Zak Taylor
Prof. of public policy at Georgia Tech. My posts don't represent my university or USG. They are random reads & vents that I find interesting or provocative.
- Reposted by Zak Taylorthis case is maybe the single best example of one of the most destructive tendencies of this court: the tendency to treat their job as a collegiate legal seminar where they operate in hypotheticals rather than deal with the real world as it exists
- Reposted by Zak Taylorif you spend any significant amount of time on X the everything app, your brain is being cooked
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- Reposted by Zak TaylorREPORT: National Guard members deployed to Washington, D.C., have broken up fights, administered opioid overdose medication and helped deliver a baby, but they have not had a measurable impact on crime reduction. Read more: www.stripes.com/theaters/us/... #Flashes
- Reposted by Zak TaylorNo one should be opposed to this.
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- “It is clear that the current administration’s actions, along with congressional inaction, have increased costs for farm inputs, disrupted overseas and domestic markets, denied agriculture its reliable labor pool, and defunded critical ag research and staffing,” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/u...
- Reposted by Zak TaylorNew 25-page @centeronbudget.bsky.social paper from me summarizing the distributional, fiscal, and economic effects of One Big Beautiful Bill's tax cuts and cuts to health care, food assistance, student loans, and climate investments. 🧵 www.cbpp.org/research/fed...
- Reposted by Zak TaylorThe US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government every year from 1994 to 2023. The Cato study provides the first-ever 30-year analysis of the fiscal effects of immigration on government budgets. ow.ly/jy8a50Y8kM3
- How will conservatives reconcile this? "All that brave talk by patriots 'The government will never take my guns away,' and then nothing but meek submission when it happened." -The Turner Diaries by William Luther Pierce www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...
- It’s all about competition for high talent: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/o...
- There’s no evidence for any of this. But if enough Republicans lean into it, then democracy is over.
- Trump: "These people were brought to our country to vote, & they vote illegally. The Republicans should say, we should take over the voting in at least 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that I won that show I didn't win. You're gonna see something in Georgia"
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- Reposted by Zak TaylorNEW: We have questions—and some tentative answers—about the FBI’s search and seizure of election records in Fulton County, Georgia. Read on, from the @lawfaremedia.org team: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/we-h...
- Reposted by Zak TaylorI was curious where ICE and CBP agents in Minnesota were deploying from, so I looked at OPM data. What I found is that their duty stations are almost universally redacted from the public data. www.pbump.net/o/where-are-...
- Reposted by Zak TaylorExperts said the FBI’s seizing of ballots in Georgia triggered fears of federal interference in this year’s midterm elections: “It's a dramatic escalation … to expand federal control over our country's historically state-run election infrastructure.”
- We're there already, there are around 20-25 million hard core MAGAs.
- Reposted by Zak TaylorAn experiment: A wonkish post that isn't emailed out to subscribers paulkrugman.substack.com/p/a-wonkish-...
- Reposted by Zak TaylorThis is corruption on a breathtaking level. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi royal nicknamed the "spy sheikh", pumped $187mn into Trump family businesses. A WSJ team has the whole story, reported here for the first time. Remember: Jimmy Carter had to sell his peanut farm.
- Reposted by Zak TaylorThis week on the blog! By request of the ACOUP Senate (that is, patrons on Patreon at the patres et matres conscripti level), a very brief introduction to the Late Bronze Age Collapse, a collapse even more severe than the fall of the Roman Empire in the west! acoup.blog/2026/01/30/c...
- From July 2025: "The dollar's international usage is little changed over the past 5 years and far exceeds the US share of global GDP and trade. It also plays an outsized role in areas of financial innovation, such as being the dominant anchor for stablecoins." www.federalreserve.gov/econres/note...
- Reposted by Zak TaylorNEW: The @wired.com Security desk put together a comprehensive guide to filming ICE—with tips for reducing risk at the forefront. No paywall, but please consider subscribing to help find these kinds of resources. And stay safe out there. www.wired.com/story/how-to... www.wired.com/v2/offers/wi...
- Is the $US doomed? No! But it may be becoming a more normal currency podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...
- Fascinating new analysis from Sean Kates et. al. shows that Trump's fundraising is far broader, and taps deeper into the middle/lower classes, then most people assume. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
- Reposted by Zak TaylorThe fact that the cases are meritless actually makes them MORE effective for intimidation. Prosecuting actual criminals sends no broader message. They’re saying: “Piss us off and we’ll find some bullshit reason to tie you up in court whether or not we have any chance of making it stick.”
- Reposted by Zak Taylor"After a lawsuit and a defeat in court, however, the Trump administration says it is dropping the matter entirely." Trump letter banning DEI in schools is dead after legal appeal is dropped www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
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- Reposted by Zak TaylorMy New One @slate.com: "Trump’s Continued Obsession With 2020 Is a Joke. His Raid on a Georgia Election Site Is Not." slate.com/news-and-pol...
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- Dan Weiner at the Brennan Center says not to panic just yet: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...
- Reposted by Zak TaylorIt’s easy to forget since he’s still a high public official but Homan straight up took $50,000 in cash from undercover agents on camera and then nothing happened
- Trump and MAGA appear to be laying the groundwork to claim that millions of illegal immigrants (and traitorous Democrats) stole the election of 2020. Therefore ICE must patrol the 2026 midterms. ICE will arrest & detain any voter who looks suspicious. Thereby scaring them away and Repubs win.
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- Reposted by Zak Taylor1/With $ in free fall, re-upping @himself.bsky.social and my piece on the Other Thucydides Trap. When Athens turned its economic power into a system of tributes, allies turned into subordinates and left Athens in the lurch. US is committing the same mistake. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
- After Trump has deported all the illegals, he'll have 20,000+ ICE officers with nothing to do and a vast network of empty prisons...I wonder what he'll use them for? I wonder whose guns he'll take away?
- Reposted by Zak TaylorA Republican-led Utah audit of over 2 million voter registrations found only one noncitizen, who never voted. The results undercut the right-wing narrative of widespread noncitizen voting, especially as Republicans renew their push for a proof-of-citizenship requirement in voter registration.
- Reposted by Zak TaylorWe need to get it broadly understood that Stephen Miller's ethnic cleansing will result in a permanent metastasized immigrant carceral state and paramilitary warfare on US streets that goes on *for years.* The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity. newrepublic.com/article/2041...
- Reposted by Zak Taylor#TikTok has begun censoring anti-Trump and anti-Ice content
- Reposted by Zak TaylorWhen Mamie Till was on the stand during the trial of her son's murderers in 1955, the defense argued she had misidentified her son's body, was lying in order to claim insurance money for her son, & had staged the whole affair with the aid of Communists & the NAACP. Tills murderers walked free.
- In 2021, *all* state & local law enforcement totaled ~$222 bln. That's all city police, county sheriffs, state highway patrols, etc. In the OBBB, ICE was allocated $170 billion to spend over the next few years. So if you think this is bad, you ain't seen nuthin yet!
- Who provides ICE the services they use? Here are a few -CSI Aviation ($1.6 billion air transport) -MVM Inc ($1.23 billion investigations) -Classic Air Charter ($990 million air transport) -Acquisition Logistics ($598 million detention facilities) -BI Inc ($550 million electronic monitoring)
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- Reposted by Zak Taylor“You guys just got to the last page?”
- ICE is a huge problem for US democracy. ICE is growing into the tens of thousands and with a huge budget. It is highly secretive, little regard for the law. In November, Trump can cry "we must stop illegal immigrants from voting" and send ICE to intimidate voters in close districts/states. 1/2
- Reposted by Zak Taylor“One notable MIT study found that 95 percent of companies that integrated AI saw zero meaningful growth in revenue. For coding tasks, one of AI’s most widely hyped applications, another study showed that programmers who used AI coding tools actually became slower at their jobs.”
- Reposted by Zak TaylorNEW from me: DOGE is officially the largest one-year cut in the federal workforce since the end of WWII, with 279k jobs lost—though it didn't come close to its supposed goal of reducing the deficit & cut some of the federal government's most effective programs 🧵 www.apricitas.io/p/the-econom...
- Reposted by Zak TaylorThis is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
- Reposted by Zak TaylorHow will cuts and major structural changes to Medicaid, the ACA marketplaces, and SNAP impact health coverage, food insecurity, and financial hardship in 2026? @avivaaron-dine.bsky.social and other @brookings.edu Economic Studies scholars discuss what they’re watching in the new year:
- Reposted by Zak TaylorCarney: "American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods, a stable financial system... this bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition... recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as a weapon. Tariffs as leverage ... "
- Reposted by Zak TaylorSince Trump was re-elected, @forbes.com estimates— 💰His net worth is up $2.3 billion, to an $6.7 billion 💰Eric’s has increased tenfold, to $400 million 💰Don Jr.’s has increased sixfold, to $300 million 💰19-year-old Barron Trump is worth $150 million
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- Reposted by Zak TaylorImportant perspective from Greenland.
- Hmmm, so does this translate into: "Trump is bluffing, this is optics" or "Please ignore grandpa, he's off his meds." or "Trump is serious! If you play dead, then he'll go away...but if you escalate then he may feel forced to act and this will get worse."
- Reposted by Zak TaylorI wrote about how concentration camp regimes evolve and why it's not too late to stop this, even though we are deep in it now.
- Interesting take from G Zucman: “Europe should respond to Trump’s blackmail with targeted measures aimed not at American consumers, but at American billionaires. Access to the European market—by billionaires and the companies they own—should be made conditional on paying a wealth tax.”
- Respectfully disagree. I suspect Trump reserves decision-making power for himself. But the triumvirate of Miller, Rubio, Vought and a few others are probably driving the presidential "bus." This isn't that unusual. Reagan and W. Bush had similar setup (perhaps Ike too). 1/2
- While public opinion may be shifting against Trump's immigration strategy, it's still pretty supportive. Recent polls suggest that ~40% of Americans are solidly behind ICE and ~46% think the shooting of Renne Good was/may have been justified. In other words: MAGA likes it!
- Reposted by Zak TaylorMLK was only 39 when he was killed. Growing up, I thought that was old. But I’m 43 now and I’m stunned by the burden he shouldered at such a young age. I’m also a lot more aware of how hard it is, at any age, to carry the hopes and dreams of an oppressed people on your shoulders, as so many do.
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- In honor of MLK Day! www.pbs.org/education/bl...
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- Reposted by Zak TaylorI’ll never get over this. Trump unfairly pardoned someone, they turned around and committed a new crime, and Trump pardoned them again. You can commit any any crime you want as long as you have the money, power, and connections to get yourself a pardon. edition.cnn.com/2026/01/17/p...
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- What has DOGE accomplished over the past year? Very little! They cut down USAID and got rid of the US Institute for Peace, but otherwise it was mostly just political theater. Every line of the federal budget (and every office) is there b/c some powerful legislator or interest group wants it there:
- Whoa! This is potentially big. General strikes were amongst the most powerful form of protest during the 20th century. But will they still be effective in a WFH consumer economy?
- Reposted by Zak Taylor1/ The @startribune.com has put its live blog outside the paywall www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi... but here’s how you can support them even if you don’t subscribe …
- Great discussion about Trump & presidential power. Very interested to hear if @smotus.bsky.social @juliaazari.bsky.social @rudalev.bsky.social @johnadearborn.bsky.social and other scholars of the presidency disagree: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
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