In last night's Senate debate, when Seth Moulton was asked about his past comments scapegoating trans youth and whether he believed Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, his evasions were telling.

Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve wore a "Trans Kids Belong" shirt during the Indiana Fever game. Before the game, Reeve said she comes from "a space of inclusion," adding, "we need to protect trans kids" and that "every kid has a right to sports" #NOH8

Back in 2021, I wrote that genital exams on children were the next step in the bans on trans athletes & now here we are. Here’s that piece:

Attacks on Transgender Athletes Are Threatening Women’s Sports

A flurry of legislation claims to “protect” women in sports by potentially requiring athletes to prove their gender through invasive exams.

glamour.com

The Cut@thecut.com · 2d ago

This November, voters in Washington State will weigh in on IL26-638, a ballot measure requiring that girls who want to play sports in K–12 schools undergo sex-verification tests such as genital exams.

NEW: America’s prison population is aging into disability and disease. Understaffed clinics and delayed treatments turn serving life into a death sentence: as the system breaks down, the logic behind decades-long sentences begins to unravel. This story is copublished by @thenation.com:

‘We Are Such A Punitive Country’: America’s ‘Death by Incarceration’ Machine

America’s prison population is aging into disability and disease. Understaffed clinics and delayed treatments turn serving life into a death sentence: as the system breaks down, the logic behind…

thexylom.com

What the US govt is doing to our Haitian neighbors!!

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 3d ago

#OtD 2 Aug 1939 Walter Altmann and Gunther Mann, two Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, were deported from the UK back to Belgium where they had crossed the Channel in a small dinghy which capsized. Both were likely sent to the concentration camps stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9167...

I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful

Ofc it was “made with OpenAI tools” and no one with expertise reviewed it

Eric Geller@ericjgeller.com · 6d ago

"A US government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a state department presentation at a global conference in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attenders who took screenshots and posted them online."

Cloud giants wield influence in so many ways that we don’t even consider — including shaping and capturing research. This week @ceciliarikap.bsky.social joins @parismarx.com to discuss how major tech companies shape society and why we need to push back. Full ep: techwontsave.us/episode/339_...

"If there is a question to ask, then, it is this: Why does Musk get a pass? Why do politicians, journalists and commentators treat his far-right racist radicalism as a sideshow rather than the core of his political, ideological and industrial project..." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...

Opinion | Elon Musk Is a Menace to Society (Gift Article)

Why does the owner of X get a pass for what he says and does there?

nytimes.com

"As Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Asia found in a recent investigation, just five US tech giants — Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle — are hiding an estimated $1.65 trillion in debt that doesn’t appear on balance sheets. futurism.com/artificial-i...

AI Companies Are Trying to Hide a Staggering Amount of Debt

AI companies are pouring tens of billions of dollars into enormous data centers. They're being built on top of a mountain of hidden debt.

futurism.com

New article! On AI, war, and other bad things: sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/quicksand

Quicksand

Gen X was right after all.

sarahkendzior.substack.com

"By the end of 2030," reports NYT, the amount of energy used by data centers"is expected to quadruple, eclipsing the power used by all countries in South America and Africa combined." This is extinctionism.

The only real profitability of AI has always been that the government artificially subsidizes this politically-connected industry by forcing citizens to subsidize its otherwise very middling-to-poor products; k-12 education is one of the main places for that to happen. www.ft.com/content/e23e...

AI labs begin to muscle in on $6tn education market

Anthropic and OpenAI are among groups providing free and cut-price tailored solutions for educators and students

ft.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Here's an important update on where things stand with social media / age verification legislation here in the state. We made A TON of noise, and the legislature felt the backlash. The Senate bill is much less bad than the House bill. But we have to keep pushing. Here's why:

UPDATED LETTER: Massachusetts lawmakers must assure constituents and human rights organizations that new social media bill does not require invasive online ID checks

UPDATE, July 2026: Our growing coalition of LGBTQ+, civil liberties, racial justice and human rights groups continues to oppose any legislation that requires online age checks or undermines the abilit...

fightforthefuture.org

The largest privately held company in the United States is refusing to concede to workers’ demands for more dignified workplace conditions, including protected bathroom breaks.

Over 1,700 Cargill Meatpacking Workers Locked Out After Demanding Bathroom Breaks

The largest privately held company in the United States is refusing to concede to workers’ demands for more dignified workplace conditions, including protected bathroom breaks.

sentientmedia.org

These are designed to break people. This is what’s left of British democracy in 2026.

CarolineJMolloy@carolinejmolloy.bsky.social · last wk.

“A terrorist sentencing also means defendants’ serve at least two-thirds of their tariff in prison, much longer than is the norm. To obtain parole they must rescind their political views.”

Who is Riya Ahir? Woman who stood before Mumbai Police van during student protest goes viral One woman. One street. One police van that wasn’t going anywhere. This is the story of the moment Riya Ahir decided silence wasn’t an option.

Who is Riya Ahir? Woman who stood before Mumbai Police van during student protest goes viral - The Statesman

Riya Ahir, an actor and entrepreneur, blocked a Mumbai Police van until detained students were released. Here's her story.

thestatesman.com

As a big fan of libraries, I was thrilled to learn about the work Hannah and @flexlibris.bsky.social are doing to give the public the critical information they’re looking for about the products tech companies are pushing on them. Support your local library (and library workers)!

Tech Won’t Save Us@techwontsave.us · 2w ago

Libraries are still essential in the digital age. Some librarians are even helping patrons ditch AI and get off Big Tech. This week Hannah Cyrus and @flexlibris.bsky.social join @parismarx.com to discuss how libraries address people’s concerns about tech. Full ep: techwontsave.us/episode/338_...

Today's blog post: Surveillance cameras tracking car license plates are everywhere. The Flock CEO in an interview w/Forbes used 3 fascist dog-whistle phrases. Also, Tufts University placed 28 cameras around its periphery to surveil all approaches & exits. www.someweekendreading.blog/tufts-flock/

New report from Ohio Immigrant Alliance: Of 59 criminal ICE and Border Patrol agents, 85% committed sex offenses, nearly 2/3 against children. "The sexual and physical violence against women and children documented in OIA’s report is not an aberration — it is a reflection of the agencies’ culture.”

They Walk Among Us - Criminal ICE and Border Agents — Ohio Immigrant Alliance

The Ohio Immigrant Alliance released “They Walk Among Us: A List of 59 Sexually and Physically Abusive ICE and Border Agents,” an analysis of sexual and violent crimes committed by ICE and Border Patr...

ohioimmigrant.org

Featured story: Districts across the state are arresting and citing young children for common misbehavior, leaving lasting trauma as the Legislature rejects bills to raise the age of criminal responsibility and floods schools with even more police.

In Texas Schools, a Crisis of Arrests of Kids as Young as 10

A groundbreaking data analysis shows how districts across the state are arresting and citing children for common misbehavior, leaving lasting trauma as the Legislature rejects bills to raise the age…

texasobserver.org

A reminder that UC _faculty_ and Faculty Associations — not the universities themselves nor their administrators — are waging this battle in court, demonstrating great bravery and moral clarity.

White House admits it used keywords to kill billions worth of California research grants

Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COV...

apnews.com

OMFG

Charles Logan@charleswlogan.bsky.social · 3w ago

B. F. Skinner tried to test his teaching machines on Black children in Harlem to prove the product's profitability. Now this: "The school district serves roughly 1,300 students, including 32 percent who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native and 79 percent who are economically disadvantaged."

This is the first main part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act kicking in. The second part, restricting Medicaid, is timed to happen after the midterms.

Andrew Russeth@russeth.bsky.social · 2w ago

"Four months into an appeal, Ms. McDonald, a cancer survivor who weighs 69 pounds, bustles to food banks, stretches ground turkey with oatmeal, and skips meals to feed three teenage boys." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/u...

Keep Trump's privatization schemes out of Massachusetts. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/20/o...

The real cost of Trump’s ‘free money’ for Massachusetts schools - The Boston Globe

Governor Healey should reject the Education Freedom Tax Credit.

bostonglobe.com

This @pbs.org segment is an informative yet disturbing watch. I knew some of the ways data centers affect communities, but this goes in DEPTH. It showcases the impact to those living near these data centers, the cruelty and audacity of the tech companies themselves. A very important watch!

We Saw What AI Data Centers Don't Want You to See

YouTube video by PBS Terra

youtube.com

IMPORTANT: For any artists/writers/etc etc, using Linktree to point people to their work, from 5 July, they'll be feeding all imagery you use on your landing page into DALL-E by OpenAI. I deleted my account this morning.

Arte es Ética@arteesetica.bsky.social · 2mo ago

¡ATENCIÓN! 🚨 El 5 de Julio de 2026 entra en vigencia la actualización de los ToS de Linktree. Esto incluye el uso de IA generativa (Dall-E de OpenAI) con los textos, imágenes y links que el usuario suba a su cuenta. Incluso compartirán toda la info del usuario con otros proveedores externos de IA ⚠️

Open AI doesn't want to be transparent about what's in their AI training datasets - this bill would force them. If that sounds good, we REALLY NEED YOUR HELP! Please sign this petition in support of the bill, it'll take you 2 minutes: tinyurl.com/4uxbp963 1/

A father in Idaho, speaking to police after his child died by suicide: “There is a huge amount of animosity, every single day, thrown at trans kids. The whole fucking country. The whole fucking administration, every single fucking day.” Please read this important story by @joyurcaba.bsky.social

Idaho pushed anti-trans laws for years. Then a teen died.

The life and death of May Pollard, 16, provides a window into the tragic effect that legislation and political rhetoric have had on trans people in America.

nbcnews.com

A new investigation has revealed cronyism and failure at the heart of Palantir’s £330m contract with the NHS A senior data analyst branded the spy-tech firm’s software “absolutely rubbish” ⬇️ https://goodlaw.social/avm4

‘Absolutely rubbish’: Investigation reveals Palantir’s ‘slow and clunky’ tech | Good Law Project

Sources shed new light on Peter Mandelson’s role in landing £330m contract for software that is slow, subject to frequent crashes and little used

goodlaw.social