Mike Cline

Stop the construction of the wall in Big Bend Ranch State Park & Big Bend National Park Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?

c.org/9ZKNkwDrQC

Me at 50: ah, fuck it!

Oil companies leak toxic gas across Texas — making local residents sick Tens of thousands of people live close to oil and gas wells where they risk exposure to hazardous levels of hydrogen sulfide. Regulators do little to protect them.

Even inside of town. I don't think this is good for people to be breathing in. But people will shrug their shoulders and accept that this is the price to pay to survive. An industry making hand over fist, and they can't figure out how to fix this issue? www.theexamination.org/articles/oil...

I have been going back home frequently to take care of my aging mother. Every time I am home, I get nauseated from the smell out in the air. When I was growing up in west Texas, I remember certain places where there was, what the old timers called, "the smell of money," but now it is everywhere...

When I lecture to students about how the apparently thriving economy of the 1920s was really a house of cards just waiting to be knocked down, one of the points I stress is how much a small number of the very rich were essentially propping up consumer spending in unsustainable ways

MAHA 2

www.bakerinstitute.org/research/rea...

For First Time in Decades, Child Deaths Will Rise This Year Almost a quarter of a million more children around the world are projected to die in 2025 than in 2024.

For First Time in Decades, Child Deaths Will Rise This Year

Thanks in no small part to DOGE cuts to USAID

www.wsj.com/health/for-f...

Not sure there is a "Texas style" anymore - DCI has seemed to taken over everywhere (except maybe in East Texas where they are still marching like the Aggies).

Should we tell Buzz Aldrin?

And I don't recall Texas Tech (my Alma mater) being ranked in the top 10.

Table

Demography is science, but it's not rocket science. Journalists and related professionals could understand crude birth rate, general fertility rate, and total fertility rate - and use the terms consistently. So I made this annotated table: familyinequality.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/l...

Happy (belated) Constitution Day.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Happy Constitution Day.

Too late. Recovering from it now.

Wall Street Leaning Harder on Private Data After Trump BLS Spat Philip Petursson has relied on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for decades to inform his investing recommendations at IG Wealth Management. Not solely, but as a key input, he said.

Wow, that was fast!

Don't underestimate how valuable trustworthy data from the US government underpinned big decisions and how that is being rapidly undermined.

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Statistics, public data leaders condemn Trump’s order to fire BLS commissioner One group, whose leadership includes two former BLS commissioners, called on Congress to respond immediately and investigate her removal.

“It’s just completely disheartening. It’s a sign that norms that have long existed are shattered,” says APDU President @amy-ohara.bsky.social about the firing of BLS Commissioner McEnfarfer

fedscoop.com/statistics-p...

Full statement is now on our website
apdu.org?p=5813739
#econsky

US economic data quality a worry, authorities not acting urgently enough, experts say Risks to the quality of official U.S. economic data - long seen as the gold standard - are worrying 89 of 100 top policy experts polled by Reuters, with most also concerned that the authorities are not addressing the issue urgently enough.

US economic data quality a worry, authorities not acting urgently enough, experts say (Reuters poll)

www.reuters.com/business/us-...

Federal Data Consolidation: Protecting Civil Liberties in the Digital Age YouTube video by American Enterprise Institute

Today's AEI panel discussion on privacy is worth watching
www.youtube.com/live/9urPOLC...

Data Rescue Project Portal is live!!!

There Were Still Old People When Life Expectancy Was 35. A demography myth that won't die

“Historically, no one lived past age 35”

"I’ve heard *so* many versions of this claim, including recently from a menopause doctor (implying menopause is not “natural” because noone lived long enough to go through it). Every time someone states this “fact,” a demographer loses a piece of their soul"

NEW: Census Bureau lost over 1,000 employees through early retirement and voluntary separation offers in recent months and plans to cut some statistical work, acting Director Ron Jarmin says. "It feels a little bit like Thanos snapped his finger and a lot of your friends and colleagues went away..."

Great job Aishwarya! 4th place. Way to represent.

I can't believe I am enraptured by the spelling bee. Cheering on our NC representative!

Trump Cuts Decimate Mapping Agency The National Geodetic Survey maintains and updates critical spatial reference systems used extensively in both the public and private sectors.

Even obscure data ‪still matters
Trump Cuts Decimate Mapping Agency
www.planetizen.com/news/2025/05...
HT @planetizen.bsky.social‬

peter griffin from family guy is standing on a stage in front of a large red ted talk sign . ALT: peter griffin from family guy is standing on a stage in front of a large red ted talk sign .

No, half the decline in the US TFR since 2007 isn't b/c of declining teen births. It's about 29%.

But, most of the decline (~80%) is due to declines in births to people<=24.

B/w 50-75% of births to people<=24 are unintended.

It's good news when people can avoid births they don't want to have.

DOGE targets Census Bureau, worrying data users about health of US data infrastructure The group run by Elon Musk that aims to cut federal spending in the second Trump administration is targeting U.S. Census Bureau surveys it claims are “wasteful."

DOGE targets Census Bureau, worrying data users about health of US data infrastructure
apnews.com/article/cens...

DOGE created a 'survey of surveys' for a push to cut some government data collection DOGE's push to cut some federal surveys conducted by the Census Bureau may be duplicating a White House agency's oversight work and weaken U.S. data infrastructure, experts warn.

DOGE started a ‘survey of surveys’ to end some federal data www.npr.org/2025/05/23/n...

BLS to Discontinue Selected PPIs BLS to Discontinue Selected PPIs

Budget cuts mean data cuts.
BLS is suspending many producer price indexes:
www.bls.gov/ppi/notices/...
#econsky