NEW: Cyberattacks on U.S. water supply now being reported in 12+ states and 100+ municipalities, though some may be unrelated to wave of suspected Iranian attempts. The nationwide threat follows years of ignored warnings and neglect to water systems. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/u...

Hacks on U.S. Water Supply Follow Years of Warnings and Neglect (Gift Article)

Federal and state officials are racing to address an assault on the nation’s water supply that they believe is the work of Iranian hackers.

nytimes.com

Check it out! How #trains can transform #PersianGulf #politics and #global #security @umassboston.bsky.social @conresglobal.bsky.social @mccormackgradatumb.bsky.social theconversation.com/how-trains-c...

How trains can transform Persian Gulf politics and global security

Once completed, the 2,177-kilometer GCC Railway will connect six Gulf kingdoms and provide alternative routes to Europe and Asia.

theconversation.com

I’m Begging You: Never Write With A.I. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...

Opinion | I’m Begging You: Never Write With A.I.

It’s bad for your brain and worse for democracy.

nytimes.com

Study: Students get more liberal during college, but it has no detectable relationship to the subject they study or the partisanship of their professors. micah-baum.github.io/files/baum-e...

Not good timing, but some extremely important points in this now unredacted part of the 2024 Autopsy: -loss more about Dem turnout decline than swing voters -Dem consultants extracting huge $ for bad advice -Biden shouldn'ta run -spam PACs ruining fundraising www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/u...

Author of Democrats’ 2024 Autopsy Says Party Left Out Key Chapter

A dispute over the chapter between the author and the Democratic National Committee has added to the party’s turmoil as it tries to look forward, not backward.

nytimes.com

the department of education today issued a 'national call to action' - which, in plain english, is a call for capitulation to trump administration's assault on higher ed. www.ed.gov/media/docume... note how this doc deploys recent yale & vanderbilt reports

And another one: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

Trading on Mars: How Global Imbalances Really Work with Michael Pettis

Podcast Episode · Policy Punchline · April 14 · 57m

podcasts.apple.com

"What is Fascism?" The third lecture in my new online course, "Hitler and Stalin today" A guest lecture by @marcishore.bsky.social re.bsky.social Hosted by the Munk School @utoronto.ca Full lecture here: snyder.substack.com/p/what-is-fa...

This is a better breakdown, via B of A

FEDWATCH: “.. If yields break above 5%, interest costs of debt would surge toward $1.7 trillion, double the defense spending budget ($857 billion) ..”

Cults don't care about logic or evidence. It's about the vibe.

Mike Rothschild@rothschildmd.bsky.social · 6d ago

The overwhelming right wing sentiment is that COVID was an engineered bioweapon that was also harmless. Trump overreacted to it by shutting down the country, then engineered a drive to create a vaccine that was the real bioweapon that killed millions, and it's Joe Biden's fault.

Great discussion podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

China’s economy vs the world. With Michael Pettis

Podcast Episode · The Economics Show · September 24, 2025 · 34m

podcasts.apple.com

The president's media company is offering investors early access to his Truth Social feed for up to $100,000 a month. Experts say the service may violate insider trading laws.

For sale: early access to Trump's Truth Social posts

The president's media company is offering investors early access to his Truth Social feed for up to $100,000 a month. Experts say the service may violate insider trading laws.

n.pr

Yeesh. Amazing quote in this story by Kathy Gilsinan: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Great idea if properly designed! Should cover lying and fraud too. Businesses & individuals are legally liable for misrepresentations, politicians should be too.

Brennan Center@brennancenter.org · 5d ago

A new bill would establish a federal ethics agency to curb political corruption in the federal government, among other reforms.

I remember seeing someone (very reasonably) complaining here a few days ago that there seems to be next to no visible thinking on left and center about how to join the dots on administration and democracy. This is the beginnings of an answer to that complaint donmoynihan.substack.com/p/rebuilding...

Rebuilding Democracy Requires Rebalancing Power

What does a power-shifting agenda look like?

donmoynihan.substack.com

Money may be speech, but when 1 guy's "speech" can reach tens of millions of Americans, but everyone else is restricted to talking with just a few hundred or thousand...that's bad for democracy. Democracy is nothing without competition.

George Pearkes@peark.es · 6d ago

NYT: Musk preparing 9 figure spending campaign in support of Republicans in "swing" states like Ohio, Iowa, Alaska, and Texas.

The textbook definition of Communism: state-owned firms.

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 6d ago

The definition of “picking winners and losers.” @thehill.com thehill.com/policy/techn...

This is honestly one of the most shocking images coming out of this administration and that’s saying something

Murshed Zaheed@murshedz.bsky.social · 7d ago

“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

leedrutman.substack.com/p/how-fusion...

How fusion voting builds the new parties that can break the two-party doom loop

Some reforms just rearrange the gridlock. This one unlocks the pieces that matter.

leedrutman.substack.com

"[O]ur new golden age... is going to be a golden age of taking money away from scientists and universities and giving it to companies like Scale AI." www.publicnotice.co/p/michael-kr...

The "new science golden age" looks suspiciously like a grift

Trump wants to run scientific research like his family business.

publicnotice.co

As I've said before, this might be the most important law review article of the second Trump term (and, of course, it's fantastic).

Washington University Law Review@washulawreview.bsky.social · last wk.

The Washington University Law Review is pleased to publish The Crisis of Appropriations Law by Samuel R. Bagenstos in the symposium issue, Volume 103, Issue 6. The Article examines the foundations of appropriations law. Read: wustllawreview.org/2026/07/26/t...

Sending ICE agents to polling places would be flatly illegal — and it has been for well over 100 years. bit.ly/3S1fyYn

Americans Can Vote Without Fear

We have the tools we need to protect the vote.

brennancenter.org

This piece is really good. open.substack.com/pub/willrobi...

The Authoritarian Advantage of Exhaustion

How alarm fatigue becomes democratic disaster fatigue - and turns attacks on rights into background noise

open.substack.com

Across a range of authoritarian regimes, challenges to information control provoke stronger reactions than economic, diplomatic, and military tools, write Scott Fisher, Graig Klein, Juris Pupcenoks, and Juste Codjo.

Authoritarians Keep Telling Us What They Fear. We Should Listen.

Research shows, more than military strikes or sanctions, authoritarians fear independent media, anti-censorship tech, and civil society.

justsecurity.org

COMING SOON

We don’t have many details about the suspected terrorist attack at the Christopher Street Day parade in Berlin, but it shouldnt be used as an excuse to peddle bigotry such as Islamophobia. Terrorists kill all kinds of innocent people regardless of identity Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/25/w...

Car Plows Into Crowd at Berlin Pride Event in Suspected Terror Attack (Gift Article)

The police said a suspect was involved in local Islamic groups and that there was a “strong suspicion” it was an act of terrorism. At least one person was killed and 16 injured.

nytimes.com

The ECB has morphed into a fiscal support agency that caps yields for high-debt countries in the name of monetary policy transmission. This isn't monetary policy, but a subsidy for high-debt countries that makes indebtedness worse over time. A rabbit hole... robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/foreign-ow...

Thanks, Vonnegut. 💜