NYC has a clear, achievable plan to close Rikers Island and create a public safety system that delivers safety, justice, and accountability for everyone. The Independent Rikers Commission is launching a new video series to show how to make it happen.

Rikers commission aims to seize momentum with video campaign

The commission assembled to keep New York City on track to close Rikers Island is releasing a series of videos aimed at spurring progress forward.

cityandstateny.com

I want the statement "Black Americans are conservative" to absolutely die in a fire. It's a lie from the pits of hell. Black America's record demonstrates that, as a whole, we are the MOST progressive racial/ethnic demographic in the United States and it's not even close.

The board of a Michigan township agreed to rezone a terrain to make way for a data center. Residents opposed to the data center forced a vote on the matter, and they blocked the rezoning tonight: www.mlive.com/news/ann-arb...

This plane landed in Myanmar about three hours ago. This is the third ICE flight to Myanmar this year. Burmese deportees in 2025 were immediately sent to a torture facility next to the airport, according to Myanmar Now. Weeks later, not all of them had emerged.

Gillian Brockell@gillianbrockell.com · yesterday

This likely ICE flight operated by Journey Aviation has taken off and appears to heading for an Asia removal. In May, this aircraft deported people to Myanmar.

YES I am so grateful to no longer be represented by a genocidal ICE loving sleazeball. Congrats to everyone who organized for successful public transit & education millages in Wayne County! & CONGRATS to Rep Tlaib, who easily won based on her track record of CONSISTENTLY showing up for EVERYBODY!

HuffPost@huffpost.com · 3h ago

McKinney’s win is another victory for the progressive insurgency toppling incumbent Democratic lawmakers.

Years of deregulation and “no uptick in permits for building new housing in The City” JP Morgan: “With the right public policies in place, the firm can provide more capital for housing, scaling solutions that help expand supply and affordability” See what’s going on yet?

SF economy "accelerating" in second quarter

A 14% jump in rents indicates a "significant" shift.

sfexaminer.com

A gentle observation: Some of the same older Black voters in Detroit who are being shaded for not supporting Abdul El-Sayed in the primary sent Rashida Tlaib to the House. And keep sending her there. 🤯 Yes, her district encompasses all of Dearborn *now,* but not in 2018. All politics is local.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donavan McKinney wins Democratic nomination for U.S. House in Michigan's 13th Congressional District.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Abdul El-Sayed wins Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Michigan.

I’ve been screening our documentary with organizing communities in the South. So far, the organizers mention data centers first at every single event. From racial justice orgs to old school activists who don’t usually think about tech policy. This has legs.

Everyone has a friend that’s a teacher. Cashapp them some funds to help them setup their classroom for the Fall.

You can taste my folding chair I swing it high and wide You thought this fight was 5-on-1 Til my niggas joined my side This ain’t go the way you thought (no no no) When my cap flew in the air That summoned all my ppl dem Even AquaMayne appeared

If you aren't aware of Bolts they do fantastic journalistic coverage of politics across the US and down into local elections.

Bolts@boltsmag.org · 11h ago

Kansans rejected a measure to remake their supreme court. Missourians refused to phase out the income tax. Voters chose Senate and governor nominees, and in Washington they narrowed the field for supreme court seats. Catch up with the night's results.

I’m telling you this as a political scientist. The person who is electable is the one who is elected. This can and does change over time. Any and all speculation about “electability” is either puffery or anxiety and is often both.

Julia Azari@juliaazari.bsky.social · 15h ago

One way to be safe is to never write an electability take

I know we are chalking the success of some leftist candidates almost entirely to the DSA. However, it seems like the more common theme is that these are candidates with organizing experience?

This is so good. The words predatory & school together are so fucking vile. Even worse is the dept of ed tried to keep stalling on getting rid of this debt. “More than 170,000 federal student loan borrowers who said they were defrauded by their schools are set to have $11 billion in debt erased”

Tressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 5h ago

Congratulations to everyone who worked their asses off for something that any semi-decent and ultimately self-interested government should have done in penance www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/b...

Congratulations to everyone who worked their asses off for something that any semi-decent and ultimately self-interested government should have done in penance www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/b...

Education Dept. to Wipe Out Student Loans of 170,000 More Defrauded Borrowers (Gift Article)

The sprawling case, centered on students defrauded by for-profit schools, has now become the largest class-action settlement in American history.

nytimes.com

Lest we forget, it’s the three year anniversary of the Montgomery Brawl. Please toss your hats in the air, swim fully clothed, and knock someone’s lights out who deserves it to commemorate Fade In The Water Day.

I should be less surprised at how flamboyantly and consistently Randi Weingarten has failed the challenges of leading one of the teachers' union in the US in age of gAI. Deeply uncritical, incredibly short-sighted, but most of all, pusillanimous.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 5h ago

“Teaching educators about AI is a ‘moral imperative’, said Randi Weingarten, the AFT president.” “And without outside funding, it was a choice between taking big tech’s money or doing nothing, she said.”

Was just talking to a friend who was feeling so deeply ashamed of not being able to protect her trans kid and I told her this is not her fault, this is a purposeful targeting of the marginalized by the powerful. All the wrong people feel shame.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · yesterday

bring back shame www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

The writer of the Atlantic piece, Will Oremus, has a history of specifically going after non-white writers and boosting completely unsubstantiated stories of AI use when their work is celebrated. Confirming, again, the Atlantic is the spot for racists who think they are intellectuals.

Susanna Kearsley@susannakearsley.bsky.social · yesterday

❤️ Gillian Green, publisher at Tor Bramble, told The Bookseller: “HM Wolfe has confirmed that Daggermouth was written entirely without AI. We stand behind our author, and we do not recognise third-party AI detection tools as a fair or reliable measure of authenticity when used on their own.”

Truly frightening how many people in our community are at risk for kidnapping at any moment. Please don't just stand by and watch your neighbors be disappeared. You can call anonymously. 888-347-3767 DIRE hotline for 🧊 activity in New Jersey.

🧊 is so bad out there. There's been a bunch of abductions in Jersey City already today. Please look out for your neighbors. Anywhere in New Jersey you can call the DIRE hotline and they will be able to get sighting info to ppl who can help. 888-347-3767 Please call if you see anything.

Was just talking to a friend who was feeling so deeply ashamed of not being able to protect her trans kid and I told her this is not her fault, this is a purposeful targeting of the marginalized by the powerful. All the wrong people feel shame.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · yesterday

bring back shame www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

It's disappointing that college presidents helped the Trump admin create a list of reforms that includes cracking down on protests and hiring faculty members based on conservative ideology. Any institution agreeing to these terms is admitting that they don't actually care about free speech or merit.

"Everything is just data so we can computer it" has broken so many brains I swear

"I used AI and my brain" is the new "I'm neither left nor right"

Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, 41, is the 22nd person to die in ICE custody this year, according to agency data. In 2026 we have real concentration camps. And Black and Brown people are dying in them. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Immigrant being held at Delaney Hall dies, marking 22nd death in ICE custody

Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, 41, was arrested in New Jersey in June, and died after a ‘medical emergency’, agency said

theguardian.com

Jonathan Howard@joho.bsky.social · yesterday

These guys are freaking out over their own imaginations again.

🔥🔥🔥🔥 “All of the speculation and hype around A.I. is hiding the fact that the technology isn’t just large language models or agents or data centers. It is the backbone of a superstructure that merges regressive politics with unchecked economic power in the guise of technological innovation.”

Tressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 2d ago

Anyway, I made a reading list in public. I try to avoid doing that. The Twitter “syllabus” wars scarred me. It’s gonna be a touchy few days.