@chaoticflanagan.bsky.social
Teach your children ‘democrats are not always good, but republicans ARE always bad’ and in 2026 you’ve covered like 90% of their practical civic education wrt voting.
Stan Oklobdzija@stano.bsky.social · 16h agoThe best thing about Vote Blue No Matter Who is that it unloads a lot of cognitive burden. I wanted Tom Steyer to be in the Governor's race, but he's not so I'm gonna vote for Becerra. I don't follow his campaign at all: I'm voting for him because he's not a Republican.
lots of DNC stories and I’m seeing all kinds of crazy accusations and responses. Let me summarize the reality 1. Ken Martin is taking on DC corp/centrist consultants. Many of the leaks/hit pieces are sourced to them. 2. Martin is shifting $ to states and on-the-ground early spending. Good.
Truthout@truthout.org · 2d agoThe NYT published a missing chapter of the DNC “autopsy,” titled “What Happened in 2024” which offers criticisms of party consultants who are “self-enriching” and out of touch with the concerns of ordinary voters.
Israel is giving Trump's former campaign manager millions of dollars to fill the internet with pro-Israel articles written by AI, not so that anyone will actually read them, but so that *LLMs will train on them* & regurgitate their perspective. This is the future of the information environment.
Israel Is Paying Millions to Train AI Chatbots How to Talk About Gaza. It's Working.
Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is overseeing an operation posting hundreds of blog posts on behalf of Israel, with the goal of infiltrating artificial intelligence.
dropsitenews.com
The Trump admin is reportedly planning to cut a program that has kept drug prices lower for millions of seniors
Trump Administration To End Program Keeping Drug Prices Lower For Millions Of Seniors: WSJ
huffpost.com
Imagine if you mailed the IRS a check to pay your taxes, but they left their mail unopened for years and then arrested you for failure to pay taxes. That’s effectively what ICE is doing to increasing numbers of people now; people out of status only because of GOVERNMENT delay.
Why do people believe conspiracy theories? Research points to unmet needs for certainty, control, and belonging. My own research suggests that perceived victimhood is another key factor. medium.com/@m.j.faccian...
What Makes Someone Believe a Conspiracy Theory?
A massive new meta-analysis concludes that certainty, security, and belonging play a major role, and my own research finds that perceived…
medium.com
The only responsible attitude for liberals and progressives to align on is that all right-wing grievances, claims and believes are not only false, but malicious lies. Nothing passes the mouth of an American conservative in public life that is not meant to harm and destroy the lives of millions.
"...the Court has done significant damage to the formal, practical, and moral authority of federal district courts to hold the federal government to account—all while arrogating much of that same authority to itself..."
Steve Vladeck@stevevladeck.bsky.social · 3w agoI just posted my draft of this year’s Harvard Law Review #SCOTUS Foreword—“The Court Against the Courts.” It analyzes the challenges, obstacles, and threats district courts have faced in cases involving the Trump administration—and documents how & why the Court bears responsibility for much of it:
re: 'cost' - baby steps, but someday we'll get there, even Robinson Meyer static1.squarespace.com/static/571d1...
Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they)@doctorvive.bsky.social · 3w ago“The cost of climate-worsened wildfire smoke alone is larger than what earlier studies said every other estimated cost of climate change would be, combined.”
Yup. They didn’t have evidence when they sued 63 times. They didn’t have evidence in defense against the Jack Smith indictment, and they don’t have evidence now.
Acyn@acyn.bsky.social · 3w agoJonathan Swan says that when President Trump returned to office, he pressured the intelligence community to produce some kind of evidence proving that the 2020 election was stolen, and that Trump’s Thursday night address was the best they could do.
The US built the greatest talent magnet ever, attracting the smart, skilled, and striving. They’d come to study, then stay and build things here, or leave with positive impressions and fruitful connections. Helped make the US wealthy and powerful. Then America chose to throw it away. And for what?
Ben Allen@evodynamics.bsky.social · 3w agoCongrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...
Ok one more for the road and maybe for the last time: The Court is not a court and any possibility of meaningful reform must start from that premise: www.jurist.org/commentary/2...
The Supreme Court Is Not a Court — and Reform Must Start There
Whether the issue is redistricting, affirmative action, voting rights, abortion, presidential immunity, or any of the other country-defining issues that the Roberts Court has decided over the last two...
jurist.org
ICE caught routinely evading Court orders, shipping detainees away and even deporting them before habeas hearings. This was routine and secret. Judge is Not Happy. www.wlrn.org/government-p...
Miami-Dade's brushfires helped reveal that ICE violated over 100 court orders in South Florida
The incident has opened a can of worms in federal court after a federal judge was notified that 47 of those detainees were shipped outside the Southern District of Florida in direct violation of court...
wlrn.org
The advantage of asking the same survey question after each election is that you can capture huge shifts like this one:
John Gramlich@johngramlich.bsky.social · 3w ago94% of Republican voters were confident that in-person votes were counted correctly in the 2024 election, up from 64% in the 2020 election. 72% of Republican voters were confident that absentee ballots were counted correctly in 2024, up from 19% in 2020. www.pewresearch.org/politics/202...
This incident escalates the already serious questions about ICE's hiring practices. He reportedly has a diagnosis of severe bipolar disorder, confirmed by family, and was hospitalized for suicide multiple times. How many corners were cut to hire him and put a gun in his hand?
The Justice Department appears to have included a fake AI-generated. citation in an ICE detainee's case. Judge Jarbou, a Trump appointee in Michigan, called it out: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
The job of the AG is to enforce the law Todd Blanche fired a career pardon attorney for refusing to rubber stamp Trump's agenda & then sent US Marshals to her door If the Senate confirms Blanche, it won’t be confirming an AG, it will be confirming Trump’s personal attorney -TN
Fired Pardon Attorney Asks Court to Reject DOJ's Bid to End Lawsuit | Democracy Defenders Fund
Elizabeth G. Oyer, the former U.S. pardon attorney who sued the Department of Justice last year for unlawfully withholding records related to her abrupt dismissal, today asked a federal court to rejec...
democracydefendersfund.org
Headquarters@headquartersnews.bsky.social · 3w agoFormer Pardon Attorney: 2 days after Mr. Blanche was confirmed as Deputy AG, he fired me from my position as a pardon attorney. I declined to rubber stamp a political favor for Trump's friend. Blanche sent US Marshals to my home in an effort to prevent me from speaking with members of Congress.
"Why does nobody trust institutions anymore?"
Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social · 3w agoWhite-collar prosecutions actually are at an all-time low, so
WOW. The ex-wife of the ICE officer who shot a 26-year-old Colombian man in Maine has come forward to say that he had mental health issues and was abusive in their relationship. She says after the shooting he called asking her to vouch for him — instead, she went to the press.
Bruno J. Navarro@brunojnavarro.bsky.social · 3w agoThe federal immigration agent who shot and killed a 26-year-old Colombian man in Biddeford has been identified as David Michael Brouillette. Brouillette, who is 37 and lives in Manchester, was identified by an ex-wife as the ICE agent who shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.
Great thread, and consistent with my own pessimistic view that a lot of what Trump is doing will be pretty sticky, in that future presidents won't want to unilaterally give up from the prerogatives he has acquired for the office. That said, I also think other states will discipline US overreach.
Matthew Cebul@matthewcebul.bsky.social · 3w ago"But surely things will go back to normal after Trump, right?" Sadly, I doubt it. With the imperial presidency ascendant, foreign leaders must fear that future presidents will prove just as belligerent as Trump. Repairing this reputational damage will take time and deliberate effort.
The beatings will continue until amateur hour ends.
Bobby Kogan@bbkogan.bsky.social · 3w agoThis is funny because the White House says, in order to get the reconciliation bill done, Congress must pass the "budget resolution—without modification—immediately." But this budget resolution *must be* modified before it can be used for reconciliation. Amateur hour from the White House.
Making sure that Black people continue dying from preventable illnesses ==> just more of that good ol’ economic anxiety…
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3w agoTINA SMITH: Researchers in MN made a breakthrough in childhood cancer in Black kids with a grant. But it seems that according to your proposed rule, this type of research wouldn't allowed bc it's 'DEI.' VOUGHT: We are against DEI policies. We have intended to rid of them whenever we possibly can.
A while back I compiled a list of some of the *public* reasons why the Trump administration fired career public employees. Merit has fuck all to do with it. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/at-will-wh...
When someone tells you it has always been this bad, the correct response is to point out that the Voting Rights Act passed with 98 votes in the Senate in 2006 and its main sponsor was a Republican who worked with the ACLU to build a comprehensive record in defense of its most “controversial” parts
NERV IRB Coordinator@professormusgrave.bsky.social · 4w agoThere’s such a tendency for people to say “oh it’s always been that bad” to people who are vastly more informed and are saying things have changed. It’s like pointing to the smoldering ashes of a city and being informed that buildings have always caught fire
Graham’s death quote should be cross-stitched on a giant loom to be displayed in the White House or at least posted in lights over an old-timey marquee.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3w ago"Graham said he complained he was feeling unwell. When urged to seek care, Graham said he would after his scheduled appearance on NBC Graham joked: 'I can't die now. I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out & do Israeli-Saudi normalization' He passed away several hours later."
This is a really good explainer about the mortality estimates around USAID. One big point is that dismantling USAID also dismantled one of the main sources of mortality data in some of these regions. Early indicators of mortality are very worrying.
The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 3w agoElon Musk’s cuts to U.S.A.I.D. led to some 700,000 deaths, Atul Gawande says. www.newyorker.com/news/the-new...
A crowd of workers at the Russian oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk gathered as if for an airshow to watch Ukrainian FP-1 strike drones attack their plant.