Karen Benjamin Guzzo

Theresa O @theresalouiseo.bsky.social · 10h

A new report from the Congressional Research Service, reporting on NIH happenings— grants, policies— from 2025: “NIH Grants Policy Under the Second Trump Administration”

www.congress.gov/crs-product/...

www.congress.gov

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 11h

“Why forgo all these opportunities to get in front of huge audiences and defend feminism? Because to participate would be accepting the premise that our rights and humanity are up for debate. Once you concede that it’s reasonable to ask whether women’s rights are a good thing, you’ve already lost.”

Debating Away Our Humanity

CBS News wants to know if "feminism failed women." Here's what they're really asking.

jessica.substack.com

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 13h

See also: bsky.app/profile/jess...

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 13h

And actually--Comet Pizza was a page out of a playbook that started with daycare decades before.

In 1983, a California mom accused her son's childcare provider of subjecting children to Satanic rituals--like flushing them down toilets into secret basements where they were then filmed for porn. 1/🧵

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 18h

Trump guys are about to Comet Pizza every third daycare center because they think they are all fronts for Somali money laundering. They're only doing this near cities with progressive mayors. This is straight up Government by LibsOfTikTok.

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 13h

And actually--Comet Pizza was a page out of a playbook that started with daycare decades before.

In 1983, a California mom accused her son's childcare provider of subjecting children to Satanic rituals--like flushing them down toilets into secret basements where they were then filmed for porn. 1/🧵

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 18h

Trump guys are about to Comet Pizza every third daycare center because they think they are all fronts for Somali money laundering. They're only doing this near cities with progressive mayors. This is straight up Government by LibsOfTikTok.

A map of the Boston area showing daycare centers: Almost 4,000 Daycares in a 20-mile radius around Boston, with 1/4 of that being water.

Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 13h

This headline really does conservatives' work for them!

Medicaid is not "abortion funding"—it's money for birth control, STI testing, etc without which clinics that (separately) provide abortion will go bankrupt. GOP argues that money is fungible but funding isn't for abortion ffs

HHS Wins Reversal of Order Barring Block on Abortion Funding

A federal appeals court undid a preliminary injunction on Tuesday that barred the Trump administration from pausing Medicaid reimbursements to health centers offering abortion care.

news.bloomberglaw.com

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 13h

The latest attacks on child care serve several evil purposes. They use racism to claim fraud to close places down & use nationalism to decimate the care workforce. Then sexism in families & workplaces means women will end up leaving the labor force to care for children.

Katie @littlelistmaker.bsky.social · 14h

I spent a year and a half trying to convince child care policy and advocacy people that all of this was going to happen, and that continued capitulation and concessions to bad faith attacks would only embolden what they were willing to do to erode the entire system. I recently gave up.

Katie @littlelistmaker.bsky.social · 14h

I spent a year and a half trying to convince child care policy and advocacy people that all of this was going to happen, and that continued capitulation and concessions to bad faith attacks would only embolden what they were willing to do to erode the entire system. I recently gave up.

Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 16h

This is why they want us talking about day care scams.

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 17h

And a conditional acceptance for the companion piece is an excellent way to end the year!

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 4d

A conditional acceptance at a top journal for a paper that took years to finish is an excellent Christmas present.

a woman in a blue shirt is making a gesture with her hands and says `` go me ! ''

ALT: a woman in a blue shirt is making a gesture with her hands and says `` go me ! ''

media.tenor.com

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 18h

The final version of the defense spending bill did not include an expected provision covering IVF for military families, despite proclamations that Trump would be the “IVF President.”

Military families hit with bitter blow after Congress strips fertility treatment funding from defense bill | CNN Politics

Back in 2017, when my husband was still in the Army, we learned he was unexpectedly deploying right as we were going to start trying to get pregnant. Military families get accustomed to this pattern: ...

www.cnn.com

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 18h

Trump guys are about to Comet Pizza every third daycare center because they think they are all fronts for Somali money laundering. They're only doing this near cities with progressive mayors. This is straight up Government by LibsOfTikTok.

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 1d

My sister always makes me the most thoughtful gifts! #legokaren

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 1d

I once got rejected because I left the parking garage at precisely midnight, putting me over into the next day, and so my dates of travel did not match the dates in my travel authorization.

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 1d

It’s worth noting, though, that much of the US’s involvement in efforts like USAID were because powerful private citizens wanted to limit growth of “undesirable” populations. @emilymerchant.bsky.social ‘s book Building the Population Bomb explains this history here so well.

Aubrey Gilleran @aubreygilleran.bsky.social · 1d

The last four words are also important here. The USAID cuts should primarily be seen as a eugenicist project. Elon Musk and the far right, generally, believe that foreign aid is a part of the Great Replacement.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 1d

This thought has been lingering in my head for a while but this tweet prompted me to write it out.

Aubrey Gilleran @aubreygilleran.bsky.social · 1d

The last four words are also important here. The USAID cuts should primarily be seen as a eugenicist project. Elon Musk and the far right, generally, believe that foreign aid is a part of the Great Replacement.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 1d

This thought has been lingering in my head for a while but this tweet prompted me to write it out.

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 1d

Absolutely! If we are going to have less growth/fewer people, making sure the people we do have are healthy and well is of paramount importance. Which of course we’re not doing in the US as we basically do the exact opposite by slashing our social infrastructure.

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 1d

American politics is just a circle of racism.

Ernesto Castañeda @drernestocast.bsky.social · 1d

"Lawyer & eugenicist Madison Grant wrote in his 1916 book, “The Passing of the Great Race,” that foreign countries were taking advantage of America’s openness by unloading “the sweepings of their jails & asylums” & that American life, social, moral & political has been lowered & vulgarized by them.”

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 1d

And here I thought college grads would all be working construction.

Ernesto Castañeda @drernestocast.bsky.social · 1d

"Lawyer & eugenicist Madison Grant wrote in his 1916 book, “The Passing of the Great Race,” that foreign countries were taking advantage of America’s openness by unloading “the sweepings of their jails & asylums” & that American life, social, moral & political has been lowered & vulgarized by them.”

Science Magazine @science.org · 1d

The U.S. NSF has announced changes to its highly regarded system of reviewing the some 50,000 grant proposals received each year.

The move has created uncertainty and anxiety across the U.S. scientific community. Here are five things to know about the changes. ⬇️ https://scim.ag/4aCoSZQ

Five things to know about NSF’s new rules on merit review

Fewer outsiders, less feedback, and an uncertain fate for a new science board report

scim.ag

🐸SayItToMyFace🚫👑 @sayittomyface.bsky.social · 1d

There’s been a change on when your mail will receive a postmark. Until 12/24 of this year it was when you dropped off your letter. Now it’s when a machine processes your mail which could be days later. This has implications for time sensitive mail including vote by mail! There are ways around it!

Alice Miranda Ollstein @alicemiranda.bsky.social · 1d

NEW with @ruthreader.bsky.social: Small states and states that adopt policies favored by the Trump admin (such as restrictions on SNAP) got a much bigger windfall from the fund Congress created to "transform" rural health care.

Alaska received more than California, which has 40x its population.

Trump admin doles out billions for rural health

Montana and California will receive near equal amounts in 2026, despite their massive size disparity.

www.politico.com

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 1d

Did you see this? Sigh. More senior office jobs will be mostly okay, but entry level jobs not so much. And I can’t imagine these construction jobs uniformly pay well with good benefits in an era of anti-unionization.

AI is coming for young people’s office jobs. That’s good news for the construction industry | Gene Marks

More young people are following the money and going into trades like construction where AI can’t easily replace them

www.theguardian.com

jenna newman phd @jennanewman.bsky.social · 1d

“Baltimore is days away from finishing 2025 w/its lowest homicide total in at least 48yrs—read that again.
The city could end the yr with <150 killings, the lowest since the BPD reported 171 homicides in 1977, before 2/3 of Balt residents were born, according to the 2024 American Community Survey”🧪🛟

“Thomas Abt, a criminology professor at the University of Maryland and founder of the Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction, stressed that crime is "inherently complex and multifactorial" Therefore, a steep drop in gun violence is likely dependent on a combination of local, regional, national and perhaps even international factors, "all of which are
poorly understood."
"The way these crime trend conversations go with experts, the first thing we're all careful to say is ... 'I'm not sure," Abt said. "The second thing you say is, 'It's probably a bunch of things' ... and then you try to pick out
what seem to be the largest drivers."”

Each month in 2025, Baltimore's homicides trailed recent averages
Four of this year's monthly totals - February, April, August and October - were the lowest for that month since at least 1970.

Graph:
2025
2020-2024 average

December 2025 homicide counts are current as of Dec. 23.
Chart: Greg Morton/The Banner • Source: Baltimore Police Department

“Baltimore's homicide rate has plummeted to a near-50-year low
Less than five years after the city ended 2021 with a record high of roughly 60 killings per 100,000 residents, the city will end this year with its lowest homicide rate in decades.

Graph:
- Homicides per 100,000 residents

2025 per capita figure represents the city's homicide count through Dec. 23.
Baltimore population is based on decennial and intercensal data compiled by the United States Census Bureau between 1970 and 2014.
Baltimore homicide counts between 1970 and 2011 are based on data submitted to the FBI by the Baltimore Police Department through the Uniform Crime Reporting program.”

Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 1d

When Erhlich wrote the Population Bomb, the world population was at 3.5 billion - and that was considered too many and unsustainable. We are now at 8.2 billion - and worried about too few.

It’s never just about the numbers. It’s about WHO is having births.

a woman in a pink dress is making a face with the words make it make sense above her

ALT: a woman in a pink dress is making a face with the words make it make sense above her

media.tenor.com

David Brady @davebrady72.bsky.social · 1d

This paper shows welfare programs alleviating health shock can reduce crime. It makes case poverty scholars have long made about the negative costs of poverty to society. The societal costs of crime need to be factored into benefit-cost analyses of poverty reduction programs.

Paul Bruno @paul-bruno.com · 1d

Breaking Bad: How Health Shocks Prompt Crime www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

"Welfare programs that alleviate the economic repercussions of health shocks are effective at mitigating the ensuing negative externality on society."

Breaking Bad: How Health Shocks Prompt Crime

(January 2026) - Exploiting plausibly exogenous variations in the timing of cancer diagnoses, we establish that health shocks elicit a large and persistent increase in the probability of committing a ...

www.aeaweb.org

Paul Bruno @paul-bruno.com · 1d

Breaking Bad: How Health Shocks Prompt Crime www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

"Welfare programs that alleviate the economic repercussions of health shocks are effective at mitigating the ensuing negative externality on society."

Breaking Bad: How Health Shocks Prompt Crime

(January 2026) - Exploiting plausibly exogenous variations in the timing of cancer diagnoses, we establish that health shocks elicit a large and persistent increase in the probability of committing a ...

www.aeaweb.org