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Jess Hejny

@jesshejny.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.4K following 162 posts

Political scientist. Environmental policy, parties, democratic theory, policing. U.S. environmental political development is my jam. Gardens, cats, herbalism, and art in my spare time. Baltimoron in Burque. 🏜🌵🐍🦀

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Reposted by Jess Hejny
Kate Manne @katemanne.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I wrote for @thecut.com about the Cornell case and what it says that, at my institution and many others like it, protesters are often punished more harshly than sexual assailants www.thecut.com/article/what...
thecut.com
What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now
As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
An outstanding public good from an outstanding set of researchers at UC Berkeley and UCLA
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 25/08/2026
“The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate a federal requirement that states publicize and solicit public input on applications for air pollution permits for a range of industrial facilities, including new data centers and the power plants needed to run them.”
nytimes.com
E.P.A. Moves to Curb Public Input on Air Pollution Permits for Data Centers
Under the proposal, states would no longer need to provide public notice or solicit comments on air pollution permits for data centers and other projects.
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Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
This would be egregious at any university, but it's especially so at UT-Austin, which is home to an elite library/repository for Latin American history and culture (the Benson Collection). This is a real kick in the teeth, and another step in the slow suicide of a once-excellent university.
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Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Friday was the hottest day *ever recorded* for Earth's oceans, on average. Oceans continue to absorb more than 90% of the excess heat from global warming: www.sfchronicle.com/climate/arti... via @sfchronicle.com
sfchronicle.com
Earth’s oceans just broke a heat record. The implications will be massive
Human-caused global warming and a strong El Niño are adding excess heat to the oceans, threatening marine life and providing storms with more energy and moisture.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 23/08/2026
Did you catch that the Trumpies want to permanently end appliance efficiency standards? They have saved US consumers billions of dollars over the years, but they are a mild inconvenience to the makers of less efficient appliances, so.
utilitydive.com
DOE wants to ‘permanently end’ appliance efficiency requirements
A proposed rule would create an “obstacle course of restrictions” bogging down the Department of Energy’s appliance efficiency program, a consumer advocate said.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 23/08/2026
"Low-emission zones," where car traffic is restricted, save lives -- especially the lives of children. The empirical evidence is unambiguous. But every attempt to create a new one is met by hysterical opposition filled with lies, because our societies are collectively poisoned by car-brain.
theguardian.com
London’s low emission zone is working – so why are cities around the world so cautious about clean air?
Similar initiatives have been launched from Barcelona to Bogotá, but they have misinformation, political pressure and vested interests stacked against them
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Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Wildfires are getting so large and severe and summers so hot and dry that some forests just aren’t growing back after burning. Recent research suggests up to 40% of Western conifer forests could transition to grassland and shrubland by 2100, taking significant carbon storage with them.
nytimes.com
Wildfires Are Turning Forests in the American West Into Shrubland (Gift Article)
Towering woodlands in the West are being permanently replaced by tracts of spiky shrubs. Conditions “just aren’t normal anymore,” one researcher said.
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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
The fundraising texts you delete are working on someone. It’s infuriating and heartbreaking. An 85yo in Ohio gave more than double the value of his home. A 91yo in an Indianapolis senior facility gave 25K times. The DCCC/DSCC don’t just tolerate the spammers who exploit seniors. They take part.
data4democracy.substack.com
Hook and Squeeze
How Democratic consultants, committees, and party leaders built a fundraising spam pipeline that funnels money from a captive pool of elderly donors into their own operations.
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Emily Atkin @emorwee.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
AI is not just consuming a lot of fossil fuels. It it also enabling the fossil fuel industry to drill more, faster. These applications create far more climate pollution than data centers — 3.3x to 13.3x more, according to new peer-reviewed research. We *have* to start talking about this.
heated.world
AI’s climate problem is worse than we thought
A new study reveals that AI’s climate impact extends far beyond its massive data center footprint.
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Felipe De La Hoz @felipedlh.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I’m surprised by how little attention this case has gotten. Even I didn’t really register it for a while. This entire family of three permanent residents were summarily detained without even the option of bond, all as collective punishment for one one of them being the son of an Iranian official
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Replace your gas stoves with electric, preferably induction. The Trump regime canceled an $18 million EPA grant to study replacing gas stoves in 1,200 homes of asthma sufferers. Researchers published results from 85 homes, showing significant asthma relief and health impacts of gas stoves.
wapo.st
The EPA halted a study on gas stoves and asthma. But even partial results were striking.
Research that used a federal grant to pay for asthma patients to have their gas stoves replaced showed a dramatic fall in asthma attacks. The program was cut short after President Donald Trump took of...
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Kevin Morris @kevintmorris.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
With fewer than 100 days until the midterms, a shameless plug: If you want to understand just how much our systems of electoral democracy have been degraded, especially for racial and ethnic minorities, you could do worse than preordering our book. Out Oct 6! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
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Urban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰 @urbanlandrent.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Maybe tough for a city, but the state of CA, through CalRX is doing really cool shit undercutting the price of drugs like insulin just by producing it in house at-cost. This country is filled with rentier scammers operating on huge margins SOEs could go after. www.gov.ca.gov/2025/12/19/c...
gov.ca.gov
CalRx drives down the cost of naloxone as state program reverses nearly 400,000 overdoses | Governor of California
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Overland couple shot dead in Guatemala after local ICE stop led to deportations www.stlpr.org/law-order/20...
stlpr.org
Overland couple shot dead in Guatemala after local ICE stop led to deportations
The couple’s 14-month-old daughter was found crying beside her mother’s body in a sugarcane field last week, according to Guatemalan authorities and media.
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Hannah Story Brown @hannahstoryb.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Scientists estimated that the wildfire smoke in June 2023 prematurely killed over 82,000 people. Last week's toxic smoke plume will be deadly for tens of thousands of people. This is the slow violence of the climate crisis, which is much deadlier than homicides, but much less covered by media.
revolvingdoorproject.substack.com
Talking About A World on Fire
While Trump threatened Canada over wildfire smoke, climate-hushing Democrats missed the moment.
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 17/07/2026
Climate change does not cause wildfires, but hot and dry conditions make them much more likely to spread. In Canada, 9 of the 10 worst wildfire years were both dryer and hotter than normal. And these fires are burning in areas that were historically not managed or suppressed.
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Jennifer N. Victor @jenvictor.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
This is child abuse and it's being committed at the hands of the US government. It's heartbreaking and enraging. And so incredibly inhumane. These children will suffer lifelong consequences because of this cruelty during their formative years. Read the story. Thank you for the reporting.
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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 15/07/2026
The administration is keeping immigrant kids separated from parents for months and months, often only releasing them after courts intervene. www.ctinsider.com/news/article...
ctinsider.com
5-year-old spent 118 days on her own in federal immigration custody in CT
On any given day there are more than two dozen immigrant children detained without a parent or guardian in programs run by Connecticut nonprofits.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 14/07/2026
In March 2025, Trump met in the Oval Office with oil & gas executives. They listen their grievances and, on the spot, Trump leapt to address them. The executives were, in their own words, "stunned." Read these extraordinary excerpts. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/c...
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Rebecca Nagle @rebeccanagle.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Trump just shrunk Bears Ears by 91% and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 90%. Bears Ears was the first national monument co-managed by tribes. Five tribes spent years building that partnership. It's been walked back. 100,000+ archeological sites now exposed to mining and drilling.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
The president stole your land, again.
nytimes.com
Trump Sharply Cuts the Size of Two National Monuments in Utah (Gift Article)
Native American tribes and environmental groups are expected to challenge the move to shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.
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Scott Waldman @scottpwaldman.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The White House has reconstituted the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which tracks climate change and produces the National Climate Assessment. The Trump version will focus on "positive" climate effects and be used to protect fossil fuel companies from lawsuits. www.politico.com/news/2026/07...
politico.com
The administration has a new climate change office. It’s headed by a climate critic.
The office that produces the National Climate Assessment has been reconstituted, after the administration gutted it last year.
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Dr. Robert D. Bullard @drrobertbullard.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Trump EPA to toss environmental justice FOIA rule - E&E News by POLITICO www.eenews.net/articles/tru...
eenews.net
Trump EPA to toss environmental justice FOIA rule
The rescission will end another part of the Biden administration’s work at EPA to promote relief for areas with disadvantaged populations living near
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Reposted by Jess Hejny
Philip Bump @pbump.com · 02/07/2026
Rooted in part on research I did for my book, I wrote about how and why the U.S. is dependent on immigrant labor — including the overlap of an aging population with services provided by immigrants targeted by the administration's TPS moves. Good charts herein: www.ctinsider.com/columnist/ar...
ctinsider.com
Aging Connecticut needs workers. Immigration is a key part of the answer.
As baby boomers leave the workforce, Connecticut’s elder-care economy is growing and immigration is becoming more important to filling jobs.
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
NEW from me: Americans are set to lose nearly $250B gambling this year—a record high, up more than 60% since 2019—and that's before counting unofficial betting via prediction markets or crypto Can anything stop America's gambling boom? 🧵
a graph of US gambling losses
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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Everybody needs to go hear Naomi Oreskes explain how Monsanto manipulated the science to obscure health concerns about Roundup — including ghost-writing papers that became touchstones in their denialism.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
The rise of larger vehicles like SUVs and pickup trucks, with their taller hoods and larger blind zones, has contributed to a 75% increase in pedestrian and cyclist deaths since 2009. Until we design better streets and ban these vehicles, people outside these vehicles will keep dying.
nytimes.com
The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s (Gift Article)
The vehicles on American roads have grown larger — and they are killing thousands more pedestrians, a Times investigation found.
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Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
New article in Critical Sociology by Annabel Ipsen and Jane Collins. “The vulnerability fix: How U.S. immigration policies institutionalize worker precarity” Available as open access here - doi.org/10.1177/0896...
The vulnerability fix: How U.S. immigration policies institutionalize worker precarity

Critical Sociology 

Annabel Ipsen and Jane Collins

Abstract - This article draws together political economic theories of labor market precarity and theories about the role of difference in structuring labor market inequality to develop the concept of 
vulnerability fix. We argue that employers and the state have co-constructed a complicated set 
of programs and policies that have institutionalized unfreedom for a significant subsection of the workforce. At the bottom of the labor market, they have created categories of workers for whom the rules are different. By mobilizing these differences, employers are able to exert greater control over workers, hold down wages, and limit workers’ ability to organize. We refer to this strategy as a vulnerability fix. Focusing on unauthorized labor, guest worker visa programs, and refugee labor, we analyze how employers and the state draw on racial, ethnic, and legal hierarchies to attenuate the rights of some workers and how this also creates precarity for those who labor alongside them.

Keywords - labor, precarity, immigration, refugees, guest workers, political economy, sociology
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David Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
You may remember during DOGE chainsawing USAID early on they said they wouldn't kill PEPFAR. Not true. Massive cuts in funding and implementation details, and we're holding HIV meds hostage to African countries signing away mineral rights to the U.S.
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Jess Hejny @jesshejny.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Invisible Man; The God of Small Things; A Room with a View
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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
“There is so little snow in the Rocky Mountains that this spring and summer, the runoff reaching Lake Powell, the nation’s second largest reservoir, is expected to be just 13% of average, the lowest on record.”
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Reposted by Jess Hejny
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
New at Can We Still Govern? Trump is relocating more federal employees, this time for the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees SNAP. The rationale is to bring services closer to the public. But that is not what the data shows, says Jon Schwabish. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/why-is-tru...
donmoynihan.substack.com
Why is Trump Relocating the Food and Nutrition Service?
The data shows it is not to move services closer to those receiving benefits
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Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
The real goal of the racial gerrymandering across the former Confederacy is to bludgeon African Americans into second-class citizenship, so their communities can be dumped on In La.'s 'Cancer Alley,' the right to vote is the right to breathe. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/raci...
inquirer.com
For La.’s ‘Cancer Alley,’ Black voting struggle is a fight to breathe | Will Bunch
For disadvantaged Black residents of the most heavily polluted region in America, racial redistricting is a life-and-death matter.
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Justin Mikulka @justinmikulka.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
"In short, prices at the pump are poised to keep rising if the U.S. exports more oil and gas and drains its inventories." WSJ
powering-the-planet.ghost.io
The Simple Math of US Oil Exports
President Trump and many of the traditional oil industry cheerleaders and propagandists are selling a very big lie right now about the U.S. oil industry. They want people to believe that while oil com...
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Jess Hejny @jesshejny.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Don Quixote-ass president
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
There's so much weird about this bizarre simulacrum of a human being, but the obsession with windmills as a threat to all mankind has to be in the discussion. Imagine if Dwight Eisenhower denounced trains in every third public appearance, or Jimmy Carter always veered off topic to condemn toasters.
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 15/05/2026
"The cost of a typical utility-scale battery installation has fallen by well over half since 2022, and by 27 per cent last year alone" www.ft.com/content/b5c5...
ft.com
The dawn of 24/7 solar power
Falling battery costs drive the economics of round-the-clock renewables
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Literally looting the federal treasury to hand out more than a billion dollars to the January 6 insurrectionists and other cronies and henchmen
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
New piece in Science: Sudden elimination of USAID grants triggered waves of violence in affected regions in Africa, undermining civic governance and fueling civic unrest. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Aiding peace or conflict? The impact of USAID cuts on violence
Less than a week after its inauguration, the second Trump administration issued a blanket stop-work order for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the largest national human...
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
My guess is that the percentage of Americans who are aware that we are blockading and immiserating a neighboring country is in the single digits. Its not an invasion, but involves the use of American military force with the intent of collapsing the government.
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John Cluverius @johncluverius.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
T I M E L Y
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Removing the gas tax doesn't target fossil fuel companies. If anything, it helps them by making it more likely consumers buy gas.
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Jennifer N. Victor @jenvictor.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Historical perspective is so valuable for processing the context of the present. This piece is spot on.
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Seth D. Michaels @sethdmichaels.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
"The second-guessing could extend even to long-settled standards...such as how much arsenic is allowed in drinking water and how much lead is acceptable in paint and soil." www.propublica.org/article/trum...
propublica.org
“A Huge Setback”: New EPA Directive Could Weaken Hundreds of Chemical Regulations
For decades, a small EPA program assessed toxic chemicals. In an internal memo obtained by ProPublica, a top Trump appointee sharply criticized the program’s work and directed agency offices to review...
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Yes, this. Everyone can keep blaming Biden & Garland if they want, but the primary, secondary, & tertiary answer to everything about our democracy's collapse since 2021 is "Mitch McConnell & the GOP Senators totally violated the oaths they swore on Bibles, twice, & so here we are."
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Jess Hejny @jesshejny.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Fantastic thread. For anyone asking which automakers opposed the rollback of CAFE standards in the first Trump admin, it was ONLY Ford, Honda, BMW, and Volkswagen (per Tabuchi in the NYT at the time). All the other manufacturers supported the rollback.
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