The book Cahokia Jazz is a revelation. One of the best alt-history books I’ve ever read. Highly highly recommend if you like alt history and/or noir.
we paid absurd amounts to deloitte create this new, worse system carefully loaded with administrative burdens to reduce enrollment vs. the default federal marketplace. i have a degree in health policy, and *i* could barely use it. and delays from admin burden caused a 2 month coverage gap for me.
Sam Bagenstos@sbagen.bsky.social · yesterdayBack in the Biden Administration, we tried to stop this Georgia experiment. But a court thwarted us, and now Trump is following the ZZ Top principle -- thanks to him it's bad, and it's nationwide. letsaddressgeorgia.substack.com/p/georgia-sp...
This is the reported $100,000 fee on Optional Practical Training (OPT), which allows foreign students to remain for a couple years in post-graduate employment. The fee would devastate the program, making the US even less desirable as a destination for the world's best and brightest.
Olga Nesterova@onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 2d agoWhite House is planning to announce “a large new tax on international students who stay to work in the US after graduation”.
Scoop: For nearly a year, NSF has struggled to make new grants. Now we know that it will not catch up. In fact, NSF will award just 6,100 new grants—a 30% y/o/y decline, itself down from a previous avg. of 11,000+. In fact, the last time NSF awarded so few grants was in the early '80s.
Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades
The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.
nature.com
"In 2023...NSF spent $918 million on research in the directorate's three core areas—earth, oceans, and atmospheric/geospatial sciences. By comparison...$110 million to be available in 2027". Geosciences decimated. Why are we not talking about this more? www.science.org/content/arti...
Is NSF’s new call for research proposals good news? Scientists and staffers have doubts
The long-delayed 12 solicitations only cover some disciplines—and promise to give them much less money
science.org
honestly, the only reason US adversaries haven't done more damage is because a) we don't know about the damage yet, and b) trump's regime is doing a better job of destroying this country's future than any intelligence service could ever dream
Read this. Cornyn staffer jumps parties to join Team Talarico in TX Senate race: “Ken Paxton is the most corrupt, self-dealing politician in Texas who would sell their futures to the highest contributor just to hold onto power…he is unfit to serve in the Senate.” www.notus.org/campaigns/ja...
James Talarico Poaches Cornyn Staffer
Cross-party hires are rare, but the move could show the Senate Democratic campaign is hoping to reach out to Republicans in reliably red Texas.
notus.org
So Billionaire`s white wife MIT Professor Oxman accused of plagiarism but the media left her alone. A Black professor accused of the same thing & the media hounds him to death🤔 www.businessinsider.com/neri-oxman-p...
Academic celebrity Neri Oxman plagiarized from Wikipedia, scholars, a textbook, and other sources without any attribution
A review of Neri Oxman's work found many instances of outright plagiarism — including directly from Wikipedia.
businessinsider.com
Niu Lai (lit. Cow Come) was released without a press kit. Movie theaters in China have begun making their own posters. Surprisingly, not an AI in sight, just ppl living in the mement.
The fundraising texts you delete are working on someone. It’s infuriating and heartbreaking. An 85yo in Ohio gave more than double the value of his home. A 91yo in an Indianapolis senior facility gave 25K times. The DCCC/DSCC don’t just tolerate the spammers who exploit seniors. They take part.
Hook and Squeeze
How Democratic consultants, committees, and party leaders built a fundraising spam pipeline that funnels money from a captive pool of elderly donors into their own operations.
data4democracy.substack.com
“The demolition of the Corporate Transparency Act is just the latest and most dramatic move to cater to the president’s deep-pocketed buddies and fellow cronies,” @cjcmichel.bsky.social argues.
A Green Light for Crooks
The Treasury has made the American economy a safe space for corruption.
bit.ly
CN - suicide So this seems like a leap, stay with me, but in arguments like this I always think about how the most common method of committing suicide in England in the 1950s, particularly for women, was to simply put your head in the oven and turn the gas on.
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · last wk.What you rubes don’t get is that these people were already stalkers and that they were only caught because they used Flock to stalk someone.
Just because you don’t see it yourself, or don’t feel its impact, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
Riggsveda@riggsveda.bsky.social · last wk.“In the 1930s, a German Jewish jurist…Ernst Fraenkel developed a model he called the dual state...a state in which some people are subjected to increasingly restrictive laws that are applied arbitrarily while others continue to live in a regular, rules-based society.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/o...
👇🎯 Unprecedented authoritarian crimes requiring immediate impeachment & removal happening every day, & our National Conversation™️ remains so wildly unserious & inadequate to the moment.
Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social · last wk.I’m on vacation but I gotta say, as much fun as it is to debate woke1 and Hasan Piker, the Trump administration is currently engaged in mass murder on the high seas as surely as any serial killer or lynch mob. And viewed from the distance of vacation, The Discourse doesn’t seem to give a shit.
This is minor, the big impact is no graduate students or postdoctoral fellows. US science will be second rate in 10 years.
The death estimate is very uncertain but the lower bound is over 8 million and the upper bound is over 19 million. All while US spending has increased overall. Just a monstrous policy choice by monstrous people.
e.w. niedermeyer@niedermeyer.online · last wk.14 million souls ended in a single year by Elon Musk's cruelty and stupidity Here are some of the comparisons: Rwandan genocide: 800k dead Cambodian genocide: 3 million dead The Holocaust: 7 million dead
Everyone’s eyes on Big Bend National Park please. Don’t let Trump irreversibly destroy this fragile eco system or its indigenous history and art. Numbers to call for residents and NON-residents here: nobigbendwall.org/call/
Call Your Representatives
call your representatives put daily pressure on Texas legislators to say NO to a border wall in the Big Bend You may contact your representatives using the information below or enter your address o…
nobigbendwall.org
The Contrarian@contrariannews.org · last wk.Texans are rallying to halt destructive border construction in Big Bend National Park. Even if you're not in Texas, call your representatives and urge them to call for the halt of the destruction.
"Once in government, DOGE immediately began seizing the technical infrastructure and using it to attack programs they didn’t like regardless of the law. They ripped out talent, burned down the barriers designed to protect personal privacy, and carelessly defunded our nation’s scientific engines."
Congress Needs Its Tech Experts Back
If Congress is to tackle issues from DOGE sabotage to AI to social media, it needs to resurrect its Office of Technology Assessment.
liberalcurrents.com
New reporting reveals Ohio Republican Gov. candidate Vivek Ramaswamy hired his mother to manipulate clinical trial data for an Alzheimer's drug he owned the rights to. This scheme boosted Ramaswamy's company stock price and generated a $1.4 B IPO, where he then cashed out before the stock tanked.
A jaw-dropping report of weaponized political surveillance. The government grabbed years of sensitive records from major progressive groups and unions, baselessly claiming they were needed to address threats of "domestic terrorism" It's a near perfect mirror of the J Edgar Hoover COINTELPRO abuse
U.S. Investigated Left-Leaning Groups During Minnesota’s Immigration Crackdown
The government conducted expansive surveillance, infiltrated group chats and obtained financial records of organizations never accused of crimes.
nytimes.com
Whatever else was wrong with the United States, we truly did have a higher education system that was the envy of the world. Now we’re lighting it on fire because some people are bored and racist.
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 2w agoThere will probably be far fewer foreign students on college campuses nationwide this fall following the Trump administration’s crackdown on international visas. A new report predicts international enrollment will decrease by 9.5 percent this fall.
The justice department on Wednesday arrested a leading expert on far-right extremism, charging her with financial crimes as part of the government’s ongoing case against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Trump’s justice department arrests expert on far right as part of SPLC crackdown
Prosecutors charge Heidi Beirich with financial crimes as part of case against the Southern Poverty Law Center
theguardian.com
I think the technical term is “kidnapping“ www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/m...
He Was Deported to Eswatini in Southern Africa. He May Never Go Free.
As the Trump administration sends a growing number of immigrants to countries they have no connection to, some find themselves imprisoned with no way out.
nytimes.com
As a reminder, In every war-game simulation US has run during this century about an attack on Iran: * Counter-move #1 was closing Hormuz * #2 was attacking US bases/assets/allies in the region * #3 was retaliation against US and Americans—over the years, "at time and place of their choosing."
Brian Finucane@bcfinucane.bsky.social · 2w ago"A credible threat to Trump involving Iran set the “deception operation” in motion, the U.S. official said." Huh. So weird. Almost like attacking Iran increased the threat from Iran. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
NEW: We’ve spent a year tracking ICE’s massive expansion of detention for people with years-long ties to the U.S. It has strained courts, wrecked lives and been widely deemed illegal. Our report, based on interviews with judges, detainees and attorneys: www.politico.com/news/2026/08...
Trump personally intervened to keep Max Miller on the ballot despite allegations of domestic abuse against him. Trump called Miller and then sent his political team to force Ohio Republicans into abandoning their effort to dump him.
White House officials tamped down efforts to oust Max Miller in final days
Ohio Republicans now have no choice but to rally behind a candidate many GOP insiders warn could cost the party a traditionally safe seat this November.
politico.com
“At immigration court for detained children in New York City on Wednesday, a boy named Diego represented himself in front of the judge, Lisa Ling.” "I don’t know how to do it,” he said about an asylum form he was asked to fill out in English. “I don’t know if you can help me fill it out.”
11 Years Old. In Immigration Court. Alone. No Lawyer.
More children than ever before are being forced to face immigration judges by themselves without legal representation, advocates say.
documentedny.com
Gabe Ortíz@tusk81.bsky.social · 2w agoICYMI at @americasvoice.bsky.social: Trump stripped legal assistance from thousands of immigrant kids after refusing to pay its bills and allowing a federal contract to expire. The regime has since awarded a new $150m contract to a small, Trump-linked firm with little experience in immigration law:
The American insurance system is not set up to handle multiple (unnecessary!) visits for vaccines that are now given at the same time. The schedules of American pediatricians and public health clinics are not set up to handle this. The schedules of American parents are not set up to handle this.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w agoTrump: "Effective immediately, my administration is recognizing gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations against the most serious and dangerous diseases along with the MMR, which hopefully will be split up."
AILA's Kate Angustia "said it’s a 'misconception' that the people being arrested at airports let their visas expire and therefore forfeited their legal status. 'Many of these folks are in a lawful period of authorized stay.'" https://bit.ly/4z9ZxQE
With new tactics, ICE reaches new high in monthly arrests • Stateline
Federal immigration agents are employing new tactics — from arresting academics at airports to setting up a checkpoint at a popular creek in a National Forest — to boost their arrest numbers, leading ...
bit.ly