Containment-free reactors, hm? That's how the Soviets built Chernobyl!

Approval of Construction of Four Containment-Free Reactors is Another Clear Sign of a Broken Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Yesterday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a permit to Long Mott Energy to construct four small modular reactors adjacent to a Dow chemical plant in Seadrift, Texas.

ucs.org

“Periods of abuse and corruption are often followed by reform and renewal,” Michael Waldman wrote in the New York Times this weekend. He calls on the new Congress to help stamp out corruption by strengthening the ban on political spending by federal government contractors. nyti.ms/4BSLKiC

Now that the GOP supermajority in the Utah legislature is broken, SLC should try to repeal the awful SB 242. Some Republicans voted against the bill over local control issues. I see a window of opportunity

“Measles is once again endemic in the United States, 26 years after it was declared eliminated in the country, an analysis of genetic data from outbreaks of the disease has found… several chains of transmission have continued for more than a year in the United States” @jackiantonovich.bsky.social

America’s Measles Problem Has Reached Endemic Level

A panel of scientific experts will convene on Tuesday to evaluate the United States’ measles elimination status. But genetic data already shows the virus is once again endemic.

nytimes.com

👇

Darin Self@darinself.com · 3d ago

Guys, can we please stop trying to solve price problems by simply making debt more accessible?

A friendly reminder that the entire @lawfaremedia.org archive is always available online, free of charge

What has been the Trump administration's impact on the climate crisis? That's the question we posed to experts writing for the Bulletin's November magazine, out today. Read the introduction here: buff.ly/wYjgT6k

Trump, having lost the ability to act through Congress, will have to rely almost exclusively on the exercise of unilateral presidential actions in order to do anything. Time to take a good look at limiting those powers, too.

To Rein In Trump, Pass a ‘No Kings Act’

Democrats should use their new congressional majorities to put enforceable limits on presidential powers ripe for authoritarian abuse.

lnk.thebulwark.com

A goal of Dems for the next 4 years should be to eliminate gerrymanders* *preferably through proportional representation

Stephen Wolf@stephenwolf.bsky.social · 3d ago

FL-09 gets called for Rep. Darren Soto, meaning Florida’s new GOP gerrymander failed to flip ALL FOUR Dem seats it targeted. But the new map may have still netted the GOP one seat by saving FL-13 from flipping to Dems on the old GOP map—and cost Dems SIX total seats compared with a nonpartisan map

“Voters, faced with an unprecedented rise in vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, alongside devastating outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, chose national candidates who prioritized public health, healthcare affordability, reproductive health and the impeachment of Robert F Kennedy Jr”

‘A complete repudiation’: public health won big in US midterm elections

Election wins of Annie Andrews, Abdul El-Sayed and more who ran on healthcare issues are viewed as a sign of hope as Trump administration unravels US health policy

theguardian.com

The SEC is proposing to eliminate a rule that restricts investment advisers from using political contributions to influence who wins contracts to manage public retirement funds. bit.ly/3WoZAZW

SEC Wants to Eliminate Safeguards Against Political Corruption — Why Now?

Losing the “pay-to-play” rule could make public employees’ retirement funds less safe at a time when Americans are already angry about government corruption.

brennancenter.org

One of the most glaring gaps in the typical white voter's understanding of U.S. demographics is failing to grasp how many mixed-status households there are. Millions of voters have spent the past 2 years in fear of our federal government on behalf of vulnerable family members.

Faine Greenwood@faineg.com · 3d ago

It really does shock me how many “why did the Democrats win” round-ups I’ve been seeing in major outlets that don’t even MENTION ICE. If you’re trying to explain Blue Texas and aren’t even bringing up ICE’s terror campaign against Latinos, you’re either stupid or have a very suspect agenda.

👇🎯 We need to free ourselves from the tyranny of single-member districts. We need to double the size of the House, adopt multi-member districts, have proportional representation, & become an actually representative multiparty democracy.

Over 200 democracy scholars call on Congress to end single-member Congressional districts and adopt proportional representation

More than 200 political scientists, legal scholars, and historians released an open letter calling on Congress to reject the United States’ winner-take-all elections.

protectdemocracy.org

Andy Craig@andycraig.bsky.social · 3d ago

You can pick various options for what you prioritize, but there is no singular "fair" nonpartisan baseline for single-member districts and it's misleading to speak as if that's an objective thing you can compare to. It's all still the tyranny of the map and there are unavoidably choices to be made.

Corruption topped the issues voters called crucial in the midterms. Democrats outmobilized Republicans for the first time in a generation, and their incoming House class is the biggest generational turnover since Watergate. Key charts in the thread below. 🧵👇

Parties Are Electable, Not Candidates

Corruption, turnout, a generational turnover and a Republican shift right, from someone deep in the data

data4democracy.substack.com

"Republicans may have had the power to redraw the maps, but Black voters still had the power to hold them accountable." Powerful closing paragraphy by @gelliottmorris.com www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-11-10...

G Elliott Morris@gelliottmorris.com · 7d ago

Black voter turnout held at ~96% of 2024, the highest rate for any midterm in at least a decade, in the Deep South on Tuesday. If Scott Colom manages to win Mississippi's Senate seat, it wouldn't have been possible without sky-high engagement of Black voters www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-11-10...

New from me: The argument for impeachments, plural. "If we don’t make it clear that this administration’s violence, racism, corruption, and crime are aberrant and intolerable, we’ll instead make clear that they’re neither. And we’ll make it easier for the next Trump, the next time around."

Make bad things bad again

Holding the Trump administration accountable isn’t about retribution. It’s the only way we survive.

radleybalko.substack.com

Never confuse slight temporal shifts in coalitions for structural change.

Victor Ray@victorerikray.bsky.social · 4d ago

I’m wary of folks over-interpreting the meaning of the midterms, and this gets at one reason.

In reality a range of medical problems are all but solved in a technological sense. Based on available diagnostics, drugs and vaccines, no-one has to die from measles, malaria or AIDS to name just three. The bottleneck is not the lack of a technological solutions but of political/social ones.

I seem to be bouncing between these poles a lot these days: Fascinating scientific advances that could lead to a real improvement in medicine on the one hand. The challenges of talking about any of this in an information ecosystem that is built to privilege profit over the quality of information.

He was 8 years old. Living with his uncle since his father was deported, the boy was summoned for an interview by ICE He never made it home. And his family has no idea where he is This inhumanity is the brainchild of xenophobic racist Stephen Miller-now Trump’s Chief of Staff Democrats-Defund ICE

Very clear example of how corruption will hurt peoples retirement

Brennan Center@brennancenter.org · 5d ago

The SEC is proposing to eliminate a rule that restricts investment advisers from using political contributions to influence who wins contracts to manage public retirement funds. bit.ly/3WoZAZW

The AG Sulzberger @nytimes.com continues to normalize a dangerous white supremacist movement. Compare NYT vs @lemonde.fr editors describe one of the Trump regime's most blatant white supremacists. "fiery hard-liner" (NYT) is at best a wildly deceptive euphemism for "white supremacist" (LM) 1/n

I'll also highlight that this position comes with a fabulous national network: there are nine regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers across the contiguous US, Alaska and the Pacific Islands, and we work closely together and with our federal partner, the US Geological Survey. Come join us!

Katharine Hayhoe@katharinehayhoe.com · 6d ago

Calling all climatologists - the South Central Climate Science Adaptation Center is looking for a new director, based at OU. I can personally vouch for the great team and the wonderful collaborators across OK, TX, LA and NM that come with this position. Join us! apply.interfolio.com/195905

Calling all climatologists - the South Central Climate Science Adaptation Center is looking for a new director, based at OU. I can personally vouch for the great team and the wonderful collaborators across OK, TX, LA and NM that come with this position. Join us! apply.interfolio.com/195905

cartoon published in the 1930s some things never change 😒 #healthcare #science #vaccines #vaccinessavelives

Not unexpected, but very cool nonetheless: the corporate power reset, aka the Montana Plan, aka our attempt to end-run Citizens United, won a sweeping victory in Montana.

Now THAT is what I mean State houses

House Dems, You need all new comms teams and to get a clue. This is pathetic. The tyranny of immigration enforcement is structural and profound. Targeting masks and body cams is telling us you really don't get it. Defund. Investigate. Subpoenas. Accountability. Rule of Law. Justice. Now.

How to Normalize Immigration: Elements of Liberal Immigration Reforms

Chapter 13 (pp. 98–106) from The Reconstruction Papers.

liberalcurrents.com

House Judiciary Dems@democrats-judiciary.house.gov · last wk.

It’s time for ICE to take the masks off, turn the body cameras on, and start answering to the American people who pay for their bloated budget.

Judge Chutkan’s temporary restraining order (TRO) last night, blocking any “construction-related activity” on Trump’s Arch for 14 days, is restrained, iron-clad, & likely unappealable at this stage. Some thoughts … 1/7 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Memorandum & Opinion – #111 in LEMMON v. TRUMP (D.D.C., 1:26-cv-00544) – CourtListener.com

MEMORANDUM OPINION re: the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia's Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, Case No. 26-cv-3838, ECF No. 2. Signed by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on 11/5/2026...

storage.courtlistener.com

Corruption. Cruelty. (in)Competence. Constitutionality. There has to be accountability. For all of it. There is no other path forward.