The rate of sepsis in Houston surged 63% after Texas banned abortion. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where hospital leaders empowered doctors to intervene before patients’ conditions worsened, it rose 29%. (Published May 2025)

Why Hospital Policies Matter in States That Ban Abortion

Our first-of-its-kind data analysis found that a seismic split emerged in how medical institutions in Texas' two largest metro areas, Houston and Dallas, treated miscarrying patients — and in their ou...

propublica.org

#5debutalbumsSF3 The Congos - Heart Of The Congos (1977) Lee Perry was busier than Bowie and Iggy combined in '77. Here, he corrals the vocal harmonies of The Congos beautifully. Songs of devotion and social comment. They paint a stunning view of life in '70s Jamaica. Just perfect. #NowPlaying

Today is the only day you can experience Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” on the day it is set. Audio: archive.org/details/brad... PDF: thephilosopher.net/bredberi/wp-...

Man wore smart glasses for High Court 'coaching' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I survive differently, because I am flesh and blood, but at the same time I am not. I am made of this and that dress, this coat, that casual look, mostly slacks. I am clothing. - Elfriede Jelinek, Jackie Tr: Gitta Honegger

Once again allow me to invite you to consider the weeks-long National Conversation™️ about civility & Democrats' lack of respect for real Americans we would have if a single municipal-level Democrat ever spoke about rural areas the way Republicans speak about cities www.inquirer.com/politics/phi...

Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · 2y ago

Once again allow me to invite you to consider the weeks-long National Conversation™️ about civility & Democrats’ lack of respect for real Americans we would have if a single municipal-level Democratic official ever spoke about rural areas the way Republicans (it’s not just Trump) speak about cities

Massive Attack says members held after pro-Palestine display in Singapore. Music group says it is ‘proud’ to have made ‘impromptu expression’ of support for Palestine by unfurling flag during concert www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/...

Massive Attack says members held after pro-Palestine display in Singapore

Music group says 'proud' to have made 'impromptu expression' of support for Palestine by unfurling flag during concert.

aljazeera.com

People across the country are pushing back against Flock’s predatory and pervasive technologies—even as San Francisco continues to receive millions of dollars from a billionaire Chris Larsen to beef up its Flock-dependent Real Time Investigation Center.

Fighting back against the growing surveillance state - 48 hills

Protests large and small are disabling Flock cameras and resisting repeated violations of privacy by police and corporations.

48hills.org

For a decade now, the illusion that Republican senators in whole or in part would rise up against the outrages of the Trump presidencies has animated political reporting even as the Senate GOP conference has chronically failed to rise to the occasion.

Faux Deal Ends Faux Fight Over Blanche Nomination

Wet Noodle Award: Cornyn and Tillis Trump is Lucy. GOP senators are...

talkingpointsmemo.com

👇🎯 Your periodic reminder that we don’t have to keep doing this thing we’ve done for decades now on Every. Single. Damn. Topic. In. American. Politics.

Dr. Lucky Tran@luckytran.com · 3d ago

Please stop saying “lockdowns.” There were never true lockdowns in the US, and it fuels far right narratives to repeat this inaccurate statement. You can say closures, you can say restrictions, or better, you can say public health measures which saved many lives.

Last year the NYT reported on how SEAL Team Six stormed into North Korea, accidentally murdered a bunch of fishermen, punctured their lungs so their bodies would sink & then stormed out. Trump is now trying to force one reporter to reveal his sources: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/u...

Justice Dept. Subpoenas Times Freelancer in Effort to Identify Sources (Gift Article)

A previously undisclosed subpoena, involving reporting on a failed SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea, reflects the government’s expanding campaign to investigate leaks of secrets.

nytimes.com

I wrote about Bach's Cello Suites for Alisa Weilerstein's recital at this year's Edinburgh International Festival. I particularly enjoyed revisiting the story of Pablo Casals finding a copy of the pieces in a charity shop and reigniting their popularity. Do have a read www.eif.co.uk/news-and-blo...

Get to Know Bach’s Cello Suites: from Obscurity to Eternity | Edinburgh International Festival

Re-discovering the Bach Cello Suites in a Charity Shop? Read on to discover the history of one of the greatest composers of all time, and what to listen fo

eif.co.uk

“In my view, Mamdani’s and Netanyahu’s extreme views are just flip sides of the same coin” Thomas Friedman comparing Mamdani’s desire to arrest a genocidal war criminal with Netanyahu’s commission of genocidal war crimes. #racist

The press obsession with "Dems in disarray because of Dem Socialists" reminds me of similar press obsessions w faint connection to voters' daily lives. I bet if you talked with voters in any sampling of Senate swing states, the "threat of Dem socialists" would be far down list of concerns.

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

New from me: Some data points for a MAGA melt-down: *Hardcore Trump loyalists declining *Right wing influencers losing viewers *The Heritage Foundation is rife with dissent and incompetence, with conservatives worried about the pipeline of talent 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/is-maga-me...

Is MAGA Melting Down?

Signs and wonders, portents and data points

donmoynihan.substack.com

Sunol Peak California

NEW: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, facing ethics inquiries for misconduct, has threatened to strip state scholarships from Catholic schools unless the Church rewrites its vaccine doctrine. It is an unprecedented attack by an American state on the religious liberty of the Catholic Church.

Florida’s MAGA Attorney Threatens to Defund Catholic Schools Over Vaccine Mandate

Florida’s attorney general gave the bishops until August 7 to accept vaccine exemptions their own doctrine calls dishonest. Nearly nine in ten of the state’s Catholic school students sit downstream.

thelettersfromleo.com

For this weekend's WSJ Fiction Chronicle I review three novels with dog narrators. The books are each of different breeds and pedigrees, but they are all to some degree about the conflict between wildness and domestication. Gift link: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Fiction: ‘The Oldest Bitch Alive’ by Morgan Day

Plus “Wolf, Moon, Dog” by Thomas Wharton and “Etna” by Paul Yoon.

wsj.com

Democrats need to start talking about 100% Government ownership of all Trump-affiliated companies.

Simon Lester@simonlester.com · 6d ago

On the one hand, we get this from the right: "OMG there's communism everywhere, it's time to freak out!" On the other hand: "Government Ownership Stakes in Companies Becoming Routine Under Trump"

Bronze statue Etruscans exhibit Legion of Honor San Francisco, CA

At least a dozen immigrants have been detained by federal agents at Bay Area airports over the past month — many over expired visas rather than active removal orders, leading advocates to suspect ICE is accessing flight information.

Immigrants Urged to Avoid Air Travel Amid Rise In ICE Arrests at Bay Area Airports

At least a dozen immigrants have been detained by federal agents at Bay Area airports over the past month — many over expired visas rather than active removal orders, leading advocates to suspect ICE…

sfist.com

This passage from a Beauman novel dissuaded me from reading Berlin Alexanderplatz for years. He was wrong! It’s a breeze!

Every time I look at a 20-page blog post there is a request at the end that I become a paid subscriber. There seems to be a Substack mentality that quantity of text is more important than the quality of what people write.

Seems That Mayor Mamdani Has "Delivered" To New Yorkers Quite Well,So Far.......(NPR)

Let me tell you, having chronicled Pentagon-style war game on attacking Iran nearly 25 yr ago, every single "surprise," "darkening turn," "narrowing option," spreading warfare," "rising casualties," "no easy exit," etc that comes drip-by-drip is EXACTLY why GHWB WJC GWB OBAMA BiDEN did NOT do this

As a historian of Jodrell Bank, I agree! And the reason it is important is that it has been made to mean different things to different people at different times. Who's up for a mega thread on how and why? (I'm off for lunch now, but I'll do it after. I'll need the energy...)

John Grindrod@grindrod.bsky.social · last wk.

Really one of the most important postwar sites in Britain

People said you couldn't go back. More than that, it seemed to him, you couldn't stay. He wondered if he had been trying to stay in a place that was no longer there. The suspicion of its absence made him question if it ever had been there. - William McIlvaney, The Big Man