El-Sayed, Lawrence and McKinney all won progressive campaigns in Michigan last night by talking about climate and clean energy like it was a kitchen-table issue — because skyrocketing energy bills and endless wildfire smoke matter to people.
Edward Banatt
@armavirumque.bsky.social
Techie, skeptic, ultracrepidarian, sciolist, patzer, erstwhile twittersnipe. Blast-beruffled. Emotionally tatterdemalion. Esquerdopata.
Encouraging news. More like this, please.
Prem Thakker ツ@premthakker.bsky.social · 4h agoThis is the key takeaway: Haley Stevens got everything she could have asked for. AIPAC spent the most it ever has. The party pulled out all the stops. Millions were even spent to spread the false idea that the most popular president in modern US history endorsed her. And it still wasn’t enough.
Abdul El-Sayed will win the Democratic nomination for US Senate in Michigan, CNN's Decision Desk projects, handing progressives a major win in a critical battleground primary. He defeats Rep. Haley Stevens. https://cnn.it/4w6wmLu
Absolutely wild that El-Sayed got more votes AND a bigger margin in Gerald Ford’s hometown and former Republican stronghold of Grand Rapids than he did in hippie lefty Ann Arbor. AES +43 in Grand Rapids, +31 in Ann Arbor.
“If built as planned, the gas burning plants — scattered across states including Texas, Ohio and Wyoming — could release as much planet-warming pollution in a year as roughly half of all the passenger vehicles in the United States.”
Trump’s Push for More A.I. Data Centers Will Mean Major Air Pollution (Gift Article)
nytimes.com
The entire Republican Party, and a chunk of the Democratic Party, have a direct interest in convincing you that conservative wins are a mandate and anything else is not.
The raw turnout for this race is bananas. It dwarfs previous senate primaries. It’s higher than two of the last three presidential primaries in Michigan, and equal to the third, 2020, with over a dozen candidates on the ballot.
Abdul El-Sayed has won, NBC News says. And there are other wins for the left in Michigan: —William Lawrence wins his U.S. House primary. —A DSA-backed candidate is leading a Democratic incumbent for state House. —Abbas Alawieh, co-founder of Uncommitted, leads for state Senate.
You could say Abdul El-Sayed won despite $64 million being spent against him… one may also wonder if he won *because* of it
if you've never read it, here's a PDF; one thing I love about Bradbury's writing is how deceptively "simple" it feels and how much he indulges in his own private onomatopoeia
btboces.org
Adam Rawnsley@arawnsley.bsky.social · yesterdayToday, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.
Today everyone — EVERYONE — should take a moment and read Ray Bradbury's four-page short story from 1950.
Rebecca R Helm@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 20h agoToday is the day the story There Will Come Soft Rain is set. An amazing and heartbreaking work of fiction for our modern age. Read it here:
All that will trickle down, won't it?
Natalie Portman Says 'Right?'
ALT: Natalie Portman Says 'Right?'
static.klipy.com
Americans for Tax Fairness@4taxfairness.bsky.social · yesterdayNEW: Microsoft paid a 2.44% federal income tax rate last year on $101 billion of U.S. profits. The federal corporate tax rate is 21%. They should have paid $21 billion. But nope. They paid $2.46 billion. Trump's 2017 and 2025 tax cuts made it legal. Here's how 👇
I dont know about you, but this story has haunted me since I read it as a child. It’s still one reason I am a near-Luddite when I design houses for people (surveillance and hack-ability aspects aside).
Gilly@gillyarcht.bsky.social · yesterday‘In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs sunny side up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two cool glasses of milk. "Today is August 4, 2026," said a second voice from the kitchen ceiling’
Happy "There Will Come Soft Rains" Day! Ray Bradbury's greatest short story takes place on August 4, 2026 (in most editions; see alt text). If you haven't seen it, you must watch this incredibly disturbing animated Soviet version (Uzbekfilm, 1984.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oxP...
I'm sick of it too. If only there were something to do about it!
George Pearkes@peark.es · yesterdaylol *BESSENT: 'I GET SICK OF HEARING ABOUT THIS K-SHAPED ECONOMY'
“In recent months, ICE has deployed a round-the-clock digital dragnet to scour the public internet—from Facebook to Instagram to X—for speech that could endanger the agency’s mission.” Speech. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against its Critics
Agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.
wsj.com
Happy There Will Come Soft Rains Day to all who celebrate. (Especially those in Allendale, California.) short-stories.co/@raybradbury...
btw afik none of the White House reporters (the same ones who dined on steak at lobster at the correspondents dinner w/ Trump and his officials) asked Trump any questions about money laundering today or yesterday. 🤔
Reuters Legal@legal.reuters.com · 4d agoThe disclosure marks the first time a bank has formally tied money laundering concerns to Trump's family business.
Hast thou ever helped carry a bier, and heard the coffin knock against the churchyard gate, going in?
Moby Dick@mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 2d agoThe Titans, they say, hummed snatches when chipping out the craters for volcanoes
"The song's verses feature the use of polymeter. The bass and drums are playing in a time signature of 5/4, while the vocals, keyboards, and guitar are playing in 4/4. The chorus is in pure 4/4." youtu.be/L7Gpr_Auz8Y
The Cars - Touch and Go (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by RHINO
youtu.be
Think you've heard all you care to hear about filth? Next up, an interview with Trump's Groom of the Stool.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d agoTrump: "Look at the blue cities. What do they have in common? They're all dirty. They're filthy dirty. Their streets are dirty. Their streets smell. Their storefronts are broken. Their trees are all gross. Everything about the place is dirty. It's really all of them."
I need those My Dinner With Andre action figures from Waiting for Guffman
Michael Warburton@michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 2d agoThis Film often has the piss taken out of it for being a rather sedentary piece about 2 people just talking a lot — BUT — it has one of the most brilliantly prescient monologues in the history of Movies imho. MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (1981) Have a listen.