If you have a job right now, you are lucky. You probably have no idea just how lucky. And every number the government publishes is built so you never have to find that out. 🧵

From my post yesterday, posted BEFORE we learned she refused applying for a security clearance and BEFORE we learned world leaders get to Trump via Natalie. emptywheel.net/2026/08/19/n...

Montgomery County, Maryland raised the 911 fee on every phone, watch and tablet in the county 157 percent in two years. The public hearing had one item on it and zero speakers. Nobody knew. That is the whole story. Part one of a new series. bit.ly/3U7hj76

Nobody Checked

Have you ever really looked at your phone bill? The people who send it hope you don’t. I looked at mine in July and could not account for $163.34 of it.

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The weaponization of children by an official White House account isn't just a moral collapse — it is a complete, public degradation of institutional authority. 🧵

When government press offices treat official communications like a personal burn book, they usually end up proving their critics right. Here is a quick study in how not to handle rapid response. 🧵

Consolidating. The campaign account and the personal account are now the same account: @ewechtaluk.bsky.social. It is the handle I use everywhere else. Same posts, one place to find them.

Every rule we have for holding large electricity users accountable applies to facilities that plug into the grid. So the biggest ones have started skipping the grid. 🧵

The single biggest myth in modern political debate: that criticizing the Israeli government and calling it genocide means attacking Jewish people. Judaism is a faith. Zionism is statecraft. Letting foreign state interests override domestic politics isn't patriotism — it’s a betrayal of democracy.

The DSA knocks doors and makes calls. The establishment buys ads and waits. One of those builds a coalition. The other rents a Tuesday and then goes quiet for two years. 🧵

Feds just approved the sale of a Charles Co. coal plant to a Bitcoin miner who wants to run it on a gigawatt of gas. That was the easy part. Now the permits, the tax breaks, and a federal Opp Zone are Wes Moore's call, and his deadline is 9/28. Read the latest on TeraWulf: https://bit.ly/45y8uWi

Wes Moore’s Next Signature

Federal regulators just cleared the sale of the Morgantown coal plant. The decisions that determine whether a gigawatt of gas rises on the Potomac are still ahead.

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A sitting U.S. Senator, Bernie Moreno, has explicitly called his own former son-in-law, Rep. Max Miller, unfit for office due to a horrific pattern of alleged domestic and child abuse. Yet the silence and defense from leadership is deafening. 🧵

Getting a president to say the word genocide takes years. Survivors testify. Investigators work in conditions that make evidence nearly impossible to gather. Everyone treats the determination as the finish line. Nothing in American law makes the word do anything.

The FBI and EPA warned water utilities on July 30. Since July 27, systems in at least seven states have reported incidents. Attackers reached internet facing controllers, changed the passwords, and locked operators out of their own equipment. 🧵

A sitting member of Congress running for US Senate wrote this. Five days before her primary. 🧵

On August 5, 2025, Rep. April McClain Delaney signed two documents. One put her name on a bill to ban members of Congress and their families from trading stocks. The other reported new stock trades in her dependent children’s accounts.

The hypocrisy of our current political landscape is completely jaw-dropping. On one hand, we’re told that international law and diplomatic protocol are absolute.

On Sunday, March 12, 2023, the FDIC's $250,000 deposit insurance limit was suspended for Silicon Valley Bank's depositors. Every account made whole, insured or not. It took two days. Your unpaid ambulance bill stays on your credit report for seven years. 🧵

Montgomery County raised the 911 fee on every phone line 168% in two years. The public hearing had zero speakers. I think some of those charges are being applied to devices state law exempts. I need to see more bills from Maryland residents. If you are a MoCo wireless customer, read on.

Someone read my post about Obama's immigration record and told me to knock it off. Obama wasn't that bad, they said. Trump is worse. I like Obama. That's why I won't lie about his record. The deportation machine both parties built, and the $45B keeping it running right now. https://bit.ly/4vKQ4fB

I Like Obama. That’s Why I Won’t Lie About Him.

Both sides say the other guy is worse. Both are right. That's how the machine survives.

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This isn’t about politics. It’s about life. Being a parent or stepparent is hard even on a good day. Right now, it’s brutal. To every parent and stepparent just trying to hold it together: I see you. From one parent and stepparent to another, you are enough.

The Senate Commerce Committee votes today on a bill to ban Chinese cars from the American market. There are currently no Chinese cars in the American market because a 100% tariff and a Commerce rule already handled that. What's still open today is the part worth watching. 🧵

Is it just me or does it feel like we're living in two completely different realities? On paper, the stock market is cruising and headlines say the economy is resilient. But in real life, the vibe is just pure, lingering dread. It’s an incredibly weird paradox, and it’s not just in our heads. 🧵

SNAP and Medicaid aren't broken by accident. The contractors who build the failing eligibility systems are bidding to build the next ones. Walmart and McDonald's are top employers of the people on these programs. Someone's profiting. It isn't families. https://bit.ly/4vIIqSR

The Programs You Think You Know

Medicaid and SNAP serve tens of millions of Americans. But they do it poorly and the GOP is trying to break them. Knowing is one thing, living the reality is even worse.

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The fatal shooting in Maine by ICE agent David Brouillette wasn’t just a tragedy—it was a tier-one failure of federal vetting. ICE is running rushed hiring pipelines that hand badges and guns to dangerous men. 🧵

The current Taylor Farms Cyclospora outbreak (1,600+ cases) isn't an act of god—it’s an act of Congress. Big Ag spent millions diluting federal rules so they could keep your food supply chain completely opaque. Let’s look at the two massive regulatory gaps they engineered. 🧵

Yesterday at the State Department, Stephen Miller stood in front of diplomats from 67 countries and declared the United States has "formally recognized left-wing violence as a form of political terrorism." Strip the euphemism. He was announcing who the state will hunt.

Air quality across MD-06 is bad right now. Montgomery County: Code Red. Hagerstown: Code Purple. Smoke sticks around through Saturday. Stay inside if you can. N95 if you go out. Windows closed, AC on recirculate. Skip the workout. Check on elderly neighbors. Stay safe, friends.

Tonight, from the East Room, the President told America our elections are rigged. He offered no proof, because there is none. He lost. He's just afraid to lose again. This cannot be accepted. My full statement on tonight's address.

Same bill. Two votes. One afternoon. @repaprildelaney.bsky.social voted no on cutting $3.3B in unconditional military financing for Israel. Then voted no on the bill itself, over humanitarian aid cuts. She’ll walk from refugee funding but she’ll refuse to touch the Israel money.

On Monday Trump signed away more than 90% of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Grand Staircase: 1.87 million acres cut to 181,500. Bears Ears: 1.36 million cut to 121,000. Almost 3 million acres of protected public land, gone in an afternoon.