Was 100% focused on a court filing until 10 minutes ago, so I haven't seen any news. What'd I miss?

Good, sadly apt quote.

Slotkin tells me on Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens, “the most important thing is putting a check and balance on Donald Trump, so I will support whoever wins.”

A really terrific report from @rooseveltinstitute.org on "How to Make Green Statecraft Durable." Lots of great ideas here. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Building Up in 2029: How to Make Green Statecraft Durable

Explore 17 essays on durable US climate and industrial policy after Inflation Reduction Act rollbacks, covering governance, planning, finance, and production.

rooseveltinstitute.org

Leading the day newsfor38yearolds.com

While I'd say that the tactical questions around the CR are super complicated, I think @brianbeutler.bsky.social is right in this paragraph. open.substack.com/pub/brianbeu...

Senate Democrats Dodge Last Pre-Election Opportunity To Fight Trump

They won't take a big stand to protect the election, or resist Trump's broader lawlessness, before the midterms.

open.substack.com

Let’s not forget that the strait was open before the war. These guys are trying to claw their way back to zero.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Bessent: "We've seen President Trump last week threaten what would have been the largest military campaign since World War 2 against the Iranians, and now because of that we are in talks with the Iranians. I think there's a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait."

This is a great set of proposals for congressional reform: wethedoers.org/how-to-fix-c...

How to Fix Congress

In our last post, we described the two primary drivers of Congressional dysfunction: over-centralization of decision-making, and lack of capacity.  Party leaders have monopolized the procedural tools ...

wethedoers.org

Good thing we didn't trade Alec Burleson today, huh?

New draft posted: The Collision of State Climate Tort Suits with Federal Deregulation, forthcoming in the Yale Law Journal Forum. This Essay examines the preemption arguments in the Suncor Energy v. Boulder case, which the Supreme Court will review in Oct. term 2026: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Not exactly a surprising analysis, but a sobering one. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Health care headed for a financing crisis

Uncompensated care for the uninsured is skyrocketing ahead of major cuts in federal funding, setting the stage for a major spike in insurance premiums for the privately insured.

open.substack.com

They think they're being clever eugenicists by saying that people with "underlying health issues" don't matter, but >75% of U.S. adults have a chronic condition (including 60% of age 18–34). So what they're really saying is "nobody matters, it's okay if everybody dies from inadequate regulation."

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2d ago

Breaking News: Two deaths in Michigan have been linked to cyclospora. Both people who had the parasite also had underlying health issues.

Narrators voice: they were always desperate to get to yes. PS: I am sure there will be an op-ed from Tillis or Cornyn next year in the Post or the WSJ how they regretted their “Yes” vote on Blanche.

Matthew Gertz@mattgertz.bsky.social · 2d ago

You’d have to be a fool and/or desperate to get to yes to accept this, so it’ll probably be enough to get him confirmed. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/u...

What this nation is doing to trans people is disgusting.

emptywheel@emptywheel.bsky.social · 2d ago

DOD is not letting trans service members attend their own separation hearings unless they conform with Whiskey Pete's notion of their gender. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/u...

The Trump Administration's freezes of funding for Medicaid home-based services in California and Minnesota are a double-whammy of injustice. A brief thread. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

‘Just cruel’: Medicaid halt in California and Minnesota plunges caregivers and disabled people into uncertainty

Shock and fury as Trump administration holds back Medicaid funding to states over alleged caregiving fraud

theguardian.com

This is a good timestamp to mark the question that will decide our democracy: Hey, does it matter that a world-historical con man, unchecked by morals, campaign finance law, or law enforcement, dumps up to half a billion dollars into a race where his party should suffer a historic wave of defeats?

Democrats are pulling away in the generic ballot. So Elon’s trying to buy another election. | LOLGOP Studios

July 29, 2026 was the day reality rebooted. Right up until Axios reported that Elon Musk was reopening America PAC for the midterms, we were

patreon.com

G Elliott Morris@gelliottmorris.com · 2d ago

Dems strongly favored to take the House in our new election forecast. Senate just better than a tossup: Iowa: 41% Dem Texas: 48 Alaska: 51 Ohio: 53 Maine: 68 Michigan: 69 North Carolina: 84 Georgia: 94 www.gelliottmorris.com/p/democrats-...

ok but this time Lucy told Charlie Brown IN WRITING

Blanche Gives G.O.P. Senators Written Assurances on Trump’s I.R.S. Deal

Todd Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general has been held up over concerns about a planned $1.8 billion fund for Trump allies and the president’s immunity from tax scrutiny.

nytimes.com

Yeah, so, Ohio Dems need to get it together. Ohio Republicans are making it clear they should not be governing.

FFS.

I love Ryne Stanek's fire. (Yes, I'm watching baseball.)

Agreed. And of course smoking is just one example. Vaccines; the war; and so much more. "who knew not Joseph"

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen.bsky.social · 3d ago

Always read Sara Robinson. And she's right about this.

i suspect this won't get nearly the coverage it deserves, but the implications are obvious: trump admin does not want coverage of its failing, illegal wars except on its own (lying) terms. nb: looks like the times is helping defend cole, which is 💯 b/c freelancers don't always get that.

David Kaye@davidakaye.bsky.social · 4d ago

once you go after reporters & their sources, you can start to kiss natsec journalism goodbye

This is obviously a good thing, compared to what they were doing before. But I'm hardly going to celebrate the Trump Administration finally deciding to spend some (not all!) of the money Congress appropriated for foreign aid. Congress's power of the purse still ails. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/h...

U.S. Restores Some Vaccine and Health Aid to Unicef, Gavi and World Food Programme (Gift Article)

The amount is still far below what the U.S. spent previously on humanitarian and health aid, but resumes the flow of money for key efforts to fight malnutrition and disease.

nytimes.com

Always read Sara Robinson. And she's right about this.

Dave Johnson@dcjohnson.bsky.social · 3d ago

"It's time for us to tell the kids what we know." Look who is writing again!! sararobinson380669.substack.com/p/smoking-is...

These third country deportations are among the most evil acts of the Trump administration. They're trying to extrajudicially punish people for seeking asylum, up to and including with death.

Gillian Brockell@gillianbrockell.com · 4d ago

Great reporting from @emilybregel.bsky.social about a gay man who’s been in the US since he was four, imprisoned in a “hotel” in Equatorial Guinea since April. He says he’s being denied soap and toilet paper in retaliation for filing a complaint w African Commission. 1/ tucson.com/news/local/b...

This is another extremely insightful, very important piece by @sbagen.bsky.social. No one in the legal academy is writing more seriously, rigorously and imaginatively about What Comes Next (and with more candor about the difficulties) than Sam. Please read.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen.bsky.social · 5d ago

Along similar thematic lines, I have a piece newly up on SSRN about what the Trump Administration might have to teach us about libertarianism, Reichian/Naderite liberalism, and abundance liberalism. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Trump proposed to eliminate Head Start. Congress refused. Now Trump is going to gut Head Start through deregulation. Notice a pattern? www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/u...

Trump Administration Plans to Upend Head Start by Deregulating It (Gift Article)

The White House tried but failed to block funding for preschool for poor children. Instead, it will seek to strip away standards on health, literacy — and brushing teeth.

nytimes.com

Like the hypocrisy and the open corruption, the naked, brazen lying is itself aspiring authoritarianism. They aren't lying to cover anything up. They're saying, "We know we're lying. You know we're lying. And we know you know we're lying. And there's nothing you can do about it."

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last mo.

BASH: But it peeled off. Why did that happen? BURGUM: It didn't peel off. There was vandalism. There was box cutters. There have been 7 arrests. BASH: There are photographs of people cutting a 350 foot gash in the reflecting pool? BURGUM: Dana, I'm not sure why you keep questioning it

Eight years ago, I ran for the Michigan Supreme Court. I really wanted to win. Instead, I got clobbered. But I have to say that I couldn't have done a better job than our current MSC majority is doing. I can't possibly agree with everything, of course, but the overall jurisprudence is outstanding.

Really amazing that, in the midst of a war on Iran that he started, Trump is... basically defending Iran.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d ago

Q: Can you rule out that Iran is behind the water attacks? TRUMP: I don't think so. I think that Minnesota is behind it. You know who is behind it? Minnesota. Because they're grossly incompetent. I don't think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think Minnesota ought to get its act together.