Every judge that is receiving a lifetime appointment here is signaling that they are pretty flexible when it comes to defending American democracy donmoynihan.substack.com/p/scenes-fro...

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 38m ago

BLUMENTHAL: Judge Cronan, you're already on the district court. Who won the 2020 election? CRONAN: Joseph Biden received the majority of electoral votes B: You have nothing to lose. You have a lifetime appointment, and yet you're unwilling to state the simple fact that Biden won the 2020 election

I wrote about how weird and bad it is to have a future AG going around claiming he'll make Dobbs "permanent in every single state"—unless he understands Dobbs to be a national abortion ban, and thinks his job is to force states to comply

Todd Blanche Is Claiming That He Can Ban Abortion In Any State

As he fights to be confirmed as attorney general, Blanche is trying to appease Christian-right groups with wild legal theories about restricting abortion.

newrepublic.com

indulge me: were you alive for the WTO in ‘99?

remember when Sheryl invited a bunch of feminist bloggers to dinner and they all wrote nice things about her airport book being the future of feminism

Sarah Szalavitz💡@dearsarah.bsky.social · 20h ago

Lean In To Fascism

And these lab leak folks never talk about Office of Long Covid being shut down by the Trump admin. Shows how unserious they are re Covid.

Ryan Marino, MD@ryanmarino.bsky.social · 22h ago

If you are talking about “lab leak” in 2026, I genuinely think you are an unserious person who does not deserve the respect of a debate

one thing about data centers is that the issue is showing people in communities all over the country just how undemocratic/opaque their public bodies are. www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article...

Inflammatory disorders can be brutal. I’d know personally (thanks vasculitis et al). But the misinformation, including on vaccines, is dangerous. A deep dive from me into how MAHA sped up the inflammation panic. New from me at @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The Great Inflammation panic

The wellness world's favorite buzzword has gone federal. For those of us with real inflammatory disorders, the misinformation isn't just annoying—it's harmful.

motherjones.com

There’s been a bipartisan commitment to the idea of immigrant labor without immigrant people or immigrant rights, which in its way is as corrosive to meaningful democracy as ethnonationalism imo

Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · yesterday

Don't miss this vile story: MAGA is raging at DHS chief Markwayne Mullin for admitting migrant farmworkers can beneft our economy. This means his devotion to ethnic cleansing is in doubt. He must be excommunicated! I wrote about the collapse of MAGA mythology here: newrepublic.com/article/2138...

Truly heartening to see Eric Adams booed by our spiritual neighbors in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Rapids residents protest potential data center development

A protest broke out in Wisconsin Rapids Saturday in response to a data center information meeting, hosted by development company PNK Group and former New York City mayor Eric Adams.

wjfw.com

“Here’s a radical thought: what if migration is only a problem to those who want it to be? What if we started seeing the mass movement of people less as an existential threat and more as a simple inevitability of human existence?”

Ceuta was a carnival of anti-migrant content for hateful opportunists on the right – and a lesson for the left | Jonathan Liew

It was framed as a perfect storm because nativists dearly wanted it to be. Looking on, progressives failed to meet the moment too, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew

theguardian.com

I've been asking reporters in Spokane how we can help and everyone says subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. The Spokesman-Review has been doing unreal coverage of the fires: www.spokesman.com

Alexandra (Alex) Duggan@alexdugganreports.bsky.social · 3d ago

The front page of this morning’s Spokesman-Review, Aug. 2, 2026, the day after one of the worst wildfires in Washington state history. More than 600 structures, mostly homes, have been lost in the #OldTrailsFire. Read local news.

jump scare for the 2026 reader in this story I wrote in 2021 newrepublic.com/article/1614...

I remember @melissagiragrant.com wrote a great piece about this a while back:

The Mothers Leading the Battle Against Trans Student Athletes

Their tactics mirror those employed by white mothers who fought school integration: disguising bigotry with pleas to protect children.

newrepublic.com

Elizabeth Spiers@espiers.bsky.social · 2d ago

I was surprised at how prevalent it is was when I went back to AL to do some reporting. And the parents are driving it, not the kids. The people who can afford to do this are usually white

A 39-year-old El Salvadoran man, who was being held at Delaney Hall, has died, the man's family says. He's the father of a 12-year-old US citizen daughter and has lived in the country for nearly 20 years. www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/08/03/s...

El Salvadoran Man Held by ICE at Delaney Hall Dies, Family Says

The detainee had an extensive medical history, including epilepsy, according to a lawsuit. He had complained about his face and hand going numb just before his death, his mother said.

thecityreporter.nyc

Convicted political assassin Vance Boelter made a bizarre request that Sen. Amy Klobuchar be compelled to testify in his case.

At first state court hearing, Vance Boelter makes unusual request that Sen. Amy Klobuchar testify

As the state of Minnesota begins its prosecution of Boelter, he spoke at length about his rights being violated while in federal custody.

startribune.com

The van hands out food, water, clothes, first aid and free HIV tests. Locals recognize "Thrivey" as it drives across the Twin Cities. The van, and everything in it, is funded by federal money that has been suddenly revoked, as the government reroutes grants from nonprofits to state health agencies.

Running on empty: Can a red HIV outreach van outlast federal cuts?

The Aliveness Project says that nobody else can replicate what they do for the high-risk communities they reach. They're still being defunded.

19thnews.org

have I told the story about shaming a big foundation program officer over this once? as she tried and tried to find a way to refer to sex workers w/o saying "sex workers..." and landed on "vulnerable populations" (not original—classic NGO framing) and I think she thought that's what pissed me off

Melissa Gira Grant@melissagiragrant.com · 2d ago

why do I often put scare quotes around "vulnerable" and "at risk"? because people are *made* vulnerable, and people are *put at-risk"—these are not stable categories. we all live in a state of risk, some more than others, and risk is not distributed evenly. we can all be made vulnerable.

people could respond to this framing around reporting deaths—"had significant underlying health conditions"—with more confidence if we weren't also living through a pandemic in which we have been told only people who have "underlying health issues" are "vulnerable" or "at risk"

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2d ago

Breaking News: Two deaths in Michigan have been linked to cyclospora. Both people who had the parasite also had underlying health issues.

A LOT of people I talk to say "I just had lettuce for lunch and I'm fine," and it's like the only evidence they will accept

Jason Wilson@jasonaw.bsky.social · 2d ago

We’re about to be reminded again that a frighteningly large proportion of the U.S. population do not believe in the germ theory of disease and are happy to say so publicly

This case is a terrifying reminder of the fact that being charged with a crime upends your life. Maria Rojas has had her midwifery license suspended, and the conditions of her bond prohibit her from working in healthcare in any capacity. Texas didn't just arrest her, they took away her livelihood.

Autonomy News@autonomynews.co · 2d ago

“The problem is that there's a human being on the other end of whatever political point it is they're trying to make," said an attorney for Maria Rojas, the Texas midwife who is the first person to be prosecuted under the state's criminal abortion ban.

“I was trying to get his name and contact information, and they told me he is quarantined. They started recording and taking photos of me. They said they were going to press charges,” the witness said. “Nobody in there is acting like anything is even happening.” www.amny.com/immigration/...

ICE detention reported at Lower Manhattan ER as immigration enforcement surges in NYC

An ICE vehicle pulled into New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital Sunday after an eyewitness said she saw a man detained in the ER.

amny.com

Nothing's riding on this except the, uh, premium live chat audience, the HelloFresh deal, and maybe our contract with the mattress company. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up the 15-minute cold open again, I'm going to get mad. Goodnight.

NYPL Archives Tips: "For the five boroughs, there really is no collection of historical 'police records' ...any smattering that was kept and saved resembles a hail of rocks launched from a Bowery window during the 1857 Dead Rabbits Riot across the records rooms and libraries of the Big Apple."

if you hated covid "lockdowns" try long covid

the only thing to be said about covid lockdowns is that it revealed the startling number of people who feel entitled to the benefits of a social contract that they also do not feel bound by

One struggled to have sympathy for people who so obviously failed to grasp the fundamental nature of Trump.

Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 3d ago

Trump “came up with a completely false quote saying I acknowledged things I never said. “My god." — Brad Karp, then the chairman of the law firm 2/2

if you want to relitigate “lockdowns” you need to say what period, what country, and what restrictions you are talking about !

wishing for a “Save to Libby” shortcut

One of the striking things about studying sexual violence is realizing how many people became abolitionists *because* they were victims of crime.

Em, midly@lefttheprairie.bsky.social · 4d ago

It’s so funny when people are like “sure you’re an abolitionist now but wait until you’re the victim of a property crime.” Buddy, the most useful thing the police have ever done for property crime is put the form you need to submit to your insurance online.

If an idea is ridiculous and unrealistic, why spend YEARS trying to discredit it?