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naazneenbarma.bsky.social
Scrivner Professor of Public Policy, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, and Director of the Scrivner Institute of Public Policy at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver | Senior Director Bridging the Gap | šŸ³ļøā€šŸŒˆ
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What he is saying here, and they already doing in ways big and small, is spend money Congress has not appropriated. Not refusing to spend money as directed, bad as that is, but spend without authorization. Which is, in plainer terms and by absolute constitutional command, stealing from the treasury.

Please join us at the @bridgingthegap.bsky.social reception at ISA next Monday (March 3) evening šŸ‘‡

We looking forward to connecting with many of you at ISA in Chicago in a few days! Please join us at the BTG reception Monday 8:00-9:00pm in the Hilton's Waldorf Room. Safe travels to those attending!

coming to #ISA2025? drop by our roundtable on USAID funding cuts! Monday @ 10:30 in Conference Room 4J, 4 Chicago Hilton ft. @naazneenbarma.bsky.social @suparnac.bsky.social @dadakim.bsky.social Kelly Hunter @hilarymatfess.bsky.social Haley Swedlund Mike Tierney Matt Winters

NEW: Freshman Rep Gabe Evans (R-CO) voted for the GOP budget that fellow Republicans say will slash Medicaid, which covers 25% of Evans' constituents in CO-08. #copolitics youtu.be/mKI0C2TZAOM?...

'The atmosphere is so pregnant with arrogance and hate. This hate is too big. They canā€™t hide it any more.' This is not happening only in Germany. It is happening pretty much all over Europe. www.theguardian.com/world/commen...

i think this is basically what has happened a big chunk of the american pundit class

This isnā€™t some rant saying ā€œGermany has learned nothing from its pastā€ - the reality is more subtle than that. Middle-class Germans live and travel with an incredible amount of ease and comfort, and they just gotā€¦sleepy. Many of them dismissed the far-rightā€™s rage as just another set of complaints.

I finally got what's bugged me about all these stories on the crippling of the US govt: all of them speak of "cuts" when, in fact, only Congress can 'cut' funding, and it has done nothing of the sort. The story describes illegal & unconstitutional impoundment, BUT SAYS NOT ONE WORD ABOUT IT

When OMB head Russ Vought talks about deliberate efforts to put federal employees "in trauma" and make them quit their jobs, he's talking about people like Michelle, recently fired by Musk/Trump. www.sfgate.com/california/a...

You GUYYYYSSSSSSS The military choir sang Do You Hear the People Sing from Les Mis at the governor's dinner at the white house. Thanks to @beebrookshire.bsky.social for helping me fact check tihs one. As far as I can it's only "officially" been posted on Dan Scavino's FB

1. Background to the epochal change in German and European politics after the election. Merz, the presumed next Chancellor has said that Europe is setting out to "achieve its independence from the US, step by step." @abenewman.bsky.social and I explain the background in our book, Underground Empire

With another set of news headlines about political elites using ā€œā€ā€Roman salutesā€ā€ā€ I just want to note that the Nazi salute means ā€œI want to murder your familyā€ and the n-word means ā€œI want to lynch you.ā€ Thatā€™s what they mean, they make me righteously angry, and I wonā€™t let anybody minimize them.

"Young šŸ‡©šŸ‡Ŗ voters are flocking to the far rig-" šŸ§šŸ¤”

New ā€” I wrote about how the 5 bullets email is nothing but an escalation of Musk and the Trump administrationā€™s psychological war on federal workers. Read here:

New, from me: Unpacking the Friday night news: *The military purges have begun - why do they also include lawyers? *A Judge is allowing the dismantling of USAID to proceed. This reflects a pattern where Judges are ignoring the broader democratic risks. open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

ā€œAmerica has turnedā€ www.ft.com/content/1511...

The attacks on DEI are a pretext for a much more radical agenda of reversing the gains of the civil rights movement, an objective the Trump administration is pursuing with zeal. A Great Resegregation. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

"casually" is the key word here. As @abenewman.bsky.social and I say - www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/o... - the Trump administration seems to assume there is no cost or risk to weaponizing infrastructure for short term advantage.

The entire business model of American R1 universities is not viable without restoration of federal funding, & every individual institution pretending it can solve this problem alone is also not viable. University presidents need to be speaking out, collectively & loudly about this, in DC, right now.

A massive, self-inflicted wound on American higher education.

What does Trump's capitulation to Putin on Ukraine & his hostility to the EU mean for Europe's potential to develop as a security power? My 2021 article w/@rdanielkelemen.bsky.social on war, state building & the EU provides some potential answers.1/ bit.ly/3pq7gYr

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with ā€œefficiencyā€ or ā€œcutting waste.ā€ Theyā€™re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. šŸ§µā¬‡ļø

Weā€™re four weeks in, & the media just writes about DOGE as if itā€™s a normal, legitimate, not wildly illegal & unconstitutional thing. It was inevitable, but still pathetic.

Catch the recording of our faculty panel on the potential implications of the Trump Administration on key policy areas including public health, immigration, climate, and the US and global economy. Watch here: bit.ly/41lnfKO

New, from me: Stepping back from the flood of news, I outline three ways to understand how Trump 2.0 is different from his first, or any prior, presidency: personalism, governing by fear, and purges. šŸ§µ donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-person...

1/ I am seeing a lot of comments on the slashing of NIH support along the lines of ā€œuniversities should just spend their huge endowments.ā€ Iā€™m the last person to cheer on the institutional stratification rising endowments have contributed to. But let me explain why this is not a solution.

When America loses the Financial Times. www.ft.com/content/11f1...

Make your calls. Go to your town halls. Ask your state and local officials what they are doing under state and local law. Rest. Hydrate. Make soup for the hungry. Donā€™t let people tell you that youā€™re doing it wrong. Not a sprint. Not a marathon. A relay. Find your team. Thank you.

Via Robbie Gramer at Politico, in a legal filing a USAID employee details trying to leave Kinshasa, Congo with their family and leaving their possessions behidn amid panic created by Trump and Musk's sudden shutdown of the agency

What do we do when working within the system no longer works? This is the great and for many, unaskable, question looming above Washington on this dark, cold February night. open.substack.com/pub/davidrot...

EVENT: Policy research in maternal & child health šŸ“„ Join Professor Alan Stein & Professor @marianknight.bsky.social as they discuss how we can ensure research informs public policy in maternal and child health. šŸ“… Thurs, 13 Feb, 16:30 (School & online) Register here šŸ‘‡ ow.ly/Ke8i50UYlTb

www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state... This is by far the best, clearest and most realistic analysis of what we're in for that I've seen.

šŸŽ‰ Congratulations to @scrivnerinstitute.bsky.social for being recognized by @uofdenver.bsky.social for its outstanding research excellence! Kudos to Director @naazneenbarma.bsky.social and the entire team for its amazing work on pressing public policy challenges. Learn more here:

Positions!! Polisci Jobs! Dublin! Please share and apply. Environmental Politics: my.corehr.com/pls/coreport... Global Governance: my.corehr.com/pls/coreport...

"Today we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trumpā€™s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office." www.ap.org/the-definiti...

USAIDā€™s inspector generalā€”presumably operating from a remote base in the mountainsā€”has just released a report on the staggering effect of the Trump Administrationā€™s assault on the agency. oig.usaid.gov/sites/defaul...

The American right has turned to Hungary to learn how authoritarians consolidate power. The American left should look to Poland to see how a big-tent coalition can defeat authoritarianism. It involves multiple parties appealing to different voters.

Just got the dreaded email. University of Iowa is halting all NIH grant submissions. Losing a generation of scientists here will send the state backwards. What a travesty.

For anyone doing democracy-relevant work in any domain, the SNF Agora Institute is accepting applications for our Visiting Fellows program for next academic year: snfagora.jhu.edu/visiting-fel...

Iā€™ve been studying civil rights protests for 20 years. With new mobilization against Trumpā€™s agenda, Iā€™m sharing a thread summarizing my research on how nonviolent & violent actions by 1960s activists and police influenced media, elites, public opinion & voters. 1/ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Join us for a panel of faculty experts exploring the implications of the second Trump Administration on key policy areas, including public health, the climate, immigration, the US and global economy, and international security. Feb 11 | 5-6:30pm | SIE Complex Register here: bit.ly/40H980Y

This is Nazi purge stuff. 40 years of service, only to be kicked to the curb like trash by fascists.

Below says most of what I tried to say in this - www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/rise... - punchier, better, and with way less chin stroking pomposity

just saying: it's possible that "I'm gonna dramatically constrict my state capacity while plotting dramatic imperial expansion, and expanding my set of internal enemies while alienating most of my foreign allies" is the beginning of a world-historical masterstroke. but also possible that it isn't

The thing I don't understand... 1) Trump did not order USAID disbanded. There was no EO. 2) Even if there was an EO, it does not have the backing of law or Congress. 3) Elon Musk decided he would do this, but he has no official role in govt. 4) All of this is a crime under: 18 U.S.C. Ā§ 1361.

New, from me: So much is happening, so quickly. The purpose of shock and awe is to bewilder and overwhelm. It is important not to look away, or get discouraged. Try to discern the what is a big and real threat. Here is my best effort to do so. šŸ§µ donmoynihan.substack.com/p/meditation...

Iā€™m at Leetsdale and Oneida at the Cedar Run Apt complex ICE has raided this morning. Activists are out here on bullhorns saying majority of CO stand with their immigrant neighbors as federal agents pace the neighborhood @denverpost.com