John Saveland
@johnsaveland.com
Immigration and human rights advocate in Los Angeles. Hopelessly optimistic.
548 folks on death row = about 25% of the nationwide total. A big, wonderful fucking deal.
Newsom Commutes the Sentences of California’s 548 Death Row Inmates (Gift Article)
Gov. Gavin Newsom, in one of his last acts, commuted the sentences of all prisoners with death sentences, calling capital punishment morally objectionable. That’s about a quarter of death sentences na...
nytimes.com
Breaking News: The UAE hired Colombian mercenaries to help a notorious Sudanese paramilitary group accused of genocide, UN investigators found.
Lana Nusseibeh’s U.N. Bid Collides With U.A.E.’s Role in Sudan
Lana Nusseibeh, one of the Gulf nation’s top diplomats, has led the effort to deny her country’s role in Sudan. Now it’s complicating her bid to become secretary general of the United Nations.
nyti.ms
My final report from tonight: From Texas to Kansas to Iowa to Michigan, Democratic candidates drew on their religious values this election cycle — and won. And amid their victories, a shift in the popular understanding of intersections of religion and politics. religionnews.com/2026/11/04/o...
On Election night, the religious left is back
From Texas to Kansas, Democratic candidates drew on their religious values, securing wins and signaling a shift in the relationship between faith and politics.
religionnews.com
I think we should offer thanks to all the Ds who stepped up and ran courageous races in the face of endless media naysaying, vicious GOP propaganda, and Musk-fueled derangement, thoughtfully creating a new politics that appealed to people's basic decency at an extremely trying time in American life.
First Democrat elected to the Senate in Kansas since 1932. This is an FDR-level wave
VoteHub@votehub.com · 3d agoVoteHub projects Adam Hamilton to win the Kansas U.S. Senate election.
I am jaw-dropped. Democrats are leading in enough seats at the moment to flip the Texas state Senate.
BREAKING: Democrat James Talarico wins U.S. Senate race in Texas, NBC News projects. nbcnews.to/4sI7Gce
Our write-up on an unthinkable event: Texas has elected James Talarico, a member of the Democratic Party, to the U.S. Senate. Red Texas is dead. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
Talafreako Goes to Washington
The mild-mannered seminarian and state lawmaker will be the first Democratic senator from Texas in decades.
texasmonthly.com
'In 1860, an enslaved man named Sheppard Peek was listed among the possessions of William Peek, a white man in Crawfordville. His value was placed at $1,400. More than a century and a half later, Sheppard’s great-great-granddaughter, Keisha Lance Bottoms, was elected governor of Georgia.'
Keisha Lance Bottoms and the long road from Crawfordville to Governor’s Mansion
More than 160 years after her ancestors were enslaved in Georgia, the former Atlanta mayor has made history as the first Black woman elected governor.
ajc.com
This is shaping up to be the biggest House popular vote victory for any party since 1974 This is a Watergate-level repudiation of the party in power (A prospect I raised here: www.ms.now/opinion/trum... )
Opinion | Trump’s historic unpopularity gives Democrats a shot at last-minute undecided voters
G. Elliott Morris: Polls show President Trump has squandered his party’s advantage on several issues it has dominated for decades.
ms.now
The AP has called #SCsen for Annie Andrews (D), flipping Lindsey Graham's old seat. What a turn of events.
Judge temporarily blocks Tennessee from denying driver’s licenses to immigrants with U.S. work permits State has rejected 100s of licenses for DACA recipients, asylees after surprise rule to no longer accept the work docs as proof of status tennesseelookout.com/2026/11/02/j... @tennesseelookout.com
Judge blocks Tennessee from denying driver’s licenses to immigrants with work permits • Tennessee Lookout
A Nashville judge blocked Tennessee officials from denying driver's licenses to immigrants authorized by the government to live and work in the U.S.
tennesseelookout.com
Patrick Poch fled communist Czechoslovakia to come to the US. He finds what's going on right now extremely disturbing. "What worries me the most is not Trump himself or those who do his bidding, but rather the willingness of so many ordinary citizens to look away."
I Thought I’d Left Authoritarianism Behind
Four decades ago, I escaped Communist Czechoslovakia for America. Now my adopted homeland reminds me of the one that I fled.
theatlantic.com
This is a really good update we ran last week. So much going on there. (Gift link.)
A Coup Within a Coup in Guinea-Bissau
The ruling junta is turning against ousted President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, and the postponement of elections raises fears of a power grab.
worldpoliticsreview.com
A reasonably recent write-up on the political situation in Guinea-Bissau, including its recent suspension from the African Union www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11...
Guinea-Bissau coup: What happened, why it matters, what happens next?
General Horta Inta-A is named the head of a one-year transitional government after President Embalo was detained.
aljazeera.com
Bolsonaro is not the only election loser to escape to the US. Zbigniew Ziobro, a former Polish minister who is accused of using government money for private purposes, received a "journalist" visa from the US and resides there now too www.reuters.com/world/europe...
Fugitive Polish minister flew to US from Italy, prosecutors say
Fugitive former Polish justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who faces charges stemming mainly from his alleged misuse of money for political gain, flew to the United States from Milan airport on May 9,...
reuters.com
“Liberalism is that conviction—‘‘born in horror’’—that ‘‘cruelty is an absolute evil, an offense against God or humanity,’’ and must be mitigated.”Read my contribution to @liberalcurrents.com’s liberalism week, based on J.Shklar’s The Liberalism of Fear. www.liberalcurrents.com/born-in-horr...
Born in Horror: A Moral Reading of “The Liberalism of Fear”
Liberals have had their politics shaped by the horrors of history, and as a result, have developed a mature distaste for cruelty.
liberalcurrents.com
In six days, Georgia, we'll rebuke the crook President Donald Trump with such clarity and power that no president will dare such abuses again for centuries.
If you’re a politician anywhere outside the US, at this point the big lobbying move with Trumpworld should be to get him to endorse your opponent.
The timeline from “Trump International approved in Belgrade” to “Serbian govt faces protests” to “strongman loses election” suggests Trump/Kushner et al may face some reluctance towards future investments www.bbc.com/news/article...
Serbia's veteran ruler Vučić concedes election to student-led protest movement
The populist right-wing leader of 12 years says it is "clear" his party has lost the vote billed as a referendum on the country's future.
bbc.com
if voting didn't matter they wouldn't be working so hard to stop you
The Associated Press@apnews.com · 2w agoThe long-serving strongman leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has conceded defeat in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.
Of course a win for non-authoritarian leaders or movements does not automatically mean all problems are solved or that authoritarian forces can't come back in future. But it is worth maintaining hope and optimism, because if people succumb to nihilism and apathy then democracy cannot survive.
“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory” — Obama
I also think this is a very powerful graph. Most people don't know it, but the US is a *very* low-tax country. We tax below average and we spend below average, among rich nations. Fixing our fiscal situation entirely through taxes would still leave us *very* low tax. bsky.app/profile/bren...
Brendan Duke@brendanvduke.bsky.social · 2w agoA big reason why people w/ low incomes don’t share in our prosperity is that we underinvest in economic security programs like unemployment insurance, paid leave, housing, and other benefits. We spend FAR LESS on these programs than our peers do.
Enormous news. A melanoma vaccine, one of the most deadly cancers out there. Science is good and helpful and there should be more of it. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
Breakthrough vaccine for the deadliest skin cancer cut risk by almost half
The skin cancer vaccine is based on mRNA technology that helped end the coronavirus pandemic.
washingtonpost.com
"As Venezuela struggles to recover from political upheaval and calamitous earthquakes, the U.S. government is exploiting the country for oil and money."
Anne Applebaum@anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 2w agoIn Venezuela last September, I found people hoping for change, but shocked and surprised by US policy, especially opaque oil deals with former regime cronies. The system looks, one economist told me, like “a coalition of two kleptocracies" www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
