About where I’m at on this. Grab this opportunity.

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2h ago

The topline from Abdul El-Sayed’s win is that his platform for change still managed to win despite grotesque levels of outside campaign spending and a racist smear campaign to paint him as un-American. The grassroots desire to upset the status quo is that powerful.

I've read most of the books on @tressiemcphd.bsky.social's proposed reading list and plan to read the rest. These are excellent recommendations. In fact, @gilduran.com (author of The Nerd Reich) will be a guest on Movement Memos soon.

Opinion | Want to Fight Back Against Big Tech? Start Here. (Gift Article)

A.I. is a political theory. And it is gobbling up our democracy.

nytimes.com

Abdul El-Sayed has never held elected office and just won the primary for a senate seat in the biggest battleground state in the country by beating a congresswoman who was endorsed by the current Senator, Governor, and Schumer & the DSCC while being outspent over 10 to 1. That win is plenty big.

Politico@politico.com · 10h ago

Progressives didn’t get the big election night they wanted

We have so much power to do good. 🧵

John Bull@garius.bsky.social · 11h ago

small, single corridor shopping centre in Stevenage Old Town. Called the 'Magnet centre' after the family that owned the land. odd nik-nak and dress shops... ...and in the mid-90s briefly, hidden at the back, the town's first comic shop. we discovered it as teens. it was like finding heaven /1

I’m so happy! Great job, organizers. Great job, MI Dems.

PBS News@pbsnews.org · 4h ago

NEW: Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan's Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, defeating Rep. Haley Stevens in a massive victory for the party's progressive wing in a battleground state. https://to.pbs.org/4fPHHJQ

This is the way.

The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 16h ago

New York City’s business elites are long accustomed to direct access to City Hall, where even Democratic mayors felt the need to court the city’s wealthiest and most influential corporate leaders. That access is getting shredded by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

I was banned by BlueSky (then apparently unbanned) for calling for the trial & death penalty for Ralph de la Torre, former CEO of Steward Health Care, a man directly responsible for the deaths of disabled Americans. I stand by my analysis - the full writeup is here: www.patreon.com/mattbc/posts...

Ralph de la Torre, Steward Health Care CEO, Is A Murderer (And I've Been Banned By BlueSky) | Shouldn't Need to Be a Lawyer by Matthew Cortland

nb. I have been suspended from BlueSky. Patreon — now with new, easier URL, ShoudntNeedToBeALawyer.com or ShouldntNeed.com — is the best pla

patreon.com

Health care is a human right. But we are losing ground in this hellscape to murderers like Ralph de la Torre, who are plundering the health care system in order to buy themselves yachts. And murdering moms like Sungida Rashid to do it. We need Medicare For All. www.patreon.com/mattbc/posts...

I will forever admire you, @coribush.bsky.social. Thank you for your integrity. You're legitimately a hero for what you did saving people's homes during the height of COVID. You are an inspiration to me, Congresswoman, and I hope you know that.

We are hostages here www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/g...

Guard deployment to Washington into 2029 will cost roughly $1.4B, estimate shows

The extension of the National Guard deployment in Washington, D.C. until January 2029 will cost roughly $1.4 billion, according to a Defense Department estimate provided to Congress. The figure offers...

nbcwashington.com

If you have any history of abuse, do not watch the video of that representative being interviewed. I shouldn’t have and I am still amped up hours later. Those of you lucky enough not to speak abuser should, though. The guy is textbook.

When we uncritically accept narratives like “well, she wasn’t perfect, either” or “it seems more complicated than I thought, I’m just going to back off” or “well, parents deserve to control their kids’ environments”, that’s how this shit gets enabled. Call it out. Don’t let them control this.

welp, it turns out cook county sheriff tom dart was actually the one asking the general assembly to lower the minimum age for prison/jail guards in illinois from 21 to 18. here's his exchange with commissioner tara stamps during a recent midyear budget hearing:

Dave Byrnes@djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 3w ago

"We're working to expand [police forces'] talent pipeline" is a real slick way of saying "We're gonna let high school seniors work as prison guards"

Thread. Some serious voter repression shit.

Holly Stallcup (she/her)@hollystallcup.bsky.social · yesterday

I am here at Tarrant County Commissioners Court as they prepare to vote on reducing our polling locations to 50% of what we had in 2024. Past attendees say they have never seen it this full. The courtroom and overflow room are full. The second overflow room is more than halfway full. Proud of us.

New: police are being explicitly told to hide the fact they're using Flock to pull people over and arrest them. Basically, do not mention this in official police reports. If the tech is completely legal and acceptable, like law enforcement say, why hide it? www.404media.co/do-not-menti...

‘DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE’: How Cops Are Trying to Hide Their Use of Flock

“DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE TO THE OCCUPANTS OF THE VEHICLE. DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE IN YOUR REPORT OR COMPLAINT."

404media.co

I think we collectively have NO idea how deep and how wide the grift, exploitation, and criming go. Listen—whatever happens next we absolutely have to dig it all up, hold it up to the sunlight, prosecute, and make new laws better suited to addressing the scope of this administration’s corruption.

🗽LOLGOP🗽@thefarce.org · yesterday

A key detail of this that is not getting mentioned enough is that we would never have learned this if not for a lawsuit by the Trump organization!

This is a 1,600 bed facility, so it will instantly become one of ICE's largest facilities. It will also be one of (if not the actual) largest ICE jail/prison in the midwest.

Project Salt Box@projectsaltbox.com · yesterday

🚨ICE has awarded CoreCivic $536.2 million to operate the Prairie Correction Facility in Appleton, Minnesota as an immigration jail. The period of performance begins August 11.

Fae: “Tell us your true name.” Me: “…Just my name? No birthdate, no SSN, no fingerprint scan, no address, no mother’s maiden name? Are you sure you’ve even got the right Olivia Waite? There’s like six.” Fae: “What the hell kind of bargains have you been making?” Me: “They call it health insurance.”

If you're looking for ME because you're looking for Matthew, well, they got banned. Details here: shouldntneedtobealawyer.com/posts/ralph-...

Ralph de la Torre, Steward Health Care CEO, Is A Murderer (And I've Been Banned By BlueSky) | Shouldn't Need to Be a Lawyer by Matthew Cortland

nb. I have been suspended from BlueSky. Patreon — now with new, easier URL, ShoudntNeedToBeALawyer.com or ShouldntNeed.com — is the best pla

shouldntneedtobealawyer.com

Bluesky moderation @moderation.bsky.app has a lot to answer for. Until we can get them to reverse this egregious move, go find, follow, and support Matthew. We need them more than ever.

ali alkhatib@ali-alkhatib.com · 2d ago

anyway, if you're looking for Matthew Cortland, you should sub to their patreon since they're a disabled lawyer evidently getting deplatformed from places.

Anybody at @moderation.bsky.app want to try to explain why they suspended @matthewcort.land, ANOTHER of the most prominent people out here fighting for disabled and marginalized people? Like… are y'all planning to suspend/ban literally every disabled legal scholar/policy worker out here, orrrr…?

ali alkhatib@ali-alkhatib.com · 2d ago

anyway, if you're looking for Matthew Cortland, you should sub to their patreon since they're a disabled lawyer evidently getting deplatformed from places.

It's an incredible insult to the US work ethic that we pretend that without this spectre of homelessness and death, that people wouldn't work. That's just not true. People want to work! They would just choose other jobs. The world is not better because some bankers really wanted to do social work.

I called WNET in NY to ask them to remove this video. I told them it was damaging to kids. You can call them, too! Call 212-560-1313 and press 2 to leave a message (the phone prompt seems to indicate 1, but that message directs you to 2). ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ruf...

AI Poetry Lesson | RUFF RUFFMAN: HUMBLE MEDIA GENIUS | Grades 3-5 Engineering & Technology Teaching and Lesson Resources

Ruff wants to create a new poem for his fans, but he has writer's block. He ends up using artificial intelligence to help write the poem in this animated video about media literacy from RUFF RUFFMAN: ...

ny.pbslearningmedia.org

The fight over the meaning of history is a struggle to define the current moment, which is to say its a struggle to shape the future

In an era where everyone lies incessantly blatantly and repetitively to achieve their political ends it is revolutionary to refuse to forget, to repeat the truth, to tell the story of what you lived and experienced carefully and accurately

Trans misogyny is misogyny. If little girls want to play school sports, these sick fucks want to be able to evaluate their genes, their blood…and their privates.

Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d ago

An initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play

NEW: In 2025 ICE obtained DNA from nearly one million people and funneled it into an FBI criminal database. The collection likely included DNA from young children and was backed by the threat of criminal prosecution. The raw genetic material is stored indefinitely. Free to read:

ICE Collected Nearly 1 Million People’s DNA Last Year—Including Young Children

Internal documents show ICE's DNA collection has skyrocketed in the second Trump administration. Now hundreds of thousands of people never convicted of a crime are in an FBI criminal database forever.

wired.com

If you're still on Substack, you're helping platform fascists and their enthusiastic minions, such as Bari Weiss, whom they actively partnered with just before her move to CBS. Go check out @buttondown.com and @ghost.org instead. You can even migrate yours subscribers and subscriptions!

s. e. smith@sesmith.lol · 3d ago

What if instead of starting substacks in twenty-fucking-twenty-six people learned to give one iota of a fuck about whether they want to associate themselves with nazis.

Today we observe Porajmos (Roma Holocaust) Remembrance Day. on the night of 2–3 August 1944, 2,897 Roma were murdered at the Zigeunerfamilienlager at Auschwitz-Birkenau. We remember them and the half a million Sinti and Roma murdered by Nazi Germany and fascist collaborators. Na Bistaren.

it's always a good sign when the nazi/CSAM guy is behind you

Portland Press Herald@pressherald.com · 5d ago

Elon Musk planning to throw financial support behind Susan Collins’ U.S. Senate bid