marktl.bsky.social
@marktl.bsky.social
Wiki description of US Gov-punitive and incompetent governance laced through with corruption and self-dealing.
Just 10 billionaires have already poured nearly $670 MILLION into this year's midterms. In the entire 2008 presidential cycle, the last election before Citizens United, total billionaire spending was $16 million. If you're wondering what the real threat to "election integrity" is, it's Big Money.
“ regular increases in the minimum wage, the expansion of health insurance and pensions, tax policies that reduced extreme inequality and public investment in higher education all added up to an economy more responsive to the needs of working-class people. “ We’re in a New Era of Class Warfare.
Opinion | We’re in a New Era of Class Warfare. History Points to a Way Out.
The class-based violence of the past was part of a broader struggle. Today, the violence is the end in itself.
nytimes.com
In the last 24 hours on different TV networks, Republicans in Congress blamed the cost of beef and housing on immigrants as well as the measles outbreak. Everything bad that happens in the country they are currently in charge of is caused by either immigrants or Biden.
I hope to read more of this beautiful observation.
Deb Chachra@debcha.bsky.social · 2d agoThis explainer out of Australia is genuinely useful background and analysis of what happened with the Canada-US trade deal last night. Note that it is extremely and delightfully sweary. Also there’s an appended glossary of Australian slang. ifloz.substack.com/p/king-carne...
Trump reported 1,051 trades in his June disclosure. These two stood out: — June 18: Bought $250K–$500K in Boeing, the same day the Navy awarded Boeing an $880 million contract — June 23: Bought $15K–$50K in SpaceX, the same day NASA recorded a $425.6 million award to SpaceX
ProPublica sure digs into the waste. Great Journalism.
ProPublica@propublica.org · 2d agoWATCH: Hundreds of thousands of dollars in public subsidies goes to funding internet service to unlivable buildings on Alaska’s Adak Island. @kylehopkinsak.bsky.social knocked on every door and talked to every person he could find. Not a single person told him they used the service.
"Where we are now is not at all where we would be if if we hadn’t had all of these tax cuts." Jared Bernstein on Debt (Reposted with better transcript) paulkrugman.substack.com/p/jared-bern...
Jared Bernstein on Debt (Reposted with better transcript)
How worried should we be?
paulkrugman.substack.com
This should be one of our closest allies, instead: Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/w...
Carney Slams U.S.-Canada Trade Proposal and Vows Retaliation (Gift Article)
Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a powerful speech to Canadians on Saturday morning, hours after ordering negotiators to suspend U.S. trade talks despite President Trump’s punishing tariffs.
nytimes.com
Among the many crazy things Trump has said in the last 48 hours, the threat to deploy the military to "fix" the bond market is the most worrisome. As usual, major US media has decided to simply ignore it. www.mediaite.com/media/tv/tru...
Trump Suggests He Can Use the Military on Bond Markets: ‘If We Have To Use That, We Will’
Trump was asked by a reporter whether he had directed Bessent to intervene in the bond market and what other options were on the table.
mediaite.com
🗞️As a former Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes I can tell you it is the most important newspaper in the world because it exists to inform and protect our troops from people like the despicable Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump who do not believe they — or anybody for that matter — are owed the truth.
Stars and Stripes editor says he has been fired for insubordination after doing interview
The editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes says the Pentagon has fired him as well as its publisher and a reporter.
apnews.com
Wonder what the time window is here? “Hopefully, the investment in artificial intelligence will deliver higher productivity that generates significant income growth America” Is About to Get More Expensive www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/o...
Opinion | America Is About to Get More Expensive
The impact from the bond market sell-off could prove more enduring, wide-ranging and globally consequential than prior episodes of market volatility.
nytimes.com
Warning sign One of many concerns : …”the Trump administration may use false pretenses to send federal agents to Democratic-leaning areas to intimidate people and suppress voting. “ Trump’s Election Interference Is Eroding American Democracy www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Opinion | Trump’s Election Interference Is Eroding American Democracy (Gift Article)
The president is prioritizing his own interests over the national interest.
nytimes.com
Does it ever feel like you're in a cage being watched? Well, you are. By Flock cameras, thanks to Mike Rogers.
Byron Donalds: "The reason why so many families have been struggling is because of Democrat policy" (Republicans have had total control of the federal government for nearly two years, and have had total control of Florida for even longer)
Ronald Reagan's first FCC chair—in a sworn declaration submitted in the ABC case—on the FCC under Trump and Brendan Carr: “Never in its history has the agency ever acted so corruptly and unlawfully to intrude on broadcasters’ First Amendment rights.” techfreedom.org/wp-content/u...
Everything is explicit here. ICE has been openly designated as Trump's paramilitary army in his war on blue America. The centrality of violence to all this is not disguised in the least. ICE recruitment glorifies military-style operations in urban strongholds. 5/ (h/t @lioneltrolling.bsky.social)
Good read: “ Later reports suggested this Iranian attack may have been aided by Russian satellite intelligence provided by Vladimir Putin. Trump has seemingly done nothing about that. “ The New Physics of Power www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/o...
Opinion | The New Physics of Power (Gift Article)
It doesn’t take much for small powers to gain a big advantage over the powerful.
nytimes.com
This is how policy is made: “The week after Mr. Trump had a golf course lunch with tobacco executives, the F.D.A. approved mango and blueberry vapes and unveiled the new policy. “ Trump to Nominate Heidi Overton, a Top Domestic Policy Aide, for F.D.A. Commissioner www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/h...
Trump to Nominate Heidi Overton, a Top Domestic Policy Aide, for F.D.A. Commissioner
Dr. Overton is a fierce opponent of abortion rights and a supporter of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.
nytimes.com
(Automotive News) - Trump has made American manufacturing a central focus of his administration, aiming to add jobs through a sweeping tariff policy. Instead, auto manufacturing jobs are declining, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. www.autonews.com/manufacturin...
Jared Kushner yesterday on Fox: “Iran is engaging in a very strong way and that is quite positive … We are having very positive and active conversations. Probably more robust than it’s maybe ever been.”
This person is the main conduit feeding information from the outside world into Trump’s brain. It can not be overstated the extent to which Trump inhabits a bizarre fantasy world of his own creation, that is then reflected back at him by sycophantic employees like this.
Decoding Fox News@decodingfoxnews.bsky.social · last wk.This is Natalie Harp, the close aide to President Trump. These clips are from 2021 when she worked at OAN. She ended her program with a daily Bible quote. Sometimes she swapped out the Bible for a quote from Trump leading with "And remember what Trump said..."
The Trump administration delayed a rule last year that could have sped up the effort to pinpoint the source of the cyclospora contamination. Experts say that food safety oversight in the U.S. has eroded overall. nyti.ms/4g9Ubxv
New: We pieced together dozens of violent incidents from the ICE agents seen in viral videos from Virginia this week. They've roamed across multiple states, but are most often working in Chicago. We also verified the identity of Martin Lagunas, the fed who pointed his gun at a woman on Monday:
Chicago ICE team seen threatening drivers has roamed from Illinois to Minnesota to Virginia
A federal agent from Chicago identified by community members as 40-year-old Martin Lagunas was recorded pointing his gun in the face of a Virginia woman on Monday. His team of ICE agents has been docu...
unraveledpress.com
Immediate grounds for impeachment and removal under any previous modern president. Six million people live in Colorado.
Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · last wk.Another day, another impeachable offense: The White House ordered federal agencies to block resources to Colorado because it had punished an election denier. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/u...
Pleas make sure everyone can read this. Republicans Are Trying to Hide These Health Care Cuts www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/o...
Opinion | Republicans Are Trying to Hide These Health Care Cuts (Gift Article)
Republicans are taking deliberate steps to make health care less affordable.
nytimes.com
Reporter: Family members of service members are concerned about conditions on the LIncoln. Trump: No they’re not. Reporter: Has the deployment gone on too long? Trump: No. Not nearly long enough.
