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Jay Ulfelder

@jayulfelder.bsky.social

6K followers 1.1K following 2K posts

Social scientist by training, currently unemployed, trying to figure out what comes next. Literally but not figuratively inside the Beltway.

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · Apr 28

If you're an underfunded org or activist doing (broadly speaking) antifascist work and you've got a data-making or data-analysis idea but not the skills to implement it, let's talk!

I've got those skills but no job, so I've got time as well. Happy to add expertise and labor to the right efforts.

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Reposted by Jay Ulfelder

Democracy Docket @democracydocket.com · 9h

NEW: A report from pro-voting groups warns that if the Supreme Court rules to gut a key safeguard against racial gerrymanders this term, it’ll be “enough to cement one-party control of the U.S. House for at least a generation.”

GOP Could Lock in House Control for a Generation if SCOTUS Ends Key VRA Protection, Report Warns

Read more here.

www.democracydocket.com

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 10h

the locals took pity on me, i was not corrected at all. so what's the proper way?

Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 10h

heh, we took a trip there in August and while I had the sense to look up the pronunciation of Yachats before we visited that town, I did not think to look into how the name of the state itself is pronounced locally

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 10h

Baltimore

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 11h

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

Reposted by Jay Ulfelder

Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 1d

Just heard someone say that if you aren't willing to get arrested or die at a protest you aren't serious about the cause and that's a) not true and b) not helpful

You don't need to have a death wish to fight for a better world, and anyone who says you do is throwing up a massive red flag

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 19h

I get the strategic logic of these practices, and I recognize that they can be effective. Still, I think that when we highlight attacks on religion or certain genders as especially bad, we're engaging in our own form of hipocrisy. So I'm arguing that it's a phyrric victory, a shaky foundation.

Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 20h

For me, it's like when people call out police or soldiers for attacks on women. You're trying to make the goons look bad, but you're doing it in ways that reinforce existing structures that cast women as less able and men as their protectors. Their violence is bad, period. Leave it at that.

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 20h

We're all in this together. How you arrive at your commitment to equality and equity and autonomy isn't really the point. When you elevate certain beliefs and practices as worthy of special protection, you implicitly reinforce status quo hierarchies that also prioritize those ideas and practices.

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 20h

I deeply appreciate the many clergy and others whose religious beliefs are playing a role in their active antifascism. At the same time, it also bums me out that we keep talking about religion as a special class of beliefs that deserves special protection.

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 1d

Academic freedom means that a course that teaches students to critique settler colonialism can be taught alongside one that teaches students to maximize shareholder value.

Both are "biased" in their framing.

Only one is currently at risk of being cancelled by state and/or institutional actors.

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Dana El Kurd @danaelkurd.bsky.social · 1d

Grieving for all the lives taken. I dont know what we look like as a society when this is over

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Patrick Galey @patrickgaley.bsky.social · 1d

Can we stop this pet rock discourse which insists on inserting flat out racism and Fascism as valid contributions to political discourse?

These racist bums arent politicians; they are rabble rousers
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Robert Jenrick complained of ‘not seeing another white face’ in Birmingham neighbourhood

Shadow justice secretary criticised for suggesting he could tell how integrated Handsworth was based on short visit

www.theguardian.com

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cpuk (trampoline park connoisseur and occasional comic printer) @comicprintinguk.bsky.social · 1d

Can’t believe the Irish tried a version of UBI, found it worked, and decided to keep it rather than commission another study.

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 2d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 2d

"Organizers say that the crackdown has created a climate of fear and intimidation that is not only directly harming workers and their families, but is also stifling ongoing worker efforts to improve conditions on the job, and organize to protect themselves from raids."

How ICE Terror Campaigns Are Used to Discipline Labor

While Chicago sees a surge of ICE detentions, workers are facing retaliation as immigrants when they advocate for their rights.

prospect.org

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Sarah Lazare @sarahlazare.bsky.social · 2d

One thing to understand about what's happening now is that on Oct 1, the deportation machine's budget increased dramatically: $170 billion in NEW funding, averaging to $42.5 billion per year. That's just below the Israeli military's annual budget. It's the equivalent of 13th biggest army on earth.

The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago

As federal agents kill and use extreme force in Chicago, their budget surges.

inthesetimes.com

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 2d

If you're into endurance running or cycling and you're not getting paid to do it, start finding other ways to move your body that feel good to you, and consider doing more of those and less of the running or riding. The repetitive motion stuff really catches up with you in your 40s and 50s.

essencesimmone.blacksky.app @essencesimmone.blacksky.app · 5d

Those who are 35+, what advice do you have for people just entering their 30s?

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 3d

When the Orwellian named Dept of Homeland Security was created … MANY of us predicted that it would eventually be doing all the things that it is doing right now

Pinning it uniquely on Trump really misses the point in a bunch of ways

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 3d

Fam, this is a challenging moment. We (as reporters) are trying to balance urgency of news & amplification of resistance narratives with not assisting in putting people in prison. It's tough for everyone right now with how fast videos go viral. There's a lot we are not sharing.

The People's Fabric @peoplesfabric.com · 3d

Pro-tip: if you have video of you or others directly intervening to obstruct ICE or de-arrest someone, for god’s sake don’t post it on social media. Or at a minimum blur faces first. You’re just begging for federal charges.

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 3d

We are living under an aspiring fascist regime that has not yet fully consolidated. This is not difficult to understand unless you get paid to muddy the waters.

Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 4d

If we were living under fascism, none of you would be here daring to post things. You'd be erasing your social media accounts and keeping your head down; you'd know that peacocking your faux-bravery on a network would expose you to being disappeared.
You have no idea what "fascism" really means.

shane @mouthfulofcavities.bsky.social · 4d

the regime is zip tying toddlers and ripping them away from their mothers unclothed... calling it fascism upsets this neo-con.

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 5d

I've listened to Nation of Language's Dance Called Memory album several times this week and keep digging it.

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 5d

What we just saw: state police not only assisting federal agents with crowd control out here, but also protester arrests.

All morning, this has been a nonviolent demonstration. Have not seen a single crime from this crowd (not that that would excuse the brutality).

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Joshua Collins @murosinvisibles.bsky.social · 5d

ICE capades: the roundup

Everyone's favorite weekly at PWS 🧵

1️⃣‘Operation Midway Blitz’ Detains US citizens: Children and Senior Citizens left cuffed for hours

Warrantless raids, destroyed apartments, children ripped from beds and zip-tied by ICE

ICE capades: the roundup

PWS weekly on the ghoulish acts, dastardly deeds, and unseemly actions of the country's now-biggest LEO

www.piratewireservices.com

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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 6d

It does not matter if immigrants commit fewer crimes. In fact, it would not matter if every immigrant committed crimes. Immigration is still good, freedom of movement is foundational to humanity, and every restriction on freedom of movement by the state is itself a criminal act by the state

Gaia Vince @wanderinggaia.bsky.social · 7d

Immigrants less likely to commit crimes than natives, as countless other studies have shown #NomadCentury

Foreigners underrepresented among prisoners in England and Wales, report finds

Analysis finds lower proportion of foreign inmates than would be expected if they were jailed at same rate as UK citizens of same age

www.theguardian.com

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Ⓐ Anarchist Federation News 🏴 @anarchistfederation.net · 7d

How Philly anarcho-punks blended music, noise and social justice in the 1990s and 2000s

www.anarchistfederation.net

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Jay Ulfelder @jayulfelder.bsky.social · 7d

and fwiw most of my career has involved using stats models and human experts to estimate probabilities of rare political events, so i'm well aware of the intrinsic uncertainty part.