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Phil Rocco

@philiprocco.bsky.social
3.6K followers 2.6K following 1.2K posts

politologue // yinzer // co-editor of Publius: The Journal of Federalism // author of "Counting Like a State" kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700638758/co… Most posts are first drafts, comments welcome.

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Reposted by Phil Rocco
Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 20h
Incredible chutzpah from a Congress whose one major legislative act was a budget bill that among other things imposed significant new administrative burdens on Medicaid recipients
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Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
America.gov launched today--a DOGE initiative to use AI to deliver public services. Child lying facedown on a frozen lake as the image accompanying the question: "How can I invest in my child's future" is just incredible. Way to go AI
Image of a child lying facedown on a froze lake.  above is the portal where you ask AI questions about government services.  the question matching this image is:  "How can I invest in my child's future?"
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It's a good day to google "Foxconn," "Wisconsin," "Trump," "2018," "13,000 jobs" and "didn't happen, didn't even come close"
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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
New from @maschwar.bsky.social Melissa Schwartzberg, in response to Danielle Allen's repeated serious misreading of the moment and of the Trump administration's bad faith with respect to higher education. www.chronicle.com/article/dani...
chronicle.com
Danielle Allen Is Wrong About Trump
Dealmaking under duress is always undemocratic.
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Scholars Strategy Network @scholars.org · 29/09/2026
The Trump administration has proposed excluding noncitizens from the 2030 census count. In this @newrepublic.com op-ed, @philiprocco.bsky.social warns that the change would reshape representation and funding, and argues that states and localities must defend the count.
newrepublic.com
The Fight to Save the Census From Trump Starts Now
The administration’s proposed changes to the 2030 census will harm states and cities. Here is how they can fight back.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A while back @philiprocco.bsky.social wrote about how the Trump administration was already using government resources for propaganda messages in Social Security messaging. Is it illegal? Part of the problem is defining what counts as propaganda... donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-federa...
donmoynihan.substack.com
The Federal Government is Emailing You Campaign Literature – Can Anyone Stop It?
Is it legal for Social Security to send you partisan propaganda? In theory, no…
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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 23/09/2026
Litigation may stop this rule. Only states and cities, working with the organizations their residents trust, can make sure the count survives it. trib.al/YnaIlH7
trib.al
The Fight to Save the Census From Trump Starts Now
The administration’s proposed changes to the 2030 census will harm states and cities. Here is how they can fight back.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Still about two weeks to submit comments on this hideous proposed rule: handsoffourcens.us
handsoffourcens.us
Hands Off Our Census
The Census Bureau has proposed unprecedented changes to the 2030 Census. Public comment closes October 13, 2026. Here's what's proposed and how to weigh in.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Not @npr.org erasing the history of labor struggle in a segment on the origins of the eight-hour day.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The 2030 Census is now squarely in the Trump admin's crosshairs. But states, cities, counties, NGOs, and (yes) you can fight back. New from me in @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/2153...
newrepublic.com
The Fight to Save the Census From Trump Starts Now
The administration’s proposed changes to the 2030 census will harm states and cities. Here is how they can fight back.
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Norm Charlatan @normcharlatan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is a thread about an all-day academic conference of early research findings about the effects of Operation Metro Surge. Kind of harrowing to seeing the damage of the federal government’s combination ethnic cleansing/ideological terror campaign laid out like this.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Low-hanging fruit in next WI legislative session: a bill to require that the state print and distribute a ballot pamphlet with a plain-language summary of any referenda, along with analysis, pro-cons, supporters/opponents.
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The Washington Sun @washingtonsun.com · 15/09/2026
Senate Democrats release a report that says immigration officers got little training and “magic” data when looking for noncitizen voters.
washingtonsun.com
Whistleblower Says DHS’s Hunt for Unlawful Voting May Have Broken State Laws
Senate Democrats release a report that says immigration officers got little training and “magic” data when looking for noncitizen voters.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The Douthat piece where he talks about the importance of AI closes with a sponsorship notice from a healthcare company using AI to deny claims.
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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 12/09/2026
Program's up! 30+ teams share evidence abt impacts on health, educ, & econ + community response. Great folks @ziibiing.com @ottergoose.net @aaronrosenthal.bsky.social @chrisuggen.bsky.social @casemcnich.bsky.social @ngraetz.bsky.social @craigstetter.bsky.social docs.google.com/document/u/1...
Documenting the Impact of US DHS Activity in MN

Conference Date: Sept 22, 2026

Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs

Purpose

In December 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began a significant, sustained agent surge in Minnesota that affected the daily lives of many residents, but had severe impacts on immigrant communities and communities of color.

This one-day, in-person convening provides researchers from across disciplines and organizations with an opportunity to share and discuss research related to the effects of Operation Metro Surge and Operation PARRIS.
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Rick Hasen @rickhasen.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
USPS Rejects Florida County’s Mail Ballot Envelope Design over Return Address Being 0.014 of An Inch Too Close electionlawblog.org/2026/usps-re...
electionlawblog.org
USPS Rejects Florida County’s Mail Ballot Envelope Design over Return Address Being 0.014 of An Inch Too Close #ELB
A taste of what would happen if the USPS mail ballot rules were in effect: The U.S. Postal Service — which President Donald Trump hopes to deploy to restrict mail voting in the November election — rec...
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
All I ask is for political journalists to get merely as angry about this as they did when Obama tried to move Fox News's seat to the second row in the WH briefing room.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is extremely well done.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Today, the Trump administration proposed a draft rule (which we've known was coming for months) that, among other things, would take the unprecedented step of excluding a large number of noncitizens from population data in violation of the text of the 14th amendment. Two thoughts on this: 🧵
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Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law @jhppl.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Finally, book reviews! @philiprocco.bsky.social reviewed "Ripples of Hope in the Mississippi Delta: Charting the Health Equity Policy Agenda" by the late David Kline Jones, which examines the stark disparities that define life in the Mississippi Delta. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...
read.dukeupress.edu
Ripples of Hope in the Mississippi Delta: Charting the Health Equity Policy Agenda | Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law | Duke University Press
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
If you’re at #APSA26, stop by our Annual Review of American Federalism Roundtable today at 2 pm in the Westin (Parliament). Some excellent work on federal extortion, the federalization of the National Guard, party nationalization, Medicaid retrenchment, and AI policy conflicts.
Poster advertising roundtable on Annual Review of American Federalism.
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Frank Pasquale @frankpasquale.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Note “the possibility of communities forming compacts that establish minimum terms for data center development, allowing them to prevent firms from playing various jurisdictions against one another in a race to the bottom.” www.thetechbubble.info/p/the-future...
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
At this point, I am increasingly attracted to the notion of creating a national parastatal organization that follows the data protocols CDC is ignoring here. Not the only agency that relies on state inputs to which this idea might be profitably applied, I’m sad to say.
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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
It's really looking like AI-free classrooms will be for students at "elite" or "top" schools.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Would be curious to see how opinion on “hardball” (bad term) moves when you connect it to material stakes. One of the big failures of the Dem. institutional reform talk imo is that it never articulates what would happen if, say, court reform occurred. Student debt jubilee? Health care? &c
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Unlike AI, the benefit-cost ratio for cheese is certainly >1.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
condescending to a Wisconsin audience with a cheese-based analogy is…a choice.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Simply a terrible opening play. Allows Tiffany to flatly lie (which he obv has no problem doing) to outflank on this.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Don't. Print. Lies. In. The. Newspapers. The Narrative™️ cannot fail (it can only be failed).
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I feel like Wisconsin should at this point be able to create a strategic publicly owned cheese reserve.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Cheese banks a truly missed opportunity for conceptual work in Pynchon’s “Shadow Ticket”
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Wouldn’t be a bad idea to see an ad buy or two in WI general election that explicitly name checks the three (3) or so billionaires financing the Tiffany campaign.
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Frank Pasquale @frankpasquale.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
“Modern digital platforms possess the capacity to tailor compliance on a jurisdiction-specific basis, undermining claims that state regulation of online services is inherently extraterritorial or imposes unavoidable burdens on interstate commerce.” harvardlawreview.org/blog/2026/01...
harvardlawreview.org
Executive Preemption and the Dormant Commerce Clause After Pataki and Paxton Harvard Law Review
I. An Executive Order at Odds with Doctrinal Evolution In December, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice to challenge...
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Totally irresponsible for columnists, journalists, and electeds to keep parroting this nonsense. See Young et al. “The most striking finding of this research is how little elites seem willing to move to exploit tax advantages across state lines in the United States.” www.jstor.org/stable/24756...
jstor.org
Millionaire Migration and Taxation of the Elite: Evidence from Administrative Data | JSTOR
Cristobal Young, Charles Varner, Ithai Z. Lurie, Richard Prisinzano, Millionaire Migration and Taxation of the Elite: Evidence from Administrative Data, American Sociological Review, Vol. 81, No. 3, J...
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
It would, once again, be great if WI electeds and others would stop unconsciously repeating myths about millionaire tax flight and instead consult the scholarship on this non-phenomenon: www.sup.org/books/sociol...
sup.org
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Brewers 7th inning stretch, wrong lyrics only
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
High time for reputable journalists to abandon the literary convention of describing orgs like Third Way as “moderate” or “centrist” groups, as if those terms have content. Any reporting would tell you they’re a sieve for corporate money & the ideas they put out are epiphenomenal of this.
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Seth D. Michaels @sethdmichaels.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
"The whole case is a reminder of how directly the White House controls granular questions around grant-making, and how pettily it can wield that newfound power...'the government in these cases is absolutely terrified of discovery.'" talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-a...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Trump Administration Has Repeatedly Confessed in Court to Withholding Money From Blue States
Late last year, Department of Justice (DOJ) officials agreed to make a...
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Return to the Future Past
1984 Metro Milwaukee Light Rail System Plan
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Tennessee Lookout @tennesseelookout.com · 03/08/2026
COMMENTARY: Crickets: Four fatal shootings by the Memphis Safe Task Force and almost no national news coverage. At the root lie Tennessee politicians who approve of the task force, writes Editor @jhollymc.bsky.social.
tennesseelookout.com
Crickets: Four fatal shootings by Memphis Task Force and little coverage from national news • Tennessee Lookout
Four men have been shot and killed in Memphis by agents with the Memphis Safe Task Force. Does anyone outside the city care?
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Lauren Miller Karalunas @lmillerkaralunas.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
With November around the corner, folks should expect to see certification back in the news. Look no further than these guides from @brennancenter.org @allvotingislocal.bsky.social @campaignlegal.org & @protectdemocracy.org for all you need to know about it and why attacks on the process won't work.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
He’s frankly an inspired choice for data center spokesperson. I would also recommend AI companies invest in a whole flying squad to complement him which includes: -Martin Shkreli -“Mr Delicious” from the Rax Roast Beef commercials -The hallways from Backrooms.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
In retrospect you have to ask who wrote the email saying: “We want to pitch a data center in Wisconsin Rapids? Get me Eric Adams, pronto!” hellgatenyc.com/eric-adams-i...
hellgatenyc.com
Eric Adams Is Selling Data Centers in Wisconsin Now
The former mayor had a wild weekend, and other links to start your day.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
In retrospect you have to ask who wrote the email saying: “We want to pitch a data center in Wisconsin Rapids? Get me Eric Adams, pronto!” hellgatenyc.com/eric-adams-i...
hellgatenyc.com
Eric Adams Is Selling Data Centers in Wisconsin Now
The former mayor had a wild weekend, and other links to start your day.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
As many as 33,000 Wisconsinites have lost SNAP benefits in the last year. For reference, the margin in the 2024 presidential election was 29,397 votes. www.wpr.org/news/thousan...
wpr.org
Thousands of Wisconsinites have lost food aid in largest cut in US history
The One Big Beautiful Bill passed last year by President Donald Trump and Republicans is the largest cut to healthcare and food aid in the nation’s history, advocates say. Food pantries are seeing a n...
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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 02/08/2026
New from Strength In Numbers: Trump’s immigration agenda and esp deportation operation is unpopular in every swing state — including Maine, where Susan Collins is trying to moderate on ICE www.gelliottmorris.com/p/even-repub...
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B. Pladek @bpladek.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
ah... regional literature
cover of the novel WISCONSIN! by Dana Fuller Ross: two burnished 70s-makeupped pioneers(?) in front of some log cabins. they're arguing. her eyebrows are on-point. he is wearing velvet lapels for some reason?? above the title, in allcaps: "THE MAGNIFICENT SAGA OF DEFIANT MEN AND PASSIONATE WOMEN CLAIMING A WILD LAND... AN DMAKING IT THEIR OWN." above that: an american fuckin eagle, radiating patriotism
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
the wealthy (who control the business press) want expansive, stimulative monetary policy when Republicans run government and restrictive, recessionary policy when Democrats run government. So you get articles like this saying inflation is fake when a Republican is in charge.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I guess they asked AI to rewrite wicker man
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
As the debate over taxing the rich in WI re-emerges and we hear about purported “millionaire tax flight”, we should consult the evidence. Millionaire moves are rare and migration within US is a phenomenon of younger people struggling to get by. www.vitalcitynyc.org/mamdani-tax-...
vitalcitynyc.org
The Millionaire Exodus That Never Came
What really happens to the ultra-rich when states and localities increase taxes?
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