10012 Followers
3242 Following
Reader, writer, teacher, gardener, seamstress, contrarian. Professor, @WoodsonUVA Alice Griffin Professor of English, University of Virginia. Please, no DMs unless I know you. For professional matters, please contact me via UVA.
The Resignation Letter Of Dr. Demetre C. Daskalakis Of The Centers For Disease Control open.substack.com/pub/simonwdc...
"FIRE HIM"- wrote Senator Patty Murray tonight about the deeply malevolent Robert Kennedy after a day of extraordinary chaos
i think a lot of people still take public schools and books in those schools for granted and it's difficult to explain how far from universal access to any kind of liberal education, at all levels, we now find ourselves
The return of the education reform zombie basically means that Dems are being encouraged to run on unpopular policies. Caitlin Drey's win in Iowa is a perfect example of why that advice is so bad open.substack.com/pub/educatio...
One big reason public schools are so vulnerable: standardized testing. Too many Democrats haven't gotten the memo...
The hits to arts and humanities keep coming. This time affecting our sister agency, #NEA. In addition to the $1.2m already canceled, the Creative Writing Fellowship program has also been cut.
On Friday afternoon, writers who applied for the National Endowment for the Arts’ 2026 Creative Writing Fellowships received an email from the NEA saying that the program, and their applications, had ...
We’ve seen and felt the impacts of unnecessary and devastating cuts.
But when combined with the physical devastation of natural disasters, you get something truly horrific on a scale unseen.
Thoughts and prayers will not be enough to survive something like this.
🚨 It’s the 20th anniversary of Katrina + FEMA workers are warning us: cuts + censorship are gutting the agency meant to keep us safe. Delayed disaster response = lives at risk. Sign the Katrina Declaration + demand Congress protect FEMA. 👉 www.standupforscience.net/fema-katrina-declaration
We’ll take any kind of win at this point.
More good news and hope for the #NEH to be restored! A small win, but a good one.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the Trump administration's request to stay a lower court order requiring the reinstatement of federal research grants that had been terminated ea...
It's hard to wrap our head around this. The cuts to staff at the National Endowment for the Humanities are only a tiny % of federal jobs lost, but we, #IMLS, & #NEA did the bulk of the work of funding the #arts & the #humanities across the U.S. Where are we now? How does this get fixed? 😔 #NEH
300,000 federal jobs wiped out. This isn’t “draining the swamp,” it’s draining communities. Every one of those jobs supports families, local businesses, and essential services. Workers are paying the price for political power plays. seiu.co/45Z3dai
Meanwhile, other universities are recipients of hundreds of millions of dollars in private donations to sports programs. But you know, there’s no money for arts and humanities.
Sounds familiar. We “restructured” to just four program divisions. Unnecessary cuts and complacency on behalf of politicians and universities shows us how they truly feel about arts and humanities.
chicagomaroon.com/48215/news/u...
“The status quo is not an option,” Deborah Nelson, dean of the Division of the Arts & Humanities, wrote to division faculty on June 18.
We stand with our friends at FEMA for standing up and speaking out. Solidarity. ✊✊
DHS & FEMA have chosen the vengeance route against the public signatories of the FEMA Katrina Letter. Effective immediately, all public signatories have been placed on administrative leave. They have also been ordered not to tell anyone. Whistleblowers are to be protected, not retaliated against.
![FEMA Memo Text
MEMORANDUM
Date: August 26, 2025
To: All FEMA Employees in the affected regions and all members of the FEMA National Emergency Management Agency.
From: Jay Bradley, Chief of Staff, FEMA. Joseph A. ... [rest of name is cut off] ..., Director, National Emergency Management Agency.
Subj: Employee administrative leave and a further notice.
Effective immediately, and continuing until further notice, you are being placed on administrative leave with pay and all benefits, including retirement, health and life insurance.
You will be responsible for your time sheet regarding working and future pay periods.
You may use your government issued cellular phone and tablet for personal use, but you will not have access to FEMAEMS facility, connect to FEMAEMS personnel, and like [sic] editor or your official capacity. Failure to comply will result in disciplinary action up to and including removal from federal service. You will continue to have access to your personal email, but you will not have access to FEMAEMS information or telecommunication systems including, but not limited to, your e-mail. You will have access to your voicemail, but do not retrieve or listen to any messages. You will have access to FEMAEMS facility, connect to FEMAEMS personnel, and like [sic] editor or your official capacity. Failure to comply will result in disciplinary action up to and including removal from federal service. If you need access to a FEMAEMS information or telecommunication systems to perform your duties, you must receive a written directive from your supervisor. You must contact your supervisor via telephone or e-mail only. Any violation of these rules will be viewed as an act of insubordination.
You must provide a current home address, a current home phone number, a personal email address and phone number where you can be reached while you access to your FEMAEMS information or systems.
You must not contact any FEMAEMS personnel until you receive a written directiv…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:obksvg6m2wchvxqwrqclknbs/bafkreiem7f3vubks2gr76g6wzgy2ptd2fuennzswokvpja3i5p767fjtlu@jpeg)
![FEMA Memo Text
MEMORANDUM
Date: August 26, 2025
To: All FEMA Employees in the affected regions and all members of the FEMA National Emergency Management Agency.
From: Jay Bradley, Chief of Staff, FEMA. Joseph A. ... [rest of name is cut off] ..., Director, National Emergency Management Agency.
Subj: Employee administrative leave and a further notice.
Effective immediately, and continuing until further notice, you are being placed on administrative leave with pay and all benefits, including retirement, health and life insurance.
You will be responsible for your time sheet regarding working and future pay periods.
You may use your government issued cellular phone and tablet for personal use, but you will not have access to FEMAEMS facility, connect to FEMAEMS personnel, and like [sic] editor or your official capacity. Failure to comply will result in disciplinary action up to and including removal from federal service. You will continue to have access to your personal email, but you will not have access to FEMAEMS information or telecommunication systems including, but not limited to, your e-mail. You will have access to your voicemail, but do not retrieve or listen to any messages. You will have access to FEMAEMS facility, connect to FEMAEMS personnel, and like [sic] editor or your official capacity. Failure to comply will result in disciplinary action up to and including removal from federal service. If you need access to a FEMAEMS information or telecommunication systems to perform your duties, you must receive a written directive from your supervisor. You must contact your supervisor via telephone or e-mail only. Any violation of these rules will be viewed as an act of insubordination.
You must provide a current home address, a current home phone number, a personal email address and phone number where you can be reached while you access to your FEMAEMS information or systems.
You must not contact any FEMAEMS personnel until you receive a written directiv…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:obksvg6m2wchvxqwrqclknbs/bafkreig7ebtholwj7wchjcwxpcmd6dsh3cr26wpgjjqlg6hmy7edtoe3r4@jpeg)
If this all sounds familiar, it is because it is. We have seen this playbook before. They take and take and take. It will never be enough until it is destroyed.
"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history." ~Aldous Huxley
