Every judge that is receiving a lifetime appointment here is signaling that they are pretty flexible when it comes to defending American democracy donmoynihan.substack.com/p/scenes-fro...

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 1h ago

BLUMENTHAL: Judge Cronan, you're already on the district court. Who won the 2020 election? CRONAN: Joseph Biden received the majority of electoral votes B: You have nothing to lose. You have a lifetime appointment, and yet you're unwilling to state the simple fact that Biden won the 2020 election

My big fear is that the GOP has screwed things up so much that Dems only get 2029 and 2030 to attempt to fix/adapt/rebuild things, which will take too long to come into effect/be stymied and undone in 2031/2032 before the GOP comes back in 2033 and does Trump III: End of the Republic.

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux@bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 2h ago

It seems really clear that by 2028, we're going to have an empty SPR, substantial munitions shortages, greater strategic challenges, a larger national debt and substantially higher bond rates which will massively constrain future administrations.

I know it sucks, but Dems have got to be prepared to inherit a munitions-and-readiness hole that is going to be expensive to fill, but which will need to be filled. Hardly the only such hole, but it will be a big one.

Secretary of Defense Rock@sodrock.bsky.social · 2h ago

Who knew ridiculously long deployments and demanding op tempos run a ship and crew into the ground!

They’re all going to come crawling back lol

Stan Oklobdzija@stano.bsky.social · 2h ago

For federal elections, splitting the GOP into two competing crank Nazi movements would be great for Democrats. At the state/local level, however, we'd be condemning large portions of the South and Midwest to governance by Crossfit George Wallace's.

Since late 2025, we’ve been keeping tabs on the RI State Police’s work to distribute Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras across the state. The RISP are installing 39 cameras in 22 municipalities after getting approval from the cities and towns over the past 9 months.

New wrinkle in disaffiliation promotion:

Joseph Solomon Jr. is asking Republicans to disaffiliate and vote for him in the Democratic Primary for Attorney General

"You go right on the Secretary of State website. If you’re going to update your voter address, it’s the same way as unaffiliating," said Representative Solomon. "Very, very simple."

steveahlquist.substack.com

Sam G. Howard@samghoward.riliberator.com · last mo.

The last time I tracked a concerted effort to promote disaffiliation, it was 2018, and conservatives managed to disaffiliate a net <200 Republicans, about 0.21% of their total registered voters (and about 0.06% of just registered Democrats).

I really hope Democrats do not pass up this invitation from Republicans to publicly litigate which party better embodies Christian values

Diana Butler Bass@dianabutlerbass.bsky.social · 4h ago

…and they’ll know you are Christians by your love, by your love/and they’ll know you are by your love…” 🎶 🎶 religionnews.com/2026/08/04/p... Updates

What if all the points in a basketball game were scored at once but we randomized the unveiling on the scoreboard

parker higgins@xor.blue · 2mo ago

this is the thing that really bugs me about california's slow vote counting. reporters can't help but describe it in terms of momentum, when it's really scanning across a snapshot

Breaking News: Democratic primary voters ousted Representative Shri Thanedar of Michigan, nominating Donavan McKinney, a democratic socialist.

Shri Thanedar Is Ousted by a Democratic Socialist in a Michigan House Primary

Representative Shri Thanedar is among a wave of Democratic incumbents in Congress whom primary voters have sent packing in a surge of anti-incumbent fervor this cycle.

nyti.ms

The lieutenant governor candidate that the RI right-wing AI Facebook pages were all bent out of shape about being excluded from the WPRI primary debate had less than $600 in the bank at the end of June.

AP calls it

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 4h ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Abdul El-Sayed wins Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Michigan.

If they're on the moon, why do they need to be humanoid?

FinTwitter@fintwitter.bsky.social · 5h ago

$SPCX - SPACEX PLANS MOON FACTORIES POWERED BY HUMANOID ROBOTS

Official congressional e-newsletters mentioning "corruption" over time, by party

Low turnout elections without reliable demographic (and for a party primary no partisan) target weights that one can infer from prior elections are very difficult to poll correctly, and thus have wide error

G Elliott Morris@gelliottmorris.com · 8h ago

What is truly "shocking" about the polling miss in Michigan is that it is completely average for a primary "The expected error on the margin between two primary candidates in a race for governor or U.S. Senate is a whopping 13.0 points." blog.fiftyplusone.news/p/2026-texas...

Something I think those of us who grew up in 90s or earlier are going to have to internalize — and will always struggle to remember — is that US voters no longer accept the fiction that politics is a contest between liberal and conservative ideas, rather than faction-based culture war by other means

Teacher "strikes more than double the probability that congressional candidates air education campaign ads. Strikes also shape broader support for education funding, resulting in more than $600 increases in district revenues and expenditures per pupil." jhr.uwpress.org/content/61/4...

Teacher Strikes as Public Signals

Teacher strikes are tactics that unions use to influence contract negotiations, and high-profile actions that have the potential to signal the need for policy change. We study the political economy of...

jhr.uwpress.org

& when you say "no, it means in the pub trans people can't use either men or women's toilets" there's this kinda blank stare you get the same thing describing republican policy in the simplest terms: people just don't believe you because it sounds nuts

Seems like an upset might be brewing in the GOP primary in #MI08 to take on Dem Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet. Trump endorsed Amir Hassan, but he currently trails an absolute nobody who suspended his campaign a month ago by a wide margin.

Quite an upset in the #KSGov Dem primary. State Sen. Cindy Holscher, who came out against data centers and the Kansas City Chiefs stadium deal, has defeated state Sen. Ethan Corson, who had a big financial edge and an endorsement from term-limited Gov. Laura Kelly.

ATTENTION TO ALL DEM TAX CUT SLOPULISTS

Matos & McKee have quite overlapping donor bases. There's overlap between Foulkes-Ahern-Anderbois & both Smiley & Ahern share donors with many other general office candidates. Most PVD Council races have fewer (i.e. less statistically significant) donor bases, but most have pretty clear breakdowns.

Former Rep. Tom Perriello will win the Democratic primary in Virginia's 5th Congressional District, CNN's Decision Desk projects. Follow live updates: https://cnn.it/4wbZT6y

Two more GOP amendments go down to crushing defeats, both in MO. #4 would have made future ballot initiatives impossible to pass by requiring winning a majority statewide *and* in each congressional district. #5 would have eliminated the state income tax.

A Kansas ballot measure to change state Supreme Court justices from governor-appointed to popularly elected has failed (69–31% with 32% reporting). Republicans pushed the measure as a way to make the court more conservative.

The AP is also projecting that Amendment 4 in Missouri will lose; it's currently getting crushed, 82–18%. This measure would have made it very hard to pass citizen-initiated constitutional amendments by requiring them to pass in every congressional district.

THE $168 BILLION WAS TAKEN ILLEGALLY AND THE GOVERNMENT DIDN’T WANT TO GIVE IT BACK. Kill me I’ve wasted my life.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 19h ago

Bessent: "Here at the Treasury, I had $168 billion of tariff revenues that we're gonna have to refund. So when the Democrats scream, "Oh, the refunds should go back to the American people!', well, the American people had it, it was in the Treasury and it was paying down the debt."

That is much closer to what the AGs wanted as opposed to Paramount’s request for a November trial date. It also places the Ellisons perilous close to the June must-close date. If this has to go through appeals following a bad ruling for Paramount, you could see Warner just demand its $7b kill fee.

George Pearkes@peark.es · 23h ago

that's a long time to carry the deal financing huh *JUDGE SETS PARAMOUNT-WARNER BROS. MERGER TRIAL FOR MARCH 2027

New: Police are being told to hide the fact that they're using Flock to pull people over and arrest them in both encounters with citizens but ALSO in their official police reports: www.404media.co/do-not-menti...

‘DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE’: How Cops Are Trying to Hide Their Use of Flock

“DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE TO THE OCCUPANTS OF THE VEHICLE. DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE IN YOUR REPORT OR COMPLAINT."

404media.co

I think Ulricksen is over-thinking this. Elorza is a former Democratic mayor of Providence, relatively popular within Providence among Democratic primary voters, and both of those are good things to have in an endorser. rhodeislandcurrent.com/2026/08/03/a...

The wishcasting will stop when the morale improves.

How about Gina Raimondo for president... of Brown? - The Boston Globe

Whoever Brown chooses will inherit responsibility for one of the state’s largest employers, its biggest research enterprise, and one of the world’s premier universities at a time when higher education...

bostonglobe.com