#FactOfTheWeek: Federal Government Typically Spends At Least 12 Times More Money on Defense Than on Housing
Rahim Kurwa
@rahimk.bsky.social
assoc prof at uic Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing is available at https://www.ucpress.edu/books/indefensible-spaces/paper www.rahimkurwa.com
@abdulelsayed.bsky.social triumphing over something like $60 million, $32-ish million of it AIPAC money, is not a "narrow" victory, it's a people's earthquake. This kind of spending is oligarchy in action, to smother democracy through its formal channels, and is getting normalized. Still he won.
Listen to Todd Blanche—Trump’s nominee for AG—tell faith leaders that the Justice Dept is working with the White House to stop the shipping of abortion pills into banned states. “We will have victory, victory will be soon, and it will be permanent,” he said.
An Israeli strike destroyed two major medicine warehouses in Deir al-Balah, the latest Israeli attack on Gaza's failing health system. Gaza’s Health Ministry says medicine shortages are now killing three cancer patients a day. mondoweiss.net/2026/08/sile... #Palestine #Israel
‘Silent extermination’: Israel bombs medicine stores in Gaza, worsening the Strip’s dire healthcare crisis
An Israeli strike destroyed two major medicine warehouses in Deir al-Balah, the latest Israeli attack on Gaza’s failing health system. Gaza’s Health Ministry says medicine shortages are now killing...
mondoweiss.net
Cook County SA Eileen O'Neill Burke's office is moving forward with prosecuting a violence-prevention volunteer who was arrested by CPD after he tried to turn in a gun at a police station. The man spent 7 months in Cook County Jail for his effort; trial begins next week.
Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan calls gun case against Chicago anti-violence volunteer a 'travesty'
Duncan runs Chicago CRED, which works to prevent shootings. He says volunteer Nakia Smith, arrested in a Far South Side police station in 2023, has been "fighting for the good." Smith, a convicted fel...
chicago.suntimes.com
Test, Measure, Punish How the Threat of Closure Harms Students, Destroys Teachers, and Fails Schools nyupress.org/978147982339...
Israeli strikes on Gaza only intensified in the days following a US-brokered agreement billed as a 'breakthrough' https://aje.news/ucdvq6
“In recent months, ICE has deployed a round-the-clock digital dragnet to scour the public internet—from Facebook to Instagram to X—for speech that could endanger the agency’s mission.” Speech. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against its Critics
Agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.
wsj.com
NEW: Amid AG confirmation battle, Todd Blanche assured anti-abortion activists that he's working to make Dobbs 'permanent in every single state.' Admin will act 'soon' to limit mail-order abortion drugs. w/ @alicemiranda.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2026/08...
Blanche assures anti-abortion supporters that Dobbs will be ‘permanent in every single state’
The acting attorney general made the remarks during a private call with faith leaders.
politico.com
Exclusive: We obtained a leaked playbook that Flock gives to cops to coach them on "how to speak to city council" to avoid getting their contracts canceled. Includes strategies like "own the narrative" by talking to mayor "before public comment periods" www.404media.co/own-the-narr...
‘Own the Narrative’: Leaked Flock Guide Shows How It Teaches Cops to Promote Its Tech
"This document shows a coordinated effort from Flock Safety to compel law enforcement agencies to convince our elected leaders to represent their interests as a company rather than the interests of co...
404media.co
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...
I think this is fundamentally wrong but in an interesting way I will need to write about sometime. The key is a) consumers do not choose what is produced, or how, they choose between what is produced. This is a crucial difference
Max Dubler 🏳️🌈@maxdubler.com · 3d agoI think my most genuinely unpopular take is that a widely held and genuine consumer preference for cheaper, lower-quality goods, not private equity, is driving the decline in quality of consumer goods like clothing and housewares.
www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=... We find that the introduction of collective bargaining rights significantly increases the number of civilians killed by police, particularly among non-White civilians, while having limited effects on officer safety. 1/?
Collective Bargaining Rights, Policing, and Civilian Deaths
(August 2026) - Using an event-study design, we examine whether states' introduction of duty-to-bargain requirements for police unions led to meaningful changes in civilians killed by law enforcement....
aeaweb.org
This paper shows that immigration enforcement can _increase_ crime. Undocumented immigrants already have the lowest crime rate, but tough-on-immigration policy makes immigrants less likely to report crime. So immigration enforcement worsens the problem it was ostensibly meant to solve
These people had everything they wanted and had all the power in the world and what kind of order did they shepherd into existence? The results are in front of us.
#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · 3d agoTemperamentally pro-Israel liberals have to grapple with the fact that they, not pro-Palestine people, have held the reins of government in the US, UK, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, etcetera for decades and decades and they did absolutely nothing to bring about "two-states".
This is a story of DSCC consolidating around the worst possible moderate and enabling Abdul to steamroll and it seems like some of these establishment figures chose to do this because of psychosis
The fight for Michigan: How a marquee Senate primary became the Democrats’ latest proxy war | CNN Politics
Tuesday’s Michigan Senate primary between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed has become a bitter referendum on many of the fights Democrats are having nationally.
edition.cnn.com
yeah, I just feel like democratic moderates, who are a much larger group, are getting negatively polarized into being to the right of George W. Bush on Muslims by the fact that they cannot deal with the need to change policy on Israel
Help give Samer’s family a safe shelter and a chance to live with dignity again. chuffed.org/project/1602...
Help give Samer’s family a safe shelter and a chance to live with dignity again.
How your support will help us:
chuffed.org
Help Samah and her family survive tragedy after War and Displacement chuffed.org/project/1706...
Help Samah and her family survive tragedy after War and Displacement
Samah is a mother from Gaza who has endured relentless displacement and loss since the first week of the war. She and her family were forced to flee from Khan Younis, to Rafah, to Deir al-Balah, and t...
chuffed.org
In memory of: Fatima Ahmed Salah Al-Sawafiri / فاطمة أحمد صلاح السوافيري Age: 38 months We will not forget you.
In case anyone needs it for their syllabi, my statement in gen-Ai from the minicomic I made as a syllabus for class last semester. All online and printable here spinweaveandcut.com/fall-2025-sy...
Israeli forces kill one and destroy two hospital warehouses in Gaza strike - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-forces-destroy-two-hospital-warehouses-gaza
Israeli forces kill one and destroy two hospital warehouses in Gaza strike
<article data-history-node-id="445345" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-forces-destroy-two-hospital-warehouses-gaza" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-forces-destroy-two-hospital-warehouses-gaza" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Israeli forces kill one and destroy two hospital warehouses in Gaza strike</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>Gaza's health ministry has condemned the destruction of two medicine warehouses belonging to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital by Israeli forces in Deir al-Balah on Saturday morning.</p> <p>"The destructive force of the missiles used resulted in the complete destruction of two out of four warehouses at the targeted site, in addition to causing severe and extensive damage to two other warehouses," the ministry said.</p> <p>It added that the attack also damaged the hospital's outpatient clinic facility and had meant the loss of "vital quantities of medical supplies and consumables".</p> <p>Israeli strikes on Deir al-Balah also killed one Palestinian, hospital authorities said.</p> </div> </div> </article>
middleeasteye.net
LAPD officer who complained about racism at work charged with making secret recordings The LA County District Attorney's Office Friday filed more than a dozen felony charges that could lead to prison time for Officer Daniel Flores www.nbclosangeles.com/investigatio...
LAPD Officer charged after allegedly recording coworkers suspected of making racist remarks
An LAPD officer who alleged coworkers made racist and homophobic remarks is now charged with illegally recording conversations.
nbclosangeles.com
