla...
www.propublica.org
Between 2021-22, Uber riders reported 2,717 incidents of sexual assault. 92% of the most serious involved women victims. Uber & Lyft now allow women drivers & riders to match w/ other women. Now male drivers are suing, arguing discrimination. @kimelsesser.bsky.social
www.forbes.com/sites/kimels...
Male Uber And Lyft Drivers Sue Over Women-Only Ride Options
Uber and Lyft offer women-only ride options. But now male drivers have filed class-action lawsuits claiming the policies discriminate and reduce their earnings potential.
www.forbes.com
This is a deeply sexist take, given that ~2/3 of minimum wage workers in the US are women.

I am not sure what to make of that, TBH. It seems baffling that anything not discussed could still be considered for funding. But maybe that's where "political discretion" comes into play?
Baby names aren’t just personal choices; they reflect culture, geography, gender, identity, and as i've been investigating, politics too. I’ve been analyzing 50 years of U.S. baby naming to see how they map onto political polarization in the U.S.
Here’s what I found 🧵

Reposted by Michael Pollard

New NIH guidance related to the shutdown. One of the changes is that "the percent of applications discussed in most meetings will be reduced to 30-35%, instead of the current ~50%."
NOT-OD-26-012: Updated Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities Following the October 1, 2025 - Lapse in Appropriations
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Updated Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities Following the October 1, 2025 - Lapse in Appropriations NOT-...
grants.nih.gov
NEW: Since the start of this year, more than 600 immigrant children have been placed in government shelters by ICE.

That number, which has not been previously reported, is the highest since recordkeeping began a decade ago.
ICE Sent 600 Immigrant Kids to Detention in Federal Shelters This Year. It’s a New Record.
Under a zero tolerance policy, the first Trump administration separated immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. New data suggests separations are happening all over the count...
www.propublica.org

This is what UNC is doing.
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]

One of my favorite LEGO sets - the Ghostbusters firehouse. So detailed! #legokaren
Hearing news that Carl Dieffenbach, the Director of the Division of AIDS at #NIH (NIAID), has been removed from his position because he was "not aligned with HHS/OMB."

Russell Vought continues to remove great scientists as part of the Project 2025 mission to politicize and destroy NIH.

🧪 1/
This is concerning.

NIH is changing their policy so that staff have to prepare justification for every application that is funded BUT NO DOCUMENTATION FOR APPLICATIONS THAT ARE SKIPPED (BASED ON PERCENTILES).

1/2

What was always going to happen when the party that prioritizes corporate welfare over people’s welfare is in power. Totally predictable.

The one thing folks across the spectrum agreed with RFK and MAHA about was getting chemicals *out* of our food.
If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?

Is not having a soul the outcome of being a tech giant, or do you have to be soulless to become a tech giant in the first place?

JFC, what is wrong with these people?
Sex trafficking on Meta platforms was both difficult to report and widely tolerated. Instagram’s former head of safety testified that when she joined Meta in 2020 she was shocked to learn the company had a “17x” strike policy for accounts that engaged in the “trafficking of humans for sex.”
7 Allegations Against Meta in Newly Unsealed Filings
Court filings allege Meta tolerated sex trafficking, hid harms to teens, and prioritized growth over user safety for years.
time.com

Sunday morning donut run! #legokaren
Since February, according to my latest analysis, almost 600,000 Black women have been economically sidelined. The November 20, 2025, Jobs Report makes clear this isn’t a blip. It’s a structural crisis. That is not a recovery. It is a redistribution of opportunity.
The exit economy is here. Black Women are paying the highest price | Fortune
This isn’t a blip. It’s a structural crisis. And it's not a recovery, it's a redistribution of opportunity.
fortune.com

When we tried it, we explicitly said “older respondents should be skipped” but that didn’t happen, so then they said it didn’t make sense for older adults (duh).

I tried to get a personal ideals question added a few years ago. GSS cognitive testing suggested respondents didn’t distinguish between the two. But I think Julia Behrman tried again more recently and was successful.

Countries with state subsidies for abortion, transgender-friendly policies for children, hate speech laws and affirmative action policies will now be considered to be violating human rights under rules imposed at the State Dept that will impact how the agency conducts its annual Human Rights Report.
Abortion And DEI Policies Now Considered Violations Of Human Rights, U.S. Says
The Trump administration has overhauled how the State Department conducts its annual Human Rights Report.
www.forbes.com
Sex trafficking on Meta platforms was both difficult to report and widely tolerated. Instagram’s former head of safety testified that when she joined Meta in 2020 she was shocked to learn the company had a “17x” strike policy for accounts that engaged in the “trafficking of humans for sex.”
7 Allegations Against Meta in Newly Unsealed Filings
Court filings allege Meta tolerated sex trafficking, hid harms to teens, and prioritized growth over user safety for years.
time.com